Straus Family

The poking sensation on my face is what woke me up. When I opened my eyes, a pair of emerald pupils and ruffled lavender hair greeted my sight.

"Sheila…" I muttered her name.

"Sed? Sed? Are you awake?" She asked me while shaking me repeatedly.

"Obviously." With half-closed eyes, I said in reply to her question.

"Hehe", she grinned cheekily.

"What's with that suspicious grin?" I asked as I rubbed my eyes.

"Today is the second week of summer! And guess what", she said, showing her ever-waning smile.

Can I just ignore her? No, not gonna happen. This girl is like a pendulum that once you start shaking she won't stop coming.

I don't like riddles but I guess it's not a good idea to ignore her. Seeing her smiling face, I could only involuntarily sigh mentally.

Sheila is the only daughter of Uncle Hern Straus and Aunt Nena Straus. They were the couple who adopted me as their son a couple of years ago.

A few years ago. That time, I was traveling with Diablo when we met a dino-held carriage on the road on which the Straus family had ridden.

The expressions on their faces when they saw a huge worm carrying a baby were very precious and unforgettable.

The father, Hern Straus, rescued me from Diablo who he believed abducted me. Fufu. Well, in fact, I rescued them from Diablo who at that time was ready to attack them.

Before Diablo could hurt them, I secretly asked my buddy to back away.

I still could not understand the human language of this world at that time, so I thought it was also beneficial to me to come along with them, to learn more about the humans of this world. And also, to secure my food supplies. I needed to grow properly, therefore leeching on them was my best option, I think.

Thanks to that, I did not only learn their language, but I also learned many things about this world. Also, an absolute villain must have a gentle persona to cover his real nature, right?

Before I forgot, I failed to find mother Elena. But I did find something that I think is a clue. We found something unbelievable a few kilometers away from my former home. We found a very large pit on the ground.

I don't know what caused that. It seemed to me a group of superhumans battled there.

Back to the present, I pulled up my body and sat.

"Hm... the second week of summer…" I mumbled as I pondered. "Ah, today is porridge day, right?!" I said, asking her.

Hearing my reply, this girl, Sheila, reacted in a sloppy gesture. "Wha!" Sounding disappointed, she slumped her petite body on the bed like a fallen marshmallow.

Hehe.

I grinned secretly. Sheila's reaction was so funny.

"Just kidding. Happy birthday, Sheila…" I flashed a smile.

"What are you talking about? It's not my birthday, it's your birthday!" She yelled while beating up the bed with her hands and feet.

Eh?

"Ah, so it's my birthday?" I said indifferently. A loner like me didn't celebrate his birthday when I was in my former world.

"Let's go!" So saying that, she dragged me out of the room.

Today I am 10 years old, but my goal to become the absolute villain was still far-fetched. My current rank is even less than a villain. A village thief is not a good rank at all. I need a better achievement than that, I suppose.

Lousy Dark Thief… who the hell gave me that nickname?! I will mess up his life! I was grumbling inwardly as Sheila dragged me out of our house. She took me to the front yard.

It was a yard with enough space for Aunt Nena's lovely plants that she cultivated carefully and in the middle was a spacious empty space that Uncle Hern and Shiela used for their training. There were even training dummies standing there, waiting for someone to hit them.

Uncle Hern was a kingdom's knight. Actually, he was originally a noble, but they decided to live here as normal people. I don't know the reason but perhaps to live in peace. Well, Uncle Hern and Aunt Nena always told us that a noble's life was very depressing.

I who have lived in poverty since earth days could not relate to it. But since no one knew about my past, instead of disagreeing with them, I just shut my mouth and listen.

Uncle Hern was also categorized as Blade Mage. He was proficient in bladed weapons and could also manipulate prana. But unlike him, Aunt Nena was just a normal person.

It looks like in this world, not all people are capable of manipulating prana. There are also those who don't have an affinity with it.

Likewise, not all people with an affinity with prana are proficient in wielding weapons. Some of them are more dependent on prana manipulation.

Those who are not proficient at wielding bladed weapons are called mages like those character classes in the games. It seems like in this world, prana users are categorized into two, Blade Mage and Mage.

On the other hand, those who can't manipulate prana but are proficient in wielding weapons are just called 'Normals'.

Sheila was lucky to inherit Uncle Hern's genes. She was capable of wielding weapons and manipulating prana.

Anyway,

In the middle of the front yard, standing there with a sword in each hand was a stout man with spiky blue hair, wearing a dark blue uniform that looked like 'hakama'. But 'his' was sleeveless, or more specifically, he intentionally tore it to make it into a sleeveless one.

I don't know what's his reason for making it look like that, but most probably he is more comfortable that way, or also maybe he is just showing off his biceps and triceps which he mostly did. I think it's the latter.

By the way, it wasn't only his muscles that made him stand out. His hairstyle too was so easy to note. He has the hairstyle of 'Heihachi Mishima' from 'Tekken'. Disclaimer to that.

Although he's a 50-year-old man, his appearance was younger than that. I need to be careful not to call him old, honestly.

After sitting on my feet beside Sheila, "Ah, are you going to train today?" I asked Sheila like usual.

Hearing my question, Sheila gave me a serious look.

"Eh? What? Why?" I also looked at her while muttering those simple questions.

"Hehe. Brother Sed, it's not me who is going to train with Papa today", she whispered sweetly while flashing a grin at the end.

Eh?

A bead of sweat trickled on my face. I felt a bad premonition about it.

"Sus—" Before I could finish it she interrupted me.

"Goodluck!"

With that, she slapped my shoulder with a push. My somewhat adorable face hit the ground.

Gwek!

Damn, that sounded like a fallen ripe tomato.