Chapter 263 - The Little Angel and the Bird

Cecil and the rest were making good time during their travels through the neutral territory. Other than the occasional bandit or monster raid, it was a pretty laid back ride.

Not much could threaten the party. The monsters were only C-B ranked and the humans who attacked them were too weak to even put up a fight.

If it wasn't because Cecil didn't care about taking their lives, not a single one of the bandits who attacked would have been able escape from his party's retaliation.

"Hey Cel, lunch is ready!"

"Okay!"

Cecil was currently driving the wagon. Sleipnir was a smart enough battle pet that didn't need much instructions from the party, as long as they pointed out the way, he would just keep on moving until someone told him to stop or change directions.

Sleipnir had pretty good stamina as well so he could keep running for as long as Silver needed to fully rest up and start their trek through the air.

There wouldn't have been many hindrances to their journey if not for the frequent monster attacks and the occasional bandit raids, which frankly, have been getting on Cecil's nerves.

If he could, he wanted to just rip their bodies apart and be done with it.

Looking up at the sky, Cecil couldn't help but lament at the thought that he's already been here in this world for over 2 years.

"...I'm 15 now...I wonder how my family's doing..."

******

In the Silvaria family estate, a young girl was running through the corridors of the main family branch's mansion while a small white bird chased after her.

"You can't catch me, Chi!"

The bird only chirped in reply before it suddenly sped up and landed right on top of the girl's head.

"Aw, I got caught again!"

This little girl was Angelia Silvaria, Cecil's little sister and the Silvaria family's youngest. She was 8 years old now and due to the large advancements that her family's city had undergone in the past year since its establishment, she should be attending her primary school right now.

"Angel! Where are you?"

Angelia heard someone call out to her so she quickly took the small bird perching on top of her head and went to hide somewhere in the house.

"Hmph, It's big brother Matty, he's probably here to bring me to school!"

"Angel! Where are you! Don't you dare hide from me now, okay?! If I find you, I'll stuff you in a bag and send you off to school!"

"Bleeeh~ you're not gonna find me, stupid big brother!"

Angelia ran out of the house when her brother went to search for her on the second floor. She made sure to keep out of sight and made her way down the cordoned area her family was living in.

She couldn't understand why her family was isolated away from the city while everyone else that they took in was able to live inside the large city that had now spanned the entirety of the valley they were in.

The little girl could see from afar, that on the sides of the valley were large walls and watchtowers currently being constructed. She knew that her daddy was currently working and monitoring the construction of the valley's walls.

It was for everyone's protection and it was even her very own idea to build them. Angelia had seen the large monsters that would sometimes climb down from the valley's sides and attack their city so she had offhandedly suggested to her daddy to just build walls around the valley.

Kaiser was a little skeptical at the idea, but Matheus thought it was brilliant and the most straightforward answer to their problems. He even guaranteed that with their current metal and material production, they would be able to start building the wall and have it finished in 2-3 years. They built the walls using large rocks and cement while the watchtowers would be created using refined metal ores.

Silvaria City had been taking in people that the exploration teams were able to find from their travels deeper into the No-man's Land so they had enough manpower to construct the walls. Of course, they didn't just take in anyone they found.

Each new refugee they found was put through a strict screening before being accepted into the city. There was a time when they had taken in anyone they found and it had led to a very unfavorable outcome.

Probably due to living for so long in the wild and seeing many things that plunged people into a state of irrationality, some of the refugees who were saved by the Silvaria family's exploration teams began committing acts of injustice while inside the city not long after being rescued.

Kaiser and city's council only had one requirement from their citizens. That was to uphold justice and the dignity of their people, pitch in to help with the city's development and never, under any circ.u.mstances, should a human being try to harm another one of their own kin.

The world they were now living in was NOT Earth. Monsters lay afoul everywhere and people's lives were easily lost in this chaotic place which made it all the more valuable. It wasn't uncommon to suddenly find a large horde of monsters attack the city from out of nowhere which would sometimes lead to a great loss of life.

Every person present in the city has one life and that life was very, very precious. So when Kaiser found out about a group of people that 'acted' as some sort of underground gang or mafia in the city, he naturally went and swung down his iron fist on them.

If they thought that there was going to be the 'law' or the 'police' that would keep Kaiser and his people in check, then they were totally wrong. In Silvaria City, they were the law, they were the police.

If you didn't abide by their rules, then you'd be purged from the city and exiled out of the valley. The Silvarias didn't need useless people who only caused harm to their citizens' wellbeing. Yes, they did sound like a tyrant, but that's what the current Earthlings needed.

A benevolent president wasn't going to cut it in this chaotic world where a person's life could easily be lost. There were threats everywhere, threats that could easily take one's life.

Kaiser did try his best to be as benevolent and wise as he could, but there was a limit to how nice he could be. Rather than having one bad apple in the barrel, he might as well just throw that one out and save the rest, right?

It was cruel, but he had to be the one to make the correct decision, no matter how bad it was.

The other representatives of the city couldn't act on it, so Kaiser took it upon himself to pull the plug on those people. Naturally, there were criticism directed at him, but Kaiser took it in stride. He didn't respond to any of them and continued doing his job, protecting the city.

Now that a temporary peace had been given to the earthlings, stuff like this was bound to happen. They didn't understand that without the Silvarias helping them, that city they were living in would be as good as a sitting duck in the face of the monsters.

This wasn't something that Angelia understood yet, but that was why the Silvarias cordoned themselves away from the city. If one day they were to be pushed out of the city's ruling powers, they'd at least have a place to fall back to. Once this happened, Kaiser decided that he'd only protect those important and loyal to him.

Of course, this was all a contingency. Kaiser didn't actually hope any of that would happen, but he's already experienced that sort of thing once before on Earth, so he was only preparing for when it might happen here in this new world they were in.

******

Angelia travelled by herself all the way out into the crop fields that the people had developed inside the valley. Her brother constantly warned that nothing outside of their estate was safe so she shouldn't be wandering outside by herself.

She had her white bird with her, so technically, she wasn't alone. Monsters could attack at any time and Angelia knew that they were scary and they could easily take away her life, but she had a secret.

"Okay, Chi! We'll go look for another friend today!"

The small bird on her shoulder chirped happily in response. It immediately flew down and landed on the ground before its body suddenly began glowing brightly.

When the light died down, what replaced the small bird was a large white eagle around 4 meters in size. It had a beautiful light yellow plume on its head that looked very similar to a crown. It lowered its body and Angelia immediately climbed onto its back.

If Cecil was here, he would have immediately identified this large white bird as a Sky Monarch. These were A ranked monsters in the shape of large raptors, they were ferocious beyond compare and a predator of the skies that could wield wind elemental magic up to low-tier high rank.

This Sky Monarch, which Angelia had named Chi, was a monster that she had saved from death. It was one of the monsters that had recently attacked their valley and it should have died. It was sniped out of the sky and by chance it fell into the Silvaria family's garden.

She was playing in the garden by herself despite the ongoing chaos outside, so she was quite surprised to see the large bird suddenly fall down from the sky. Angelia didn't know when, but after her 8th birthday, she suddenly found herself wielding a unique power.

She first discovered it when she had injured herself while playing. The large wound that she got was quickly healed and patched up when a warm energy was emitted from her palms. Ever since then, Angelia had been constantly playing around and testing this new power of hers.

She would feel faint after using this power, but it didn't take long for her to recover. Angelia was able to easily heal broken bones, fractures, cuts, and other such injuries so naturally, when she saw the large injured birdie, Angelia went over to quickly heal it back up to good health.

It immediately took off into the air after it was healed, but occasionally it would come back and fly around in the air above the Silvaria family's estate to look for the young girl that saved her. So here we are now at the present, the small bird that's been hanging around Angelia was actually the Sky Monarch that she had healed.

No one in the family knew about this and it was Angelia's little secret. Today, she decided that she would head out of the valley and go look for another friend for Chi. Once in the air, Angelia was practically on cloud nine. She found it so much fun to fly while sitting on her pet's back.

"Hey Chi, flying is so fun~ weeee~"

The Sky Monarch called Chi, was a female and she had already used a wind spell to affix the little girl onto its back so even when it did barrel rolls, loops and other such aerobatic maneuvers in the air, she wouldn't fall off.

Angelia very much enjoyed these days when she would escape from her brother and ditch school. She honestly didn't like school. The things she learned in primary school were only stuff that she already learned from her brothers. Rather than spend her time in school, she'd rather be up here in the skies with Chi having the time of her life.

"Chi, Chi! Look down there! I think I see a little kitty!"

The Sky Monarch screeched loudly before it dove down to the grasslands below. It landed and began looking for the 'kitty' that its master had saw from high above.

Chi didn't let her master dismount. She knew that the grasslands outside of the valley were very dangerous so even though it brought her master out here, it would do everything in its power to keep the little girl safe.

"Oh! There it is! That's the little kitty!"

Angelia pointed towards a black silhouette in the distance and Chi began walking towards it. The 'kitty', that Angelia saw turned out to be a large black panther that was resting on top of a large rock.

It had scars all over its body and when it sensed Chi approaching, it opened its eyes and glared savagely at the bird.

"Hi there, little kitty, you look injured, do you need help?"