The door to the two-floored Kirsche residence creaked open and a woman with slender black hair stepped inside. The frills of her gothic dress danced with every movement of her tall and slender body. She sighed as she settled on the couch in the living room.

“Haah, that damned fairy. I ought to soup her and feed her to those treant bastards.”

A head popped out from the kitchen door. “Oh, Ophelia. You look tired.” Vincent stepped out of the kitchen with an apron over his neck and a glass of water in his hands. He smiled at his wife and her the glass. Ophelia gulped the water down in one go and sighed with an ‘aah.’

“You know what, Vincent? I had a rough day, and...” She turned her head up.

“”I have the perfect thing to make it better!”” Their voices coincided. The two’s eyes widened in surprise.

“”What do you have?”” Again. They both stopped for a short while and stared at each other before continuing.

“”Wyvern meat!”” At the third time, the Kirsche couple clicked their tongues and turned their heads away. Then, as if a dam had burst, they broke into a fit of giggles.

Vincent playfully shook his head and went back to the kitchen. He was in charge of dinner tonight.

“So, where did you find yours?” Ophelia asked from the living room.

Vincent grabbed the chopper knife and carefully sliced the best parts of the Wyvern. “In Dalwich,” He answered without shifting his attention.

“Well, I found mine in its outskirts too… It’s rare to see two Wyverns like this.” Ophelia thought about the Wyverns before shrugging the thought off. It didn’t matter, they could take down a Wyvern or two without breaking a sweat. “Well, do you need help?”

**

On the second floor of the Kirsche house, three cherry-haired children had gathered in a circle. Astolfo’s room was crowded with his other siblings as they all sat around a book.

‘Mysteries of Rileth Kingdom.’

Charlotte had purchased this book when she went to the town near Frucht under the pretext of needing it for her studies. Her mother was not one to doubt the honor student, though it may have been different with Luka.

“So no one knows who made the dragon sculpture in the Royal Castle?” Charlotte said in surprise.

“There’s a dragon sculpture in the Royal Castle!?” Luka was surprised too, albeit for a different reason.

Astolfo pouted and said. “Well, it’s not like we are going to that place, right? What’s next.”

“Why do you say that, Astolfo? If you become a strong person, then you can even go to the empire, let alone the Castle in Rileth! I am going to get super strong and become the next emperor!”

“You can’t become the emperor just by becoming strong, Luka.” Charlotte gave her brother a sidelong glance before flipping the page. She didn’t want to continue on this topic. She could see Astolfo’s pout deepening. “The next one is… a metal rose?”

On the next page of the book was the blurry painting of a beautiful rose. The flower that brought a bloom in the viewer’s heart with just a painting had soft, bluish metallic plates instead of petals that didn’t seem unnatural in any manner.

The book said that the metal plates were the actual petals of the flower and that they are one of the metals richest in mana. If one could find an abundance of these metallic roses along with a grandmaster blacksmith, they would be able to forge a sword that could kill even a Krafool!

“Wow, it’s so pretty! The petals are shaped perfectly, and the tint is perfect too!” Astolfo marveled at the painting with wide eyes. “It says the most times it has been spotted is in the Dan… um, Daalweech forest?”

“The name is Dalwich forest.” Luka corrected his brother before adding his thoughts. “Isn’t that the one near Frucht?”

“It is!” Charlotte said.

“Then, does that mean we can see find the flower there?” Astolfo asked excitedly.

Charlotte leaned back and hmmed in thought. “I am not sure. It says it has been seen there the most, not that it grows there.”

“Ah…” Astolfo sighed in discontent. Charlotte felt her heart pounding at the sight of her youngest brother getting disheartened. Both Luka and Charlotte always had a strange feeling of guilt whenever they had to see him stay alone at home because of his weakness. This feeling had only increased these days as they both crossed ten years of age and started attending the local school in Frucht. She had scolded him earlier, but she knew Luka had only skipped school today because both their parents were too busy to stay home.

“Um, if you want, we can go look for the flower near the forest!”

Luka and Astolfo turned their heads towards their sister. At her words, a wide smile bloomed on Astolfo’s face. “Really?” he asked.

Luka, too, was surprised at his sister’s words. Astolfo aside, the kids had both heard about the dangers of Dalwich not only from their school but also from their parents.

“It should be fine as long as it is on the outskirts, right Luka?”

Astolfo turned towards his brother. Luka could not hold his ground for too long against the silent pressure of his younger brother’s eyes and caved in.

“Uh, um, yeah! As long as we don’t go inside the forest, we should be fine!”

“Then can we go tomorrow?!” Astolfo almost stood up in excitement.

“Tomor—”

“—Kids! Dinner’s ready!” Their mother’s voice interrupted them.

Astolfo got up with a smile. “Tomorrow then!” he said before dashing out of the room. The other two could only share an awkward smile before following their brother.

**

As the twin suns awoke from their slumber once again, Charlotte, Luka, and Astolfo dressed up in loose clothing and marched towards the extreme outskirts of Dalwich forest. They had told Vincent that they were going to play around Frucht and he happily let them go.

With eyes brimming in excitement, Astolfo hopped towards the forest. They went past the rippling locks of grass on the unending dunes of Frucht’s tiny mountains. There were no roads in this faraway place. Houses surrounded by various plantations stood far and between the wide wide stretches of the mountainous region.

The houses of Frucht soon shrank away as the children reached where the boundaries of Frucht and Dalwich merged. The grass increasingly darkened with each step and the frequency of the wild, rough trees increased. When the density of the greenery around them reached a comparatively high point, Charlotte stopped the group.

“We shouldn’t go further in.” She said and stepped towards a tree. With a smirk, a red glow veiled her hand as she pushed her palm towards the tree. Smoke rose from where her palm touched the trunk of the giant tree, yet she relentlessly pressed her hand in. After a minute or so, her hand sunk inside the trunk. The tree had a shallow, palm-shaped engraving on it, as if a village prankster had carved their hand on it.

“Wow!” Luka shouted. “You can use elemental magic so well! That’s so cool!”

Astolfo looked slightly shocked at what had happened. “D-does your hand hurt? Did you burn yourself?!” he asked.

“Hah! It will take ages for you all to come to my level.” Charlotte pushed her chest out triumphantly. She knew that what she had done was actually very unskilled. Not only did it take her much longer than her teacher, the difference in the temperature was so large that her flames didn’t even materialize! “Now that we have made a mark. Let’s look for the flower! We’ll just need to find this mark and move in that direction to go back!”

With that, the Kirsche Flower Finding Group set off on its mission of finding the metallic rose! The three stayed within each other’s sights as they went from left to right in search of the blue tinted marvel of nature.

The clock ticked onward and the twin suns readied for slumber again as the blue sky started turning dark. A whole day passed with no luck for the children. When Luka started noticing the darkness of the sky, he suggested they leave while being mindful of Astolfo’s reaction. To their surprise, their youngest brother readily agreed to call it a day. The tired and dirty Kirsche Flower Finding Group retreated back to their abode and joined the suns in their slumber. Of course, not before hearing an earful from Ophelia for their appearances.

**

Astolfo Kirsche was a special child. He knew he was. He had heard many a times that when he was born, his presence was so small that the midwife panicked and declared him stillborn. Luckily, both his parents could sense him with what they called the power of family.

A boy with a fractured soul.

The soul was the container of one’s presence, their life force, the concept of their existence. Astolfo, a being whose soul was deeply fractured, was a fleeting entity. When the fractures would cause a break and when he would die was something no one could tell. This was the harsh truth that though no one would say it, everyone, including himself, knew.

His body was unbelievably weak and his mana core unbelievably small. Astolfo had not a shred of doubt in the fact that he was the most flawed being in the world.

The most imperfect being.

Despite being a seven-year-old, he was burdened with thoughts of his death and his imperfection. So, he would seek all that is perfect. If he just learn something, if he could just observe something, if he could just find something from them, maybe he could be perfect too.

In the search of such perfection, the most imperfect being left its nest under the watchful gaze of the many moons of the night.