As we had hoped, and expected, the trial next day went as smoothly as it could.
In fact, it went so smoothly, we pretty much only sat in the court for ten minutes at the very most. Our opponent didn't even bother coming. Heh, he knew he had no chance to win in the slightest.
Of course, Father had given to the judge the documents both him and us had obtained yesterday. It was enough for him to declare an innocent verdict for both Marina and Sophie immediately. He also said, in his own words, "Sir Newt Benedict shall be tried on a different occasion for his crimes."
Complete victory. We all exchanged grins as we heard the judge slam his gavel. Even Marina had a grin in her face as she accepted Sophie's hug. Of course, little miss hobbit immediately thanked us as well afterwards.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! I will be forever indebted to you all!" She bowed as deeply as she could.
"Here. Your jewels." Mother handed over the box with a smile. She and Father had opted not to tell the judge of the scam, just so the box and the gems inside wouldn't become evidence that the court would have to keep.
"They're all real. Every single one of them. You didn't make a mistake," Father grinned. "That bastard had lied just so he could get his grubby hands on them for free."
Her eyes widened in shock. "R-really?"
"Yes, really," I spoke up next with my own smile.. "We went to multiple appraisers in the city and all of them said the exact same thing. You have done nothing wrong, Sophie. Your judgment as a merchant was completely correct."
She paused, taking off the box from Mother with trembling hands. She opened the lid, confirming that the gems were indeed all there. Ruby, amethyst, diamond, and many others—every single one of them were accounted for.
Mother then walked over to her and put her hands on her little shoulder before kneeling over to look at her in the eyes. "Let this be a lesson to you, Sophie. As a traveling merchant, you must always be wary of unscrupulous bastards like him. There are many others like him, you know, and no doubt this wouldn't be the first time someone would try to cheat you like this."
Father nodded with agreement with his arms folded, while Sherry was just smiling with a satisfied look in the background. I couldn't help but feel a little bad for her, having nothing to add to the conversation. Just like Sophie, she barely got any life experience on her. But don't worry Sherry! I'll teach you all sorts of stuff when we start adventuring!
Marina, on the other hand, let out a sigh. "I should've seen that trick. If I did, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place."
"Hugo was the one who figured it out first, you know!" Mother remarked with a proud smile. "Even faster than me, his own mother! Ah, what a clever boy he is! Clearly, he takes it from me!" She added with a smirk.
"Hey, are you insinuating that I'm stupid or something?" Father protested.
"No, I'm just saying that you were nowhere as smart as him when we first met. So the brains must have come from me." She patted her chest.
As the two had their little playful argument, I noticed Marina looking back at me with a proud smile of her own.
She didn't need to say anything. Just that look immediately filled me up with an almost overwhelming warmth that nearly made me jump with joy.
Aah, I do like being praised after all! Please praise me more, Sis! Mom!
------
We watched as Sophie departed. As you would expect from a merchant, she had her own carriage that she no doubt used to store her goods, complete with a pony to pull it. Hobbits aren't good with normal, large horses, so they had those ponies that they used as their beast of burden. Just like their owner, they could never grow up to become as big as normal horses.
She was lucky that this incident only took two days to be resolved, or else the stable owner might have just decided to sell it (and the pony) to some black market for a quick and easy cash. At least, I could imagine a less principled stable owner to do so, especially if he heard that she had been thrown in jail.
She wasn't leaving from the north gate like we would however. She was heading east, to the Magocracy. She wanted to sell and buy some magical items there, she told us.
Hopefully, one day, I'll be able to meet her again on my travels. And next time around, I would surely tower over her as I would be more of a grown-up there.
But hey, maybe Marina would meet her once she returned to the academy.
------
For the rest of the month, Marina decided to return and stay with us, feeling a bit gloomy that her plan of becoming an adventurer here was dashed. Not wanting to bother her, I decided to still respect my promise with her and not ask about more magic lessons with her; using my time to play with Erika instead. Slowly but surely, the girl seemed to be warming up to Sherry, though never to the extent that she warmed up to me, unfortunately. Now her favorite thing to do when I hug her was to pull and play with my hair. I'm not sure what she finds so amusing about it, but if she's happy, then I'm happy too.
Without me to teach, Marina ended up teaching Sherry instead, who was still determined to catch up back to me after her recent defeat. Of course, she wasn't teaching her magic. Marina was acting as my stand-in as a fellow mage, though her fighting style differed considerably than me. If I had to dodge around in combat, she instead stood her ground, using her spells to create what was essentially an impregnable fortress around herself. Her owlbear would be the big guy that protected her from Sherry's direct assault, with the fairy (which she had evolved into a high fairy by the way) healing said owlbear. The dryad on the other hand would create roots to hinder Sherry's movements. The way the four worked in sync (including Marina herself, of course), Sherry could not land a single decisive blow on her.
Oh, I hadn't talked about summons evolving yet, hadn't I? Basically, the more the summon got along with the summoner, the stronger it would get, until it would evolve into the next rank of its evolution line. For a fairy, that would be becoming a high fairy. The exact science behind it was never clear, and once again, it seemed like one of those things that depended more on the summon itself.
There was a magic spell you could cast to forcibly "rank up" your summon for a short period of time, but you could only do it if the summon trusted you enough to give you its name. Not to mention that the more powerful the summon was, the larger drain it would be on the summoner's mana. Many summoners ended up unconscious after doing the spell—the main effect of using too much mana more than the body could produce.
And then, Fall came, and it was time for Marina to leave once again.
As she rode the express carriage that would take her there, I took a glance at Sherry's determined look and smiled. She really wants to get stronger, just like me.
-------
A series of months passed since then, and now, I could happily declare myself as an eight-year old boy. Just two more years until you could start adventuring, Hugo! Keep it up!
Sherry, on the other hand, was already old enough to register. But when I asked if she was going to, she shook her head, telling me that she was going to wait until I was old enough to go with her.
I see. So she wants for us to start together and party together and possibly even sleep together in the same inn room as we both start our adventuring careers.
This girl… she can be too cute sometimes.
I noticed however that there was also a look of fear in her eyes. If I were to guess, she's probably too scared to interact with all those strangers that she would have to do if she became an adventurer. Taking quests, reporting quests, and cooperating with other people in general… she was nervous to do it.
Was she always like this? I remembered meeting her as this really confident girl who wouldn't be afraid to punch you in the face if she didn't like what you said.
...No, that was just a mask, wasn't it? A front she put up to protect herself from the harshness of the people around her.
But now, after being accepted to our family, that mask had disappeared. She had to cling to my family and me specifically for comfort and reassurance. No wonder she didn't want to pay a visit to her orphanage when we were in Aarom back then.
Behind her tough exterior, and her superhuman strength, she was just a fragile, love-starved girl who wanted to be protected.
Alright, don't worry, Sherry! I'll be your knight in shining armor!, I declared selfishly inside my mind.
But clinging to me like this… I couldn't help but think that it was unhealthy for her. As much as I loved having a cute girl around to play hero with, I wanted her to grow as her own person. At this rate, she would always need me to function. And I didn't want that for her future.
Is there a way to make her be less attached to me? There are other girls her age in the village, but they are too afraid of her to make her their friend. Same with the boys. And the rumors of her being a demon in disguise has only entrenched itself over the years.
I sighed. Oh well. I can make her be more independent once we become adventurers.
Little did I know that my problem would soon be solved by a certain strange visitor.
----
It was around Spring when she came.
We and Sherry were just finished from our spar. And just like the other times we had fought against each other, I still remained the victor. Ever since I won over her, I still hadn't lost a single time.
We were now relaxing under a big tree, resting our backs on its large trunk, with me cheering up the disappointed-looking Sherry, telling her that she was definitely getting better at her swordplay.
"Sloppy. That could've been better."
I looked up and saw a woman staring down at me.
Immediately I stood up in attention. I was shocked, mostly because I never saw her before, but also because of her exotic appearance.
First of all, she had brown skin, something that I only saw on her ever since I was reincarnated to this world. Then, there was the fact that she got two protrusions coming out of her head that looked like a flower's stamen, or a slug antennae—I'm not sure which if I were to be honest. Not to mention the two bat-like ears also attached to the top of her head beside them.
She had a long and strangely shaped mass of light magenta hair that went all the way under her waist. There was no way it was in any shape and form natural, as it cascaded in a series of "hair clumps", for a lack of a better term.
And then, there was her outfit. She wore a combination of dark and light brown long dress, with the top being decorated with golden lines and shapes, opposite to her completely plain skirt. And she had a large staff with her, signifying that she was no doubt a mage of some sort.
She was beautiful, no doubt about it. But it was a kind of beauty far different than that of Mother's. It was a mysterious, yet lonely beauty, like a flower that only bloomed at midnight with no one to see.
When our eyes met, I was immediately paralyzed by her piercing emerald eyes. It was as if she was staring right at my soul
I immediately understood. This woman… was definitely not human.
She looked at me for a short moment, before moving her gaze to Sherry, who also had stood up in response to her appearance.
"Long black hair, and an impressive display of strength… you must be the kid."
Without warning, she grabbed Sherry's arm, causing her to reflectively yank it off her grasp.
"W-who are you?" She shouted, drawing her sword towards her.
She let out a long sigh. "Of course. I haven't informed my arrival beforehand after all."
"I am Myrilla. Myrilla of the Nerthus. And I am here to examine whether you are just like me, a demon."
Sherry froze, her eyes widening in disbelief of what she just heard.
My heart nearly leaped out of its chest.
This was it. This was what Mother mentioned so long ago that I had completely forgotten about.
Myrilla. Father and Mother's old friend. She had come here at last like they had asked to.
To see whether Sherry really belonged to the Demon Race as they had suspected.
"M-me? A-a demon?" Her voice shook.
She didn't reply. Instead, she just took a strand of hair from her head.
"I shall return tomorrow to present my findings. Tell your Father and Mother that I've arrived."
Without another word, she left. Halfway down the hill we were on however, I snapped out of it and decided to stop her.
"H-hey, wait!" I chased after her. "Sherry? A demon? That can't be right, can it? She doesn't look like one!"
"Does a demon have to look like one to be one?" She answered, while still walking ahead, refusing to stop or even slow down. "Don't you know of the Black Slime race? And what about her exceptional strength?"
"I-isn't that just her talent?"
"Talent doesn't work like that. You don't become strong from the start right away. You still need to put a lot of effort and training to polish it. Only us from the demon race are already strong from birth."
She was right. I was just fooling myself, thinking that Sherry was in any way or sense "normal".
"That expression—" She suddenly stopped, turning around to face me. "—You're just like the others, aren't you?"
"I've decided. If that girl is truly what I believe she is, I shall bring that girl with me. Back to her homeland in the Demon Continent."
Before I could say anything, I was knocked out by a gale of wind created when she struck her staff to the ground. When I opened my eyes, she was already gone, vanished like she had never been there in the first place.
And when I looked back, Sherry had disappeared as well.
----
I quickly made my way home, as fast as I could. Don't tell me that Sherry has been kidnapped by her! However, when I arrived, Mother and Father were already waiting on the front door.
And they looked like I had just murdered someone.
"Hugo~" Eeek! Mother's smile! Oh, she's definitely angry! "What did you do? Why did Sherry return home crying and sobbing like that?"
I took a sigh of relief. Sherry had simply run ahead back home before me after all.
"I'm ashamed of you, Hugo!" Father joined in with a stern yell. "I never taught you to treat a girl like that!"
"N-no! It's not like that!!" I quickly replied. "It was someone else who made her cry." I had to clear this misunderstanding ASAP.
I then explained everything as fast as I could. When I was done, their expression switched from that of anger to surprise.
"Myrilla? She's here?" Father spoke.
"She didn't come along with you?" Mother asked.
"...That silly woman. She probably thought she would impose on us. She didn't even bother saying Hello? After all these years?" Father said with an angry look. "Renee, cook her favorite meal. I'll go fetch her for dinner."
"W-wait, Alan!"
No response. He simply ignored her as she ran to the direction where I had come from.
That dejected look on her face... There was no doubt that she still holds some jealousy towards her, doesn't she?
An old rival in love… And one with more history with Father and her…
I understand her feelings completely.
-----
No matter how many times I called out her name, Sherry refused to come out of her room.
The door was locked, and I could hear muffled sounds of sobbing coming from the inside.
I was about to just kick the down door, but Mother stopped me. She said that it would be better if we left her on her own for the time being.
"Really, that Myrilla… she doesn't care about other people's feelings at all… She has always been like that, you know, ever since the first time I met her," Mother said with a huff as we left the front of Sherry's room.
"...Mother, maybe it might be better if we had told her that she could be a demon earlier."
She stopped in her steps, before taking a deep sigh.
"...You're right, Hugo. Perhaps we should have." She ruffled my head. "To hear it from a stranger like Myrilla, it probably hurts more from her."
She then kneeled down and looked me in the eyes. "Listen Hugo, you have to cheer her up once she calms down a little, alright? She must be afraid that you would reject her, after knowing that she might be a demon. Out of our family, you're the closest to her after all."
"...Of course, Mother." I nodded.
I didn't tell her about Myrilla wanting to bring Sherry with her to the Demon Continent.
That can't be true, right? Sherry wouldn't want to go there just because she's a demon? That place is really far away from here after all. Not to mention dangerous, filled with hellishly strong monsters and dungeons and all that. It was a lawless continent, where the strong thrived and the weak perished. At least, that's how my books described it.
But if she can meet her people there… her real family… who am I to stop her?