Eric Family

After we walked a few kilometers of distance, we finally entered a secluded road that led outwards the town, and the scenery was filled with a meadow with various flowers.

Seeing the road filled with various traces of blood, Dad stopped walking and started speaking without looking behind.

"Your grandma liked these species of flowers, and grandpa took care of them everyday. My family isn't that overly rich at first, and they chose to be laylow instead of flaunting our wealth."

He then continued walking and looked left and right as if observing the surroundings.

"I left the house when I was fifteen. There was an incoming war back then, and I voluntarily drafted. Dad was angry at the time since he wanted me to inherit his farm, but as youths tend to get hotblooded, so did I. I was somehow talented with the sword and melee battles. The general at the time saw this and I got a personal tutor, even rising in rank. The war added to my achievements and I was given a good sum of money... Then I had my parents stay here, never letting them toil for work again."

I imagined a younger version of Dad doing all of the things he did, and also got to empathize with him for doing such towards his parents, as I also felt those feelings for the orphanage. Sadly, I wasn't resilient enough.....

"After the war that occurred years ago, I was allowed to retire for slaying a lot of demons. It was only then that I met Pisa."

Dad then looked towards Mom and she blushed for a bit before slapping his smiling face with full force.

"Who would've known that I was kicked back flying above the air during hunting because of a variant horse beast and coincidentally landing on your Mom taking a bath at a nearby spring I have no knowledge of?"

Dad, your face... It's swollen red.

"This guy just appeared out of nowhere and I tried to kill him at that instant. I couldn't even land a single hit while he was looking at my naked body since I was so confident to end him in a single slit to the neck!"

"I was about to try and apologize for that accident but you just zoomed in like a beast so I kept my eyes open..."

"Dodge while your eyes closed then!"

This wouldn't probably end in a while so I just listened to them argue until they finally both calmed down and laughed together instead. After that, Dad took a look ahead the road, and I could see a fairly small house on the horizon.

It was slightly on top of a small hill and before you reach the house, there were three different types of sheds that probably housed farm animals that were surrounded by thick wooden fences, but right now even the grass for pasture have been damaged. There were no people but one could see a few carcasses of cows and pigs that were half-eaten and were rotting. I couldn't help but look away and slightly cover my nose as we passed by.

For a farm this size, it must have cost quite a lot. There was even a greenhouse on the side of the house which couldn't be any more destroyed. Pieces of glass scattered around it, and only a few plants were left intact.

We continued to walk for a while more in silence, and only our footsteps on pavement could be heard.

It took us about five minutes before realizing that the small house that could be seen was about three hundred meters wide, and I can't see how much it extended towards the back, but what I know is that even going further behind the house still extended their owned land.

It wouldn't be a stretch to call my Dad rich, but why did we live like that at Phione?

Without knocking on the door, we entered the house and what we found wasn't exactly too much of a mess.

Since there wasn't really that much furniture inside, only a wide range of flowers littered on the floor. The wallpapers weren't badly damaged but there were a few ones that had claw marks and a few even went through the wall, lighting the dim atmosphere inside.

I suddenly noticed a silhouette of a person further inside. As if receiving my glance, dust flew everywhere and with a whiff, a woman in white casual clothes was wielding a sword as she charged towards us without a word.

*clang*

Dad waved his dagger with a flicker, and the incoming sword flew through the ceiling and got stuck. The woman held his hands high and had a weird smile which didn't really looked like a smile.

"I've brought your nephew, isn't he cute?"

"If you were any second later, we would have probably gone and went to Phione to go find you instead..." The woman replied then looked at me. Within a glance, she doesn't look like father but...

"AWW ISN'T HE CUTE?"

The big sister quickly carried me as if I was a feather stuffed doll and tightly embraced me without warning. I wasn't aware of the consequences and met suffocation. There was a bit of comfort in this soft and painful predicament though, and I think my soul would probably be a few seconds away from floating towards another world transfer...

"Aww... Let me hug him more~"

"Kaff? Kaff?! He's fainted!"

I felt weak and those were the last words I've heard before actually fainting.

***

Here I am again in the vast white space where the vortex existed.

If I'm correct, that vortex should be the source of Origin, and it seems to slowly grow more and more as the time passes by.

Just looking at it gives me a good feeling, and even thinking about how strong I could get makes me excited.

Who knew that excruciating pain was probably a step for me to gain its power?

Not really knowing what to do, how, and why I am here, it seems that I could probably enter this place during sleeping.

In the meantime, I observed the vortex for a bit.

Besides from it just rotating, I also wonder how it's tied to me so I tried controlling it.

I gathered the azure vortex towards my hand, and tried to grasp as much possible.

Strands of light gathered on my arms, and they kept rotating until I formed a vortex of my own, but not as big as the one in the distance.

What's strange is that I can control it, but I can't really feel it, as if it's not my own power yet.

Oh? What if I circulate it around my body?

Let the light travel through my whole body, from head, face, back of neck, shoulders, lungs, chest, heart, back, stomach...

I continued to fill my body with light and tried to circulate it on my body in this white space, but I still can't feel anything even after a full five minutes have passed.

This is really strange. I should be feeling something already, but... what's this?

The light in my hand... I could feel it? But how? It's also slowly disappearing, along with the feeling.

.....

Crap, so that's how it is then!

***

I woke up and there was this faint smell of a kind of wood all over and opened my eyes. The windows showed that it was daytime. Have I slept for a day?

I woke up very refreshed, as if rising from a very deep slumber. I tried to check out my Origin but was alarmed when I noticed someone on the side.

"How are ya feeling son?"

A man with a beard sat on a chair beside the bed I was lying on. He looks very close in appearance to Dad.

"Grandpa?"

"You recognize me? Haha!"

I felt nostalgia finally meeting my grandpa, and my heart felt a slight itch.

He still looked young I though, so I asked him his age and told me he was already 75. Does living in a good place really extend a person's lifespan like this? I thought he was around 50 and the look of amazement in my face probably showed and he had a chuckle.

"This old man is really seventy up. With you turning five, that's a lot of years more to meet. Happy birthday child."

His smile formed slight wrinkles below the sides of his eyes, and it was only then that I really got to believe that he's really around that age. Also, it's my birthday today?

"Arc must have been hard on ya. I collected a few fruits here, I heard you haven't had one of these yet so give them a try."

After that he let out a wide smile, stood up and left the room. I saw a basket of fruits on the other side of the bed and took one of them.

Yeah, these look more ordinary. Not alike that one time that was served in front of me.....

***

After I ate a few of the fruits gramps left for me, I got out of the bed and saw two more other rooms that were quite a few more steps away. On the other end was a stairway going down. Nothing much was displayed and all I can see are all vases with flowers of different kinds. Seems like they love flowers that much.

I could hear them talking to each other below so I also went down the stairs.

The walls and floors had signs of repair. I couldn't see much from this side and there were a few more steps before I could wander around the house.

"Happy Birthday Kaff!"

They all greeted me in unison the moment I took a step out of the corner of the wall leading to the living room.

As I have went over a few years of my life, experiencing my own birthday I really don't know if I was celebrating in the correct day. But in this world, they're definitely my true parents and relatives. I'm not an orphan anymore.

The holes in the wall were gone, dimming the place and the only light that could be seen was from the windows. They converged at a certain spot on the center of the room, and it was located exactly on the place where we would be eating.

I could see a woman with slightly small eyes between my parents, blowing out petals, scattering them on the surroundings. I couldn't identify which flowers were they using for confetti, but they smell very fragrant. She looked at me with an expression that wasn't really overly smiling, but it displayed that she was expressing joy.

She had a few grey lines over her black hair, and it looked like she's still young. She wore a yellow blouse with a long brown skirt that stretched to the floor. There were a few embroiderings here and there on her outfit.

She must be my grandmother.

Another woman helped her scatter the petals, fanning them with a small blanket on the side. The one that almost choked me from her bountiful erm... With the same plain clothes that she wore from the other day, she's probably my aunt?

Her face was slightly blushing and within her smile was a small hint of repression; I bet she's having cute aggression right now.

Then on the left side stood my grandfather. He was holding onto a cap that looked like it met almost every ray of the sun from the dry feeling it gave. His clothes were also plain looking, and there were even a few patches of soil or dirt on the end of his trousers.

Finally, there was Mom and Dad.

A complete family, I couldn't express the feelings that I'm feeling right now seeing I'm a part of them.

The scene absolutely stunned me, even though the makeshift repairs in the house wasn't really the best right now, I had a fuzzy feeling in my chest.

My vision started to become blurry, and I subconsciously looked upward and I turned around to hide myself, but Dad was in front of me in an instant. He then hugged me, carried and brought towards the cake that had a candle on it.

"Why is he crying?" My aunt suddenly asked.

"I don't think he had a bad dream though?" I could hear my grandfather also coming closer to check up on me, but I hid my face on Dad's shoulder more tightly.

"Eh, even I don't know what's going on. Last time we had cake he wasn't like this."

"...*hicc*... I'm just... Ha-ppy..."

They were all silent after that---only to be started again by my aunt.

"AWW... He's just so cute!"