The room was surrounded in silence after Ryu and Aiena left. Lina took a deep breath before she began narrating the events of their cruel past and that night which brought them to this Zerah Village. throughout the tale of the past, both Geld and Village Chief were listening with a calm and serene expression like they were listening to the water flowing
And suddenly the glass in Geld hand was broken,
"I am sorry, please continue," he said while putting the broken glass back on the table. The story was around the part of Cable's betrayal. Even though Geld's expression was calm and serene, his eyes have a coldness of snake now.
While Lina was narrating the events of the past, Ryu and Lina were playing in the garden
"Ryu, why do u draw those strange patterns??" Lina asked Ryu pointing at the glyph Ryu was making on the ground, Ryu draw them a lot by stick and feet to gain clarity while drawing them fast he thought
'Shit, just when I thought no one will ask about what I am drawing, I even took care to not draw glyphs in front of Snow!!' but before he could answer, Aiena said with a bright smile while patting Ryu
"Do you want to be an artist??"
'This is it a chance, act like a kid no Jutsu' thought Ryu, as he asked Hina with a confused look
"What is an artist Hina??"
"Ahh, an artist is someone who......" Hina started explaining as she thought
'Young master really is 3-year-old. He seems so smart sometimes, I kind of think he will know all things I do, but I guess I really can teach young master like a big sister…. Ehehe' she smiled and continued explaining.
Ryu kept listening to the definition he already knows but couldn't make a disinterested face as he saw Aiena's enthusiastic and cheerful face, he secretly kept making water glyphs using his foot and channels his mana in multiple of them at the same time to practice Mana channeling and finer control of glyph, each glyph has a proper way to channel mana to use it properly without wasting mana and some glyph doesn't even work without proper mana channeling,
'Man, now I understand what kind of torcher it must've been for Snow to channel her mana in that many complex invisibility glyphs when we were escaping back then!' he thought while still pretending to be listening to Aiena.
Back at the dining table, the story of their escape has already reached the point of ascending of Goddess, both Geld and Village were hearing with a shine in their eyes as if they can imagine how it would've happened and how Goddess would've looked. Lina's descriptive way of telling was very interesting.
When the story reached the point of Ryu letting the Light orb fall on the ground and it turning into a one-of-a-kind Holy orb with oceanic blue color like Ryu's hairs and surrounded by crystallized soil for holder emitting a faint blue light from within itself, Lina asked Lana
"Lana, bring the Holy orb from my room. It'll serve as a prove too,"
"Yes, Lina big sister excuse me for a while, everyone," answered Lana, before she walked upstairs while they were waiting for Lana to return, the Village chief asked Lina while putting his hand on the table
"Lina, can you give a brief description of how that Holy knight looked,"
Lina signed a bit and started describing Holy Knight
"Silver hairs, wearing light silver-colored armor matching his hairs designed in a red pattern, light brown eyes with a hint of insanity in them and he carried a long sword with Light Goddess church's emblem, he was taller than me and he is also taller than Geld,"
After he heard the description, the Village chief put his hand on his head as if remembering something and spoke
"I had seen this Holy knight you talk about many years before when I first visited this Zerah Forest, I received a personal request of collecting every type of poison and venoms from Zerah Forest from Adventurer Guild in the town which is a bit far from here, the person who requested it was the same Holy Knight you talk of, I still do not know what he needed all those poisons and venoms for,"
Lina was about to ask something but before she could a voice came from beside her
"Lina big sister, here it is," said Lana while passing the bag containing the Holy orb to Lina, and Lina forgot what she was going to ask.
"Thank you, Lana," said Lina, then she opened the bag and put the special holy orb on the table.
Geld and Village chief examined the Holy orb which was giving of oceanic blue light embedded in crystalized soil. After looking at it for a bit, Geld spoke
"It sure is unique. I never saw any follower of Light Goddess having a Holy orb with color like this."
"This sure is the work of Goddess. No human blacksmith or dwarf craftsmen know how to crystalize soil like this. There is no doubt it is a present from Goddess,"
After letting them have a good look, she put the Holy orb back in the bag, and after a bit of silence, the Village chief said,
"I am happy you believe us enough to tell this all, Lina. Our decision is still the same, right, Geld?"
"Yes, I want to marry Hina. I am ready to face anything that might threaten you and Ryu is as important as brothers from the orphanage to me," said Geld with confidence.
Hina blushed hard at Geld's proclamation, then Lina said with a happy expression
"Now that you know about our situation and past, nothing is stopping their marriage. Are you happy Hina, Geld?"
Both of them nodded at this, and then the village chief said,
"Let's do a little marriage ceremony after 3 months at Church, I will talk to Priestess we won't call many people as there are no family from our side, I guess it will be both families, few neighbors and orphanage children at marriage, adventurer guild official and few other people might come if the information of my son marrying leak because he will be future lord of the city,"
"Nice after 3 months, then it is" Lina answered, Lana who was standing behind her bend a bit forward and whispered in Hina's ears teasingly
"Will you be fine waiting for a long time of 3 months?"
At this Hina stood up and shake her hand as she said to Lina,
"Lina big sister, Lana is teasing me again!!!" and everyone laughed.
Lina said to Lana
"Lana, tell Ryu and Aiena to come in now. Let's serve breakfast now,"
"Yes, Lina big sister," Lana answered
After some time, everyone was sitting at the dining table eating their breakfast when Hina said
"But after remembering events…." But before she could speak any further, Lina cut in
"Hina, Ryu is here!!" while turning her eyes towards Ryu
"I am sorry, Lina big sister," Hina said as she continued to eat and Ryu thought with a guilty expression
'It feels guilty to know it all when they are trying to hide it from me' and continued to eat. Geld suddenly said,
"Ryu really eats neatly, am shocked a 3-year-old can eat this neatly,"
'Am I supposed to throw food around now to look like a normal baby?' Ryu thought before intentionally dropping some food on the ground.
when everyone's breakfast was about to be finished, the Village chief said,
"I wish to take everyone shopping for marriage!!"
"No Village chief uncle, we can't take more favors" Lina answered before anyone else could at this Village Chief said with a sad expression
"I thought we were going to be family now, so I wanted to spoil the grandkids and big family. I am going to have, please don't mistake this stupid old man's selfishness as favors,"
"But..." before Lina could say further than that, the Village chief said
"No buts, shouldn't one listen to elders in the family, I want to buy Ryu a gentlemanly comfortable coat for marriage!! And a cute dress for Aiena!!" Ryu thought
'He really is someone who knows how to cherish family a lot, now that I think about it Grandpa chief never told any story relating to his family.'
"Then I won't say no anymore, Chief uncle I will respect your wish," Lina said to the Village chief
"Nice that is, sorry to be a selfish old man," the Village chief said and everyone laughed. Aiena, who just finished her breakfast, said while jumping up a bit
"Grandpa chief is not selfish; he is generous and is a great storyteller" everyone laughs at the innocence of Aiena who took the words of the Village chief literally and protested against them.
After the breakfast was finished, Geld and the Village chief take their leave. Hina, Lina, and Aiena also leave for church school and Snow for adventure, like every day only Lina and Ryu were left at home.