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Chapter 11
Mother and Daughter
-Machi-
After the birth of Hana, Risha and I decided to first register at the adventurers' guild to earn a stable income. We are going to need it to take care of Hana.
Demi-humans have higher stamina and strength compared to ordinary humans, thus I was able to move about even though I just gave birth.
When we went to the adventures' guild, Hana was with us. Because the danger of rough adventurers exist, I did not want to risk ourselves getting harmed by them. The fact that I was a demi-human was hidden from them as well, my ears covered properly with a hood and my tail tucked in. I do not know of the city's level of discrimination against demi-humans. Resisting them would also reveal my race, that was why Risha came along with me as my protection.
But leaving Hana back at the inn by herself was also a no go, so we had no choice but to bring her along. Of course, we hid her ears as well.
But, as expected, one of them showed up and stood in front of us when we entered the guild.
"Hey hey, this is not a place for mothers like you! Two of them? Their man must be lucky!"
I endured their insult, as I did not want to cause trouble. But, Risha stood up against them in my stead.
"Huh? Did you say something, rotten garbage?"
She cracked her knuckles with a *pika-pika*. Along with intimidating aura around her, you could tell that she was angry.
"Hahaha, you? Do you think you can do something about this?"
Five or so men surrounded us swiftly, welding their weapons against us.
As Risha was getting ready to fight, a lady in her late twenties suddenly stepped into the ring.
"Stop! You are not allowed to harm innocent civilians! They are not adventurers, so if you do something to them, you will be arrested!"
So says the lady. From her tone, she must be the guild's staff.
"Don't worry, we will be registering today. I want to teach these brainless smuts a lesson anyway."
The men scowled at us, probably angry at Risha's insult.
"A-ah. If that's the case, then after registering, you are free to do whatever you wish to them. We guild staff members cannot interfere with arguments between adventurers. Although you are supposed to take a test of strength to see if you are able to register, if you are able to defeat these people, you are automatically registered."
"Alright then, time to deal with those hooligans."
Crosses appeared on the men's foreheads.
"We'll kill you!"
Risha stepped forward in her combat stance.
The first man swung his sword downwards at Risha. She dodged its trajectory, as it was easy to read his movements. She went behind him and punched the side of his neck, and then thrusting him into the ground with a left hook.
Another two men rushed at her. The first with a club aimed for her legs, while the other with a spear aimed for her shoulders. They probably tried to do so to slow her movements. But, she used their heads as a boost and jumped into mid-air. After doing a spin, she landed on the first man's right flank and grabbed his head, throwing his entire body across the guild. As.the second man was about to pierce her with his spear, she grab hold of the end pointing towards her and pulled on the spear. The man tripped forward and Risha gave a spectacular punch to his face.
"A-amazing."
"That nee-chan can fight!"
"Whoo! I'm rooting for you!"
That was the reaction of the peanut gallery. However, the supposed leader of this troupe was about to play dirty. His subordinate went to fight against Risha, while he came at me.
Luckily, I was still able to fight a bit, although I only could use my right hand, as the other hand was holding Hana. I swiftly dodged every attack he threw at me with his gauntlets. However, his face had a wicked smile when we went near Risha. His subordinate suddenly swapped his attention to me and aimed at Hana.
This is bad! Very bad! If an attack hits Hana, Even though she was just born...
*Clang*
What was that sound?
When I turned to look at the source of the sound, I saw an unbelievable sight.
Hana was protected by a golden barrier. The rapier the man was holding disintegrated into nothing. This child, what is she?
Both the leader and the man were astonished at what has transpired before them. But, Risha was able to react quicker than them. She threw a fist at the man's throat and kicked the leader's crotch.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Both of them landed with a thud on the ground, the man gasping for air and the leader curled up into a ball, squealing.
"With this, do we pass?"
"Y-Yes. I hereby confirm your registration to the adventurers's guild."
After that, we headed straight back to the inn.
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"Machi, I saw what had happened. What was that?"
Risha questioned me with curiosity.
"I do not know as well. But, it appears that there is more to Hana than meets the eye."
Questioning Hana now would be dumb, so we decided to ask her when she becomes older.
Both of us took turns to take care of Hana, alternating each day between earning money at the adventurers' guild and babysitting Hana.
Hana was a very intelligent girl.
She learned the language of the world in just a month, is able to do arithmetic and can remember everything she sees. When she was able to speak, she spoke the language fluently for the first time, although she did say some gibberish at times. I still remembered her frequent phrase "Na-ru-hou-dou", although I do not know what it means.
She explained about her powers to us all of a sudden. We did not know why she did so, but we listened attentively. Apparently, she has the ability to cancel all attacks on her by using a barrier. However, she is unable to attack back. She could only protect herself like that for 10 seconds. Sharing the barrier with others was not possible. With this, I understood what had happened at the adventurers' guild at that time.
She treated both of us like parents, but Risha was treated mostly like a father, mostly because of her attitude and behaviour. She goes to the adventurers' guild to earn money in the day, and comes back at night to take care of us. It was a touching sight to see her dedication. We three lived happily as a family. I wished that things could stay like this forever.
But, things took a dark turn.
When Hana turned eleven, Risha was struck down with a fever. We thought that she would get better if she rested. But, the fever persisted. A week, two weeks, a month passed, but her condition kept getting worse. I called in multiple doctors with the money we raised, but they did not know the cause for her illness, as it was the first time this had happened in a century. I was heartbroken to hear that they were unable to cure her disease. She now looks frail and dried up, like an old granny. It was too painful to watch her suffer.
Just as I was about to give up, one particular doctor had found the cure for it after a ton of research. A [Witherless Rose] was needed to compile the medicine, so I went with Hana to the outskirts of the city to find it.
Which was what had led both of us into this situation. As the wolf bore it's fangs at us, I stood in front of Hana, shielding her from the wolf.
As the wolf charged at me, I was prepared to kill it with my claws. But, something unexpected happened.
A single girl fell from the sky and landed on the wolf, burying it into the ground with a *boom*.
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-Kakuto/Mina-
Victoria-san turned transparent when we were heading down towards the two girls.
Using [Warlord King], I landed upright on the wolf which was about to attack the girls. Whoops I think I used too much power, as the wolf sunk into the ground, not moving an inch.
"Don't worry, I'll take it from here."
I said some cool one liner towards the two girls. Ahh, I really feel like a hero. Wait, shouldn't it be heroine? Meh, who cares about my gender now. I focused on the other wolves around me.
Two charged at me at the same time. With [Speed Breaker], I transitioned behind their backs and threw punches at them. It was a one hit KO. When the other wolves saw what I did, they started to group up and faced me in numbers. You think just outnumbering me will do the trick?
I kicked the ground, sending cracks in the earth towards the pack of wolves. By the time they noticed, the surrounding ground had become unstable and they lost their footing.
I then reached my palms out and used Victoria-san's skill, [Water Breath] at them. Although it was supposed to come out of my mouth, I could use it from my hands. Yeah, using it with my mouth does not look good for a maiden.
The group of wolves were annihilated by the palm blast of [Water Breath], leaving no traces of life remaining, although their souls are still there. I prayed to them to send them to the afterlife and offered a strand of my hair to them.
Apparently, my hair has magical properties. They are probably because of my racial trait, but I didn't level up enough to be able to read its description. I only noticed it when my hair moved when it sensed enemies.
Victoria-san explained that it probably reacts to magic power within the enemy. The stronger the enemy, the wilder my hair dances on my head. Come to think of it, my hair was dancing freely when I was fighting with Nebula huh.
When I fought the wolves, my hair did not move an inch, so that meant I was powerful enough to defeat them.
My hair should be enough of an offering for them. I wasn't worried about it, as it would just grow back. Now then,
"Who...are you?"
I think it's time to introduce myself.