บท 5: Chapter 5 - Lory and Lemma

Quick Note: Ok so I've been getting a lot of comments about the early chapters and certain actions the MC takes during them. Now, normally I wouldn't do this but it's starting to get annoying having to say 'just keep reading until chapter 20' so I'm putting this here. Before you make any complaints or any comments please, for the love of god, please read till chapter 20 before you do. I can guarantee any problem or worries you might have with the MC being too passive or beta or having a hero complex will be gone by then.

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"You're Welcome"

The words sounded smugger than I had intended them to, but the two... cat people? Beastkin? Well, they'd didn't seem to care, as they were too busy staring wide-eyed at me and my summons. I took a few steps forward and I saw the man tense up. My gaze landed on him and I noticed that his blue eyes were locked onto Lilah. He looked to be around 30 years old, 5ft 8, and his black hair was matted to his forehead with sweat. I turned my gaze to the girl whose face was obscured behind a curtain of the same black hair. She was still shaking and sobs could now be heard in the silence. I turned to Lilah and gave her an apologetic smile, "They're really scared of you, so I'm gonna have to send you to storage, but ill bring you back out as soon as I can. I promise."

She sheathed her blade and gave a nod, a second later she was gone and in storage. I looked back to the man and raised both my hands in a placating gesture, "We're not here to hurt you. we wouldn't have saved if we were." I saw the man relax slightly, but then he turned to Leone, "What about her?" he asked in a shaky and frightened voice. "Why is one of her kind out here and why does she look so...?" He stopped talking as he noticed the confused expression on my face.

"Leone is a human, that form is just a power of hers," I said, turning to Leone. "Could you change back Leone?"

There was a slight flash of yellow light and then she was back to her human form. My gaze landed back on the man and I noticed that he looked relieved for some reason. That's odd, I thought, I wonder what he meant by one of her kind. I also saw the little girl's blue eyes peeking out from behind her hair, she was looking at Leone in awe and fear.

"I think we should introduce ourselves," I began. "I'm Nathan, the blonde is Leone and the one I sent away was called Lilah. There's also..." I frowned and looked down at my arms. Where the hell is Gible, I thought, wasn't I holding him a minute ago.

"Gible!" I yelled. "Where are you?"

"Gible!" the reply came from below me and I looked down to see Gible biting the fox corpses.

"Goddammit! Gible," I groaned. "Come here." He stopped his biting and waddled over to me. I picked him up, "You're gonna real handful arent you, Gible?"

"Gible! Gible Gible" he said excitedly.

I sighed and rubbed his head, "You can eat 2, but leave the rest, ok?" Gible nodded and jumped out of my arms, obviously desperate to ger back to his meal.

I turned back to the man, "Where were we. Oh yes, Introductions."

I nodded at the man and he looked at the little girl before finally sighing and turning back to me, "My name's Lory and my daughter's name is Lemma. Thank you for the rescue, I didn't mean to look ungrateful. It just that." he looked this daughter with eyes full of sadness and regret. "We've had a hard time of things and we didn't expect to be ambushed by grey baffles."

Grey baffles? is that what the foxes are called? Odd name, I thought. I didn't push for any more information and instead just gave them a sad smile, "I know it won't mean much, but I am sorry, you two don't look like bad people."

The man didn't respond, but Lemma did stand up and tackle her father in a hug. I let them stay like that for a minute before I cleared my throat, "Do you two happen to know where the nearest village is?"

Lory looked up from his daughter and nodded at me, "yeah we're heading there now. your welcome to tag along. We could use the protection." I gave him a grateful nod, "Thanks, but do you mind waiting a few minutes before we go?"

He shook his head, "No that's fine, a couple of minutes won't matter." I turned to leone and motioned for her to pick up the baffles. She went to work and I felt tapping at my foot. I looked down to see Gible finished with his meal and holding a crimson-colored rock. I lowered myself and held my hand, and he dropped the rock into it. I bought it to my face and examined it closely. The rock felt very hot and its texture was very odd, it felt like sandpaper. Perhaps it would be worth something if I sold it, I thought. I mentally tried to store it and a moment later it disappeared from my hand and into my inventory. I patted Gibel on the head, "Good work Gible."

"Gible!"

Leone finished a moment later and I stored all the dead baffles in my inventory. I turned to Lory and a minute later we were walking through the forest. The first couple of minutes was spent in silence but I guessed Lory couldn't keep his curiosity in check because he turned to me and asked a question.

"So, Nathan, are you a mage or a kord?"

I kept my confusion from showing on my face, but inside my mind was racing. I understood mage, but what the fuck was a kord? I glanced back and saw that Leone looked just as confused as I felt. I definitely needed to visit a library or something of the sort eventually. Lory raised an eyebrow when I didn't answer immediately and I decided to give him a partial truth.

"I'm not either and I ask that you don't question that," I said and gave him a shrug.

His eyes narrowed and the confusion was evident on his face, but he nodded nonetheless and I decided to change the topic. "So... this is gonna sound weird, but where are we?"

This time he gave me a 'are u serious look' and once again I just shrugged, "I told you it would sound weird." I knew I probably sounded like an idiot, but I needed to know where I was.

"How do you not know where you are?" he asked in a confused tone.

"It's a long story and you probably wouldn't believe me even if I told you," I replied and heard Leone stifle a laugh.

He shook his head slightly and muttered something under his breath before turning back to me, "We're in the minor kingdom of Larra. It's pretty small and weak compared to other kingdoms, but me and Lemma didn't have many options to choose from." His last words were spoken in a biter and angry tone, and even though I was intrigued, I didn't ask why. It was none of my business and if he wanted to tell me then he would. The rest of the walk was spent in silence, but at one point he offered a cloak to Leone.

"Looking like that will cause you some problems," he said in a serious voice. I didn't ask why and instead told Leone to wear the cloak. It was Long, grey, and would cover Leone completely, but could be taken off very quickly, so it wouldn't be a hindrance to her when she needed to fight. It was after 2 more hours that we finally broke free of the forest and into wide open plains.

The land was covered in green grass and small flower fields that swayed gently in the wind, hills dotted the landscape, and large mountains could be seen in the distance, towering peaks that reached the clouds. I took in the beauty of everything and smiled to myself. I had spent a lot of my time inside because it would take far too long and too much effort to see something like this on earth, but I guessed that there would be plenty of places and beautiful scenery like this in this world.

"There it is," exclaimed Lory, and I followed his gaze to see what looked like a walled-off village. I couldn't tell much from where I was, but the walls didn't look very large, and there was a line of people outside, most likely waiting to get in. I heard Lory curse under his breath and raised an eyebrow at him, "What's wrong?"

He sighed and brushed a hand through his hair, "I should have known it would be like this. After all the kingdom's in the middle of a civil war."

My eyes widened at him, "A civil war? Really?"

He nodded and started towards the village, "Come on I'll on explain on the way."

I looked at Leone who just shrugged at me. "Come on boss."

I sighed and jogged to catch up with Lory and Lemma.

"So the civil war?" I asked in an annoyed tone. "Don't you think you should've have bought this up before?"

He shook his head, "The war only started a few weeks ago and I didn't expect this many refugees to be at a village located in the outskirts of the kingdom." I guessed that made sense, but why was that a bad thing.

"How is that bad for us," I asked. We were getting closer to the village and I noticed that the line of people was much longer than I had thought it was, there were at least 40 people trying to get into the village.

"Holy shit," I muttered under my breath.

"Exactly," he said in a worried tone, apparently having heard me "The village doesn't have an unlimited amount of space, so we might not get in." I wasn't really that worried for myself as I had the system, but for someone like Lory, this was probably a really bad situation. We reached the village and walked to the back of the line. I stored Gibel as I didn't want people freaking out when they saw him. I took some time to inspect the people and noticed that they all looked tired and dirty. Most had sacks that probably held their meager belongings while some had nothing. Most wore simple clothing, but some wore rags and large sacks with holes cut out of them. Not a single one of them had clean clothes and I winced at some of the injuries I saw: cuts, large bruises, broken limbs, and some people were limping.

The happiness I had felt at seeing the scenery was slowly fading away replaced by pity and sadness. No matter where or when, war was always a bitch, especially to the innocents and bystanders. I heard a growl beside me and turned to see Leone staring at the people with an angry expression on her face. She's seen things like this before, I thought, I don't blame her for being pissed. I reached out a hand to grasped one of hers. Her head snapped to me and her rage-filled eyes softened when they landed on mine.

"Don't worry, we might not be strong enough yet, but one day we will be." She gave me grateful smile and we waited in line alongside Lory and Lemma. The line moved at a slow pace and more refugees arrived and lined up behind us as time went by. We were almost to the front when the sound of a woman screaming rung out. I felt Leone tense up and immediately moved to see what was going on, but I felt a hand grab my forearm and turned to see it was Lory's, "It's no business of ours," he whispered in a hushed voice. I pulled my arm from his grip and gave him a pointed glare, "I'm not going to just stand back while a woman is screaming," I hissed at him.

I turned back to Leone "Come on, let's go."