While Belle had seen soldiers and adventurers with swords, knives, and bows before, it was never up close. And there were so many different kinds displayed, more than Belle knew existed. She listened intently to each weapon's introduction. From an odd, curved sword that could be used to easily disarm most opponents. One sword that was thin and pointed wickedly. Knives that were small and to be hidden on the body to throw at unsuspecting enemies. There were even crossbows that were small enough to be hidden on the wrist and loose sleeves, and a fan with hidden but dangerously sharp edges.

Alissa demonstrated each weapon, from the proper grip and stance, to showing how they'd be used in battle, before having Belle try all of them herself. Swords were too heavy and awkward with her small build, she wasn’t strong enough to pull back a bow, she also didn’t like the way the fans felt.

However, Belle thought that a pair of daggers, each with a slightly curved double-edged blade and sturdy leather grips that felt natural in her small hands felt good as she sliced at the air with them like Alissa had shown.

She also took a liking to throwing knives. Belle liked how small and light they were, as well as how it was like a game to get them to hit the tree trunk target Alissa pointed to.

Alissa put the rejected weapons away and soon returned, helping Belle practice while waiting for Adrest to return.

The sun was now hanging low in the sky, casting everything in a golden glow when Adrest finally got back to the camp. He was wet, cuts and scrapes marred his entire body, and he had a scowl aimed at the purple haired devil playing darts with throwing knives with the rabbit girl.

Adrest said nothing as he stalked in front of Alissa staring dead in her eyes. He let the uncomfortable silence hang for a moment before saying with no emotion, “Very big, very angry, chimeras. An entire pride of them. And you threw me into the BIGGEST ONE, right after breaking my sword arm.”

Hearing the statement Belle was confused but noticed that Adrest’s right arm was sitting a little unnaturally stiff at his side, his fingers occasionally twitching.

Eyes growing wide, Belle ran up to Adrest who was still having a staring contest to the death with Alissa, and grabbed his unbroken arm’s sleeve gently pulling, “Are you okay big bro Ady?”

He broke eye contact by looking down at the bunny girl who was obviously very concerned. He smiled “It’s not a big deal, I’ll be fine by tomorrow. I’m just a little annoyed with Bis sis Ali right now.”

Adrest gave her head a ruffle to reassure her, but her eyes were focused on his arm that sat unaturally at his side.

“Liar.” She said, not giving up an inch, still gripping his sleeve in her hand.

Alissa cleared her throat to speak, but now there were two pairs of eyes glaring at her, she found one significantly more adorable than the other however.

“Don’t worry Belle, Like Ady said he’ll be fine in just a few minutes. Wanna see a really fun trick?”

Belle still looked wary, but there was now curiosity tinging her gaze, she looked back and forth between the two and Adrest sighed, saying, “Come over here Belle, I’ll show you something neat.”

Adrest led the rabbit who still refused to let go of him, and the dragon trailed them over to the large pitch-black pillar a distance from the fire pit and cabin.

Belle waited curiously staring at Adrest who tapped the air a few times, and then all the injured areas of his body were covered in shadows for a moment before clearing to pristine skin. He lifted the previously broken arm and clenched his hand into a fist a few times to show the wide-eyed Belle.

“See, good as new.”

“I told you; he was just being a little cranky earlier.”

“One more word that isn’t sorry from your mouth and I’m not playing with you for a week. That still hurt a lot ya’know? And I seriously thought I was going to die. Those bastards were literally on my heels the entire time.

The pitiful purple dragon nearly bawled right there, “Bu…But..But you asked me to train you. You have to be prepared to fight even if it's an inconvenient time, right? I even made sure it was a clean break in an easy to set position for you. I knew you could get away from almost anything within a full rank of you. I have to push you to catch up…”

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Alissa was near inaudible by the end and was looking sadly at the ground with tears in her eyes. He had a feeling his feelings were being manipulated, but still didn’t like seeing her face without her trademark smile so he broke.

“Fine, I forgive you Alissa, but please just say something before you do it again, okay?”

The instant he spoke, she regained her smile and stuck her tongue out, “Nope, it isn’t as effective if you know it’s coming.”

Out of reflex, Adrest hit the sassy girl on the top of the head, but all that did was bruise his newly healed hand. Alissa started laughing, saying “Serves you right for being so mean, idiot.”

While the demon and dragon were in the middle of a two man show, they were interrupted by Belle’s giggling from the side. The two looked at each other, smiled, and looked at Belle whose ears bounced as her chimelike giggles echoed through the trees.

After dinner, which Adrest made Alissa cook as punishment, the fireside was quiet. Belle was exhausted from today and was currently sleeping in Alissa’s chair. Her ears drooped on her head and let out slow and shallow breaths as she soaked in the heat of the fire and the peaceful air gently blowing through the trees.

As Belle slept, Adrest got up from his seat and decided to set up a new house with the Lodestone. He had a budget for the building of around 3000(lp) and had his eyes on a two-story stone building that cost just under that.

According to the description, the first floor consisted of a large open space with a fireplace on one wall. There were large glass windows to let in as much light as possible. There was a set of stairs in the back of the building, that led up to the next floor that consisted of a hall and 4 bedrooms and one medium sized room at the end.

The layout was perfect and looking at his remaining balance of 3245(lp) after budgeting in the house, he excitedly scrolled to a hidden corner of a sub-section of the menu and found it. For a whopping 3150(lp) was a bathroom kit, it includes a large wash basin, big enough to lay in comfortably, with a water magic tool that poured out infinite water at the temperature of your choosing. The tub was also equipped with magic that slowly drained the water that sat inside of it.

Most interesting to Adrest however, was the toilet that rounded out the bundle, that apparently worked similarly to the bathtub. He clicked buy after reading it over one more time and designated his new bathroom in his silently constructed stone house that sat to the side of the cabin.

With Alissa already standing next to him watching the strange magic at work, they excitedly went to check out the foreign building. Adrest pushed open their new wooden and metal reinforced door to the wide-open room inside.

In the currently pitch black building, the two with superior eyes could see everything perfectly. The floors were a light brown series of wood planks that ran from one end of stone to the other. There was a large simple fireplace as promised with a chimney running up the wall. After taking in the empty space, they made their way upstairs.

Looking in each room in curiosity, they were pretty much identical. They finally got to the room Adrest was most excited about, the bathroom was revealed with a large, dark mahogany wood basin to one side with a bright blue stone sitting on the floor next to it. On the other side was a dark gray, stone toilet and Adrest nearly cried at the modern comfort he missed most.

Alissa was not really surprised by the items she saw but was still not used to seeing how easily a lodestone can recreate such items. Even in large cities, these magic items weren’t exactly cheap and here Adrest was, making then appear with a flick of his wrist.

After Adrest was done playing with his new fully equipped bathroom, the pair moved what little they had in the cabin to the living room of their new home and woke Belle up as they finished.

She was incredibly surprised to see the new looming structure, but under encouragement from the older demi-humans, Belle approached the building and swung open the front door, she gasped seeing the room that was at least double the size of the previous and ran around in curiosity.

“Make sure to go upstairs and choose which room you like best.” Adrest had a grin watching the girl look at everything in amazement and run up the stairs and followed suit.

Getting to the last step he saw Belle inspecting each room through the open doors, a serious expression on her face. She continued inspecting while Adrest and Alissa watched from the stairs, until she went to the one whose window overlooks the fire pit.

“This one please!” Her ruby red eyes were upturned towards Adrest with anticipation.

“If that’s the one you like, it’s yours.” Adrest smiled and braced himself as she launched into him for a hug.

He squeezed the girl tight for a moment and released her saying, “Now, you and Alissa have a magic lesson to start, and I’ll be working on getting everything ready in here, okay?”

Belle unwrapped her arms from his waist and nodded with a bright smile before following Alissa down the stairs, back to the fire pit.

At the chairs, Alissa started her third class of the day. They talked about the specialties of different affinities and their strengths before moving on to practice with her own.

They started with body enhancement as it was the easiest for Alissa to demonstrate to the girl. Soon enough there was a small white blur running to and fro, too fast for a normal human to clearly see.

She ran about on excitement for some minutes before returning and continuing their lesson with the life affinity.

While Alissa did not possess it herself, her father did, so she had much more than a simple surface level understanding of it. She began explaining as best she could to the eager girl.

With only the most basic explanation of what to do, Belle excelled. She was quickly able to accelerate a plant’s growth, and though it was tiring, she was able to heal a small self-inflicted cut on her arm.

With sweat forming on the little girl’s forehead, she gave a bright and pure smile to the big sister she met only recently but already couldn’t imagine life without. To the abused and unwanted rabbit girl, life here in the woods was like a dream she prayed to never wake from.

With those thoughts in Belle's mind, they continued the lesson for only another hour before going inside their new house for the night.