[Arthur Leywin POV]

I was torn apart inside, crying out in horror until I heard a message in my mind, it was from Sylvia. I was extremely happy, thinking that she was still alive, but soon Luz said that it was impossible for that to happen, and the message continued to play, showing even that fateful fact, she died, the person I considered my grandmother died, and not only that, but...

"She knew about my past self..." I said in whispers as Luz helped me get up.

"Yeah, I know how it is, she knew about me too, I mean... she said it was accidental with me, but maybe she just said that so I wouldn't feel invaded." my brother looked deep into my eyes and then released me after getting up.

"But where are we now? It's my question." He said looking at the landscape full of mist.

"We must be in the Forest of Elshire. It's a forest in which there are some mana beasts, but not that powerful. In addition to surrounding the realm of the elves."

"I understand, so we're on the edge of the elven realm. Maybe we should walk and try to survive until we reach some city, and PRAY that there's some portal to Sapin, like the portal that we would use to go to Xyrus." He said picking up our only bag from the floor, which had a canteen full of water and some fruits that Sylvia gave us.

A disheartened sigh escaped from my mouth. It seems like I won't be meeting my family anytime soon. It had been over four months since we had fallen off of the cliff. Our family had most likely either gone back to Ashber or had maybe even decided to stay in Xyrus.

I looked to the strange stone that was wrapped in Sylvia's feather, and put again in our backpack. This cursed fog limited my vision to about a few meters around us. While reinforcing my eyes with mana helped quite a bit, that didn't solve the even bigger problem of how we would get to some city in this place. Luz said that he was also trying to augment his eyes, but didn't seem that he could see more than me.

I started to do some mana rotation as we started to walk inside of this florest. It seems that with this technique I could absorb 20% of my mana pool, while the rest I needed to get in a meditation, but I couldn't complain.

I also couldn't use this in order to purify my core. I need to solely focus on gathering mana, from both my body and the surrounding atmosphere, and use that to get rid of the impurities little by little. One notable thing I felt was that after getting my mana core to dark red in Sylvia's domain, the amount of mana I could store inside increased significantly. While the size doesn't increase, I'm guessing the purity allows more mana to be stored.

After some walk, Luz started to climb a tree to use better his augmented eyes. But he went back to me, saying that wasn't any construction near by.

More walk later, about ten minutes of searching, jumping from tree to tree, we found what we were looking for. I hopped a few more trees, feeling quite proud of my primate nimbleness, while Luz start to walk near me, in the ground. Stopping at a branch just a few meters away. Hiding myself behind the thick trunk, we observed the group of humans. Something was off.

I could see Luz's eyes in sometype of fury, but why? It was that time I build mana into my ears.

"NOOO! HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP! MOMMY! DADDY! NOOO I'M SCARED!!!"

"Someone shut her up! She's going to attract attention!"

*THUD*

"Quick. Put her in the back of the carriage. We're only a few days away from the mountain range. We'll be safer then. Don't relax and keep moving."

"Hey, Boss? How much do ya reckon she'll sell for? Elf girls go for a lot, don't they? Hehe, she's a child too so a virgin at that! I bet she'll fetch us a lot of money, huh!"

They were slave trades!!

I carefully took a peek to spot the small-sized carriage, enough to tightly cram in about five or six adults. I turned back around just in time to see a middle-aged man hauling a little girl into the back of the carriage. She looked to be around six or seven, with a silvery hue in her hair and the trademark pointed ears that elves were known for.

"These son of bitchs..." I could hear Luz whispering this as he was seeing everything from my side.

Luz pointed out that they had strange animals near the carriage, possibly because of them those men were able to walk through the disorienting fog. So we thought of some options we could make, as our child bodies wouldn't help us use 100% of our combat capabilities.

Option one: Steal one of the forest hounds and have it lead me out of the forest.

Option two: Kidnap the kidnapped elf girl to have her lead me out of the forest.

Pondering for a couple of minutes, we're faced with a dilemma. Option one would be easiest, but it didn't sit right with we to just leave the elf girl.

But then again, who knows... maybe she'll get bought by a kind old man who will free and take her back to her home.

"No, it's very unlikely to happen..." Luz said.

Option two had the obvious flaw that, once we saved the elf, she wouldn't lead us out of the forest and just insist on going back home, this could be good for us in someway, using the old plan Luz said early. But the slave traders probably wouldn't take it too kindly.

"How about.. a third option? Kill all of the slave traders and set the elf girl free, then take the forest hounds and have them lead us out of the forest, if her town doesn't have a portal." My brother said it with a sadistic smile on his face.

Yeah, Option three was the better one, but how we would kill them. Luz said that we could try at night, while most of them would be sleeping. So we waited until nightfall to take our plan into action. Despite their rustic appearances, the slave traders were surprisingly vigilant; they never built a fire and always kept two people on guard at all time.

That way, I threw a rock in one direction, causing one of them to look and go see what it was. Luz quickly used a reinforcement on his legs, to create that strange smoke, disorienting one of the guards. He ended up being killed by my brother, when he jumped, sitting on the guard's shoulders and used the strength of his legs to quickly snap his neck.

Having seen that, I advanced from behind the guard who had been distracted by the stone earlier, quickly digging my wooden sword into the joints of his armor. As the sword was reinforced with mana and he was not prepared for it, it turned out to be a fatal blow.

With that done, I made my way to the front of the carriage carefully, jumping up and landing silently behind one of the bandits, I saw that he didn't seem to be that strong, with some visible muscles and only a large knife as a weapon. He ended up noticing me, but before he could say anything, I put mana back into my wood sword and stuck it in his neck, thus killing him.

This ended up scaring the mana beasts, that looked like dogs, with them making a lot of noise and eventually running away. The emergency plan of our idea was destroyed. I heard someone going near and hide myself.

"Hey Pinky! Can't even calm the hounds... What the!?!"

I had taken the big knife from that bandit, and was now hidden on top of the carriage, while his partner saw the freshly dead body. With him distracted by the sight, I jumped after him and stabbed him through the neck, just like I had done with the previous one.

"HELLLLP! MOMMY! SOMEONE! ANYONE! PLEASEE!!" I was able to hear the little elf's cry for help, why did it have to be now?

Due to the noise, I noticed the last of the thugs coming out of a tent they had made, but before he could say anything, upon seeing the scene of his dead partners, Luz emerged from the shadows and punched him hard from behind. This shocked me, but my brother managed to get through an adult's torso using his fists.

I knew he was also a reincarnated, but even I couldn't do something like that, how did he get so much strength, even though we were at the same mana stage?

It seemed that the elf girl knew that there was fighting going on by eerie quiet.

I climbed up onto the back of the carriage where she was locked and I spotted her leaning in the corner with dirty rags minimally covering her privates. She studied me in surprise and doubt, her eyes almost saying, "He can't have been the one who save me, right?"

I untied her as she remained silent, her swollen turquoise eyes never leaving my face.

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My brother appeared soon after, watching the girl. "We'd better get her home soon".

When he said that, she started to cry a lot as she hugged me. Apparently she didn't know if we were friends or enemies, until the word "home" was said by Luz, her tense face transformed into pure relief, still crying.

"Hic! I was so scared! They were going to sell me! Hic! I thought I was never going to see my family again! Hic! WAAAAAA"

It had felt like a good hour before the little elf girl was finally able to settle down. I didn't blame her; being forcibly kidnapped would cause trauma even for adults, even more so since she seemed to be only a bit older than I was.

As sat next to her, comforting her, I realized how bizarre of a scene this made. A four-year-old boy tenderly patting the head of an elven girl in the back of a carriage as four bloody corpses were being thrown far away by my brother.

"W-What happened to those bad guys?" she sniffled, her voice coming out a bit nasally.

Not knowing if telling the near-seven-year-old about killing was appropriate, I simply dismissed it by telling her, "Er... they ran into a very unfortunate accident."

She studied the hesitant expression on my face with the raise of a brow, only to look back down and whisper, "Serves them right." Looking closely at her now, I couldn't help but notice that she carried all of the necessary features that would allow her to blossom into quite the beauty later on in the future. With long gunmetal gray hair that I mistook for silver in the sunlight, the girl's disheveled state couldn't mask the innate beauty that she seemed to radiate from her pores.

A pair of gleaming teal eyes shaped like perfectly rounded almonds quivered as her perky nose was so red from crying that it matched the color of her rosy lips. While all of her individual facial features seemed to be carefully molded gems, on the fair creamy skin of her face that was the canvas, it brought her features into a surreal, almost phantasmal work of art.

Of course, this was me just observing her from speculatively as a gentlemen and king who enjoyed beauty in the world. I wouldn't go as far to say I was "checking her out".

I helped her up to her feet before speaking again.

"Those people that tried to kidnap you aren't going to chase you anymore. That being said, do you think we can start taking you home?"

She nodded in agreement with the idea as Luz returned to us. Helping her out of that carriage.

"We have to be careful, even if this is the domain of the elves, I think her presence will not drive away mana beasts." When he said that, she looked surprised and agreed. I was also surprised, I thought we were going with her just to not leave a child alone, I didn't think only adult elves who had a presence to ward off creatures within this forest. Perhaps it was because, as far as I know, in Luz's old world there was magic, it was not unlikely that there could also be elves there and that some of their rules were similar to our current world.

"But first of all, what's your name? I'm Arthur and that's my brother, Luz." I said still looking into the eyes of the elf, who went back to staring at me without stopping, as if I were a protector.

"My name is Tessia..." She said still not so confident. And that's how we returned to walking through the forest, this time with a guide.

The Kingdom of Elenoir was quite a long ways north and seems that Tessia didn't know how long does it take to get in her city. I learned a lot about Tessia along the way. She just turned five, which meant that she was about a year older than I was, albeit physiologically that is.

Tessia was also a pretty reserved, if not shy, girl. She was very polite to me, considering that younger than she was, and never complained, making her a very agreeable traveling companion. Perhaps, if I wasn't traveling in the opposite direction of my destination, I would have actually enjoyed having her with me.

With the sun setting and the fog thickening we pitched the tent underneath the sprouted roots of a particularly large tree for the night.

I couldn't fit any of the supporting rods in the backpack so used the long rope I brought with me instead and tied on two of the roots and hung tent canvas over it, weighing down the ends with moss-covered rocks. After I finished setting up the tent, I took out a couple of dried rations, that Luz found back then our attack, and handed some to her.

"...Thank you very much." She gave a slight bow.

"You know, you don't have to be so polite to us. I have the same age as you and we'd feel a lot more comfortable if you aren't so on edge." Luz replied, while I was eating, my cheeks full of dried food.

"O-okay, I'll try!" she let out a shy smile as she held back a chuckle.

I began wondering if she had been raised by very strict parents. Maybe it was simply an elf custom and by telling her to be more comfortable with me, I was inadvertently inviting her to marry me...? Nah.. Giving her a shrug, I resumed stuffing my face with more food.

We sat underneath one of the roots of the tree next to our tent and continued chatting, while finally Luz started to eat too.

"C-can you tell me about the human kingdom?" She suddenly asked, her eyes sparkling in curiosity..

"What did you want to know?" Luz asked.

"What is a human city like? How are humans? Is it true that all male humans are perverts and have more than one wife?"

We choked on the dried fruits we was chewing on, spraying them out before they got caught in our lungs. "Ahn... for what I know, only nobilities and royal families in there can have multiple wives" My brother said, looking at her.

"I see now!" Her eyes seemed to say, still sparkling.

Do you really?

I go on, explaining a bit about the town of Ashber and our family, and that Luz was actually my foster brother, to pass the time before I asked as well. "What is it like living in Elenoir?"

"Mmmm...." She pondered a bit before finding the words to explain. "I don't think it's too different from what you told me about where you grew up, except the children all have schoolar teachers to learn about our history and how to read and write. When we awaken, we get mentors assigned to us and we become their disciple. From there, a lot of it is just training with your master."

"So the elves' method is more culture and education oriented? Good to know, I think I'd better start acting more polite if we're going to get there." Luz said with a silly smile, I remembered when we introduced ourselves to the TwinHorns and talked to Sylvia. He always looked relaxed, like he was on their level, or even more, so hearing that phrase coming from his mouth made me feel relieved. I wouldn't want to get in trouble with the elves.

It was already kind of cold there, so I got up and helped her to our tent. "You better go to sleep, we'll keep an eye out here and keep reversing." I said as I turned my back to her, but she grabbed my shirt, looking deep into my eyes.

"Please stay in here.. it's dangerous out there..." She said with a sad look and pulling my shirt tighter. I looked at Luz and took a long breath.

"Look... how about this, I'll be right in front of the tent, where you can see me whenever you look out, and Arthur stays with you." he said as if this was nothing to worry.

I stared at him and replied "Why me???"

He smirked saying "Because you're her knight." I blushed a lot and we went to sleep with Tessia.

Nights passed as I continued sleeping in the tent with Tessia and her growing more comfortable around me, at least comfortable enough not to get embarrassed every time she woke up. While this, Luz was always out of the tent, I think that he was meditating all time. Our conversations became more natural and had less awkward silence as she began joking around with us, even teasing me about the way I talk; in her words she said that I "tried too hard to sound like an adult." Fortunately, my worries that the wave of pain might occur again went our pace wasn't impeded by any tree golems or even stronger mana beasts looking for children to snack on.

"Can you tell how far we are from Elenoir now, Tessia?" Luz asked on a particularly clear morning on the fifth day of our journey?

Her elongated ears twitched as she began surveying her surroundings. Suddenly, she ran to a particularly crooked tree and ran her fingers over the trunk. A few minutes of silence went by before she came, visibly excited.

"That tree is one I used to come with my Grandfather sometimes! I remember carving my name into the trunk of the tree when he wasn't looking. We're not too far anymore! I think that if we quicken our pace a little bit, we'll be able to make it by tonight!" she said, pointing to the tree.

"Sounds good," I answered, following behind her with my brother.

As lovely as the journey had been, I needed to make our plans to somehow get home, and that wouldn't be possible until we got her home. Although, I admit, I'd probably miss her after this, and I could see that Luz had the same thought, since during those days, he acted like a big brother to her.

"Arthur? You said your family and the people close to you called you Art. I feel that, through this journey, I have gotten close enough to call you that as well." We were crossing a stream atop a moss-covered log bridge when she suddenly stopped. "So... can I call you Art as well?" Tessia turned around, revealing a wide smile.

"Hmm? Sure, I don't mind," I said, returning her smile. I could feel laughter coming from my bro, Luz didn't have this problem, since no one had given him a nickname yet.

"You 'don't mind'? Tch, you could sound a bit more enthusiastic..." she stuck her tongue out at me.

"I would be honored to be called Art by you, your highness," I made a bow gracious enough for a noble despite my tattered clothes.

"Hehe, and you may also have the honor to call me Tess." she giggled, curtsying back at me before turning back around and hopping off the log.

"Oh my god, how cute!" Luz said as he went back to laughing at what we had said, making us blush.

We continued on the rest of the day, with only a few quick stops to rest ourselves and replenish our stomachs. Constant use of mana rotation had kept my body from being strained, but it was obvious that Tess was growing more weary.

It was dusk now and the fog around us seemed to be getting thicker. My sense of direction was all but useless in this blasted forest. Enough so that, if I were to get separated from Tess, I could wind up travelling in circles without even realizing it. Luz on the other hand seemed to have somehow managed to get used to the fog. Was his reincarnated body half-elf or what?

She suddenly turned to us, her face a mixture of happiness and hesitation before she muttered, "We're here."

Looking around, the only things visible were clusters of trees and fog. Confused, I was about to ask where we were, but I stopped myself when I saw Tess placing both her palms on a tree and muttering a chant.

Suddenly, the fog around us was sucked into the same tree and what came into vision was a giant wooden door that seemed to be propped up by itself on the ground.

"Wow..." this was the only word that Luz said, and it was the same I thought.

Tess grabbed our hands and pulled us towards the door. When she opened it, I was reminded of the portal that Sylvia had pushed me through. The experience didn't feel any better the second time but I at least knew what to expect. As we softly landed on our feet, arriving at our destination, I immediately rummaged through our travel bag to make sure we still had the stone Sylvia entrusted me with. It was only after confirming that it was still there did I finally look up and take in the scene around us.