The crunching sound sticks from my footsteps, hastening through the deep forest. Leaves rustling, breezing of trees. A howl resonated through my ears, crashing through the rampant thudding of my heart.

Taking a quick glance to my right, an elven woman approaching with her sword in her right hand while the other one was reaching through the sky. A needle that is bigger than me materializes above her; therefore, I halt on my track and grip my wooden sword overhand, gathering my quintessence on it.

Lily majestically points the hand that was pointing at the sky to me, and the ice needle suddenly charges at me, at an alarming speed; thus I swung my sword downward, breaking the ice needle in two pieces like slicing a cake. As my awareness was on the upcoming needle, Lily made her way by thrusting her wooden sword in my chest which I fend it off.

Unaware of what’s coming, the Fenrir appears out of nowhere and pounces at me. Because of it, I crash into the tree, destroying a few trees along the way. I groan in pain.

“Ack—!”

Wasting no time, I focus my gaze on Lily, who was charging at me.

[Shifting Point]

I teleported behind her with the intent of striking her from behind. However, she anticipates it by spinning her torso and reverse roundhouse, directly into my chest. I duck down to evade it then lock my gaze on the ground below the Fenrir, who’s about to pounce me in the air once again, so I teleport below and kick it into the branch of the trees. It howls in pain.

Afterward, a glimpse of ice materializes below me, so my gaze immediately went into the branches of the trees and teleport myself out.

[Shifting Point]

“Huff-Huff... She doesn’t show mercy whenever we spar.” I irritatingly grunt, while leaning my body on the tree.

Above the trees, I look down below, watching Lily searching for my figure with her Fenrir, who just recovered from my attack earlier. Lily was a hot-headed person who will rush her way or force it when fighting, that’s why I have won many times against her because of it.

(Diana.)

(Yes, Claude~)

I drop from the tree and teleports in front of Lily, thrusting my sword in her chest. A block of ice materializes; however, that didn’t stop me from forcing my way as it was cut cleanly by something.

Because of that, the tip of my sword penetrates through her barrier connecting it to Lily’s body, which made her hurl to the trees behind. And then the Fenrir pounces at me once again, but I’m faster and gave it a kick to its chest. Without wasting my time, I use my [Shifting Point] to teleport myself, appearing in front of Lily and point the tip of my wooden sword on her neck.

“I won,” I said with a smile on my face.

“Agh-arghh... Y-yeah...”

“Let’s go, Master Irene told us to take a stroll in the city.”

“Do I really have to?”

“Yes. She said, taking days off can be beneficial for us too.”

“Fine... Help me.” Lily raised her arms.

“Good grief.” Shaking my head.

I crouch down on my knees and turn my back against her; Lily then hops on my back. Carrying her has always been my duty whenever she would lose because her brother would always do that for her, so since his brothers are not here; I’m the substitute. At first, I rejected that idea, but in the end, I lost to her adorable pleading. As long she's fine, I guess there's no problem with it.

On our way back, I ask Lily a question.

“Lily, when you killed that person back then. What did you feel? Sorry for asking, but my curiosity got me.”

“Hm... Sympathy... Honestly, that time I’m pissed at you, that guy suddenly appeared, and I accidentally killed him... It’s my first time killing a person that night.”

“And, you only felt sympathy? That’s so weird.”

“Weird right? But, Anya told me that those emotions can be shared with your spirits as they’re connected. I think that’s the reason. I don't even know what happened. It just happened.”

“Ohh? That’s interesting.”

“What about you?”

“Me? I haven’t killed a person. Personally, I don’t think I have the guts to kill a person.”

“Well then, you need ready yourself. You need to learn to accept it because the world we’re living in revolves around life and death. And, killing a person is inevitable for us because sooner or after, we’ll encounter various types of people in the outside world.”

“You’re right. Wow, I’ll give you on that one.”

“Fufufu~ Of course, I’m wise and—”

“Okay, calm down. Hold your horses, just accept the compliment and keep your mouth shut.”

“Tsk—!”

“And, don’t ‘tsk’ me, young woman.”

“I’m older than you!”

“So? Deal with it.”

“Mou—... Fine! What are we even going to do outside?”

“Don’t know, perhaps we will go shopping? I mean, there are some stylish clothes that we can buy...”

“Are you even interested in fashion?”

“No... What about eating? We can eat lunch together.”

“Hmm... A fancy lunch, huh? I guess I could. Anyway, since we’re done talking about that. Let’s talk about what you did earlier. What did you do earlier?”

“Oh, your barrier?”

“Yeah! How?”

“Diana did it for me. She summoned a blade that cuts through your barrier without inflicting any damage to you, which worked too well. I’m skeptical at first, but it worked in the end, so—”

“You’re telling me, you could have beaten me all this time? You’ve been holding back all this time! You—!”

Lily's arms that are wrapping around my neck was strangling me.

“Kuh...! Ugh...! S-Stop—!”

I pinch her thighs, which she yelp. “Hiee—! How dare you pinch my thigh!”

“You did it first! Don’t blame me, I’m protecting myself!”

In reality, if I were to fight Lily head-on with our swords; I wouldn't stand a single chance against her. I'm still sloppy in some parts. Moreover, the usage of her spirit's powers drastically decreased ever since the incident with our first sparring match. She must be filled in guilt after that, as to why she's holding back against me.

────────────

“Anyway, that’s all for now. Lily, you can go first. I need to talk about something with Claude.”

“Yes, Master Irene.”

Lily bowed and left the room.

“So, how’s Lily earlier? Clara told me you finally took advantage of your spirit earlier. Isn’t it convenient when you use it more effectively?”

“Yeah.”

“You two have been close as of recently. At first, you still hold a grudge against her. Mommy is proud of you~”

Knitting my eyebrows. “Stop that, will you? It’s sickening whenever you say that.”

“What? Am I not your mother? I’m your guardian.”

“Shut up. Are you that desperate for a child? Wait for a few years, I’ll put one in your belly.” I blurt out because of my frustration.

Master Irene’s eyes widen and she just laughs it out. “Hahahaha, alright-alright, I won’t mess around anymore.”

“Good, because I loathe it.”

“Fine, fine, have fun later.”

I left her office with a furrowed look on my face. Then I went back to my room and dress myself up for later. I lost my temper earlier because I’m so sick of Master Irene telling me to call her that way. It disgusts me.

────────────

Now, after dressing myself up, I’m walking side by side with Lily, who’s dressed in a cloak and wearing a mask to cover her appearance as it can garner attention from anyone because of her astonishing body and face. The same could be said for me. I’m wearing the same outfit as her.

For the past month, I’ve been getting taller week by week; therefore, I’m finally hitting the growth spurt that I dreamed of. Not only that, my face is getting brighter and finer for some unknown reason that I can’t explain, probably because of puberty?

I can’t tell.

Right now, we’re roaming around the city. I haven’t been into the inner parts of the city or even gone out particularly. Mesmerized by the beauty of the city, it looks like an 1800s classic Europe that I always see in movies when I was still a child. It’s a wonderful place to walk into. On the streets, there are different kinds of races walking around peacefully; however, racism still exists in this world.

I’m not the only one who’s mesmerized by the grandeur architectural design of the building because the person beside me looks like a child who went into the D*sney W*rld for the first time. Lily was tugging my sleeves every time she would point out stuff to me, which is honestly adorable; I feel like a father right now, watching his cute daughter.

We continued exploring around and went into different shops for clothing, weapons, and accessories. Lily bought so much stuff that naturally as a guy; I became the baggage carrier of her stuff. As for me, I haven’t bought anything, even with the allowance that was given to me because I don’t particularly have any interest in any of the shops we’ve gone to. So, why would I waste it?

At the end of our shopping, we then went to a fancy restaurant. Of course, when we went in with our clothes we got blocked by working personnel in there, but Lily showed a necklace on the guy which he apologizes and did let us in. He even escorted us to our table with dreadful sweats on his face.

After escorting us into our seats, I put all Lily’s stuff down and glance around the place. The place is too fancy and there's no way Lily knew this place, so I ask her about it.

“How come you knew this place?”

“Clara told me. She handed me a map and gave me this necklace. Didn't she gave you one?"

“Oh, yeah... I forgot, but this is quite a nice place. I’ll give my thanks later to Clara.”

While looking around the place, I noticed a familiar figure who’s eating alongside six people at a table. Black long hair and round beige eyes, wearing a blue blazer, plus her signature blank expression. My neighbor stopped going to our mansion because of her schedule at school, from her mother’s word. It was Stephanie.