Kiss You When I Grow Up!

Grassley and Dalilia spent five hours in the woods not finding a single encroachment beast to get an encroachment heart from.

The reason for this was simple, but nonetheless perplexing to the little children.

All the Encroachment beasts near the edge of the forest had been captured by the seniors and teachers of the school in order to protect the younger generations. And when the students went out to hunt encroachment beasts, the seniors would release beasts that matched up to their level.

The only place in the forest near Sacred Fire Academy that still had encroachment beasts was after the level 1 area. The forest had a level 2 and level 3 section which only senior students were allowed to enter.

Grassley was fairly confident about his ability to defeat any low level encroachment beast, but the further they went into the forest the more his confidence waned.

Dalilia had started holding his hand and shivering with tears in her eyes while they walked further and further into the forest. She had eyes of determination mixed with her tears. The last thing she wanted was to fail the first challenge and get expelled from the school.

If she got expelled, her father's resources that he received from the school every year would get cut in half. She held up her chin and walked further and further into the forest until she finally screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Where are they! Those stupid encroachment beasts were everywhere before!" She smacked Grassley's arm several times before stomping on the ground. "Damn it! Grassley, let's keep going."

"We should stop, Dalilia," Grassley wiped a tear from her eye. "You're sad and it's getting late. More powerful encroachment beasts come out at night."

"I don't care. If I get expelled, I'll lose everything. You just have a mother, right with no extended family! If I fail, three generations of my family will be put to shame!" Dalilia was referring to the three generations rule in Sacred Fire Universe Nation.

If you had a family in a prestigious position, if one person in your family failed it would affect three generations of resources. Sacred Fire Nation did this for many reasons, but one to ensure no resources got wasted on talentless scions. If a family had a wastrel born, then they could choose to recycle the child themselves once a year.

Dalilia had a best friend growing up that got recycled because he didn't have access to his spiritual roots. She could still see his face when he walked into the betterment chamber. It looked like a coffin and was used to take little 'children' to the better place.

In Sacred Fire Nation, once a year, hundreds of children would be placed in the betterment chamber to be turned into precious resources. She had thought at the time that only poor children got recycled, but seeing her best friend turned into energy for Machin to devour, she had promised to try harder to become the best in her family's entire lineage.

She couldn't help but grind her fist into a ball while Grassley put his arms around her and gave her a hug. Grassley knew if she kept crying, she'd attract an extremely terrifying monster. If that happened, even with his hidden power, he might be killed and the fate of the universe with him!

"Dalilia, I'm so sorry, but you can't cry. Why don't you go back and I'll get us three encroachment hearts by the morning."

"You-you promise?" Dalilia wiped the tears from her eyes. "If you don't, my-my family will be killed!"

"Dalilia, you're my first friend. A little annoying, but I like you a lot!" Grassley smiled and rubbed her back. "The log cabin is only a few miles from here in that direction."

"A few miles? Haven't we been walking all night?"

Grassley shook his head and smiled. He had intentionally walked in circles the entire night to avoid them running into a powerful encroachment beast.

He had already heard about the dangers of the level 2 section of Sacred Academy's Forest. Earlier in the night, when attacked by the blackfire bear, he had heard a senior's body get torn in pieces right before the Black fire bear attacked. After spending all night walking around the periphery of the academy, he realized that the seniors had been to release the beasts.

The seniors had released the umbra wolf in order to scare Grassley and Dalilia before the Black fire Bear attacked them from behind.

The umbra wolf they had in their possession had just walked up to them one day and let them place it in their storage rings. They figured with its docile nature, it would cause the kids to run and maybe chase after them.

Ultimately, they had died a second after releasing the umbra wolf.

Grassley didn't have any doubts that without the umbra wolf there, Dalilia would've been killed. He felt somewhat guilty that this little girl might fail because of him.

"Dalilia, I'll seriously be fine. Just go back to the dormitory and meet me outside of the school in the morning."

"Wah! Wah! Are-are you sure?" Dalilia wiped the tears from her eyes. "I-I know what you're planning on doing! You better not die idiot!"

Dalilia turned around and rushed back to the girls dormitory, looking back a second later to find that Grassley had disappeared.

'Please-please don't let me lose you too.' Dalilia saw her friend disappearing in the betterment chamber and turning into ash that floated into the sky. 'I-I want to kiss you when I grow up, so you better not die!'