434 A Week Later
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It has been a week since the incident at the wolf’s steppes, and a lot of things have happened in this little time frame. First of all, there’s a lot of new people around the entire camp! Like... over fifty people were added through the entire week, they are all either demons or beast-kin rescued from slavery by my parents and the other adult’s special strategy of pretending to be part of the criminal organizations and shadily buy all the slaves for themselves! This has also caused an immense drought of slaves in the entire city, and the nobles are raging stupidly at that!
And regarding the nobles, they had not been freed from the former’s hero’s punishment, as many of the slaves they held captive had been disappearing over time. Shade and my father ended infiltrating the houses of many nobles and used Shade’s amazing shadow magic and stealth abilities to bring as many slaves as they could without leaving any clues at all. Many nobles had woken up through the week without a single slave now, completely despairing.
There’s a lot of people now, and our small tribe is becoming more like a small village at this point. Many slaves were still traumatized, but over the week they had grown slightly more calmer and had lowered their guards enough for my mother to heal any wounds they had been hiding. And above all...
“Mama! Look! Mister Teddy was repaired by Uncle Shade, did you know?”
“Oh, is that so, dear? I am glad. I can’t believe there’s still such good people out there...”
“Uncle Shade and everyone else here is super nice! They always give me yummy food and played with me... But I missed you a lot!”
“I missed you a lot too, Celica...”
Just two days ago, my father and Shade brought a dozen of slaves they bought and ended bringing Celica’s mother as well. Celica ended waking up yesterday with her mother sleeping at her side in her bed, which was a very emotional encounter. And this morning, both were enjoying breakfast with us. Celica’s mother name was Cecilia, and she was as very gentle-hearted woman that said she was indebted with my parents and Aquarina’s parents.
.....
“Sylphy’s smiling!” Celica pointed at me as I couldn’t help but smile as the two enjoyed a peaceful morning, something that they might had never had the chance to do in a long while.
“A-Ah... Hahah... I am just happy that you got your mother back, Celica.” I sighed.
“You must be Sylphy, Celica has talked to me about you... You’re like her big sister at this point. Thank you for taking care of her.” Her mother bowed her head to me.
“Uwah! I-It’s nothing, please don’t bow your head!” I tried to stop her.
“In my culture, we bow our heads to show gratitude, it is not something I cannot do...” Celica’s mother said with a smile. “But you’re a very humble girl. I hope you can continue being my daughter’s friend...”
“O-Of course! Right, Celica?” I asked.
“Yeah! Fwends!” Celica raised her tiny hands happily.
Cecilia smiled once more, as her eyes seemed to have regained their light. I still remember how she looked when she was brought here. Her eyes were dark as the void, as if she had lost all hope, all emotions, everything. Whatever they did to her when she was enslaved, it had completely broken her spirit.
However, the moment she saw her daughter once more, probably as she had assumed she had died, it felt as if her entire soul came back to her body. She felt incredibly happy and spirited. It wasn’t as if those traumas she suffered went away, but something more important than her own life appeared before her once more, something that took priority above all else...
“You know... Back then, I really thought... I... I really thought that my little baby had... that she...” Cecilia muttered, as she began to cry.
“Mama?” Celica asked surprised.
Cecilia desperately hugged her daughter again, as she cried.
“I really thought she wasn’t alive anymore...” She cried. “What those people did to us... I really thought that a child wouldn’t even be able to survive something like that... I am so happy you’re so healthy and unscathed... that you have... kept the innocence that I remember my baby to always have.”
“Mama... Don’t cry...!” Celica pouted, as she caressed her mother’s face, cleaning her tears. “Mama’s pretty when she smiles...!”
“C-Celica...” Her mother, however, couldn’t help but cry even more.
“Come on now, Cecilia.” My mother quickly interrupted her tears, serving some food over the table. Freshly baked bread, ham, cheese, milk, grilled meat in large quantities, rice, stew, and soup. It was an enormous feast for everyone. “Let’s enjoy some food, alright? I am sure that it will warm your heart.”
“Thank you...” Cecilia quickly began eating with her daughter happily.
“There’s sure a lot of people nowadays...” Sighed Aquarina. Alongside our table, there were a dozen more with tons of people enjoying breakfast as well. We had to go hunt almost daily to feed everyone, but it also counted as our training so we usually didn’t complained.
“In a week the population of the tribe almost doubled, it’s insane.” Zack added. “But what’s more insane is that Sylphy got that giant wolf!”
“Ahaha... he’s actually Furoh, I’ve already told you its not the actual Fenrir!” I sighed.
“B-But it can even conjure magic like the Fenrir!” Zack said.
“It is part of Furoh’s’ abilities... He can copy part of the power of what he mimics.” I said, explaining Zack this “unfair” familiar I had for like the tenth time this week.
Furoh went from completely unknown to many to a loved partner that everyone seemed to have grown closer. Some even called him the wolf of the tribe and the guardian. He had never been given this much love before, so he had felt very happy about it.
“I can’t believe he’s the same guy we found in that old dungeon...” Zack sighed.
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