Siegfried PoV

“Found ya!” I say as I tag Ryan, who was hiding behind a box near the tree that is the safe zone.

“No fun! I thought I would be able to be the first to be safe!” He says, sitting near the tree. “And how did you find me so fast?”

I point at the box and when he looks at it his eyes widen. “Your shadow, it was rather easy to see that someone was there. Now I need to find the others.” I say and with a wave of my hand I start walking away while whistling a song. I don’t plan to have this game take lots of time, all I need to do is just freeze time if I want. It is so easy to localize them all.

Arthur is in the dark place between two houses, and Aurora is hiding inside a wooden box beside Arthur. It is in their direction that I am currently walking.

“Arthur and Aurora. I found both!” I stop time and walk to appear right behind Arthur, when the time is back I hear him gasping for air.

“He just disappeared…? No way, no one at this age should be able to use magic!” He says just before I tap his right shoulder, making him jump. “WHAT!?” He shouts and Aurora gets out of her hideout as she runs to the tree. I smile at her and with a light sprint I catch her left shoulder.

“Got both of you!” I say smiling. “Now you guys wait with Ryan near the tree.” I tell the duo that walks slowly to the tree. I can see that they thought it would be easy to win against the new kid so they got careless. “Now… where are the others?” I say as I put my finger on my head. “That side.” I point to my right and I see two kids starting to run. Victor and Brandon.

“Victor, run! I’ll try to buy time!” Brandon says as he turns to me to try stop me from running after Victor.

“Why should I care? I just need to catch you all.” Saying that I kick the ground lightly and in an instant I appear before Victor. “Gotcha!” I say as I tap his head after jumping over his body.

“How did you do that?!” Victor asks me and I smile to him before appearing right behind the astonished Brandon and tapping his back.

“I got you too!” I say to the boys and they walk to the tree, Victor wanted to ask more questions but I didn’t answer him. “Now… where are Eris, Wendy and Mira?” I look around and don’t find any new places that they could be… except the roof of the houses or the trees around the plaza.

I run back to the tree where I counted and before me are the three girls that have appeared all of a sudden. They were laughing at the others that were all caught by the new kid.

“Really! These guys were caught by the new kid!” Wendy says, almost not able to hold her laughing fit.

“Yeah! Why don’t you try a little harder next time?” Mira says and I tap her shoulder, causing her to jump away. It made everyone start to laugh and Eris almost fell on the ground.

“As I said, he can scare people really well if he wants!” Brandon quickly said but he was laughing so it came out all broken.

“You guys… why am I feeling like the odd one out?” I say as I sit on the ground.

“As expected of you…” Eris says and I tilt my head in confusion. “*Sigh* How can you not understand that these guys here got so careless that they let you catch them too easily.” She says, making gestures to the five I had tapped. "You got five people in less than 5 minutes of the game! And we just managed to get here when you appeared! Are you sure that you’re not something that shouldn’t exist?” She asks me with a strange face.

“You know, hearing someone saying that I am strange really hurts… and they say it almost everyday!” I tell them and they start to laugh again. “Don’t laugh! It isn’t funny!” I yell to them before freezing time. I lift my body and jump into a nearby tree.

As I sit on one of its branches I make time run again and within 1 second I see them all looking around.

“Where is he?” “I said he could disappear like that!” “I saw him doing it twice and I can’t believe my own eyes!” The kids were all looking around and before they could look up I throw a fruit at Arthur’s head.

“Who did- How did you get there so fast?” The boy asked me as he got the fruit from the ground. He had placed his left hand on the spot it had hit his head.

“Jumping!” I tell them and with a few more jumps I get the same fruit for everyone. I just dropped their fruits as I heard Arthur murmuring that I just wanted to show that I could do things like this.

I let one fruit fall to Eris and she got in the air. ‘As expected of the feline beastkin.’ I think as I let myself drop from the top of tree with a fruit in hand. I land without any problems and the kids are all looking at me with big round eyes.

“Did I do something strange?” I ask them tilting my head.

“You surely did! How can you fall from that high and not get hurt?” Wendy asks as she looks up to the tree. “No one can jump from that height and be okay after! Tell us, did you use magic?” Her eyes were shining and the others had some shining eyes as well.

“No, I didn’t use magic…” I tell them, trying to avoid the dangerous situation I am in. ‘I don’t really know if I should just tell them or not…’ I think looking at their eyes.

“*Sigh* It looks like he will not tell us what he did… if you’re not going to say… you’re going to be ‘it’ again and this time you’re not going to find anyone!” Mira says and everyone nods.

“But I just played ‘it’ and the one that should be ‘it’ now is Brandon!” I tell them and they shake their heads as if saying: ‘You’ve just started playing with us today, you will need to deal with everything we want.’ I wanted to tell them that I haven’t used magic but they all said I did and they won’t stop asking me until I said that I used magic with a sigh.

“*Sigh* Okay! I used magic! Are you happy now?!” I shout as I bite the fruit in my hand. “*Munch* Why does no one believe when I said I didn’t use magic? *Munch*” I pout while munching the fruit that my memory called apple.

Everyone looked at me and with a winning smile they all started eating their apples. As soon as they bite into them I hear the kids gasping.

“““““It is sweet!””””” They all say together while looking at me.

“How did you know which ones were sweet?” Eris asked and the others all nodded while munching their sweet apple.

“The color.” I say to her and she looks at the red fruit. “Father said that apples are good if you eat them straight after taking them from the tree, but they need to be red.” I say as I finish my fruit. It was really sweet and the taste was really good.

“But… aren’t you one of the kids that lives in the orphanage?” Mira says timidly and I nod. The others just look at me with face that says they were sorry.

“Ah! Don’t look at me with those eyes! It is making me feel bad now.” I say feeling embarrassed. “I have already come to terms with that and I am okay with it.” I tell them as I gesture to them to stop.

“I think we should be more cautious with the things we ask…” Arthur says and everyone nods.

“Listen to me when I speak! I am really okay! Stop looking at me with those eyes!” I continue to tell them for a few more minutes until everyone had rested a little and the game was to start once more, Brandon is ‘it’ this time.

I don't think I ever said what races there are among the mortals… and since they started to spread over various planets I should say that the variety has just gone up. I think there are nearly 100 races existing across all the worlds. There are too much to really care, so I just call them mortals as the number is too great to tell them all apart.

Brandon is a demon, Victor is a dwarf, Arthur a dark-elf, Ryan an elf, Mira is a fox beastkin, Wendy is a wolf beastkin, Aurora is a human, Eris is a cat beastkin and I'm an Automata.

I should have said that earlier, but I didn’t want to spoil the fun. Now I can just hide somewhere near Eris and go back to the tree as she goes back as well. Previously I had made sure to let Stein know that I wouldn’t be able to stay close her, so he was the one following her at that time and I never asked him to tell me her position since I wanted to see what he would do.

But now I am ‘following’ her via the roofs of nearby houses. All the kids scattered to all directions and I followed Eris for a few meters before she stopped and told me to look for a hideout on my own. I just looked at her and nodded, jumping up to the nearby roof and waving my hands to her I ‘jump’ down on the other side just to follow her after that.

I found that she hid herself near the tree in a place that I thought no one would think to hide there. It was a dead end and before she entered that place she looked around her just to nod afterwards as she doesn't see anyone. I observed all this from the roof of a nearby house.

Eris walked quickly to the end of the dead end and with a small tap on a brick a hole appears right near her. It didn't really appear since it was there with iron bars but it just opened like a door and she hops inside before closing it again.

‘That is why no one can find her… She has this place as a hideout and with her race she can hide pretty easily.’ I think as I look around trying to see where to hide close to her place, but not too close, and I find it. The house I am now on has a small balcony with a small wall to protect anyone that wants to look at the street. I get down there as I wait for the time to get out and run to the tree.

I waited for a few minutes as I peeked once every few seconds to see if someone is coming or Eris had already left but no one appeared and I just waited there almost shutting down for a few seconds as I feel my eyelids get heavy. The body is so perfectly replicated that I need to eat, sleep, and I had installed a way to impregnate women in this body, but now it isn’t functional because of the age the body has. I’ll need to wait a few more years for that function to be unlocked.

It had passed 15 minutes when I saw Eris leaving the dead end and as fast as I could I jumped on the roof and started following her. I was lucky that I could just jump over the roofs, but Eris needed to stop once in awhile to see if Brandon was near her. I have been scouting and haven’t seen him yet, he probably is looking for us so we should just run fast enough to get close to the safe area before he appears.

I got there before Eris that had to deviate from a passerby once every few minutes but I didn’t enter the area or get the chance to. Brandon was there looking around seeing if someone had entered the tree's protection.

I curse him in my mind and I jump down blocking Eris' way as well hiding us behind a stopped car.

“What are you doing?!” Eris asked me and I place my hand over her lips. They were soft and warm.

“Brandon is looking at the tree area. I saw him from the top of the roof.” I whisper to her as I take my hand away from her mouth. “He is probably seeing who is missing, we lost too much time so he has got back...”

“Brandon… why did you need to appear now?! I thought I had two or three more minutes before he came back.” Eris whispers near me and I nod to her.

“I’ll leave first and try to catch his attention. Use this opportunity to run and get away from him.” I tell her and she takes my hand with hers.

“Why are you going to do that? We just met each other!” She said, looking into my eyes. I couldn’t tell her, not yet, it is a secret that I need to hide from her.

“I just thought it was normal… mother always said that I should be good to girls and to my friends.” I tell her and she nods while getting a little red. “Anyway, I’m going now, wait to see me running before trying to get close to safe area.” Eris nods and I run to the guy that started to walk in our direction.

“YOU! I finally found you!” Brandon shouts as he sees me running from behind the car.

“You aren’t going to get me!” I make a funny face to him. “You are too slow to get me!” I could see that he is really slow to me, but I need to let him get close enough to try to get me but not too close since I need to hide Eris.

Before he could really catch me I run away, getting closer to the safe area. I felt that he was desperate to touch me, but as soon as I avoided his third tackle the girl that was behind the car shot out, running as close to the ground as a black shadow.

I saw his eyes jumping in surprise. It is probably the first time he sees someone helping another and before he could react I was before him in his touching area.

“Are you not going to catch me?” I taunt him, placing a smirk in my face, and the elf started to get redder as I found that he wanted to grab me but knew he wouldn’t be able to. “You know… if you grab me I’ll not be able to help Eris anymore…” I say, tempting him.

“AH! Screw it!” Brandon just shot his arms to me and I let it slide through the place I was before by a hair breath. “Ugh! Almost…” He tried more and more but I would just evade his attempts of catching me while laughing.

“Hahaha! Really, this is all that you can do?” I say while jumping a little far away from the spot I was as Brandon tackled me. “It looks like Eris did it, cya!” I tell him and with lights steps I run to the tree.

“You’re not running away now!” Brandon shouts as he gets the last bits of his energy to run after me.

“If I were you, I would let it go.” I say increasing the distance between us.

I cross the safe area with a good margin and he comes after me just to fall hard on the ground.

“Are you okay?” I ask him as I see his chest going up and down.

“You *Pant* how? *pant*” Brandon asks as he lies on the ground panting hard, he used almost all his stamina while trying to get me.

‘I think I toyed too hard with him.’ I think and I look around just to find everyone sitting under the shade.

“And Brandon did it again…” I hear Arthur’s voice and I tilt my head to him asking what he was saying it. “It is simple, he always gets mad easily and it just helps us run away from him.” I nod to him because I understood what he was saying.

“Oh, Sieg, show us magic!” Wendy said and I looked at her. “You used before but you didn’t want to show us, please show us!” She begged and soon all the others started saying that I should show them.

I shrugged as I saw that they wouldn't stop so I made a small ball of water. I say small, it is REALLY small. I made it as big as my palm so I could squeeze it. I made a tired face so that they wouldn't ask for more as I made the ball fly, shot towards someone, just to stop a few millimeters from their eyes…

I let the ball hit Arthur’s face when I was ‘tired’ because I had used too much mana. I apologized to him and the kids wanted to learn magic as well, but I said I could just use this one magic so I would only be able to teach the little water ball. They all said that it was enough so for the rest of the day I had to make them feel the mana inside them, but no one succeeded.

When the clock marked 6:30 all the kids gave their farewells and I walked with Eris until she reached her house, I was reminding her that she shouldn’t tell her parents that I used magic. Kids are not supposed to use magic until they learn it in class.

“I won’t tell my parents about it, but why are you able to use it?” She asked when we were close to her house.

“...” I stop to think what I should tell her.

“Ah! Don’t mind answering that! I think I went overboard!” She says, looking at my eyes with desperate gestures.

“My parents taught me when I was little… and I have already said that I don’t mind talking about it.” I smile to her to make her understand that she can ask me whenever she wants without holding back.

“You’re really carefree…” She says and I nod. “*Sigh* I will do that then. Whenever I want to ask something I’ll not hold back, are you okay with it?” Eris asks as we are before her house.

“Yes, I am okay with it.” I smile again. “See you at school tomorrow?” I ask her and she nods. It was then that a male mortal appeared. He is a cat-person just like Eris but he has light brown hair and he has muscles that implies that he has decent strength.

“Eris, who is he?” The guy says with a deep voice and if my memory is not falling me he is her father.

“Father, this is Sieg. Sieg this is my father.” She says gesturing to him and to me. Her father eyes me as though trying to see something in me.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, my name is Siegfried.” I tell him with a smile. “I just walked your daughter home since it was getting dark and girls shouldn’t be walking alone.” I nod as I say that and in my eyes her father does the same before noticing what he had done.

“*Cough* Thanks to escorting my daughter home, boya. By the way, why don't you come in so that we can talk a little?” He says that, but his eyes are saying that I shouldn’t accept it, and I need to go back to the orphanage anyway. “You can dine with us today.”

‘I’m older than you, little mortal.’ I think while I smile at him. “I’m sorry, I need to go back or else the sisters will come out looking for me… I’m strange enough with these eyes of mine.” I point at my gear-like eyes. I didn’t plan to make them look like it, but it was like this and I couldn’t really change them. Oh, and I learned that this body is going to grow like any mortal after inputting the age so I don’t need to be scared that I’ll not change through the years.

“Sisters?” He tilts his head and after thinking for a few seconds his face brightens and he nods. “Do you live in orphanage?” He asks and I nod. “Yeah, it is better to go back then. Eris, I’m entering.” He says that and with a small wave of his hand he enters the house, but I can see that he is peeking at us.

“Dad… why did you come here?” Eris asks and I laugh at her.

“He was probably going to greet his daughter when he saw that she was with a boy. He was surprised and had to discover who the boy is and where he lived.” I tell her some information I had gathered after looking at the mortals for quite a time. “And probably try to discover more about the boy that his daughter brought home.”

“Sieg… you’re strange.” Eris says.

“I hear that a lot.” I agree with her.

“I should enter or else all my family is going to come out to see why I’m hanging about outside.” She says while waving her hand to me. “See you at class.”

“See you at class.” I wave my hand back to her and she enters her house. I walk back to the orphanage while humming a song that I invented today and I could see that Stein is going to use it in his tower later.

Writer's Spot: Good to see you again, Time Travelers.

Now the story is going to develop a little slower then the prologues, the time skip now is going to be just a few hours, days, weeks, months and probably a few years once every chapter.

I hope you are enjoying the story.