As thoughts swirled in Aiden's mind, his eyes finally drooped slightly. Until he fell asleep in Lucien's arms. Lucien stared ahead and contemplated the missions and tasks he was given.
Mission: Create a dark sealing magic seed for the protagonist.
Side mission: Exorcise Vanessa's daughter.
Task: After two months, the protagonist must become a mage disciple in the Mage Academe.
Lucien think back to the plot of Slaying the Demons. There was no exorcism in the children's facility back at that time. Nor was there any creation of a dark sealing magic seed. The anime only showed brief moments of them living here before they entered the Demon Slayer base. Exorcism? There's nothing on it too. Lucien only knows that exorcism requires considerable light magic energy in order to be performed. Lots of tools too.
As troublesome as it is, these tools can never be acquired except in the Demon Slayer base, more specifically, in the Mage Academe. One needs to become a Mage Specialist to own one. How many years will that take? Lucien can only sigh.
If it's light magic, there's a chance the protagonist might have developed his magic constitute beforehand. Lucien took note of the Mage Specialist's enthusiasm earlier. He was sure that men sensed something in Aiden. Could it be his magic power? Was it that strong already?
Lucien is now sure that the little protagonist has opened the seal in his body. This give chance for his energy pores to absorb magic particles in the atmosphere. 9 out of 10, the magic particles present in the atmosphere are light magic. The remaining ones are those that are tainted with dark magic. These dark particles usually dwell in locations where demons descend. Like in the town where they came from.
In the world of Slaying the Demons, the mages here have two distinct talents. One half has the power to cultivate these magic particles, thereby learning the spells, enchantments, and arrays to entrap and exorcise demons. The other half, although they don't have the talent to cultivate magic particles, have unique body properties that act as catalysts. These individuals can guide the magic particles in the air to be refined inside a vial with physical form.
These vials are both integrated into the weapons used by Warriors and the exorcising tools carried by Mages when performing exorcism and cleansing.
Lucien's mind is overloaded with information from the Demon Slayer ranking system. Those who refine vials are called alchemists, apparently. Don't ask him why; the author has cliché taste with regards to these things.
As of now, Lucien has a bit of an understanding of what his role is in this world and how he can help the little protagonist pave his way to greatness. He only have to become an alchemist, that's all. (Insert sarcasm here and imaginary bloody beating just to control himself because he can't go berserk right now, not when the little protagonist is cuddling with him in his bed.)
The task is to create a dark sealing magical seed, which he must refine like an alchemist professional with no one to teach him except himself.
Wow.
Are you fucking kidding me, System?
He must be equal to a god if he can make one without previous knowledge. Lucien's nose flared as he cursed the system in his heart in one hundred similar words of 'fuck you bitch'. If only cursing the system could bring out that sealing fucking something seed, then he would have sung the system's greatness.
Right there and then, he fell asleep. His curse for the system appeared in his dreams.
.
.
Lucien stirred in his sleep as someone's fingers tapped on his cheek softly. He did not open his eyes at first. The fingers that caress his cheek are warm and soft. Obviously, it belongs to a child. Then the next strange thing happened.
The finger then trace his brows, his eyes, and his nose, before landing and lingering on his lips. The warm thumb traced his bottom and lower lip. At first, Lucien dismissed it and planned to drift back off to sleep, but then the thumb pulled down his lower lip, causing his mouth to part.
The thumb then took advantage of that and entered inside. Lucien was so frightened he jumped out of bed.
"Ahh!"
Lucien sat up, his heart beating loudly against his chest. He stared wide-eyed at the little protagonist innocently staring at him.
"What did you just do?" The sensation of that finger caressing and tracing his lips sent shivers down his spine. Okay, he admits he's a virgin, so what? Most members of the otaku club are virgins. What's wrong with that?
Lucien was not ashamed to admit he hadn't had his first kiss yet. That's how pure otakus are. Don't you dare look down on them!
Aiden stared with innocent puppy eyes as he studied Lucien's silent conflicted look. Lucien may try to hide everything he feels through that expressionless face, but Aiden can see the turmoil hidden in those cold eyes. Aiden reached out and placed something in Lucien's mouth. Lucien licked and swallowed something sweet. When he looked down, he realized it was a lollipop. Oh, it was just the cute protagonist feeding him some sweets.
Lucien immediately removed the lollipop from both his mouth and Aiden's hand before putting it aside.
"Candies are not good. You need to eat proper meals first."
A ripple of conflicted emotion surfaced in Lucien's eyes as he stared at Aiden's skinny body. He pulled Aiden and went downstairs, pushing the issue of that thumb to the back of his mind.
As he thought, it was lunchtime. And everybody is waiting for them to eat at the dinner table. When they both arrive, Lucien does not know whether to laugh or cry. Finally! Chicken! His tears almost came out of his eyes. He deeply regretted why he didn't eat his chicken from the convenience store back then. It's been a few days since he came into this world and this is the first time he gets to eat chicken again.
There are other foods ready on the table; most are meat to fatten the children up. It was evident in their faces that they were happy to finally have a proper meal. Lucien can't help but look at them tenderly.