Gambit Of The Living Weapon

AS usual, the atmosphere was a little tense due to Evlin"s friend not being very comfortable eating close to East.

Their table had a large rectangular shape and was filled with plates of bacon, fried eggs, toasted bread, strawberry jelly, orange juice, hot milk, and coffee.

East was sitting in the farthest corner of the table with Evlin by her side. They were both enjoying a bit of coffee with bread and bacon. Next to Evlin was Ellie as always, drinking some hot milk while putting jelly on her bread. Next was Marcus who was having a bit of juice and fried eggs. He tried to sit next to Evlin but Ellie quickly jumped in front of him and took his spot.

Daren and Lilith were trying to feed Lance, who was using this chance to make a mess on the table and throwing food all over their faces.

"He"s very energetic huh?" Said Evlin while looking at the couple.

"We usually have a maid that helps us with him... She always knows how to make him eat his food." Said Daren, still trying to make his son eat his food with little success.

"Oh!" Evlin said, having her interest captured. "You guys got a maid?"

"Yeah... Actually, a lot changed after you returned to your world." Said Daren, who now had a spoon filled with jelly on his s.h.i.+rt because of Lance.

"Oh!! Tell me, tell me! Tell me everything!!" Said Evlin who started to act like a little girl sharing her friends" gossip at school.

"Well, for one, Ashley and Gustav now are the leaders of a guild." Daren started.

"What??" Evlin screamed in surprise.

"Yeah. Well, Ashley is the leader, and Gustav is her a.s.sistant."

"Wait, what about your mission to kill demons and recover silver metal?"

"We still did that for a while... But after some time, the news of your defeat over the demon leader began to spread over the country... And soon, every demon or individual who possessed a piece of silver metal began to fear that they would end up being visited by the crossbow girl and be attacked by her."

"Eh...?? People were afraid of me?? But I"m so sweet and charming!!"

"Pffftt!!" East began to spit her food once she heard the words Evlin used to describe herself, which resulted in Evlin glaring at her.

"Anyway..." Daren continued. "Eventually we just had no more metal to recover and all the demons began to go into hiding. Because of that, we all decided to try and take a small break from our lives of adventures."

"I see..." Said Evlin, noticing that her niece was also listening with wide eyes to Daren"s story with a big smile on her face.

"Auren and Ria couldn"t really stop due to their contract with West, but since they felt there wasn"t any danger that they couldn"t handle on their own due to their shared blessing, they decided to go on adventures by themselves for a while... You know... To have some time alone..."

"Ah!! Traveling by themselves facing the dangers of the world... Sounds so romantic!!" Said Ellie with sparkles on her eyes.

"I guess..." Said Daren. "Two years later we heard from them again after they returned announcing that Ria was pregnant."

"Eh...??" Evlin was stunned. "Wait... So that means..."

"Yeah... Ria must be going into labor right now in the other world." Daren said while cleaning his s.h.i.+rt with a napkin.

"Oh my G.o.d..." Evlin began to feel guilty. "I made you guys miss the birth of Ria"s and Auren"s baby!"

Daren tried to calm her down. "Don"t worry, we will deal with Mia and save your family, and we can all witness the baby together. Everything will work out fine."

"We...?" Evlin said, confused.

"Of course! We have West on our side now, remember? We can just ask her to let you visit and then take you back once we are done."

"Me? Go back there...?" Evlin began to shake. The idea of seeing all her friends again was something she had been dreaming about for a long time. If they really had reached a point where they could just use West to go back and forth, she could maybe have a way to enjoy the best of both worlds, being able to see her friends whenever she wanted.

"Can I go too, aunt Evie??" Said Ellie while pulling her s.h.i.+rt with puppy eyes.

"Err... If your mother agrees, then sure!!"

"Ahhh! Thank you!!!" Ellie began to scream with joy while blus.h.i.+ng her cheeks.

"What else Daren? What happened with you two after the battle?" Said Evlin, wanting to hear more.

"Well, since we had a break from all the danger, Lilith and I decided to try and live a normal life for a bit. No fighting demons, monsters, or anything... We used some of the money we got from the rewards we received from various missions and bought a house. One big enough for my lion and us three."

"Oh yeah... Does your lion even have a name?"

"Well... I suggested one, but Lilith was extremely against it for some reason..."

Lilith looked at him with tired eyes and then stared at Evlin. "He wanted to call the lion "Leo"."

"... Leo, the lion...?" Said Evlin while looking at Daren with a face that said "Really...?".

"Hey... At least I didn"t name him "Chuck"."

"Chuck is one of the greatest names in the history of names for demons and I will not tolerate anyone saying otherwise!" Sadi Evlin while crossing her arms and puffing her cheeks.

"Anyway..." Said Daren, ignoring her declaration. "We decided to call him Eclipse, due to him being related to my curse that only worked at night and all..."

"Eclipse..." Ellie started to go into a trance as if she had seen Santa Claus for the first time. "Eclipse, the night lion... I love it!!!"

"Hehe... Thanks... It was my idea." Said Lilith while smirking at Daren.

The group then continued their conversation for a little longer. Daren kept talking about the many adventures he went with the rest of the group on.

Rescuing a princess that was captured by an evil kind that wanted to force her to marry him, protecting a city that was caught in the middle of a fight between dragons and wyrms, saving a pack of baby griffins that were taken from their mother to be raised as watchdogs to a group of n.o.bles. Evlin looked particularly enraged about this last one.

Aside from their adventures, they also shared about the new faces they met over the years.

Lilith talked about how her maid was actually a young lady she had rescued from a pack of angry wolves and how she offered to work taking care of Lance as a way to repay their saviors.

Also about a man with a lot of money and influence who heard about how well Ashley was leading the group during their quests and offered her a spot as a leader of one of the guilds he was in charge of, which resulted in her developing a guild to train inexperienced adventures so they would be better prepared to fight against monsters, all using all the knowledge that she had acquired over the years.

Evlin showed an extremely relieved face after finding out her sister from another mother was happy, and above all safely away from danger.

Gustav also decided to join the guild since he apparently had made some kind of oath to always support Evlin and Ashley. Ashley suggested Gustav to try and be the next leader of the group during her absence, but he said that his place was not in the spotlight, and was in helping those who were in the spotlight.

Evlin looked a little worried, thinking that Gustav might have developed some kind of inferiority complex, thinking that maybe he had a.s.sumed he wasn"t good enough to lead, but Daren quickly rea.s.sured her that this wasn"t the case at all, he simply preferred to support those he trusted.

As for Ria and Auren, the two spent a long time trying to track down Mia and deal with her. Little did they know that Mia had actually moved to another world while n.o.body was looking.

Aside from that, they also tried to track down the history of their families, trying to find out what happened with their fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters, as well as trying to find out what was the fate of the other candidates of Marceus"s mansion. They were worried that East had taken the chance to harm any of them, but it turns out, after Marceus decided to work for her, she simply ignored the rest.

During their travels, Ria and Auren actually ended up meeting some of their descendants. Great, great, great, great-grandsons, and daughters from their old friends. Ria almost cried of happiness after finding out that the people she loved managed to live a happy life in the end.

Daren also pointed out that due to their position as champions of the south, Ria and Auren still haven"t aged a day, and looked exactly the same as the last time Evlin saw them. Evlin could already picture Ria meeting with her again and joking about their appearances with some kind of line like "What"s up grandma?".

As for Marcus, he was still on the team for a long time, but when Daren and Lilith decided to take a little break, they offered Marcus to live with them for a bit. They felt that since they were the closest to Marceus, it was only fair to try and raise Marcus, as if they were his G.o.dfather and mother.

Marcus himself never felt like that thought. For him, Daren and Lilith were just like an older brother and sister.

They kept talking and talking, sharing more and more about their adventures. Evlin looked at her right and saw that East was dying of boredom. She realized that since her maid was much older than everyone on that table combined, all these stories were probably nothing new to her.

On Evlin"s left thought, Ellie looked like she was in heaven. Ellie already loved hearing these kinds of tales, but now that she knew they were all real, she looked even more excited than ever.

Evlin found it funny how she was surrounded by someone who couldn"t stand hearing these kinds of things and someone who couldn"t get enough of these kinds of things.

But as much as she wanted to continue to let her niece enjoy her time in paradise, they still had matters they needed to attend.

"Ellie..." She said while standing up from the table.

"Eh...?" Ellie looked at her, looking like she could still hear Daren talk for hours. Daren himself looked like he was starting to run out of things to say though.

"It"s time to start." Said Evlin while looking at her group. "Mia might send her next attack at any moment. We need to prepare ourselves."

At the mention of Mia"s name, the whole table changed expressions. They all began to picture their goals in mind.

Lilith and her goal to get revenge on the dryad that tormented her friends. Daren and Marcus both wanted to avoid letting the people they cared about dirty their hands with her death. East who desperately wanted to stop the demons from waking up or letting Mia gain access to terminal energy. Ellie who just wanted to stop her aunt from turning into Myriad. And finally, Evlin herself, who just wanted to see her family safe.

Hearing Daren talking about the peace they had gained in the other world, Evlin was reminded of the calm life that she wanted to protect, and became more fired up to not let Mia win this fight. There were still many more days of joy she wanted to share with her friends, and she would not give that all up because of one annoying little girl.

"East, you continue the research and try to find out where these demons are. Marcus, Daren, go fetch Sphinx and Eclipse, we need to be prepared to be attacked at any moment. Lilith, you will come with me, I need you to help me train Ellie." Evlin said while giving everyone a role to play.

The group stood from the table as well, and while they all moved away, Evlin took a look at the window one more time and released a small prayer. "Mom, Ash, Carlos... Please be ok... I"m coming to save you..."