(Madelyn"s POV)----
(2 days later)
I"m very grateful for this home, even if it"s small.
I barely wake up in bed, it may be a little stiff but anything is better than the cot. I was about ready to suffer from back pain.
I get up and find Lilith talking with Young Mi, who"s been seeing us a lot more the past few weeks.
Madelyn: "You"ve been visiting a lot more, Young Mi."
Young Mi: "The ambience of your home is relaxing and chatting with you and Lilith is actually pleasant. And well, it"s actually more lonely without Dai-tai and Niroja than I antic.i.p.ated."
Lilith: "Is it now? I"ve only talked about the world."
Madelyn: "Den Gi."
I muttered; it just happened to be the name of the world I was in.
Young Mi: "Oh, we"ve talked so much about our world, but not about yours, Madelyn. What is it like?"
Home.
Every time I end up thinking about it, I"m reminded of horrible memories. Very horrible.
My life took a steep fall after high school. Everyone moved on and I was left alone. They probably didn"t even know what happened to me let alone remember me.
Me ending up in this world could be the best thing that"s happened to me. Minus, of course, being locked away in a dungeon for who knows how long. I lost track after a month and a half.
Madelyn: "I"d rather not talk about it please."
Young Mi: "I apologize Madelyn."
Lilith: "You could ask my trophy."
Young Mi: "I might, just when will he be back with Dai-tai and Niroja? It"s been almost 2 weeks."
Are we just going to accept the fact that Lilith considers Steven as a trophy?
Madelyn: "I don"t know, how long should it take?"
Young Mi: "5 days. I knew Nikita was rushing things but I kept quiet about it. If I knew my friends were going, I would"ve spoken up."
Madelyn: "Dai-tai and Niroja?"
Young Mi: "Yes, they"re my friends… or family."
Lilith: "How did you get to know them?"
…
(Young Mi"s POV)
----
Young Mi: "It was only 9 years ago."
I was 876 years old then.
I lived on my own, out of sight and trouble. It wasn"t too horrible, my home was an abandoned homestead I came across a couple centuries ago and turned it into a rather posh home. Everything was handcrafted by me, from the clothes I wore to the rugs in the entryway.
Wights weren"t welcomed anywhere I went. Our skins were naturally pale and felt cold, so we were pretty easy to spot. I had no other choice but to teach myself through books and in a few decades, became an artisan at everything essential. My home quickly became more of a museum of everything I"ve collected and made over the course of my lifetime.
Since I lived on my own, I had a complex system using magic to keep any trespa.s.sers out, without injuring them. I believed that I already lived my life and didn"t want to interfere or even interact with others.
I was and still am undead after all.
I was tending my garden early in the morning, a botanical garden that I"ve spent nearly 50 years cultivating when I felt it. A surge going through my neck meaning that someone was coming towards me.
The surrounding trees were embedded with gems that were enchanted to alert me of anyone nearby. My system worked like this, I get alerted, drop everything, and cut them off before they get too close and hopefully scare them off.
It was Dai-tai and Niroja, but I didn"t know who they were at the time. They were also young, so I used Water to soak them to scare them off, which worked at first. I believed in pacifism at the time, especially when it concerned children.
I return home, resuming my daily schedule until late in the afternoon. I was cleaning the entryway when I began to wonder what they were even doing all the way out here. The closest settlement was nearly 12 miles away, so they were a long way from home.
Another surge went through my neck. Very rarely was I alerted twice in the same day, so I believed the children may have told an adult and I quickly left to dispatch whoever it may be.
Yet again it was the children. This time, I decided to put more of a show to scare them off for good, using fire to create a wall that surrounded and slowly closed in them. I"ve never seen them run so fast since. The fire itself wasn"t very dangerous but it did work wonders when it came to scaring someone.
Thinking that I"d never had to see them again after something so frightening, I returned to my home. I became filled with a curiosity of who they were, and what they were doing here so far from home.
For the third time, late in the evening, the surge went through me again. I was reading at the time and became annoyed that I was being bothered so much. This time, they must"ve told an adult. I had hoped that it wasn"t the children again and became disappointed when I saw them.
Though, they were covering ground pretty quickly, further than anyone else has made it. In a desperate attempt to ward them off, I used fire again to create a blinding light, causing them to each run in different directions.
I was sure that they ran, but I could still "feel" them nearby. I followed it and found a young Goblin girl, Niroja, running around frantically in tears.
Niroja: "Dai-tai, where did you go?! Please don"t leave me!"
She sobbed.
She trips on a branch and falls, sc.r.a.ping her knee in the process. In pain and in tears, I felt nothing but guilt and sympathy for her. Something I haven"t felt in centuries. I knew she wasn"t a threat to begin with and started believing I overreacted when I saw them.
Young Mi: "Are you alright?"
I jump down from the trees, frightening her even more. A young Demon girl, Dai-tai, runs in and puts herself in front of Niroja.
Dai-tai: "Stay away from her!"
Young Mi: "I mean you no harm, your friend is injured."
I did my best in trying to calm them down.
Young Mi: "I have medicine at my home. If you wish, we could help your friend."
Dai-tai: "We"re fine."
Young Mi: "It"s pretty dark and there are no settlements for miles. I know Goblins have powerful immune systems, but she can still get infected."
She seemed pretty set to continue denying my hand until Niroja started clinging to her, crying and begging her to help.
Niroja: "It hurts, Dai-tai!"
Dai-tai: "F-Fine, but don"t try anything funny or else!"
My home was built to fit my aesthetics perfectly. It just so happened that it could accommodate several guests at once. Just because I didn"t plan on having guests here doesn"t mean the beds are nothing more than sticks covered in blankets. I"ve kept the entire house in a constant continuity.
I led the children to my home and showing them to the lounge, after asking them to be cautious around the decorations. Though, they seem rather taken aback and in awe instead of the terror from the scare I gave them a couple of minutes ago.
Dai-tai: "Where did you get all these?"
Young Mi: "I built everything you see. What"s your name? I"m Young Mi."
Dai-tai: "Dai-tai."
Niroja: "N-Niroja."
I sat the Goblin onto the table and quickly found myself relieved that it was only a minor cut. Still, I used antibiotics and healing magic out of a sense of paranoia.
Niroja: "You"re really cold."
She gets up with my hand and slowly starts to walk around.
Young Mi: "It was cold outside, wasn"t it?"
I couldn"t let them know that I was a Wight. Of course, that means that I need to have as little physical contact with them as possible. At the time, I believed I could pa.s.s myself as a germaphobe.
The weather was a rather serious problem, especially in the winter. My body always feels warm and I wouldn"t know I was freezing until it was too late. Ice crystals would form under my skin and the most excruciating pain would overwhelm me if I tried to warm it up or even flex the affected area.
So naturally, I"m almost always wearing a coat.
Young Mi: "How do you feel?"
Niroja: "I feel better; thank you, Miss!"
Young Mi: "I don"t really care for t.i.tles, just call me by my name."
Niroja: "Okay."
Young Mi: "How old are you 2?"
Dai-tai: "I"m 13 and she"s 9."
Niroja: "I"ll be 10 in 2 months!"
Young Mi: "And why are you so far from home?"
Dai-tai: "The military took our home."
I knew that I was now responsible for them and that their parents will no longer be able to care for them. Queen Lihua was slowly becoming tyrannical behind the King"s back over the years, so it was only a matter of time before the effects of her power would reach me.
After taking them in, we"ve been living in harmony for the next 6 years. Dai-tai grew into a fine and smart adult, at age 19. Though, her usual antics would be grounds for me to punish her.
Niroja on the other hand, at 15, was still clingy and a bit smarter than Dai-tai. She always came to me when she wanted to know something. I taught them everything I knew, except for magic because they were completely inept. At best, they"d learn a spell in as little as a decade.
Niroja: "Good morning, mom."
Young Mi: "Good morning."
Over the years, they saw me as a mother figure and started referring to me as one. It never bothered me and it was pleasant to know that someone looked up to me as such.
For the final time, I felt the surge in my neck. A very heavy one, which meant a lot of people are in the forest nearby. I glossed over the fact that scaring off trespa.s.sers would create rumors about my home and it became a prime target for some daring bandits.
The only thing I could"ve done right now was run.
Young Mi: "Niroja, where"s your sister?!"
Niroja: "She"s still asleep. What, why, what"s happening?"
Young Mi: "Grab her, now!"
I demanded.
If I wasn"t alerted, we would"ve died. When we ran in the opposite direction, firebombs were being thrown left and right. We just managed to survive, thanks to the enchanted trees.
Dai-tai and Niroja were distraught, we lost everything and didn"t take any chances to grab anything. We had no food, shelter, or money. I was able to sustain myself just fine with magic, but them? I couldn"t abandon the only 2 people that looked up to me.
The only viable option for us was to head west. We struggled and we didn"t exactly go west as planned. We headed south, into the plains then backtracked, heading north, when I was exposed as a Wight. Every time something went bad, I blamed myself and thought Dai-tai and Niroja would be better off without me.
In the end, we stuck together for nearly a month. Finally heading west until we ran into some of the villagers here by a lake nearby. Dai-tai and Niroja were at their wit"s end, hungry and thirsty. They ended up taking us in out of pity.
We then ended up meeting Nikita who spotted me as a Wight almost instantly. I was at the end of everyone"s swords and I was ready to give my life if it meant Dai-tai and Niroja had a place to stay, being fed, and watered.
I had, of course, already lived lifetimes.
They stood in front of me, reminding me of how Dai-tai had protected Niroja when I first met them. Nikita even took note and decided to accept me, believing they wouldn"t have gone that far if I was evil. Though they were extremely cautious around me at first, they opened up when I showed them everything I knew.
It had its problems, but the village was self-sufficient, making it not too different from our home, so we settled in pretty easily. We"ve been here for 3 years now, making do with everything. Going through some hardships together, like we"ve been doing.