“What should we do about the kid?”

“I’m not sure, he didn’t seem to be of any danger as his cultivation hasn’t even begun, but he did come out of the man-eating forest.”

Some voices were talking, Lios woke up with a splitting headache as those voices faded into the background and information regarding his doubts was suddenly appearing on his mind.

“I was in a forest that was connected to the forest those two are talking about, luckily I found the exit, it seems the man-eating forest isn’t something to trifle with. I didn’t feel hunger nor felt exhausted because I was made to only feel those things when I made contact with one of the races, and those years I spent walking were made to strengthen my physical body. It seems like I didn’t spend those years in vain after all, but I wonder what gives me these information”

While he processed the information he was given there were others talking in the background.

“I won’t let someone harm a child in front of me, neither will those higher in power let you guys do so.”

“But captain, we don’t know where he is from”

“It could be a miracle that he escaped from that place, no matter where he is from, no word of this is to get out of here, he is to be kept safe, such is our duty as the city guard!”

“”Yes sir!””

The once opposing guards were now obedient in the face of the captain of the guard, like they were either afraid, or respected him after what he said.

“C-Captain, the kid is awakening”

“Hurry and leave, he will be scared with so many people here”

Lios slowly woke up, with the headache now gone, it seemed there was a person standing on the side of the bed he was, he opened his eyes and saw a bearded man wearing leather armor.

“How are you kiddo? you gave us a worry suddenly passing out in the gates of the city”

Growl~

Suddenly, a loud noise is heard.

“I’m hungry… ”

Lios said it more to himself than anything, but the captain laughed and spoke to him again.

“Here, you can eat this, my daughter always says that my cooking is the best, she is about your age, a little bit older than you actually.”

Lios stared at the plate of food that the captain had taken from the table nearby, it seemed they already thought he would be hungry and had prepared food for him, but he still kept staring at the food, afraid that there would be something bad for him in there.

Suspecting that Lios had thought that there would be poison on the food, the captain started talking to him.

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to hurt you, if I wanted to hurt you I could do things a lot more openly”

Lios took the food, he wasn’t worried about poison anymore, the captain was right, if they didn’t want him to be alive, they wouldn’t choose such methods, he was a child no one knew about, it wouldn’t make difference if he was or wasn’t here.

Lios started eating, he more or less started trusting the captain, the captain defended him when he was half-asleep and going through the information he received.

“Where… Where am I?”

“At the guard post inside the city, the city gates guards brought you here, It’s normal procedure to have kept you to the city gates guard post which is outside of the city, but I ordered you to be brought here. I mean, I couldn’t just keep a kid outside the city in case something happened right?”

The captain laughed loud, and smiled to Lios, then suddenly turned serious, as if remembering something, and stared at him and asked.

“So kiddo, what’s your name? and where are your parents?”

“My name is Lios… I think… About my parents, I don’t think I have.”

The captain sighed, the worries he had proven to be right on point.

“She won’t stop nagging at me if she discovered I found a lost kid… Well kid, do you have a place to stay?”

“Not right now”

“Sigh… You’ll be staying in my house then, my wife and daughter wouldn’t stop bothering me if I just let you alone”

It seemed that the guard captain wouldn’t let Lios go by himself, and it was a nice offer to begin with, the captain was a nice person, and it was likely that his wife and daughter would be too so Lios decided to go with the captain.

“It’s almost night so we should get going when you finish eating”

“Okay”

After Lios finished eating they proceeded to the captain’s house.

The captain’s name was Aquill, they were quickly arriving at his home without chatting.

There were decorations along the way and there was also a big sign saying “Welcome to Astus city”, it seemed the city’s name was Astus and today seemed to be quite the big day for the city. Lios then turned to Aquill and said the first thing in a while.

“Was there a commemoration of sorts in the city?”

Aquill looked to be surprised by Lios question

“You didn’t knew? tomorrow is the day all the big schools open their doors to new students, I thought you were here because of that”

“Ah, I was lost actually, I was trying to find a city to stay in and this was the first city I saw”

“Well, you found a city, what do you intend to do now?”

“I want to find someplace to learn about the world”

“Then your best shot is going to the school, lucky for you the schools are also open to registry tomorrow, so when we get to my home I’ll ask my daughter to lecture you a bit about schools”

“Thank you”

“It’s of no problem kiddo”

Lios didn’t knew much about the world nor about himself, and if he wanted to survive in this world he would need to learn its costumes, and learn how they live, only then to find something more about why he is here, who he is, or why he is here, one needs to be strong to keep his own secrets, and to discover, even more.

They finally stopped walking and arrived in front of a common house, just like the others by its side, nothing special to be said about it, it would become his home in the years to come, but Lios didn’t knew that yet.

They entered the house.

Something seemed wrong as Aquill stopped walking a bit after the entrance, Lios decided to see what was in front of the captain that made him stop walking.

Lios saw a woman and a child sitting on a chair, the child seemed to be sleeping and the woman had an angry look on her face, he wondered who they were.

“H-Hey Mere, I have a good reason to being late”

Said the captain with a look full of panic on his face, the woman seemed to be someone he knew, her name seemed to be Mere.

“I wonder what good reason is that you left your daughter and wife waiting for you”

“I-It’s best I show you”

Lios didn’t knew what they were talking about, “Who is that child on her lap?” he wondered completely unaware of the atmosphere of the room.

Aquill moved to the side so that Lios came into Mere’s view.

“Listen, I decided to take care of this child, he was found wandering outside of town and the city guards post office isn’t a good place to stay, so I brought him here”

Mere sighed and then said

“They really should fix that place up, but now that you brought him here, what do you plan to do?”

“Well… He said he wanted to know more about the world, so I thought to make him enter a School, they have dormitories and he should be relatively safe until graduation, since the applications for the new term will begin tomorrow, I thought to have him sleep here tonight and go to apply to enter a school tomorrow, since they only test his talent he should be able to enter a school without any prior knowledge.”

Mere sighed again, though this time it was for a different reason, she had an annoyed look on her face.

“So you just plan to trow him into the world? When the school closes for the holidays what will you do? make him stand out on the street?”

“That brings to what I wanted to discuss with you, I planned on making him enter the same school as Aria, that way I can be sure that someone will be there for him, and for the holidays I wanted to bring him here, I want us to become his guardians here in Astus, that is… if he wants to.”

When Aquill turned to look at Lios, he saw him lied down on the ground sleeping, while laughing a bit Aquill turned to look at Mere.

“Seems like that will have to wait until tomorrow”