“This is their grave,” Dolrig said standing with Chad in the cemetery. Two tombstones lay in front of them.
[Atal Dunn] [Alecia Gilbert]
“Atal was a man of tall stature and calm demeanor, he took the role of a tank and wielded a tower shield to battle. That rusted shield behind the gravestone is his right?” Chad said as he put a flower on the man’s grave.
“Alecia was a fencer who accompanied her husband in his adventures. Even though she lacked the will to kill, she always made up for it by buying time for others to attack. As strange as it seems for an adventurer, she liked dancing a lot. Always saying it helped her dancing skills.” Chad put a flower on her grave as well.
“You remembered what I told you well, I thought you were half drunk yesterday?” Dolrig asked Chad.
“Did I look like that? Those are the people who raised my son, there is no way I will forget their names.” Chad said as he stood up, a stern look on his face.
“Come on, let’s head back,” Dolrig Said standing up.
“Can you repeat one last time, how did they die?” Chad said in a deep voice. Even Dolrig could sense the swelling anger in his words.
“The quest was to clear the western mountain from monsters, the quest failed as the amassed force of adventures got wiped out of nowhere. All that was found was layers upon layers of solid Ice.” Dolrig said pointing toward the mountain.
“I see,” Chad clenched his fists, abyssal darkness raging in his eyes.
“Don’t ever think about going there alone, even Cain himself hasn’t attempted it yet. I don’t know how strong you are but, that place is dangerous.” Dolrig grabbed Chad’s shoulder.
“I’m not going, for now at least.” Chad pushed Dolrig’s hand away.
…
Cain returned that evening with his shoulders hurting, he farmed dungeons for the whole day and almost caused them to extinct from the area. “I should stop doing this, I’ve gone too far.” Cain could count eleven dungeon cores that he had fed to the Maze.
BAM! Cain could feel the clash of magic in his backyard. Without even going there to look he could know it was his father and Zaleria sparring.
Cain slowly walked to look.
They were fighting hand to hand but that didn’t prevent them from blasting each other with magic. Zaleria’s fists were engulfed in flames while Chad was using his foresight to see her future attacks and counter them.
“You’re at your limit, why won’t you evolve? With such talent, you will rise quickly to the top!” Zaleria said as he punched Chad in the face sending him backward.
“I’m a human, I’m not going to abandon my humanity for power,” Chad replied.
“You’re even weaker than when we fought the earth dragon, what happened to you?” She leaped toward him with a straight punch.
Chad quickly deflected her strike and hit her with an elbow to the chest.
Something was on his mind that was making him lose focus. “You’re the one who asked for this match, at least try to put some spirit into it!” Zaleria growled as she kicked on the side.
Cain stared at them with an exhausted face. “Calm down a bit, you’re in the middle of the city. And this is my back yard so don’t break a single twig!” Cain shouted, he didn’t want to hear an earful from Jemima.
The two didn’t seem to react so Cain just left. He was too exhausted to bother stopping them.
“Master, you’re back. I will get the bath ready immediately!” Lexi who saw Cain enter from the door rushed inside.
‘You could have at least asked me what I wanted first, I’m starving…” Cain walked toward the kitchen where he found one of the maids preparing dinner. It was Elsie Kinger.
Behind her was a pile of vegetables that she was slowly preparing. Cleaning the potato and onion, cut them into small pieces, and throw them into the pot. In the pile were potato, onion, radish, carrot, leeks…
Crunch! Crunch! She suddenly heard a crunching sound behind her, Katherine always liked to take a few bits and it was getting a bit annoying.
Elsie turned around rapidly swinging her ladle, Katherine was extremely athletic so without a sudden attack, she would just dodge.
Clank! She hit something, but it sounded harder than what Katherine’s head usually sounds like. When Elsie looked closer, her face turned pale.
Cain was sitting there munching on the Carrots and leeks like a starving rabbit. He continued to eat unfazed. He slowly turned to face her.
He was grabby a career in his hands and munching rapidly on it like a rabbit. “What was that for?” Cain asked without stopping his meal.
“M-m-master Cain…” Elsie was stunned, what was he doing in the kitchen? Moreover, munching on raw vegetables is no less.
Cain gently waved his palm, [Telekinesis] the jar of salt along some old bread floated toward him. He sprinkled some salt on the leek and started munching it with bread.
Katherine arrived to sneak something to eat as well and found Cain munching on weed as a rabbit and Elsie froze in place in shock.
After looking at them for a second, Katherine sat beside Cain and joined him in his meal. In the blink of an eye, Elsie had two rabbits eating the dinner vegetables.
“Sorry master, but those are for dinner…” Elsie tried to explain herself but Cain cut her immediately.
“So we’re eating them…They are delicious.” He kept munching and staring at her.
“See, I always tell you they are going to be eaten anyway.” Katherine seemed to enjoy the situation as she kept imitating Cain.
Hearing the ruckus, Gracie walked into the kitchen to check what happened. “Headmaid Gracie, please help me talk to them…” Elsie immediately asked for her help.
Gracie stared at Cain with her cold eyes. Elsie didn’t know if she didn’t care or was just disappointed with Cain. As a Headmaid, it feels like a slap to the face to let the master eat raw vegetables like this.
Cain extended a carrot toward Gracie, “Want some?”
Gracie took it as an order so she sat beside them and started munching as well. Now there were three rabbits in front of Elsie.
Fearing that they will eat the whole basket, Elsie rushed to look for Alice, She was her only hope.
After a while, Elsie returned with Alice in tow.
“What is the meaning of this?” Alice asked Cain with an angry face. He was her husband and she wanted him to have some manners. He could have asked them to make him a salad instead of eating like this.
“Care for some?” Cain extended a leek toward Alice. She stared at him for a second and then grabbed him by the ear.
“What are you doing?” She growled at him.
Cain stared at her while still eating, “She hit me with the ladle.” He said with a passive face.
At that, moment Alice’s attention turned toward Elsie, in her eyes that was a more serious matter. “Is what he said true?” Alice growled at Elsie.
Elsie opened and closed her mouth like a fish gasping for air. She glared at Cain. Even though he was acting like this, he was still Cain that they knew. She shouldn’t underestimate his decision-making ability.
“Lady Alice please listen to me, don’t let him deceive you. We need to stop him!” Elsie talked slowly, a single wrong word and she is getting a severe punishment for hitting the housemaster.
Cain stared at them while munching on the leek.