Sorry for the delay, living within the range of the Ring of Fire and the Typhoon Highway leaves you to be subjected to having communications get knocked out.
Also, I dislocated my right thumb after I tripped when the power got knocked out so say hello to delayed chapters.
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Cavaron stirred as he felt the presence of another entity within the vicinity. He slowly opened his eyes, "Can't even get any decent rest." and muttered under his breath. He got up, reequipped his armor, and jumped out of his window down to where the others, aside from the sleeping Aimi, are. Silently landing with the support if his mana, he landed next to the pool Avani and Tirta created and met with the visitor, Sky Queen Ethra.
Ethra was about to speak when Cavaron placed a finger on his lips signifying silence, and motioned her to follow him inside. Avani and Tirta remained by the pool while Burkhard returned to Aimi's side as per his task.
Entering the house, Cavaron led Ethra to the living room and gave her a seat while he went to the kitchen to prepare some drinks. Ethra quietly waited for Cavaron while she looked around the room. Aside from four rock seats, a rock table, and a fireplace, there is nothing else in the living room.
Cavaron returned with a tray of tea from most likely his inventory, and served a cup to Ethra. Ethra politely received the cup of tea and took a sip, "This is good and fragrant." then commented. "Where is it from?"
Cavaron sat down across her and replied, "From my home. I lived in an agricultural village, and that tea was our best product."
"I see." Ethra said as she put her cup down on the table.
Cavaron placed his on the table as well, "So, what warrants the personal visit of the Sky Queen?" and asked as he leaned back on the chair.
Ethra produced a book from her cloak, handed it over to Cavaron, "That is a magic tool we call Byblos. It can give you all of the information about Edeortha that you may require. To use it, simply feed it mana and say what you need to know." and explained.
Cavaron opened the Byblos and saw blank pages, and willed his mana to enter the book. Words began to appear on the blank pages which said, "Please state your query."
Cavaron, who whistled, was impressed "This is a nifty tool. Where does the information come from?" and asked a question.
"The Byblos is actually an artifact that records information automatically as time and events unfold. If you were to ask it what is going on right now in this location, it will display everything that has happened or is happening at the moment." Ethra replied.
Cavaron raised a brow, "And you are giving me this powerful artifact without a second thought? What's the catch?" and doubted her sincerity.
Ethra stood up and bowed before him, "Just bring peace to Edeortha with whatever means necessary just as you brought peace to my mother a century ago." Hearing this, Cavaron lost his calm demeanor and his tone changed.
"I am guessing you found out from this artifact in my hands, huh?" Cavaron spoke with a hint of anger. Ethra weakly nodded as a response making Cavaron sigh, "However, you must remember that I only got dragged along by your champion. I am not your champion, Aimi is. I will, however, train her to the best of my ability."
Ethra raised her head, "That is all I need. I should go now, my people will worry if their Queen is gone without notice." She and Cavaron stood up to go outside. Meanwhile, there was another person at the top of the stairs, listening in.
It was Aimi. 'I thought they would talk about his past. I should go back to sleep.' She thought to herself as she went back into her room. Burkhard was just silently floating next to her and thought as well, 'That is a dangerous artifact. Judging from Aimi's actions, she may take an interest in Master's history. Then again, it is not my place duty to avert her away from it.'
Burkhard silently followed behind Aimi.
---
The next day.
Cavaron cooked breakfast early in the morning while ordering Burkhard to wake Aimi up. The sun has yet to rise and the forest wind sends a chill to the bones. Aimi woke up and was directed by Cavaron to take a bath. Cavaron already heated the earthen tub of water with firewood he gathered beforehand. Aimi received the bath offer happily as she hasn't taken one before sleeping and took half an hour before getting out to eat breakfast. Cavaron also tossed in girl's clothing from who knows where he got it. This made Aimi look at Cavaron weirdly by which he responded, "Never hurts to prepare."
Cavaron, being familiar with the tastes of the Japanese due to the large number of them in the business, prepared rice and omelettes for breakfast. All of the ingredients came from his inventory from his past adventures. A question that may pop up is, "How does it remain fresh?" Mastery of Space magic is a nifty ability to have.
Aimi, having gotten out of bath, was wearing a leather vest on top of a silk blouse. She also wore cotton leggings and her sneakers. As for underwear, we will leave that to your imagination. Suspiciously, the clothes Cavaron gave her were a perfect fit as though he knew her measurements beforehand but she never bothered asking about it in the end as long as she is comfortable. Instead, she took a seat in the kitchen and received her breakfast, "Omurice? How do you know this?" she asked him.
Cavaron turned from the stove, "Too many Terran Japanese in the Summoned Hero business to not learn about it. I don't get why the gods of fate love your kind and a vast majority of them are kids like you. Sometimes one only gets summoned, others are as many as twenty people in one shot." Aimi was then reminded by the stories she had read in comics and novels. Having their fantasies revealed to her as reality gave an unpleasant feeling.
Cavaron lifted the pan of whatever he was cooking and placed it on a plate. Fried Prawns. He placed the plate of Fried Prawns on the table and sat down on his seat. He noticed something wrong with Aimi before he took a bite, "What's wrong? Not hungry?"
Aimi was looking down on her plate as she thought of her home, "Will I ever return home?" Cavaron frowned when he heard her reply. "Tell me, Cavaron-senpai. Will I ever return home?" He leaned back on the earthen chair and sighed.
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"To be honest, it's not impossible but..." He paused for a while before answering as he thought of his own experiences. "... There are too many possibilities. Nothing is set in stone. You may or may never return to your home. At least, in your case your home is fairly peaceful unlike mine which was lost in a war upon my return. Then again, like I said, nothing is certain. Instead of worrying about the future, why don't you live in the present? Do what you can do at the moment and, little by little, carve your future with your own hands."
Aimi looked at the man before her with tears in her eyes, "But that's you, not me!" and yelled at him out of frustration. "I was just walking home from school one moment, then I got dragged into this world in the next! Dammit! What did I do to deserve this!? AAAAHHHHH!!!!" Aimi screamed as she pounded her fists on the table. Cavaron just sat there letting her blow off steam. Aimi continued to cry in her seat with Cavaron silently letting her vent her frustrations against the world.
Outside, Avani and Tirta heard Aimi's cries and silently gazed at the sky.
---
After breakfast, Cavaron left Aimi alone for a while to let her collect her thoughts. In the meantime, he went outside and sat down to absorb more mana from the mana-well. After half an hour, he called for his contracts, "I will be going into Hub Space for a while, maybe half an hour, to make use of its fast passing of time." and explained to them what he planned to do.
Standing up, he tore open space to Hub Space and went inside. Immediately after, he pulled out the book given to him by Ethra, willed his mana to enter it, and commanded the artifact, "Give me everything." The pages of the Byblos began to be filled with words and information pertaining to Edeortha. An hour in Hub Space would most like have a second or two pass by outside it. Having given himself half an hour outside, he would spend 75 days in Hub Space taking in all of Byblos' information.
Back in Edeortha, Aimi has calmed herself down and went to look for Cavaron. Being unable to find him inside the house, she went outside. She looked around the area still unable to find him. Burkhard realized whom she was looking for and spoke, "Miss Aoyama, Master has gone to Hub Space for half an hour at most." Aimi heard an unfamiliar word, "Hub Space?" and asked for clarification. "It's a place between worlds where time flows faster than outside it. It is where summoned individuals such as you go through or, in Master's case, when you travel between worlds. Half an hour here would mean 75 days in Hub Space."
When Aimi heard the length of time he had to spend, she became alarmed, "What if he goes hungry? How will he eat?" This time, Avani came as she heard their conversation, "Relax, child. The amount of mana he currently has is enough to sustain him. He merely needs to enter the portal leading here to return." and answered Aimi.
Aimi, satisfied with their answers and having nothing to do for half an hour, decided to explore the immediate vicinity with Burkhard. Avani and Tirta already took care of any significant threat within the vicinity and allowed Aimi to leave for a while.
---
Aimi wandered around for a while and arrived at a small stream. Feeling a bit of thirst, she cupped her hands to scoop some water. Having satieted her thirst, she stood up only to find a small animal before her, 'Aww, how cute.' she thought. It appeared like a tailless raccoon and was instead dark blue in color. It was warily staring at her inching bit by bit farther away as if to escape. Aimi slowly sat back down and extended an open palm at the small animal inviting it to come closer. The small animal was still cautious and immediately ran away. "Aww, too bad. Hm, maybe I'll meet it again." she felt down but cheered herself up.
Turning away from the stream, she resumed her exploration. After ten minutes of walking around, she was able to identify edible fruits judging from the animals she observed. She found some small animals eating some red and black colored berries in the area that vehemently avoided blue and yellow colored berries. There were also some fruits in trees that looked safe but was actually poisonous when an unfortunate animal took a bite and died soon after. Thinking that bush berries were safer than the fruit trees, she decided to collect bushels of red and black berries. After five minutes of gathering, she decided to backtrack to the stream.
Back at the stream, Aimi met the blue tailless raccoon once more. Immediately, the animal froze up. Aimi hasn't forgotten how it ran from her thus she decided to lure it in with the berries she gathered. She placed a bunch of red and black berries on her palm and extended it to the animal. This time, the blue tailless raccoon showed an interest to the berries on her hand while occasionally looking back up at Aimi. Aimi nodded her head as though to egg it to come closer. Indeed, the small animal came closer little by little taking caution. After a minute of crawling, it finally arrived at her hand and munched on the berries.
Aimi placed the berries on the ground to let the animal eat peacefully, and was tempted to pet the animal but resisted doing something abrupt as it may run away. When the animal finished eating the berries in two minutes, it looked up at her. Aimi's gaze and its gaze locked onto each other. Suddenly, the small raccoon-like animal ran up to her and climbed up her shoulder to lick her cheek.
"Ah, aha, ahaha. Stop, that tickles!" Aimi laughed and petted the blue animal.
Burkhard faced the direction of the house, "Miss Aoyama, Master has returned." and spoke to her. Aimi felt a bit of regret not being able to play with the animal for a bit longer, placed the animal back to the ground, "I'm sorry, I have to go back now." and bid farewell to the animal. Contrary to her expectations, the blue animal climbed up to her shoulder again, not wanting to let go. Aimi, realizing that separation was futile, turned to Burkhard if it was alright to bring it home with her. Burkhard merely shrugged his shoulders having no idea of what to do. Aimi then decided to bring the blue raccoon-like animal home.