“Welcome guys, these are my younger brothers and sisters!”

Gavrau welcomed us excitedly and introduced his siblings. A wolf-eared woman with silver flowing hair and an expressionless face stepped forward.

“My name is Fralein, The second eldest of the siblings.”

She made a curtseying bow to all of us, all the while her wolf ears twitches several times.

……

Two girls came forward; as the grinning girl on the right was dragging the shying girl on the left.

“I’m Uldaiya and this is Fulvaiya.”

The girl who exudes brightness introduced herself and the girl on the left. Now that I looked closely, the girl on the left was not a girl at all; but his facial features was deceptively girlish, but he was definitely a boy.

He was hiding behind the excited girl.

……

“Gad, if you don’t introduce yourself, you’ll be sleeping outside tonight.”

Gavrau growled at the boy on his right without looking at him. The boy shuddered and hesitatingly stepped forward trying to maintain his aloof expression.

“My name is Gadvar, The third eldest of the siblings.”

He tried to come out as strong-willed and defiant but we could still see that he was supressing his shaking. His eyes reminded me of Herkaloi.

“Well, I hope all of us siblings can accommodate you all then!”

Gavrau happily guffawed after he said that.

Noticing the lack of parental figures, it feels like Keh Tauzad household all over again.

We were invited inside but before going in, the two repeating offenders, of petting cute things, had made their move and their aim was at Uldaiya and Fulvaiya.

As for why both of them couldn’t resist petting small and cute things, for August, it was because he actually volunteered at an orphanage for five years in his teens. His time there was consisted of coddling the orphans and entertaining them. Apparently they also had a lot of pet animals there. When I heard that from him, I realized he’s genuinely a nice guy.

As for Vefal, she had a lot of siblings instead of orphans and also plenty of pet animals. She grew up on a farm so she spent majority of her time looking after her siblings and the pet animals before she joined the military.

And for me, well, I had an adorable niece around to pet.

Uldaiya and Fulvaiya were greatly surprised as Vefal and August petted their heads respectively. They were initially shocked but after some gratuitous amount of petting and rubbing, they were in a blissful mood.

“Why have none of you two ever petted me, even when I’d had introduced myself? We Wolvan also liked being petted even though in adulthood…”

Gavrau muttered his lamentation. Of course, the two patters just ignore him and continue to indulging in petting the children.

I would have joined in, but looking at the Grim-looking boy and the expressionless woman, I can’t help but feel imperceptible danger if I do try to pet them. Gavrau was out of question.

After August looked satisfied, patting the head of Fulvaiya, he turned towards Fralein and they both made eye-contact.

August, who seems to lack the perception on danger, smiled and moved his to pat her head.

Just before he could…

**BAM!**

August was knocked down as the side of his face hit the ground as result from the sudden strong backhand by Fralein.

The guards behind made no move. They understood that it was nothing fatal or out of the norm.

……

“There was a pest flying around there. Don’t worry I slapped it away.”

She intoned as such without any change in her expression.

Everyone stood shocked.

“But there was no pest…”

“Yes there was.”

Vefal stopped patting Uldaiya and stared at Fralein, with wide eyes, as she said that to Fralein. The rest of us, except the siblings, were staring at her with shock.

What a way to give a first impression, but she was also right , as petting her would be considered as sexual harassment for a young adult like August. Then again, how old is August? Funny I never asked him that.

“Cheh, trying to touch big sis on just the first meeting, you have suicidal death wish, old man. She’s violent as fu-”

Before Gadvar could finish speaking, Fralein in just one leap had kicked down Gadvar with a roundhouse kick with her right foot.

“Gad, you’re not old enough to swear.”

Fralein coolly reprimanded the now-terrified Gadvar, who didn’t dare to move at all from where he was lying on the floor and was nodding vigorously.

Swearing is a no-no … but violence is fine?

It’s none of my concern, so I kept my bewildered thoughts to myself.

I helped August up and I could see genuine fear in his eyes.

“Ruigne, I think… I sort of like that.”

I was mistaken. Instead of fear, it was actually excitement that was glowing in his eyes, when August whispered to me.

“… Was it the verbal one or the physical one?”

“… I think both… Is there something wrong with me?”

When I asked him which one he’d actually enjoyed, he answered as such and fearfully asked me back such questions.

“… Of course not… it’s a fetish, everyone have them.”

I answered.

Of course there is something wrong, but it’s not that bad. It’s true when I say everyone has their own fetishes, but that particular fetish is abnormal in my point of view.

We were invited inside by Gavrau into the Fhagec along with his siblings.

It was the same size, almost like it was identical with the last two Fhagecs we visited, but the room composition was varied.

August and I had a delightful chat with Gavrau after we all settled down. The acerbic Akujin and the quiet Kiefy was interacting with Gadvar who seems to admire Kiefy because of how highly Gavrau evaluated him.

Erganisu was talking amiably with Uldaiya and Fulvaiya as they both share a passion in reading and writing, while Vefal chatted with Fralein, while petting the head of Fulvaiya.

It went like this for quite some time and before we knew it, four dots had passed. Right now, about sixteen dots were lit and that showed it was about four in the afternoon.

We promptly left while bidding the siblings farewell.

Standing in front of Gavrau’s Fhagec, all of us stood there as though we were waiting for something.

“I wanna see more of this town.”

“Aye, no harm in it, but I doubt our guards would let us wander off just like that.”

August expressed his desire and Kiefy thought the same, but he stared at the guards behind us.

Looking at all of their faces, which were of the same sentiment as I was, I turned and walked towards the guards.

Time to grab at our momentary freedom.

“Hey guys, is it possible that we can explore the town a bit before going back?”

The guards exchanged looks amongst themselves, trying to find someone who could answer me. One of the guards with a slightly flushed expression stepped forward.

“Honoured summoned, I’m sorry but-”

“Is it about the First Childs of Eoum? I heard from one of the Inheritors that most of them had been rooted out and arrested. If there are remnants, I highly doubt they can enact the same plan like before. Most of you live here right?”

I asked that while looking at all the guards. Most of them nodded.

“Well, you see, me and my fellow summoned are thoroughly entranced about everything in this place when we first laid our eyes. In the future, this place here will be our home too, so we wanted to get familiarized with the surroundings and also get to know the people!”

The guards, understanding my points, made agreeable expressions.

“Then we can at least comply if we follow from behind and only until two Ethka has passed, then we will need to head back.”

The guard who had answered me earlier had spoken that for all the guards. That’s reasonable and acceptable but there was one last thing.

“By the way, is it possible for you guys to move separately and just some considerable distance from behind? It would attract a lot of attention if you guys move like a marching band and that would trouble both of us.”

The guard, seemingly getting my point, nodded again.

So everything had been arranged.

I went back to the group and told them we were given two hours to explore. August and Erganisu rejoiced while Akujin and Kiefy smiled. Vefal stood beside me as we were ready to walk.

Before we went off to explore, I stopped and turn around to look at the far distance mountain.

It had taken two weeks but I’m adjusting here. I missed a lot of things back on earth and there is still hidden sliver of hope in me, clinging that the fact this might be just a long dream.

……

After contemplating for a while, I realized that this world, at the outset, looks fragile and brimming with innocence. The vast mountains and the numerous outlines of trees served to accentuate that fact.

But there was something amiss; like a jigsaw puzzle missing a piece. You can’t quite point out what was wrong, but the second thing I trust after my logical reasoning failed would be my intuition.

I sighed deeply and with Vefal at my side, we began walking.

--

(Third Person’s; POV)

Inside a particular hill, there was a particular cave large enough to be a shelter and it became a home-base for a particular group of people. That particular group of people was none other than one of the cell groups of the First Child’s but that was one hour ago and things had changed.

As of now, there are two living beings surrounded by dozens of dead bodies inside that cave.

There were only two Lantern orbs still remaining, partially illuminating the ghastly carnage that had occurred an hour before.

“They died real quick for a group that claim to be descended from the First Summoned.”

A muffled and deep voice commented in the darkness.

“They just ‘claimed’. No basis or even proof. Anyone can join this group as long as they prove useful. The real ones are those higher ups who don’t even show their faces and just give support from the shadows.”

It was a second voice that was a distorted and grating sort of voice, had derisively said as such.

“Do we really need to kill them? I know it’s done already but I’m just wondering why.”

The muffled voice questioned the second voice.

“They know of our existence when we had contacted them. We can’t risk them spilling everything if they get captured and anyways, they have outlived their usefulness after that failed attack.”

The second voice answered leisurely.

Some parts of the cave had been shed on by the light. On those illuminated parts, there were the dead bodies.

A man had a slit throat and a bloodied sword in his hand.

There was another man who was truly pale with drained skin as though he had lost a lot of blood.

“We’re done here right? I need to get back to the Federation. The Councils are suspecting something is amiss.”

The first voice, after saying that, was making a cracking sound from his hands.

The second voice sighed.

“This wouldn’t happen if you actually succeeded in planting a [Worm] into one of the summoned.”

There was a pause…

The light had revealed the state of another dead body nearby the voices.

The person had been stabbed a number of times in the abdomen and the weapon on his left hand was a bloodied knife that was also covered in bits of meat.

“I told you already, it was going fine at first and you know how a long distance [Worm] is slower, but it wouldn’t take too long. Then suddenly the process was slowed and almost halted. I was stumped but I can’t get close without alerting anyone so I kept a considerable distance… Too much time passed and that guy then took the Specialization Pill and the [Worm] was ousted from his mind.”

Fed-up, the first voice had explained as though he had explained the same thing over and over.

“… You know, he was summoned naked. Never mind, you can do it again in the future right?”

“As long as we cut off his connection to Eoum temporarily, then yeah. All it takes is just one minute if I’m near. I still have the [Worm] here with half of his memories.”

The second voice asked the first and the first confirmed as such.

“Let’s move out then, the corpses are starting to smell. I’m gonna incinerate all of them with Eomancy of Deep Red.”

“Aye.”

And the inside of the cave went blazing in an inferno. The two figures, after burning the inside, left to their own separate ways.