We just sat there on the ground for a couple of minutes. For a couple of kids who just lost their dad and are currently sitting at his grave, it was oddly peaceful for us.
I can't explain it but it was like a shackle had been lifted off my shoulders. Not because of my father's death but because I'm finally no longer powerless. I can protect us.
I heard a small voice coming from right next to me.
"Hey Al. If you're going to Eternal Acadamy, than where am I supposed to live?"
Where is she going to live? That's simple.
"You'll be living with me of course. I heard they have these houses they call dorms in the academy. They have thousands of them and even the worst ones are far better than this shitty shack we live in."
I thought that was it but I suddenly felt something hit my head. I looked to my right to see Alice had stood up and apparently hit me.
"Are you stupid? You think they'll just let me live there? I'm not even a student."
"Who are you calling stupid? If I'm not allowed to have you live with me, lI'll just sneak you in. I'm pretty sure they will allow visitors and I doubt they'll care about a little girl."
A look of realization came on her face as she understood what I meant. Thought I have to admit, it was a good concern.
Now that I think about it, how is she so smart? She's just 8 years old, she shouldn't be able to think about things like that.
I guess she had to mature too fast for her own good with a childhood like hers. Unlike me, she was just two years old when everything happened. She doesn't even know what mom looks like.
While I went into hell, she was basically born at it's gate and had remained there ever since.
'Then I'll have to get her to the gates of heaven I guess.'
I just looked at her for a couple of seconds and she looked back at me. I then shamefully looked down at the ground as I spoke with regret. "Alice, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't give you a proper childhood. You didn't get a chance to start it but I will get you a chance to live it now."
I kept my head down. I am ashamed I didn't give her a chance to live yet. But then, I felt a couple of small hands raise my head. Next thing I know we were a couple of inches apart.
"It's not your fault Al. You may not have granted me a childhood to live but you sacrificed your life to get me the chance to live."
Ah. Her intelligence stat would probably be higher than mine. I wonder what she'll be like if she awakens.
I got up and wriggled her hair a bit.
"You talk too much you know, you should just let me feel like shit."
She just laughed as I tussled her hair.
"Hehehe, but if I do that I'll feel like shit."
'Did she just curse? Nooooo!!! I ruined my sweet little princess. I'll let it go this once but next time she'll get punished.'
Now that I was looking at her, I then looked at myself. We really are wearing some shitty clothes. And then I remembered that woman had left a device for me.
If I'm right, with this device I should be able to use a lot of money. I just don't really know how technology works but I should be able to figure it out.
"Hey Princess, how about we get you some new clothes? I got some money to spend."
She raised a brow. "Money? We have money? How did you get that?"
"I just have it, now let's go. A princess can't look so shabby."
"Okayyyy"
I bent down again so she could jump on my back and then we left.
I'll give you a little sum of how it is.
Currently, we were living in the slums. In the year 2034 when the other races and the demons came to this planet, humanity lost a lot of it's land. But with it came the introduction to mana and aura. The other races are made up off the Elves, the dwarfs and the orcs. There are also some other small races like the pixies but they aren't of importance as they live a secluded life.
These races were the first to arrive on earth. But when they met the humans, they immediately took a dislike to them. The humans were too greedy and weak they said. After that the demons arrived and attacked all the races.
Humanity, new to the concept of energy, were too weak to defend themselves. So they made a deal with the other races. Protection for land.
And now humanity only has 1/7 of the land it had before. 3/7 went to the other races and the other 3/7 was occupied by the demons.
(I know, not very original)
As a result. There wasn't enough space for all of humanity. Humanity was facing a lot of casualties, whether to the demons or starvation and even by each other.
This resulted in the creation of the slums. Humanity separated their territory into two zones. The cities and the slums. 50% of humanity were thrown into the slums while it only consisted of 15% of the land.
The ones thrown into the slums were the ones considered to be less valuable for humanity. The first couple of years there were many casualties in the slums.
The higher ups called it a 'necessary' sacrifice to save humanity. I'd say it's just an excuse for getting millions killed.
But yeah, over time the casualties started dropping and humanity started getting used to it's situation. They also made some great progress with their new acces to energy.
Though they were still incomparable to the other races, after about 200 years they were closing in.
Our family used to live in the city but after our mom left and our dad got crippled we lost his business and we were forced to go to the slums.
I usually only went to the city to buy some bread from uncle Ted but now that I have some money, it's high time for a glow up.
Walking through the slums, we received many stares, most of them filled with contempt.
Alice started to fidget a bit and she seemed a bit nervous. "Al, why are they staring like that at us, what did we do?"
Now that I think about it, I have never really taken her out for a walk so she doesn't know about my reputation.
"We didn't do anything, it's just that I have a bad reputation around here. Don't worry, I'll make the stares go away."
"Okay."
'These shits! They make my sister feel scared? Don't let me catch you.'
Alan stared at the ones throwing those gazes at them. They have never really seen any emotion on his face but right now he was looking at them like he would slaughter them. They were screaming murder and they quickly got the message that came with the murder, 'know your place'.
And his reputation as the reaper made them think he would really kill them so they quickly looked away.
'Like I thought, just keep looking away'
Alan rule 101: never make Alice uncomfortable or you'll see what happens.
We were nearing the city right now and then a question came to mind. "Hey Alice, have you ever met uncle Ted?"
"No I haven't. I have barely even left the house since everything happened, let alone enter the city. I'm very curious about how it looks."
Hmmmm. Why did I never think of showing her the world? It wouldn't really have been a problem for me.
"Okay then how about you meet him now? His bakery is near the edges of the city so we'll be passing by."
"Okay, can we also get something at his bakery, I'm hungry."
She's hungry? Right. Now that I think about it, she basically hasn't eaten anything in a day since we spend about a day sleeping and the other stuff.
"Growl~"
And to answer my suspicions, a loud growl came from her stomach. Well, even more reason to visit uncle Ted again.
I slightly chuckled cus of the growl as I gave my answer. "Don't worry princess, I'll buy you something more than just bread this time."
And so, our epic journey through the slums continued as we were getting the vile stares of evil spirits. ( basically them walking through the slums and getting dirty stares)
I could see some crimes happening left and right as we ventured the slums. Most of them were some small scuffles or someone stealing a purse so I didn't really care to intervene.
Well that was until something happened that I couldn't ignore. I heard the screams of a little girl crying for help.
"SOMEBODY, PLEASE HELP ME!"
As I looked into one of the alleyways across the street, I could see a couple of men ganging up on a girl.
The girl seemed to be a couple of years older than Alice, I'd say about ten, and I have to say she doesn't look too bad. She had shoulder length blond hair and similar eyes.
She didn't look like someone from the slums, she looks more like one of those rich kids in the city. What is she doing here?
'Should I help her? But I can't really leave Alice alone, what if someone hurts her?'
"PLEASE, I NEED HELP."
Her screams ran again. Just like me, there were many onlookers but unlike me, they didn't seem to care even a little about what was happening.
After all, this was pretty normal to the standards of the slums.
Am I really just gonna let this happen? But to answer my distress, the voice of a small angel answered.
"Al, help her."
I put her off my back and and looked her in the eyes. She had this very determined expression which showed me that she really wanted to help this girl.
"Are you sure? I don't like leaving you sitting here."
"Yes, I'm sure. Go help her."
But I was still uncomfortable with leaving her here so I looked around for a bit before I saw this guy sitting against a wall.
I adressed him with a question.
"Hey, you. Do you know who I am?"
He looked at me, and after a couple of seconds his expression turned to one of horror.
"Y-y-yess, sir reaper. E-e-everyone k-knows who you a-are." He answered me, though he stammered a bit too much.
"This here is my sister. I will leave her in your care for a couple of minutes. If there is so much as a scratch on her, I'll come for you and your entire family. Understood?"
I didn't wait for his answer as I saw that those scum tried to undress that girl so I immediately rushed towards the alley.
When I was near the entrance of the alley I could hear one of the three men.
"Kekeke, we've struck big boys. This one is a beauty."
And I also heard the begging of the girl.
"No please, please don't do this."
I saw tears running down her eyes as she looked horrified while the men tried to undress her.
"Oy, you guys. It's time to stop this. I'll send you off peacefully if you do."
And here I was. Saving the damsel in distress, except people would assume me to be and evil creature instead of the righteous hero.
The three men and the girl turned to look at me. One of the men, he seemed to be the leader, scoffed at me and pointed his finger at me.
"Hey brat, get the fuck out of here while I let you. If you don't then I'll ki-"
But he stopped mid sentence as he recognized who I was. After a couple of second the two next to him also seemed to recognize me as they started to shake.
"S-sir reaper, please forgive my rudeness. We'll leave the girl alone so please spare us."
The girl who was currenlty sitting on the ground was just confused about what was happening.
'They seem terrified of him. Is he a good guy? But they called him sir reaper. What if he is also after me?'
She got afraid again after thinking about what was about to happen to her.
Back to me, I was annoyed. These pieces of shits actually tried to rape a little girl.
"Save your excuses, you're dead."
"Sir reaper, please hear me ou-"
He tried to speak but he got cut of by my hand in his throat. When I took it out, a curtain of blood came out if it, covering me in it.
The other two got terrified, but it seems they decided to charge me. They came to the conclusion there would be no other way out of this then to defeat me.
"It's pointless, scum like you should just die."
One of them came at me with a dagger and tried to stab me in my stomach.
But his moves were slow and clumsy. I easily slipped to the right and struck my left hand into his chest.
A couple seconds later, my hand came out. Only this time, instead of being empty, it contained a heart inside it.
The last guy and the girl looked at me in horror as I squashed the heart and threw it on the ground.
The last guy came to realize fighting me has no use so he decided to run away.
'It's all useless, just accept your fate.'
But I easily caught up to him and grabbed the top of his head.
I made him look me in the eyes. To him, it must've looked like death was staring him in the eyes as the colour drained from his face.
"In your next life, learn from your mistakes."
These were the last words he heard before I turned his head around.
Well now that that's done, I just have to help the kid. I turned around to look at her.
She seemed quite scared as her eyes were filled with tears. Poor girl. I guess she was scared from these guys, good thing I helped her.
"Hey you, are yo-"
I tried to help her but she cut me off with a loud scream.
"PLEASE DONT HURT ME, I'LL DO ANYTHING."
Egh, I hate kids. Except Alice of course