Chapter 7 – Conniving Baby
"What happened? Questioned the lady in white while patting the still crying Amanda
"it`s just this little missy here being so stubborn, I already told her to just stick with cleaning and washing the vegies answered Irvina while trying to console her daughter after a sigh.
"I see…., it`s okay if you want to help Amanda, but you need to listen when your mom next time, she doesn`t want you to get hurt, like what just happened. A knife is not something four years old should be handling, wait until you are older okay…. Consoled the lady in white robe to now sobbing Amanda.
"ye, yes Miss Laura" replied Amanda amidst the hiccups.
Laura than nodded her head and smiled.
"Thank you so much Laura, sorry to trouble you so much lately" said Irvina apologetically.
"It`s no trouble at all, I'm glad to help what I can, in fact, you should visit me more often, otherwise I might get lonely here, Hehe, ah, is this Arston?" Laura was trying to be polite when she saw the baby on Irvina`s back who`s reaching its arm towards her.
"owh, indeed it`s Arston, it seems that he likes you Laura, he`d never actively seek attention from anyone before, not even his two sisters, do you want to carry him?" Said Irvina after realizing her son was reaching his little hands towards her friend.
"really? Can I carry him?" asked Laura.
"of course, Laura" answered Irvina while trying to hand Arston to her friend carefully from her back.
Laura then took the little Arston from her mom and held him in her two arms.
"yes, my plan worked, now on to the next innocent move" cheered Arston in his head
He tried to reach for Laura`s hand which she let him to grab. He then continued to put her fair hand on his and wrapped her palm around his ring finger.
"Ah, do you want me to heal you too? Laura affirmed the three months old boy at her arms. Which she got a curious look from him.
"I'll take that a yes anyway hehe" Laura said meanwhile thinking "what was I'm trying to do by asking three months old?"
Laura then repeated her chanting which Arston paid a full attention to. The chant consisted of 4 syllables of which none of them was ever heard by Arston before, and a hand gesture that she performed with her free hand after unwrapping it from his finger. It was a simple hand gesture where her middle finger folded to the palms, her thumb, ring and Pinky finger are touching each other at the tip with her index pointing upward.
Her hand then glowed in a milky light just like previously when she healed his sister`s cut which she proceeded to put her palm on his little hand. The feeling was similar on being showered with late spring sun`s warmth. It was really pleasant thus The squinting of his eyes to a crescent shape.
"you`re a smart little one aren`t you" She smiled and patted Arston`s head.
"Owh right, we were preparing for dinner, would you like to come to have dinner with us Laura?" asked Irvina after a clap.
"Owh.. okay… thank you"
The day ended with the five of them having dinner at Irvina`s home.
Five months later,
Everyone is cheering, seeing Arston finally able to walk. Just like when they received their moniker from him, Irvina received "ma", Anya received "Ana" Amanda received "Mada and his dad Lenfort finally got his after he returned a week later which is "Da". Even Laura also received he`s since she always come to play with the kids every once a week or two which is "La-a".
All of it were done deliberately by Arston. Otherwise, it might cause a bunch of questions in people`s mind since Arston has a thought of "the nail that stuck out will get hammered" thus the act normal thing he did.
During this time, he tried to re-enact the scene that he experienced with Laura, to be précised, he was trying to cast the healing spell that Laura did. But all to no avail, he didn`t feel anything nor any sign of sorts. Therefore, he gave up and decided to just ask Laura himself after he`s old enough to a considerable age for a kid on questioning her about magic and all. As for the language barrier, it`s long got torn down by Arston a month before except for some words which are rarely used. His mom did a great job on teaching him, it`s like having a private teacher in nearly everything just like his mom before. He missed his mom back on his old place, sometimes he`s also wondering how did the war played out. Not due to him finally developed a caring for all personality after the 8 months staying at his new environment. It`s just a sincere worry of him to the women that cared so much until the last time he saw her, but there` nothing that he could do at the moment thus he left the thought on the back of his head.
He also learned that his dad worked as a merchant selling many goods and trinkets to the surrounding towns and cities, that also includes the capital city, the place he lives in right now is called Umphra. A small town consisted of 300 dozen people, around 50 families. Also, relatively small town overall if judged by size, you could walk from one end to another in just an hour, 30 minutes on jogging speed. The town located in the western region of the Kingdom of Trinfuv, a Kingdom by comparison is quite large to other countries surrounding it, what are does countries you ask? Well, it`s a question for another day.
Since Lenfort only goes home once a week or even two weeks at times, those few days undoubtedly he spent with his family. In fact, perhaps too much in Arston`s opinion. In some nights, the two wedded couple went too loud for Arston`s confit, thus he lashed out with the best retaliation he had, by crying. It worked like a charm, they both stopped and Irvina sooth him back to sleep. Arston doesn`t nor wanted to know whether they resume it or not. The thought was interesting for Arston to witness the process how he and his two sisters were brought to come to this world if only he didn`t have a weird feeling watching a man and a woman whose age is more like a junior to him do it. And so, whenever his dad comes home, he makes sure that he exhausted himself, therefore, once bed time arrives, he`ll sleep like a log.. only on those occasion where it gets too passionate he had to pull his trump card.
Fast forward a year later, Arston now is almost 2 years old. He`s not sure if it is old enough for him to ask questions about magic spell and all that mambo-jambo stuff. He tried the most popular magic phrases like "repario" or "Infero" but to no result. The inkling in his heart keeps begging him to just throw the normal and innocent baby pretends out of the window, then let everybody knows that he`d already lived a life as 28 years old who died in a reconnaissance mission in another planet. However, his logic telling him not to, because, if he ever did that, people might think that he has something wrong in his head or got possessed by a malevolent spirit, perhaps even their family practiced heresy. He wasn`t sure about it but in any cases, it`s a bad idea in general.
Despite the uncertainty in his mind, he still enacts his skim.
On that day, Laura comes to their home for lunch, she helped on preparing the food and also the cleaning afterwards. It`s the moment that Arston was looking for. He sat on a chair listening to Laura stories about her adventuring days. Arston learned that adventurers are a certified occupation in the Kingdom on Trinfuv, he also discovered that many ruins existed, scattered all around the territory of the Kingdom in many sizes to boot. Some are only as big as 100 meters in both length and width, but there are some which sizes is bigger than a city and a few of them hasn`t been measured nor explored completely. But all of them has one resemblance which is dangerous. As for the danger level, they are quite varied, the size of the ruins` sizes are not used as the measurement. The one that people judged it with is whose ruin is who`s. as the time passed, countries and civilization rised and fell. Some were well known for their magic arts, some just completely lost in the records of history. It`s in human nature to be afraid of the unknowns and thus, the ruins with unknown origin are the ones which got ladled as the most dangerous.
In addition of those knowledge of adventurers and ruins, Arston found out why Laura quit her job she had as an adventurer and settled at a little town such as Umphra, where she is staying in right now. It`s due to her last experience where she lost nearly all of her team. Amon the deceased were a man and a woman who was her childhood friend and just recently married to each other at the time of the tragedy. Both got pierced by a sword wielded by an undead skeleton. She was a healer so she was particularly safe by staying at the back of the formation. Yet by doing so, she witnessed all of the death of her comrades. From 25 of them, only 7 survived and live to tell the gruesome tale. Some with long lasting trauma which haunts them even years after.
Laura was about to tearing up from her memories when, she saw Arston falling from his sit.