Mark and the twins looked at the familiar little girl that was walking in the middle of the four knights. She looked so happy looking around left and right, even the ordinary wooden houses and stalls at the plaza looked so interesting for her blue eyes.
"So her dad changed his mind then?" Aiden asked.
"It seems like it, even though having four knights wearing full armor looked quite a bit over the top for just a stroll," Isaac added.
"Considering that she was kidnapped yesterday, I think having that many and well-equipped bodyguards are understandable. Since she couldn't stand up to herself yet if any danger came up. Not like some six years old kids that can fight rank 3 magic beasts." Mark said sarcastically while looking at the six years old kids he mentioned earlier.
Isaac and Aiden the kids in question heard Mark's satirical retort and only responded by looking the other way and scratched their heads.
"Why don't you two come up and greet her? She must be happy to be getting friends on her first day going out of the house."
"Maybe not today dad, the bodyguards are maybe annoying to deal with, and talking to her right now may attract us much unnecessary attention that we don't want."
"I'm with Isaac."
"It's okay knowing that she already got what she wanted, even though going out to play with 4 knights is not the exact thing that she wants, it is still a huge progress from being fully locked-up at home," Isaac added. "And we can also visit her anytime later, right? It's not like we live in a different village or kingdom."
After Eleora and the four knights walked past them, Mark asked the twins what they wanted to do, and since the twins replied that they didn't want anything else, they decided to go back home.
Back at home, Lily is currently in the kitchen preparing their dinner. Isaac then walked up to her and said,
"Anything I can help you, mom?"
"Sure! Help me cut the vegetables and meat, make sure you wash the cutting board first after cutting the meat."
"Okay mom!"
"Rather than just standing around, why don't you two just wash up and change your clothes."
"Yes ma'am!" Mark and Aiden replied at the same time and went straight to wash themselves up.
After Mark and Aiden finished washing up, Isaac and Lily also finished their cooking. Now it's Isaac's and Lily's turn to wash up, while Mark and Aiden help prepare the dining table, and wait until they all are ready to eat.
Finishing their preparations, they gathered at the dining table and started eating. For today's dinner, Lily and Isaac made pork or in this case boar stew. They made the stew complete with garlic, potato, carrot, and some mushroom. Although all of Lily's cooking is delicious, the boar stew is one of the favorites of the people in the house. And the taste today is no different than the usual delicious pork stew Lily usually made.
"Nice job Isaac, the vegetables are cut at the perfect size, not too big that it becomes hard to chew and not too small so we can still taste the flavor of the ingredients!" Mark said.
"Yes, it's good Isaac, you should cook more," Aiden added.
"Sure!" Isaac said with a smile.
"By the way, dad said that you two will be going for an expedition into the forest to help dad search for ingredients the day after tomorrow is it right?"
"Yes mom, we're planning to prepare for it tomorrow and then set out the next day."
"Remember to be careful kids, don't forget to get enough food and sleep. Isaac, you can cook for the both of you, and also make a temporary camp using earth magic. While Aiden, you are in charge of making sure that Isaac got enough sleep. You two need to protect and help each other at all times. Expedition can be dangerous because you won't know what you will encounter in your journey." Lily said
"I also advise you, boys, to make camps at the outer part of the forest, travel deeper into the forest when morning comes or at least when the sun is out, then go back to your camp at the outer part of the forest when night comes. Some magic beasts that eat other magic beasts are more active at night, if you go too deep inside the forest, you may encounter some dangerous magic beasts or some annoying magic beasts that will prevent you guys from sleeping." Mark added.
"Alright mom, dad, we will definitely remember those when we went on the expedition," Isaac replied
Aiden also replied with a nod of his head.
They went on talking for another 10 minutes before they finished their dinner, after Mark and Lily told the twins to go to sleep. Saying that they need to cherish their bed because when they went on their expedition, they won't have those soft and comfortable beds as their sleeping place. The first one to go straight back to their room is Aiden followed by him jumping straight into bed, then followed by Isaac who seems a little bit excited about going on an expedition and can't sleep properly.
Mark and Lily then also come back to their own room, but instead of sleeping, Mark turns on the desk lantern, takes out his ink and pen, and starts writing on the magic beasts encyclopedia that he is planning to give to the kids before their expedition.
"Is it still not done?" Lily asked
"It's almost done, but since I don't have the knowledge of all the magic beasts in the world, I only wrote down the magic beasts that they will have a higher chance of meeting in The Forest of Beasts, and some dangerous magic beasts that they needed to avoid and some interesting ones."
"It should be done by tomorrow right? You don't want it to be late for tomorrow. "
"Of course! I will finish it tonight."
---
Faust opened his eyes, and he could still see the same ceiling he wakes up to every day. He looked to his left and found the same window, he then looked to his right and saw another bed with Angra, now his younger twin brother asleep on top of it. Faust's life in this new world all seems like a happy dream to him, except for the white lion incident where he is almost dead, the rest of them are pretty much happy days.
He and Angra now have their own bodies, there is magic in this world, and they are apparently very talented in it, they also got a loving and caring father and mother. Although he is not living a luxurious life, he got to have nice beds, and eating his mother's delicious cooking three times a day is all that he could ask for, when living in this new world.
Every time he wakes up, Faust always looks at his surroundings to see if he still wakes up in the same room that he slept in or if it all just turned out to be a nice long dream. He's been doing it for years now, so he is already not that paranoid. But it is always reassuring for him to look around as he wakes up to see that everything is still there.
Faust then opened the door and went down the stairs leading downstairs. He expected that his mother was already there preparing their breakfast and he wanted to give her a hand.
But when he got to the base of the stairs, he couldn't see anyone preparing breakfast and his mother was nowhere to be seen in either the dining table, kitchen, or living room in the house. Even though this is such a rare occurrence, it does happen very rarely when Lily feels unwell so she sleeps the whole day until her body gets better.
So he goes back onto the second floor and walks up to Mark's and Lily's room. When he opened the wooden door leading into his parents' room, all he could see was an empty bed, still messy with the bedsheets pulled from one side to the other. Realizing that his parents disappeared, he then tried calling for them,
"Mom! Dad! Where are you?"
He tried calling for them several more times, but he still didn't get an answer. He ran as fast as he could back into his room and woke Angra up.
"Gra! Gra! Wake up!" Faust said while nudging Angra as hard as he could.
"What is it? Why are you waking me up this early in the morning? And did you just call me Angra earlier?"
"It doesn't matter Gra, Mom and Dad are missing!"
"What??"
"MOM AND DAD ARE MISSING!"
"I know, I heard you, be calm first, Faust. Let's search around the house once more."
"I already did Gra, and they are nowhere to be found!"
"Maybe they are going into the village or something, we don't know yet Faust! Be calm first!"
"I will search for them in the village right now."
"Wait here first, why are you so rash?"
"Mom and Dad are missing! You are the one who is crazy for being this calm! I will go now." Faust then jumped out the window and flew straight in the village's direction.
"Faust! Wait!" Angra followed up by using lightning fusion and launched himself off the floor straight through the window and caught up onto Faust's body and dragged him down to the ground.
"It's early morning Faust! People will see you if you fly just like that!"
"But I can't just stay still! I must hurry and find them!"
In the middle of their argument, suddenly they felt that a huge amount of mana was gathered in the sky above them. They both looked at the sky at the same time, and they could see that water attributes mana started forming up and condensed into ice started forming up, followed by a fire that covered the whole ice structure. After the ice finished forming up, they finally could see that the ice formed up a word saying,
"Happy Birthday"