Chapter 25

After I finished admiring the scenery, I finally noticed the beast which was cuddling my master. In size it was similar to a lion, however it was far more compacted with tightly winding muscle. Its grey fur was stained with flowing green highlights, they formed the shape of flowing wind. It was a sign of a contract. The type that was one of the hardest to get. When the beast in question submits itself to the human and respects them beyond compare. Seeing that just reinforced how incredible that woman is. And.. I felt slightly envious of having such a connection, but oh well.

'It's not like I deserve one anyway, I'll just ruin everything again..' I thought to myself

Finally I tore my eyes free to see the youngling. Their fur was a slight shade darker than their mothers, however that was probably because of the right not reaching that far in the cave. Lighter fur usually indicates females in this species if I remember correctly. This kitten seemed relatively young. I say kitten but she was the size of a house cat already. I removed my mask and slowly approached the beast with my hand held low.

She was likely to scratch me due to her wild nature, with just being born and all. The best way to describe her most likely behaviour is similar to a stray cat. But I knew I loved cats.

As I continued to approach the stray, I heard a sound coming from the mother causing some tension to leave the kittens spring-like body. Finally, I reached the stray, and stroked my finger across her jaw. When I noticed she wasn't going to attack me, I worked my way up and placed my hand on her head. She purred as I lightly ran my thumb across her head.

A nostalgic feeling filled my heart as I remembered the many stray cats I had come across in my previous world. All of which liked to be stroked like this.

I soon sat down in front of the cat, my hand still atop her head and she reciprocated the action. we sat there together for a time while my master and her mother did the exact same. It was a nice experience. Eventually night fell, and we fell asleep in that cave. It seemed that while the kitten liked me, she didn't trust me, and lazily walked over to her mother and my masters side. I couldn't blame her, we had just met after all.

After that night we continued through the beast planes. Fighting whatever beast came in our path. Well I would be the one fighting and my master would comment on what I was doing wrong, where I could have conserved mana, and where I could have ended the fight sooner. Although it often came in offhanded comments, that I would return insulting her snoring, laziness or other such traits. I was even forced to cook the things I killed, most of which was either disgusting or just required annoyingly complex methods of cooking. While I understood that this will benefit me in the future, it was still a pain considering she ate what I killed too.

Although I say all this, she was growing on me. Like me she often kept her face covered, but when we weren't either at each others throats, cooking or killing things, we had back and forth banter and conversation much like those of old friends. It helped that with both lives experience I was around her age... I think? It was hard to tell with the possibility of her being an elf.

My relationship with the kitten came along swimmingly, within a few weeks she would more often than not sit on my shoulder, or sling herself around my neck. Despite her and Aria often hunting their own food, I would save slight portions of the meat I had gathered for the day, just in case she was still hungry. Saved me the horror of eating that disgusting meat and gave her some extra food, it was a win win.

Life passed by in that fashion. A year had passed and I was getting desperate to try and find my family, either that or gain some form of intel on them. However I knew as I am now, I knew I stood no chance at fighting top powers, especially against noble families. And I am certain my mentor has picked up on my anxiety.

"Iki, in a year I'll teach you about the Valkyrae seeds, but right now you'll have to wait. Both your magic and body aren't strong enough for the strain. After that you'll have a test. You'll go out into the world on your own, the condition is you cannot stay in a safe place for more than a week. You shall do this for 2 years, and depending on when we finish training together means you may even have some free time before you start school."

The news shook me to my core. She knew something. This so called test gives me the chance to gather any form of information possible, the fact that she knew about my hopes to go to school. Going to that school was pointless after being taught by her for that period of time. This woman must know something about my family, and I am going to find out what it is...