Chapter 14.5
(AN: In case you forgot, Zana is who Fei calls onee-sama. The older sister!)
"Lumi, are you sure you want to follow around that tra… Fei? I don"t feel it"s appropriate for someone in your position."
"Of course! I"ll follow onii-san no matter what. Why does onee-sama feel that to be wrong?"
"Because that guy is so weak – he won"t be able to protect you!"
"Onee-sama is wrong! He mightn"t be the best, but he will still be able to."
Zana is unable to deal with Lumi"s stubbornness in this argument, and simply sits there relaxing. If she cannot convince her little sister to stop being stupid in following Fei, then she simply has to make sure she is safe even if she does. That is her responsibility as the elder sister.
Besides, she was also a little curious. Why did her trashy brother make such a good purchase on that slave. She was of the opinion that Fei would never be able to make a decision that would be good. Especially given that he"s only been capable of doing stuff recently. Doesn"t anyone else find it odd that he"s so competent at tasks which he shouldn"t be yet?
She shakes off the feeling, as it"s uncomfortable to think about. She justifies it by thinking that the b.a.s.t.a.r.d that she"s forced to be related to was feigning to be worse than he really was. Perhaps he even had help in secret.
As soon as they heard of what happened to Fei, both Lumi and Zana acted as though nothing was out of the ordinary, because for them, nothing was. This had often happened to Fei while they were around, so they didn"t understand why the slave was fearful of them when he told them what had happened. Perhaps if it were others, they truly would have blamed the slave.
When the slave brought down the magic barrier, Zana noticed that the slave had left Fei with his head on the edge of the spring. She instantly got worried for Lumi"s sake – if Fei had died right now, she felt that Lumi would either lose her sanity, or perhaps even die alongside him. When she thought of this, she snapped.
In a low voice, she growls.
"What are you standing around for? You left the weakling with his head on the edge. You"re lucky he didn"t fall."
Onlookers, such as Lumi, would find that Zana was acting uncharacteristically. Why was this person, who was so adamant that the person didn’t deserve to be her brother was a piece of trash concerned with his well being? Lumi instantly a.s.sumed that her older sister held a small attachment to Fei and was determined to strengthen that bond from now on. It would no longer be her just asking Zana to not treat Fei badly.
Unfortunately, right now wasn’t the time to try and attempt anything. It would only end badly for Fei. She let her older sister do as she pleaded for now, but held in her mind future ideas to bring her closer to Fei.
(AN: I have a picture of Lumi grown up… But you"re not getting it until we get that far.)
"…Sorry."
Being scolded, it was obvious that the slave was quite scared of being punished. Luckily for the slave, it wasn"t the time for such thinking. It was more important to the girls that they ensured Fei"s continued survival, albeit for different reasons. With that sort of feeling in her head, Zana reacted again.
"Don"t be sorry, get him dressed! Surely this weakling should have noticed he was like this?"
"…Yes."
Without argument the slave quickly went and did as he was ordered to, making both Zana and Lumi relax a little. It"s one less thing for them to worry about and now they can take Fei back to the dragon without much of an issue.
Zana felt that carrying Fei herself would be more effort than it"s worth, and quickly made the decision to order his slave to do it for her. The instant the slave completely dressed Fei, she commanded him to carry Fei back.
"Carry him while following us. Curse his weakness."
She muttered the second sentence as he made a fairly relaxing day at the hot spring into one where they had to take care of him. Lumi may wonder why she had issues with him, but this is exactly one of the things that makes it like that. He can"t take care of himself all the time. That"s not a characteristic of a strong person.
As they walk back to the dragon, with Zana and Lumi walking side by side and the slave carrying Fei behind them, Zana thinks about the training she was making Fei do. Was it really worth the effort? He hasn"t really improved since they started but… She noticed something odd about him during the lectures she gave him.
Although he wasn"t able to properly perform anything without her instructions, he was quite close to a few of the forms she was going to teach. Of course, they were never right and so she went into detail about each form that he must master before learning any of the methods.
Lumi, on the other hand, was quite oblivious to what was going on within Zana"s mind. She was just happy that her day with her two siblings had not been a complete miserable time. In fact, she felt that Zana was opening up to Fei more, if even only a little. For a child like her, it was enough to make her extremely happy.
When they arrive back at the dragon, they are met with a welcoming party.
"W-we, we can t-take care of him n-now, k-kay?"
"Hmph. At least my job wasn"t made any harder."
"Don"t mind her! She"s actually glad you handled the situation so well. As expected of the future ruler."
Each of the three that were meant to be taking care of the children reacted in their own ways. In the maids head, she wanted to take care of Fei. It was important for her that he was well taken care of. Sophie held her usual att.i.tude of not caring about anything except her job, but she truly was glad that nothing had happened. In this world, it"s possible for the worst to occur. In fact, it"s more likely for the worst to occur. And finally, Tomoe simply stated how she interpreted what Sophie said. She wasn"t really too concerned at all, as she had been the one watching over them anyway.
Leaving Fei with the maid and the slave, everyone else eats a small lunch and then proceed to prepare themselves for the final night that they"ll be spending here. They get the ingredients for a hearty meal and put the things that will take a long time on to cook. The next stop will be in another two weeks, so they might as well have a splendid meal before they go off. Anyways, Fei should be awake by the time the meal is ready, so they know Lumi won"t be against it either. The only problem with the meals they are planning to make is that it"s extremely time consuming. It"s why even only slightly rich people usually hire a chef to make meals. They wouldn"t get any nice meals if they didn"t.
On the other hand, the maid was currently getting Fei into his bed in order to ensure quality rest. She"d ordered the slave to go back to the ground now that he"d brought Fei up.
When the maid leaves and joins the others, Sophie leaves and goes off alone. She takes a small bag with her which holds writing tools. Once she"s a fair distance away, she takes them out and begins to write a letter.
To King Lun,
As you expected, putting those three together has been slightly effective in closing the distance they have between them. While not completely happy about the situation with Lun Fei, Lun Zana is not going to cause any problems having to deal with him, unlike before. It"ll take many more years for her to begin to like him, but she can tolerate him for now. It is my belief that phase two will be possible by the time we arrive…
Finishing off her letter, Sophie whistled and waited for a few minutes before a large bird flew to her.
"Ahh, h.e.l.lo. Please take this to the king."
Handing her letter to the bird and stroking its feathers a few time, she sends it off. The letter should arrive in a week and the reply will most likely be received when they are at the second stop.
Having done her task, she returned to the others and came back to casual chatter that wasn"t really important. Although she didn"t join in as such, she did listen and smiled at how peaceful it was for them. How it could be so quiet in this world, she wasn"t sure, but she was glad it was like this.
— Nearby —
"No! You won"t be doing anything today!"
The figure of a little girl could be seen attacking a creature 6x her size. It"s skin was made out of some metallic material and there were spikes all over its back. If anyone were to see this, they"d automatically a.s.sume the little girl was completely out of luck.
However, every attack the little girl laid on the creature ended up causing an indent onto its skin. It let out a growl and tried to swipe her with its tail, but she jumped out of the way and kicked at its head.
"I was playing nice though?! You really wanna die today, huh?!"
As she continued on attacking, her threatening words were said in such a cheerful tone that one would be worried. Just why was there a little girl so happy when fighting? Where was she from?
"Don"t worry! I"m not attacking you for no reason at all – you were gonna attack that town… I can"t let you!"
A growl is let out and the creature charges. The little girl charges at it in turn and then simply puts her hand out in front of it.
When they collide, the creature is stopped in its tracks.
"Hehe~ Did you really think that"d work? I can"t let you attack at the moment… Fei"s there!"
The creature tilted its head for a second, before continuing on with its ignorant onslaught of attacks. Each attack was countered with a kick.
"Ohhh? You do have a bit of intelligence~! I saw that!!!"
The creature stopped attacking while the little girl started saying those things.
"Lemme just go look you up, Kay~? No cheating and attacking while I am…."
The little girl stood still as she muttered things to herself.
"Ahh… Iron Spiked Ilvan. Medium intelligence…. Favourite hobby is demolishing buildin-".
The creature grew impatient and tried to charge at her once more, but it was once again stopped by a single hand.
"Hehe~. I was still paying attention, silly! I’m going to let you live, just wait a day and then go on your rampage~. Cya!!!"
The Little girl left the creature with a fear in its heart. Who exactly was she to go against it by herself? All the ants (people) around here would have to group up to simply hold it at bay for a small time. At least, that"s what it believed.
The fear in its heart meant that it was scared of the people in the town being as strong as the little girl, but she had given him permission to rampage the next day. It thought, it"d spend a few weeks getting stronger before rampaging based on her strength.
The angel, saw it walking away and giggled to herself.
"Hehe~ That was fun!"