Finishing up Leone, Richard joined his mother in preparing fodder for the animals. Things might look simple because of her smooth movements and casual gait, but Lala’s life wasn’t simple and kept her busy throughout the day.

She would wake up in the morning, prepare breakfast. She would cut grass and collect wood for the fire.

She would prepare food for the animals.

She would collect the cow dung for utilization, fire. She would be busy with embroidery and prepared the clothes for both the family.

Even the leatherwork was handled by Lala while Noah hunted according need or command. Noah was in charge of sales and sometimes Richard would handle it.

Being an experienced hunter, Noah was also adept at making bows and traps.

He also got food products for training the children of the village.

There were times he would be gone for weeks when duty required and Lala would not worry for his safety.

To her, Noah was the world and nothing could beat him. The encounter between these two individuals wasn’t romantic.

It was just another arranged marriage. But, Noah was proactive and caring. This led to a strong bond.

Noah was always looking harsh but Lala knew his soft side. Even when they were going hungry while on a trip outside, he would slip more food towards Lala.

He was always careful about not getting hurt.

The deal sealer was the event where Noah had searched high and low for Lala when she had gotten kidnapped by the bandits and hadn’t given up on her when she didn’t give birth within a year.

It was a common cause of death or a cause for them to be removed from the family as they were unable to perform their core function, give birth.

Even if the problem was from the male side, none would imagine such or try to prove it. Woman didn’t have the right to divorce, so they would have to endure whatever life gave them.

As such it was a great boon to Lala that she landed Noah when the man could have attracted a better wife.

Even before marriage, she had been attracted to him because of his prowess and deeds.

“How was training? Are you hurt anywhere?” Lala acted normally, asking the usual questions to see if he needed some help.

Just like Noah, she wasn’t completely fine. But, for now she was willing to act normal for her child. From what she had heard, Richard was still Richard. He was just older now. She just had to completely convince herself of that reality.

“I am okay. What about you, mother? If you are feeling tired, let me handle some of the chores.” Richard responded with a smile and handled the fodder properly.

Truly, the smell of cow dung was unpleasant along with the sight of his mother handling such work. He disliked it.

His mother shouldn’t be doing such things.

Regardless, he couldn’t change things so soon but they would happen.

It was weird feeling such emotions for a woman close to his age, but he handled that awkwardness and didn’t discard the emotions.

Running away from those emotions and thoughts would lead to his disregarding the current family sooner or later.

Richard was clear about his personality, so he didn’t risk it.

“Heh, my little warrior has grown so soon.” Lala smiled and looked away as she felt some tears. She was feeling too emotional and had difficulty controlling them.

“Mother, please don’t cry. No matter how far I go, I will always stay with you. I truly care for you both like my parent’s back home. Just like how I always came back to them, I will treat you the same. Speak freely to me, and I will do my utmost to fulfill your dreams.” Richard felt bad seeing her cry. He never liked seeing people cry.

He hugged Lala and uttered those words honestly. Silence would have been awkward so he decided to share his thoughts. People weren’t mind readers, it was better to let them know instead of waiting until the end of the plan.

Even if you have good intentions in mind, if the person doesn’t know then it might cause negative misunderstandings.

Richard had learnt from his mistakes and avoided such problems with eagerness.

Hearing his words, Lala felt touched but also saw the foreign being inside. Her little one wouldn’t have such an accent.

Disregarding the accent and some words, his desires and tone matched her child. Richard had always been attached to his parent’s.

‘This couldn’t be an act.’ Lala didn’t believe that such purity could come from an evil soul. He was her child and these words made her believe even more.

“Stop acting like that or your future wife will get jealous.” Lala cleared away the tears and teased him. It was the topic that made her brave child act shy.

Hearing those words, Richard didn’t know what to say. He had completely forgotten about that part of life.

‘Let’s just play along for now and talk about it once we are closer.’ Richard decided as he didn’t want to say anything that could break their hearts so soon.

“I won’t get a wife that is so petty. Mother and father will always be number one.” He replied with a smile, causing Lala to chuckle.

“But, don’t forget to be a pillar for your wife. Don’t let her feel lonely and lost.” Lala reminded him seriously and it seemed to come from experience.

Richard was reminded of the fact that they weren’t very close to the grandparent’s and Noah didn’t seem to like sitting with his father, Anakin.

Richard was on the mark. Noah’s parent’s had wanted Lala gone once she didn’t give birth in the first two years.

She got married at the age of 13 and only gave birth after five years.

People looked down on her and made fun of her for her being barren. Even her own parent’s looked the other way and didn’t want her visiting.

They called her an evil spirit, a bad luck for the family.

Noah’s parent’s even proposed killing her off to clear Noah of any bad spirit and wanted him to get married to another girl, giving birth to a powerful son.

Those five years had been like hell for the young woman and she had thought about killing herself multiple times.

Noah kept her by his side to avoid such an outcome and it led to their bond growing to a very high level.

It had forced them to live outside of the village, as it was too damaging for their minds and spirits. Noah was unsure when someone would kill his wife for some reason.

Only once Richard was born did Noah return with Charles, who recruited him after watching his fight in Aurora Town.

With Richard’s potential being on display, every shut up and slowly made up for their bad behavior. It would be a terrible thing to have bad blood with Charles men.

The only exception was the grandfather while the granny had already passed away. The man was very proud and wouldn’t admit to his mistakes.

But, it was clear that he was just not saying it. His actions did show some remorse or desire for reconciliation.

He had still given Noah a piece of land and had the family support Lala when Noah was gone.

“Don’t worry, I won’t. In my world women have rights, so we don’t allow them to be abused. People get put into jail if they beat their wife.

I am from such a background, so I would never let my wife down.” Richard assured her honestly as even his wife had such misgivings and would ask him if he would abandon her when she felt down.

Obviously, it wasn’t the whole truth but it didn’t matter. Humans were still humans no matter the era and would always take advantage of their authority in negative matters.

There would always be good and bad people or a mixture of both because humanity was not inherently good or evil.

His words pricked Lala’s curiosity, “That seems like a nice place. Can this world change in a similar manner?”

“Of course, it will definitely happen and I will play my part in the change. Just like father played his part.” Richard replied confidently and Lala smiled that her boy still looked up to his father.

It would be terrible if both men split, her heart would break.

“Rest for now and I will prepare the meal.” Lala patted his back and pushed him away to clean up before cooking.

Richard didn’t fight back and sat down under the tree. He felt a little bit better after conversing with Maya, Leone and Lala.

Handling a broken heart alone would only lead to worse consequences, so it was lucky that Noah had pulled him out inadvertently.

Otherwise, he might have unknowingly fallen into a quagmire.

Many thoughts were produced so Richard wanted to write things down to avoid forgetting about them.

He was used to writing his ideas down because ideas could slip by with how busy Richard got. The mind seemed to have improved with the new body but the memory wasn’t permanent, so he really wanted to get a notebook or diary.

It would have been so much better if the thing gave him his phone or Pad.

Thinking of his items, Richard hoped he didn’t have withdrawal symptoms. Living the easy life of conveniences, it was going to be hard without them.

Thankfully he had some topic to focus his attention or he would have gotten bored.

“Did you know how to fight before?”

Richard heard Noah’s voice and realized that the man was sitting not so far from him, looking towards Lala.

His footsteps were light and Richard had been lost in thought. He had a habit of doing that.

‘I really need to fix that or I will die without knowing what happened.’

“Not really, I was just a merchant. But, I did learn how to use weapons for self defense. The weapon is called a gun and I only have to aim to kill a person… I don’t need to have great strength like we need for archery.” Richard replied as he made the gun sign with his hand and showed it worked.

Noah looked at him, “Looks like a weapon for weaklings… Can it damage my body?”

Even though he looked down on it, the man liked to learn new things.

“There are many types of guns and some are meant for strong targets. So, some of them can kill you. Those are weapons owned by the army and not something I owned.”

“Which world is stronger?”

“I don’t know much about this world, but if legends are to be believed then this one. The people here are stronger and there are many of them, some that can even erase cities. That is just too much for normal people.”

“Your world doesn’t have strong people?” Noah had always seen Ki so it was hard for him to think of a world without it.

“There is no Ki, people are just normal. So, unlike this world we advanced with the usage of our mind and created things to make life easier. We even have weapons to erase cities and a way to fly in the sky or even beyond the skies.

We can even call people from the other side of the world. It is quite magical when you aren’t used to it.” Richard smiled happily as he talked about earth. He felt amused by saying such things. He would usually not even feel a thing about such achievements.

They were just normal things for him.

But, Noah was impressed. He also felt a bit closer as Richard still shared those things without looking shifty.

If he treated them like an outsider, he wouldn’t have answered in such a tone.

‘He isn’t my son.’

‘He is my son.’

He was still conflicted and hoped that things would change with time. Noah still hoped that it was a nightmare and things would go back to normal after he woke up.

He hoped it was a dream or hallucination or even an illusion by some beast. All those were better than the current situation.

“Can you make them?”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I have no idea how to make those things. Though, I can definitely make some things later with the help of a blacksmith.

I can also cook some unique dishes.

I was thinking of doing those new things once I have lived her for a year or so. It would make our lives easier and provide us funds to get better resources for training.” Richard faced him directly but it didn’t seem Noah was easy to impress. He didn’t take the words seriously.

“Since you are a merchant, you will need extra training. I won’t allow you to give up the path of a warrior, understood.”

Richard nodded and he felt that it would be stupid to act as a merchant without power in the current age. He could easily get killed and robbed.

“Good, do you have any questions? Are you feeling lost with these new powers?” Noah pushed against his distaste and continued talking. He didn’t want Richard making fool of himself. He was his pride.

“I have all the memories and experience, so I don’t have an issue at the moment. But, I was wondering if I could learn the elemental techniques.”

Noah glared at him, “Do you even know your element? You have only just learnt the other three skills, so don’t try to run when you have to walk. Haste will only lead to unnecessary risk.”

“I understand your concern but, I have better understanding of the body and find it easy to accomplish these skills.

I just want to learn these skills to further understand this power. Also, I know my element. It is earth.” Richard had expected as such so he was ready to convince him with logic.

Looking at his confident expression, Noah felt annoyed. His son wouldn’t have talked back to him.

That was his bias talking, as he would have been proud if it was the child.

“You are just a merchant, what would you know?”