"Woaahh you're so amazing aren't you, _________?" The female child placed her head on the story teller's lap.

"Haha, of course I am kid. After all, even you kids can't really make me feel pain!" The story teller laughed haughtily, boasting his own achievement through his story.

"And then-- And then-- tell us what happened next!" Another kid whom he was sharing his story with was very excited to the point of rocking his seat.

"Owowowookaayy okay" He then placed his one foot from his chair to the floor to stabilize himself, "Don't get too excited. Come here kid!"

"Gyaahahaha!" The story teller hugged the kid and tickled him on the torso, "Okay! Okay! Stop! Stop!" The kid kept laughing.

"Now, don't move me so much, else Alyssa would be the next one to tickle you."

"Okaaayyy." The child also placed his head on the story teller's lap.

"It was the 4th one, they were powerful. I saw them fight each other on the chair. That arm-wrestling, although we were laughing, I could see the vibrations on their hands and arms. I knew that the next winner there would be my enemy. I became scared of course, but I knew, that if I win, I could share this story with you kids." The story teller said as he caressed the children's fluffy hair.

"What happens if you lose?" Alyssa asked.

"Well, then I'd play with you kids." The story teller giggled as he ruffles Alyssa's head.

*Ring* *Ring*

The story teller's phone rang.

"Ah, hold on. My family's calling me."

"Sweetie, when are you coming home? It's already 5PM."

"Ma, we're still waiting for the others. Don't worry, if the schedule's right, I could get home before dinner."

"I see..."

"If I don't make it, just eat without me. My brother might be starving already considering he's hungrier than a bone-thin shark."

The mother behind the phone laughs.

"Alright, be careful okay?"

"Yeah. Even if we crash, it'll still take a lot out of me to die."

She giggles, "Still, be careful. Bye!"

"Aight, bye Ma."

As the call ends, he looked to the children he was tending only to find them asleep on his bag.

"Haa... These kids are a handful huh..."

Suddenly, a sharp pain in his heart was felt.

"-?! Shit, why now?!" He lowered his voice so that no one can hear him. He gripped his chest tightly.

'I can't let anyone worry. I can't let them waste more money on this useless me. This is my selfishness. This is my pride as their child. To let these kids learn to be strong, this will be my pride as a guardian...' He kept gripping his chest to somehow distribute the pain felt from his heart to his whole chest, 'It's stupid, but hey, it works...' [1]

He closes his eyes.

"What the...? AAAGGHH!" Suddenly, the same sharp pain was felt. Although this time, it didn't come from his heart. It came from his injured hip which he gained in the last battle.

"Don't move too much Kuro, it'll take us longer if you do." Alicia's words seem to fall out as Kuro notices. As he winced in the immense pain of healing his injuries, he saw Alicia bite her lip due to the pain Kuro felt.

'Is this what Mother's feel when they're treating their injured children?' He looked at his arms, which were held down by his father, also biting his lips.

'I didn't notice that...' "NGGHH!" More pain struck Kuro's chest, but this was the most pain he had ever felt. Yet he tried not to let any voice out to not let his family worry. His hands shook, his butt clenched, his mouth drooling due to the immense pain, his calves were jerking, his feet were getting restless, his heart beat louder and louder, his eyes slowly turning white. It felt as if his body was slowly being torn apart and stretched out to cover his injured chest. Seconds passed by as it felt like hours, yet Kuro tried his best to not utter a yelp. He dug his feet down to hopefully lessen its restlessness, but ended up shaking the bed.

Finally, after that short yet long painful time of healing, the pain finally lessened as his injury shrunk, he could finally breathe straight. Sweat dripped out of the 3, and silence filled the room, until Kuro laughed and broke it.

"Kuro, why are you laughing?" Alicia, whose tears were on the verge of dripping out, was worried whether her son had broken down or not.

"Mom, you don't have to cry. It was my mistake doing that training..." Kuro showed a smile as he said those words.

"Kuro, why'd you have to fight alone? You could have defeated the alpha wolf if you guys worked together." Doran's words made Kuro widen his eyes a little before closing it once more.

"Well, I didn't really want them to get hurt because of my own mistake. And besides, they were too afraid, and that's reasonable."

"But, why wolves? Why not us?"

"Dad, will you have the intent to kill your only son? Even if your son became evil?"

Doran's mouth didn't open. He knew the answer to his question, and if he answered "No", it would be the same as losing to his child by words, his pride wouldn't allow that.

"Mom, would you rather expose your child to protect others than to keep him locked in like a pet and never let him out of your sight?"

Alicia felt the same. Although he talked back to the both of them, they couldn't answer back.

"Mom, Dad, I love all of you, including my friends. But if we were to be exposed to danger, we wouldn't be able to fight back. I won't die, because I made a promise, and until I fulfill that promise, I won't die. Even then, I won't leave my friends and family weak and alone, so I want to teach them how to fight. As much as possible, I won't let anyone with me die before me. If I die, then that's my pride." Kuro sighs in relief as he finishes healing and was released by Doran.

"Kuro..." Doran finally spoke after his speech.

"Hmm?"

"There was a prophecy we heard in the past..."

"Which is?" Kuro grew even more curious.

Alicia continued Doran's words, "The Silver King shall walk on the ruined world. With his wrath, the world shall break as the seals were cut. It all starts on 'Ragnarok', the day Gaia and the Gods died, the day Shin, the Dragon Demi-God almost ruined the world."

Kuro's eyes widened at Alicia's words. "We wanted to prevent that as much as possible." Doran spoke, "But, that's our wish as a Guardian [2]. As a parent, I want you to experience the most of your life. If your pride as a Dragonkin and a Guardian won't let you abandon your friends and family, then this is our pride as your parents and the Guardians of this world."

'Ah... So this is...' Kuro smiled at that thought.

"Mom, Dad..."

""Hmm?""

"I'm sorry that I worried you guys... I guess I was too hasty to get stronger than Dad. I just..."

"Hey now Champ, I've been there. And besides, as a Dragonkin, you still have a few decades before I start to rust."

Kuro smiled, 'I remember...'

Kuro looked to his family, "I want to climb to the roof of the tower with you and everyone. Can you help us? I've read that in 'Ragnarok', the stars shall fall, which shows the world's shield and Gaia's promise to protect everyone. Wanna see?"

His Father scratched his head, "Gee, I forgot about that. We always did celebrate your birthday inside the house... Okay! We'll call on the others. We won't be able to join because we'll have a meeting, but you kids can go enjoy yourselves!"

"Alright, I'll help prepare!" His mother said in a gleeful tone, as if Kuro didn't get injured.

"Kuro..."

"Yes Dad?"

"We'll allow you to train, but we need someone to supervise you guys, okay?"

Kuro smiles, "Sure!"

'It's weird that they didn't think whether a 6 year old kid could talk like that, but okay.' Kuro laughs inside.

Suddenly, voices came to Kuro's ears.

"""Kuro!"""

It was his friends.

"Yo."

Bea hugged Kuro as she cried, "Kuro..."

"Oy, don't put snot on me." As Kuro says that, she hugged him tighter, Kuro remembered his past and sighed, "Alright, alright, calm down, I'm here, I'm alive." Kuro hugs her back and pats her head.

'I'm not a criminal for doing this, right?'

As he pats Bea's head, he felt Levy's cold stare from the door.

"Ehh Levy, Gran, Kenny, sorry for worrying you guys."

Levy responded, "You won't repeat it?"

"I won't, I won't..."

"I don't believe you." Immediately, she hugged Kuro from behind.

"Ehh Levy? What are you doing?"

"Promise you won't do it again."

"Eh?"

"Promise."

"..."

"..."

"You guys know I-" Before he could finish his statement, he was cut by Kenny and Gran.

""Then We'll join in!""

"AHHHH!!!"

Immediately, he was buried in hugs. A few seconds later after trying to breathe, he tried speaking.

"O... -KAY! I WON'T-- DO IT A-- GAAIIINNNN" The sheer tightness of their hugs made Kuro slowly lose his breath. If he hadn't practiced how to breath efficiently, he would've already suffocated. 'Kenny's fucking strong, why didn't he join in?!' He thought to himself.

"Promise?" As if Levy hadn't been bothered by Kenny's bone-breaking strength, she softly whispered to Kuro's ears, which sent shivers down his spine due to it being his sensitive part.

"YES I PROMISE PLEASE JUST LET ME GO!"

Soon after, Levy and Bea looked at each other after Bea had cleared her face off of snot using Kuro's shoulders. As if they had telepathy, both of them knew what to do.

"Kuro... Do you really promise?" Bea whispered to his right ear.

"You won't break this one?" Levy whispered to his left ear.

The amount of shivers made him be filled with goosebumps all over his entire body. Annoyed, he converged his mana that was recovered in his sleep, and forced his way out of there. The 4 were surprised to see Kuro be that strong.

"If you guys catch me before they fix the platform, I would really promise!" Immediately, he ran out of the house, passing through his family that was conversing with the others. Following him were the other kids. At their enjoyment, the other kids joined in. As they all ran with Kuro being the one chased, his heart beat loudly. But he wasn't in pain, rather, it was filled with happiness. 'He' was filled with happiness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New Skill obtained!

"Guardian"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kuro and the other kids finally stopped chasing each other, though, Kuro looked as if he could still run a few more laps around the humble village.

"How- can you run- so fast- yet you- can still run?!" Gran complains to Kuro.

"Well, if you trained like me since I was a kid, you'd know!"

Everyone was resting on the ground, but before long, they were called by their families.

"Everyone! The platform's finished! Let's go!" A cheery mother's voice resounded [3].

"Alright, let's climb the platform if you don't wanna miss a good show!" With Kuro's words, everyone became excited. They all climbed up the stairs to the platform, which had carried them all in one spot. It was big enough to let all of the kids to lie down separated.

As they all waited for the show in the sky, Kuro checked on his family and the others to see them in a separated platform for adults.

'Ah... Right.' He didn't question any further.

They positioned themselves, with Kuro in the middle, Bea rests her head on Kuro's lap as he massages her hair, Gran sits on Kuro's left, Kenny on the right, and then Levy sits next to Kenny.

Finally, after several minutes that felt like seconds due to excitement, the starry night sky shone brightly.

"There it is guys!" Kuro yelled so that those who were sleepy, opened their eyes widely.

The stars fell beautifully.

As they all enjoyed the stars falling, the symbol of Gaia's promise, Kuro heard the adult's joy, "Happy Birthday Kuro!"

With their yell, the children did the same, "Happy Birthday!"

His heart was filled with warmth, 'If only, things could stay like this...'

As they kept watching the stars, they slowly dwindled down.

"Ah, it's almost over."

"That was a good show."

"That was awesome!"

The children were filled with joy from the show and went down. Everyone but Kuro.

"Aren't you going down?" Bea asked.

"Nah, not yet. I wanna watch a little longer."

"Okay, don't stay up too late, we're gonna have training like your Dad said."

"Alright."

As Bea slowly went down, Kuro watched the night sky that was still shining with stars.

"Damn, if only Earth could be this shiny... What a sight."

As he was admiring the view, a star had shone from afar. It was unusual since everything was over.

"Huh?"

He observed a little while longer, he saw the star shine brighter and brighter... And then it flew up.

Shivers went down Kuro's spine. In his past life, when he shivers down his spine without any ticklish sort, it only meant one thing...

"'Danger'"

He immediately ran down as fast as he could. As he was running down, he saw the "star" get closer and closer.

"EVERYONE DANGER IS INCOMING!!" Kuro yelled at the top of his lungs, the fathers and the like were the first to react to his words. They became sober and immediately took their weapons. The females prepared their magic and immediately responded to Kuro's yell. As fast as they could, within just 3 seconds, they were immediately carrying their children outside of their homes. But on the 5th second, Kuro saw the "star" crackling with lightning. It landed to his village with a bang.

As it exploded, Kuro, who was closest to it before impact, had been electrocuted, if he hadn't prepared his mana to shield himself beforehand, he would've died. The impact that looked as if it were an EMP glowed brightly, its force was strong enough to blow away a huge part of their environment with the village in the middle of it. And because of that blast, Kuro was thrown back due to its force. All he saw before being fully knocked away, was a being in the middle of his village.

It was the start of his nightmare.

[1] - Don't do this

[2] - Their village is filled with Dragonkins whose purpose is to prevent the world from starting a pointless greedy war, hence, "Guardians".

[3] - Someone else's mother