âUwawa...what to do?â
Hi, everyone. Currently, this Lyra is flustered and confused on how to face the crying Briar.
âIâm sowwy...The tears wonât stahp...,â Briar said amidst her sobbing.
âUhh, sorry for suddenly intruding on your house and âkidnappingâ you...,â I said.
âNo, Aneki, I said I was too happy...because of what you did! Hwaaa, Aneki!â
Suddenly, Briar extended her hands to me and hugged me tightly, tears still rolling down her face.
âHwaa, careful, Briar!â I immediately grabbed her body back, as she seemed close to falling when she moved about just now...
Carbuncle could grab her back if she ever falls, but...
âThere, there...,â I patted Briarâs back to soothe her.
âIâm owkay...,â Briar said, full of snots.
I turned to pat her head.
âThere, there, youâve been holding it in all this time, havenât you?â
âANEKWIIIII---,â Briarâs sobbing turned more intense instead.
âHwaa, your snort, Briar, Briarrrrr~!â I was flustered seeing Briarâs tears and snort.
âYou guys, behave well, canât you?!â Carbuncle roared.
--Please wait for a whileâ
âAhem...Sorry, sorry! I was too overcome with my feelings...Forgive me for being unsightly,â Briar said as she tidied her face using her handkerchief.
âIâm just too happy...Really, Aneki comforted me really well...As if youâre my own elder sister...Weird for me to say as youâre younger than me and I am supposed to have my own elder sister, but thatâs how I feel...,â Briar blushed a little.
âThank you for your compliment! Glad to hear that!â I decided to receive her compliment and smiled.
âHwee, Aneki, it must be fate that caused us to meet! Iâm so, so, very glad! I canât imagine how I will be if youâre not here...,â Briar hugged me tightly.
Warmth filled my chest after her words registered in my mind.
It was something I wanted to hear the most in my life as Reinst, but I died without being able to hear it from anyone. If I had continued to live on, would I hear such words as well? Nicole and Clyde seemed to care about me...
If in the past, they were to utter such words, would I believe them?
Or would I deny their sincerity and thought of them as sugar-coated words?
The latter would be more likely...I myself had to admit it.
Anyway, I realized now that it was really nice to feel needed by someone. To feel appreciated merely just by being yourself...
And I also realized that it was nice to have people who thought so of me. Therefore...
âMe too, Briar. Thank you for meeting me and for needing me,â I smiled happily.
In this life, people needed to acknowledge and to be acknowledged by others. It was a give-and-take process.
âAneki...youâre so kind...â
âAnd youâre strong, Briar,â I said.
âAneki...Youâre going to make her cry again,â Dmitria suddenly warned me.
âYeah, yeah. Weâre almost there,â Valerie reminded us.
âGeez, you two, Iâm not a crybaby!â Briar denied the twoâs accusations.
âSure, sure, hahaha,â Dmitria laughed energetically.
âFufufu,â Valerie also laughed.
âWell, thanks to my insistence to come with you guys, Iâve seen such interesting moment,â Carbuncle also commented.
âAnyway, weâre landing soon, grab on tightly,â Carbuncle said again before we dove in.
âEeeekh-â
âSlowly, please!â
âHahaha! This is nothing!â
When we descended from Carbuncle, our heads were still dizzy that we couldnât really walk straight.
âThatâs quick!â Freyja commented.
âWelcome, Briar. Thank goodness you can come here,â Ristea-san said as she patted Briarâs head.
âRistea-san, thank you and pardon me for bothering...â
âCome on, itâs not like we are strangers. Thereâs no need to be sorry for coming over here. Youâre welcome anytime,â Ristea-san said.
Meanwhile...
âEeeh, I want to ride on you, too!â Freyja pouted upon seeing Carbuncle turn back to her humanoid form.
âHee, you sure about that?â Carbuncle teasingly asked.
âYeah, yeah!â Freyja nodded vigorously.
âFreyja, no, donât,â I quickly said.
âEeh, but I want to ride on a dragon!â Freyja pouted.
âWhat about a wyvern?â Valerie suddenly offered.
âCan I?â Freyja seemed to be interested in Valerieâs offer. I guess both were similar...and riding on a wyvern seemed to be safer than riding on Carbuncle, who knows what kind of mischievousness she was planning...
âSure, but itâs already quite late. What about saving it for tomorrow? Letâs wash up and see around the house before dinner,â Ristea-san was the one who made the decision for us.
âOkay~!â Since the host said so, we could only comply.
We were guided towards the guestrooms where we would be staying in. After washing up ourselves in the provided bathroom, Ristea-san did a house tour for us. While we were at it, she also explained various things about the Flugel house to us.
The Flugel houseâas we already knew itâwas a house whose specialty was their ranch. At first, there were only animal ranch and Pegasi ranch. They just developed their Wyvern ranch recently. As for the Raphus ranch, it was originally a ranch that GarretâDmitriaâs fatherââs family developed. Since they had difficulties about taming and taking care of the giant flightless birds, they got married to the Flugel house and expanded the Raphus ranch.
As for MalvinâValerieâs fatherââs family, they were a family of ranchers as well, who moved in animals and Pegasi ranch as well. Their ranch was small, but their union with Flugel family caused both sidesâ ranches to flourish more.
The miracle twins also narrated the story of their partner beasts to us.
âYou see, my Papa seems to be gentle, but he has his heroic side as well. It happened in the past where one of his familyâs workers disappeared after accidentally entering a dangerous and restricted lake. Papa went there to see what was going on when he met Brioc,â Valerie narrated.
âBrioc was so hostile at that time, Papa said. He seemed to be mad at Papaâs worker for intruding his territory. Papa then bravely fought with Brioc and rode on Brioc, taming him. Despite Briocâs ruthlessness during when Papa forcefully rode on him, Papa managed to stay stable on Briocâs back. Brioc seemed to acknowledge Papa after that test from him, and so, Papa brought Brioc over.â
I blinked and looked over at Malvin-san. Yes, at first glance, he didnât seem to be that kind of heroic person, but I guess each man would have their manly side to them.
âI fell in love with Brioc at first sight. You see, the princes in the picture books seemed to have their white horses, and Brioc was so beautiful. Luckily, Papa gifted him to me,â Valerie said with a gleeful expression on her face.
âHee...That happened, huh?â I said.
âAs for my Shula...You see that perytons are rare to see and Daddy was really obsessed with finding one to observe. But you see, he didnât find one in one of his intended exploration. He found Shula by coincidence,â Dmitria said.
âEh, what a coincidence it was!â I was surprised to hear that.
âYeah. Daddy happened to be walking around in a forest, collecting herbs and whatnot. I was also there with him. At that time, we saw a few hunters shooting a small little beast. Upon taking a closer look, they were shooting baby Shula. Poor Shula had her mother killed by the hunters too...,â Dmitria had a sad expression on her face.
âDaddy and I know that perytons are rare and some wanted their skins, flesh, and so on. They can sell for a high price. But hunting rare species such as perytons are forbidden. Daddy was furious and fought the hunters. I tried to catch the frightened and injured Shula so that we could treat her afterward. Long story short, weâI mean Daddyâmanaged to teach the hunters a lesson and we brought Shula home with us to be treated. We tried to let Shula go back to the nature, but she refused. In the end, she became my partner beast,â Dmitria said with a proud smile on her face.
âSo thatâs what happened...!â I nodded.
The miracle twins had such an interesting story with their partner beasts. I wonder if I would have such an interesting story with my future partner Familiar or beast?
It would be nice if I could have one...
After having dinner, we spent some time in the library and family room to see some interesting shows. Later that night, we also had pillow fights~!
In the end, the females slept in the same room while the males slept in another room. Yep, that included Dmitria and Valerie.
In the middle of the night, I gazed on my friendsâ faces.
The next day, our fun ranch life finally started!
Dmitria and Valerie took us on rides on wyverns.
Surprisingly, Carbuncle was curious about how it felt like riding on wyverns and even sneered at the wyvern before riding it. I guess that gave her a sense of superiority, since wyvern didnât have humanoid form and wasnât considered part of [Omness]?
The children, namely Freyr, Freyja, and Leticia, were really excited and let out their screams of excitement. It was very lively.
âWell, it isnât too bad to be like you non-draconis and enjoy riding like this,â Carbuncle admitted.
âUuuwuwuwu, Kuu-chan, what do you find enjoyable from this?â Iris, apparently, had a phobia of height and decided to descend earlier.
But anyway, we had fun looking around while riding on a wyvern~
After riding on wyvern, it seemed to motivate Carbuncle to turn into her dragon form and fly again. The way she flew was so reckless, as expected of a dragon? And her speed...I really couldnât imagine riding on her while going on with a speed like that.
The ranch was so big and there were just too many activities to do, so we did it one by one in the span of the next few days.
For example, feeding the herbivores first before we proceeded to feed the carnivores. It was really fun, and the children especially enjoyed it so much.
We also patted the animals there, like the fluffy rabbits, the fluffy sheeps. We also saw how they milked the cows and collected the eggs from the chickens, how to proceed with the dairy products. This was like a field study trip~
The most exciting or frightening part of our fun activities was learning how to ride~ There were a few things we could ride on, namely regular horses, Pegasi, and Raphus. By learning to ride, it meant we were riding on them ourselves, not like when we had Dmitria and Valerie handling it while we âhitch-hikedâ.
Which was why, we werenât allowed to ride on the wyverns ourselves. It might be too dangerous, so we would need a proâs assistance.
I was most intrigued with the Raphus, so I spent more time to learn how to ride them. It was funny seeing such creatures, really. They were giant flightless birds, so they somehow resembled chickens to me. Although they couldnât really fly, they could jump or âflyâ a little bit, and it was the fun of riding one.
We even conducted a small race among ourselves.
Again, Dmitria and Valerie as well as Garret-san, Malvin-san, and Ristea-san (when they werenât too busy to accompany us) and some other workers supervised us so that there wonât be any accident.
Of course, we werenât cooped up in the Flugelâs house.
Since I only trained my magic, swordsmanship, illusion and transformation skills aside from playing and lazing around during my holidays, this timeâs visit to Flugelâs house really refreshed my mind.
Before long, Day 32, the fifth and the final day to my visit to the Flugelâs house finally arrived. We would be going home around the evening or late afternoon, so yeah, that would be the last day...
I never expected that something quite unusual to happen on my last day here, however. And that something was quite life-changing for me.
Yes, Day 32 Month 7 Year 981...On that day...
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