Chapter 6 – Ane

“Mom, hurry, hurry!”

I’m so excited I can’t help but urge mother to hurry. Today I’ll accompany her when she goes shopping. It’s been two months since I revealed that I can walk and talk. I’ve been begging mother to take me with her since then but she has always said that it’s too dangerous. Finally she agreed today. I don’t know if it’s because I’m old enough or she’s just tired of declining. Spring is almost over and days got really hot lately but yesterday there’s been a downpour so mother is looking for something she can cover my shoes in so they won’t get wet.

“Yes, yes, I try. I swear I had seen it somewhere here. Oh, there is it. Show me your shoes Kris.”

She wrapped up my shoes in some kind of rubber or leather thing. It’s smooth like rubber but not slippery at all. I wonder what it’s made of.

“Remember, never let off my hand or you will get lost.”

“Yes mom.”

After this we set off.

Our house is located quite close to the center of the city, just inside the inner walls. City itself was built around a castle that is located at the top of a hill so the farther from the castle you go the lower you are. I look behind me and see the a lot of big buildings and the castle in the background few hundreds of meters from here. We walk down the street towards the gate in the inner walls. On the both sides of the street there’s a lot of people in lavish clothes, some of them greet mother and smile when they see me. Some have black horns. When I see it I grip mother hand with more strength. As we pass through gate, mother greet the guards and they respond with a nod. When we are on the other side I can see almost whole northern part of the city. Before me there is a sea of tightly packed, two and three story high buildings and another walls in the distance. I can’t be sure but the outer walls are something like one kilometer from the inner walls. Beyond the outer walls there are wheat fields and some farmhouses here and there. If this city southern part is similar to the northern part then the walls are a perfect circle.

Mother leads me through the bustling street. Five minutes later we reach a small market square. We walk up to one of the stalls with vegetables. When mother thinks on what to buy I look around the market. It’s a small market but the noise is big. I can hear people haggling and talking with each other. Most of them are humans but there’s a lot of horned one’s too. I think I’ve even seen an elf. I check on what mother want to buy and sigh in relief. She didn’t picked any green tomatoes. Merchant haggle with mother for a bit and they finally settle the price. He also has horns. I wonder if I can use children bluntness and curiosity in this situation. Let’s give it a try.

“Mom, why this person has horns?”

Instead of mother, merchant answer me with a smile.

“It’s your first time seeing a demon kid?”

“Demon?”

“Yes. Demon. Every person that has horns is a demon or a least half or quarter. Pure demons have black horns and tail but halves and quarters vary, they can have only horns, tails or nothing at all. Beside those additional body parts, demons are no different than humans so you don’t have to be afraid of them kid.”

Heeeeh. And there I thought that demons will have some kind of dark powers but it turns out that they are just humans with horns and tails glued to them.

When I was listening to the merchant I didn’t realize, but mother made a face as if she has had figured something out. I was still processing what the merchant said when mother dropped the bomb.

“Now that I think about it you probably never realized because I don’t have horns but mother is half demon too.”

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!? Mother is half demon!? Theirs is nothing demon like about her at all! I guess it’s really true that demons are no different than humans.

But wait. If mother is a demon half then it means…

“I’M QUARTER DEMON !?”

“Don’t yell Kris. It’s nothing to be worried about. Almost one third of our kingdom population is of mixed blood.”

What? One third is of mixed blood? That sounds like a lot, not like I know how big is this country population. But still, it’s a strange world. Humans and demons live together almost as if they are one race. I wonder if it was initially a human country or the demons one.

Still, there’s one more thing I want to confirm.

“I won’t grow horns or tail, right mom?”

“Who knows. Horns and tail will grow only after you reach age of five when your soul settle down. But don’t worry. Even for halves it’s rare to grow horns, besides mother and father will love you no matter what.”

Damn it. I hoped that if I didn’t grew horns until now then I won’t ever but I was wrong. Well, no point in worrying about is now. I will worry when I’m five.

After we left the market I asked mom where father work. She said that we can go there if we want because it’s not so far. We crossed two more streets and entered a big three story building.

We entered through a big double winged doors to a long corridor that lead to a big circular room, or more like a hall with bookshelves on the walls, a big desk in the middle with a young girl sitting at it and a few smaller tables scattered around. The room has no ceiling, it goes through all three floors. Instead of roof there’s only a dome made of glass . On the second and third floor that you can see from the first floor there’s a labyrinth of bookshelves. We go further inside and the desk girl greet mother.

“Welcome Mrs. Neria.”

That’s right. That’s mother name. I only learned it by accident recently since neither father nor mother call themselves with each other names.

“Hi Ane, do you know where Rirar is?”

“Boss? He should be somewhere in the back offices. Should I call him?”

“Yes please.”

The girl went to call father and mother tells me some facts about this place. It’s the biggest bookstore that our family own. There are hundreds of thousands of books here, many of those you won’t find anywhere else. When I asked how many bookstores we own she said that we own every bookstore in this city. Could it be that our family is rich? I thought that we are normal commoners, even if a bit wealthy because I never seen anything truly expensive in our small house also we don’t have any servants, mother always doing all the chores herself. I was still thinking about our family situation when father finally emerged from one of the doors with the desk girl behind him.

“Hi honey, I didn’t expect you here today.”

“Hi sweetie, Kris wanted to see where you work so I brought him here. Is it bad?”

“No, of course not. If my little sonny want to see his daddy then I will ditch everything I’m doing and run to him. So, what would you like to see sonny?”

“Magic books!”

“That again? Well, it’s not like I have anything against it. OK, let’s go to the first floor and look for some magic books!”

Mother smile and say.

“Looks like it will take a while. Sweetie, I’m going back to buy something for supper so take care of Kris for an hour or so ok?”

“Yeah leave it to me.”

And so mother leaves and I go with father to look for some magic books.

When we are on the first floor all I can see is a labyrinth of bookshelves. I have no idea how father can find his way here. Could it be magic? Nah, I never seen father do anything even remotely similar to magic. He shows me some colorful books and after ten minutes the desk girl show herself again.

“Boss, we have a problem. A caravan from Ledo just arrived.”

“What!? They were supposed to come the day after tomorrow, not today. Damn it. Ane, stay here with Kris, I will gather some employees and prepare for the caravan.”

With these words he leaves the scene. We stare at the direction he went off and then at each other.

“Wait, I’m supposed to babysit you? There was nothing about babysitting in my contract.”

“Don’t ask me. I just want to read some books.”

I walk to the bookshelf and search for an interesting book. She stare at me for a little while longer and say.

“But still, I guess you really are that rumored kid.”

“…. Rumored kid?”

“Yeah, there was a rumor that Mr. Rirar hid his wife somewhere in the inner city because she was pregnant.”

“And he had to hide her because of that?”

“Well, Mr. Rirar is one of the most wealthy men in the kingdom, he basically has a monopoly on book trading and not everyone is happy because of that, his child would be a nice bargain chip if someone wanted to have his own share.”

That solve few mysteries I guess. Mainly why we live in such a small house and why I was never allowed to leave it so far.

“That’s very interesting Ane.”

“Hey! My name isn’t Ane! It’s Anepophmacemaxyta!”

“Wow. I guess your parents hate you. No wonder everybody calls you Ane. How do you even pronounce it?”

“My parents don’t hate me! For an elf my name is normal you dumb brat.”

She is an elf? Her ears are hidden beneath her hair so I can’t tell. Anyway how do you even call this hair color? Dirty green? Brownish green? Rotten moss? Besides her hair her eyes are also the same color. Shouldn’t elves have blond hair?

“Should you really call your boss son like this?”

“Are you even really his son? You talk abnormally well for your age. You sure you are not some kind of demon?”

“A quarter if you want to know.”

“Arghh. Why I am arguing with you? You are not even two probably. And don’t even pretend that you can read that book!”

I close the book I was reading and place it back on the bookshelf with a sigh.

“So noisy. Why did father hired someone like you?”

“Hey! I may not look like it but I’m a rank nine mage of Reiran Academy.”

Oooo. A real mage. Now that she mention it her aura is quite strong, it has a clear orange color. I guess it really reflect one’s magic ability. Lately I’ve learned to ignore people aura otherwise I would be distracted every time I talk to someone so I haven’t noticed it till now.

“Rank nine mage of Reiran Academy?”

“Yep. I will explain it to you so you will respect me as you should. You see, every year every student in Reiran Academy undergo a ranking test. Its purpose is to measure student magic ability so they can properly assign every student to the class corresponding his ability. Rank five is an average ability for one’s age group while rank ten is the best. So you see, me being a rank nine means I’m one of the best students my age. Any questions so far?”

“Hmmmm. Let’s see … what’s Reiran?”

“… Seriously? You don’t even know the name of the kingdom and at the same time city you live in?”

“What do you expect from not even two years old child?”

“… you have a point there. Any other question?”

“How many age groups are there?”

“Fourteen. If it turns out that you have magic ability then you are required to study at Reiran Academy until the age of nineteen. Fourteen years total.”

“That sucks.”

“Well, mages are considered to be a kind of strategic resource for every country so it can’t be helped. A good mage is equal to a hundred normal soldiers after all.”

We chatted some more until mother returned. She got a bit angry at father for leaving me here but just a little bit. We said our goodbyes to Ane and left the bookstore. Nothing much happened on our way back. When father came back it turned out that grandfather was the reason why that caravan arrived earlier than expected. He met the caravan on his way to Reiran and helped tham to fend off the monsters on the way here so they moved faster than usual. Grandfather really is some kind of badass warrior. I asked father if I could go to that bookstore from time to time and he thankfully agreed.

Looks like the days won’t be so boring from now on.

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***Author corner***

Sorry for the late release but writing one chapter per day is impossible for me after all, so I will write one longer chapter every two or three days.

It’s my first attempt to write a story so if you find anything you think should be changed or I should improve at then don’t hesitate to leave a comment. It will help me to improve my skill.

Also thank you everyone for following this fiction.