Lux scratched his head in confusion as he walked towards the East Gate of Leaf Village.
After waking up and leaving his room, he realized that there was a sudden change in the way the Dwarves of Leaf Village look at him.
Ever since he helped them defend Leaf Village during the Monster Outbreak, the Dwarves stopped distancing themselves from him and even treated him civilly during his stay. However, it was different as to how they were being extra friendly now, which made the Half-Elf wonder if he had woken up on the wrong side of the bed.
The Tavern Owner even gave him two additional eggs when he ordered his usual order for breakfast, bacon and eggs. The middle-aged Dwarf insisted that it was on the house, and didn’t ask Lux to pay for the extra.
The people in the tavern would also give him a brief smile whenever he met their gaze, which made Lux wonder if they were pranking him or something. This series of unexpected changes followed the Half-Elf as he walked towards the East Gate to meet with Colette and the others.
Everyone was looking at him in a kind and friendly manner, which made him pinch himself several times to ensure that he wasn’t still dreaming.
“You’re finally here, Big Brother!” Colette said as she ran and jumped into Lux’s arms, which, as usual, made Matty shoot daggers using his eyes to the Half-Elf, who hurriedly opened his arms to catch the lively-little-cannonball that jumped at him so early in the morning.
“Have you been good while I wasn’t around?” Lux asked after successfully catching the giggling little Dwarf.
“Un!” Colette replied. “Yesterday we defeated a Berserked Horned Rabbit with just the five of us!”
“Wow. That’s amazing!”
“Right?!”
Lux chuckled as he patted Colette’s head. A Berserked Horned Rabbit was a Rank 2 Monster, which could be found near the center of the Aspiration Plains where the Carbuncle resided. He guessed that the Goldenslayer Party, headed by Colette, was preparing for their inevitable battle with the Carbuncle.
The Half-Elf had assumed that they had already consumed Beast Cores that were given to them by their parents in order to boost their ranks. Lux had a feeling that the little Dwarves, who had accepted him as one of their party members, were nearing the Apostle Rank.
‘Soon, they will be leaving this place behind,’ Lux thought with a sigh as he gazed at the Dwarves who were looking at him with happy expressions, with the exception of Matty, who was looking at him with envy and jealousy.
‘I feel sorry for this hen-pecked shrimp.’ Lux chuckled internally as he flashed a smug smile to Matty, which made the latter give him the middle finger.
“How did the fight against the Berserked Horned Rabbit end?” Lux asked.
“It took us fifteen minutes to defeat it,” Colette reported. “It was very fast and very strong. According to the information we gathered, the Carbuncle is always accompanied by two of them. This is the reason we decided to familiarize ourselves with its attack patterns.”
“That is a very good plan,” Lux nodded in agreement.
Knowing the fight patterns of the Monsters you would be fighting against would greatly increase the probability of defeating them. This was especially true for strong Monsters like the Carbuncle, which was the Aspiration Plain’s Alpha Monster.
“You better pay attention when we fight the Berserked-Horned Rabbit later,” Matty snorted. “That Monster is a meter tall and packs a punch. You don’t want its horn stuck into your butt, right, Big Brother?”
Matty’s words didn’t hide his wish for Lux to suffer from a butt-attack from the Rank 2 monster who was known for its speed and short temper.
“You should worry about yourself,” Lux replied. “A mere Berserked-Horned Rabbit is no match against me. I even fought against an Alpha Monster…”
“Alone?” Colette asked as she looked at Lux with sparkling eyes.
Lux shook his head. “No. It was fourteen against one.”
Colette, Matty, and the rest of the Golden Slayers party, looked at Lux with a weird expression on their faces. While the adorable blonde-haired Colette didn’t say anything, Matty used this opportunity to bring Lux down a peg.
“What? Fourteen against one?” Matty asked with an amused expression on his face. “Aren’t you ashamed, Big Brother? Even the Dwarf Parties here in the Beginner’s Zone only fight Alpha Beasts with up to seven members. You on the other hand fought them with twice the number? That’s not something to be proud of!”
Colette and Helen, the two girls of the party, giggled as they looked at Lux’s proud expression. What Matty said was true, and there was no sense of achievement in fighting an Alpha Beast with twice the number of regular party members.
Although there was nothing fundamentally wrong with this strategy, many Dwarves looked down on this practice because they would not feel any satisfaction from this.
They preferred to fight Alpha Monsters with a single party, in order to prove that party’s overall strength.
Lux just shrugged Matty’s words because for him, fighting a monster one-on-one, or fighting it in a group was not a big deal. Since he was a necromancer, it would be a great waste if he didn’t bring his Skeletons to fight alongside him.
“Where is Robin?” Lux asked. After scanning his partymates, he found out that the boy, whom the Riders of Norria had been very keen to rescue, wasn’t around.
“Robin is handling some family matters, and will be away for some time,” Colette replied. “He said that he will return once he is able to and told us not to wait for him.”
“Robin comes and goes as he pleases,” Helen commented as she walked towards Lux. “He’s a free spirited boy and is only a temporary member of our party.”
Lux nodded his head in understanding. Until now, he had been wondering about Robin’s real identity. For the latter to be treated so highly by the Riders of Norria, that could only mean that the Dwarf boy was not an ordinary person.
“Let’s go, Big Brother.” Colette smiled as she held onto Lux’s right arm and dragged him towards the gate. “We’ll hunt for the Carbuncle and try to defeat it. I’m sure that if all of us worked together, we will emerge victorious! Oh, before I forget, do you want to marry my Big Sister? I talked to my father about it when I returned, and he said that he would love to meet you and go fishing with you.”
The corner of Lux’s lips twitched when he heard Colette’s innocent words. Deep inside, he knew that Colette’s father didn’t want to go fishing with him. The Half-Elf had a feeling that if he really were to meet Colette’s father, whichever fishing area it was, the latter would definitely feed him to the fishes if he ever played along with Colette’s wishes and asked Colette’s sister for her hand in marriage.
“Colette, why are you so intent on making me your Big Sister’s fiance?” Lux asked as they passed through the gate.
The little blonde Dwarf was humming a tune before she turned her head to look up at Lux.
“Isn’t it obvious? I want Big Brother to be part of my family.”
“Um, that is what is bothering me. Why do you want me to be part of your family?”
Colette gave Lux a mischievous smile before replying to his question.
“Because, Big Sister once told me that she didn’t plan on getting married,” Colette answered. “When I pressed her for answers, she said that there was no Dwarf that had caught her attention. Since no Dwarves can satisfy her, I thought that you might be able to do that. After all, Big Brother is not a Dwarf, right?”
Lux didn’t know if he should laugh or cry at Colette’s innocent words. He found the reasoning silly, but coming from Colette, he thought that it was very likely of her to come up with such a conclusion. ᴡ ᴏᴠʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛʀs ᴀʀ ᴘᴜʙʟsʜᴅ ᴏ Novlꜰre.et
‘I’m sure that your sister just said that she didn’t plan to marry in order to pursue her goals here in Elysium,’ Lux thought as he walked hand in hand with Colette who had started to hum a song.
For the little girl, her sister was her idol. Her sister was one of the Prodigies of their country, and she was simply perfect. Many noble families in Solais and Elysium had tried to play matchmaker in order to form a strong connection with her, but all of them were politely rejected by her.
Aina, who was Colette’s older sister, had a grand goal in life and, for that to happen, she had to expand her influence in Elysium to simultaneously build the foundation of her dream.
Colette was not aware of her sister’s circumstance, so she was doing her best to play matchmaker for Lux and Aina.
After being rescued by Lux in the Kobold’s Nest, her respect and admiration for the Half-Elf had grown in leaps and bounds.
Colette wasn’t aware that the more she talked about Lux to the members of her family, the more her father wished that he could go to the Beginner Zone and hack Lux to pieces. Fortunately, he couldn’t do that because of the rules that bound the world of Elysium.
As the Dwarves and the Half-Elf headed towards the center of the Aspiration Plains, a purple-skinned menace with red eyes and a red jewel on its head, opened its eyes.
It let out a soft cry, and four Berserked Horned Rabbits ran to its side. It was now time for it to hunt, and everyone in the Aspiration Plains was its prey, ready for the taking.