“Take me,” Jirot said, pointing out of the shared estate, while her grandmother wiped the pe around her lips.

  “Where do you wish to go?” Sonarot asked the girl, brushing a hand through her hair, before fixing the hair pin.

  “I go see nano now.”

  “Nano is gone.”

  “Gone?”

  “She has goo help.”

  “Help? I help too. I gone now.” Jirot hoisted herself up with the grunt of an old man. “Hoi hoi hoi.”

  “You ot, you must stay.” Sonarot smiled, pulling the girl onto her p, pnting a tender kiss on her forehead. She hoisted the girl’s brother too, pulling him in fentle kiss too, embrag the pair within her bosom.

  “I go py with babo,” Jirot said, trying to pull away from her grandmother.

  “You ot. Babo is looking after Larot.”

  “Why?”

  “He is sick?”

  “Why?”

  “He is sick because sometimes children grow sick.” Sonarot trailed a finger around the girl’s leafshaped ear, causing the girl to squirm and giggle. “Do you wish to py with me today?”

  Jirot’s ears twitched, and the girl narrowed her eyes slightly. Her lips formed the shape for the word, but the girl paused, w if she should ce it. She smirked pyfully before cag and tried to squirm away from her grandmother, who gave up instantly to allow the girl to flee from her.

  “No!” Jirot decred giggly wildly, with little Jarot also cag and g beside her, before the pair hid behind one of their other nanas.

  “Larot?” Karot asked, his silver eyes staring up at his grandmother expetly.

  “Larot is sick.”

  “Sick…” The boy pouted.

  Sonarot reached down and rubbed the top of his head. “He will be healthy again soon.”

  “Soon?”

  “Yes,” Sonarot assured, tig his leafshaped ears, before the boy rested his cheek against her palm, still pouting, but growing sleepy with the noonval sun all over him.

  While his children caused trouble within the Iyr, Adam found himself troubled, hundreds of miles away. The thunder rumbled, and lightning fell.

  “What the hell, Dunes. Didn’t you tell me this pce was the nd of sun and sand?”

  “We will not be able to leave today,” Jurot said, ing up the newly bought spears, ing them in the long cloth he had procured at the same time.

  “First the cart and now this…” Adam’s heart ached, letting out a soft sigh, the storm within his heart filling him with greater nerves. ‘Isn’t there anything I do?’

  [No.]

  ‘e on, Bell. There must be some kind of, I don’t knoell or something.’

  [You do not have enough Experience.]

  ‘I ’t go around killing when Vonda’s a follower of Mother Soza. She’s a Ray, Bell, a Ray!’

  […]

  ‘I liked you better when you were a floating baby.’

  […]

  Adam inhaled deeply, recalling why he didn’t speak to Bell. ‘You know, even if you are the personification of my System, you shouldn’t bully me this much.’

  […]

  ‘Oh, what, wyvern got your tongue?’

  Adam rexed in the er of a gathering room, forced out by Vonda and Kitool for being too broody. He bit into the rice dish slowly, sipping the goat milk with his meal. He kept his eyes on the disappearing meal beh him, slowing as his meal grew colder.

  “A storm so early in noonval?” Jaygak said, sipping her goat milk, pretending as though she wasn’t eyeing up Adam for his rea. “It’s an ill omen.”

  “That’s too far, even for you.”

  “You’re surrounded by Iyrmen, so it’s a good omen.”

  “Yeah? How’s that?”

  “A storm in noonval is the best time to kill,” Jaygak poured Adam moat milk, while the half elf raised his brows threateningly, though while iemple, Adam couldn’t do anything to her. “It’s going to be okay, Adam.”

  “Yeah…”

  “I would be worried if it was someone else, but si’s your child, and the child of a Ray, it will be fine.”

  “If I wasn’t surrounded by you guys, I probably wouldn’t be so chipper.”

  “Chipper?”

  “Uh, you know, light, happy.”

  “You’re happy?”

  “No, but I’d be even more down if you weren’t around.”

  “You trust us that much?”

  “Of course. If I ’t trust you, who I trust? I only asked Jurot and Kitool to look over Vonda because they’re better unarmoured while on a ship.”

  “So you think that far ahead?”

  “I only pretend to be stupid, most of the time…”

  Jaygak slowly nodded her head, smirking slightly. She go the side for a moment as she fell into thought. “Taygak is growing well.”

  “Are y to annoy me?” Adam asked, sipping his goat milk, tasting the sourness against his tongue.

  “She’ll soon step out to explore, like this.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Once she steps out of the Iyr, she will lose its prote.”

  Adam recalled Tonagek and the story of his outing with his son. “Yeah…”

  “If she dies, the Iyr will say she died with honour.” Jaygak sipped her her goat milk, and Adam tasted a greater sourness within his own. “Taygak is a good girl. She’ll help the Gak family rise.”

  “Definitely.

  “Adam?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Will you allow her to join the pany?”

  “Didn’t I say it already?”

  “I o hear it again.”

  “Of course she join the business.”

  “I’ll speak with her.”

  “I don’t want to force her to join.”

  “I will.”

  “Why?”

  “I wao grow strong enough so that she travel by herself. For Iyrmen like us, the world is more dangerous. In Aldnd, Iyrmen that look like us, we’re greater targets. In Aswadasad, it depends oioween the devilkin and the humans. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes…”

  “Sometimes they sughter them to get rid of the root of all evil,” Adam pulled away from his meal.

  Their food grew colder in the silehat passed between them.

  “I have been thinking about marriage,” Jaygak admitted.

  “You have?” Adam asked, uo trol the sho his voice.

  Jaygak slowly nodded her head. “I’d like for them to have horns.”

  “Obviously.” Adam chuckled, sipping the rest of his goat milk, before p the ilk for the pair of them again.

  “My children will be the cutest.”

  “Of course.”

  “I won’t be a great mother, so I’ll need Kitool’s help.”

  “I don’t know. I think you’ll make a det mother.”

  Jaygak furrowed her brows towards the half elf, and for once, Jaygak’s eyes held a doubt for Adam, though there was the ti gleam of mischief.

  “Det, you know, not the best mother ever,” Adam joked, sipping his milk again. “Say what you want, your heart’s in the right pce.”

  “No. I’m almost as stupid as you.”

  “Almost,” Adam replied, too eagerly, not catg the point.

  “Will you help the other children too? Turot, Katool, Damokan and Kalokan.”

  “I already promised the twins, and the others? If they want my help, they’ll have it, though I’m not sure how the Iyr will feel with me helping their future Elder Peace.”

  Jaygak bowed her head lightly, before raising her cup, tapping it against Adam’s own. “What of Lanarot?”

  “Obviously I’m helping her.”

  “What do you wao be when she is older?”

  “Happy.”

  “Do you wao fight?”

  “No.”

  “She is a Rot.”

  “That she is.”

  Jaygak tio smile, before Adam cast magi his meal to warm it up, the same to Jaygak, who bowed her head. “Jirot and Jarot, they’re cute too, even if they don’t have horns.”

  “Don’t go bullying my cute twins just because they don’t have horns,” Adam replied, letting out an awkward sigh. “It was already hard enough when Jirot stabbed me in the heart st year.”

  Jaygak smiled, recalling the trouble the girl had made st year whehought she wasn’t her father’s daughter. “She truly is your daughter.”

  “Only my kid be so cute.”

  “Only your kid cause so much trouble.”

  “I thought it was because they were their greatfather’s greatchildren.”

  “Yrandfather does like to cause a mess.”

  “Whose grandfather?” Adam replied, having only just realised how easily the words flowed out of his lips without even a thought. “What about Kavgak and Maygak?”

  “They’re so cute. Kavgak’s already so big.”

  “So ky,” Adam agreed.

  “Maygak’s growing so big too. They’re growing rger tha their age, though that’s not much to say since I was always so sick as a child. If I had been born in Aswadasad, they might have killed me.”

  “What?”

  “If I had been born in Aldnd, they certainly would have killed me, unless I was a member of the Yellow Turbans.”

  “Don’t talk about stuff like that.”

  “Sorry.” Jaygak smiled awkwardly, returning back to her rice meal. “Kavgak is such a good girl. Raygak sometimes causes trouble, but Kavgak, she’s too sweet. Even though she’s so resistant to my adoration, she always let me adore her in the end. Maygak, she’s…”

  “She’s a cheeky little brat, crawling right as we left,” Adam grumbled, causing Jaygak to ugh. “Seriously, how could she wait until right as we left the Main Iyr to decide to crawl? Couldn’t she at least crawl in front of me so I could steal her away?”

  Jaygak tio ugh, thinking of her you sister, who was certainly her sister with how much she troubled Adam. “My sisters are the cutest.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I… don’t want to embarrass them.”

  “You won’t, you ’t.”

  “I’ll bee strooo. I’ll bee a Master.”

  “Not a Paragon?”

  Jaygak smiled, raising her cup again, and the pair drank their milk together. “A Master is good enough to pave the way for them.”

  “I’ll pave the way for you, just bee a Paragon. I o make sure you’re at least as strong as Nobby, otherwise Kavgak and Maygak will bully me for not helping you as much.”

  “I’ll make sure they bully you a lot.”

  “You’ll o be at least a Paragon for that.”

  “Then I may have to bee a Paragon,” Jaygak admitted, thinking about how it would feel. She, Jaygak, could bee a Paragon?

  ‘I o pretty much double, maybe triple my XP too…’ Adam thought, gng to the side.

  XP Required: 32 000XP Penalty: 100%

  ‘e on, I became Level 7 a whole year ago, even more than that!’

  […]

  “Jaygak, let’s say someone’s aiming to bee a Paragon, how old would they be if… say if they’re like the Order of the Wings, they , I think, allow their allies to be more ready for battle, right?”

  “Su ability would e between Expert and Master…” Jaygak thought for a long moment, trying to recall the rough age. “I’m not sure of their abilities in particur, but I am now greater at certain physical tasks than I used to be. I’m also able to jump further than before. If I was extremely talented, I would have gaihis strength when I was in my te twenties. I should have gaihese abilities in my mid thirties.”

  “Oh,” Adam replied, slowly nodding his head. “Wow. So we’re pretty young sidering we’re this… powerful?”

  “Yes,” Jaygak replied, almost exasperated by Adam’s ck of on sense.

  “Cool.” ‘I guess I o stay at this level for a few years, then? Damn…’

  The storm kept the group withiy for the day, before they finally set out, still g a cart. Adam was gd the Prince carried with him a ring which tapped into another spatial realm to allow them to carry more thaherwise could. The rge ship carried the group from the capital of Western Aswadasad to a nearby outpost over the course of the entire day’s travel, the group arriving nearby the outpost during the dawn.

  ‘Damn it,’ Adam thought, his eyes glued to the sky, towards the green scaled winged figure. “Jaygak?”

  “It must be Gordoleaf.”

  “Who?”

  “The green dragon which watches over the Tribesfolk in this area,” Jaygak said, her eyes falling across the outpost. “They were oneutral to Aswadasad, but after the civil war, they must have formed a greater e with the Tribesfolk.”

  “So are we going to be okay?”

  Jaygak gowards where she heard the crackle of lightning, as Karza grinned wildly, crossing her arms as she waited for the green dragon approach. “We will be fine.”

  Oh no. We have too many idiots in the group.

  Also, there is the best cliffhanger for patrht now.

  I'm not sorry.