(2-year time skip)
Last 2 years nothing interesting happened, just the usual stuff.
Training with daggers, practicing magic, meditating, playing and pampering Lucy, reading books about important things, and so on.
My blood, skin, muscles, and bones partially transformed because of my mana body technique.
Which made my work easier when i was absorbing mana or practicing dagger art.
And lastly, My life as a Kayle solidified which made me think about the original Kayle.
He was too perfect as if made for a greater purpose. Perfect looks and genetics, extremely high affinities, and fully rational. Like a robot who can just listen to orders. So my thoughts were that he was an artificial human with an artificial soul that was made to protect Lucy.
I didn't know why would someone want to protect Lucy and this was just a theory but it made me think about my transmigration.
'Is Kayle's makers didn't like the idea of the fully rational human, so he pulled some random souls that happened to me, who read a novel about this world? Or someone with great power saw the future and made a novel about it and chose me? And there's a possibility that someone can manipulate me with my fused part with Kayle's soul. Or maybe manipulated me already to treat Lucy well, because even I have the urge to pamper Lucy, which is a 5% possibility. There are many possibilities that I didn't think but I know one thing and that's someone with great power transmigrated me in the body of Kayle with a purpose greater than Hywel's. Because even Hywel wasn't overpowered like the original Kayle from birth.'
'Though even if I am being manipulated somehow, I can't do anything right now. So I will go with the flow and do what I want.'
With that, I threw the topic of transmigration to the back of my mind and focused on today's event.
Yesterday was Lucy's birthday, so today is the time to go on our 1.5-year expedition.
I woke Lucy up and we went to the dining room to have breakfast with Count Ceurie.
I took my seat and eat my share and waited for Count Ceurie to start the topic.
"Today two of you will begin your exploration. This exploration is for you to gain real-life experience before the academy."
"Though there are many dangers out there, you don't have to worry about it because I will give you defensive artifacts and one teleportation artifact. Teleportation artifact is the Ceurie family's exclusive artifact that only someone from Ceurie's blood can use, thus don't reveal anyone. Teleportation artifact has one passive ability and that is to teleport to Ceurie Mansion when the wearer of the artifact's life is in danger." Count Ceurie explained thoroughly.
After that, the Count gave us some mana and healing potions, a holographic mana map, some money, weapons, and 2 storage artifacts.
With that we were ready, so we get out of the house.
I turned to Lucy and asked while we walking randomly.
"Do you have a place in your mind to go and explore?" I didn't know why, but she was more cheerful than usual
"No. Do you have plans for us brother?"
"I do, but if we go there right now, we might die. So we will go to the forest where low-rank mana beasts live and hunt some to gain experience against fighting mindless creatures."
Lucy wore an anxious expression and said:
"Brother, wouldn't that be dangerous?"
"It will be dangerous, but we are 3rd circle mages. We need real-life combat experience or else in the academy, some arrogant nobles would bring more trouble. We have defensive artifacts too, so don't worry about too much we will be fine." I said with a reassuring smile and patted her head.
We began to walk in the direction of the regulated mana beast forest.
Why regulated instead of exterminating?
Well, Because every mana beast has mana cores and even if it's from [F] rank mana beast there's use for every mana core.
Anyway, while we were walking, the sky got darker and we decided to stop at an inn to rest for the night.
We went to the inn and rented a room under the malicious gazes of the people, who were sitting inside.
It was a pretty normal reaction, as we were very beautiful children with no guardians. Every person with bloodied hands would want to kidnap us or use us to pleasure themselves.
Anyway, Lucy curled up on the bed and muttered:
"Are we in danger brother?"
She was still a child who didn't know the way of the world even if she knew that killing is pretty normal in this world as long as you don't caught.
Sigh...
A sigh escaped from me as I sat on the bed and put her head on my thigh.
"Presumably we are Lucy. I forgot that you are too beautiful that kidnappers wouldn't even hesitate to kidnap you." I caressed her head slowly, which made her considerably calmer than before.
"My dear Lucy at first I wanted you to hunt some low-rank beasts to get accustomed to the feeling of killing something. But here we are, in danger of being kidnapped. I will deal with them as they would be probably low rank so you close your eyes and ears and leave everything to me. I am your brother after all."
Lucy nodded hesitantly and wrapped her arms around me, then fell asleep.
After a few hours later, I heard footsteps in front of our door.
They were kidnappers, it was obvious, but very amateur kidnappers, who tried to enter our room stealthily but failed miserably, even Lucy woke up because of their noise.
I didn't kill them immediately, as I wanted Lucy to see it.
"Close your eyes and block your ears." I whispered into her ear. Even though I said these words, I was sure that she wouldn't fully close her eyes. Because her high affinity for information made her highly curious.
Anyway, the kidnappers got closer and closer while I let Lucy watch them.
When the distance between us and the kidnappers was reduced to 2 meters, I spoke with an emotionless voice to make a dramatic effect.
"You worthless trashes dare to interrupt my sleep."
When they heard my voice they stumbled back but it was too late for them.
4 of the 5 kidnappers collapsed with an ice spear as big as a hand stuck to their hearts. Though the last one wasn't lucky.
He was nailed to the wall with ice spears stuck to his hands.
The kidnapper tried to scream because of the agony but I was faster. I threw an uppercut to his chin, effectively making him shut up.
"If you scream like that, my sister would hear your screams and if she hears your screams, I will torture you. So shut up, okay? " I whispered with an even tone that contains no warmth.
The kidnapper paled and nodded frantically as if his life depends on it.
"Are there more of you, that will come here when these 4 idiots don't return?" I asked with a cold tone, to which the kidnapper nodded.
After that, I asked more questions about their group and their power levels.
After I got my answers, I killed the kidnapper with an ice spear to his forehead.
After that, I stored corpses in my storage artifact to dispose of them later.
Learning chantless ice magic was worth its trouble. Though it is about 15 times more expensive in mana wise in this way, it is very useful because it is faster and more unpredictable.
I walked to Lucy's side and tapped her shoulder. She flinched and opened her eyes. She calmed down a little after she saw me.
"Lucy you sleep, i will deal with them if any more of them come." I said with a kind smile.
Lucy was hesitant at first but with some persuasion, she agreed.
Lucy peeked when I was killing kidnappers, this made her scared of me a little, but not too much. We are in a world where killing is normal, so probably she was just scared by my coldness.
Though it was okay because with this opportunity I was remaking my image in Lucy's head. Probably my image was a kind and affectionate brother but this will change to 'only' kind and affectionate to Lucy.
Then she will understand and will like it soon. Because she knows too that every mage's personality is altered because of their highest affinity and affinity grade.
My highest grade affinity is Superior grade Ice. Normally I would be a cold man who kills for a small mistake, but I couldn't even be a cold man because of the curse.
And because of this, I decided to act like a cold man.
Anyway, I hugged Lucy to my chest and slowly caressed her head.
"Relax, everything will be okay. We will leave this shabby inn to explore this beautiful world and eat lots of sweets." I whispered melodically and sometime later she fell asleep again.
I waited for the new batch of kidnappers. I was sure that more kidnappers would come.
And I was right. For the rest of the night, I killed 2 more groups of kidnappers. Although I could understand their greed for 2 beautiful children who they could sell for a good amount of money. But because of this, I couldn't even sleep for a wink. I was a growing boy and growing boys needed their sleep.
Anyway morning came and Lucy woke up, apparently, she was sleeping rather lightly because of the kidnapper incident. After that, we continued our way to mana beast forest.
On our way Lucy spoke:
"Brother, are you okay?"
"I am fine, but why are you asking?"
"Because you killed a human for the first time and you have dark circles under your eyes."
What she said was true. It was my first time killing a human but i didn't feel anything when i killed them. Though if the old me was here, he wouldn't feel anything drastically either, just pity.
And I have dark circles, so it was obvious that I didn't sleep.
But she doesn't have to know these, so I will put it to my affinity.
"Though it's pity that they died, it was their fault to try to kidnap us, but I don't feel bad about it thanks to my affinity. Sigh. And yes I need some sleep but that can wait until beast forest. In the forest, we will find a cave-like place, block its entrance with ice and get some sleep."
After my explanation, Lucy went silent and we continued our way.
After 6 hours of walking, we arrived at our destination.
"Be cautious, don't make noise, and always be ready to cast spells. Though this is a low-rank mana beast zone, they can kill us easily if they can manage to close distance "
After giving my warnings to Lucy, I cast basic illusion magic to hide our scents.
With that our preparation are done, so we continued our walk to the forest.
I came to this forest for 2 reasons.
The first one was to gain combat experience against mana beast.
The second one was to pick up a [S] rank artifact. Although the artifact wasn't powerful, it had some use.
While I was thinking, I heard a noise. I looked over the place where the noise come from.
There I saw 1.5 meters tall black wolf with a big gash on its stomach. From the size of the wolf and mana quality that I sensed, I could tell that it was [E] rank beast, best prey for Lucy.
I nudged Lucy and pointed to the beast.
"Chant an attack spell and aim at the wolf's head or body."
Lucy was anxious. I patted her back to calm her a bit. Which worked finely, and her breathing stabilized and Lucy chanted her spell.
Earth spikes appeared beneath the wolf and shot through to its head.
The spell was slow, normally this wolf could escape it easily. But it couldn't because of its injuries and impaled through of its head by the spikes.
I looked toward Lucy to see her state. But contrary to my expectations she was perfectly fine.
It seems that I was still stuck in my old world's standards. She killed a big creature other than a small insect and wants to be praised. Although I didn't judge this, I just found this weird.
"It was a good shoot Lucy, but it was too slow. If the beast wasn't injured it could have escaped easily. In short, speed up your casting speed."
I explained and patted her head.
"Come I will extract its mana core. Although it is my first time doing it, maybe you will learn something from it."
"Usually wolf-like mana beasts core's were in their stomach area but if they have 3rd eye, the mana core will be in their head." I explained slowly while cutting its stomach with my dagger.
I found a light blue almost white crystal ball, mana core. It was [E] rank beast, so it was normal to have a low-rank mana core.
I gave mana core Lucy to store her storage artifact.
After that, we walked in the direction of the middle of the forest. In the middle of the forest, there was a special tree about 40 meters long, so even we could see it from here.
On our way, we encountered [F] rank wolfs and I decided Lucy take them.
Lucy chanted her spell faster than before and blades made from wind shot at the wolfs.
Compared to her last spell it was faster but on the general side, she was still slow.
Fortunately, her opponents were 2 ranks lower than her, thus they couldn't escape from wind blades. Though only 2 of them died, Lucy missed the last one. The last wolf rushed towards Lucy. Lucy panicked and couldn't cast any spell.
That is why I killed the wolf with an ice spear through its head like a hero who saves the damsel.
"Good job your spell was faster than before and you killed 2 of them." I patted her head.
"But you missed one of them and afterward you panicked because it was rushing to you if I wasn't here you could have died. So be careful and don't fully relax."
With that, we continued our way to the middle of the forest.