Chapter 6: Massacre in the House

"Shit, they're close to the damn blue crystal." said a teammate.

"Don't they have any other name?" said Samantha.

"Yeah they does but who cares?" said Dan.

"Aight, we all are dead. They are getting close to the turrets. Dan, you're the only one who's left."

"I'm already dead...They are five and I'm one with like four HP.

"Listen, Dan...YOU are called a trashcan, not trashcan't. Go KILL 'EM. Kill 'em my boy!" Erland yelled out.

"LMAO. WHAT?" Samantha laughed out loud while she typed out the words.

"I'll try..." Dan went towards the enemies and killed them in one swoop.

"YES! SEE? YOU ARE TRASH-"

*The ally nexus has been destroyed...*

"WHAT?" all of them yelled out.

"Oh...the pet...the small brat left a pet over there." said Erland.

Erland fell asleep on the desk. When he opened his eyes he found himself on the bed of the small room.

"Such a nostalgic dream...What time is it now again? Do they have anything that tells time? I did see a sundial on the way though...*yawn*...the sun's burning. It must be afternoon by then. I feel weird..."

"Erland, come here." said Hilda.

She then took him to the bathroom and washed his face.

"I slept too much..." said Erland.

"Yeah, don't worry though, it happens. I have to go out now. I left some foods on the table."

"Where is mom?"

"She went outside with Frida. Dad is outside working, don't bother him today. I got to go out as well."

"Where are you going?"

"Ah...you are still little so you wouldn't get it."

"No, tell me!"

"I got some marriage proposals...These sort of things are discussed in a headquarter in Gaion. You probably don't understand or...you probably do. I have to go, bye."

Hilda left the house in a hurry. The whole day looked gloomy to Erland. But a thought crossed his mind which made him laugh out loud.

"Hahaha...haha...HAHAHAHAHA"

("The house is mine now!")

Erland searched the entire house and looked in each of the drawers and cabinets. He didn't check out the things that seemed to be private to them. The first one he checked was his own room. He found a diary in the drawer and somehow broke the vase on the side table. He got chills down his spine.

He cautiously brought a bag from the kitchen and put the pieces in the bag carefully. Then he moved the bag to the trashcan. He realized that Randi's keen eyes will notice these so he brought a stool, took out some trash wearing two paper bags on his hands and kept the bag beneath the trashcan. Then he sorted the garbage on the bag. The floor was smelly because of the garbage he put on it so he went to the bathroom.

Alas, all the buckets were so big that it surpassed Erland's height. He had no other choice but to go to the bathroom over and over again to clean the floor with a cloth. The smell was still there. He took the stool in the bathroom and stood on it. He could see several bottles.

He took a breath of relief thinking that he will finally get a floor cleaner but soon he realized that he cannot read. He opened each bottle and tried figuring out which one is the floor cleaner by it's smell. He took the one with the faintest smell and poured it in a mug. He shrieked because the white stuff...turned out to be lotion. Then he had no other choice but to clean it with some random strong scented liquid that worked out pretty well. But it left a strong smell.

"(I'm done for...)"

Erland then headed to his room and started looking for things in the drawer again. He found a ring in it.

"Damn...what kind of ring is it? No, I shouldn't put it on. What if it gets stuck on my finger forever like the anime?"

He kept the ring in the drawer again. Then he found a scented letter.

"Is it a love letter? Why does it have a place to sign then? Ugh...I can't even read."

He had no other choice but to put the letter in the drawer again. He finally found a key in the drawer which piqued his interest.

"(Aight then, time to use it on every single lock in the house.)"

He massacred the whole house and used it on every single lock. None of it seemed to get unlocked by it until, he used it on the main door's lock of the house. He took the stool and locked it somehow. He could hear a creak. He realized that the stool has always been half broken. Then he fell and let out a small scream.

("I can just bring a chair- Oh no...DAD IS HERE...")

Erland could see his father chatting with some gentlemen from the window.

("If he hears the sound of moving chairs I'm done for. And he can see me moving one from the window...Oh no...what do I do, what do I do, what do I do...")

He slowly went towards the window to hear their conversation.

"Mr. Hephaestus, this was a pleasant conversation between us. I really hope that my son can prove himself competent for your daughter." said the man in brown coat who had a mustache.

"I shall look forward to that." said Erik.

"Oh, by the way, I have a newborn daughter. She has been the talk of the town for quiet a while for her charm. Perhaps we can talk-"

"My son is still young and immature. I will talk to him about these when he gets to know about these at the right age."

"Ahem...Alright. Sonny, let's go. Goodbye Mr. Hephaestus."

Erik and the man shook their hands. Erland couldn't hear any sound anymore. He waited for Erik to find out about what he has done but there was no one. Assuming that his father has gone back to his work, he took a deep breath. He slowly took a chair close to the door and unlocked it. Then he kept the key where it was. He couldn't work with the stool anymore so he carried it to the storeroom, which is just...a corner and kept it there. The key was kept where it was.

He went to Hilda's room and the first target was her wardrobe. He changed his mind because people tends to keep their personal things in it. He went towards her desk and got on the chair. He saw a diary of her which had her handwriting. It was messy. He tried pulling the drawer of the desk but it looked like it needed a key. He left the room with disappointment. The last room to massacre was Randi's room. He looked for things and found a pile of books in her room.

"(So she is sort of a nerd...)"

Then he looked out more and found a knife. The knife was made of some sort of special crystal. It was sharp and warm. He touched the tip of it and his finger got wounded. The knife seemed to absorb the blood. It turned from a faint blue state to pitch black. Erland threw it away as he put it back in the scabbard. The knife exploded and the scabbard got burnt. He became anxious as he saw such sight.

"Er, I'm home. Where are you?" said Gunhild and opened the door.

Erland who was on the ground being terrified in Randi's room slowly came out and told her about everything that has happened so far.

"It's okay baby. Don't look sad." Gunhild assured Erland and caressed him.

"I broke the vase...I'm sorry. I didn't wanna pway." Erland's eyes were teary.

"No, don't cry. It was just a vase. We can buy another one. But I am mad at you about one thing. You touched so many dangerous things, that was not something a good boy would do. Never...EVER do that again. Okay?"

"Yes mom. Mommy, the knife took my blood." Erland pointed at the knife, which is now burnt.

"What knife?"

"Randi's knife."

"Oh my god...where is it?" Gunhild frowned, seeming distressed.

"It's in her room. It went boom and burnt the cover."

Gunhild rushed to Randi's room. What she saw terrified her. She saw some black substances and black flames still burning.

"Oh lords...What HAVE YOU DONE!?!" Gunhild became furious.

"Mommy..."

Gunhild took a deep breath. "It's okay baby, don't ever touch anything like this, ever again. Okay?"

"Okay mum but what was it?"

Gunhild calmed herself down and took Erland in her arms. She smiled at her and said,

"Listen dear, you are blessed with magic. It's a beautiful gift. But remember, there are bad guys who take kids with magic and kill them! Never use your power until I tell you to. No one will know about it. Not Hilda, not uncle Svend not even your dad. Just you and me, is that clear?"

"Yeah...Mommy, will someone take me away from you one day?"

"Oh...no, never. As long as mommy's with you no one will take you away. I promise."

"Okay mommy...Where were you?"

"I was at the...headquarters of Gaion. Hilda got a lots of marriage proposals, I don't know if you know what that means. As the mother, I had to talk with others about it a little bit."

"So...all the girls who get ma-marriage pwoposals, goes to the place to talk about whether they want to marry or not?"

"Yep! Now, did you eat anything?"

"I was too busy exploring the house."

"You curious little brat- *sigh* You didn't eat for the whole day then."

Gunhild took the foods on the table that Hilda has left for Erland and gave it to him. After all the members of the family came home, Gunhild told them about what Erland has done, except the incident about the knife. They laughed, whilst Randi seemed to be distressed. Gunhild later took Erland to apologize to her and explained everything to her. What happened to the knife was still unknown to Erland.

("I mustn't have touched that thing...It was something important to Randi for sure.") Erland stared outside the window and pondered.

Gunhild saw him having a good time so she left him alone. She took a candy given by Ceol and gave one to Erland. He sub-consciously took it and unwrapped it.

"Erland, you wanna drink tea?" said Randi from downstairs.

"YEAH!" said Erland and got off from the bed. He thanked his mother for the candy and went downstairs. After he went downstairs, he saw Svend sipping on his cup of tea and chatting with Erik.

"(No wonder I got a tea drinking proposal at night.)" Erland wondered and went closer to hear their conversation.

"Hey uncle Svend!" Erland put on a big smile.

"Oh, if it isn't our little Erland. How have things been going?" Svend put on a stern and faint smile.

"Smoothly! Uncle Svend, on which days are you free?"

"I'm never free actually."

"Oh...Well then how have you been?"

"The same as usual."

"Yeah, I can see that! You ignore people as always!" said Erland with a bright smile and left the room. He went to Randi and once again apologized for what he did.

"Why did you do it?" said Randi while looking at Erland, sternly.

"I was just curious..."

"Okay...fair enough. Never do anything as childish as this ever again."

"Um...okay. Ran ran, can you teach me how to read?"

"Why do you want to read stuffs?"

"I couldn't read what the bottles said. I wondered if I opened something and everything would explode like in the stowy...(I know that it wouldn't but I gotta keep this act up. It's embarrassing...)"

"Very well. Bring me the bottle of ink from cupboard and a notebook."

Erland rushed off so excitedly that he didn't even question why there's ink in the cupboard. Randi told him to slow down but he didn't. He somehow safely brought the needed things.

"Very well. Now, I will write something. These things are called runes." Randi taught him the basics. He learnt them very quickly which gave Randi the pleasure of a master.

"Oh...you can already memorize fifteen runes. Very well..." Randi smiled at him for the first time.

"Erland, it's time to go to bed. Where are you?" said Hilda.

"No, I will stay here until I can't anymore." Erland yelled out.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm learning runes!"

"Oh? Are you okay with it? Randi is a really rough teacher."

"Scars and grieves are a man's ornaments."

"AHAHAH! Did daddy teach you that? Okay then, have a good time."

Hilda left the room. Randi told him to write the letters over and over again. His handwriting was scribbled and immature. Randi did not disclose any complaints about it. No matter how hard Erland tried, he could not make the runes look neat because of his baby hands. He fell down on the mat and looked upon the sky. He saw a hundreds of shooting stars. He closed his eyes slowly wishing that he will find the 'one' he is seeking and will be able to live his life at it's fullest.