Six months have passed since the whole thing that happened with Uncle.

It was noon. Today, once again, like lately, Hôn left early in the morning.

So today, once again, I was left on my own.

Of course, if I wanted to, I could go where he was. After all, it’s not like I didn’t know where he was heading or what he was doing. It’s just that I had my own reason for not joining him.

So here I was, sitting at the entrance to the hole in the three that served as my room, throwing pieces of the monster's meat at Ezra, who was several dozen meters below me, using my bubbles.

She caught each of the pieces I threw at her like a little puppy, uttering a strange, strident but somehow pleasant screech.

She has grown beautifully in the short year and a half since we met her. When we first met her, she was still the size of an adult human. Now she is easily the same size as Heon, who was easily towering at three meters in height.

Dragons sure grow fast.

Well, Hôn is saying that her sudden growth sprout is mostly because I kept feeding it like it was some sort of royal guest. But I personally think it is just that she is growing fast, and even if it was because of how much food she was fed, one must admit that I’m not the only one to blame. When it comes to hunting, Heon and Hôn aren’t really holding back, always bringing back with them monster carcasses easily several times their size. Naturally, neither is rarely able to finish those carcasses entirely, so the leftovers are pretty much a king's feast for Ezra.

If there were someone responsible for how fast she had grown, it would be them.

I had a long spear on my lap, and to be honest, it was too long for me to call it a spear. My growth did sprout as well, but not enough for me to be careless with a 2.1 meter spear.

This spear used to belong to my uncle, and I kept it as mine when what happened to him happened to him.

Aside from her size, I never really tried to use it. I'm not sure why, but using it feels uncomfortable. As a result, for the past six months, all I did with it was keep it as furniture in my room, which it did admirably well given how shiny and golden it looked.

As I was absentmindedly throwing at Ezra, I heard a now-familiar set of footsteps approaching.

Soon after, a massive black canine figure emerged from the woods, dragging the bloodied and partially cremated corpse of a strange and enormous bird-like creature by the neck.

There was a time when this kind of sight would, let’s say, make you uncomfortable and straight up repulsed, but with time, I eventually got used to it.

At the sight of the massive, Ezra stopped fooling around begging for food, sweeping aside, taking what I assume was a submissive stance.

Completely oblivious but somehow satisfied with it, Heon passed by her and tossed the enormous carcass on the ground. The thing was so enormous that the ground somehow trembled upon it reaching the ground.

From the beginning, a certain hierarchical order was set between the two; on top was Heon, and below was Ezra.

"Hi, Heon." I said, putting the spear back in my room, as I descended to the ground level with one of my bubbles.

Her response, as usual, was an incomprehensible grumble as she raised her golden eyes at me.

She grabbed back the monster corpse, and carried it to a corner of the room before throwing a meaningful glance at Ezra, who then immediately let out a strange series of squeaks, before finally returning back to my side.

Just like Hôn, by the time, I woke up, she was already gone, so I assumed they went together. It appears that I was wrong.

"I thought you went with him today, but it seems you didn’t."

"..."

At times like this, I really wish there was a way to magically allow myself to speak to monsters, or at least to Heon. Despite her frightening appearance, beyond that, she’s as nice as any human I’ve ever met. Not that I’ve met many people, but still.

"What am I going to do now?" I mostly thought to myself.

To be honest, I have been very bored lately, at least, when I’m left alone like this. Despite how weird it has been around him lately, it’s not often that it's boring. As long as there is something to talk about, or something to do, it would be fine by me.

"Eh?!... what?"

Still in my mind, Heon grabbed me, before tossing me onto her back. She immediately started to head out toward where I knew he was.

"Heon, wait, I don’t-"

I didn’t even have time to protest that her furs turned pure white as she flashed in the said direction. The speed was such that I had to activate my barrier around me to not be blown away like a feather in the breeze.

Despite how sudden and violent the travel was, I couldn’t deny the fun of it.

It didn’t take us even less than sixty minutes to reach the vicinity of where he was training.

For some reason, Heon came to a halt nearly, but not quite, within his training grounds.

We were currently on top of a hill overlooking an immense wasteland. I had often come here before, and I can firmly attest that this place wasn’t always this way.

This place was once a beautiful green and verdant valley.

Now there was nothing left of that valley's previous appearance. The ground was now a mixture of orange, ashy grey, and charcoal black here and there.

Needless to say, whose fault it was.

While contemplating the disaster left behind in that place, I noticed a visible ripple approaching along with an earthquake. It took several seconds before a loud sound followed.

I was far from being strong enough to knock me down, but I could only imagine how powerful it must’ve been at its centerpiece.

In six months, it would be two years since they took me in. In these one and a half years that I’ve known him, Hân has always been very dedicated to his training, even though, from my point of view, he is strong enough already.

I sometimes wish I could be of help, but things are how they are and I don’t want to use my magic to hurt anything or anyone.

Contradicting, isn’t it?

This has nothing to do with kindness, it’s just that I feel that I have no right to use this magic to hurt, that this is not the way it is meant to be used.

Of course, this also has nothing to do with me feeling that this magic isn’t mine or anything like that. I fully accept the fact that this was a gift from Papa, that this is mine, and that I, and I alone, know what to do with it, but I also feel that there are certain rules I must abide by, the first one being to not use it to hurt anything.

My bubbles are empty, hollow inside. They are meant to protect, not to hurt.

That’s it. My magic is meant to be a shield. A shield like mine is of no use to him, at least not yet.

Sadly, this shield of mine is of no use to him.

Heon was about to march toward where the ripple reverberated from, but I stopped her.

"Hey, Heon. Can’t we go somewhere else? All I’ll be there is a burden. "

"..."

She seemed hesitant at first, but then decided to go along with what I said.

***

Heon and I strolled around the neighborhood.

And by neighborhood, I mean, by no means, the one right next door. We easily covered the triple digits of kilometers in a radius around us.

We discovered places I've never seen before in corners we haven't yet explored.

As we wandered aimlessly, we somehow ended up at a spot that I had visited a year ago with Heon.

It was where the swamp was and the place where the Wyrm died because of how I failed to protect it.

"Hey, Heon, can we stop here for a bit?

Though with some audible reluctance, she halted her march.

I descended from Heon's back to survey the scene.

There was no doubt this was the spot, yet it had nothing to do with its former appearance from one year ago. The swamp was gone, the trees too, and the land was completely barren.

There was a distinction between the barrenness of this land and the barrenness of the valley Hön was training in.

On his, the soil looked barren because of the destruction he caused. Here, this place was barren in a sense that it was as if life had been completely removed from the soil.

Where the pond formerly was, rocks that I once used as stepping stones were standing still in the middle of the place.

What exactly happened back then?

One year has gone by and I still don’t know.

But when I got angry, something happened that led to this place becoming what it looks like right now.

I don’t know what it was, but I knew to my core two things, one that it happened because of me, and two, that it was dangerous, and the fact, that I didn’t know what it could be, whether magic or some aina-produced phenomenon, made it even more frightening.

With Heon's aggressive reaction at the time, my mind was made up."Never again," I told myself back then.

To be honest, it was such a frightening experience that I even did my best to avoid ever falling into a situation similar to that one ever again, by always sticking on with either Heon or Hân.

But I guess, forever running away from this won’t do.

"This should be the place."

By "place," I was referring to where I stood.

What exactly did I do back then to make it happen? Just getting angry? It can’t be just that.

My magic only consisted of making bubbles, so in a way, I was more or less certain that it wasn’t magic.

Then Aina, maybe?

I didn't even remember even using Aina back then, I just remember wishing that snake would die horribly. Then maybe I should get as angry as I did back then.

"No, that won’t."

To be honest, I just wanted to know what it was, I just wanted to know what it was.

I was approached by Heon.

"Hey, Heon, will you get angry again, if I accidentally do that again?"

She simply exhaled loudly at me, then casually went to take a seat in the corner, the same way a watchdog watching over me would.

I don’t know if what I wanted to say came across, but I couldn’t help but smile.