208 - Can We Keep It?

“Daddy, look! Look!.”

“Mhm! I am looking!”

Jason looked at the butterflies of various colours flying around them. Their behaviour seemed quite odd as they always surrounded Hanna on their journey. This happened a lot during the evening when Hanna spent time telling stories to the orphan children. 

These butterflies stayed around them almost till the dark, which shouldn’t be their natural behaviour. 

‘Was it her doing?’

He eyed Amelia, who gave him a slight nod. 

‘So, she is even doing that without knowledge. Her power might be growing faster than Amelia expected.’

Amelia looked troubled by this, but Jason had no say in this matter. Amelia was the one who knew about the Espers the most, and it was her decision to let Hanna wait another year before training. 

‘Then again, does she have more experience than me? I did spend a hundred years in the simulation.’

He wasn’t brave enough to ask Amelia’s actual age and preferred keeping her happy. 

“My Lord, we have trouble ahead. Well… Not much of a problem, but it is quite awkward.”

“Hm?”

Jason looked at Garth who came to him with a puzzled look.

They should be almost at Forest Edge, and there shouldn’t be any hidden troubles here. 

About twenty players from the Crystal Pulse should be at the Forest Edge, and he would receive a message if there were any trouble.

Besides, Boris was here and he had no enmity with that man or the mayor of this small town. 

Garth was the one who insisted on sending scouts in front after the first incident. Jason cared little about this matter since Amelia’s senses seemed to be always on alert and ready. 

He admitted Amelia was way ahead when it came to detecting enemies, and she once said it was an ability she had. 

Jason naturally looked at Amelia since she didn’t alert him at all. 

“It is nothing. Your people are gathering ahead. But you might want to take a look at that bear.”

She nodded toward the forest at the side.

“Huh?”

Jason looked at trees while he released his senses into the silent forest. 

“What bear, Mommy? Is it a teddy bear?”

Hanna became very intrigued by what she heard. She tilted her head and looked into the trees.

“Meow!”

Nyx licked her paw, wondering if it was a new type of food. She sensed the furry creature stalking them for a while, but she knew she had nothing to worry about. Both her friend and his woman were stronger than her.

Of course, her friend wasn’t as strong as before, but the power running through his body made her shiver. She only felt her friend was unable to harness it to the full extent. When he could do it, he would be more powerful than anyone else. 

“Hm? That bear….”

Jason felt the massive Cave Bear hiding in the trees. For some reason, it seemed to be effectively hiding its presence in the trees with its enormous size.

He looked at Amelia, wondering why she didn’t warn him before. Of course, it wasn’t a threat to them, but the creature seemed to be observing them from the dark.

“I had other matters in my mind.”

Amelia’s raised brow warned him their discussion was over. She worried about Hanna more than a simple Cave bear.

“That is too big to sit on your lap, but you can have it if you want.”

Amelia answered Hanna in a thoughtful tone, leaving Jason speechless. This bear was humongous, and he felt something familiar about it.

He slowed down even though they moved at a steady phase. 

The moment his steed slowed down, the caravan steadily lowered its phase. Jason stared at the trees in silence and the tension rose from the people in the front. 

The last time Jason stopped them in the middle of nowhere was the place where the battle broke out. 

Jason simply stared at the trees, and the others also noticed where he was looking at. 

The first one to notice the bear was Garth. His eyes widened with surprise when he realised there was a creature like that hiding in the trees. 

“How did we…?”

The Cave bear wasn’t that strong, but no one found it until they focused on the area Jason was looking at. 

“It seems to have a steal ability. It is a mutated one. I think I know this one. It is an old friend.”

Jason simply thought about a bear who accompanied him to a battle once. 

…

“Ah… I failed….”

“Don’t bother. Even I didn’t know it was there.”

Garth didn’t know what to say when Jason interrupted his sentence. 

He could only eye the silver-haired woman who seemed to be bothered by nothing. She obviously knew what was happening ahead of them, and she simply pointed at the place where the bear was.

He could care less about Mistress Amelia saying Young Mistress Hanna could have the Cave bear as her pet. 

Young Mistress Hanna already had a monster of a pet she always carried around, and her parents were too powerful for her own benefit. 

‘I wouldn’t even be surprised if they decided to buy her a dragon.’

Garth wondered what else would happen in the coming days. Lord Jason’s growth was far from over, and this immortal alien wizard was an ambitious one. 

‘How powerful is she? A Peak Grandmaster… I never thought I would see one in my entire life.’

There were only three Peak Grandmasters in their world, or that was what he thought. Apparently, another one was here. The Peak Grandmasters were not as powerful as a Master Wizard, but they were rarer than even the Grand Wizards. 

Garth felt even their Lord relied on Mistress Amelia to keep track of the surroundings. 

‘I never thought two of them could be so powerful.’

Lord Jason took on six wizards on his own, and it made killing all those Grandmasters look like nothing. In the entire battle, Mistress Amelia didn’t come out of her carriage. 

He remembered hearing her voice from the carriage as she spoke to Lord Jason and their daughter, and her voice was always calm. 

‘And I thought travelling in front of the caravan with their child was a bad thing.’

Not only everyone was safe, but their enemies didn’t even manage to even scratch any of their men. 

‘Those idiots… They shouldn’t have given up on the lord.’

He thought of the people who refused to follow them after Lord Jason failed his assessment. Which was obviously a ploy from this monster of a wizard. 

Even now, Garth couldn’t comprehend the power Lord Jason had to simply play six other wizards to death.

‘Is he really a wizard?’

This was the silent question everyone had. Was Jason Hope really a wizard? 

…

“Sniff! Sniff!”

The heavy breathing sound finally came from the trees. The bear was intelligent enough to know it had been found. There were several piercing gazes focusing on it, but it wasn’t here to fight them. It was here to meet the one who defeated it before. 

“Grr!”

It released an awkward roar as it came out to the clearing.

“So it is you. You have grown.”

Jason saw the few scars left on the bear’s body from the last battle. However, its fur had turned mostly purple. It had undergone a significant mutation during the last few months, and he saw the signs of intelligence.

It was obvious the bear was here to see him, and he wondered if it wanted to challenge him. 

“Are you here to challenge me? You are not strong enough to do that.”

“Gr….”

“Daddy… Big Bear wants to follow you.”

“Hm?”

Jason looked at Hanna’s face.

“Meow!”

Nyx licked its paw, making the Cave bear shiver. 

“Can you read its thoughts?”

Jason asked Hanna as he gave a meaningful look to Amelia. 

“Big Bear is different, Daddy. It is smart. But… It could have been tasty.”

“Oh….”

Jason rubbed her head, ignoring the latter part of Hanna’s sentence. Little girl was turning into a foodie.

“Mommy, Daddy, can we keep it?”

“Alright! You can keep it if it follows us. But we might have to make sure it won’t attack the others. Keep an eye on it.”

Jason shook his head before giving an order to Garth. If this bear was intelligent enough to follow them, it would be intelligent enough to avoid attacking the other humans. Besides, Hanna might be able to give it simple instructions if she could read its thought. 

Since Amelia already made a promise to their daughter, he should support her to keep it.