“How is it today?”

I asked Aldric as he approached.

“Not good, all of them have been moved. I don’t think we should risk it any further, Bartholomew.”

“We can’t just evacuate the entire village either though.”

“You got a point…”

Ever since the announcement of the commander which was a month ago, me and Aldric have been patrolling around the entire area surrounding the village, about 20 km each direction. We knew the attack was going to come now that they didn’t have the commander’s protection, and we were right. For the past month, every single day a bunch of monsters have been disappearing from their nests. It was goblins at first, then white fang wolves and even orcs. Many more others have been disappearing, and we knew very well what the reason was.

“Let’s talk about it with Isolde and Lyanna for now.”

It’s still only around 5 am, Maia and the kids should be sleeping… Perhaps that could be our best shot.

I had an idea, but it wasn’t something I could decide on my own.

We went to wake up Lyanna first, making sure to not make too much noise while entering his house.

“Aldric, what do you think the chances are?”

We got to the living room, and started walking upstairs.

“… high. Very high. Though they aren’t necessarily strong monsters, a ridiculous amount of them have been disappearing, and we both know why. They probably have about 1000 by now.”

“I see…”

We slowly opened the door to his bedroom as we got upstairs, and I decided to wait outside the door while he woke her up.

“Lyanna… I’m sorry honey, but you have to wake up…”

Their daughter, Lara was sleeping in her own children’s bed next to theirs, and he was whispering as to not wake her up. Seeing the usually indifferent Aldric being so careful about something so little was definitely something I didn’t see often, but I didn’t mind it.

He sure is a softie when those 2 are around, huh?

“Mhh? What’s wrong Al… are you in the mood? It’s a bit early, but sure…”

So she calls him Al when they’re alone? Didn’t think he’s the type to let anyone use nicknames on him.

Regardless of the non so pleasant reason as for why we were waking her up to begin with, the scene folding in front of me was pretty funny. Aldric did mention that she wasn’t a morning person, but I didn’t think she’d be this out of character when barely awake.

“Lyanna, Bartholomew is here! This is a serious matter, please wake up!!”

That’s some aggressive whispering…

I started covering my mouth to not further cover up my laughter, which was pretty hard to do, especially when Lyanna’s brain had finally woken up, and she realized what she had just said.

“I’ll go get Isolde, you 2 love birds have probably about 10 minutes for a quickie before we both come back”

“We won’t do that!”

They both aggressively whispered in unison, as I waved my hand then turned around and started going out of his house.

They sure are cute together, huh? Though that was the case even when we were just adventurers.

After escaping from the Duke’s mansion that night, we were on our way to this village which is about 100 km away from it, and on our way we recruited a young Lyanna who’s nearby village at the time had just gotten destroyed. The 4 of us ended up here, and we all became adventurers to sustain ourselves, since the money the old man had prepared for us wasn’t going to last forever. We managed to all get to S rank individually, and we stopped our adventurers time when we had enough money to retire and live comfortably. Maia was born only 2 years after we retired.

It sure brings back memories… but I don’t have time for that.

I got in our house, and fortunately since our kids weren’t toddlers like Aldric's Daughter, I didn’t need to be that careful, they all also had their own rooms (twins shared one).

Should I tell her now or wait till we get back to Aldric’s…

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

As I pondered on whether I should tell her the idea I had in mind now or later, I finally got to our bedroom’s door, and as I quickly opened it, I had already decided what to do. Seeing her sleeping so peacefully, there was simply no way I could tell her as soon as she woke up.

Aldric did say I’m too soft with her, but how could you not be?

No matter how much time passed, my feelings for her never once wavered, let alone change. I still thought no woman in the world came close to Isolde’s beauty. Of course, I also loved her personality, but regardless of the specifics, from the bottom of my heart, I loved the woman that was sleeping in front of me.

“Isolde… it’s time to wake up”

I slowly sat next to her on the bed, and patted her head as I gently woke her up.

“Hmmm, 5 more minutes…”

You still haven’t changed…

“You’re the same sleepyhead from back then, haha”

She grinned as I kept gently patting her head, and after about a minute of it, she finally fully opened her eyes.

“Good morning, sleepyhead”

“Good morning… is it what I think it is?”

She wasn’t just beautiful, cute or kind. She was also smart. Already having an idea of what this was about, I didn’t waste any further moments.

“It is. Try and get dressed up quickly, we’re going at Aldric’s to not wake up Maia… and the kids.”

She quickly understood, and got out of bed without wasting any more time. We decided to talk about it at Aldric’s house as I said to not wake up our kids… but that wasn’t actually the main reason.

“I’ll wait downstairs”

“Alright, I’ll be down in a few minutes”

While we obviously didn’t want to wake them up this early, the main reason was to not wake up Maia. If the attack was going to take place today, we had no intention of having her in the frontlines.

She’s already stronger than all 4 of us combined… but she’s still my daughter.

In the unfortunate eventuality of things going wrong, and me and Aldric, which were the strongest out of us 4 failed to protect the village, we would have her come on the battlefield, but only as a last resource. I would be a failure as a father if I made my 14 years old daughter fight on the front battlefield, even if she’s stronger than us. The people of this village were regulars, none of them could even take a goblin. In order to allow Isolde and Lyanna to rest after our adventuring times, me and Aldric took it upon ourselves to guard the village every day, and make sure no monsters got close, since none of us could form a magic barrier to keep them away automatically.

“Alright, let’s go.”

I nodded as Isolde finally came downstairs after about 3 minutes since I got there, and we quickly went next door at Aldric’s house.

“You already explained the situation to her, right?”

“Yeah, now that you 2 are here we can start”

Isolde and I sat down at the table where both of them were already drinking coffee, and had one ready for us as well.

“The chances of the attack coming today are very high. Bartholomew has an idea, but it’s pretty risky. We didn’t want to decide without hearing your opinions first.”

“That’s right. I have an idea that will serve as an emergency backup request, and evacuation of you 2 and the kids at the very least.”

“What about the other residents of the village?”

Lyanna had asked the one question I didn’t want to answer, but I had no choice but to be honest about it.

“We cannot evacuate everyone. Wherever we send our kids away with an excuse is a different matter than telling every single villager to run away because they might get killed today. We aren’t 100% sure of the attack being today, so we cannot do it.”

Aldric and Isolde probably already had an idea of what I had in mind, which wasn’t surprising considering how long we’ve known each other, but Lyanna was visually upset.

“Everyone in this village has been incredibly kind to us, and they even allowed us to become part of them, and for that I will always be grateful. They might even do as we say without hesitation if we try to evacuate them, and they might not even get upset if the attack isn’t today. But these people have their own problems to deal with, even if this could be a life threatening scenario, even if they accepted us as part of them, we’re outsiders. We cannot interfere with their lives because of a possibility of the attack happening today.

I know you’re a kind person, but we simply don’t have the right to do it…

All 3 of us probably thought the same thing as we saw her frowning expression, which was followed by her telling me to continue with my idea.

“The hills me and Aldric took Maia and Cael to train a few years ago are around 15 kilometers away, but there’s another bunch of hills a bit further away, and close to them there’s also a river with fish in it in case of need. Lyanna, I won’t waste time trying to figure out a nice way to say this. Take Lara and our kids and go “camping” with them. Me, Isolde and Aldric will stay back and fight.”

Though she was also an S rank adventurer, that was the extent of her abilities. The Ashford have natural large amounts of mana, and great affinity to most elements. And both me and Aldric are generally stronger than her. Lyanna would’ve been nothing but a nuisance to look after, and we all knew it.

“What if you 3 alone cannot deal with it?”

“Then I’ll send Isolde to get Maia. Though it would be best if she took you all to a safe place further away before coming here.”

Now that I think about it, Cael would probably do something along the lines of rushing here while she does that… maybe it’s not the best idea…

But my concerns at the moment were pretty irrelevant, as the situation wouldn’t change. If we couldn’t deal with the attack, Maia was our only hope. But that didn’t mean we intended on losing either.

“I see…”

All 3 of us were most likely closer to a recruit level of strength than an S rank, though it was mostly due to our families bloodlines. Lyanna came from a regular countryside family, the fact that she made it to S tank as a mage alone was impressive, but we couldn’t risk it.

“We need a way for our kids to be safe, and also an excuse for Maia and Cael to not pick up on the situation right away. That’s the same reason we’re talking about this at your house. If those 2 find out about it.:. They definitely won’t just go away to have fun camping.”

Lyanna was still visually upset, but it seemed like she finally accepted the situation at the very least, which relieved me a bit.

“Alright, I understand. But are you guys sure you can manage it on your own? Didn’t around 1000 monsters get taken away for this?”

She did have a point. I frowned over the question a few moments as I looked at both Isolde and Aldric, but I then quickly remembered. There was no need for us to worry.

“Well, their numbers might definitely be a problem, though they aren’t particularly strong individually. 1000 cats could murder a wolf, just because we're individually stronger doesn't mean that we’re guaranteed to win…”

But even then, as I looked at Aldric, my one and only best friend, we both thought the same thing.

“Then do you think you’ll lose?”

Isolde probably thought the same thing, but she didn’t speak up. Instead me and Aldric replied at the same exact time, saying the same exact thing.

“Nah, We’d win.”

I then started explaining, calmly while keeping my confident tone, and full composure.

“Isolde’s healing magic can restore even broken bones, it’s the highest level of healing magic alone can achieve. Aldric’s how precision is almost impeccable, and not to flatter myself, but I’d say I’m decent with a sword. I know for a fact, that my back is covered, and we won’t lose. The plan I just told you about is only in the unlikely eventuality of us losing, but we don’t intend on letting it happen.”

Hopefully that calms her down a bit too, she’s so clearly worried…

“Alright then. I’ll start preparing some food to take with us, Isolde help me out, your kids will be eating as well.”

Lyanna was back to her usual cheerful smile as he got up from her seat and while being followed by Isolde, they started cooking, while I went back to my house to get ready.