Reaching the kid's home Lena knocks on the side of the entrance. There's no door as the thing is just open to the public, but she still felt like she should ask for permission.
Lena knocks once, twice, and a third time. No answer.
This time she asks if she can come in out loud.
"You're already back Miss Lena? Please come right in." A welcoming voice came from inside.
Awkwardly, Lena made her way in.
"Here, please have a seat." The woman said waving towards a chair opposite of her.
"Thank you..." Lena felt out of place under such a refined presence.
"So, have you found Octan?" Asked the woman as Lena sat down.
Remembering the scene she had found him in Lena's awkwardness turned into a frown.
"Yeah." Lena says with a frown.
"Ahaha... I guess finding him in such a place wasn't that great huh..." The woman said with an awkward smile.
"A-anyway! You must be one hell of a woman to let your man loose like that! If it was me I would have made sure he never saw tomorrow!" The woman said making a fist.
"My man?- No, No, No! You've got this completely wrong! We are completely not like that! Like absolutely! Hell I've never even looked at him that way!" Lena said denying the woman completely.
"Huh? So what are you his daughter? I do not remember him ever mentioning having one..." The woman said tilting his head.
"...no... I'm not his daughter, and he isn't my father. I merely follow him around carrying his bags." Lena said unknowing how to feel.
"That means... you're his slave? I can't believe Mr. Octan was this kind of person all along... But I guess it's normal in terran culture, maybe? I don't really get your kind that much..." The woman said sighing.
"Just think of me as an errand girl..." Lena said in a disappointed tone.
"Errand girl? Errand girl! Okay!" The woman said clapping her hands together.
Lena sighed at how the woman's actions did not match her look.
"Anyway, where's the kid? Didn't he stay back here?" Lena asked looking around the comfortable looking house.
"Oliva? He went out right after you to play. A couple of his friends came over and asked for him, he went straight out. *sigh* kids these days..." The woman said bringing one of her palms to her cheek.
Lena had told herself to hold the question on the way here, but now given the chance she had to ask it.
"E-excuse me but... oliva your kid... Why does he look so terran?" Lena said trying to sound as not rude as possible.
The woman grows a mischievous smile.
"Would you like to guess?" The woman says baiting Lena in.
"...sure." Lena agreed.
"I will give you a hint. It's because a Terran helped me in giving birth to the kid." The woman said keeping her smile.
"Wait are you saying that... that the kid's father is a Terran?!" Lena almost jumps.
The woman just smiles looking at Lena silently.
"But don't you people completely hate Terrans?" Lena questioned the woman.
Once again she just continued to smile.
"Wait no, there's one Terran you don't hate, And the kid even wanted to meet, and you trusted me because of him. N-no... no way. Is he Octan's kid?" Lena asks an impossible question.
The woman covers her mouth with her right hand and giggles. "1 point..."
"Holy sh-"
"Out of ten." The woman said bursting into laughter.
"W-what?" Lena entered a state of absolute confusion.
"You get one point for guessing the name, but -9 for how off you were with the story." The woman said giggling heavily.
"Soo... he isn't Octan's son?" Lena asked the woman in front of her.
"Nope, he is the son of my husband. A hardworking, earnest, Zoomorn, just like me. But it's true that Sir hero. saved my child Oliva during labor." The woman said reminiscing.
"What happened?" Lena asked bluntly. It was weird, for the first time in her life, she was interested in another's story. Why is that? simple. Octan.
The woman was taken by surprise with how forward Lena was with her question, but answered nonetheless.
"It was supposed to be a stillbirth. During Labor we Zoomorns Always have a mana reader by us. They are ones who specialize in reading mana signals, Like those magic items that can tell you how strong another person's mana is. We always keep them around to check on fetuses as Zoomorns have a much stronger and chaotic mana flow, Something going wrong with a fetuses' mana flow isn't uncommon, and can be easily dealt with, but that's during pregnancy. An hour into Labor Oliva's mana flow had gone completely wild, to the point where it had even messed up my own. His day of birth was going to become our funeral." The woman said placing one her palms over her belly.
"Then? what happened?" Lena said hurrying her up.
"My husband couldn't take it, hearing the report from the mana reader, he almost beat the poor man. He was just doing his job, but getting hit with such info must have felt horrific. He had remembered the Terran staying in town right at that moment and ran for him. We aren't completely blinded on what's happening outside, Sir superior is always talking all about human inventions and discoveries with a bright smile, so we had an idea of Terran medicine and how it was many times better than ours. Clinging on that thin strand of hope my husband ran like a headless chicken around town asking for the Terran, Sir hero. he had found Sir hero out drinking in the same tavern he would always attend. My husband had gave up his dignity and immediately bowed his head all the way to the ground begging him for help. Even if it was for us, I still wish he had held himself a little higher..." The woman said with a gentle smile.
"Anyway, According to what my husband had told me, even then, even though he had begged Sir Hero for help, He just got up and walked past him."
'Now That sounds more like the Octan I know.' Lena thought to herself.
"My husband Got up, got ahead of him, and then once again started begging him. He explained the situation, and even then Sir hero just walked past him not giving him the time of day. Repeating the process once again giving more details on the situation, Sir hero agreed. To this day my husband didn't understand what made him change his mind, but he had changed it. Following my husband He appeared in front of us around 3 quarters of an hour later. He simply asked the mana reader for a quick rundown. Given the rundown he approached me placed one his palms on my shoulder still standing, and then looked at me with a calming expression. A second later only he had claimed the problem to be over, and as such it was. He had fixed Oliva's mana flow to match his own, so That instead of the chaotic nature a Zoomorn would have, It was given the calm Terran nature, and that's why he turned out looking like a terran. It's not only his looks, miss Lena, he is Terran. The only thing making him a Zoomorn is his blood and his genetic heritage. So while his body will look and function like a Terran's, his offspring won't. It does sadden me, but the fact that I can watch him laugh and play. That alone is way more than enough." The woman said holding her gentle smile.
Lena took a second to take it all in.
"So then, Is that why you call him hero?" Lena asked.
"What? What does that have to do with anything?" The woman tilted her head.
"Then why? why hero?" Lena asked.
"Because that's who he is. The hero of humans. ...That's what Sir Superior told us anyway, and he had never lied to us." The woman said with confidence.
'The demon lord? Called Octan a hero? ...' Lena's head went blank, she isn't used to all this thinking so the last couple of days were a headache.
'Just what the fuck is going on here...' Lena questioned the whole situation behind Octan.
"Anyway! I should start working on dinner, Would you like to stay for it?" The woman asked Lena standing up.
Lena remembered the fact that she had not ate ever since entering the dungeon, and that was god knows how long ago.
"Y-" Lena swallowed her words immediately.
She remembered what Oliva had brought her back where she was resting.
'He said that's what us "terrans" eat... So what if that's not what Zoomorns eat... He had been snacking on fly's all the way up to his house, Is she gonna serve me a plate of taped flies...? I think there is something we left back in the bag I will just go get that...' Lena thought to herself.
"No, thanks..." Lena politely declined.
"Oh..." The woman said with an honestly dejected look.
"S-sorry..." No matter what look that woman gave her Lena was firm on not dinning on flies tonight.
She left the house and took a while to find the home she was resting in.
"This must be it" she said walking in without asking.
Inside was an Octan sitting in front of the fireplace. He was gazing at the firewood as it crackled.
"Oh, welcome back Lena." Octan said noticing Lena walk in.
Lena didn't reply.