LW - 3.

(Osiris.)

It's been a couple of days since I saved Tessia from those slave traders, she hasn't really talked to me since I saved her as she's probably still scared or probably even scarred.

The day I saved her went pretty well in my opinion I guess, I mean she wasn't scared of me probably because I was a kid but that didn't mean she would talk to me, in fact, all she did was just timidly step out of the carriage after I untied her and she followed me slowly while keeping her distance from me.

She didn't ask many questions besides what the mark on my face was, and what happened to the bad guys. I obviously didn't tell her I killed them, that would just end up spooking her more or something, I don't remember much from this part of the story as I read it a long time before I died or whatever happened to me. I'll just go with dying.

The second day of the trip towards her kingdom was quite peaceful, of course, she was still scared of being alone but I didn't mind as I would probably be paranoid too if I was in a situation like hers. During the day she was a little more energetic and hyper than the day before, but she would become like a scared kitten at night and would stick close to me.

I didn't mind it but it was starting to get tedious when I had to stay near her as she went to the bathroom, I didn't bother with feeling weird or something, although it was pretty awkward we quickly got over it.

When night time came, I used one of the tents that were in the carriage as a temporary shelter for the both of us, I would use my ice but she's not immune to cold temperatures like I am, so she would most likely get sick if she spent the night in there.

"I'm going to guard outside, so you stay here and get some rest. I'll come back in when I get sleepy." I told her, she nodded her head hesitantly before eventually making her way back into the tent.

I cracked a small smile before turning around and sitting down in the shadow of some trees.

'Haaah, that fights still running around in my brain... My ice is too easy to break and it'll no doubt be melted by some measly fire spells, my darkness manipulation, on the other hand, is going to be my strongest power since nothing in this world can go against it unless there's a Light deviant or something... Plus there's the inconsistency with the usage of it, I'm not good with it so it's still really hard to use, it takes all of my concentration and then some.'

Sigh.

I raised my head to look into the starry night as I thought about different training methods of making my ice harder and colder.

"H-hey Osiris, w-why don't you come guard in here? There might be mana beasts who will attack you since you're still a kid!" A small shy voice reached my ears, I turned my head towards the tent and smiled with a chuckle.

"Haha, sure sure. If you can't sleep without me being near you, just say that okay?" I said while standing up and making my way towards the tent, her face brightened with embarrassment before she stuck her head back in the tent.

"Idiot, I can sleep just fine! I-I was just making sure you wouldn't get hurt!" I heard her exclaim, I chuckled some more before sitting down next to her and closing my eyes.

'The rest of the trip needs to be spent practicing making my ice harder, I don't want my main way of attacking to be easily countered, during the night or something I can just practice darkness manipulation since it'll be easier.' I mused, letting out a deep tired sigh as I drifted to sleep listening to the chirping of birds and the soft wind blowing through the leaves.

(Arthur Leywin.)

I decided I would keep moving and do what Sylvia said, getting back to my family is of utmost importance right now and I don't have time to cry and mope over Sylvia's death.

I was jumping through the trees trying to see if I could find out where I was exactly in the beast glades, but all I could see was nothing but trees and plants, which makes sense because of where I am.

'I really hope they're okay... I wonder how they're doing right now. Huh?' The thoughts of my family were cut short as I neared a location in the middle of the forest, it was covered in blood and there was a carriage that was torn up and bloodied, there were dead humans as well.

'Mana beasts?' My eyebrows furrowed as I looked around, trying to find anything that could give me a hint as to what happened here, my gaze landed on a man, or what was left of him, the body seemed to be in pieces like someone cut him up in tiny chunks.

'Ugh, that's disgusting...' My face involuntarily scrunched as I looked at the other 2 bodies, one had a hole in his head that seemed to have come from something sharp, while the other had a big hole where his heart should be.

"What happened here? Did a human do this? But why would they chop that guy up but not even try to hide the remains?" I spoke to no one in particular, deciding that I wouldn't think about it too much anymore, I made my way to the carriage and looked through it, trying to find anything useful that I could use to my advantage.

I found some mana beast fur but it wasn't made into anything, it was just a pelt. I knew I could use it for warmth but I needed some more pelts to be able to even make anything with it, I also found a small hunter's knife that was a perfect fit for me.

I scrounged around in the pile for a little longer, judging that there wasn't anything of use to me anymore I packed up the things I found into a small little bag that I had when I fell.

'Well, I hope I'm near human settlements, if not I'm going to have a hard time trying to figure out how to get home... Huh? What's this?' My eyes landed on a footprint in the mud, it was small like a kid's foot or maybe just a short man? Or a short woman? I don't know.

'Someone was here? Does this mean that it was a human who killed these people?' I glanced back in the direction of the bodies before looking back in the direction the footprint ran off to.

'Maybe they can help me, or they aren't nice and I would have to kill them but the footprint seemed to belong to a child so I should be good, right?' Uncertainty was flowing through my body as I followed the trail of the footprints.

(Osiris.)

"Kyaaaa!" My eyes shot open as I heard a loud girlish scream, I looked to my left and saw that Tessia wasn't in the tent.

'Damn it! Please just be a mana beast!' I pleaded as I launched out of the tent with two daggers made of ice, when I made it out a grey streak bolted at me and hid behind me.

"Tessia? What happened?" I asked her, the girl in question just clutched my shirt as she pointed ahead of me, following her finger what I saw was a monkey-like mana beast with a mango or something in its hand.

I deadpanned seeing this.

'You serious? She was scared of a monkey?' I sighed before putting my hand on her head and speaking.

"Tessia, it's just a monkey, no need to be scared of it." She clutched harder to my shirt while sniffling.

"M-monkey? Oh... It's not my fault I got scared! Don't look at me like that! It jumped at me when I was going to the bathroom!" She shouted while pointing at the monkey in blame.

I chuckled hearing this before turning around to face her, she was about the same height as me but she was still a little bit shorter, I was about 2 inches taller than her.

"I didn't say anything though. Why are you so flustered?" I asked her, she turned her head away with a pout before she stormed off towards the tent.

'Atleast she's warming up to me I guess.' I thought with a small smile, I turned towards the money before focusing on manipulating it's shadow into a spike.

'God damnit, it shouldn't be this hard to just make one spike.' I thought with my hand held out towards the monkey, focusing on the shadow for about 10 seconds until the spike finally shot out of its shadow, impaling the beast and making it drop it's fruit.

"Haaah, I really need to work on this..." I muttered while wiping the cold sweat that formed on my forehead.