Chapter 104
Participant or a Passerby?
"Don't say a word," Leo warned rather sternly.
"She's a bit young, Master Leo--"
"--what did I just say?" he quickly interrupted Lu Yang who'd returned just a few minutes prior, coming up on Shui'er who was passed out in front of the longhouse, snoring on top of black tiger of all animals who didn't dare make a move.
"If Master needs it, I know quite a few places where women--"
"--oi, do you think I'm some sort of degenerate?!"
"What else? Did she just randomly walk into the forest and happen upon you?!"
"... didn't you too, damn bastard?!"
"Oh, right! So, she really did..."
"I know you're just taking jabs," he said. "But don't. Those are dangerous jabs."
"How long has it been?" Lu Yang asked as he sat down beside Leo and took an opaque bottle from his spatial ring. As he uncorked it, the tantalizing scent awoke something inside Leo that had been slumbering ever since he came to this world--after all, the scent was that of alcohol. Not wanting to be also considered an alcoholic and further ruin his image, he played it cool--or, well, as cool as he could.
"Four days," he replied as Lu Yang poured both of them a cup. Leo took it, needing to use Qi to stop his arm from shaking. "Gray found her somewhere deep in the forest and led her here."
"Did she tell you how she ended up here?"
"No," Leo sighed. "And I didn't have the heart to ask." he took a sip, and though it was beautiful and soul-fulfilling after months of no alcohol whatsoever, it was also... bad. Straight-up toilet wine bad. There was barely any burn to it, and the taste was downright putrid. But, all the same, it was alcohol.
"Do you plan on letting her stay?" Lu Yang questioned.
"What else?" Leo shrugged. "Kick her out?"
"Fair point," the old man sighed, topping himself off yet again.
"What about you? How did your outing go?"
"Well enough," he said. "Sold most of the stuff I had no use for anymore, bought some stuff we needed, and confirmed that my family's safe."
"You went to see them?"
"Hah, hardly," he scoffed. "They've been taken in by the Frozen Palace. Do you know where that is?"
"Somewhere cold, I imagine."
"Funny."
"I try."
"Anyway, even if I was at Nascent Soul Realm, it would take me months to get there. So no, I didn't visit them. But it's better off that way, anyway. They get to live a life divorced from the expectations of our familial name, and unburdened by their unloving father."
"... I scarcely think a father who sacrificed his life for his children would ever be considered unloving." Leo commented, taking yet another sip. He expected it to grow a bit on him by now, but it truly hadn't. It was still rancid.
"Perhaps," Lu Yang mumbled. "How's the garden?"
"Tended to. No less, no more."
"I bought quite a few seeds, so if you are fine with it, I want to experiment for a little while."
"It's fine," Leo said. "Just note that the walled off portion is specially fertilized and will have different soil than the rest of the forest. Which you probably already knew, but hey, you never know. What kind of seeds did you buy?"
"Went for variety, mostly," the old man replied. "A few common fruits, some rarer ones, a few vegetables, some uncategorized herbs, and one or two medicinal ones. Ah, she's waking up. Wait, won't me being here scare her?"
"Honestly?" Leo smiled faintly as Shui'er sat up from tiger and stretched. "You might just be that ugly."
"Was that revenge for my initial comments?"
"Very much so."
"Hm? E-eh? Uncle Leo... who is that fatty?"
"... pfft."
"Not another word," the roles were reversed, and while Leo barely stitched his lips together so that he wouldn't burst into laughter, Shui'er walked over and stopped next to him, looking up at Lu Yang rather curiously. Though she called him a 'fatty', he was hardly so; perhaps a bit rounded and stout, but that was simply his frame.
"This is Grandpa Yang," Leo said with a faint smile. "He was about on some business for a little while."
"Hmm," she mumbled, staring rather intensely. "Okay!" the roots of who she seemed to be (the sort of kid to go from borderline depressive to chippy and jubilant in the span of less than 48 hours) burst through, and she shuffled away from Leo and toward the old man who seemed rather uncertain on how to interact with her. "Want to see the dress Uncle Leo made for me?"
"Uh... sure?"
"Okay!" she ran off into the longhouse while the two men exchanged strange looks, prompting Leo to shrug.
"Don't ask me," he said. "When I found her, she barely talked and seemed terrified of everything and everyone. Lo and behold, within a day, she was running around like she grew up in this place."
"Ah. I suppose that's kid resilience."
"Yeah," Leo mumbled. "I was a kid, too. Don't recall being that resilient, however."
"I'd sneak out at night and into the nearby forest where I would scream until my throat hurt."
"I'd throw tantrums in public to embarrass my mother."
"I'd sneakily put in chopped-up worms into my Father's meals. They weren't harmful or anything, but I knew."
"... good times."
"The best."
"Here, Grandpa! Look!" Shui'er came out of the longhouse in the dress; from what Leo observed, she folded it neatly and stuffed it under the pillow, taking it out before bed and hugging it as she slept. Perhaps, beyond the exterior of the bubbly joy, there was still some fear in the young girl's heart. "Isn't it pretty?!"
"Ah, yes, yes. Very pretty."
"Is Shui'er pretty, too?"
"Ah, yes, yes. Very pretty."
"The prettiest?"
"Yes, yes. The prettiest."
"He he."
"I'll start preparing lunch soon, Shui'er," Leo said. "Go and change."
"Hm!"
"What were your kids like at her age?" Leo asked as Lu Yang sighed.
"Hm? Those little snortbubbles? Honestly... I don't quite remember. At that time, I relinquished most of the fatherly duties as I focused on developing the Clan. I feared that if I showed too much favoritism to my children, the Elders and others would find fault with me. From what my wife told me, though, they were... desperate. Working day and night in hopes of drawing my attention. But my head was too full of trying to guide the Clan. Father for all, or father for none."
"Well, you now get a chance to be a proper Grandpa."
"Ha ha, I suppose. What do proper Grandpas do, anyway?"
"I'm still too young to know."
"Tsk." Leo chuckled as he stood up and started lighting the fires. "Catch any worthwhile news while on the outside?"
"A few," Lu Yang said, standing up and helping him. "Bloodmoon Sect is supposedly in a lockdown mode, refusing all visitors and taking in no new Disciples. There's a good chance they are engaged in some infighting while the new structure of power is assembled. Holy Blade, supposedly, went into isolated cultivation after defending the Sect, so a lot of people are speculating whether he'll emerge from it having reached Late Soul Ascendance Realm." Leo stayed his tongue, though recognized just how large of a figure that seemingly frail middle-aged man that visited him was. "There were also some rumors about the Lingshan Kingdom. I don't know the details, but apparently some powerful cultivator caused a mess before leaving.
"Other than that, it was all fairly standard--Silvermoon Traders increased prices yet again, Skyhaven Alchemist Guild came out with a new Qi Pill... ah, there was another thing. An old man I had a drink with said that his grandson owed debt to some bandit clan, but when he went to their keep to pay it, he found it scorched and destroyed, with everyone there dead. I wanted to confirm it, but the keep was some ways away, and I didn't want to waste more time."
"The world keeps spinning, huh?" none of these news particularly mattered to Leo, in the end. It was sort of like reading news online back on Earth about something that happened in some small town on the other side of the world. No, there was even a greater level of being divorced here as, at the very least, back on Earth he had some familiarity with the entire world, even if it was shallow. Here, he knew nothing but these trees and the blue skies above. He'd never been to any of the towns or cities, or saw any lakes or other rivers, so it was closer to him reading a fantasy story rather than being a participant in the world.
"Can I help with anything?" Shui'er appeared and asked. She seemed rather excited about the prospect, so even though there was nothing for her to do, Leo still assigned her a task.
"You can tear these vegetables into smaller chunks," Leo handed her what was kind of like lettuce, but much softer and without as much texture. Normally, he just tossed in the whole chunks as the boiling water did the 'tearing' aspects later on, but understood well enough the child's need to 'help', even if it was superficial.
"Okay!" she quickly got down to the task, her tongue lashing out against the corners of her lips as the world around her seemed to disintegrate into irrelevance. Leo smiled and continued the rest of the prep.
The animals began to gather soon enough, though, once again, in reduced numbers. This was second day in a row that Leo noticed the distinct lack of them--especially the more 'nomad' ones that only ever swung by for a meal.
Just as the questions began to arise inside his mind, there came a fluttering window suggesting there may yet be an answer.
[Darkness lurks in the deep shadows of the Forest]
[There is somebody or something on the prowl, hunting your dear friends]
[Discover the truth, and save the animals from a painful fate]
[Time Limit: 3 days]
[Reward: Unknown]
[Punishment For Failure: -10 likeability with forest animals, increased chance that more will die/go missing]
[Hint: Perhaps a gastronome may have some information for you]