After Alex helped Susan cook, they sat down to eat.
"Do you have anything planned for the afternoon, Alex?" Susan asked.
"Not particularly, why?" Alex replied as he ate.
"Then can you do me a favor and watch over Evelyn for a while? I have to go buy groceries—we're running low," Susan said.
"Yeah, for sure. No problem."
Alex had no problem caring for children; after all, it was one of the things the orphanage occasionally tasked him with.
"Thank you, sweetheart. Don't worry, Evelyn usually sleeps through the afternoon and wakes up around six p.m.," Susan said. She took Evelyn to her bedroom and then walked to the door.
"I'll see you in a couple of hours," she said and left.
Once Alex was alone, he went to the living room and stood in the middle of it.
He took out the Water Shield skill book and started reading.
Unlike Wind Slicer, it had a requirement of 20% mana affinity to activate. The magic circle, at a glance, was vastly simpler than his other skill.
Even though it was called a "shield," the skill was more like a sphere. The key part was making that sphere of water rotate at high speeds—fast enough that anything touching it would be deflected.
Another reason for the rotation speed was that the faster it spun, the stronger the defense. At a certain speed, attackers would feel as though they were striking solid stone.
It took Alex no more than four tries to cast the shield.
Casting it actually consumed little mana—only five points to activate. Maintaining and rotating it, however, drained much more.
Sustaining the shield took one mana per second, which could later be extended up to one mana every ten seconds as proficiency increased.
Rotating it consumed twenty mana every five seconds at 100 rpm. Increasing the revolutions per minute raised the mana cost proportionally.
Simplifying all that, the shield required five mana to activate and roughly another five per second to maintain in its base state.
As Alex practiced Water Shield, time slipped away unnoticed. Before long, he heard faint noises from Evelyn's room. Looking at the clock, he saw it was already 5:15 p.m.
'Time flies when you're focused, huh?' Alex thought.
He dissipated the shield and sat down on the sofa.
Evelyn soon walked out, nodded a sleepy greeting, and then flopped face-first onto the couch.
'She's still a little sleepy—and I don't blame her. Sleeping comfortably with a stranger in the house is hard,' Alex thought.
Trying to get closer to her, Alex got an idea.
"Hey, Evelyn, wanna watch something cool?" he asked suddenly.
Evelyn blinked, confused by his question, but curiosity soon got the better of her. She gave a small, hesitant nod.
Alex laughed and stood in the center of the living room.
"Okay, miss, I'll show you—but you have to promise not to tell your mom. Promise?" He stretched his pinky toward her.
Evelyn's curiosity spiked even higher. She nodded eagerly, stood up, and linked her pinky with his, sealing their secret.
"Watch this."
Alex began channeling water mana. Droplets of water appeared from thin air and started spiraling around his body.
Evelyn's eyes widened in awe.
"So cool," she finally whispered—her first words since Alex had met her.
"Right?" Alex said, smiling.
He started shaping the water into forms—fish, flowers, birds, whatever came to mind.
Evelyn beamed, her smile so bright it nearly blinded him. Then she started chasing after a small water bird.
Seeing this, Alex canceled the other shapes to preserve mana and began playing along, making the bird dart through the house as Evelyn giggled and chased it.
A while later, Alex heard the main door open and quickly dissipated the water bird.
He looked at Evelyn and said, "Remember our promise, little lady."
"Okay," Evelyn said, nodding vigorously.
"Hello, kids!" Susan called as she entered, carrying two large grocery bags.
Alex immediately walked over to help her carry them into the kitchen.
"Oh, Evelyn, you sure worked up a sweat! Were you playing with Alex?" Susan asked after seeing her daughter's hair sticking to her forehead.
"Yes," Evelyn replied softly.
"Haha, I see. How nice." Susan was delighted. Evelyn finally trusted Alex enough to start opening up. She wasn't exactly shy, but it took her some time to warm up to strangers.
Alex returned from the kitchen, excused himself, and went outside.
He walked down to the riverside again, meditating to recover the mana he had spent playing with Evelyn. Afterward, he resumed practicing Water Shield to increase his proficiency.
Time passed quickly, and before long, night fell. He stood and started heading back to the house to help Susan with dinner.
Then—
CRASH!
As he neared the house, a loud crash rang out from inside. His stomach sank.
"GIVE ME THE FUCKING MONEY, WHORE!" a man's voice shouted from within.
"I really don't have any more money, please! Mercy—we're a poor family!" Susan's sobbing voice answered.
"Give me all the money, or I'll kill this little bitch!" the man snarled.
Alex froze for an instant, fury boiling up, but instead of kicking the door in as his instincts told him. He crept toward the house silently, his light steps making almost no sound.
Peering through the door, he saw three men wielding short swords.
Two stood near Susan, blades pointed at her, while the third—closest to Alex—was gripping Evelyn by the hair, his sword pressed against her neck.
Susan was sobbing uncontrollably, pleading for mercy, while the men shouted at her to hand over her money.
Alex's expression went cold. He reached into his pocket wach and pulled out the small knife he'd used for cutting plants, and moved silently behind the man holding Evelyn. His plan was already formed.
In one swift motion, he grabbed the man's head and drove the blade into his neck. The knife pierced through and severed the spinal nerves. With a sharp pull, Alex sliced left, cutting the carotid artery.
"Evelyn, close your eyes," he said calmly as he struck.
The girl obeyed instantly, squeezing her eyes shut.
Blood splattered everywhere. In that instant, a Wind Slicer spell formed and shot across the room, decapitating the second man before he could react.
It all happened in barely three seconds.
The third man froze, horrified by the sudden carnage. Then he roared, raised his sword, and charged at Susan.
But before he could land the blow, a rapidly spinning sphere of water formed around her—Alex's Water Shield.
The man's strike rebounded off it violently, throwing him off balance. Alex raised his hand again and cast another Wind Slicer.
This time, the man's head didn't come clean off—it hung halfway, blood gurgling down his neck.
Alex rushed to Susan's side, checking her for injuries. Seeing her trembling in shock, he knelt in front of her.
He knew she would probably be traumatized after witnessing this, but he would rather she lived with trauma than not live at all.
'Trauma can be overcome, ' he thought, remembering the girl he'd once seen with Marc.
When Susan came to her senses, she saw Alex kneeling before her, guilt and worry etched across his face.
She had seen everything—the backstab, the wind and water magic, the ruthless precision of his movements.
But she simply pulled him into a tight embrace.
Alex froze. He had expected anger, fear, maybe even distrust—but not this.
All he could do was hug her back.