Over the last four years since I was born in this world, I can’t recall many times that I felt many things. I almost had forgotten how it was to feel angry… Still, the trip to Arislan’s territory only took around eight hours. We left early in the morning and then arrived when the sun was setting. He was so close, despite that, we couldn’t live with him and he only went to see us once in four years. That made me feel someone had been kicking my leg for a while and it was time to return the favor.


    Arislan’s territory was essentially a small town surrounded by many wheat fields. Some people were working on them and I couldn’t see signs of battles or other conflicts in the area. That confirmed that he didn’t keep us away for our safety.


    The town itself looked unremarkable. It was organized and maintained well-enough. There were no buildings that looked like they were about to fall apart. However, I felt that the shops that I found along the way seemed off. They were like old stands that showed the products in the open, but it wasn’t that that made me feel like that.


    “The captain is currently fighting some beasts on the border of the territory. He asked us to guide you to this place and wait for him for a while.”


    In the distance, I could see a decent-sized house… while I called it decent, it essentially was half of a block wide and long. My father wasn’t filthy rich, but he was well-off. Still, the house that the riders told us to use was one that was three hundred meters away. It was bigger than our old one and looked brand new. It had beds, mobiles, and even other utensils and clothes, so perhaps I was complaining for no reason.


    “One of us will guard the house at all times until the Captain returns. You can inform us if you need anything else.”


    “All right, thank you very much.”


    My mother was in a good mood, and I didn’t want to ruin it by dwelling on the situation too much. Besides, this wasn’t Earth. The rules here were different, shaped by centuries of tradition and culture that I barely understood. I was still learning how things worked, stumbling through unfamiliar customs and expectations. It felt arrogant to think I could judge this world by the standards of my old life, especially when I didn’t fully grasp the reasons behind the way things were.


    I couldn’t just think, This isn’t right. I should change it, every time I come across something that doesn’t sit well with me. Reforming a society wasn’t something you could do on a whim, let alone based on personal inconvenience. Life here had its own rhythm, its own complexities, and I was still a stranger trying to find my place within it. For now, it was better to observe, to learn, and to focus on adapting. Maybe, one day, I’d understand this world well enough to consider making a difference, but for now, it was enough to let my mother enjoy her moment of happiness and to remind myself that not every battle needed to be fought right away.


    Mother began to unpack our things while humming, so I decided to give her a hand. I was interested to see how things worked in this town, but that could wait. A town of this size would need at least a force of a few hundred to be defended, and it looked like Arislan would leave often thanks to a war and apparently, thanks to beasts attacks. It was the first time that I had heard of that, but it wasn’t surprising.


    “How do you like the town, Ai? Your Papa is the leader here and your grandpapa is the leader of a much larger territory.”


    “... It is alright.”


    “It is… alright?”


    I couldn’t feel special in a situation like this… it wasn’t something that I had earned, after all. Besides, it wasn’t like I was the only heir of the family, for all intentions and purposes, my father should have dozens of siblings that could be the heir instead of him and soon he might lose his standing if the next head of the family decides to take this place from him. Such was life.


    Once we were done with the unpacking, Mom began to cook dinner and then I opened the window of the living room. I climbed a chair to look at the town outside. There was a man with a spear on the side of the door. He looked at me for a moment, but soon looked away.


    ‘I need money to make some tools here to help with my training. I also need to be careful since more people can find out about my actions here.’If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Given that we moved to this town, I had a feeling that things would be different from what I had known before. The change of environment made it clear that I couldn’t expect everything to stay the same. There was a lot I still didn’t understand, but I wasn’t na?ve enough to think that moving here would be a simple transition.


    Arislan’s intentions weren’t something he had directly shared with us, but I had my suspicions. It was clear that he had a reason for bringing us here, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that part of that reason was to train me. Whether he planned to guide me directly or give me the tools to learn on my own, I was certain that my training was a priority for him.


    ‘I guess that even the kids of a certain person can help them become the next head of the family… This system is annoying, but I guess I can make good use of it to reach my goals. I have sixteen years left, not nearly enough time to take over an entire world. I don’t even know how big this world actually is, after all.’


    In any case, I kept following my daily routine of improving my skills while checking the world outside from the window of the living room. I probably didn’t have to worry too much about it given that we had a guard at our front all the time, but I soon realized that this wasn’t the truth.


    “Any changes?”


    “The guards change every eight hours. The brat and the woman don’t leave the home in any circumstances.”


    I frowned when I heard that… the sun was setting and the town was becoming a bit quiet while some torches started to illuminate some parts of the area. Thanks to that, I was able to overhear that conversation. When I looked around, I noticed that the unknown voices came from a dark alley one hundred meters away, but after that, I heard nothing, not even steps coming from there.


    Considering the words, it didn’t seem that those people worked with the guards… So someone who was interested in Arislan’s family sent some people to keep an eye on us and they didn’t want to be found out.


    ‘It seems a bit too soon for this to happen, but I guess bringing us here was a move that was unexpected. Well then… who is the person who told them to watch us?’


    I had no clue and thanks to that, I didn’t know if they would tell people to do something drastic like disposing of us… I would imagine that sooner than later, people would realize that we could become a problem, but I guess that Arislan wouldn’t use soldiers that he can’t trust to watch us.


    Well, he might trust them, but I would rather not trust my safety in the hands of people that I didn’t know of. I knew I needed some countermeasures in place to deal with potential invasions. It was better to be safer than sorry, especially given the unpredictable nature of this world.


    I wasn’t strong or skilled enough to face off against such attackers that could overpower the guards, and I couldn’t rely on sheer power to protect us. I had to be smarter about it, think of ways to secure the house without drawing too much attention to myself.


    Setting traps seemed like a possible solution, but I knew that would only make my mother worry. Plus, I wasn’t sure I could hide the presence of traps from her, no matter how carefully I set them up. That left me with few options. I would need to think outside the box, to come up with countermeasures that would keep us safe without putting unnecessary strain on my mother. Something subtle, something that wouldn’t make her feel like she had to protect me from myself…


    While I was trying to come up with those kinds of traps, a few days passed and then eventually I heard a commotion outside. I wanted to check through the window, but before I could do that, my mother took me and then began to carry me in her arms… It looked like I needed a few more years before she decided to stop doing that.


    “Look, Ai. It is your papa!”


    ‘Yeah, my absentee father, who lived eight hours away.’


    Arislan was leading a group of thirty or so warriors, and some of them were pulling a large cart while carrying the body of a giant monster. Was that a dinosaur? It certainly looked like one… it was huge, green, scaled, and had a big head filled with teeth. It had eagle-like wings, though, but they were kind of small for the size of the beast.


    “The captain managed to slay the basilisk!”


    “Our enemies won’t be able to bother us for a while after a loss. Those damned cowards can hide in fear before the might of our kingdom!”


    “... How many do you think died thanks to this beast?”


    “Who cares? It was a necessary sacrifice.”


    Arislan passed right in front of our house, but as expected, he didn’t stop. He headed straight for his real house. He gave my mother a brief nod as he passed, acknowledging her presence without stopping for a conversation. It was a gesture, but I could tell it was more out of habit than anything else, like he had things to do, people to see, and no time to waste on pleasantries.


    I could feel his gaze on me as he walked by, though. I wondered if I was able to hide the frown that had naturally formed on my face at the sight of him. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to see him, especially after all the time apart. As much as I tried to mask it, the annoyance I felt was hard to suppress. Arislan had always had this way of getting on my nerves…