Adopting The Sword

The idyllic life of the family of three continued on without any major incidents for another two years.

Young Ais was a little less than a meter tall by now and had managed to become perfectly fluent when speaking. Only every once in a while did she still need to inquire about what something that she encountered was called - after all, she hadn't ventured particularly far away from the cabin that was her home. She had her energetic bouts during which she wanted to wander around all day long, but most of the time, she was content if she got to snuggle up to her mother and listen to her as she read various storybooks aloud.

Over the past two years, her father had to leave for 'work' another five times, but never long enough to make young Ais and her mother grow excessively worried. Fortunately, there seemed to be no pressing issue to handle now that it was her third birthday, so the small family could enjoy their peace and quiet properly.

Well, that would have been the case, if not for a group of five unfamiliar people dropping by unannounced.

Startled by the sudden knock on the door, young Ais, who had been eagerly anticipating the first slice of her mother's mouth-watering, home-made birthday cake, grasped Aria's hand tightly, staring at the house's entrance with hints of both anxiety and intrigue displayed on her face.

Shooting his wife a helpless, apologetic smile, Albert stood up to welcome the new arrivals. Of course, both he and Aria had already noticed them a fair bit of time before they had managed to make it all the way here, but because they didn't want to give their daughter an unrealistic example of how to deal with visitors properly, they responded in exactly the way that regular people would.

"Yo, Albert! We recalled that there's a birthday girl in the house today, so we decided to drop by for a visit. We brought a present too!"

At the very front of the group of five was a dark blonde young man with cat ears peeking out of his relatively short but messy hair. Underneath the plain green V-neck shirt and pants made out of a dark grey fabric, there was a toned and fit body that he made no effort to hide. Coupled with his dark green eyes, the grin permanently playing across his lips and his generally outstandingly handsome looks, he most definitely was popular with the ladies wherever he went.

Maybe in general, that was indeed the case, but his charms certainly didn't affect the two women that were visiting this place alongside him. Both the High Elf and the Amazoness didn't even bother to give him a single glance, despite appearing to be of around the same age as him. Instead, they were mainly focused on the somewhat cautious young Ais who was quietly peeking at them, partially hidden from view by the table that she was seated at.

The High Elf was almost entirely covered by her loose, dark blue robe that didn't accentuate her bodily proportions whatsoever. In fact, had her gorgeous face been shrouded in shadow due to being covered in a hood, then it would have been difficult to tell whether she was a man or a woman. Even the impeccably smooth skin of her exposed hands wouldn't give anything away, because nearly every Elf sported such transcendent beauty. Due to her jade-coloured hair being tied up in the shape of a bun at the back of her head, only a few loose strands framed her visage like a painting. Her emerald green eyes sparkled with curiosity.

As for the Amazoness right next to her, she wore maybe a fifth of the amount of fabric that her companion did - but even that was still considered to be a lot for an Amazoness. Normally, she would have strutted about in even skimpier attire, but because she didn't want to negatively influence her friend's child, she went out of her way to dress more properly this time. With that said, she still merely wore dark red hot pants that barely reached halfway down her thighs, as well as a tame, black bra that was partially revealed due to how flowy and oversized her white shirt was. Out of everyone here, she was the only one who walked around barefoot. She had dark-brown hair that was tied up in a ponytail as well as red eyes reminiscent of rubies… or maybe blood.

"You're Ais, right? Hurry up and come here. Let me have a better look at you."

Despite showing a small smile, the words of the High Elf came across quite cold and commanding, causing young Ais to panic and tear up a little. She had never met anyone other than her parents and she had also not been exposed to such an authoritative tone before. Not knowing what to do or how to react, her tears were already about to fall.

"Celdia!"

Glaring at the elven-eared maiden with a hint of bloodlust, Aria pulled young Ais into a hug and pulled out a handkerchief with which she wiped away her daughter's emerging tears. She wasn't the only one who was giving Celdia the stink eye - everyone else was shooting her disapproving glances as well. Couldn't she have left that side of her back on the battlefield? It was simply not appropriate to talk to a young, sheltered child in such a manner.

"I didn't mean to! I'm so sorry!! It just slipped out…!"

Realizing her mistake, the High Elf paled and hurriedly bowed in apology. Her glacier-esque facial expression shattered and was replaced by the face of a young woman who was way in over her head, completely out of her comfort zone.

"She didn't mean to frighten you, little one. She's just really not used to dealing with kids. Anyway, enough about that. I'm Evelda! Nice to meet you~"

Attempting to brighten up the awkward atmosphere, the Amazoness crouched down a little until she could gaze directly into the young Ais' eyes without having to look down on her and showed a toothy smile. Despite the somewhat fiery, dangerous air that was usually around her, she exuded nothing but overwhelming friendliness at the moment, making the birthday girl calm down in but a few moments.

"H-Hello. It's nice to meet you too, Miss Evelda."

Doing her best to adjust to the unfamiliar situation, Ais nodded, a smile resurfacing on her lips. Due to how borderline unnaturally adorable she appeared for someone of her age, the hearts of not only her parents, but also those of the visitors, practically melted right then and there. Even Celdia, who had just gathered herself again, couldn't help but swoon in adoration.

"Thank you all for coming! Ais, these five are my co-workers and friends. From the left, there's Oren, Celdia, Evelda, Selwyn and Alden. You don't need to be afraid of them or be overly polite at all. They're good people!"

Oren was the name of the Cat Person who had been the first to enter the cabin, while Selwyn and Alden were the Dwarf and the Pallum that had been the last ones to make their way inside.

Selwyn was about a head shorter than Evelda, who herself was a bit taller than Aria. He had long, braided black hair but a remarkably short beard compared to other Dwarves - it could barely be considered a full beard! He was also a bit less stocky than most of his brethren, to the extent that many people would accidentally think of him as a short human, rather than a Dwarf. He wore rosy brown gambeson-style attire - a long-sleeved shirt as well as simplistic pants - plus black mountaineering boots and had light-blue eyes that were glimmering with goodwill. The corners of his lips were lifted up in a gentle smile as he nodded at Aria and young Ais in greeting.

As for Alden, he was barely even a head taller than the birthday girl, which made him come across as the least threatening out of the entire bunch. He was slightly chubby - quite the unusual thing for someone of his occupation. Over his plain white shirt, he wore a black trench coat-esque jacket whose numerous pockets were filled to the brim with various small notebooks. The tiny part of his pants that was barely visible was light blue in colour, while his boots were made of dark brown leather. His crimson hair was only a few centimeters long, hardly enough to even cover his ears, while he wore a pair of glasses over his earthen-brown eyes.

"Like Oren said, we didn't come here empty-handed! We've got you a little something, but we don't know if it'll fit you perfectly. If it doesn't, then just have your mother adjust its size, alright? Here you go. Happy birthday!"

"Happy birthday!!"

After rummaging through their luggage for a bit, Evelda pulled out a box that was wrapped in decorative paper depicting gorgeous animal drawings and handed it over to the now significantly less distressed young Ais. Along with the Amazoness, everyone else chimed in to congratulate her as well.

"T-Thank you!"

A bit shy, the girl accepted the present - thankfully, it wasn't heavy - and gave a warm smile in response to the kind words as well as the present, eliciting more bouts of barely-suppressed "Aww"s. Eager to find out what she had been gifted, young Ais carefully opened the box, not daring to damage the paper that it had been wrapped in at all in the process. Thankfully, it wasn't too difficult to figure out how to do so.

Upon her success, her eyes fell upon a marine blue dress of extremely delicate make.

"Mama, can I try it on right now!?"

Almost jumping around out of joy, young Ais gazed at her mother with an eager look and an especially bright smile on her lips. Patting her head in response, Aria took her hand and led her into an adjacent room so that she could change in peace.

While the birthday girl was absent, Albert whispered the question that had been on his mind ever since he had noticed his friends' presence.

"Fiore isn't with you?"

Rolling his eyes and looking at him as if he was an idiot, Selwyn shook his head.

"Of course not. You know how jealous she is of Aria, right? She can barely stomach the fact that the two of you managed to have a child. I don't think she'll be able to endure her rival's daughter's birthday party any time soon…"

Scratching his cheek in embarrassment, Albert coughed and looked away, not knowing what to say. Of course, he had been aware of Fiore's feelings on this matter, but he hadn't thought that she was yet to come to terms with the situation.

"Wouldn't it be easy to solve this headache? Just give her a child as well!"

Grinning playfully, Oren wrapped an arm around Albert's shoulder and whispered, quietly enough so that young Ais wouldn't hear it. She shouldn't be confronted with such a topic at her age yet, after all.

"Aria and I decided that we will focus on properly raising Ais for at least ten years first. You know that."

Sternly staring at his friend, Albert furrowed his brows and shook his head. Before any of them could get even further into the topic, though, the door to the adjacent room opened and Aria let the birthday girl present herself in the new piece of clothing that she had just gotten.

Clad in the sleeveless dress that reached all the way to her knees, young Ais almost looked like an exquisitely-crafted doll fashioned after her mother's appearance. While the dress was a tiny bit too big for her at the moment, it wasn't much of an issue to wear it.

"How does it look?"

Twirling around a little and giggling happily, the birthday girl ran up to her father and pulled on his hand with excitement and anticipation sparkling in her eyes.

"Absolutely gorgeous. You're beautiful, my dear!"

Shrugging off Oren's arm as if he was getting rid of a piece of filth, Albert's face lit up with a loving smile. He knelt down to pick up his daughter, allowing her to sit on his left forearm and nestle against him with a triumphant look on her face.

"Oh gods! You're just too adorable!! Can I hug you?"

Barely capable of holding herself back from charging straight at her and wrapping her into an embrace, Evelda spoke up all of a sudden while inching closer to the father and daughter duo step by step.

"Umm… okay? Thank you?"

A bit confused by her behaviour, young Ais tilted her head and nodded. Mere seconds later, she already found herself getting cuddled by Evelda, who completely ignored the fact that she was still being held up by Albert. The father in question could only allow the corners of his mouth to twitch in annoyance as the Amazoness' ponytail hit him in the face multiple times during her affectionate antics.

Despite the fact that she was a bit too overly touchy-feely for young Ais' taste, she still got along very well with Evelda by the time that the visitors had to depart again. Even Celdia, who had scared her at first, had managed to salvage the situation and get along with her. As for Oren, he was surprisingly good with kids and had told her many stories about the outside world, completely fascinating her. She had barely spoken with Selwyn, but that was just because he was usually more of the quiet type. Still, she thought very highly of the kind, warm-hearted Dwarf. As for Alden, he joined Oren in his retelling of tales a couple of times, so he was also dubbed as a good person in her mind.

What made the birthday girl the happiest of all, however, was that nobody attempted to steal a slice of her birthday cake. But maybe that was just because none of them were particularly fond of the red bean paste within. Admittedly, it was a bit of an acquired taste in these parts.

-----

Less than a month before her fourth birthday, young Ais finally managed to talk her mother into agreeing to let her watch her father's morning exercise. She had been aware of him training outside every day for quite some time, but because her parents hadn't wanted her to familiarize herself with weapons at such an extremely young age, they hadn't allowed her to sneak out and observe. However, on this day in early April, Aria had had enough of her daughter's incessant pestering and had decided to let her have it her way.

"... wow!"

Even though Albert was initially confused at his daughter's sudden appearance, Aria's presence at the scene let him understand what had happened. In general, he didn't like it when others watched him practice, because it made him feel self-conscious and shy - but now that he was already in the midst of it, he couldn't just stop, right? Therefore, he ignored their arrival as well as young Ais' astonished remark and focused fully on polishing his swordsmanship.

This led to the young girl's bewilderment, because the movements of his sword as well as those of his body were too fast for her eyes to even remotely keep up with. All that she caught glimpses of was her father performing an odd 'dance'. His lower body appeared to barely move, while it looked as if he was holding on to something invisible and waving it around. She was both intrigued as well as confused.

After having finished perfecting another set of sword slashes, Albert felt like he should give his daughter something that she could actually observe properly - the girl was already here, so he might as well. With that in mind, he slowed down considerably, just enough for her to barely catch his movements.

What should have taken him seconds stretched on for tens of minutes, but he didn't complain. The fact that his adorable daughter's gaze was practically glued to his form as well as the sword that he held was enough to cause a joyful smile to spread on his face.

'But damn, this is way too embarrassing! I'm definitely not doing this again.'

… needless to say, that's certainly not how it played out.

Over the coming year, whenever he was at home, young Ais would want to watch his swordsmanship training. It was almost to the point of her getting obsessed with it. Even though she was aware that her father felt quite awkward when exercising in front of others, she didn't care - didn't her mother always manage to talk him into doing it anyway? Therefore, it couldn't possibly be that big of a deal.

She had long since been taught that her father's 'work' was a dangerous one. He protected their family, and many others, from harm by battling or hunting those who would endanger them with his trusty weapon. Admittedly, she was scared of bloodshed. Although she had never witnessed it, even imagining it caused a cold shiver to run down her spine.

And yet, she wasn't afraid of her father's swordsmanship. It was beautiful beyond compare, as well as absolutely enthralling! Admittedly having been influenced quite a bit by the stories that she had been told and recently started to read by herself on occasion, she saw her father as a hero - her hero, as well as her mother's hero. A hero who protected them first and foremost.

Sitting, as usual, on her mother's lap, she suddenly realized that her father's training had come to an end. After he had wiped off the sweat that had accumulated on his forehead with a towel, he made his way towards two of the most important women in his life and knelt down in front of them.

"Ais, here. I know it's too early for you to use it, but once you're strong enough to wield it, it'll be yours."

Smiling brightly, he handed her his sheathed practice sword under her mother's encouraging gaze. The two of them had been reluctant at first, but considering that she had been obsessed with swordsmanship for over a year… it was high time to properly educate her on how to safely handle a weapon, lest she accidentally hurt herself.

"T-Thank you! So much!!"

Overcome with emotion, young Ais held her sheathed sword in her arms, her eyes glistening with hardly-suppressed tears. Due to being half Spirit, she felt it relatively easy to lift the weapon, but it was still way too heavy and long for her to put it to actual use.

"No worries. I'll begin teaching you from now on, so that when the time comes, you can also protect others with your sword. To that end… I've made you something that you can use for the time being."

Ruffling through her hair with a bright grin on his face, Albert pulled something out of his nearby pile of training equipment - a small, wooden sword that he had carved himself.

Hugging two swords to her chest, young Ais began to sob out of happiness, finding herself embraced by her parents moments later.

From that day onward, twice per week, her father systematically taught her about swordsmanship. Of course, he didn't pressure her much and designed her training as a sort of game that the two played together. He was only very serious when he was cautioning her about the dangers that swords as well as other weapons posed - he didn't want her to injure herself or others in a moment of distraction, after all!

Until shortly after young Ais' sixth birthday, Albert had already left for 'work' more than 30 times, but whenever he came back, he didn't even have a single scratch on him. However, this status quo couldn't last forever.

It had been around a month since her last birthday. Back then, Evelda and the others, who had been visiting at least a couple of times each year, had needed her father to accompany them back to 'work' the very next day after the celebration. For one entire month, he hadn't returned home. This was by far the longest period of time that he had ever been absent.

When he finally came back, a faint but piercing scent of blood entered young Ais' nostrils almost immediately after she hugged him. A suppressed groan also escaped Albert's mouth, despite his best efforts.

"Daddy… what's wrong?"

Although she was overwhelmed with joy due to his return, she couldn't help but look up at him with worry written all over her adorable little face.

Noticing both her and Aria's concerned gazes, Albert sighed. He looked directly into his wife's eyes and appeared to be wordlessly discussing something with her, then he stood up and took off his mantle, his armour as well as his undershirt. What was revealed was his bare upper body… as well as his waist, which was wrapped in many bandages. A few centimeters above where he wore his belt, on the right side of his body… they were drenched heavily in blood, but thankfully, it had already dried.

"W-Wha…!"

Shocked and speechless at her father's injury, young Ais, who had never seen so much blood before, staggered backwards and into her mother's embrace. Because she was too focused on her father, she didn't notice that Aria was silently shedding tears of her own.

"... I got hurt. I'm sorry. It's almost healed already, but I'll still need to take it easy for a couple of days. Don't worry about me, my dear, I'll be fine!"

Putting on a brave smile, Albert gave his daughter a thumbs up, despite the gut-wrenching pain that he was currently subjected to.

Shortly before his return, one of his companions had been in mortal danger… and while saving them, he had been mauled by an extremely strong monster. Thankfully, there had been healers present so the worst of it was already dealt with and he could conceal the remaining severity of his wound with the bandages. He really didn't want young Ais to see that a huge chunk of flesh as well as parts of his organs had been ripped out. Even the best healers could only speed up the recovery process significantly, to an unnatural degree. But still, they were unable to instantly heal such an injury. He wasn't lying, though - he would be as good as new again very soon.

Aria knew what his injury signified. Their life was about to experience many changes, because the strength of the monsters being held off at the frontlines surrounding the Abyss' entrance had drastically increased.