Chapter 25.

Raphtalia POV

Raphtalia woke to the smell of an amazing breakfast and was treated to a simple meal of bread with some sort of cream spread over it and roasted meat. It wasn't as luxurious as the food last night but she was quick to eat it.

The filolials received almost exactly what she had but in much greater amounts. Mr Adrian sighed as he watched the mess they were making but didn't say anything until they were done eating.

"Okay both of you need names." he said," do you have any suggestions?"

"Please give us our names father."

"I'm Trystan big bro!" said the Black Filolial.

Adrian raised his eyebrows as the two filolials turned to each other after their statements. Raphtalia saw that he was a little concerned about something but she couldn't pay attention to him anymore because the black filolial-no it was Trystan- had started to argue with the other one.

"Hey, sis! He's our big brother not our dad." the young voice that sounded like Keel from the massive bird was still very odd to her.

The other filolial who was in her angel girl form barely looked at him as he flailed his wings around, "Father has raised us so he is our father," she said, and Raphtalia could hear the 'you idiot', very clearly.

"But he can't be my big bro and your dad! Then he'd be my brother and father, that makes no sense!"

The white filolial agreed, "That is why you should realize that he is your father as well. And he should name us, you don't name yourself."

The argument continued and Mr Adrian just watched until the winged girl started to say, "I, the ruler of all power-"

"Enough!" Mr Adrian said, his voice wasn't loud, but Raphtalia shivered at his cold tone. She was happy that he wasn't paying attention to her.

He looked to the angel girl and asked, "Do you think Isis is fine? It refers to a very powerful mythological being from my world and if your skill at magic is as potent as I suspect it is then it should be a good name."

The girl lit up, "Thank you!"

"Good," he said smiling, "but Isis, Trystan please remember that it is fine for you both to argue about your different opinions but please do not become violent or use magic. Okay?" his voice had turned stern towards the end.

"But-" Isis started to say.

"Isis, he is entitled to his own opinion. We are not related by blood, if he feels more comfortable considering me his elder sibling then I'll be honoured about that and if you feel better about considering me to be your father then that is perfectly understandable as well."

"Okay." she said, a lot more subdued, "Sorry."

"It's okay!" said Trystan, "I was angry as well and kind of stupid too," he said sheepishly rubbing the back of his head with his wing.

Raphtalia felt tears prickle out of her eyes and quickly started to wipe them away. For a moment she couldn't figure out why. Then she realized what this reminded her off, Keel and Rifana arguing and then her Sadeena resolving the fight.

"Raphtalia?" said Trystan, as the giant bird approached her, "are you okay?"

Raphtalia tried to dry her tears and nodded at his blurry face but his panic only grew.

"Big bro! She's crying-"

"Give her a hug Trystan. It'll make her feel better."

Before she could respond to Mr Adrian or the filolial she was buried in a huge mass of warm feathers as he picked her up.

It was strange but nice.

"I, the source of all power command you, shatter, bend and break," said Isis as she pointed at the ground beneath a small pack of wolves.

Immediately the ground beneath their feet began to vanish in odd segments, it left behind a gaping pit with this spikes present which the wolves were impaled onto. The three survivors howled their fury but didn't approach the girl, warily circling her even as she stood there with a simple combination of a skirt and shirt without even a basic weapon to her name.

Raphtalia found it really amazing that the angelic girl could fight so well. She knew that this was her first battle and though Raphtalia herself and Mr Adrian were a bit concerned she knew that neither of the filolials was worried in the slightest.

Trystan was cheering his sister, a far cry from his annoyance when Mr Adrian had announced that only Isis would be fighting this pack, he didn't look worried at all that his sister was fighting. They were both really brave.

Mr Adrian was worrying a lot though, enough to compensate for himself and both of the filolials combined, he had five floating swords moving around him mid air and was holding onto a sword in his hand tightly enough that his knuckles turned white. He really did act like their papa, always worried, but willing to let them play anyway.

Isis jumped out of the way of their attack, the jump took her really high into the air and then she started to fall, but she flared her wings and almost came to a standstill before starting to chant again. Raphtalia didn't hear what she said properly, the howling of the wolves prevented that, but she saw the massive fireball that was created easily enough.

It crashes into the ground with a huge amount of force, sending up dust and a wash of heat she could feel from the distance she was at. Two of the wolves were melted by it, their flesh sloughing off their bones like it was wax.

Raphtalia winced at the horrible smell and pinched her nose shut. The last remaining wolf tried to run away but Isis ran up to it with her glowing fist and slammed into its back with a huge amount of force.

The wolf was bent around the point where Isis had hit him and made one last wretched sound before it collapsed and stopped moving.

Isis skipped back to Mr Adrian, looking like she had gone for a short walk if it wasn't for the blood splatter on her dress and the incredible devastation right behind her. She stopped in front of him and waited while he considered the scene.

"You did very well Isis." he said, and patted her head, "how long do you think you can keep up that level of combat?"

"Yeah sis that was awesome! The fireball was amazing, those wolves were nothing"

Isis smiled brightly at the compliments but her look turned serious at the question from Mr Adrian, "I can use the spells for a long time father. It takes me almost no effort to use them...but they are not instantly usable like your ones."

She looked away at that last point as if it was an unbearable shame.

" This was your first real battle Isis," he pointed out, "you did spectacularly and will only improve in time. Don't worry too much about how long it takes you to cast a spell, with your skill and mana reserves, you can make each spell count. That matters more."

She smiled and he turned to the filolial she was riding on, "Alright Trystan it's your turn now. There is an interesting chimaera a which we will encounter in a few minutes in that direction," he said pointing towards the sun, " do your best and remember that your first priority is to stay safe. No reckless moves." he slashes his hand as he said this in a warning tone.

Trystan responded seriously for once, the hyperactive filolial only nodded and said," Yes big brother."

Mr Adrian smiled in response, "Thank you for taking it seriously. We'll be there to back you up if needed but do your best."

"Yes!" he said.

As they walked towards the monster Raphtalia began to wonder about Mr Adrian. She didn't understand him at all. He said that he didn't want her to fight but he was leveling her up along with the rest of her party and he was making them fight.

They reached the monster and Raphtalia saw that it was a really big lizard with a huge snout. The monster reacted to them before they got a chance to do anything but Mr Adrian casually swung the sword in his hand and a massive blade made out of wind stopped its' charge and made it wary. It stopped and began to circle them, its large tail whipping back and forth.

"Raphtalia please move off Trystan's back," he said, his tone calm and cold.

She jumped off instantly and then turned towards the filolial, "Good luck." she said, hoping that he would not get hurt against the huge monster. Raphtalia was sure that Mr Adrian would stop it...but he could get hurt anyway.

"Thank you!" he said looking at her, "I'll beat it up real good!"

"Trystan," said Mr Adrian, his tone was urgent, " please start when you're ready. It is getting to charge again."

"Okay!" he said and burst forward.

Raphtalia closed her eyes and held up her hands to block the wind and dust. She had been right next to the filolial when he had runoff. She quickly rubbed her eyes and watched the fight even as she cleaned up the dust that had fallen on top of her.

Unfortunately, there was nothing to see, by the time she had managed to clean her eyes Trystan had slammed against the monster and had quite literally kicked its' head off. She could see the massive head of the monster and the gaping wound in the headless body that was spitting out blood. A massive pool of oddly coloured blood was forming around the body.

"That was risky Trystan." said Mr Adrian while moving towards the corpse and starting to harvest it, "had it been even a little bit faster or had your attack not been enough to kill it you would have been in a rather bad position. Don't be so direct in your attack next time okay?"

The filolial laughed sheepishly and said, " it was really weak so I didn't worry too much and just kicked it."

Mr Adrian looked up to him, his head moving quickly to stare directly at the bird, and said, "you can judge their strength without any significant observation?"

"Uh-huh, it's' real easy. I could tell that this one," said Trystan while kicking the head, " was really slow and could bite really well, so I hit its' head very hard. I didn't think it would die so easily though. I was getting ready to hit it again," towards the end he was starting to complain.

Mr Adrian looked contemplative and asked Trystan a bunch of other questions but Raphtalia was starting to feel a little numb.

They were all amazing. Isis could use some powerful magic, Trystan was really fast and strong and Mr Adrian could do so many incredible things. The more she thought about it the more she realized that there was nothing she could do that would help him.

Mr Adrian spent all his time fighting so he must have been an adventurer but he could use his magic for food, water and even clothes! He didn't need anything else. Was this why he didn't put the slave crest on her? Was she totally useless to him?

Raphtalia felt a cold certainty rise up at that thought. She was useless to him but he had helped her which meant that there must have been something he could take from her.

They spent the rest of the day like that. Mr Adrian would go up into the sky and kill a lot of monsters but he would always leave a few alive. Then he would make Isis and Trystan fight those monsters while he was harvesting other ones.

None of the monsters were strong enough to trouble them and whenever a lot of monsters came to fight Mr Adrian would kill most of them and then let the filolials fight all the leftovers. It was the first time that Raphtalia had really seen him defeat the monsters when they were close by and she realized why Mr Adrian was able to cut up these huge monsters so easily without getting scared. He was so fast that she couldn't even see him and all his enemies died without a fight, she couldn't even see him move before the monsters ended up dying.

They continued even after the sun had set and Raphtalia had long since lost count of how many monsters they had seen but Mr Adrian and the filolials didn't seem to get tired and they kept on fighting.

Then her stomach started to growl. Raphtalia winced but she was walking right next to Mr Adrian and he had noticed it immediately. He looked at her and then sighed.

" Let's take a small break for dinner," he said, "we've been hunting for hours without much rest."

"Awesome!" said Trystan, "Can we have that dragon meat we had yesterday? It was really tasty."

"Sure," he said amused, "consider it an apology from me for pushing all of you so hard today."

"Yes!" said Trystan, dancing around in place for a bit before they started moving.

He led them to a clearing and then started to get things set up for dinner. Raphtalia started to drool a little as the smell of the food began to spread. She realized that his dinner set up was more elaborate than normal. He was not using his magic to make the food instead he was getting some almost cooked food and then preparing it a bit more.

Raphtalia moved a little closer to see what he was doing and so did Trystan, Mr Adrian saw them both and Raphtalia froze until he said, "Curious? I'm using the sword to prepare most of the food but I'm making a few modifications to the recipe."

"Will it taste even better?" asked the black filolial a large strand of drool hanging from his mouth.

"It should. You all will be the one to tell me if I succeed, so look forward to it okay?" he said, and then looked to her, "Raphtalia, please take this medicine okay, it should not be needed but it is best to be safe."

He handed her a glass bottle like all the medicine he had given her. She opened it, smelled it and drank it down in a single gulp once she realized that it was the same medicine as before. She waited for the warmth but frowned when she didn't feel anything.

Mr Adrian noticed and he stopped cooking and turned towards her.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, concern clear in his voice.

She shook her head but then stopped, could something be wrong? She didn't know how the medicine worked.

"Umm, the medicine didn't feel like before," she said after he raised his eyebrow, she tried not to feel scared about complaining to him after he gave her medicine. His silence as he raised his hand to his chin made her feel even more scared but after nearly a minute he just said.

"It could be the dosage because of your growth Raphtalia," he said, "but it is more likely that you are simply not as injured as before so the feeling was different."

Her eyes widened, that was right! She was much better than before and all the pain was already gone. The warm feeling had been the pain going away but with all of it already gone it didn't do anything.

Wait, that must mean that he had wasted the medicine on her!

Raphtalia looked at him but he just patted her head and then went back to cooking. She let out a breath she hadn't realized that she was hadn't realized that the medicine had been a waste.

The next day was a lot of the same but Raphtalia had just realized something. Mr Adrian was as strong as Sadeena had been, if he had been there during the wave then he could have stopped the monsters and saved the village.

But even if he could not do that anymore...he could still save Rifana.

Raphtalia looked at him from where she was sitting on top of the filolial. He was running with the two filolials who were in their Royal forms and they were moving to a new area where Mr Adrian was going to kill the monsters using his magic swords.

She didn't know if he would help. She didn't know what he wanted or when he would make her fight but she knew that he was better than the fat man who had hurt her again and again. Raphtalia should ask him, he was scary but if he would save Rifana then he could do whatever he wanted to her and it would be okay.