Adrest slept late that day with the sun bright when he woke up. As soon as he woke up, he felt a warm, comfortable weight on top of him, opening his eyes already sure of what it was. He confirmed it when he saw a head of purple hair sleeping soundly on his chest, with the odd cool feeling of a horn resting against him as well. Alissa was holding him tightly with one arm and seemed to still be asleep as she gently rose and fell to his breath.

Surprised by the sight, he couldn’t help himself from using a free hand to gently stroke the head in front of him. He was surprised when Alissa pushed back against his head lightly, and he heard Alissa make satisfied sounds as she was slowly woken up.

This continued, both somewhat in a trance, until Alissa seemed to fully wake up. She turned her head up to look at him and with eyes still near fully closed saying with a big yawn “Mornin’.”

“Good morning” Adrest answered, with a hand still on her head. Slowly, Alissa’s eyes opened as she realized that she was actually laying on Adrest, hugging him like a stuffed toy. As she sat there, her cheeks became more and more red until she mechanically let him go and rolled out of the bed and on her feet.

She mumbled something about cleaning the fire pit and ran out of the cabin before Adrest could say anything further. He chuckled to himself, realizing it was the first time she woke up with him still in the bed.

He got dressed for the day and slipped out of the cabin to let the rabbit girl get a bit more sleep.

At the blazing fire, sat Alissa stood with a now dead and skinned meal, which Adrest helped butcher for their breakfast and made steaks for everyone. Adrest then sent Alissa to wake Isabelle, it would be her first day here, and they had a lot to discuss with the girl.

Minutes passed and soon a pair of women came out, with Alissa back in her usual white sundress, and Isabelle in a green short sleeve shirt and tan pants that paired nicely with her snow-white complexion. She saw the outdoor table loaded with food, ran over to it and said, “Good morning Big bro Ady” with a bright smile.

He replied and soon the three of them sat down to eat in the sunny idyllic forest. They all dug in and soon there was nothing but scraps left. With full stomachs they relaxed for a time before Adrest straightened up and looked towards Isabelle, who looked at him curiously seeing the change.

“Alissa told me about the mark you have and what it means. What do you want to do in the future? No matter what you choose, the two of us will help as much as we can.”

He finished and waited for an answer. Unexpectedly, she didn’t take long to respond, “I… I want to stay here with big bro and sis, you’re both so nice to someone like me and it’s so pretty here!”

“Are you sure? You could be someone important someday. If you stay here, there won’t be anyone besides us to spend time with, and it might get boring out here.” Adrest reminded her, knowing this lifestyle would be difficult for children her age.

“Yes, I’m sure! Unless you two don’t want me…” Isabelle got sad and spoke quietly by the end of her sentence.

Adrest and Alissa both went up to her in a flash seeing her look so pitiful, hugging her from either side and Adrest said to her, “Welcome home Belle.”

Hearing the pet name that her big bro Ady called her, Belle buried her face in his chest and sniffled quietly as the two of them hugged the small frame, letting her know the nightmare was really over. For the first time in years, somebody wanted her.

Later Belle calmed down, albeit with red and swollen eyes, "So, what now?”

Alissa took the chance to answer saying, “Well, that depends on you, what do you want to do? I’m just finishing up teaching your brother here the basic history of the continent, we’ve also been working on survival skills, and etiquette. Then there’s sword skills and unarmed combat, not to mention magic training. I don’t have a good understanding of what you know so you need to help me, okay?”

Belle’s eyes widened and she stared at Adrest, who sounded amazing, wanting to learn to many things, not to mention her sister Ali who was the one teaching him so many things.

Nodding she answered, “Well, I learned a bit of history at school, but it was only about the nearby areas and the king’s history. And I’m not very good at fighting, but I’m fast! Oh, but I was never allowed to get tested for magic, aunt and uncle said it was too much money to spend on someone like me.”

Seeing the small rabbit become sad, the pair were once again getting an understanding of how her life had been to this point. The dragon and demon pair swore to themselves to do better for her.

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“That helps a lot, Belle. We can start with history tomorrow; it’ll be a good refresher for Adrest. Then, while he is off doing his own training for the day, we can work on building your foundations up slowly and finding what you’re good at!” Alissa finished with a bright smile, seeming to have taken a liking to her role of teacher, already coming up with a new lesson plan.

Alissa crouched in front of Belle going to her eye level, and said “Belle, can I have your hand for a second? I need to see something, promise to stay still?”

Belle was curious about what was happening but extended her hand and nodded her head. When Alissa took the hand in both of her own, Belle felt something weird travel up her arm and into her chest. It wasn’t unpleasant, but wasn’t a good feeling either, maybe itchy was the best way for Belle to describe it. But she did as asked and stayed still.

Soon the feeling went away and when Alissa opened her eyes, they were glowing with a bright purple radiance which surprised Belle, but she found them very beautiful.

Not paying any attention to Belle’s staring, Alissa told her “Congratulations, you have the affinity for life, body, and a bit of earth magic! We can make you into something terrifying.” Alissa’s eyes glowed excitedly thinking of the possibilities.

“Wow, you can really sense it!? But I was taught that only things called colorless orbs or really powerful mages can?” Alissa asked in amazement at her big sister doing something amazing.

Patting Belle’s head, Alissa was obviously pleased with the compliment saying “That’s right, colorless orbs are naturally clear balls and they'll display the elements detected in any mana that is injected. They’re expensive but useful because anyone can control it. The other way is indeed to have a powerful mage inspect the mana in your body. To do so, they need really good control of their own mana to both not harm the tested, and for it to be sensitive enough to pick out the affinities. You usually need to be at least the C rank with magic control to learn how to do it.”

“Wow, big sis is amazing! She knows so much and is really good at magic!” Belle praised her more, saying what was on her mind and Alissa nodded in agreement, happy that the young girl understood just how amazing she was.

“I hate to interrupt you two, but I had a question teacher Alissa.”

Adrest said off to the side, getting a glare from her and an exasperated “What?”

“Well, I was wondering. Can you break a slave’s collar?” Adrest said what had been on his mind after hearing Alissa bragging about her magic skill once again.

“Of course! I was going to in a bit, Belle can’t really do much with that thing in the way.” Alissa raised her head proudly and her horns started to arc with purple lightning as they so rarely did.

She then looked down to Belle “I need you to stay still again for me. It might tingle a bit on your neck, but I’ll go as fast as I can.” Alissa stretched her hand out, gently stroking the gaudy metal collar in several places before sending powerful, but small arcs of lightning to several spots on the collar. It broke apart into many small fragments and fell to the ground.

“First lesson Belle, lightning is a very rare affinity, but it is also the best for destroying curses and dark magic.” She showed off the purple lightning shooting from her fingertips to Belle’s enjoyment.

Realizing the collar was truly gone, not scrap of the ground around her feet, Belle ran up to Alissa and hugged her tightly thanking her, while Alissa just gently stroked the head of white, silky smooth hair in front of her.

Belle’s first lesson with her new sister turned teacher was an introduction to the current nations spread through the continent, an overview of what they excelled at, what they were infamous for, and what types of people made each up. While Belle indeed understood the small nation where she grew up, Delinare, and knew a little history, that was essentially where her education stopped. Belle had basically only known the names of some nearby countries, and nothing beyond that.

Hearing that there were so many different places and people in the continent had Belle excited. she soaked up what Alissa said like a sponge, when she had questions Adrest would answer, Alissa using it as a quiz for Adrest. Or they would both listen to an explanation from Alissa who always knew the answer and was happy to elaborate.

From there, they took a short break to eat a light snack, and the older duo had sweet smiles when Belle tried a bloodberry and her eyes bulged at the unexpectedly sweet and juicy fruit. With the Belle feeling refreshed from a bit of sugar, physical training started.

Belle waved Adrest and Alissa off as the pair flew above the trees, Alissa said that she needed to find something for Adrest to fight. Only a few minutes passed before she thought she heard a scream in some far-off section of the forest but didn’t think anything more of it as a bit later Alissa appeared in front of her.

Belle started her first day of conditioning by running, her and Alissa side by side for as long as she possibly could, which wasn’t all that long.

Forty minutes later, Belle was sitting on the ground, with her back against a tree, panting for her life. Alissa sat down to the side of her, letting the little girl catch her breath before saying,

“That was good for your first try! You kept the same steady pace the entire time instead of trying to go as fast as possible, and you kept pushing to go just a little bit farther. That tells me two things I was already pretty sure of.”

Curiosity in the eyes of the girl, still panting, looking up at her, Alissa giggled. She put her arm around Belle’s shoulders pulling her into a half hug.

“It tells me that you’re smart, thinking ahead instead of in the moment. And that you are trying the best you can. If you do that, I’ll do my best to teach you everything I can, sounds good?” Alissa said to Belle, who was wearing a bright smile at the praise and strongly nodded her head with a fire burning in her eyes.

After the light run Alissa and Belle returned to the empty camp and after going into the cabin, Alissa returned with an armful of different sized objects wrapped in thick cloth.

As she set the load on the outdoor table, there was a distinct clattering of metal and Belle’s eyes glued to them in curiosity.

“Adrest and I bought a bunch of different types of weapons at the town for practice, and while we need to work on your body before real training with them, it wouldn’t hurt to learn how to hold each one and to see what’s comfortable right?” Alissa told the girl who was thoroughly excited hearing the next lesson.