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A humble and unassuming origin.
Fate devised a lie, becoming the cause in
The devil holding the red rose porcelain.
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
In the dining hall, Aisia and Kairo were both on their fourth plate, their audible and continuous munching betrayed their petite appearance.
Chadrhaad couldn't believe his eyes. Their bodies were so small, yet they just kept on eating. He had a taste of the cooking here himself and he could attest that it was absolutely heavenly. But that did little to explain how these two children could eat as much as him, perhaps even more.
To him, it even looked like they were competing with each other. Aisia wasn't showing any signs of slowing down, though Kairo was slightly dropping his fervor.
More importantly, he was baffled by Grisia's explanation about the two of them from earlier.
Thinking back to when he first met the two earlier this morning...
Chadrhaad saw a meadow of large crushed rocks all over the snowy grass. Before them were two exhausted children with weapons at hand.
"Let me introduce you to the head of the adventurer's guild. You may call him Sir Chadrhaad."
"Just Chad or Rhaad is fine," he smiled at the kids before turning to Grisia. "Who are these children?"
"This is Aisia, my daughter that I've adopted," he pointed at the brown-haired girl on the ground. "And this is—"
"You have a daughter?!" he yelled.
"Yes. I've had her for years," Grisia said casually. "She occasionally comes to the guild herself, haven't you noticed?"
"No, it's the first time I've seen her. You didn't even tell me you had one!" he slapped Grisia's back.
"We rarely see each other, even then, it's been years since we actually talked outside of business," Grisia replied.
"That's true..." Chadrhaad frowned. "I've been drowning in paperwork to the point that even now, my head is filled with it. I should be more aware of my surroundings. I need more assistants or something. And who is this other kid?" he pointed at Kairo, who lay on the ground beside Aisia.
"This is Kairo. He is... from one of the villages that were attacked by... them."
"Ohh..."
While Kairo was catching his breath on the ground, he was listening in to their conversation.
Grisia did confess previously that he received a quest to deal with the red robe group and was on his way to his village, which led to their meeting. It was only natural that the head of the adventurer guild should know about a tragedy that devastated numerous villages, even with his busy schedule.
"That is quite a pity. Poor kid," Chadrhaad said.
This remark made Kairo's eye twitch, forming a horrendous glare amidst his fatigue. Grisia saw this and scolded his friend.
"Save your rude consideration, Chad. This boy is working his hardest to avenge his village. He hates being treated like a victim."
"Rude consideration? Ah, I apologize, young warrior. I have said something unwarranted. Worry not, we shall aid you in your endeavor," Chad said formally as the head of the adventurer's guild.
This softened Kairo's expression.
"Moving past that, what the hell happened here, Grisia? Did a dragon also run amok here?"
"No."
"The terrain has changed, I've never heard of rock formations inside the lands between the kingdom's castle and the cities, but it looks like a bunch of them crumbled down and were crushed. These lands were supposedly reserved for nobles, high-ranking knights, and special individuals such as yourself. This messy sight is unbefitting of that description!"
"This is their training spot. I used Earth: Land Upheaval and ordered them to take down every spire that rose up before coming back home to the mansion."
"In the middle of winter?! These two kids?? Kilometers away from the mansion and a technique that, I assume since it's you, erected twenty tall spires?"
"Only around ten actually," Grisia corrected.
"O-Oh. So the rumors were untrue then."
"Yes. I can make more than fifty, but that wasn't necessary. So I opted for just around ten."
Chadrhaad held his head with his hands. Two children having the ability to do such feats were sprawled on the ground in front of him. The sight before them seemed to fit Grisia's story accurately, but he still couldn't believe it.
He didn't even try to compare if he could do it himself. He could take some of those spires down alone, but fifty of them? That was not the role of a warrior, they were not meant to take down large structures with their weapons. Spellcasters or mages were more suitable for that. Yet, judging by the weapons they held, they didn't seem to be any of those.
And assuming that they started early in the morning instead of a day before or more, they completed such a wild task in such a short amount of time.
"Normal training cannot compare to this result, just what sort of things did you teach them, Grisia?"
Chadrhaad was scrambling his brain. He searched his mind for possible forbidden powers that could bring about such destruction at the hands of two children. He didn't know much apart from the ones that adventurers use and had encountered, so he assumed that it was some secret art or these two were simply incredibly gifted.
"Chakra, the arcane arts, and some other powers here and there," Grisia replied. His exclusion in mentioning「 Ki 」in the list of power systems gave the two a hint that this person was not aware of it, and so they knew to keep their lips tightly sealed about it.
Chadrhaad could imagine a genius in chakra somewhat being able to take down the boulders from Grisia's Earth: Land Upheaval coupled with strengthening magic. But two geniuses at the same place? And why slicing weapons as opposed to blunt ones? He noticed that among the rubble, there were some that had clean slice marks on them.
He gulped. His initial inspection led him to believe that they somehow used those weapons to decimate the dense stone that was summoned from Earth: Land Upheaval, but that couldn't be.
He began to wonder how he and the guild or even the rookie knights of the kingdom would fare against these two kids trained by Grisia. He was excited to find out. He hoped that all the time he spent processing paperwork did not make him dull.
But as the head of the guild, there were more pressing matters that needed to be attended to first.
"Grisia, are they the two that you spoke of? Apart from a maid?"
"Yes. They are my students."
"Your students, huh? That makes sense. They're insanely promising. I wish I could have them as adventurers in the guild. What do you think? Better than becoming a mercenary, no?"
"If that is their aspiration, then I have no objections. But that means it entirely depends on them if they wish to. If not, then tough luck," he said while looking down at the two of them.
"Come on, get up you two. We're heading back home posthaste. After breakfast, you two will be going on an emergency quest with me. Tiraga is coming along."
Kairo and Aisia staggered as they got up. Afterwards, they limbered up to prepare to run. Chadrhaad was worried that his friend was forcing these children to overexert themselves, but they seemed fine after a while.
"An emergency quest? That must mean it's something that the guild can't handle, right? Are you sure we should accompany you? Wouldn't we just hold you back?"
Chadrhaad found Kairo's statement bearing a point. He looked at Grisia to hear what his response would be.
"Then make sure you don't. It's good experience for you two anyway, you can't always be merely training. You might stumble and panic when it comes to the real thing someday."
Grisia made it sound like they were going on a typical expedition. And so, Chadrhaad shouted his thoughts in order to let the children know the level of the danger they were heading to, "We're going to a dragon! You can't let them face a dragon! It's too dangerous!"
"A dragon?" Kairo uttered in awe. "Are those real? Like, really real?"
"A dragon?! I'll beat 'em up!" Aisia said, presenting her slim biceps and flexing it.
"You two, this beast is nothing to joke about. It's a creature bigger than life! A single whip of its tail can send you flying through trees, its gigantic claws and teeth can rip through iron armor, its scales are very tough and considered valuable treasures by how hard it is to get them, and worst of all, dragons are commonly found to use chakra techniques!"
Kairo looked mortified while Aisia was beginning to second guess herself, bearing a worried smile.
"It's fine. I'll take care of it if anything happens," Grisia said. Although it was relieving for Chadrhaad to hear it come from Grisia, some worry continued to linger.
"They will be under my supervision. Consider the three of them and me as one entity. I will die before they even lose a body part."
This speech only made Chadrhaad and the two more worried.
"So I simply won't die," Grisia added with a smile to assure them.
"Since Grisia is monstrously strong, Aisia and I will focus on escaping if the situation gets hairy," Kairo told Chadrhaad, supporting Grisia's assurance with determined eyes. "Grisia trained us a lot when it comes to escaping, you can even consider it our specialty."
Chadrhaad sighed, barely convinced. "Fine, but I'm not going to blame my friend if anything happens to you two and the maid. I shall bear responsibility for this decision."
Kairo admired Chadrhaad's accountability. Even if Grisia told him that he would be responsible to ease his nerves, he was still willing to take the blame.
"Then, shall we head home?" Grisia asked them.
"HA!"
"Don't lag behind, head of the adventurer guild, or you'll make all adventurers look bad."
Chadrhaad was stunned by the ferocity of the two children's reply that he didn't process what Grisia said.
Suddenly, the three of them blitzed towards Grisia's manor, leaving behind Chadrhaad. Coming back to his senses, he bolted to catch up to them.
After a while, as they were running, Chadrhaad was amazed by their constant, high speed and endurance. He knew they were kids, and that the youth naturally had boundless energy, but these two were beyond exceptional. At this point, rookie knights would already be breathing heavily and slowing down, yet they were doing quite well even if he saw they were only recently on the ground, exhausted.
Their stamina was something to behold. He thought that he should have more faith in Grisia's training regimen if even the kids themselves were confident of it.
They arrived at a boisterous dining hall in the mansion. Without missing a beat, the two children went to their seats before Grisia did. There was a seat reserved for Chadrhaad beside Kairo, while Aisia was on the other side of the table beside Grisia, who was at the long end of the table.
They started gorging themselves without hesitation.
"Hey, hey, don't eat too fast, you'll choke on your food," Chadrhaad told the two of them.
"Ish okay, shir! (It's okay, sir!)" said Kairo with his mouth full. "Wee hab warer. (We have water.)"
"Even still..."
He looked around and saw that the maids ate with their masters. Usually, when he came to Grisia's manor to hang out, they dined and drank at a private room together. This was the first time he saw how it ordinarily was in Grisia's household.
Many of them did each of their own rituals before eating, the others kept quiet as they ate without praying. Some seemed to be waiting for others to finish their ritual, such as the bespectacled maid, with deep, green eyes and a diligent look about her.
Afterwards, once everyone's rituals were done, the dining hall became quite rowdy. The maids chattered and bantered with each other. It was surprising, considering that he was used to seeing silence paired with formality whenever he was invited to dine in mansions as an important figure, but it was a homely atmosphere and he personally preferred it over the other.
It felt like this scene accurately represented Grisia. Relaxed and indifferent to noble etiquette. He smiled at this thought as he dug in.
When he took his first bite, he froze. His smile was paused as he kept the spoon in his mouth.
Suddenly, his deep voice boomed, "DELICIOUS!"
Most of them turned their heads to the loud disturbance before stifling their giggling and returning to their activities.
Chadrhaad recognized his lack of manners and blushed. He was so shocked by how tasty and expertly made the food was that he couldn't help but blurt out his feelings. He felt like it was worth causing a commotion. If he didn't express it in the moment, he thought that he would've regretted not enjoying this exquisite food to the fullest.
And so, he imitated the two children and let go of his manners, fully absorbing himself in the tasty food.
"A warrior needs a lot of energy to do his duties diligently! Therefore, a warrior also needs a lot of fuel," he told himself.
"What a self-serving excuse," Grisia commented with a humorous tone as he took a bite out of his humble portions.
After a while, as they continued to feast, dishes continued to be served. It was as if it was expected that they would be eaten speedily.
He was beginning to feel full. He looked at the two children and was astounded to find them still eating at a gluttonous pace.
"Just how much energy did you two expend?" he joked.
But it did make sense. Their impressive feats logically had to be fueled by a lot of something. It made more sense that they were quite ravenous than not.
Once they were finished, they rested for a while and gathered outside of the mansion entrance.
Tiraga was no longer wearing her maid uniform. Since they were going to face a dragon, she wore a tight-fitted battle tunic with multiple belts, light-colored trousers, and a pair of heavy leather boots. She had a menacing grin because she was raring for a good ol' battle after years of cooking.
Chadrhaad was hopelessly enchanted by this brusque and mysterious woman.
He walked up to her and started, "I-I apologize for invoking your name without due authorization, my lady. I was told by my honorable comrade in life, Grisia, about your sensitivity regarding your name."
"I don't know what 'cha talking about. Speak normally, fool!"
"I, err..."
Grisia waltzed into the conversation to save his friend. "Tiraga, he's apologizing for saying your name without your permission."
"Hmph," she scoffed. "Know your place. You will not utter my name without permission, understand?!"
"Yes, mommy— I mean, ma'am," he said as he bent his head down.
It was amusing to see someone with such a hulking stature be subservient to a smaller person. By no means was Tiraga small, she was quite tall, taller than Grisia, but Chadrhaad simply had the largest body presently.
Little did he know that Tiraga was a demon and that he was probably the weakest out of the three of them.
"If I am to gain my fair lady's trust, I must first work on gaining her consent to speak her name!" he said, tightly squeezing his fist next to his chest. He was brimming with hope and infatuation.
That was until the two children came along.
"Your food is perfect as always, Tiraga!" Aisia uttered her name casually, caressing her own stomach with such a satisfied smile to emphasize her comment.
"Greetings, ma'am! Are you ready for our leave—" Kairo added.
Tiraga chopped Kairo in the head before shouting, "I told you to call me by my name!"
"Yes, ma'am! I mean Tiraga...!" he whimpered.
He felt like tears were coming out of his eyes as he said, "These kids... they are truly exceptional. They have utterly beaten me."