“Huh, this is lighter than I have expected.” I picked up a bunch of firewood that we collected. The firewood piled high up to my vision. Of course, they were tied properly, to increase our efficiency in carrying.

“Haha, they are light for you though.” Sol wryly smiled, he had a defeated expression on his face, lots of tied firewood placed inside the basket behind his back. The basket is larger than his body, you can put two male adults inside it with no problem, and the firewood jutting out higher than his head.

I have the same basket tied behind my back, except mine is filled to brim, as if going to burst out. With my small stature and thin body, the large basket behind me created a ridiculous image to whoever saw me. It’s like a rabbit lifting a lion on its back.

Sol tried to stop me from carrying this much, but after he saw me lifting the heavy load with much ease, and rotating myself with the load behind me with no problem. He gave up persuading me and walked back to pick his firewood instead. His defeated back is amusing to see. It seemed like I have hurt his pride. Oops.

Currently, we are in the forest, though we didn’t wander too deep. We are walking back now since our objective is fulfilled. I walked behind Sol as he knew the forest more than me. It would be horrendous if I lost my way here. Meeting dangerous monster is not my hobby.

“You really do learn quick, huh? Nobody will believe that you can’t speak common language four days ago, Mira sis was really surprised.” Shrugged Sol, he easily treaded the uneven terrain and evading tree’s branches and bushes. Meanwhile I had more difficulty than him. I almost tripped a few times and getting crushed by a bunch of firewood doesn’t sound very tempting for me.

“Well, you can say that I’m a quick learner. But I have something I want to ask you Sol.” I asked Sol, trying to turn our conversation to else.

“Hmm? Just ask anything.” He answered while his feet never stopped.

“Err, I know that this is a strange question and might sounds rude. But, why do you and Mira help me this much? I mean, I’m a stranger, and you never asked me where I came from or why I lay near death in that forbidden territory, yet you guys provided me a comfy living place and food to eat.” I said it directly, didn’t bother to hide my intention.

This question has been swirling in my mind for a long time, since the first day living in their house. Suspicious and doubt keep budding in my heart. So, I thought it would be better to just ask him. It might be reckless, but at least I would get some answer to my situation here, even the answer I received may be not the truth.

Sol stopped walking, he raised his head and looked up, his finger at his chin, thinking about my question. He maintained this state for a while before he turned his body toward me. His eyes gazed straight and slowly opened his mouth.

“Because I wanted to.” Said Sol leisurely.

“What? What do you mean?” I asked him, a bit taken aback by his answer.

“Well, when I saw you beaten and bloody at the forest, I just saved you without thinking. But I don’t regret it at all, Hiiro.” He beamed a smile at me. Ugh, that’s cheating.

“Actually, the elder told us that he will accept you as a town member and you are free to leave if you wanted to. Me and my sister volunteered to take you in at our house, well, since I’m the one who founded you, so I thought I should take the responsibility.” He scratched his head awkwardly. I didn’t react to him, my mind is distracted by what he just said to me.

The elder accepted an unknown person like me? How suspicious. I heard from Mira that the forbidden territory is something like a taboo to them, they even have a story about that place. I read it in one of the story book Mira gave to me when I was learning their common language. It was about a beloved god prophet gone mad and went to a killing spree or something… Just as I tried to remember the rest of the story, Sol continued his talk.

“And about your past, we won’t force you if you don’t want to talk about it. Honestly, I’m not too interested about it. Furthermore…” Sol walked towards me, as if becoming a habit, he raised his arm and petted my head. My head bobbed down with the force he put in his hand.

“You are a kind person, Hiiro. I can guarantee that. Although you are prone on suspecting things.” He petted my head continuously.

“hmm, how can you be so sure? What if I’m an evil monster in disguise?” I taunted him with my words.

“You really don’t talk like a seven years old kid, do you? Well, if you want to be so sure, then my answer is, intuition.” He stopped petting my head and answered my question proudly.

“Intuition?”

“Yep, intuition.” He said it again proudly.

I squinted my eyes with an unbelievable expression plastered on my face. Sol sensed this. He frantically tried to explain(?) his undependable answer.

“H-Hey! Believe in me! My intuition is never wrong, all right?! And when I said you are a kind person, it’s not just me! Mira thinks that you are a good kid too. Just accept my answer, and we need to go back already, it’s going to be noon soon.” He panicked a little, before I could have said anything else, he turned his body and started to continue his walk again.

“…well, fine...” I sighed and followed his walking figure grudgingly. His pace quickened than before.

After four days of living with them, I rated them as good people. It’s just that I personally can’t accept his assessment to me. While treading the dark part of the forest, I whispered to myself.

“...I’m not a kind person after all.”

“We are back!!” Sol energetically announced himself at his home. Happy that he finally freed from the firewood from his back. He opened the door loudly and raised his arm to the sky. I walked behind him calmly, greeting her sister.

“Mira sis, we are back.” I greeted her.

“Welcome back both of you, and Sol please stop slamming the door, it’s going to be ruined by you at this rate.” Mira greeted us back and followed up nicely with a sermon to her brother.

“Ugh, yeah yeah...” He huffed and walked to the table. He plopped down to the chair and his head fell to the table lazily.

“You are fifteen years old now, please be more mature, all right? Don’t make me worried about you day and night.” While talking to her brother, she put down a bowl of boiled meat and vegetable to the table.

“I think Sol is mature enough for his age, even more than his peers, you don’t need to be worried about that Mira.” I sat down beside Sol, inserting my own opinion while waiting for the food.

“See! Even Hiiro look up to me. I know that you are worried every time I gone alone to the forest. But I can defend myself, I’m not that weak kid anymore, beside..” He put his arm down and gripped the chair, lifted it up a bit and moved near me. He put his arm around my shoulder.

“I had Hiiro with me now, we can watch each other’s back!”

“Err, I don’t think I can help you in that area..” I denied his claim.

“What are you saying? Hiiro is still a child! I don’t even think about letting him to the forest is a good idea.” Mira puffed her cheek. She sat down with us after finished putting our lunch to the table. Sol rolled his eyes.

“Sis, he is able to lift a giant rock with ease, his physical ability is already exceeded a normal human adult. And don’t you ever forget, he made Elsoul fainted with a small stone. I will never be able to forget about that.” He raised his head and looking up to the ceiling, arm crossed in front of his chest, remembering the fight.

“Right, so when are we going to eat? I’m starving already.” I grabbed my cutlery placed in front of me.

As on cue, everybody started to eat. Our lunch today consists on brown bread and boiled meat with vegetable. It’s simple but delicious. After finished our meal and do our dishes. Both Sol and Mira stand before me. Their face serious. Its seem they want to talk about something. Mira is the first to open their mouth.

“Do you want to go to school?” asked Mira.

“Huh? School? Where does this came from?” My eyes widened slightly, confused by their sudden question.

“Well, you see, every child above five attend school in this town. And the elder told us to let you in too. Of course, if you don’t want it, you can just refuse. We won’t force you.” Mira keep fidgeting in her place, she seems to be worried that I will outright refuses her proposal.

The elder again? He kept popping out today. What does he want and what does he know? I need to meet him someday. While I was deep in thought, Sol talked to me, waking me up from my musing.

“You like books, right? I saw that you kept borrowing books from Mira to read when you have free time. The school have a larger stock of book than we have at here. And being a student is easier to access the book there than normal civilian.” Sol shrugged his shoulder and explained in one breath.

“Hmm, you are not wrong...” My eyebrow frowned, I still had my doubt. The offer is tempting but...

I looked down and focused on my necklace. The necklace gem shined with red radiance. I received this from the cat uncle, the elder. I’m still don’t know the reason for giving me this expensive looking necklace. I asked Sol and Mira, but they only shook their head, they too don’t know the reason why the elder gave me the necklace. Hmmm…

“Fine then, I don’t have anything to do anyway. So, when do I start?”

Both of them beamed a smile to me, they look at each other, nodding their head. Then they faced me again, this time Sol is the first one to speak. He clapped his hand and rang out with a crisp clap. What came out from his mouth is not what I expected to hear.

“Great! Then let’s start it now!”

“Today we have new student in our class, please introduce yourself.” The strict looking elf, Cirdan Strongwood, introduced me to the twenty kids in front of me.

Right now, I’m in the Strongwood school, established by this elf, even though I said school, this is more like a small tutoring house than a school. The school has only six classrooms and divided into two different type. Lower than ten years old and those more than ten years old. And I’m stationed at the lower one. They only had four teachers here, they teach basic information about the world, simple mathematic, and writing. They also teach magic here, if you had the aptitude of course.

All of it, I heard it from Sol. Its seem he and her sister graduated from here. An alumni. He said that he can’t use magic even he had the aptitude to it when tested in the mana stone. Somehow, he was just incapable to force or shape the mana in his body. He still hasn’t given up though. I saw him secretly practicing in the backyard when he think he was alone, mumbling magic spell, and weird hand gesture.

I introduced myself while I scanned my surrounding, its seem part of the class is built with stone and wood. They have a blackboard at the wall and teacher desk in front of the class. Just when I looked at the bunch of student, I found a familiar face sitting beside at a window, in the corner of the room. It’s the twin tailed little girl from before.

She has a bored expression plastered on her face, her chin placed on her palm and the table supporting her arm. She was looking out from the windows, uninterested with the event unfolding in the class. A whole different with the other kids, who keep chattering and excited by my appearance.

The desk beside her is empty, and as expected I was told to sit beside the girl. What I didn’t expect is the whole class gone awfully quiet. The previous noise and chattering disappeared into thin air. In this strange situation, a blonde-haired girl with pointy ear raised her arm up.

“Esteemed teacher! I think that the new student should sit somewhere else. We don’t want him to get ‘hurt’ accidentally, after all. He can sit with me.” She said it loudly enough for the whole class to hear. A confident smug appeared in her face.

A few students snickered and peeked at the girl behind them. Some of them even agreed to her and speak it out. The class quickly became noisy again, but this time the noise is directed to the girl rather than me. Horrible words hurled mercilessly to their target. Things like ‘ugly’, ‘disaster walker’, ‘useless’, ‘disappear’ can be heard of.

Bullying? Kids sure can be scary.

My face still facing straight, but my eyes peeked at the victim of the bully. The girl still maintained her calm façade. But I can see that she is wavering, her lips pursed and her hands trembled. She is going to break soon, if someone didn’t intervene.

“SILENT!!” Cirdan shouted, his voice strangely reverberated closely in my ears as if he shouted directly on my face. I winced by the noise. Most children with good hearing closed both their ears using their hands. I doubt that it will help. Since I’m sure his voice must be tampered with magic.

The class became dead silent again. No one dared to talk or move even an inch.

“If you guys intend to continue this useless racket, then don’t complaint to me if I gave my punishment, understood?” He glared at the students and they all nodded their head vigorously, scared by their scary teacher.

“Then Hiiro, please find your way to your chair, the class will start soon.” He sent me away to my seat and I followed his instruction wordlessly.

All of the student’s eyes glued at my walking figure. I seated at my wooden chair and the stare didn’t break. The girl beside me keep looking out to the window as if everything didn’t concern her.

…

Whelp, this is going to be long and annoying