127 A Friendship Between Heroes Daughters & Birthday Presents
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“Uwaahhh…” she cried in pain.
I quickly dropped my blade and ran towards her.
“Ugh, was I too harsh?! Aquarina, let me heal you, it shouldn’t be lethal!” I exclaimed.
“Sniff… No… I’m not crying because it hurts… I’m crying because I lost!” she cried.
“A-Aquarina…”
Her little aquamarine eyes began to pour out tears of sorrow and frustration as she looked at me.
“You don’t know how much you mean to me…! I want to protect you… if I can’t win against you… how can I hope to one day protect you…?” she lamented.
“Aquarina, you don’t really need to protect me…” I replied with a sigh.
…..
“But…! I don’t want you to… to go through…” she murmured.
“That was my choice, Aquarina. I can protect myself. Your strength, however, is more than enough to protect yourself… instead of obsessively wanting to protect me, how about we work together so we can cover each other’s backs?” I asked with a bright smile as I extended my hand towards her. After that, I began to slowly heal her.
“Sylphy… but I’m… not strong enough yet…” she muttered.
“I’m sure you’ll eventually be strong! Now come, grab my hand, and stand up already!” I said in response.
Aquarina’s eyes shone brightly as she looked at me as if she were looking at something that affected her greatly…
She nodded as she held my hand and stood up with my help.
“Ugh… my tummy…” she said with a slight groan.
“I think I went a bit too hard there… are you okay? Let’s ask mom to heal you.” I said to her.
“Thank you… Sylphy… I think I understand now,” she said in response.
“You do?” I asked.
“Mm! Let’s protect each other’s backs…” she said.
“Hehe, that’s the spirit,” I answered back with a smile.
We walked back home as we were greeted by our parents.
“Sylphy! Why would you do something so reckless?! This girl is really going to make me go crazy!” my mother could not help but let out a sigh.
“Hahaha! My daughter, I’ve never seen anyone use such a crazy technique before!” On the other hand, father was quite jubilant.
“Incredible work, Aquarina, Sylph. You two are growing to become fitting heroes to replace us- no, even stronger than we could have ever hoped to be,” Shade told us.
“My little girl, you’ve grown so much! Mooch, mooch, mooch!” Nepheline said, carrying Aquarina in her arms as she bathed her with kisses.
“Hahaha…! Stop, mama!” Aquarina could only giggle.
My father held my hand as he smiled back at me.
“Sylph, you’re a good girl,” he said.
“A reckless good girl.” mother added, holding my other hand.
“Maybe a bit…” I giggled in response.
“Now, now, let’s go celebrate your birthday. We got a special gift for you,” father said.
“Ooh?!”
Could it be… what I asked him back then?
We went back home as we began to enjoy the meat on a table. There was a lot of fruit juice for us, with ice cubes to make it cold. The meat was tasty and filled with juice, the spices used in each type of meat complemented them amazingly.
“Seriously! You two really had to fight so much?! You almost gave me a heart attack…” Zack could not help but say.
“Hehe! You were scared!” said Aquarina in response.
“I bet you pissed your pants.” I laughed.
“W-What? No way! I am going to train so freaking hard that I will beat up the both of you! …But for now, I would rather not spar with you or I’ll end up swallowing my words,” replied Zack.
“Hehe, at least you’re honest.” Aquarina giggled at that as well.
“Yeah, don’t worry. We’ll train you together so you can grow big and strong.” I said with a laugh.
“S-Stop making fun of me out of nowhere!” Zack could not help but say.
“Come on, don’t get mad now. We’re friends, don’t we?” I asked with a cheeky smile.
“Yeah… I-I guess that’s what friends do.” He sighed, suddenly blushing and getting red.
“I-I won’t let you get too close to Sylph though…” murmured Aquarina as she suddenly got in the middle of us.
“W-Who wants that anyways? S-She’s a creep sometimes.” replied Zack.
“T-Take that back!” Aquarina protested.
“Haha! I guess I’m really weird sometimes, no?” I giggled in response.
“Now, now, children. It’s time for the cake.” Before our conversation could escalate, mother interrupted us.
After a few hours of eating, the day was slowly coming to an end, and with that, a cake with lighted small candles arrived at the table.
“Happy birthday, my dear princess,” mother told me with a light smile.
“Already five years? Geez… You surely grow fast. Happy birthday, Sylph,” father said soon after.
“Happy birthday, dear,” said Nepheline.
“Indeed, happy birthday,” added Shade.
“Happy birthday! You better come to my own, okay?” said Aquarina.
“Yeah, happy birthday I guess…” said Zack.
“Thank you, everyone…!”
I blew the candles on the cake as the fire quickly went away before everyone began to clap happily.
“Here’s the gifts!” my father said not long after, quickly bringing a wooden box to me.
On it was a small painting of a blue-colored witch hat.
“We asked her again about it and well, she did splendid work,” father told me.
“I wish I could see her one day,” I could not help but say in response.
“You’ll surely do when its due time… now open that crate,” mother said.
I slightly opened it and… inside it was a sword.
A long sword made of silver. It was radiating a strong magical aura. The blade seemed light and thin, but incredibly sharp, just enough for someone small like me to wield just well.
I looked into the blade with fascination as a smile surged on my lips.
The handle was finely decorated, yet it wasn’t anything too fancy either. It was covered in purple leather, which was actually very hard, though I quickly realized it was some sort of exoskeleton…
Well, it also had a small purple and black jewel on the middle of the handle, fueling the entire blade with a powerfully dark aura.
“She said it took a long time to make. She had to work pretty hard for it,” mother said.
“Grab it and take a look,” father urged me to wield it.
This is the blade… that I requested from my father… the blade made out of Beelzebub’s materials.
He really asked for it to be made…
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