"I see that you have a new student." Savar glanced towards the man's side, and a young man stepped forward and gestured for a handshake.
"Where is the rumored hero that defeated the Void Demoness?"
"He's still currently recuperating as his injuries are only slightly healed. Four healers are around him all the time, trying to remove a vicious curse."
The man Savar referred to as Master put his hand on the young man's shoulder and instead replied. "We should talk about that in a different time." His eyes glanced towards the seat at the center of the platform in front of them instead, and the young man also followed his line of sight, "We're here to give regards towards the next-in-line daughter of the Flairfly household."
"She's currently getting ready. She'll be here soon."
As soon as Savar finished his words, the people within the pavillion all stood and went silent. All of them were looking back from the hallway where they entered.
A girl was currently walking towards the entrance of the pavillion. She wore a gown that was dyed in all black, and there were various embroideries in gold that lined throughout the gown. There was a black veil that obscured her face, yet the thinness of the veil couldn't hide some of her distinguishing features.
Her eyes were slightly sharper than the average, her body frame a bit taller than most girls her age. There were even signs of maturity on her body here and there, that made most of the men lock their eyes on. Her hair was long enough to reach her lower back, and there were signs of silvery color on the ends.
Along on her side, the thin bald man which guided the guests also walked with her, yet he garnered no attention at all. Once she entered the pavillion, the butler moved away and returned to his post with agility.
The girl floated towards the platform, only making her look like a fairy, one that was black and partially golden. Savar went back the platform, and the other guy behind the girl's seat stood.
"I introduce to you all the heir to the Flairfly house, Dorother."
As Savar's voice reverberated throughout the whole pavillion, a few of the dazed Vates snapped back to reality while most of them just kept staring as if implanting her image onto their memory.
After that, the sound of a spoon hitting glass echoed from behind, and food was served. The people that stood up earlier sat down, and Savar stepped forward of Dorother, then began to speak.
"Today, as all of you might know, my brother William is still in recovery but I am here to take his place for this celebration..."
...
Meanwhile, on a mountain trail northwest of Phione, a boy and a woman removed their thick coats and ran downwards the foot of the mountain, rolling over the wide meadow that was full of green grass.
"FINALLY!"
Arc continued to roll on the grass until her she lost momentum, dust, grass, and soil partially tainting her plain leather clothes.
"FINALLY!"
Kaff started to fly like a bee that roamed around a flower, and a white orb orbited around his body as he continued to fly.
The two were ecstatic upon meeting a familiar place once again.
***
I was really tempted to go fly back towards Phione but if I didn't do what Yona asked us to do, I bet she'll strike me like lightning from nowhere.
Finally, I can fly once more!
What's that?
There's a golden light that encompassed almost a third of Phione, and it looked like an irregular heptagon.
"Aunt! Look over here!"
Aunt Arc sat from her lying position and shouted towards me.
"I'm looking!"
"No! That's not what I meant! Fly over here to see!"
"Okay!"
Within an instant, Aunt's body came close to my side and I pointed towards Phione. Her eyes furrowed as she looked over the distance.
"I'm as confused as you are." I shrugged my shoulders, and glanced back at the light on the distance.
"Let's just ask, but remember what Yona said, okay?"
"Right. Do not use my power recklessly."
It's really strange how the white orb I somehow made two years ago always shows up whenever I use Origin, as if I transformed into a demon. So far, Yona told us that she doesn't know of any race or kind of power that's similar to their demonic red Soul Orb, but it doesn't seem that what I possess compared to Salire's power isn't identical, nor does it have any trace of it.
She told me to just hide my Origin instead if I don't really have to use it, and instead use the preset Origin sword that I made beforehand.
I can now make Origin constructs into simple objects without deconstructing it after releasing my control. It means I can now make weapons and shields or other things like a flyswatter perhaps, beforehand, and it won't have to be controlled. The only bad side in that is that I have to use some kind of storage to keep my things, like the sheathe attached to my back tied to my whole body.
We got down and started to briskly walk in excitement towards Phione. The once long walk for us took only fifteen minutes as the road was downhill and easier to traverse.
As soon as we reached the trail that led towards Phione, the forest made me remember Kirllia.
It's not that I haven't gotten over with her death yet, but I can't help it if there were a lot of memories made during our time together. It only made my resolve grow stronger as we went back to Phione.
"Kaff, look!"
From Aunt's surprise, I thought we were under attack and subconsciously put my hand over my Origin blade, only to look at her dazed while looking at a tree nearby.
--Wanted - Demonic Child--
--Dead or Alive--
--1,000,000 silver coins--
"What the heck?"
"I was supposed to boast that I could now read, but this thing..." Aunt walked near the poster glued to one of the trees on the side and tore it off, before obliterating it by using some magic.
"I just returned and this?"
Of all the aliases, Demonic Child? Who the heck gave that title to me, and why?
Based from the fancy text within the poster, and the exact image of me and my black cloak as a student in Borollo... It must be the church and the merchants colluding with each other.
I don't use this specific cloak anyway, my height a bit higher, and my hair is longer now. I don't think anyone would discover me with my current appearance.
I'm eight years old now, and the four year old me has obscured features because of the cloak anyway.
"Let's go Aunt, I look a bit different anyway. It's also great that you know how to read!"
"Hehe... you're making me blush."
We resumed our walk and began to sprint instead, as we could already see the gates that were now open with less guards, and more civilians going in and out. There were even carriages, and it felt good to see that everything is normal once more.
"Your city pass, please." A guard blocked our path with a spear, and saw it had a feather on it. I can assume he's a Civil Corps guard.
"We recently came hunting from the mountains a month ago, we're from Illa. What's a city pass?" Aunt replied towards the guard, and I could see the other guard click his tongue as he glared at the one in front of us.
Looking at Aunt's sleeveless plain leather clothing, she would surely attract a fair amount of guys. Not only that, but there was even a mount that crashed on the carriage on his front, just to further emphasize on this fact.
I can see the guard in front of us looking towards her chest, so I picked up a rock on the side and flicked it on his helmet.
"You!---"
The other guard couldn't help it and I could see a lot of red on his face and ears before interrupting the one in front.
"Hello miss, I can see that you don't have a city pass. Since you're from Illa, you can acquire one from there. But seeing that you have a child companion, I could help you fetch a special carriage instead...for a low fee."
Seeing how these guys react, I'm pretty sure the city pass is just a fake excuse just for them to get more in contact with Aunt, so I held her hand, focusing their attention on me. I'm not very short, but I'm at a height where my head reached Aunt's belly.
"I have an idea." I beckoned towards her, whispered into her ears, as she crouched towards me and smiled in return.
"We'll go back to Illa instead, thanks for the tip." Aunt waved and we walked back on the road once more, until we reached the horizon.
We started to sprint towards the forest once more.
...
"Mom what's that?"
"Stop looking...! We didn't saw anything!"
A woman covered a child's eyes as soon as we flew over the wall on the northeastern side of Phione. Looks like we somehow flew near the slums, and I could feel the negativity in the area upon descending on one of the rooftops.
The familiar corrugated roof sheets clanged with our steps as we floated downwards, and it's a good thing the sun was still high up, enough for me to disguise my white orb as some flash of light. Cancelling flight, each step we made was accompanied by noise. A few of the higher built houses had people come out and checked what was going on, which only attracted more attention.
I should probably scare them away, I thought, so I release my white orb of light and covered it with a red spherical barrier.
Hovering above my head, the orb orbited around me relentlessly as it dyed the rooftops red.
"Ah... DEMON!"
One person exclaimed and the rest finally ran away in panic, dispersing the people all around.
With this, people would surely spread rumors that I've arrived.
We hastily ran and finally found where this part of the slums in the city ended, and jumped in the middle of the road where a lot of people gathered. I can see that there are a lot of decorations and stuff all around the streets.
What's up with that?
"DEMONIC CHILD!"
One loud shout and all of the people all around us fled like a drop of detergent was used on an oily plate. Was I that scary? Shouts of panic and disorder created a bit of chaos. I could even see a few people dragging and leaving each other behind, and a mother even abandoned her child, making the child confused before it started to cry out loud.
"Don't be scared." I went near him, then flashed a white wisp of Origin on my hand, then willed it, transformed into a pinwheel on a stick and gave it to him. I blew on it to make it spin, and he started to calm down.
"Brother, do you know why there's stars and moons hanging on the streets?" Hearing my question, his frown was replaced by a forced smile before he answered.
"They... Mom said... there's going to be a big party." He was about to cry once more but he urged himself not to.
"You're brave, brother. That pinwheel is yours as thanks."
"Why do you speak like an old man?"
"Do I really?" I can only bitterly smile from Aunt's question, as I am really a bit older than my age.
I glanced all around the place and there were a few people who saw us, and I can hear the incoming footsteps of a large amount of people increasing in intensity towards us.
"Aunt... Do wedding ceremonies usually involve everyone in town?"
"Nope. Even big brother and Pisa sis didn't have a wedding."
"What!?"
"He only told me in secret, before I told Mother and... well, I was sandwhiched by them. Tehe!"
Looks like I don't know about a lot of things!
"Where should we go?" Aunt asked me as the guards were already on sight. There were also a lot of Vates that were flying over here, and any sooner we'll have to break through their formations.
"If that golden light is made by Gemmatria, then we'll try going there first."
We nodded at each other before flying away back towards the slums and changed directions. The soldiers on the ground couldn't follow us, and the flying Vates were slow as turtles compared to our current speed yet we decided to separate for now to make ourselves more obscure before we agreed to meet somewhere near the border of the golden light.