"Why are you soaked...?" Mayble stared at the trail of water coming into the house, and then at the cause of the mess drying himself off with a towel in the living room.
"I spilled the water on my way here."
"...Even all over your face?" She asked in a hushed tone.
"Mhm."
"..." Mayble gave Viv a look, who in return turned his gaze away.
Seeing how Viv didn't want to dwell on it, neither did she. Instead, she grabbed a cloth and began to mop up the water on the hardwood floor, before boiling some water to make tea.
They had no servants despite being nobles, it was something that was usually embarrassing for nobles, but for a former commoner like Mayble, it was already a blessing to have a house to stay in with no holes in the roof, and a hardwood floor.
As Viv casually read an old fairytale book on the chair, Mayble brought over some medicinal tea to drink.
"Drink it while it's hot, okay sweetie?" Mayble leaned forward, and tried to kiss Vivillian's forehead.
However, this approach was instantly rejected as Viv tilted his head away, his cold stare at Mayble in response succeeding in making her not attempt again.
She seemed a bit sad, and instead softly touched the hair on Viv's head.
"Mommy will be going to sleep, come sleep after me, okay?"
"Kay."
Vivillian sipped the bitter herbal tea, feeling the warmth of the tea slowly spread to his stomach, then his arms, and then his legs.
After drinking the teacup, he leaned back before looking at the old roof. He should wait a while before going to sleep, or else he might suffer an embarrassing problem with his child body in the morning.
As he looked outside the old, dusty window, looking as the village candlelight's beginning to fade one by one, he thought of his own mother, his true mother.
...She probably won't care that much if he really did die in the real world.
Viv's eyes slowly closed as the candle beside him slowly flickered out...
—-
A bone chilling scream awoke Viv from his slumber as he stumbled awake, at the same time, smoke penetrated through his nostrils and invaded his lungs, causing him to cough.
Opening his eyes, he realized there was a fire in his house, as orange flames lapped at the wooden cabinets, dark poisonous smoke filling the small house.
Dropping to the ground, Viv quickly made sense of the situation and crawled towards the door, using his shirt to filter out some of the smoke.
Finally, he burst out the door after fumbling on the lock for a few moments, but he was safe.
Before he could breath a sigh of relief, he realized that his home was not alone.
The whole village was engulfed in an angry orange, smoke rising as screams could be heard from awaking residents.
Suddenly, a being caught his eyes.
An ugly dark greenish monstrous brute with only a cloth around its waist, holding a torch. Its teeth jutted out unnaturally, as it shrieked in joy at the havoc it was causing. In his hand, he held a wooden club.
An...Orc?
Viv felt his heart skip a beat, as his brows furrowed. What was an orc doing here? They were monstrous beasts usually found in forests and rarely attacked towns near the capital, usually only attacking far settlements.
This event also was never mentioned in LaD...or perhaps was his role as an extra was so insignificant that it wasn't worth mentioning at all to the shiny nobles and crown prince. After all, the story revolved around a humble commoner girl who lived in the capital.
Life is not created equal, and now Viv was seeing the consequences of it.
As Viv stood there, watching the orc shriek nastily, a woman suddenly coughed as she escaped from out the window of a burning building.
She had just hopped from one danger to the next, as as she was trying to gather her wits, the orc showed no mercy as it lunged forward at the target in front of him, and brought down his club.
Thud.
She fell to the ground as the club connected to her skull, a sickening breaking sound being heard as the woman's skull was caved in. Her only mercy was that she had died quickly.
"..." Viv narrowed his eyes as he squinted at the woman.
"...Mom?"
Before he could dwell on it any further, a hushed voice quickly grabbed Viv's hand and began to pull him.
"What are you doing? We have to get away! Monsters are attacking the village...!" It was Elva, the young boy had ashes on his face, his hair slightly singed but otherwise fine.
Viv couldn't even respond as he was pulled away by the stronger boy, his bare feet hitting the soft grass as they both ran away onto the road that led to the capital.
"The knights should be coming soon...they will save everyone...surely..." Elva muttered to himself, his eyes slightly dilated. It seems that he had seen some things before coming to get Viv.
Vivillian was slightly surprised that the boy that hated him so would come to save him, but it seems some company was better than no company in a strange situation like this.
"Why are you...so calm?" Slowly, Elva turned to Noelle, who gazed at the scene without much expression.
"It's unfortunate." Noelle replied back dully. "If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have invested so much into here."
A strange look appeared on Elva's face, as he seemed almost pained and angry at the same time.
"Are you...even human...?" His voice was weak as he asked horrified. "You're.."
"Let's go." Vivillian grabbed Elva's sleeve as he pulled the kid and ran down the road. Thankfully the road have been paved recently just a few years ago, so it didn't hurt when their bare feet hit the pavement.
The kids ran from the great fire that destroyed their only known place of home, they ran and ran and ran. They didn't know where they were going, but as along as it were far away they would go.
Away from everyone they knew dear, those burning building were the last things engraved in their minds when remembering their 'true' home.