As Tenur walked out to the living room, Denka started speaking again. "You know..."

"Don't."

"There was a conspicuous shadow hiding behind the door-"

"Stop."

"Your mom is-"

"I said shut. Up. End of story, okay?" Tenur sat heavily on the sofa with Denka in hand, but the action was best described as dropped and sank into the sofa rather than just 'sit'.

A moment of silence permeated the air, and the charred remains of the firewood looked more depressing than ever. One look at the fireplace was all it took to send him down memory lane.

He recalled the fire crackling and blazing during winter. Before he was five, his father was still just a farmer. That was due to the kingdom having not expanded and developed his village yet. At least, that was until a surge of geomancers and electromancers happened. Like a whirlpool, the mages were gathered in the kingdom's capital, expanding its influence to include even the secluded villages, villages that were built in the wilderness in hopes of conquering them through forceful migrations. The surge of mages, or what the officials and textbooks called 'The Expansion', had caused a need for more soldiers to guard the nation's expanding borders. His father, seeing the chance to get enrolled and have a safer and richer income to support them, joined the army. Before long, he was moving around the kingdom a lot, only coming back home for a few weeks or days even, before travelling around again, dispatched into various regions with higher troop needs.

That time, Tenur had been oblivious to the poor conditions of his family, shielded by his loving parents. They always told him how great and how deserving of their love he was, explaining why he currently wasn't mentally ill or suffering from psychological backlashes. One time, when his father came home and he was put to sleep, right before he sank into unconsciousness, he heard his parents arguing about money and ways to raise him. On one hand, his father wanted him to move into a boarding academy with the reason that he needed better education and guidance to rise up in the social hierachy. On the other, his mother felt the obligation to take care of him personally, and she knew how abusive and torturous boarding academies were, since there was already numerous cases where delinquents in boarding academies were found dead due to torturous regiments. His father's wish, however, was quickly denied when his awakened mana was comparably 'unique' than others. From then on, he had felt the gap between his parents widen, but in his mind, they were still the same, loving parents.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Tenur sighed as he ended his reverie quicker than intended. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and saw that Denka was no longer on his lap, but on the coffee table. It seemed like he had placed Denka onto the table while deep in thought, explaining why he only had faint memories of placing him there. "Hmm..." something came to his mind.

"What?" Denka asked with a slightly dreary tone. The mana he had consumed from Tenur held depressive elements, allowing him to feel emotions as a book. "We should get moving already, I don't think we'll be able to do anything if we keep sitting around."

"So?"

"Time to move your fat ass."

"Right..." Tenur stood up slowly. He contemplated on what he should do, before asking. "Denka, is being hired or being an entrepeneur better?"

"Depends... where's this going?" Denka asked suspiciously, lacking any of his previous dreariness.

"If we can accumulate cash faster through selling things we create or modify, then we'll do just that."

"But you'll have to compare the pays for the jobs around the entire village!" Denka exclaimed.

"We should get hunting then. I don't think we can finish the entire survey within today if we don't start now," Tenur stood up and headed for the store room. There was slight vibrations of the floorboards when he arrived in front of the door. "Uh, it's not me right?"

"The floors definitely shaking, so it's definitely not you," Denka replied after sensing what was causing the shaking. "You should probably knock first. My daughter's in a delicate situation, I think."

Heeding his warning, Tenur knocked three times and waited. The previously consistent vibration stopped and was replaced by the new shaking that was accompanied by Laura's heavy steps. Something clanged inside and Laura sounded panicky. "I'm coming in Laura, are you ok-" Tenur announced himself as he headed into the room.

The first thing he noticed was the room smelled salty. He looked at Laura who was picking up and stacking the things she bumped into just now. She looked sweaty for some reason, which allowed him to connect the dots between why the room smelled so salty.

"Why so salty?" He couldn't resist the pun. It was an opportunity he couldn't throw away. In return for his efforts, Laura glared at him before stacking the last of the stuff.

"You know, this room is a lot stuffier and narrow than I imagined. You could've at least warned me," Laura spoke accusingly as she dodged around the maze of things kept inside the room. A box of toys was hiding within her path, tripping her and sending stuff flying all around.

"At least try to be careful," Tenur sighed as he lended a hand to help Laura get up. She dusted herself and walked out of the room while muttering "phew~" under her breath.

"Was it really that hard to breathe inside? I felt fine just now." Tenur ignored the scattered junk on the floor by closing the door behind him once he exited to the living room with Laura in tow.

"Can you imagine how many layers of dust gathered on the bed?"

"Sorry 'bout that, I procrastinated on cleaning duty," Tenur gave a short, guilty laugh before leading them outside where the air felt fresh and nice. Laura closed the door behind him after following him out, taking in a deep breath after she tasted the outside air. "Mmm~ This is much better."

"Good thing you prefer the outsides, coz' our next tasks will be gatherin' info."