Book 1: Chapter 49: Bandit Custom and Childish

Book 1: Chapter 49: Bandit Custom and Childish

"We're being followed," Sophie informed Lone quietly as they were approaching the Bengon Forest.

"Oh? By what?" Lone questioned. 'Monsters? Unlikely. Slavers maybe? Also probably wrong. Could always be adventurers. Maybe those bigots from before? They were dumb but they didnt seem the type to jump someone outside of an official setting though'

"Children. Two of them. They are cloaked in magic to change their appearance, but we can tell that they are nothing but tykes. They are quite similar to you, actually," Sophie noted impassively.

"How so? Are they devilishly handsome?" Lone asked with a smirk on his face.

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Of course. Yes, they're devilishly handsome, even the girl. No, they have big bushy tails and fox ears on their heads."

"Foxkin? Interesting... Can you tell what colour their fur and hair are?" Lone was quite curious if they were being followed by his own kind or if they were of a different race of foxkin to himself.

This would be his first interaction with those of the species he had been forced to become, after all. More information on them couldnt hurt.

The heavily-armoured woman of ice shook her head. "No. We have vaguely described this to you before, but we do not see in colours. Not conventionally, anyway. We see in mana. Your mana is bright golden, yes, and while theirs is a different colour, a deep red, we do not understand our power enough to tell if that is due to affinity or racial differences.

"Huh. That makes sense, I guess. I've never really thought about it too deeply," Lone said as he held his chin in his hand. "Anyway, you said that they were disguising themselves with magic? What do they look like right now then?"

Sophie grinned. "Like the fools who we just defeated at The Adventurer's Guild."

"Interesting... I wonder what they want?" Lone muttered to himself.

"We really shouldn't be doing this... I thought you were just going to tie his shoelaces together or something, not try to do... this," Trella complained as he looked down at his now much taller and lankier figure. "I hate this feeling. It's so icky..."

A big smile was spread across the short man's face who resembled the novice fire mage, Grindol. "Stop worrying so much! It's perfect! Sure, he might hit us with that lightning magic thingy, but I'm very confident that he won't kill us! This'll be great! He'll see that we're family and laugh it off!"

"Tiera, these kinds of schemes are why the next leader of our clan will be me, not you, even though you're older than me by a few minutes," Trella noted as he sighed with Quint's mouth.

"Meh. Who cares about being the smelly Matriarch? Pranks are fun!" Tiera bounced around excitedly as Grindol's ears twitched. "They stopped! Maybe they're taking a break to shit? Perfect time to strike if you ask me!"

Trella held his face in his hands. "Look, I'm not saying a word. This is all on you, Tiera. If we get hurt or annoy him, I'm telling on you to Grandmother."

"Boo! Just watch! It'll all go smoothly! As smooth as silk!" Tiera claimed, which only helped to reinforce Trella's lacking faith in her idea.

He sighed into his hand. More like as smooth as your brain

Lone stirred the stew that was sitting over the campfire and savoured its lovely aroma. "Yup, food that I create is stupidly good. Whats even the point of cooking when magic is so OP?"

Sophie ignored him as she polished her armour. Since they were having a 'break', she'd chosen to take advantage of this time to increase her skill with maintaining her armour and her swords.

Suddenly, Lone's fox-like ears twitched. "I can hear them. Well, at least they're not trying anything sneaky, I suppose. Kids are real cunts at being sneaky when they really want to be. Low weight and high natural dexterity can be a real bastard."

Raising his head, Lone saw 'Quint' and 'Grindol' approaching him and Sophie. The former looked nervous and very regretful while the latter had a certain twinkle in his eyes.

"Can I help you two?" Lone asked as he carefully stood up and brushed off his dirty knees. "I'm pretty sure we settled everything back in the guild, didn't we?"

The short man, Grindol, confidently strode forward before he put his hands on his waist and cackled like a cartoon villain would. "Give us yer money, or we'll steal yer woman!"

Lone didn't look impressed. "Try to take her and you both die."

'That should be enough to scare them out of this illusion, right? Then again, they might actually be super old if they're really foxkin like Sophie said... Hmm.' He wasnt wholly sure of how the whole immunity to ageing thing worked. That needed more research on his part.

Lone wasn't particularly worried about any further escalation since they seemed... harmless? He didn't feel threatened by them, at least.

As he was setting up this camp, Sophie had told him that both of the foxkin tailing them could use magic, but they had only slightly more magic inside of them than an average Goblin Mage did.

This told Lone that they probably weren't ranked very highly or were actually as young as Sophie said their true appearances suggested.

While he watched the two guests share a few concerned glances, he tried his best to see if he could look past their illusion with his own skills.

Congratulations! The hosts passive skill [Illusion Detection] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.

Ah, I can feel something. Theres a slight haze? Yeah, a slight haze to their clothes. Looks unnatural, Lone thought.

"Yeah! It sucks! I wanna talk to Mum and Dad more often!" Tiera said loudly before she muttered, "It sucks that they're so sick..."

"Quest?" Soph asked in a dreamy voice as she rubbed her eyes.

"Yeah," Lone replied calmly. "The day isn't getting any younger, and I really would like to fight at least one or two orcs before the sun starts to set and we have to go back."

"Um, it was the Amberbark Inn you two were staying at, right?" Trella asked to double-check his info.

Lone smiled faintly. "Yes, the one run by the Lesher."

"I'll make sure to tell Gran-, em, the matriarch that that's where you're staying so she can visit you," Trella said as maturely as he possibly could.

Lone casually rubbed the boy's head. "Sounds good. Tell her I look forward to meeting her."

"We will!" Tiera answered in her brother's place. "Seeya later, Mister Lone! Soph!"

"Yeah, um, bye," Trella added a bit bashfully. I know we were kinda rude, but, uh, it was an honour to meet a ninetails. Truly.

"Thanks, and stay safe," Lone replied while Soph just waved slowly as the kids wandered away.

Soph returned control to Sophie who immediately demanded Lone to help her into her armour since Soph had removed it to take a nap.

As Lone was finishing strapping her into her steel-reinforced plate mail, Sophie asked him a question. "Why did you lie?"

"About?" Lone responded immediately.

"About looking forward to meeting their leader," Sophie elaborated.

Lone got up and, after finishing with her armour, shrugged. "I didn't have much choice. It's not like I could have just told them to go back in time and not tell their matriarch about me ever existing, now could I?"

Sophie raised an eyebrow at that.

Lone sighed. "You were awake in here, weren't you?" Lone asked as he lightly tapped the girl's exposed forehead with his index finger. "You heard him say that he was the next patriarch of their clan, right?"

"Yes... And do not touch our forehead without our permission," Sophie replied with a sulk as she put her helmet on.

Lone grinned at her timidity. "Well, why the fuck would the future leader of a clan of foxkin - which I'm assuming are powerful - be sent to a small human country that is widely known to enslave demis when it has the chance? Just to follow a lead on a Golden Foxkin baby? There's got to be more to it than that.

"Your meaning?" Sophie didn't quite follow.

"Well, there's all of these supposed legends about Golden Foxkin, right?" Lone said as he started walking towards the forest.

"Indeed. We've yet to hear a single one, but there certainly are legends, it would seem," Sophie answered.

"Right. Well, my current running theory is that the Crimson Foxkin Clan is in a war or something, so the matriarch is looking for a powerful ally to turn the tides. She sent the next leader away to avoid the flames of this war of theirs from reaching him since he's too young, or maybe to use his good nature to win over a powerful expert to help back at the clan's base as they searched for the rumoured baby. Maybe only one of those, maybe all of them, maybe none. I'm just making assumptions here," Lone explained.

"And you did not wish to refuse or act rudely because you were afraid?" Sophie concluded. How foolish. We did not know you liked to create fantasies in your head.

Sophie, were in a fantasy. Lone sighed. "If this matriarch is coming to see me regardless due to my heritage, I see no reason in making her mad. Hell, it could even be a good opportunity to learn about my race, but I don't like it."

"Because you're a coward?" Sophie teased.

Lone scoffed. "No, because I'm a control freak, but right now, I'm far too weak to control anything, so I've gotta suck it up and try to make the flow that's pushing me, bend to my will at least a little bit."

"How childish," Sophie mocked.

Again, Lone shrugged. "Call me what you want. I dealt with enough of my life not being decided by me back on Earth, I won't let the same thing happen here. We barely got through our encounter with the elves.

True enough, Sophie agree for once.

Right? Caution seems wise. Anyway, on this topic, let's go kill some Blue Orcs and rank up, shall we?" he asked with a smirk strewn across his lips.

Sophie smiled coyly beneath her helmet. "Yes, we shall.