“It won’t feel like that long” Lilith said while hugging me goodbye.

  I can’t say anything in return.

  It was the day mom and I were heading back to our home. Dad was staying a few more days for a few meetings, and Lilith was starting school.

  I didn’t want to let go of Lilith.

  We stayed together for a few more minutes, before she let go.

  “Nyx, it's time to go” mom said, patting me on the head.

  And with that, mom and I got into the carriage. As we pulled away, I continued to look at Lilith who was waving goodbye to us.

  She was going to be moving into the dorms today as well, and needed to get ready for that.

  Originally, Lilith was allowed to bring an attendant with her to school, but she didn’t. This meant she was going to be in charge of her own well being at school.

  Once we were no longer able to see Lilith, I sat back down into carriage.

  “I know you're sad to be away from Lilith, but she is right. It will only be a little before you make your own friends” mom tells me.

  But I can’t respond. I end up just holding my knees into my chest.

  Seeing me like this, mom moves over and holds me.

  I feel so small like this.

  We stay like this for a while in the carriage.

  But at some point, there is a huge crash outside and the carriage comes to a sudden stop.

  We are knocked to the ground of the carriage. Not knowing what is going on, mom speaks up. “Nyx, you wait here. I’ll go see what is going on” and she leaves the carriage.

  Looking out the window, I see a group of bandits fighting the few knights that were with us. They were serving as the guards for us.

  And right when mom leaves, I fell a pressure suddenly rush in. I knew instantly that this was mom.

  Mom was a former adventurer just as powerful as dad. Using him as a basis, and the stories I have heard, mom must be around level 60-70 with several elements of magic with proficiencies around 50. She makes quick work of the bandits right in front of her.

  I even hear her yell at them. “You dare attack the family of the Count Blut! You must want to forfeit your life”

  She makes absolute work against all of them. Very quickly, the few remaining bandits try to run away.

  Letting them get away for now, mom starts commanding the knights.

  “You, knight captain, you're with me and we are going after those who ran. You two, stay with Nyx. If anything happens to him, your best option will be to run” she says. With that, the two knights solute her and come over to the carriage.

  And mom and the knight caption go off after those two.

  I don’t know why, but this was starting to feel familiar to me.

  It isn’t until I see the arrows hit the knights that I remember what was going on.

  But the pop up message is also a dead give away.

  *prologue quest*

  *bandit attack*

  *objective: survive*

  This was the prologue to the game. I had been so focused on my life, that I forgot to think about the game events.

  When I start to panic, now being unguarded, I see someone come from the tree line.

  It’s an older man wearing cssic bandit clothes. He has a rge rusted sword.

  “We were hired to take out the son of some noble, but maybe our info was wrong” he says. Hearing his voice, and feeling his stare, I feel revolted.

  And him continuing makes it worse. “But, you look cute. Maybe I could have some fun before finishing the job”.

  He quickly rushed at me. Comply frozen for a second, I start to panic. Barley moving to try and defend myself, I pick up one of the knights' dropped swords.

  And I am barely able to hold it up to block his attack.

  “Ha, little girl has some fight in her” he says, leering at me.

  Trying to push him away, I am barley able to make any leeway. But I am able to move in a way that my back is no longer to the carriage.

  Having more room to think, I try to form a pn. The man continues to try to attack me, but I can tell a few things about him.

  He was low level. Most bandits were. This was because in the lore, level only increased from hunting monsters. And since most bandits were people who turned to crime, they have never hunted monsters.

  He was also not skilled with a sword. I am able to dodge his attacks. And if I need to, I can block his attacks, but that hurts me.

  Eventually, he does a down swing on me. I roll out of the way, like you would in the game. When his swing is finished, he got his sword stuck in the ground.

  Finally forming a pn, I swing my sword at his arm, cutting off the man’s hand. The blood gushes out of the new stump.

  “You dumb bitch” the man yells at me in pain. “I’ll kill you” but before he can do anything else, I stab him right through the chest.

  ∴

  Hadron had just finished helping Lilith move into her dorm. As the top of her css and a S css student, she was given a rge amount of leeway at school. She was even allowed an attendant if she wanted.

  Her dorm was quite rge, having several rooms just for her. As students went down the csses, they would have worse dorms.

  He was happy to see Lilith in that position. When he went to this school, he was only in A css at the best time. But his daughter was the best new student.

  He knew she was sad to leave Nyx behind right now, but he also knew that they both needed to be less dependent on each other.

  He wouldn’t force them, but he knew this could be good.

  But before he could make any more pns for the day, someone suddenly appeared in front of him.

  The Blut family had a group that covertly worked for them. The assassin group, blood night. They worked as covert informants and assassins directly under his orders.

  “Sir Hadron, your family has been attacked” they said instantly.

  And a huge explosion of power came from Hadron.

  He didn’t bother saying anything. Just one word.

  “Where” he said, in a blood curtailing tone.

  ∴

  Cordelia and the knight captain quickly caught the bandits.

  Trying to get some information from them, Cordelia started to interrogate the bandit.

  “So, you just so happened to attack my carriage correct” she asked him, while aiming several spells right at him.

  “No, we were told to attack your carriage. But it was nothing personal. Someone had a problem with your husband and wanted to deal with him. We have no clue who it was” he stammered.

  And ruthless, Cordelia shot all of the magic at him. She knew that anyone who had a problem with Hadron knew these bandits couldn’t deal with her.

  She knew the target was Nyx.

  Quickly rushing back to the carriage, she was met with a horrible sight.

  ∴

  Hadron rushed through the forest at inhuman speeds. He had stopped holding back.

  He knew that Cordelia was going to be fine, but Nyx was just a child.

  Thinking back on how often Nyx had asked to start sword training, he regretted not starting it sooner.

  But now was not the time for that.

  When he found the carriage he saw two dead knights and a bandit with a sword wound in his chest, as well as a missing hand.

  But he also saw a man standing over Nyx’s unconscious body.

  In a pure rage, Hadron attacked the man.

  The fight sted only that one hit, but Hadron couldn’t stop. He ripped the man apart. At some point, he lost his sword in the rage and just tore the man apart with his bare hands.

  During this, other bandits came out and attacked him as well.

  And with the same speed he ran through the forest with, he ripped all of the others apart as well.

  It was a bloodbath.

  And he loved it.

  It sted so long he sted track of time.

  Eventually something pulled him out of his haze.

  A smell more sweet than anything else.

  And he charged at it.

  But before he could hurt it, something stopped him.

  He felt a warm embrace around him and the voice of a goddess spoke.

  “It’s going to be fine. Nyx is safe. You protected him” it said.

  And having his head pulled into her neck, the most intoxicating taste entered his mouth.