There was one a poor but happy family, consisting of a mother, an older sister and a younger brother.
They didn't live in the best condition or the best part of town but they always supported eachother .
They sat a wooden, run down table right now, smiling and talking together.
"Kids, please eat your bread and drink your milk. You both need to grow up and become strong people."
"But I don't like Milk, mama !", said Layla's younger brother.
Layla took a sip of the watery and bad tasting milk before speaking up.
"Just drink it, Rob. You're the only boy in this house ... You need to grow up big"
Rob, Layla's seven year old brother, hesitantly started to drink.
After a while the small family heard a knock on the door, as their Mother started walking towards it.
When she opened the door, a round and rather ugly looking man walked inside.
"You better pay rent this time, Teresa. I won't give you another week."
Their mother looked down and bit her lip as she trembled.
"I-I don't have enough money .."
The ugly bastard grinned and nodded, acting like he was thinking.
"There's another way of paying, you know ? You don't want your kids living on the streets, do you ?"
And like that, the ugly fat man and the kids mother, went into a room privetly.
Rob and Layla started hearing the bed creaking.
Rob didn't understand what that meant and what they were doing and so just continued drinking the bad tasting milk.
Layla was smarter and more mature than she should've been at her age tho, which made her understand what their mother was doing for them and it left a bad taste in her mouth.
She just coldly looked at the door.
'Not again .. Mom, why do you always do that for us ... I need to help her, somehow.'
But what could a nine year old do ? Defenitely not much.
After maybe 20 or so minutes, the door opened and the man came outside with their exhausted looking mother before he left with another grin.
"Mama, what were you doing ? Did you pay him the money ?", asked the innocent Rob.
Their mother showed them a fake smile and sat down at the table again.
"Yes, my little boy. I suddenly realized that I had enough money. He was also very kind and promised to bring us some real meat tomorrow so you both will have something delicious tomorrow."
***
On a different day, the young Layla was again thinking about what she could do.
'I need money ... but I can't work yet, atleast legally. And no one will take a young girl for work, even illegally.
... I need to steal.'
Stealing was pretty normal in this part of town and Layla had grown up seeing that happen many times but she had never done it herself since her mother and tried raising her children to be righteous.
But this was different. Layla wanted to steal for the right thing ... to help out her mother. This wouldn't be something bad right ?
Stealing from someone bad to give it to her perfect mother .
Mom and rob were somewhere right now so Layla decided to go outside and steal.
She stepped into the dim lighted alleyways, walking to search someone, anyone she could steal from.
After a while of aimlessly walking around, she had actually found a person she wanted to steal from. It was the same guy that always wanted money from Mom .
Layla started following and analyzing him for a while till he suddenly walked inside of a house, his house.
'So that's where that bastard lives, huh ? You better be ready.'
After that, Layla went back home and started preparing for the next few days.
She started analyzing when the guy would leave his house every day and she also prepared for some stuff she needed to break in, doing it all without her mother noticing.
***
At the special day everything changed, Layla decided to finally take action.
Layla hid a little bit away from the guys house, having her eyes on the front door.
'He always leaves at exactly 09:25 am ... 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1'
The door swung open and the guy walked outside, going wherever, Layla didn't care.
She waited for a minute, making sure he was truly gone before picking some worn out tools she needed for her operation.
She walked to one of the lower windows and threw a hammer through it before climbing inside the unclean room
Inside, Layla started searching for valuable stuff and stuffed it inside a bag she took with her.
'Does that ugly fuck have anything ? I only found some coins here and there and one watch. Doesn't he rent like multiple apartments to people. Why does he have like nothing here. Maybe in a different room. Where do people hold their most valuable things ? The bedroom ...'
She opened a few doors till she found the bedroom and inside was safe.
She couldn't really open it by the code so she just used her hammer to smash down on it since the quality of the vault wasn't that high.
Yet suddenly, She felt a palm go around her head and press against her mouth, making her unable to cry out a sound as she was held tightly.
"You're that sluts daughter, huh ? Did she tell you to steal something from me ? Thankfully I forgot something home and came back."
Layla struggled in his grasp while trying to break free but she was physically just too weak.
"Maybe I should have a little bit of fun before killing you", he said while throwing her onto the bed.
'What a fucking degenerate, I'm not even ten yet.
As the guy crawled into bed and tried holding Layla down, she suddenly pulled out a knife from her pocket and thrust it into the neck of the guy.
She started at the lifeless and bleeding body, not having a hint of emotion on her face.
"Go to hell."
And just like that, at the age of nine, Layla had killed for the first time.
***
Thankfully, the law didn't exist much in this place so Layla got away without ever feeling the consequences. She sold everything valuable she found illegally and then hid the money in a safe place before going back home.
Mother was still at work and Rob was probably sleeping so she sneaked inside the same way she got outside.
'I never went to school but maybe, maybe if I save enough, I can send Rob there while Mom finances everything else. But how do I explain Mom how I got the money ? She'll be mad when I tell her the truth but she defenitely won't trust me when I say I got it legally. I could make act like I did a lemonade stand or something but no one here would buy that ... I'll think of it later.'
***
Back to here and now, where Caspian was still in the underground cave, fighting the tall Magma Knight, who was using a longsword, he started preparing for the final push.
His Echo was fighting the Creature right now, having it's full attention while Caspian summoned a Memory of his.
For the first time till arriving, he summoned his main weapon.
He called his other spear back as a Trident, made out of Ice appeared.
He threw it at the Knight and when it made contact, its left torso completly froze, covered in ice as the Trident flew back into the hands of Caspian.
His Echo took the opportunity and shot out more bubbles, slowly chipping the Creatures health away.
As the Trident arrived in Caspian's hand, he instantly threw it again but this time the Knight parried it.
'Throwing won't work anymore, huh.'
He dashed forward and decided to use the Trident as a close range weapon.
With every hit, the Creature froze more and it's movements started to grow slower and slower till it completly stopped.
Caspian coldly looked at the tall Knight, it's body frozen to the ground.
He held his hands around the Knight and created a bubble around it's head, slowly drowning it till he heard the voice he wanted to hear.
[You have slain a Fallen Demon, Right Hand of Ignis]
[You have completed the Trial]
[You have gained a Memory as a Reward.]
——-Author's Notes——-
Decided to add a backstory for Layla to make her character better. Will add more to it in later chapters. I will of course also do the same for other characters like Celeste.
I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter.
Peace ✌️