Passing through the village gate, Mark and the twins said goodbye to Tom and continued walking inside the village. First, they headed straight to Bob's place to sell the boar's meat for today, after that they went to the vegetable lady's stall and today they both received another apple from her.
For today's visit to the village, Mark didn't have any business at the pub, instead, they went to a furniture shop to sell their magic beast's skin. A magic beast's skin is generally tougher than ordinary animal skin, but depending on the magic beast, they may have certain qualities to them. There is some animal's hide that has soft fur and is usually used in high-quality furniture, and others have stiff and prickly fur or no fur at all, but have tougher qualities than the other and are used as leather armor. A magic tiger skin is an example for the former category and the magic rhino is mostly used for the latter category.
They brought the boar's skin to sell at the furniture shop, although the boar's fur is not that soft, it is still used to be made as a carpet. After selling the boar's fur at the furniture shop, they then go to a clothing shop to sell the deer's skin. A deer's fur is very brittle so it is rarely used in furniture, but it does have nice insulating properties which are good to be made as a glove or for other clothing for winters.
After selling the animals' skin, they finally finished their business in the village.
"Do you guys want to go somewhere?"
"I don't know dad, I don't have anywhere in particular that I want to go, what about you Aiden?"
"I don't know either, but maybe getting the beef skewers from yesterday is quite nice, I like them."
"Beef skewers at the plaza then? Let's go."
They walked to the middle of the village to where the plaza is, and Isaac searched for the beef skewer lady that he met yesterday. After wandering around at the plaza for a while, they finally met the old lady. Isaac then walked up to the lady first.
"Good afternoon mam!"
"Good afternoon boy, you came again today, what can I help you with?"
"I want some beef skewers for me, my brother, and father!" Isaac said while pointing at Mark and Aiden.
Mark and Aiden smiled at the old lady when she looked at them. But suddenly the old lady suddenly pointed at Mark and said
"Mark! So these twins are your and Lily's children, no wonder they looked handsome and cute!"
Isaac and Aiden looked at each other confused, his father being known by people in this village is normal, but this is the first time someone knows their mother's name. They looked at Mark with questioning faces.
Mark realized that his children demanded an explanation so he said, "Kids, this lady is the one who helped me and your mother gave birth to you guys, her name is Kathy. Go ahead and introduce yourselves properly boys."
Isaac then introduced himself first. "Hello mam, my name is Isaac. I'm the older brother, thank you for helping my parents back then," he said while slightly bowing down.
Isaac then called his brother to move forward and introduce himself.
"Hello, my name is Aiden, I'm the younger brother, thank you for your help," Aiden said while stiffly bowing down.
"Hello kids, it's nice seeing you two grow up nice and well. And I'm happy that you two are very well-mannered. It seems that Mark and Lily raised you two well," She said as she stroked the twins' heads.
Mark smiled as he heard the compliment about him being a good parent and said, "Well, it's mostly them who have a good attitude from the start, I didn't do much. It seems that they are blessed by the world."
"That is a bold statement you've just said, Mark. Can you boys use magic?"
The twins then looked at each other and talked telepathically about how should they answer Kathy's question, but fortunately, Mark saved them by saying,
"Come on boys, show her! You can already make a small fire on your palm right?"
Isaac then sighed with relief and then proceeded to do as his dad said.
"Sure dad!"
Isaac then closed his eyes and raised his palm up, he pretended to struggle and focus before finally conjuring a small tiny fire the size of his pinky fingers at the center of his palm.
"Wow! You're really blessed by the world kid! How old are you, Isaac?"
"I'm six ma'am!"
"Six years old and you're already able to conjure magic, you're definitely a genius! Your future as a mage will surely be amazing!"
"How about you Aiden?"
'Faust, I can also conjure fire in my palm, but I'm sure I can't control it. It will be a full-blown fireball half the size of our heads!'
'It won't be good if she sees that.'
Isaac then got an idea.
"He is still learning ma'am, but he has already got his mana sense skill! I'm sure he will be able to catch up to me in no time." Isaac said.
"And I got a feeling that he will excel more at using fusion magic than his brother," Mark added "He can walk several times faster than his older brother when they were still babies."
"Good job you two, keep diligently practicing and I'm sure you both will be an excellent if not famous mage in the future!"
"And if any of you have the talent to use life magic, come and talk to me, I will surely help you to train it. I knew a few tricks about using life magic."
"Yes of course ma'am!"
Kathy then smiled and made their beef skewers.
'Nice assist Faust!'
'No problem!'
'Also, we will never be able to use life magic right?'
'I don't know, but according to mom and dad, it shouldn't be possible right? I mean, we are already lucky enough that life magic works on us and does not harm us. It will be harder for us to fake our identities as ordinary humans if life magic harms us.'
'Yeah, you're right.'
Kathy quickly grilled the beef skewers for Mark and the twins, put it in a bag and then gave it to Mark. Mark searched for his money pouch, but Kathy stopped him from doing so and said,
"It's a treat from me this time and I added extra skewers for Lily at home. Make sure to come here with the kids more often! And please send my greetings to Lily"
"Thank you, Kathy, I will ask her to come and meet you sometimes. Come on kids, say thank you to Kathy for giving us this many skewers."
"Thank you, ma'am!"
"Thank you."
As they said their goodbyes to Kathy and ready to go back to their home, they suddenly saw 4 knights wearing steel armor all over their body, with swords hung from their waist and they were walking in a formation which seemed to be protecting something in the middle of them.
"What is that?" Isaac asked.
"They are the mayor's knight, the town's guard shouldn't have full-plate armor, but what are they doing here?" Kathy answered.
The twins are curious so they asked their father if they could try to look closer. The first thing that Isaac noticed when getting closer to the knights are,
"Dad, why can I sense mana from their armor and swords?"
"It's most likely a magic weapon and magic armor."
"What? Magic Weapon!? Dad! Why did you never tell me such things exist?"
"Because I rarely use them, and I don't really understand how to make them."
"How do we use magic weapons?"
"You have to infuse a little bit of mana into the weapon and the weapon will release whatever spell was inscribed to the weapon, it's quite useful actually, for people who aren't that talented in magic, but needed more fighting power of protection for themselves, a magic weapon is a good option. But the downside is they are expensive, so only rich people are able to afford that kind of weapon and armor."
"Do you know where I can learn how to make magic weapons?"
"You can either learn directly from someone who knows how to make them or you can go to a mage school and learn various things there, including making magic tools."
"The mage school also teaches you about magic theory and other stuff."
"Dad, I want to go to the mage school!" Isaac said passionately
"But the humans' mage school is not as good as the demons though, the one decent school in the humans' territory is in the neighboring kingdom, the kingdom of Zandia. Maybe you can go there when you guys are older, and the usual age for going into schools is at least 10 years old and that is already considered unusual. Wait for a few more years boys."
"Alright dad, I will wait a few more years! But promise me that you will take us to school when we're 10 years old, okay?"
Mark was silent for a second before replying, "Yes, I promise."
As they continued talking, the 4 knights came closer and they were finally able to see what they were protecting in the middle of them.
What they see is a little girl about ten years old, with neck-length blonde hair and white skin is walking in the middle of those four knights.
"Eleora!?"