"A-A BEAR!!!!!!!!" Edren screamed with his tongue out and his eyes almost bursting out of their sockets.
The bear slowly fell forward, revealing two children standing behind it.
"Jeez! You busted my eardrums with that scream, Dad," Vlad, the black-haired boy, muttered.
Beside him stood a young girl of similar age. She had ear-length messy lavender hair and eyes of a matching light lavender shade with no visible pupils. Her thin body was covered in a ragged one-piece dress held together by countless stitches.
"I want bear meat," the girl murmured, sucking on her index finger.
"Oh god, where did this massive bear come from?" Elaria gasped as she reached the entrance. "Children, are you alright?"
"We are fine, Mama," Vlad replied, setting down the mushroom basket from his shoulders. It had a wide opening at the back that was held shut by a wooden branch.
"This bear suddenly attacked me in the forest. I had to hit its mouth and head several times to kill it."
"Y-you killed a bear with your bare hands?" Elaria exclaimed, climbing over the bear to reach Vlad. Its enormous body was blocking the entire entrance. She quickly ran her hands over him, lifting his shirt and stretching his trousers to check for any injuries.
"Mama, stop! I'm fine!" Vlad yelled, holding his trousers tightly.
"Hah! Acting all grown up," Elaria retorted before moving to the girl to check her for injuries.
"She's also fine. She wasn't in the forest," Vlad said quickly, covering the girl behind him. "She followed me here for dinner."
"Oh, is that so..." Elaria sighed. "Chloe, are you hungry, my baby?"
"I want bear meat," Chloe, the lavender-haired girl, replied in a low voice, saliva trickling from the corner of her lips.
"Alright, come inside," Elaria chuckled, patting her head.
The three of them climbed over the bear again and entered the house. Behind them, Edren lay sprawled on the floor, froth from his mouth wetting the ground beneath him.
"Hmph, pathetic," Elaria muttered as she moved forward, stepping on him without mercy. The two children followed, copying her motion as they crossed the hallway.
"I have warm water prepared for you," Elaria said. "Go and bathe together. I will have dinner ready by the time you finish."
"Okay, Mama," Vlad announced, sprinting toward the bathroom.
"Okay, Mama," Chloe copied, following him closely.
---
"Oho, son," Edren said in a proud tone. "So you hunted a bear today. Hahaha, you have grown stronger, but you are still far from my level. At your age, I killed an orc with my bare hands."
"An orc!?" Vlad exclaimed. "But one orc is as strong as a hundred bears. How did you kill it, Dad?"
"I was in the forest collecting wood when I heard..."
Edren was arranging the plates on the dining table, proudly recounting his supposed heroic deeds from his younger years. Vlad sat on the floor, carefully drying Chloe's hair with a towel and listening to his father's tales with attentive eyes.
"Bear meat... bear meat," Chloe murmured, her eyes fixed on the kitchen where Elaria was preparing dinner, her index finger still in her mouth.
Chloe was an orphan. Her parents had been mercenaries who had passed away a few months ago. She lived with her grandparents. In the small population of Grimwood village, she was the only child of similar age to Vlad.
The two had become very close to each other, each for different reasons. Vlad enjoyed playing with her, while Chloe loved the food cooked by Elaria. It had become quite natural for the two to bathe and sleep together.
Once Vlad finished drying her hair, he handed her the towel and sat in front of her.
"Meat, meat~" Chloe sang, rubbing the towel on Vlad's head with her tiny hands.
Soon, the dining table was filled with various mushroom dishes and the bear meat. Stories and laughter filled the small wooden house as the family began to eat.
Once dinner was finished, Vlad and Chloe ran out to play. Elaria began doing the dishes while Edren moved the logs inside to refill the stock.
"Hmm, we are almost out of logs," Edren murmured, placing the last log inside. "I should tell Vlad to collect some firewood tomorrow."
"You are thinking of making Vlad work again," Elaria hissed, pulling Edren's ear.
"No, I wasn't," Edren denied, shaking his head.
"Who will go to collect firewood tomorrow?"
"Me, me. I, your lowly slave, will bring it, my lad—"
"Umm, excuse me," a flustered voice came from the wide open door of the house.
A handsome man with long red hair, wearing an elegant long coat, stood at the entrance. Behind him stood several soldiers clad in steel armour. On their chestplates was embedded a crest of a crimson flame.
In an instant, Edren removed Elaria's hand from his ear and muttered in a sharp tone,
"Hah! Do you think I would say that? I want the logs stockpiled before dawn, understood, you Elaria!"
"..."
"..."
"...."
"Haha, I must have come at the wrong time," the red-haired man said awkwardly. "I will come at a later time."
Just as he was about to turn—
"Stop!" Edren commanded, moving towards the door with cold steps.
He stepped closer to the red-haired man and whimpered, joining his hands together.
"May you please keep everything you saw here a secret, Lord Cendral?"
---
The wooden house of Lumberjack family stood at the centre of a wide stretch of farmland, with Grimwood village at its back, the Grimwood forest at its front, and nothing but open cropland between. It was the kind of placement that made a man feel both protected and watched. The village was an old settlement, planted there by retired lumberjacks who had spent decades fighting the forest and, in the end, had chosen to live with it instead.
Inside the barn at the corner of the farmland.
"Ninety-eight..."
"Ninety-nine..."
"Hundred."
Vlad muttered as he performed push-ups with Chloe sitting cross-legged on his back.
As soon as he completed the hundredth push-up, he collapsed to the ground.
Chloe rose from his back and sat beside him, extending her hand forward.
"Here," Vlad said, handing her a berry.
After a few seconds to steady his breathing, Vlad rose to his feet and grabbed two wooden sticks from the corner of the hall.
He was about to hand one stick to Chloe when she said in a flat tone,
"Ten berries."
"You only asked for five yesterday," Vlad objected. "You cannot just double the price."
"Then I will not play with you."
'You greedy little pig!' Vlad muttered inwardly, clenching his fists.
"Fine, ten berries then. But I do not have that many right now. Can I give them to you tomorrow?"
"No, I want to eat right now."
'How could she still be hungry after devouring all that meat?'
After a brief sigh, Vlad said, "I would not resort to such methods under normal circumstances, but I cannot ignore my training."
He placed one hand on his chest and declared, "I, Vlad, take an oath that I will give you twenty berries tomorrow if you train with me."
"What are you doing?" Chloe asked, her head tilted in confusion.
"Isn't it obvious?" Vlad said, rubbing his nose in pride. "You should feel honoured. An upcoming Legendary Knight just took an oath for you."