The day of the trip arrived and my caretakers were getting ready.

Kraft came to my room to wake me up.

“Wake up, you are going to miss this morning’s training so at least get ready!”

“Good morning to you too, where are we going?”

“Hey, don’t tell me you forgot what your mother told you.”

“Oh yeah, we are going shopping.”

“You two are going shopping, I have to meet the village elder in regards to a demon wolf invasion.”

“When was that?”

“A pack of demon wolves attacked an adventurer who went looking for star flowers a week ago.”

“So why are they calling you now.”

“You don’t know but these problems must be resolved within five days since they were reported. This is the seventh day, meaning a week passed and they did nothing.”

“Can’t someone go and kill them, how hard can it be?”

“And that’s why there are never enough adventurers in Sonne.”

“Ellen never taught me about demonic creatures that exist in Sonne.”

“And you didn’t even bother to ask.”

“I spent all day training with you and studying with Ellen when I’m not training.”

“You mastered reading, speaking and writing in five moths and you still complain. Well, it proves that you are still a kid.”

“She forced me to learn, it’s not like I asked her.”

“You took the book from the bookshelf not her.”

“I was almost two years old at that time and even if I did take it what’s that got to do with her forcing me to study?”

“She said you had an interesting look on your face and decided to take a shot at teaching others since she had free time.”

“So I’m an experiment?”

“A successful one to say the least, you could hold a conversation after three months and then you learned writing and formal speaking in two. It usually takes a year or two to learn how to speak, yet you learnt in five months.”

“It’s not that hard, there are some basic words and the longer ones are just combinations and it can be written phonetically.”

“This is like arguing with a bird about flying.”

“What is the meaning of that statement?”

“How about you change your clothes, your mother is waiting for you.”

Change my clothes, good joke. Even a level 1 peasant has better looking clothes. At least they fit me. I changed my clothes and then I brushed my hair. If my face looked even a little more girlish than this people will think I’m a girl for sure.

After brushing my hair in the mirror I went outside. The carriage was waiting and it seemed that Ellen was already inside.

I went inside the carriage where Ellen picked me up and put me in her lap.

The scenery outside was somehow nostalgic, it reminded me of the first day I met my so called parents. Our house was located on top of a small hill, surrounded by trees.

After a few minutes I saw the village in the distance, I expected nothing and I’m still disappointed by what I see. Most houses looked like there were made of planks instead of the darkpines. Darkpine is the tree whose wood was used to build our house, or so Kraft said.

We arrived at the village entrance where we parked the carriage. Ellen put me down and we both got out of the carriage. Well it seems there is still hope, I saw some buildings that looked like shops and they were made of stone.

“I will visit the blacksmith to get my sword and my armor repaired and then I will attend the meeting.”

“When did you get the armor and sword and where did you hide them?”

“The sword and the armor were next to me, I was expecting you to ask me about them since you went inside without looking at the front seats.”

“Why should I?”

“Dear, there are things you are taught by other and things that are taught by life and your father learned the hard way why you don’t get inside a carriage or a cart without checking who the drivers is.”

“For some reason I think this would make a great bed time story.”

*chuckles* “You have no idea.”

“You’ve had your fun, now get going. Alex I hope you are prepared for a special training session.”

“Don’t be too harsh on him.”

I watched Kraft’s face when he said that and I swore I could feel a dark aura chocking me. I shall await the rise of the death flag.

We took a stroll around the village centre. This village has a blacksmith, a tailor, a leatherworker, a jeweller a magic shop and a general store. The blacksmith’s shop was made out of stone and the jeweller’s shop was made out of concrete. The rest of the shops were made out of stone or rammed earth. I was impressed by the fact that this village had roads. It looked more like somebody paved the road with concrete but in my opinion no matter how it looks a road is a road.

After we finished our stroll Ellen dragged me inside the magic shop.

“Good day to you.”

The shopkeeper was a woman who looked 45 maybe 50 years old. She had short black hair, brown eyes and a tired face. Magic or not I don’t think that people can live more than 60 or 70 years in these conditions.

“Hello Marie, do you have any magic detection crystals?”

“Yes, there are a few left. Miss Ellen can I ask you a question?”

“We’ve known each other for some time, you don’t need to be so polite with me.”

Miss Ellen, what the hell man? Where I came from this level of formality could only be found in some high class restaurants.

“Could you tell me who is the young lady accompanying you today?”

Triggered, she said I was a girl. I know I look a little girlish but do I resemble I girl that much.

On another note Ellen was hiding her mouth with one hand and holding her stomach with the other. So apparently this is funny for her, I’m going to get my revenge for this one way or another.

“This lady right here is my son Alex.”

“I apologize, but I haven’t seen any boys with such a girlish face and a shoulder long hair.”

I am not going to reproduce the sounds Ellen made when she finally burst into laughter. If it wasn’t for these circumstances I would actually be happy for her since I rarely see her smile. I can forgive but I never forget!

Ellen caught her breath, bent on her knees till her face was at the same height as mine and patted my head a few times.

“I am going to make you some sweets so don’t be mad, OK?”

I haven’t seen her cook any sweets before so I’m very reluctant. Why did you suddenly start acting like a mother, you could have saved me from Kraft’s training but you didn’t. Why have you betrayed me mother?

“Here Ellen, the crystal is 10 gold coins.”

My mother took out a coin purse from God knows where and paid Marie.

“Thank you very much.”

“Thank you for the crystal Marie, good bye.”

With that we went outside and walked towards where the carriage was parked. Judging by the sun’s position it was past 12 o’clock. This took a lot longer than I expected.

“Are you done shopping?”

Kraft followed by a bunch of knights came to the carriage.

“Hey Kraft, who’s that girl?”

“That’s my wife Ellen.”

“The little girl.” said one of the knights while pointing at me.

“That’s my son you know, he’s a boy.”

“Even my daughter isn’t that cute.”

“Thanks for attending the meeting, but we have to go home.”

“Good bye Ellen, Kraft.”

Getting killed by demons is not a fitting death for people like you. You better sleep with your eyes open.

Ellen took my hand and went inside the carriage. After we got home I began training with Kraft. As an apology for today he cancelled the “special” training session and I went on with my endurance training. It seemed that both the sweets and finding my magic elements will have to wait until tomorrow.