In the small cabin, Ryusuke had pulled out his coat. He folded it a single time and placed it on the ground.

It occupied a small space. He frowned and thought ‘This won’t be enough… What should I do? Little sister would have to sleep on this hard and dirty ground otherwise.’

He had seen that the villagers hadn’t worn full clothing. They didn’t seem to have clothes for themselves, not to mention extra clothing.

He was thinking about it when he heard the footsteps. It was Kudo Tajima. He had returned back now.

As Ryusuke gazed at his father, his eyes shone with an excited look, “Father, can you give me your coat?”

Taking a glance at Ryusuke’s coat placed in the corner of the cabin, Tajima understood what Ryusuke wanted to do.

He placed Ayumi in Ryusuke’s arm, who was all too happy to hold her. Ryusuke gently stroked her soft skin.

Ayumi had very sensitive skin. When she felt Ryusuke’s finger brushing upon her cheeks, she started laughing, “hahaha…”

Seeing her laugh so happily, Ryusuke snickered and continued tickling her, “You are so ticklish. Here! Here! Here!”

Changing the spots where he stroked her, her laugh would either increase or decrease in intensity. Under her armpits was the time when she laughed loudest.

Meanwhile, Tajima pulled out the coat and took Ayumi in his hands. Ryusuke folded the large coat two times before he placed it next to his own coat on the ground.

The area covered up was enough for Ayumi to sleep without an issue.

After that, he picked up one of the books he had taken from the village chief’s house and sat next to that place. He started to read the storybooks. They were classic stories of good prevailing over evil.

It was unknown why Tajima wanted Ryusuke to read these books.

Food came for them after half an hour.

Thus, their life at this village started…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryusuke was normally the one taking care of Ayumi. As time passed, he grew more and more attached to her. By now, he had even started to read storybooks for her at night.

After he had finished reading all the storybooks, he had started reading the books that Tajima ordered through the Village Chief. They were books about the general knowledge of the world.

Right now, Ryusuke was living on Mistyel Continent. Humans ruled the continent. 4 large empires ruled over this vast continent.

The Yamato Empire ruled over the Eastern side of the Mistyel continent.

The Asakusa Empire ruled over the Southern Side of the Mistyel continent.

The Shiba Empire ruled over the Western Side of the Mistyel continent.

And, the Ozutsuki Empire ruled over the North of the Mistyel Continent.

There were 21 other second-rate or third-rate kingdoms. Most of them were the vassals of one of the Four Great Empires. Only a few of them were independent.

The northern part of the continent was cold. The temperature normally reached up to -35 Celsius.

The Eastern and Western parts of the continent were covered with dense forests. The soil was also very fertile, promoting large-scale farming in the great Empires.

The Southern Part had two large hills, which contained a lot of resources like gold, purple gold, and other things.

The beasts were common on the continent. Their total population exceeded the human population by ten times, but they were all scattered.

Within an Empire’s territory, there would normally be only weak beasts—the ones who would be easy to kill for the warrior living within the cities.

However, there were also very strong beasts. The places where they lived were listed as Forbidden Territories by the Empire, and no village or town was formed near it.

Only the best of the best warriors could hunt them down. Naturally, it also contained a lot of risks. A single mistake and they could suffer a fatal injury, so even the greatest warriors were reluctant to traverse through the forbidden areas.

The contents of the books truly shocked Ryusuke.

It was rare for Tajima to be at home and spend time with Ryusuke and Ayumi. He stayed up late at night while drinking alcohol.

At night, the forest around them was completely calm. Occasionally,  howling and weeping noises could be heard in the forest.

~~After Four Months~~

It was early morning time. Sun hadn’t even risen up yet. Ryusuke was peacefully sleeping while hugging Ayumi, who was lying down on her pretty and comfortable bed.

Soon enough, he heard Tajima’s voice, waking him up, “Wake up, son. Wake up.”

Not opening his eyes at all, Ryusuke replied to Tajima, “N-not y-yet. Five more minutes.” His voice didn’t show any promise that he would keep his word.

Naturally, Tajima sternly said while shaking him up this time, “Get up. We are leaving right now.”

It took 3 seconds for his words to register in Ryusuke’s mind. Ryusuke’s eyes snapped open as he understood what Tajima was saying.

Even after Ryusuke opened his eyes, he couldn’t see clearly. He rubbed his eyes, and his vision slowly cleared up. It took some time for his eyes to adjust to the darkness because it was still dark.

He asked with a pout, “Why do we have to leave so early? When are we coming back?” He looked like he was really sleepy and would fall down at any time.

With a serious look on his face, Tajima answered him, “We have to leave before anyone else wakes up. Take some food along… And we are not coming back!”

“Why do we have to leave before someone wakes up? And food? Didn’t we finish eating it at night time?” He asked before his eyes flashed with realization and said with a light glare, “Father, you skipped the dinner again, didn’t you?”

“Shh~! Stay quiet! Pack up the food. Let’s leave as quickly as possible. I will explain the reason sometime later.” Ryusuke bought his explanation.

He packed up the food and took a milk bottle along. He handed it to Tajima, who grabbed those things with a neutral expression.

Suddenly, the food, which was wrapped in cloth and the milk, flashed with a bright white light. It disappeared right in front of Ryusuke’s eyes.

Ryusuke was all too shocked at what happened. Just like any curious boy, he grabbed Tajima’s hand and shook it in excitement. He asked with a loud voice and an excited look, “Father, father! What was that? How did you learn to do that? Teach it to me too!”

For some reason, Tajima grew irritated and pulled his hand. In an unusually loud and stern voice, he said, “Didn’t I tell you to stay quiet!? Can’t you understand it!?”

The sudden strict tone caused Ryusuke to look at his father with surprise. He didn’t understand why his father looked so irritated.

Tajima also seemed to realize, and his head dropped. He moved towards Ayumi and picked her up in his arms.

“Follow me.” The three of them started to move away from the village. For Ryusuke, who was confused why they were moving away at such a time when they had just settled down in the village.

The three of them encountered some rabbits and other beasts, but they were harmless. They didn’t try to approach Ryusuke or Tajima for some reason.

This was the first time, Ryusuke saw a rabbit so closely. He had only ever known about it in the books.

The first thing that was on his mind was, ‘Is it tasty? That cooking book said that the rabbit’s meat is one of the most tender. It’s very tasty.’

For him, the rabbit in front of him seemed more like meat. He gulped down and tried hard not to entertain any thoughts of capturing it right now.

Tajima noticed that Ryusuke was staring at the rabbit, but he chose not to say anything.

It was a long walk of around 3 hours, but they soon exited the forest. Right now, they were on one of the forest routes used to move from one village to another.

Ryusuke noticed a carriage in front of him and cheered up, ‘Yay! I don’t have to walk anymore! I was getting tired.’

Silently, they entered the carriage. They noticed a man sleeping within the carriage.

Tajima shook him a few times and woke him up. He ordered the driver of the carriage, “We have already discussed the place. Let’s start… I want to reach the next village by night.”

Ryusuke didn’t expect that the journey was going to be so long, even on a carriage. He was relieved that there was quite a lot of milk for Ayumi. He wasn’t that worried about himself. He was sure that he could remain a day without food. As for water, he already noticed a bottle of water within the carriage.