Unnad Forest Resort Lake
Cheverton Capital City Periphery
Cheverton Duchy
May ???
Year 1052
Despite being a small artificial forest, it was thick and rich with more greenery than so natural forests. Its canopy was overshadowed by sycamore and birch trees, and abundant dancing lights bounced through their crowns for a motley of ferns to control the stony grounds below.
Bundled vines waved from the occasional tree, and a range of flowers, which claid remnants of light, added more life to the otherwise uniform backdrop.
A dley of sounds, most of which were birds and vermin, reverberated through the air, and ford a chaotic orchestra with the croaks of frogs in the nearby lake.
And on the banks of this lake, was a blonde, fair-skinned beautiful teenage girl, who was dipping her legs into the lake while silently munching on the at skewer in her hands.
Suddenly, her sapphire eyes widened ever so slightly, with her movents stopping montarily, but she continued right after, finishing the skewer and picking another one out of the bag beside her.
However, she did not pick this for herself, but for the man who was now suddenly standing beside her.
He had long grey hair, pulled back to reveal a strong, friendly face. Bright green eyes, set a-symtrically within their sockets watching the two Goldfinch who were birds singing together while perched on the branch of a sycamore tree on the lake's other side.
"Want one?"
Her words made him turn his gaze to her, staring at her in silence for a few monts before he accepted the skewer and sat down on the bench beside her.
"It was apparently made using frost boar at…my mories of frost boars aren't exactly good but this is enough to overwrite all those mories."
She spoke as she picked up another skewer, counting the ones remaining in the bag and muttering sothing about wanting to have bought more before turning to the man and speaking.
"So, Uncle George…what brings you here?"
The man, George, narrowed his eyes at his niece before sighing softly and taking a bit out of the skewer and replying.
"Elizabel-
Eliza."
He was about to call her as he always did, but the silent glare he felt coming from his left side made him cough lightly before correcting himself.
"There's not much of a difference between the two nas, you know?"
"Don't care. Only call that when we're at ho."
The blonde teenager, Eliza, replied to her uncle as she popped open a strawberry juice pack and took a sip from it.
"Alright, I wanna have a private conversation with my uncle, so mind giving us so space, Kuro?"
In response to her words, her shadow wriggled lightly, before a black van cat jumped out of it, throwing a glance towards George, before walking around the man's leg and then jumping into his shadow.
"…What?"
"He only used your shadow as an interdiary to travel a longer distance.
The stronger the existence is, the longer the distance he can go, or so he says."
Eliza spoke and shrugged as she looked at the few things Kuro dropped on the floor beside her before he teleported away, picking up one of the pastries among them and passing it to George.
"So, how long have you been watching , Uncle?"
"…"
"How long?"
"…Since your forr party mber died in rdin."
"Oh, wow. That's close to a year now.
So, you've been stalking for close to a year, huh?"
George's brow twitched repeatedly, but he refused to fall for Eliza's antics and calmly replied.
"I was watching you for your safety."
"Without my consent?"
"I have my sister's consent."
"And you finally pulled out the 'Mother' card."
Eliza spoke with a light chuckle, rubbing her chin slightly as she debated which pastry to pick, while George who had finally finished his at skewer spoke.
"Just to clarify, I was not on you, all the ti.
I occasionally left to handle other things elsewhere, so in reality, I only tracked you down for about a third of the ti."
"And I'm guessing you sent that obnoxious elder's children after to stall while you went sowhere else, right?"
"Yes. Too bad they were too weak to serve their purpose.
You can imagine my shock when I returned from dealing with that necromancer's organization's informants who were trying to dig out information on you and discovered you were not even in the country anymore."
"The Demonic Hand ran a background check on ?
Well, that kind of makes sense considering I'm involved with a certain silly hero who's been ssing things up for them."
George nodded as he wiped the breadcrumbs off his lips with a handkerchief, before speaking.
"I would have very much liked that you did not leave in the first place. Then that organization would not have their eyes on you now."
"You say I shouldn't have left? And stayed cooped up in that dinsional realm? Never coming out to see the rest of the world for what it is?"
"Oh no. I only wished you had at least gotten stronger first.
Then at that ti, I would have personally kicked you out to gain life experience, regardless of your father's opinion on the matter."
"And what is your definition of 'Stronger'?"
"Nothing too serious. Just Peak grandmaster level."
Eliza nearly dropped the cake in her hands when she heard her uncle's words, turning to stare at the man dumbfoundedly but he just calmly returned her gaze without a single ripple in his eyes.
"Well, that pretty much confirms it.
The reason you guys didn't want to leave is because of my unique skill, right? But you didn't want to know about it for so reason."
Upon hearing her words, George's eyes slightly widened in surprise, before he heaved a sigh and muttered the words; 'Like Mother, Like Daughter'.
'I honestly do not know how to explain to her that the reason is because she has her mother's forr skill.
And that sa skill was the very reason her mother was killed 30 years ago, and by the sa necromancer who almost killed her just last month.'
George felt his anger rise temporarily when he thought about how the Eighth Finger brutally murdered his elder sister 30 years ago, but he quickly cald himself to prevent Eliza from noticing anything wrong.
"Eliza, you've gotten yourself on the radar of a very dangerous group of people.
Even your father treads carefully when it cos to matters of the 'Demonic Hand'."
"I see…seems you guys knew about the Demonic Hand already, huh?
What's your stance on them?
Eliza's casual question received a not-so-casual answer, as George suddenly released a burst of murderous aura that spread out into the surroundings.
"Those hateful bastards!
If I could, I would slowly drain almost every inch of life out of every single one of them, gouge out their still-beating hearts from their bodies and then rip out their souls and torture them for as long as I live!"
He then took a deep breath and retracted his murderous aura, turning towards the shocked girl with a calm expression and saying.
"Our stance on them? We hate them."
"…
…I don't think just 'hate' is enough to describe your stance on them."
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