And just like that several weeks passed in the blink of an eye. The snow melted and the flowers bloomed. The forest had recovered its lush greenery meaning that spring had finally arrived, which only meant one thing… It was finally time to depart for the capital.
As usual, things have been hectic but very peaceful here in Marenna in the last few weeks.
After the day of the meeting with the Gods of Earth and that talk with my mom, I have been training harder than ever before so I could break my limits and finally reach Level 20. Something which, I'm not gonna lie, was extremely difficult to do.
I went out hunting more often, I started running around town for longer periods of time, lifting weights (made with earth magic), doing twice the amount of exercise I used to do, and having at least 5 to 7 mock battles every day with either my Dad or Auntie when we used to have 1 or 2 at most.
Of course, I didn't neglect my studies in magic, etiquette, and general knowledge.
Every day, from the moment I woke up, I spent as much time as I could exercising and studying. I think I spent at least 6 hours each day exercising and studying so I could finally break the wall in front of me and finally reach my level limit.
Something that I was finally able to do two days ago, just in time for our trip. It is flabbergasting to know the amount of free time you can put into doing productive things when you don't have distractions like TV, video games, or the internet.
Of course, I still miss all of those things, but since I have been so busy, I don't really think about those things particularly often.
In any case, I feel way more confident than ever thanks to my harsh training. I feel like I could win without putting much effort!
Of course, I'm not going to make the mistake of underestimating the other participants of the tournament. Hubris and arrogance can easily become one's downfall after all, but that is just how I feel, full of confidence!
Anyhow, as for our trip… Since everything had been prepared a few weeks beforehand, we are about to depart and start our journey to the capital city of the Empire, Mutm.
Everyone in our humble village had come to see us off. Everyone else already had more or less said their goodbyes and they were already getting comfortable on the wagons, I'm the only one left to say goodbye to everyone. I would say that things were going smoothly, but… They aren't…
"Do you really have to go…? Don't leave me alone, big bro…" A little 5-years-old girl said to me with a pleading look on her face.
That little girl was Ms. Elia's 5 years old daughter, Sophie. Just like her mom and her aunt, she has long dark blonde hair and gray-colored eyes. She's barely a meter and a few centimeters tall. She's extremely adorable and reminds me of my little sisters from Earth, Amelia, and Alexandra. She's just a little cinnamon roll
She was wearing a long-sleeved black tunic, a very long dark blue skirt, a pair of simple shoes, and a very distinctive red ribbon adorning her head.
"Sophie…" I looked at the little Sophie with an awkward smile on my face. "I really need to go. We'll only be away for two months. We'll be back before you notice, I promise!" I tried to reassure her as best as I could.
"No! I wanna go with you! Take me to the capital too!" She shook her head vigorously and immediately hugged me tightly.
Sophie can be a pretty stubborn and excitable kid, in that regard she's just like Alex, so ever since I met her I have been treating her like a little sister.
"But what about your mom and your auntie? They'll get sad without you here." I hugged her back and started patting her head.
"I'll be sad without you here!" She replied, clearly not wanting to let me go.
It has been like this with Sophie for the last week… She clearly is not happy about me leaving for the tournament…
"Sophie, Julius is not going to the capital to play around, he's going to do some important things there. You can't trouble him like this…" Ms. Elia quickly crouched by our side and tried to lift Sophie to hold her, but she wasn't very successful…
"No! I wanna go! I want to be with my big bro!" Because of her mother, Sophie was throwing a tantrum and clinging to me even harder than before…
I ended up sharing an awkward look with Ms. Elia before nodding at her and smiling to tell her that it was okay.
I gently picked up Sophie and took a good look at her. The poor girl was on the verge of tears, which almost made me hesitate for a moment, but I knew I couldn't take her with me.
I'm going to the tournament and eventually meet the Emperor. Things could get dangerous depending on how that meeting goes and if my dad's former criminal family gets involved…
So for her safety, I can't give in to her tantrums.
"Sheesh… What a spoiled little sister!" I jokingly complained as I patted her head. "I guess there's nothing else I can do besides spoiling you more and giving you something nice as a promise." I smiled as an idea came to my mind.
"Sniff… A promise…?" She leaned back a little and looked at me with confusion. She had snot coming out of her nostrils and a few tears were about to fall down her cheeks.
"Yes! A promise!" I nodded as I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket and cleared her tears and snot. "A promise that I will return as quickly as possible… If I give this to you, I'm sure that you won't even notice that I'm not here!" I said to her with excitement.
I quickly looked into my other pocket and pulled out a small object before she could object or continue her tantrum.
"You asked me for one of these some time ago, right? I'm sorry that it took a while to make you one, but I'm sure that you will like it." I said as I put a small bracelet made with wooden beads on her wrist.
The bracelet was similar to the ones I had made for my sisters and Mia, with the minor difference that the silver ornament attached to it has the shape of the head of a cat. It has a face drawn on it and everything. It has a pair of amethysts to represent its eyes.
The moment Sophie saw that bracelet, her facial expression immediately lit up and an adorable smile appeared on her face.
"A kitty! It's a kitty!" Sophie was completely overjoyed after she saw the bracelet with the silver ornament of her favorite animal. "I love it! Thank you!" She immediately wrapped her little arms around my neck, hugging me tightly once again.
Ahh… Having a little sister to spoil is the best! I also spoil my older sisters from time to time, though.
No matter what they say, I will spoil Amelia and Alex when I bring them to this world! It is the least that I can do after the shit they have been going through…
"Now then Sophie, do you accept my promise? I'll bring you some toys from the capital too." I said happily as I returned the hug.
"Yeah! You have to come back soon! If you don't keep your promise, you'll go bald!" She then giggled innocently.
Ms. Elia and I again looked at each other and shared a sigh of relief. Her sister, Ms. Lana was standing behind her and smiling mischievously the whole time.
"Jeez… That's a harsh punishment, don't you think?" I said with a fake tone of worry… "But I guess it is fair… Now, be a good girl and show the bracelet to your friends." I smiled at Sophie before putting her back on the ground.
"Hehehe! Okay!" She gave another quick hug before running back towards a group of 4 kids near Ms. Elia.
Fortunately, even if we leave, there are still other kids to play with Sophie that are close to her age. She doesn't play with them much because usually, she's following either Mia, the twins, or me, but hopefully, she'll get closer to them while we are gone and will have friends her age.
I'll miss her being my little shadow while we are gone, though…
While I was looking at Sophie talking with the other little kids and being dejected about not being able to see her for a while, someone started patting my shoulder. When I turned my head to my right, I saw that the one doing that was a very important person… My Auntie.
"Good job at calming her down. You're pretty good with little kids. Hehe." Auntie praised me with a warm smile on her face.
"Hahaha… I guess so…" I couldn't help but avert my gaze shyly.
The situation between Auntie and I has made our relationship a bit strange, to say the least…
For starters, everyone in the village knows we're engaged. Why and how, you wonder? Well, it is a bit of a long story…
The day I met the Gods of Earth and that talk with my mom, we had our usual family dinner with my family and Mia's family as well as Ms. Elia, Ms. Lana, Sophie, and Professor Tian.
My dad and Auntie were missing, but that wasn't really that uncommon since they drink together from time to time. Everyone thought that they lost track of time and we continued without them.
For the most part, things went fine except for a few weird things like the twins giving the stink eye to the professor, Leaf was, for some reason, completely lost in thought and nodding to herself occasionally which was super weird, and Mia was looking at the empty space while smiling meekly, sometimes stealing glances at me, but that's about it.
That’s just some little weird stuff that I noticed while we were eating. The burgers I made with my mom were absolutely delicious, by the way.
Anyhow, everyone was having a good time talking and eating, and the next thing I know is that our front door literally knocked down and it fell to the floor making a very loud crashing sound!
Now imagine my Dad and my Auntie, both as drunk as they could be, storming into the dining room.
The first thing my dad did was run up to me, lift me from my seat, and then hug me while he was crying tears of joy…
My dad is a bit of an emotional drunk… Okay, he's basically a huge and muscular teddy bear in his drunken state… The strongest drunken teddy bear on the continent, in fact…
His thoughts were all over the place, ranging from: "You're growing so fast! I can't believe you're already doing things like that!" to: "You'll surely surpass your old man in no time!" and finally: "I want five grandkids as a minimum, you hear me!?"...
If that wasn't enough for chaos to ensue, Auntie had prepared the right thing to make everything way worse…
She announced in front of everyone at the table that I had 'proposed' to her and asked her to marry me... Everyone at the table but my mom was stunned in silence…
While everyone was too shocked to even make a single sound, my Auntie dearest decided to tell everyone in excruciating and exaggerated detail, everything about my "proposal" and how it went…
At that moment, I truly wanted the earth to swallow me a whole thanks to the embarrassment I was feeling.
Of course, as my Auntie went on and on with her ramblings I noticed that Mia's gaze was fixated on me. she had a blank expression on her face while looking at me…
At that moment, I was horrified… I realized that I had fucked up big time…
I truly wanted to disappear at that moment because I should have been the one who told her about that situation…
The only thing going through my mind was about how she would never want to see me again and that she would hate me forever…
Well, you know what Mia did instead? She smiled, waved at me, then gave me the thumbs-up, and then finally blew a little kiss in my direction, all the while looking at me as if I was the most amazing guy in the world…
I genuinely felt like trash… But more than that, I was obviously dumbfounded about her positive reaction… My mind was literally making that same noise that those ancient fax machines used to make…
The ones who did react strongly, however, were my two sisters… They looked absolutely pissed… Like, 'Hulk smash!' levels of pissed…
I can't deny that for that single second they looked at me with those wrathful expressions, I saw my whole second life flash through my eyes…
They were apparently more pissed at Auntie, though... So much so that they spent at least the next two weeks giving her the cold shoulder.
I have to admit that after that talk with my mom, I started to consider that the twins might have been jealous of me proposing to Tiria. In other words, they may also like me…
It would explain some of their odd behavior from the past, but I didn't want to just assume that they like me because if it is not the case, I would make things weird and ruin my relationship with them beyond repair…
Anyway, the night was pretty much a nightmarish disaster by that point... My dad pretty much passed out on the couch and my Aunt fortunately also passed out on my bed shortly after she finished her ramblings explaining why she couldn't reject my proposal and hurt my feelings.
Everyone pretty much took that as a sign to go to sleep and deal with everything the next morning… Even the usually calm and collected Professor Tian looked taken aback by the event…
But wait! You thought it was over then? It turns out that there's more! I found out the hard way that Auntie, in her drunken state, had also rambled about my 'proposal' to anyone who would listen to her! That's why the whole village knows about our engagement…
It was so fucking awkward that everyone was smiling at me. Some with admiration, some with amusement, and some with a mix of both… The gazes from the women of the village were particularly painful… Not because they were disgusted with my actions or something like that, rather, they appeared to be way too excited about the whole ordeal…
Sigh…
Speaking of reactions, I was able to learn that Mia wasn't against the idea, in fact, she praised me for getting engaged again…
That's right. My fiancée praised me for getting engaged to another girl…
That made me feel awful because I never intended to get a second wife or betray Mia…
As for the twins, I still don't know if they like me or not… I have been too scared to ask them about it thanks to the real possibility of ruining our relationship. I haven't asked Lia because of the same reason…
I really want to bury that day in the deepest pits of my memories… My luck was at an all-time low, or… At an all-time high? I'm still not sure…
So long story short, everything that happened that day is the fault of the Goddess of Love!
"Make sure to win the tournament, okay? If you do, I'll give you a kiss on the cheek!" My dear Auntie said with a teasing tone.
"You better make it two..." I said with a little bit of annoyance and a surplus of confidence.
"Well, I'm gonna miss your birthday, so I guess that should be good enough as a gift, right?" She smiled playfully.
Like I said before, my relationship with Auntie is weird right now. I mean, I like her, quite a lot actually, so there are moments where I'm very awkward around her and moments where I'm trying to look cool in front of her, which is pretty difficult while still being a child…
She, on the other hand, has said that she won't stop acting like my Auntie until I am an adult and won't look at me in any other way until then… For her, our relationship remains the same as it was before the day she 'jokingly' asked me to marry her.
So as of right now, our relationship is technically a one-sided childish crush…
Though… She has still done quite a few things lately that have made me like her more…
For example…
"I'm just kidding! I'll have an actual gift ready for you!" She smiled from ear to ear and… Well… Her human ears quickly transformed into her original elven ears.
Auntie has been much happier overall in the last few weeks. She has been so happy that whenever we are together, the spell she is usually using to hide her ears is completely disrupted…
I don’t know if it is because I agreed to marry her but she says that she now doesn't mind other people seeing them… That she has nothing to hide anymore.
"I wouldn't mind getting those two kisses though…" I muttered.
"And who said you aren't getting them?" She said with a cheeky look on her face. "In any case, don't forget to bring me a souvenir from the capital. Make sure to have fun and make some friends there too." She suddenly started ruffling my hair.
"I'll see what I can do about that." I simply nodded while ignoring her cheekiness.
Unfortunately, Auntie is not coming with us. There are quite a few people who used to be adventurers or still are adventurers and have some decent fighting skills, but my dad and my auntie both said that someone had to stay back to take care of the village. My auntie decided to stay back to defend the village while we are gone.
"Maybe you should visit my parents, introduce yourself as their new son-in-law, and get their blessings!" My Auntie said jokingly. "You could even ask my mom for my granny's ring, her wedding gown, and all of that stuff!" She started poking my cheek to get a reaction from me.
"I might do just that…" I was slightly annoyed that she was making fun of me.
Due to our antics, all of our neighbors were looking at us with amusement.
"Tiria, you should be careful with what you ask for since you know how serious and diligent Julius can be. Do you seriously want your parents to know that you're a cradle-robber?" My dad got off one of the carriages and looked like he was enjoying himself.
He's not wrong though. A few days ago I was thinking of going to her parents and asking for their permission. I'm definitely doing that now as a punishment for making fun of me.
"Ah…" My Auntie was stunned for a moment. "You fucking dick! That got added as a title to my status!" My Auntie was enraged. She immediately yelled at my dad.
After she yelled, every small child in the vicinity had their ears covered by their parents thanks to my dearest auntie.
Also, that title is a bit…
"Is it a lie though?" My dad said with a smirk.
"Now you listen here! How am I supposed to live with a title like this!? I haven't done anything wrong to get this title!" My Auntie then walked over to my dad while looking quite indignant.
You were the one who asked me to get married by when you turn forty… I was about to say that to her but I stopped myself.
I let out an internal sigh as I watched how my dad was trying to annoy my Auntie as much as he could and then my auntie immediately tried to get back at him.
While those two were doing that, I was approached by two more people.
"Yo. I almost thought that we wouldn't make it in time." A small man with a beard said with relief.
"Boss… Was it necessary for me to come…? I haven't slept in the last 22 hours!" A tall and slender man said with a tired expression.
"Thomas, I swear that you elves are the laziest and most whiny race I have ever seen! I haven't slept in the last two weeks and you don't see me complaining!" The small man said with annoyance. "If you wanna become a decent blacksmith, you gotta build some stamina!" The small man declared with an imposing tone.
The small man and the slender elf are Urfathy the blacksmith and his apprentice, Thomas.
Urfathy is a dwarf. He is around 1.50 meters tall and pretty robust. He's built like a brick house. He has long red hair and a bushy beard of the same color, both adorned and styled with beads made out of pure silver. He has green eyes. He's pretty robust and looks very tough despite his small size. His biceps were pretty much the size of my head…
Unlike Urfathy, Thomas is at least 1.80 meters tall and pretty slender. His arms look a bit thin, but if you look at him for long enough you should be able to notice some muscle. His eyes are a deep blue and his hair is a very light blonde. He might not be the most intimidating person like his teacher, but he is a very helpful and friendly person. He does have the habit of complaining a fair bit though…
Contrary to their current interaction, they usually get along well enough most of the time.
"Boss… There's no way I can be compared to a monster like you… Working for two weeks without sleeping is nuts!" Thomas had an exasperated look on his face.
"If you didn't complain as much as you do, you could probably work as much as I do!" Urfathy suddenly pointed at his disciple. "Forget about this… It is hardly the time or the place to have an argument over your laziness." Urfathy let out a sigh.
"I just wanna have a normal sleeping schedule like most people!" Said Thomas who was clearly not happy with Urfathy.
Yeah… Urfathy can be a bit of a difficult and unreasonable person at times, but he does have the skills to back up that attitude.
"You should have chosen another profession then!" Urfathy said before turning his head to face me. "Sorry about that kiddo, I know we shouldn't be arguing during your departure…" Urfathy apologized while scratching the back of his neck. He was quite annoyed.
"Don't worry. You should go easy on Thomas from time to time though. Not everyone is built like you after all." I said to the dwarven blacksmith.
"Thank you! Finally someone with common sense!" Thomas looked at me with gratitude in his eyes.
"I'll go easy on him when he can actually forge a sword that doesn't break while testing its edge!" Urfathy said while crossing his arms. "In any case, the order you placed is ready. If I must say, you're pretty crazy, kid… I thought I was going to lose my mind after carving that many runes…" Urfathy handed me a tiny black box before crossing his arms again.
"Oh! So it is safe to assume that my formula and enchantment work as they were supposed to?" I asked with increasing excitement as I examined the box.
"To say that they work as they should is an understatement… Seriously… To be able to make an enchantment that can easily change the hair color of a person as long as they wear the enchanted object… It was such an inconceivable idea at first that I couldn't believe that it was a reality even after crafting those things. Boy, let me ask you this again… Are you sure you aren't a genius?" Urfathy said with a mix of pride and befuddlement.
"Haha… I'm nothing crazy like that, I'm just a little talented, but that's about it." I smiled awkwardly thanks to his compliment.
As soon as I said that, everyone around us fell silent and started staring weirdly at me.
What? Was that too arrogant of me? Hmm… I don't think I said anything that bad…
Oh well. In any case, I had placed an order with Urfathy and Thomas to make a few accessories for me. Nothing extravagant, really. I made him craft a few rings, a couple of earrings, several necklaces, and some bracelets. All of those accessories were made with silver and a little bit of mithril, and they have carved on them a special combination of runes that make them work as magic tools.
Just like Urfathy said, as long as a person uses any of the enchanted accessories, they can change the color of their hair and even the color of their eyes temporarily just by using a small amount of their mana.
Unlike what I initially believed, my mom told me that there are actually a few skills that could also do something like that. Those skills are [Polymorph] and [Shape Shifting].
The problem with those skills is that they are extremely difficult to learn, they apparently take a lot of the user's mana to use and maintain them, and they are used to change the user's whole appearance instead of just one trait like I want to do.
So, instead of going out of my way to learn a skill that might be a bit unnecessary and too difficult to use, I decided to get a bit creative with runes.
Runes was one of the first alphabets made by the first mortals after the Dawn of the Gods. It is said that the creator of this alphabet was no other than the first dragon.
Each rune has a name, a sound, a meaning, and a special magical effect when they come into contact with mana. A rune's effect may or may not change when paired with more runes.
So, after uncountable hours of studying, I was able to find the right combination of runes that would create the exact effect I was looking for.
I can now change my hair color whenever I want to. I just need to put on this accessory, channel a little bit of mana into it, and voilà, my hair color changes! There's no need for any bleaching or anything!
As for the reason why I asked him to make something like this, it actually is pretty simple… I want to hide the fact that I have black hair.
After that incident with those adventurers in Norvek, I have been called 'Demon-touched' a few more times by some merchants and people that came to visit our village. That is apparently a slur used for people with black hair that are suspected to be the child of a demon, which it wouldn't be wrong to call me that because I AM the child of a demon, so it doesn't really bother me that much.
But, my parents and pretty much everyone I know warned me that there are a lot of old-fashioned nobles and other people in the capital who would not hesitate to call me names or that slur, so I came up with these magic tools to save us the trouble with them.
My only problem with all of this is that I still don't know whether or not I want to be blonde or have brown hair like my parents and sisters. Hehehe…
"Hey! Are you guys done yet!? It is not like we are going to go away forever! We are wasting time! C'mon!" Klein shouted from one of the wagons. His voice was filled with excitement and annoyance.
His excited shouts quickly made our silent neighbors pretty talkative again.
"Klein! Don't be rude! Remember that they are doing you a favor by taking you to the capital!" Natalie scolded her son.
"It is not like the capital is going anywhere, is it?" Said Harold in agreement with his wife.
"I know! I know! But I wanna get there quickly!" As expected, Klein's enthusiasm had already gone through the roof.
"Well, the kiddo is right. We should get to the road before it gets too late. We need to reach a village before nightfall after all." My dad said while scratching the back of his head. "Take good care of the village, cradle-robber." He smirked at my Auntie before walking back to his seat on the wagon.
"You motherf…-!" My Auntie was about to say something nasty but she managed to stop herself. "You're lucky there are kids around!" Her whole face and ears were red thanks to how pissed off she was.
Immediately after that exchange, she quickly walked back to where I was and hugged me tightly.
"Sigh… You don't mind that I have that horrible title, right…? She asked in a low volume. She was pretty embarrassed.
"It is fine. It is kinda my fault that you have that title in the first place, isn't it? After all, I was the one who proposed first." I winked at her.
"That's right! You were the one who proposed seriously in the first place, so you better take responsibility for this, young man!" My auntie was trying to fight it, but she couldn't stop herself from grinning from ear to ear.
"That attitude is not helping your case, Tiria!" My mom shouted from the back of our wagon. She was looking at us with an amused expression.
"Argh! I'm just hugging him! I'm not a cradle-robber for hugging my nephew!" My auntie complained as everyone started to laugh, myself included.
After a few laughs at the expense of my second fiancée and a few more hugs, I finally got up on one of the wagons of our small little caravan. From the back, I started waving at everyone as the caravan started moving.
"Sheesh! It really took you a while to say goodbye to everyone." Liliana said as she sat closer to me and rested her head on my shoulder.
"It is because it is a difficult thing to do. It is something really sad, even if it is for a short time." I said to my sister as I engraved the happy expressions of everyone as we were leaving our humble village.
I'm really going to miss the forest and the village while we are gone, but I'm also excited about going to see new places, like one of the most ancient cities on the continent for example.
"Don't worry! You have your cute fiancée here with you to comfort you if you're feeling sad~!" Mia suddenly hugged me from behind and blocked my eyes with her fluffy rabbit ears.
"Thank you, Mia. That's very reassuring!" I replied with delight while touching her soft ears.
"I'm here for you too, Julius." Luna appeared by my right side and linked her arm with mine. She looked pretty happy doing that.
"Hey! Don't forget about me either! I'm here to make my humie feel better!" Said Leaf as she sat on top of my head and started playing with my hair…
"Thank you very much. That makes me feel happy." I smiled at Luna while trying to poke Leaf with my finger.
"Ugh… Can you guys try to at least wait until we are out of the forest to do that cheesy embarrassing stuff? I don't wanna vomit this early on…" Klein looked pretty annoyed.
"You choose the wrong wagon then." Liliana turned her head back and stuck out her tongue.
"I definitely did… It is already plenty enough having to deal with your lovey-dovey attitude all day every day, but on the carriage too? Don't you guys get bored of that?" Klein asked while frowning.
Lovey-dovey? I mean I am like that with Mia, but… Ah… Now I am once again conscious of the possibility of my sisters having feelings for me…
Thanks a lot, Klein.
"I don't." Luna replied while she started reading a book. Her arm was still linked with mine.
"Klein, you should just admit that you're jealous of Julius because you don't have a girlfriend!" Mia said in an attempt to tease him a bit.
"I'm not. I literally couldn't care less about having a girlfriend. The only thing I want is to explore the capital and discover its ancient mysteries!" Klein just shrugged.
"C'mon! You must be at least a little jealous!" Liliana joined Mia and tried to tease Klein.
"Nope. Not at all." Klein shrugged again.
"So you want to marry a city? That's a bit weird…" Leaf said to Klein while resting on top of my head.
"What!? No, that's not…-" Klein suddenly got flustered before being interrupted by his older sister.
"Hehehe! She got you there!" Mia giggled.
"Oh? So you want to play that game? Do you want me to tell everyone about what you were doing that time when I found you with that drawing you made of Julius, you Romance Addicted Rabbit?" A strange menacing sparkle appeared in Klein's eyes.
What was that about Mia drawing me?
"Ah! Would you look at that! I can't see the village anymore! We should be getting out of the forest soon!" Mia immediately changed the topic while sounding quite panicked.
"Yeah, I thought so." Klein smiled with satisfaction.
I wanted to ask Mia what Klein was talking about, but I decided to leave it for later since she seemed super embarrassed about it.
Just as Mia had said, the village was finally lost on the horizon. It wouldn't take too long for us to get out of the forest and reach the highway.
At long last, our journey had finally begun.
GodlyKamui Heya! New chapter! I hope y'all are doing fine! That dinner must have been so awkward lol. In case you're wondering, I don't think it would be necessary to write it. It could have been fun, but I just feel like it would be me trying to overextend this arc. Like we are ten chapters in and the tournament hasn't even started yet lmao... In any case, even if I did write that, it would have been Fred and Tiria acting like drunk idiots and telling everyone about MC's new promised engagement.
As for the very important thoughts of the other girls on the matter, we dwelling on that in the next chapter.
This chapter was a little info-dumpy, much more than I wanted it to be, but I think it is good.
As usual, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter, and don't forget to join the discord! Here's the link: https://discord.gg/uH6APbzrFR
Have a nice day!
And just like that several weeks passed in the blink of an eye. The snow melted and the flowers bloomed. The forest had recovered its lush greenery meaning that spring had finally arrived, which only meant one thing… It was finally time to depart for the capital.
As usual, things have been hectic but very peaceful here in Marenna in the last few weeks.
After the day of the meeting with the Gods of Earth and that talk with my mom, I have been training harder than ever before so I could break my limits and finally reach Level 20. Something which, I'm not gonna lie, was extremely difficult to do.
I went out hunting more often, I started running around town for longer periods of time, lifting weights (made with earth magic), doing twice the amount of exercise I used to do, and having at least 5 to 7 mock battles every day with either my Dad or Auntie when we used to have 1 or 2 at most.
Of course, I didn't neglect my studies in magic, etiquette, and general knowledge.
Every day, from the moment I woke up, I spent as much time as I could exercising and studying. I think I spent at least 6 hours each day exercising and studying so I could finally break the wall in front of me and finally reach my level limit.
Something that I was finally able to do two days ago, just in time for our trip. It is flabbergasting to know the amount of free time you can put into doing productive things when you don't have distractions like TV, video games, or the internet.
Of course, I still miss all of those things, but since I have been so busy, I don't really think about those things particularly often.
In any case, I feel way more confident than ever thanks to my harsh training. I feel like I could win without putting much effort!
Of course, I'm not going to make the mistake of underestimating the other participants of the tournament. Hubris and arrogance can easily become one's downfall after all, but that is just how I feel, full of confidence!
Anyhow, as for our trip… Since everything had been prepared a few weeks beforehand, we are about to depart and start our journey to the capital city of the Empire, Mutm.
Everyone in our humble village had come to see us off. Everyone else already had more or less said their goodbyes and they were already getting comfortable on the wagons, I'm the only one left to say goodbye to everyone. I would say that things were going smoothly, but… They aren't…
"Do you really have to go…? Don't leave me alone, big bro…" A little 5-years-old girl said to me with a pleading look on her face.
That little girl was Ms. Elia's 5 years old daughter, Sophie. Just like her mom and her aunt, she has long dark blonde hair and gray-colored eyes. She's barely a meter and a few centimeters tall. She's extremely adorable and reminds me of my little sisters from Earth, Amelia, and Alexandra. She's just a little cinnamon roll
She was wearing a long-sleeved black tunic, a very long dark blue skirt, a pair of simple shoes, and a very distinctive red ribbon adorning her head.
"Sophie…" I looked at the little Sophie with an awkward smile on my face. "I really need to go. We'll only be away for two months. We'll be back before you notice, I promise!" I tried to reassure her as best as I could.
"No! I wanna go with you! Take me to the capital too!" She shook her head vigorously and immediately hugged me tightly.
Sophie can be a pretty stubborn and excitable kid, in that regard she's just like Alex, so ever since I met her I have been treating her like a little sister.
"But what about your mom and your auntie? They'll get sad without you here." I hugged her back and started patting her head.
"I'll be sad without you here!" She replied, clearly not wanting to let me go.
It has been like this with Sophie for the last week… She clearly is not happy about me leaving for the tournament…
"Sophie, Julius is not going to the capital to play around, he's going to do some important things there. You can't trouble him like this…" Ms. Elia quickly crouched by our side and tried to lift Sophie to hold her, but she wasn't very successful…
"No! I wanna go! I want to be with my big bro!" Because of her mother, Sophie was throwing a tantrum and clinging to me even harder than before…
I ended up sharing an awkward look with Ms. Elia before nodding at her and smiling to tell her that it was okay.
I gently picked up Sophie and took a good look at her. The poor girl was on the verge of tears, which almost made me hesitate for a moment, but I knew I couldn't take her with me.
I'm going to the tournament and eventually meet the Emperor. Things could get dangerous depending on how that meeting goes and if my dad's former criminal family gets involved…
So for her safety, I can't give in to her tantrums.
"Sheesh… What a spoiled little sister!" I jokingly complained as I patted her head. "I guess there's nothing else I can do besides spoiling you more and giving you something nice as a promise." I smiled as an idea came to my mind.
"Sniff… A promise…?" She leaned back a little and looked at me with confusion. She had snot coming out of her nostrils and a few tears were about to fall down her cheeks.
"Yes! A promise!" I nodded as I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket and cleared her tears and snot. "A promise that I will return as quickly as possible… If I give this to you, I'm sure that you won't even notice that I'm not here!" I said to her with excitement.
I quickly looked into my other pocket and pulled out a small object before she could object or continue her tantrum.
"You asked me for one of these some time ago, right? I'm sorry that it took a while to make you one, but I'm sure that you will like it." I said as I put a small bracelet made with wooden beads on her wrist.
The bracelet was similar to the ones I had made for my sisters and Mia, with the minor difference that the silver ornament attached to it has the shape of the head of a cat. It has a face drawn on it and everything. It has a pair of amethysts to represent its eyes.
The moment Sophie saw that bracelet, her facial expression immediately lit up and an adorable smile appeared on her face.
"A kitty! It's a kitty!" Sophie was completely overjoyed after she saw the bracelet with the silver ornament of her favorite animal. "I love it! Thank you!" She immediately wrapped her little arms around my neck, hugging me tightly once again.
Ahh… Having a little sister to spoil is the best! I also spoil my older sisters from time to time, though.
No matter what they say, I will spoil Amelia and Alex when I bring them to this world! It is the least that I can do after the shit they have been going through…
"Now then Sophie, do you accept my promise? I'll bring you some toys from the capital too." I said happily as I returned the hug.
"Yeah! You have to come back soon! If you don't keep your promise, you'll go bald!" She then giggled innocently.
Ms. Elia and I again looked at each other and shared a sigh of relief. Her sister, Ms. Lana was standing behind her and smiling mischievously the whole time.
"Jeez… That's a harsh punishment, don't you think?" I said with a fake tone of worry… "But I guess it is fair… Now, be a good girl and show the bracelet to your friends." I smiled at Sophie before putting her back on the ground.
"Hehehe! Okay!" She gave another quick hug before running back towards a group of 4 kids near Ms. Elia.
Fortunately, even if we leave, there are still other kids to play with Sophie that are close to her age. She doesn't play with them much because usually, she's following either Mia, the twins, or me, but hopefully, she'll get closer to them while we are gone and will have friends her age.
I'll miss her being my little shadow while we are gone, though…
While I was looking at Sophie talking with the other little kids and being dejected about not being able to see her for a while, someone started patting my shoulder. When I turned my head to my right, I saw that the one doing that was a very important person… My Auntie.
"Good job at calming her down. You're pretty good with little kids. Hehe." Auntie praised me with a warm smile on her face.
"Hahaha… I guess so…" I couldn't help but avert my gaze shyly.
The situation between Auntie and I has made our relationship a bit strange, to say the least…
For starters, everyone in the village knows we're engaged. Why and how, you wonder? Well, it is a bit of a long story…
The day I met the Gods of Earth and that talk with my mom, we had our usual family dinner with my family and Mia's family as well as Ms. Elia, Ms. Lana, Sophie, and Professor Tian.
My dad and Auntie were missing, but that wasn't really that uncommon since they drink together from time to time. Everyone thought that they lost track of time and we continued without them.
For the most part, things went fine except for a few weird things like the twins giving the stink eye to the professor, Leaf was, for some reason, completely lost in thought and nodding to herself occasionally which was super weird, and Mia was looking at the empty space while smiling meekly, sometimes stealing glances at me, but that's about it.
That’s just some little weird stuff that I noticed while we were eating. The burgers I made with my mom were absolutely delicious, by the way.
Anyhow, everyone was having a good time talking and eating, and the next thing I know is that our front door literally knocked down and it fell to the floor making a very loud crashing sound!
Now imagine my Dad and my Auntie, both as drunk as they could be, storming into the dining room.
The first thing my dad did was run up to me, lift me from my seat, and then hug me while he was crying tears of joy…
My dad is a bit of an emotional drunk… Okay, he's basically a huge and muscular teddy bear in his drunken state… The strongest drunken teddy bear on the continent, in fact…
His thoughts were all over the place, ranging from: "You're growing so fast! I can't believe you're already doing things like that!" to: "You'll surely surpass your old man in no time!" and finally: "I want five grandkids as a minimum, you hear me!?"...
If that wasn't enough for chaos to ensue, Auntie had prepared the right thing to make everything way worse…
She announced in front of everyone at the table that I had 'proposed' to her and asked her to marry me... Everyone at the table but my mom was stunned in silence…
While everyone was too shocked to even make a single sound, my Auntie dearest decided to tell everyone in excruciating and exaggerated detail, everything about my "proposal" and how it went…
At that moment, I truly wanted the earth to swallow me a whole thanks to the embarrassment I was feeling.
Of course, as my Auntie went on and on with her ramblings I noticed that Mia's gaze was fixated on me. she had a blank expression on her face while looking at me…
At that moment, I was horrified… I realized that I had fucked up big time…
I truly wanted to disappear at that moment because I should have been the one who told her about that situation…
The only thing going through my mind was about how she would never want to see me again and that she would hate me forever…
Well, you know what Mia did instead? She smiled, waved at me, then gave me the thumbs-up, and then finally blew a little kiss in my direction, all the while looking at me as if I was the most amazing guy in the world…
I genuinely felt like trash… But more than that, I was obviously dumbfounded about her positive reaction… My mind was literally making that same noise that those ancient fax machines used to make…
The ones who did react strongly, however, were my two sisters… They looked absolutely pissed… Like, 'Hulk smash!' levels of pissed…
I can't deny that for that single second they looked at me with those wrathful expressions, I saw my whole second life flash through my eyes…
They were apparently more pissed at Auntie, though... So much so that they spent at least the next two weeks giving her the cold shoulder.
I have to admit that after that talk with my mom, I started to consider that the twins might have been jealous of me proposing to Tiria. In other words, they may also like me…
It would explain some of their odd behavior from the past, but I didn't want to just assume that they like me because if it is not the case, I would make things weird and ruin my relationship with them beyond repair…
Anyway, the night was pretty much a nightmarish disaster by that point... My dad pretty much passed out on the couch and my Aunt fortunately also passed out on my bed shortly after she finished her ramblings explaining why she couldn't reject my proposal and hurt my feelings.
Everyone pretty much took that as a sign to go to sleep and deal with everything the next morning… Even the usually calm and collected Professor Tian looked taken aback by the event…
But wait! You thought it was over then? It turns out that there's more! I found out the hard way that Auntie, in her drunken state, had also rambled about my 'proposal' to anyone who would listen to her! That's why the whole village knows about our engagement…
It was so fucking awkward that everyone was smiling at me. Some with admiration, some with amusement, and some with a mix of both… The gazes from the women of the village were particularly painful… Not because they were disgusted with my actions or something like that, rather, they appeared to be way too excited about the whole ordeal…
Sigh…
Speaking of reactions, I was able to learn that Mia wasn't against the idea, in fact, she praised me for getting engaged again…
That's right. My fiancée praised me for getting engaged to another girl…
That made me feel awful because I never intended to get a second wife or betray Mia…
As for the twins, I still don't know if they like me or not… I have been too scared to ask them about it thanks to the real possibility of ruining our relationship. I haven't asked Lia because of the same reason…
I really want to bury that day in the deepest pits of my memories… My luck was at an all-time low, or… At an all-time high? I'm still not sure…
So long story short, everything that happened that day is the fault of the Goddess of Love!
"Make sure to win the tournament, okay? If you do, I'll give you a kiss on the cheek!" My dear Auntie said with a teasing tone.
"You better make it two..." I said with a little bit of annoyance and a surplus of confidence.
"Well, I'm gonna miss your birthday, so I guess that should be good enough as a gift, right?" She smiled playfully.
Like I said before, my relationship with Auntie is weird right now. I mean, I like her, quite a lot actually, so there are moments where I'm very awkward around her and moments where I'm trying to look cool in front of her, which is pretty difficult while still being a child…
She, on the other hand, has said that she won't stop acting like my Auntie until I am an adult and won't look at me in any other way until then… For her, our relationship remains the same as it was before the day she 'jokingly' asked me to marry her.
So as of right now, our relationship is technically a one-sided childish crush…
Though… She has still done quite a few things lately that have made me like her more…
For example…
"I'm just kidding! I'll have an actual gift ready for you!" She smiled from ear to ear and… Well… Her human ears quickly transformed into her original elven ears.
Auntie has been much happier overall in the last few weeks. She has been so happy that whenever we are together, the spell she is usually using to hide her ears is completely disrupted…
I don’t know if it is because I agreed to marry her but she says that she now doesn't mind other people seeing them… That she has nothing to hide anymore.
"I wouldn't mind getting those two kisses though…" I muttered.
"And who said you aren't getting them?" She said with a cheeky look on her face. "In any case, don't forget to bring me a souvenir from the capital. Make sure to have fun and make some friends there too." She suddenly started ruffling my hair.
"I'll see what I can do about that." I simply nodded while ignoring her cheekiness.
Unfortunately, Auntie is not coming with us. There are quite a few people who used to be adventurers or still are adventurers and have some decent fighting skills, but my dad and my auntie both said that someone had to stay back to take care of the village. My auntie decided to stay back to defend the village while we are gone.
"Maybe you should visit my parents, introduce yourself as their new son-in-law, and get their blessings!" My Auntie said jokingly. "You could even ask my mom for my granny's ring, her wedding gown, and all of that stuff!" She started poking my cheek to get a reaction from me.
"I might do just that…" I was slightly annoyed that she was making fun of me.
Due to our antics, all of our neighbors were looking at us with amusement.
"Tiria, you should be careful with what you ask for since you know how serious and diligent Julius can be. Do you seriously want your parents to know that you're a cradle-robber?" My dad got off one of the carriages and looked like he was enjoying himself.
He's not wrong though. A few days ago I was thinking of going to her parents and asking for their permission. I'm definitely doing that now as a punishment for making fun of me.
"Ah…" My Auntie was stunned for a moment. "You fucking dick! That got added as a title to my status!" My Auntie was enraged. She immediately yelled at my dad.
After she yelled, every small child in the vicinity had their ears covered by their parents thanks to my dearest auntie.
Also, that title is a bit…
"Is it a lie though?" My dad said with a smirk.
"Now you listen here! How am I supposed to live with a title like this!? I haven't done anything wrong to get this title!" My Auntie then walked over to my dad while looking quite indignant.
You were the one who asked me to get married by when you turn forty… I was about to say that to her but I stopped myself.
I let out an internal sigh as I watched how my dad was trying to annoy my Auntie as much as he could and then my auntie immediately tried to get back at him.
While those two were doing that, I was approached by two more people.
"Yo. I almost thought that we wouldn't make it in time." A small man with a beard said with relief.
"Boss… Was it necessary for me to come…? I haven't slept in the last 22 hours!" A tall and slender man said with a tired expression.
"Thomas, I swear that you elves are the laziest and most whiny race I have ever seen! I haven't slept in the last two weeks and you don't see me complaining!" The small man said with annoyance. "If you wanna become a decent blacksmith, you gotta build some stamina!" The small man declared with an imposing tone.
The small man and the slender elf are Urfathy the blacksmith and his apprentice, Thomas.
Urfathy is a dwarf. He is around 1.50 meters tall and pretty robust. He's built like a brick house. He has long red hair and a bushy beard of the same color, both adorned and styled with beads made out of pure silver. He has green eyes. He's pretty robust and looks very tough despite his small size. His biceps were pretty much the size of my head…
Unlike Urfathy, Thomas is at least 1.80 meters tall and pretty slender. His arms look a bit thin, but if you look at him for long enough you should be able to notice some muscle. His eyes are a deep blue and his hair is a very light blonde. He might not be the most intimidating person like his teacher, but he is a very helpful and friendly person. He does have the habit of complaining a fair bit though…
Contrary to their current interaction, they usually get along well enough most of the time.
"Boss… There's no way I can be compared to a monster like you… Working for two weeks without sleeping is nuts!" Thomas had an exasperated look on his face.
"If you didn't complain as much as you do, you could probably work as much as I do!" Urfathy suddenly pointed at his disciple. "Forget about this… It is hardly the time or the place to have an argument over your laziness." Urfathy let out a sigh.
"I just wanna have a normal sleeping schedule like most people!" Said Thomas who was clearly not happy with Urfathy.
Yeah… Urfathy can be a bit of a difficult and unreasonable person at times, but he does have the skills to back up that attitude.
"You should have chosen another profession then!" Urfathy said before turning his head to face me. "Sorry about that kiddo, I know we shouldn't be arguing during your departure…" Urfathy apologized while scratching the back of his neck. He was quite annoyed.
"Don't worry. You should go easy on Thomas from time to time though. Not everyone is built like you after all." I said to the dwarven blacksmith.
"Thank you! Finally someone with common sense!" Thomas looked at me with gratitude in his eyes.
"I'll go easy on him when he can actually forge a sword that doesn't break while testing its edge!" Urfathy said while crossing his arms. "In any case, the order you placed is ready. If I must say, you're pretty crazy, kid… I thought I was going to lose my mind after carving that many runes…" Urfathy handed me a tiny black box before crossing his arms again.
"Oh! So it is safe to assume that my formula and enchantment work as they were supposed to?" I asked with increasing excitement as I examined the box.
"To say that they work as they should is an understatement… Seriously… To be able to make an enchantment that can easily change the hair color of a person as long as they wear the enchanted object… It was such an inconceivable idea at first that I couldn't believe that it was a reality even after crafting those things. Boy, let me ask you this again… Are you sure you aren't a genius?" Urfathy said with a mix of pride and befuddlement.
"Haha… I'm nothing crazy like that, I'm just a little talented, but that's about it." I smiled awkwardly thanks to his compliment.
As soon as I said that, everyone around us fell silent and started staring weirdly at me.
What? Was that too arrogant of me? Hmm… I don't think I said anything that bad…
Oh well. In any case, I had placed an order with Urfathy and Thomas to make a few accessories for me. Nothing extravagant, really. I made him craft a few rings, a couple of earrings, several necklaces, and some bracelets. All of those accessories were made with silver and a little bit of mithril, and they have carved on them a special combination of runes that make them work as magic tools.
Just like Urfathy said, as long as a person uses any of the enchanted accessories, they can change the color of their hair and even the color of their eyes temporarily just by using a small amount of their mana.
Unlike what I initially believed, my mom told me that there are actually a few skills that could also do something like that. Those skills are [Polymorph] and [Shape Shifting].
The problem with those skills is that they are extremely difficult to learn, they apparently take a lot of the user's mana to use and maintain them, and they are used to change the user's whole appearance instead of just one trait like I want to do.
So, instead of going out of my way to learn a skill that might be a bit unnecessary and too difficult to use, I decided to get a bit creative with runes.
Runes was one of the first alphabets made by the first mortals after the Dawn of the Gods. It is said that the creator of this alphabet was no other than the first dragon.
Each rune has a name, a sound, a meaning, and a special magical effect when they come into contact with mana. A rune's effect may or may not change when paired with more runes.
So, after uncountable hours of studying, I was able to find the right combination of runes that would create the exact effect I was looking for.
I can now change my hair color whenever I want to. I just need to put on this accessory, channel a little bit of mana into it, and voilà, my hair color changes! There's no need for any bleaching or anything!
As for the reason why I asked him to make something like this, it actually is pretty simple… I want to hide the fact that I have black hair.
After that incident with those adventurers in Norvek, I have been called 'Demon-touched' a few more times by some merchants and people that came to visit our village. That is apparently a slur used for people with black hair that are suspected to be the child of a demon, which it wouldn't be wrong to call me that because I AM the child of a demon, so it doesn't really bother me that much.
But, my parents and pretty much everyone I know warned me that there are a lot of old-fashioned nobles and other people in the capital who would not hesitate to call me names or that slur, so I came up with these magic tools to save us the trouble with them.
My only problem with all of this is that I still don't know whether or not I want to be blonde or have brown hair like my parents and sisters. Hehehe…
"Hey! Are you guys done yet!? It is not like we are going to go away forever! We are wasting time! C'mon!" Klein shouted from one of the wagons. His voice was filled with excitement and annoyance.
His excited shouts quickly made our silent neighbors pretty talkative again.
"Klein! Don't be rude! Remember that they are doing you a favor by taking you to the capital!" Natalie scolded her son.
"It is not like the capital is going anywhere, is it?" Said Harold in agreement with his wife.
"I know! I know! But I wanna get there quickly!" As expected, Klein's enthusiasm had already gone through the roof.
"Well, the kiddo is right. We should get to the road before it gets too late. We need to reach a village before nightfall after all." My dad said while scratching the back of his head. "Take good care of the village, cradle-robber." He smirked at my Auntie before walking back to his seat on the wagon.
"You motherf…-!" My Auntie was about to say something nasty but she managed to stop herself. "You're lucky there are kids around!" Her whole face and ears were red thanks to how pissed off she was.
Immediately after that exchange, she quickly walked back to where I was and hugged me tightly.
"Sigh… You don't mind that I have that horrible title, right…? She asked in a low volume. She was pretty embarrassed.
"It is fine. It is kinda my fault that you have that title in the first place, isn't it? After all, I was the one who proposed first." I winked at her.
"That's right! You were the one who proposed seriously in the first place, so you better take responsibility for this, young man!" My auntie was trying to fight it, but she couldn't stop herself from grinning from ear to ear.
"That attitude is not helping your case, Tiria!" My mom shouted from the back of our wagon. She was looking at us with an amused expression.
"Argh! I'm just hugging him! I'm not a cradle-robber for hugging my nephew!" My auntie complained as everyone started to laugh, myself included.
After a few laughs at the expense of my second fiancée and a few more hugs, I finally got up on one of the wagons of our small little caravan. From the back, I started waving at everyone as the caravan started moving.
"Sheesh! It really took you a while to say goodbye to everyone." Liliana said as she sat closer to me and rested her head on my shoulder.
"It is because it is a difficult thing to do. It is something really sad, even if it is for a short time." I said to my sister as I engraved the happy expressions of everyone as we were leaving our humble village.
I'm really going to miss the forest and the village while we are gone, but I'm also excited about going to see new places, like one of the most ancient cities on the continent for example.
"Don't worry! You have your cute fiancée here with you to comfort you if you're feeling sad~!" Mia suddenly hugged me from behind and blocked my eyes with her fluffy rabbit ears.
"Thank you, Mia. That's very reassuring!" I replied with delight while touching her soft ears.
"I'm here for you too, Julius." Luna appeared by my right side and linked her arm with mine. She looked pretty happy doing that.
"Hey! Don't forget about me either! I'm here to make my humie feel better!" Said Leaf as she sat on top of my head and started playing with my hair…
"Thank you very much. That makes me feel happy." I smiled at Luna while trying to poke Leaf with my finger.
"Ugh… Can you guys try to at least wait until we are out of the forest to do that cheesy embarrassing stuff? I don't wanna vomit this early on…" Klein looked pretty annoyed.
"You choose the wrong wagon then." Liliana turned her head back and stuck out her tongue.
"I definitely did… It is already plenty enough having to deal with your lovey-dovey attitude all day every day, but on the carriage too? Don't you guys get bored of that?" Klein asked while frowning.
Lovey-dovey? I mean I am like that with Mia, but… Ah… Now I am once again conscious of the possibility of my sisters having feelings for me…
Thanks a lot, Klein.
"I don't." Luna replied while she started reading a book. Her arm was still linked with mine.
"Klein, you should just admit that you're jealous of Julius because you don't have a girlfriend!" Mia said in an attempt to tease him a bit.
"I'm not. I literally couldn't care less about having a girlfriend. The only thing I want is to explore the capital and discover its ancient mysteries!" Klein just shrugged.
"C'mon! You must be at least a little jealous!" Liliana joined Mia and tried to tease Klein.
"Nope. Not at all." Klein shrugged again.
"So you want to marry a city? That's a bit weird…" Leaf said to Klein while resting on top of my head.
"What!? No, that's not…-" Klein suddenly got flustered before being interrupted by his older sister.
"Hehehe! She got you there!" Mia giggled.
"Oh? So you want to play that game? Do you want me to tell everyone about what you were doing that time when I found you with that drawing you made of Julius, you Romance Addicted Rabbit?" A strange menacing sparkle appeared in Klein's eyes.
What was that about Mia drawing me?
"Ah! Would you look at that! I can't see the village anymore! We should be getting out of the forest soon!" Mia immediately changed the topic while sounding quite panicked.
"Yeah, I thought so." Klein smiled with satisfaction.
I wanted to ask Mia what Klein was talking about, but I decided to leave it for later since she seemed super embarrassed about it.
Just as Mia had said, the village was finally lost on the horizon. It wouldn't take too long for us to get out of the forest and reach the highway.
At long last, our journey had finally begun.
GodlyKamui Heya! New chapter! I hope y'all are doing fine! That dinner must have been so awkward lol. In case you're wondering, I don't think it would be necessary to write it. It could have been fun, but I just feel like it would be me trying to overextend this arc. Like we are ten chapters in and the tournament hasn't even started yet lmao... In any case, even if I did write that, it would have been Fred and Tiria acting like drunk idiots and telling everyone about MC's new promised engagement.
As for the very important thoughts of the other girls on the matter, we dwelling on that in the next chapter.
This chapter was a little info-dumpy, much more than I wanted it to be, but I think it is good.
As usual, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter, and don't forget to join the discord! Here's the link: https://discord.gg/uH6APbzrFR
Have a nice day!
