"Really? Then I will accept it graciously." I replied in a heartbeat.
"Then I hope to meet you tomorrow." He said, walking away again.
"Oh wait!" I called him out, remembering something.
"Yea?" He asked, turning around again.
"My name is Ryan. What about you?" I knew it was late for introductions, but they were still important after all.
"Oh? My name is Kai, Kai Von Sheron. Pleased to meet you." Kai introduced himself after a moment.
At first, he didn't respond. As if he wasn't expecting me to ask for his name. In the whole conversation, it was the first time I saw him lose his composure.
"The pleasure is all mine." I reciprocated the gesture with a small nod.
"Can I go now?" Kai asked with a smile, as he made a 'leaving' motion with his hands.
"Oh? Ah Sure! Feel free to." I replied, noticing my intentional mistake.
Without saying another word, Kai and the black haired girl went the way they came from, leaving me to my own thoughts.
'One thing leads to another and the cycle goes on huh.' I mused to myself to sum everything up.
Then I tried to shake my head in frustration…
"Ow ow ow!" Then the pain from the cut on the back of my neck assaulted me in full force.
Then I took the potion leather pouch and gulped down half a bottle worth healing potion, relieving me of the cut on my neck, along with the pain.
'Much better.'
Suddenly, I remembered something and immediately spoke in my head, 'Hey Dia, you alright now?'
[Yes, Master. I'm as good as I can be!] She replied with her usual energetic voice, with her downcast self nowhere to be seen.
"Hungry?" I asked with a smile, half-teasing her.
[Yesh!]
"Haha sure, the buffet's ready and waiting just for ya!" I said while grinning ear to ear. Dia's energetic and clumsy behaviour always makes me forget my worries and makes me want to laugh out loud!
Then I dusted myself a bit and corrected my bag on my back.
Soon I walked over to the tree from which I took a peek earlier, on the other side of it… was a huge one metre tall 'X' neatly embedded into the thick trunk of the tree, revealing white pulp, in stark contrast to its dark brown bark.
I walked to the cut and ran my fingers across it, making shivers run up my fingers as they touched the carved wood.
After examining the cut for a moment, I walked towards the golden-brown furred deer, whose body was now riddled with gashes, as Dia materialized around my neck.
"Here ya go, you little glutton." I teased Dia as I dropped her near the deer corpse.
[Nom nom nom!] And… she's eating.
While she ate not-so-elegantly, I went towards the head of the deer and tried to remove its antlers.
Using my knife, I removed the scalp near the antler's base and then cut the meat part along with them. After all, with the knife I have, cutting these hard and dense antlers wasn't a possibility.
'Hopefully they are sellable.' I thought as I brought out a rope from my backpack and tied both the antlers to my backpack.
[Master, look what I found!] Dia said enthusiastically, as she slithered toward me with a glittery pearl sized sphere in her mouth.
As she came towards me, I put the knife aside and extended my palm towards her. Soon, she dropped the pearl in my hand and waited for my response.
[Rank-C Mana Pearl Detected, Do you wish to absorb it?] Codex's voice rang in my ears as soon as the shiny pearl fell onto my hands.
"No, don't. I'm gonna save this one." I said in a hurry, afraid that it might get absorbed accidentally.
'He sure was generous.'
After carefully putting the pearl in my backpack, I gave Dia some head-pats, after which she resumed her eating spree, while I put the backpack near a tree and lay my tired back on the ground.
"So beautiful…" I mumbled subconsciously, admiring the view of branches swaying due to air, light escaping from the thin seams between canopies, making beautiful rays of light.
After a few minutes, Dia nudged at my mind, saying that she was full, when I stood up and looked towards her. I wasn't shocked to see her as round as a giant sized football, what I was surprised to see was the deer was almost gone!
Only the legs and head were left, the whole belly portion was gone without a trace.
"Just where do you keep all that..?" I asked, dumbfounded.
[In my belly, Master.] Dia replied while she rolled towards me, not being able to see her like this, I approached her instead crouched down to pat her now round body.
"Don't eat too much next time, okay?"
[Un!] She replied.
"Come back inside now, I can manage from here on out." I consoled her, I surely didn't want to carry her when she was so heavy.
"Let's go back home now, mom must be waiting for us." I said with a smile filled with longing, as I started walking towards the village.
–
–
–
"Hum huhum hum huhum~" I hummed my way towards the eatery, as I took in the sights of the morning in the village.
Currently, the backpack was hung on my shoulders and tied to it were the two antlers I harvested from the deer.
In a few short moments, I reached home. As soon as I did, I dropped everything on the ground floor and ran upstairs.
—Click
"I'm back mom!" I said as soon as I opened the door.