"You really Kota?" Jerry the guard asked as we walked our way through the residential district.
The walk to the residential district wasn't that long. Amelia walked behind Jerry as I walked beside him. At this point, I'd assume the guard was just quiet. He hadn't really talked that much up until we got to the residential district.
The man looked at me with curiosity, perhaps Kale told him about me? I don't see why he would, I haven't really done much since I've been here. Maybe this guy was one of the people who heard about the stuff I did at the university?
"Yeah."
"Really? Like actually? I heard from Kale that you were a very skillful mage."
"Well I wouldn't really say that."
Jerry let out a jolly laugh. "Haha! Then why are you teaching the king's son? You must have some sort of special interest he has. Least that's what Kale told me."
"Are you and him close?"
"Well me and him do go on patrols when he has the chance. He says I'm the most approachable when it comes to the guards." Jerry rubbed his chins after that. Contemplating a moment, finding the right words. "You know…to be honest, I thought you'd be a lot older. How old are you?"
"Twelve." I shrugged.
"There is no way you are twelve."
Can't blame him. At one point, I considered myself a four year old for some reason…when I was in Shanford, I was under the assumption that time flows differently here until I realized…nope, it doesn't. It's just like how time flows in my old life. Though I would say life expectancy was much longer here, there are other races here. It'd be somewhat weird if everyone here somehow managed to die at a general age, isn't Furor like a hundred years old or something?
I would say though…Yeah, I'm a little more grown for a twelve year old. I've seen kids my age roam around Prusha and I don't even look like them. I'm quite tall for my age, and I haven't even hung out with people my age. Same thing applies to Lilith.
Eh…Lilith is a dragon hybrid. Maybe her growth spurt has to do with Dragons reaching maturity faster? I feel like Tera would know more about this. But yeah, I'll give Lilith a pass on being different
Actually, Isn't Amelia younger than me and Lilith? She looks her age, it's just that she seems more mature.
Starting to think I'm not actually Human in this world. There are races in this world, so maybe there are variations of humans here as well? Furor and Lady Sierra are good examples. I think?
"Uh…Got lost in your thoughts?" My train of thought were caught off by Jerry, who looked at me with concern.
"Ah..Would it be alarming if I said I had a growth spurt at an earlier age than everyone else?" I awkwardly said.
Jerry rubbed his chin some more, Thinking. "Well…if that was the case, I would suspect that your family isn't from this region."
I slowly nodded. "That'd…might actually make sense. I don't think I asked my mother or father about where they were from."
"Yeah, I've heard of stories in Ozoth about a race that has that happen to them. If I remember…they were on the eastern continents. Ooh, maybe it's also a possible reason why you're skillful in magic!"
I wouldn't count on that one. I got a whole other person inside me that's making me do wonders with magic.
"Pfft, Skillful." I heard Amelia scoff behind us. "Only thing he's capable of is being weird."
"Look who's talking." I said, craning my neck back towards her. "You're the one carrying a giant bag of your stuff like a homeless person."
"Shut it!"
I was going to say something else before I realized that we were nearing Kale's home. It was just in my eyesight now.
"Looks like we're almost there." I said.
Jerry nodded. "Yeah, it seems like no one followed us as well." His eyes scoured the roofs constantly as we walked. We were still keeping an eye out for Mandy in case he was following us.
But yeah, Mandy hasn't been seen yet…Maybe he actually dipped out of the kingdom already? I mean, if he's able to be this agile…I wouldn't expect the guards to even catch up with him.
Ah, I shouldn't lower my guard still. Better to be cautious, considering what me and Amelia just got ourselves into.
"Where's Mr.Goodman's house?" Amelia asked. She picked up her pace and walked beside me now. Find it odd how she's even able to keep pace with the bag she's holding. That's heavy as hell, right?
Also, she's got to stop with the formal naming of Kale. I think she's the only person who's actually called him that besides the king.
"Can't say that when you've been here multiple times." I said back to her.
"Yeah, but I'm just wondering."
"Y-you've seen what the front of the house looks like."
"I know. I'm just trying to see if you can answer it."
"Why?"
"Does it annoy you?"
"Yeah." I said annoyingly.
"Then I accomplished what I wanted to do."
I let out a groan of annoyance as I could feel Amelia's smug face eyeing me from the side.
"We're close. Just a couple of houses left."
As we last a couple of houses, we finally saw the familiar two story building I've grown accustomed to. It was very similar to the house I was born in, besides a couple of greenery and the front gate being gone. There were also vines that climbed up one side of the house.
"I'm running to see Lilith!" Amelia ran ahead, paying no mind to me or Jerry. I saw as she huffed and leaned to one side as the bag she held was now exhausting her. On her way to the door of the house, she stumbled and fell down into the grass out of exhaustion.
"She's a character." Jerry abruptly said to me, both of us walking casually to the house.
"She's annoying. Can't count how many times she's insulted me in some form of way."
"Ah, you kids will learn. Two of you will get to know each other much better at some point."
"Hmph, like she'll ever be fine with knowing me."
Jerry laughed. "Hah! I'm telling you, it'll be fine. Might not even realize it right now."
I looked at him, confused. What the hell did he mean by that?
Jerry only grinned as we slowly entered the front lawn of Kale's home. Amelia laid flat on the grass ground as we approached her, it seemed like she was taking a nap.
Guess I should wake her.
With Jerry watching, I casually lifted my staff to poke Amelia. The young blue haired girl groaned and swatted the staff away for a moment before coming to her senses.
"Wha-Huh? I was taking a Power Nap." She slowly got into a Sitting position as she said that. As she got into a sitting position, she immediately swatted at my staff again. "Get your stinky staff away from me!"
"Don't sleep in front of people's yards!" I barked back at her.
"It was only for a few moments!" She then stood up quickly. "You know how heavy this damn bag is?"
"Ah, well you shouldn't have even brought that much to begin with!"
"I have all my things in here! What, you want me to leave it where it was so it can be found?"
"Yeah, it Wouldn't be much use to other people anyways!"
"I mean as in that Pink haired lady finding my stuff and finding me with it!" Amelia stepped forward, getting right into my face. Or at least she tried to.
"First of all, that was a dude. Second, how is he going to track us?"
Amelia scoffed. "Course you'd figure out it's a dude."
I could feel a vein in my head ready to burst as she said that. "What do you mean by that?"
"I bet you were looking down there, just like you did with me! You pa-"
Amelia stopped mid sentence as The door to the house opened. Lilith's head popped out of the gap as she observed us.
"What's going out here?" She asked. Her gaze shifted to Jerry. "Oh…You're the one that helped us this morning."
Jerry waved at her happily. "Yep, just escorting these two back here!"
Lilith opened the door wider, stepping out and closing the door behind her. She still wore her Guard outfit, though it was without its leather chest plate. Her white shirt hung even more loosely as it was not tucked in. She wasn't even wearing her boots, but that allowed me to see her white socks she had on.
And it has come to my attention that she has noticed how intensely I was staring at her. Her Amber eyes stared at me, looking up and down as if she was examining me.
Wait, she was examining me. Her sudden movement of moving closer to me made it more obvious. Lilith brought her right hand up and gently wiped something off my cheek, it was kinda cute seeing do that.
"S-something wrong?" I asked.
Lilith gave me a concerned look as she looked at Amelia, particularly the Blue haired girl's shoes. Her shoes were now dried in blood.
"What…what happened?" Lilith turned back to face me, looking more serious. "Where's kale?" She turned her gaze to Jerry.
Jerry raised his hands in assurance. "He's fine! It's just…he had to go back to the castle to report about the kidnapper."
"Kidnapper?" Lilith said, surprised. "The ones looking for Claire…"
As she spoke, her eyes trailed. Seems she was recollecting what had happened this morning as Jerry continued talking.
"Yeah, I guess these two ran into them on the way back. Luckily, Kale managed to get there in time."
"No wonder why the two of you are ragged up. Mages don't do well in close quarters." Lilith said concerningly.
She turned to me and then rapidly started to clean my cloak and clothes. Something caught me off guard.
Actually that was the first time she had ever tried doing that sort of thing. Lilith wasn't really much of a cleaning person, I tend to usually clean up after her.
"Ah…you seem more concern with cleaning me than making sure I'm not hurt." I awkwardly said.
"Well, you aren't that hurt right?" She stared up at me. "No chest holes?"
"I still have chest pain." I shrugged.
"From..?"
"…From the kidnappers."
"You seem fine. Now let me wipe this dirt off you." Lilith continued to wipe. "Claire's been teaching me about hygiene ever since we got home. You know germs are all over the place?"
"Claire?! Is she inside?" Amelia shouted.
Lilith gave a quick nod. She was really fixated with wiping the dust and dirt off me, once my cloak was somewhat cleaned she began to wipe my shirt and face.
"I'm going in then!" Amelia announced, I saw her haul up the bag beside her over her shoulder. "Can't stand watching…whatever is going on."
She then proceeded past Lilith, struggling to open the door for a moment before swinging it open. As she went inside, she left the door wide open.
I'm starting to think Amelia has less manners than Lilith now. This is a weird sudden change of pace for me that having Lilith wipe my shirt was making me more flustered than usual. And she wasn't even good at it, the dirt began to smear across the whole shirt.
"Ok, you can stop! I can Clean myself!" I backed away from Lilith as I said that.
Lilith frowned at me, putting her hands on her waist. "You always clean for me, why can't I do the same?"
"Because you get too physical with it! Look, you were just wiping dirt off my shirt with your hands."
"Then take it off."
"You're crazy. I'm going to wash it myself." I began to walk forward towards the door.
I took a glance at Jerry as I walked. "Thanks, Guard man."
Jerry saluted me, although he gave me a disappointed look. "Yes! But the name is…Jerry."
"Yeah, yeah. Thanks Jerry! Let Kale know that we're fine when you see him!" As I turned to look back at the door, I noticed that Lilith was standing in front of it.
Confused, I tried to get past her. But she scooted herself to block my path. There was a look of concern on her face as I irritatedly tried harder.
"L-Lilith, let me in!" I said.
"You can't go in." She firmly said. "Claire is taking a bath. And she said she didn't want anyone coming in!"
"That doesn't make sense! Amelia walked in!"
"Yeah, but they're related! What would happen if you walked in and saw her?"
"I think I'd do my best to avoid her! What am I supposed to do out here?"
Can't believe I'm being held out of the house! I can't even relax on the living room couch, I'm not trying to lay on the grass out here!
Lilith frowned and rubbed her forehead. She seemed to be thinking extremely hard about this before shaking her head and looking at me again.
"Fine! But no going upstairs!" She moved aside and ushered me into the house.
"Geez, what's up with you!" I asked her as I found a spot to sit at in the living room. Lilith eyed me as she walked towards the stairs.
"Well…With what's happening, I've taken the moment to be more serious about being a bodyguard. So with Claire's help, I'm being her bodyguard as well as Chris's." She then sat down on the wooden stairs. "Which means I gotta be more strict and not let any more trouble happen."
I guess that's a reason to be more careful. Still, I don't like being kept out because of a guest. I feel like the guest should be more respectful…
Then again, Amelia and Claire come from noble families…maybe they just think they're more important? No, Claire didn't give off that vibe. It's just Lilith being more serious.
"Whatever, I'm going to relax on the couch." I then laid on the couch, staring at the front door. "The kidnapper didn't follow us, luckily. He was a weird fellow."
"He?" Lilith asked.
"Yeah, it was a dude. But he was dressed like a lady. And he had a pole too!"
I heard Lilith move from the stairs and cutely laid her head on top of the couch, eyeing me.
"I'd like to learn more!" She insisted.
What is this? Did she literally just forget to be serious over me talking about the kidnapper? Well…If it's to pass time until Claire leaves the bathroom.
"Sure, I'll tell you…what I can. Though None of us really know what this person was. I don't think Kale has ever fought someone like that before."
And thus, I spent the moment telling Lilith about the event that transpired earlier.
A/N: hey all! Hope you enjoy this chapter! Unfortunately, I've gotten quite sick this past week. It's put a damper in me writing. I'm still somewhat sick, so I'll try to continue writing!