110 People don't matter

"What exactly do you feel about halflings?"

When Rastel heard that question, the first thing that came to his mind was….

'What is this all about?'

He looked at Vars' serious expression and was confused. But although he showed a curious expression, his brain was already processing one or two thoughts and bringing information together.

The first obvious thing was that even though Vars was supposed to be the grandmaster's son, he was obviously not a dwarf. This was a glaring error in the code, the genetic code that was.

The second thing was the issue of his eyes. Vars had bright amber eyes with a reddish hue to them. It might not mean much in real life but in the game, eye colour was an important factor.

Humans, for example, possess bloodline powers and a very easy way to guess what bloodline they might possess was to check their eye colour. There were other factors involved but the eyes were usually the most telling.

Some races had exclusive eye colours, like the devils who had red irises and the draconians who had purple irises.

Vars really stood out with his eye colour and Rastel was unable to place his origins. He eventually just guessed that Vars was human since humans had the largest array of eye colours.

Rastel first thought that Vars' situation was an adoption thing but the matter of halflings was now being brought up which ultimately made him suspicious.

'So Vars might be a halfling eh? It doesn't look very obvious, which part of him is dwarf?' he wondered as he covertly looked him once over.

Vars had thick dark hair and brows, everything from his eyes to his body size looked very human-like.

Vars was still looking at him with an expectant gaze. Rastel's thoughts barely lasted two seconds though before he looked back at Vars and smiled.

"Well, you have hilariously bushy brows for a halfling. What are you? Half gowery? You have monkey genes don't you?" he laughed cheekily as he looked at Vars' overly bushy brows.

"YOU ARE THE MONKEY!" Vars yelled back indignantly while using his wet hair to cover up his brows.

Rastel just laughed some more before he finally calmed down. He turned to Vars once more and asked.

"So you're a halfling, is that why you are asking?" he was interested.

"I never said that." Vars refuted.

"You think I'm an idiot? Well, it doesn't matter. But asking for my acknowledgment, isn't that stupid? Are you regretting your birth or something?" Rastel sighed as he leaned back on the piece of rock and closed his eyes.

Vars frowned his face but still replied.

"It is nothing like that. Just answer the question!" his temper was rising.

Rastel opened one eye and looked at him before closing it back, sighing once more.

"I don't know what you are hoping to understand from my answer but before that, I will tell you this." He spoke up in a slightly solemn tone.

Vars was quiet and listened. Rastel opened his eyes before staring at his reflection in the water. A pair of dead green eyes stared back at him, all traces of his usual mischievousness was gone.

"People, don't matter." His voice sounded out with a tone of finality.

Vars looked at him, confused about what he meant.

"It is common sense that has been known for generations that people know of but refuse to comprehend. For every person who likes you, there will be two who despise you. And for every person who acknowledges you, there will be two more who completely disregard your existence. And it goes both ways, it is not a matter of what is wrong or what should be, it is simply how it is." Rastel spoke with a deadpan tone.

Vars on the other hand was shocked at Rastel's out-of-character response. His image of Rastel was that of someone who seemed unshakable by external factors and was always up for a good laugh. This was not the kind of answer he was expecting.

"You may be thinking of getting some form of acknowledgment from me now or something like that but for how long will that last? Do you intend to be seeking closure with everyone you meet throughout your life? To anyone, you feel slightly close to? You will just be going around with a pointless burden because the truth is that people really don't care. Opinions and stereotypes are things that most people adopt, very few people think for themselves and you should be decisive enough to break out of the herd."

Rastel turned to look at Vars with a soul-piercing gaze which left him feeling like his breath was caught in his throat.

"Tell me, Vars, are you expecting me to suddenly start treating you differently since I found out you were a halfling? Or maybe I wouldn't want to associate myself with you again? What would it change in our friendship? Will the way we speak suddenly change? Or maybe the food we eat? Or the air we breathe? Does that make any logical sense to you? It wasn't a factor when we first met and it shouldn't be now, or ever. To me at the very least, you asking for my acknowledgment sounds very stupid."

Vars lowered his head and didn't say anything.

Rastel's eyes mellowed out and he turned his gaze back to the water before letting out a deep yawn and stretching.

"Well, it doesn't mean anything now. I just decided not to answer your question anymore, if you have something else to say, say it. I would probably sleep off soon." He spoke casually and he smacked his lips.

But Vars didn't speak, he just kept looking downwards and was quiet.

On the large rock, the inconspicuous Vulcan insignia that was housing the pair of eyes stared at Rastel deeply before silently closing shut. The eyes disappeared from the rock like it was never there in the first place.

"SIGH….."

Lolo was stealing a couple of tasty ores from one of the storage rooms when he heard the loud sigh echoing through the smithery.

'Hmm? Vul-Vul?' he wondered for a bit before he went back to stealing ores.

______________________________________________________________________________

Reo stretched as he walked down the stairs.

He had left Vars in the bath as he had refused to speak up after everything. After leaving, he barely managed to find his way back to the room he first stayed in before laying down and logging out.

He woke up only to realize it was past midnight and he was hungry. Hina, who usually had his back in these types of situations was long asleep so he decided to head down and get food for himself.

As he was reaching the end of the stairs though, multiple voices and laughter greeted his ears and a small smile appeared on his face.

'Mum?'

His guess was proven right when he reached the living room.

His mother was covered in a long white robe with a belt tied at her waist. Her long hair was wet and draped behind her back and she was laying leisurely on the sofa while watching a comedy show with a bucket of ice-cream in front of her which she was eating carefully with a small spoon.

She turned to look at him as he reached downstairs and shook her head.

"Why aren't you asleep?" she asked as she took another spoon of ice-cream.

"I was studying seriously?" he said with a mocking smile as he headed in her direction.

"Ha-Ha, isn't that wonderful?" she laughed sarcastically.

"My mother has such little trust in me? I feel sad." He laughed and sat down on a couch opposite her.

"It is because I am your mother that I know. You only read when exams are near, you just play around for most of the time." She said dryly as she shoved another spoon in her mouth.

Reo chuckled but he couldn't refute her. He looked at the show she was watching on the hologram vision, it was a very popular comedy show that the entire family watched frequently but this was an old episode so he lost interest.

"So what happened? In the game?" she asked him after a bit of silence.

Reo turned to look at the bucket of ice cream sitting in front of her.

"If I tell you, will you let me take some ice-cream?" he chose to strike a deal, for the benefits of humanity.

His mother just waved a hand to invite him.

"Yes! Thanks, mum!" he hurried to the kitchen to grab a spoon and quickly came back.

Dragging a small wooden table closer, he sat on it while digging into the bucket of ice-cream with his large spoon.

"Mmmh, nice stuff!" he smiled as he swallowed the large spoon of ice-cream.

His mother just smiled a bit and took another bite with her small teaspoon.

After taking two more bites, he started talking.

"I thought the game would be very fun and relaxing with plenty of adventures and the sort but it is getting troublesome. I keep meeting stupid people and experiencing tiring situations." Reo spoke as he reminisced his time playing AOM.

"What could that be now?" his mother asked curiously.

Thinking about his recent encounters with Roxanne, Vars, and Baluu. And then the whole berserk wolves' episode followed by the whole issue with the elementalist, Erik, and then finally, the conversation he had with Vars, Reo felt his shoulders sink.

There were a few nice parts but he honestly didn't like all these mentally tiring situations.

He told his mother everything and she stayed quiet and listened. All while they took ice-cream and with the comedy show playing in the background.

After he finished, he asked his mum for advice.

"What do you think I should do about Vars?" he asked as he licked his spoon clean of ice-cream.

His mother chuckled slightly and looked at him.

"I can guess you think good of him since you were so blunt. You wouldn't have said anything about the matter if it was someone you didn't care about would you?" his mother looked at him with a smile.

Reo silently agreed with her but didn't say it.

"You should just do what you think is best and keep him close then. I think everything will turn out alright so there is no need to worry. I don't doubt your judgment at all." She took a spoon of ice-cream before turning her attention back to the show.

"Because I am your son after all, right?" he said cheekily.

"If you say so. Now take your hands off my ice-cream before I consider biting it off." She suddenly said in a deadpan voice.

"Ehn? Let me take a few more spoons at least!" Reo yelled and suddenly started wolfing down multiple spoons of the frozen ice-cream.

"Arggh!!! My brain! Leave my brain cells alone!" it of course ended with a brain freeze.

Aveline smiled as she watched him. Her beautiful hazel eyes glistened slightly and she blinked twice before casually taking another spoon of ice-cream.