*Mehr’s POV*

Swish.

The claw of the black beast missed my face as it came at me with the utmost intention to kill. I craned my neck a bit, right before moving forward and stabbing the spear in the beast’s heart. It fell down to the ground, among many of its kin and I stood there with several corpses of the black beasts. I glanced to my right and noticed that Sirius was also done. He walked through, avoiding the corpses of the beasts that he had killed.

“I killed two more than you did.” I said with a smirk on my face as I stood with my hands crossed on my chest. Sirius hopped around the bodies while flicking his sword to clean off the blood. He came up to me, turned around and pointed at the back.

“I killed the biggest one though.” He showed the biggest corpse that was laying farther in the back.

“What’s the point? Their sizes are just a bane for them if they can’t use mana. So, you actually killed the easiest target.”

“Hehe. Tell me that when you’ve killed the biggest one.” Sirius hopped ahead cheerfully. We had already collected the food for the day. So, we started going towards the sheds.

“Not too long now, huh?” I asked.

“Yes. Just a few more days, I think.” Sirius answered. It was quite an exciting time. Sirius would be able to comprehend mana soon. We had been in this forest for almost a month now and all we had done was hunt, mana comprehension, and eat. Nothing else. As per Sirius, he was extremely close and only needed a day or two to learn basic mana utilisation. It would also mean that I would be able to use mana openly after sometime.

I had also gotten very comfortable with my current body and I could move it as well as my past life’s one. Sirius and I had been fighting alongside each other for the past month. Our teamwork had improved substantially. It was fun in the beginning when I got to tease Sirius for the mistakes he made. However, he had improved a considerable amount in this short amount of time.

Man, what a Genius. Huh.

While I was proud of him, I was also very disappointed with the situation. Everytime I wanted to make fun of him, I had to teach him something new, but the guy would learn it at a pace incomprehensible to me. And so nowadays, it was more of a take and dish between us. Well, the times were enjoyable though. I hadn’t really thought about what I would like to do in this life,very much. But I guessed, this wasn’t that bad.

No responsibilities. No worries. Well, there is some worry but that’s way into the future, probably.

I had once said in my past life that I would like to rest. Just to live for the mundane affairs of life and not think about much. I could never accomplish that. However, this life was turning out to be quite decent in that regard. All that Star/chosen-one things are something I had been deliberately avoiding in my mind. After all, who would want to think about so many responsibilities without any reward. Sir Ghost had talked about the future in such melodramatic fashion that I don’t even want to imagine it.

I had decided.

I would get strong enough to protect myself from unwanted people and affairs. And after that, I would go live somewhere peaceful. Somewhere no other people come often. That was a nice dream to have, wasn’t it. As I was imagining my sweet future, my eyes rested upon the little sheds we were living in. The old man was sitting outside and cooking the meat over open fire. He wore his black coat and black trousers, his attire enhanced with the white gloves on his hands and the same genial smile on his face. We moved close to him as the smell of the meat entered our nose.

“Hmm? Oh, you brought more food? Good job.” The old man said as his eyes peered from behind the glasses. He flicked his hand and the bodies that we were carrying, flew out of our hand and disappeared into the shed.

“Have both of you packed your things?” The old man asked.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Yes, Grandpa Blake.”

We both answered in sync. We were leaving tonight and heading deeper into the forest. The beasts nearby were not our match anymore. Unless a beast that could control mana showed up, the hunt was fairly easy. Now that we were never in danger, it was decided that we would go and bump into danger ourselves. The shitty old man didn’t even wait for Sirius to learn mana and just wanted us to go in as soon as possible. He said something like, “If we forget danger and fear, life will forget us.”

It sounded good when I heard it, but I didn’t really agree with his notion. If the sword didn’t reach you, why don’t you go and run into the sword. Go ahead, impale your throat yourself. I really disliked this shitty old man. Well, not like my opinion mattered. If he said it, it was decided.

The night soon fell, as dreary as always and we walked into the forest. The forest was always silent, even amidst the battles we took part in. It felt like all the sounds disappeared in here. As we walked, only the sound of our footsteps were audible. The forest seemed like the hand of darkness, gradually gripping us within to squeeze out our fear. Each step I took felt heavier than the last as it felt like I was being watched from all the sides. That's when we heard it.

Tip-tap. Tip-tap

A distinctively peculiar sound touched my ears and my body shivered instinctively. I looked at Sirius and the old man, and saw that they had also stopped in their tracks. Old man Blake was holding his hand up and gesturing to stop. The sound was coming close; closer than my comfort would allow.

Tip-tap. Tip-tap.

The soft sound against the deafening silence was harrowing and neither of us moved a single muscle. From the corner of my eyes, I noticed a small cat, white in colour and tail full of fur, walking.

Tip-Tap. Tip-Tap.

Its footsteps echoed around us. The little cat had a soft glow around her as it walked slowly. It turned around gradually and my eyes fell upon the most distinct feature of the little beast. It had a third eye on its forehead which was shining with a mild red colour. It looked at us for a moment before turning around and walking away.

The only sound that came after was Old man Blake’s voice as the cat disappeared into the darkness.

“An apparition.”