'...' is the personalities speaking in the mind and "..." is only available for the personality in control, the personality can alternate between speaking out loud or speaking mentally, but when agitated or over excited, they may speak out loud which can be heard by other people and personalities together, while speech said mentally will only be heard by personalities.
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"Eh? A kid?" The burly man said in shock and slight curiosity.
'What do we do? Won't we be killed?!' Argo questioned, trembling at the thought of death.
'We're doomed....we're doomed..we're doomed...' Lepus repeatedly mumbled as he cradled his head.
'I'll take out a few before our death! Oi! Get out Noctus!' Lupus attempted to take control but ultimately failed as he was stopped by Noctus who took charge after they were surrounded.
"Shut up!" Noctus shouted, seemingly annoyed by the wave of noises.
"How rude....either ways, why are you here, don't you know its dangerous." The burly man asked.
Noctus did not reply, but instead had a troubled expression as he seemed to be in thought, perhaps thinking of a way to escape this predicament without any dangers to their life.
"Ohhh, hey hey, Wukai, remember that damned book? About the one with the....the, what was it again, Wolves?" Another guy with dishevelled hair called out with his hand on the burly man's shoulder.
"Che, I don't read books like you, you damned fool, so what about that book?" The burly man named Wukai retorted.
"This kid is totally the one in the story, the one where.... Umm, the kid gets raised by wolves." the man said rather excitedly.
"Eh?" suddenly being talked about, Noctus who was currently ignored made a stupid voice.
"You can talk?" Another woman called out, running over towards him in interest.
"Lira, don't just go over!" The messy haired man said while rubbing his head, "He could be dangerous, you know."
"Look how cute he is, I'll be fine~" she said, patting Noctus's head.
'That damned bitch, where is she touching!' (Lupus)
Noctus looked at the woman with shock, "W-what are you doing?"
While patting him, her hand accidently moved his rather long hair to reveal multiple gashes on his face.
"Eh, kid? What's with your injuries?" the messy haired man said, his face coming close to Noctus's.
Touching his largest wound on his forehead, Noctus awkwardly said "I scratched myself."
'What are you doing! Don't talk to them! Why are you talking to them, we shouldn't talk! We never talk!' Nepus screamed.
'Aa~ah, shut up, I know what to do." Noctus replied in annoyance.
"Where are you from?" the woman called Lira asked, continuing to pat him gently.
"I...don't know.." Noctus sniffled, trying to fake innocence.
"Eh, d-don't cry kid." the man said, his hands awkwardly patting his back to perhaps comfort him.
"Ugh, I'm getting cold, let's just go back to the campsite first." Wukai said, turning around to leave.
"Hey," Lira said, squatting down to reach Noctus's eye level, "what's your name?"
Rubbing his eyes to fake the action of wiping away his tears, he replied with hiccups in between, "N, Noctus..."
Moving away his hands, he revealed a tear stained face which he had created by wetting his hands with saliva.
"Its alright Noctus, lets go to the campsite together and I'll have them heal your wounds, okay?" Lira asked gently, holding her hand out for him to hold.
"Nnn..." he said, grabbing onto her hand with a small smile.
Her hand was....warm, comforting.
Which they hated.
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"What are you wearing anyway? It's so dirty." she said while two of her fingers pinched at the large piece of cloth that covered him.
They had been wearing this for as long as they could remember, this yellowish, tattered cloth dotted with blood.
Putting his two hands up in the air, she smoothly pulled up the cloth, with the intention of letting him wear the large shirt of one of the men in their group. But after taking off the cloth, her eyes widened in shock and her mouth opened and closed, seemingly wishing to say something.
"K-kid, what happened to you."
After taking off the tattered old cloth, a strange circular mark that was engraved on the child appeared, it seemed fairly obvious it was carved onto his flesh with a magic tool a long time ago. However, what shocked her was the wounds came into their sights. Bruises larger than his palms, gashes so long that it crossed from his chest to his back filled his entire body, from his head to his toes.
"What in the world...?" she could not help but ask.
"I fell down." he replied, taking the large shirt and fumbling to put it on.
Though shaken, seeing his attempts to put on the shirt, she helped him wear it as she silently thought about what could have happened to this child.
"You fell down? What kind of an excuse is that?!" the messy haired man shouted, seemingly rather shocked at the countless wounds.
"A....Alice, please heal him." Lira said, turning to a woman who wore white robes.
"Yes." she said as she aimed her palms at him, her eyes closed as she softly mumbled a chant.
Seeing the light in her hands, Noctus fought the urge to run away.
They had seen others use magic before, to them, magic was something extremely painful. But the word 'heal' did not seem harmful, thus so, Noctus fought against his instinct for the first time.
Noticing Noctus's wariness towards Alice, Lira held his shoulders in attempt to calm him down as the white light slowly embraced his body.
The magic enveloped him, his bruises fading and gashes closing, eliminating the pain all the personalities were used to feeling.
'M-magic?" Argo said fascinated, he had seen people use magic before, but all of them were harmful and painful, however for the first time ever, magic that was used on him, did not hurt.
In his trance, Noctus's hand reached out to touch the light, perhaps in curiosity of the new type of magic, or perhaps in gratitude of the light's healing that took away his pain.
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Seeing the child so engrossed and intrigued at mere healing magic they encounter everyday, a sad atmosphere surrounded them as they thought of what had happened to this child.
"Do we turn him to the guild?" Alice asked, a worried expression appearing on her face. The mark seen on him could be the act of a devil, or perhaps a human that went down the wrong path.
"What will they do to him...it's not safe for him there...." Lira mumbled, her expression showing that she was deep in thought.
Silence reigned over the crowd that surrounded the campfire, all of the humans seemingly rather disturbed.
"What's with this atmosphere, eh? It's simple, if you don't want to hand him over, then let's just keep him! Hahaha!" Wukai guffawed at their idiocy.
"Keep him?! He's not a pet!" Lira shouted.
"Then let's hand him over to the guild." Wukai said, tearing off the meat of a bone with his teeth.
"....."
"Make up yer mind, will you?" he asked, his gaze aimed straight at her.
"I....don't mind if we keep him." Alice said, her expression as blank as always.
While they had their conversation, Noctus was replaced by Argo who interestedly ate the cooked meat.
'What's with this, this is disgusting!' (Lupus)
'It's unexpectedly good, huh, I wonder how they made it.' (Noctus)
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Though they were invited to sleep next to Lira, Alice and a few other women, Noctus rejected their invitation to read a few magic books Alice brought with her sitting on the branch of a large tree.
They did not need any rest mentally, but physically yes. Fortunately, reading was not too taxing physically.
Though he did not know some words, the easier spells were easily picked up by him.
With a small flame burning at his fingertip illuminating the book in his hands, Noctus read from dusk to dawn.
"Good morning~" Lira greeted with a drowsy smile, she had just woken up and was heading towards the pond to wash up.
"Eh? Um, good morning." Argo greeted.
Carefully climbing down the tree, Argo returned the books into Alice's bag and met with the messy haired guy that had introduced himself as Kao, he was currently cooking the leftovers of the boar for breakfast.
After washing up, Lira greeted Kao and sat down next to Argo.
Within a span of 2 hours, everyone had woken up and eaten, after packing their things, they delved deeper into the forest to complete their mission.
"Um, what is your mission?" Argo asked hesitantly, pulling at Alice's robe.
"It is to kill a Red Mamba, the requestor wants the snake for cooking." She replied.
"It's venomous and strong at the same time, the rewards for killing it is damned good~" Kao said happily.
After 3 hours of continuous trekking and killing beasts that came too close, the beast known as the Red Mamba was finally spotted.
Upon noticing the humans that trespassed its territory, the beast quickly slithered over with the intention of killing.
As instructed, Argo stayed at the very back to prevent being attacked, all of the personalities were rather intrigued as they watched the battle start.
Alice and Lira stayed at the back, their duties were to weaken the beast with magic and bolts, Lira had a contraption called a crossbow that greatly interested Noctus.
Almost simultaneously, the both of them fired a bow and a lightning bolt towards the beast.
"Bang!" the snake that was distracted by it's agitation towards the humans that stood the closest to it were easily struck.
"Ssss...." Noticing the threat this group of humans posed, it raised its body off the ground and revealed it's neck flap in a imposing manner before striking multiple times at the humans in front of it.
"Be careful of it's attacks, there's poison!" Kao shouted to the rest of his friends before raising his shield to block the attack, however the beast's tyrannical strength pushed him back.
Despite it's attack being blocked, the beast did not stop and instead aimed at the next human, who were rather unlucky, he did not react fast enough and was bitten at the head, a disgusting noise sounded and his life was ended.
"What the fuck!" Koa shouted as his teammate's blood was splattered onto him.
Seeing their friend killed, the others immediately raised their shields, though the beast had already stopped striking.
"I already noticed that your team were bad, but I didn't expect you people to be that bad!"
Despite the death, both of the women were unfazed and continued to rain magic spells and bolts onto the beast.
Wukia who took the chance as the beast prepared to strike again, jumped out of the defensive line with his large axe chopping down onto the beast's head.
However before his axe could hit his mark, the beast's tail swooped him away and the force caused him to be sent flying towards a tree.
"Argh!"
Seeing them struggle, none of the personalities came to help, they merely continued to watch with indifference to their plight. Luckily, the group of humans all assumed the child to be weak, thus so they did not question why he did not assist them.
After Wukia was sent flying, the defensive line kept the beast at bay whilst Alice prepared a large spell, she was trying to form a large ice bolt that will pierce through the beast's scales and into it's head.
And as she chanted, Wukia who was sent to the side and forgotten, had gotten up with his axe.
Silently creeping up to the almost blind beast that was occupied, he chopped off a large part of it's tail.
"Hssssssssss....." it cried out in pain, as it turned to retaliate, Alice finished her spell and effectively killed the beast.
"....Thank god it's over." Koa sat on the ground panting, he had used up all his strength to keep the beast at bay.
Wukia who supported himself with his hands on his knees, said while being out of breath, "Come on, lets go back."