“Your son died, right? Are you looking for a replacement? How about taking my son in as yours?”
The exhausted goddess asked as she held her children close. Mr. Rose wanted to say something to her but his mouth could not move.
His body was betraying him in the worst way possible and Mr. Rose was terrified of what that meant for him. Was this going to be something permanent?
Whatever this goddess had done, it had affected Mr. Rose on a psychological level.
“I-If I take the boy, then what will happen to your girl? I can’t take both of them in since my mother knows that a boy was born. B-Besides, these kids look inhuman. T-Their eyes…”
“You do not need to worry about that. Here, now it is alright, right?”
The goddess placed her hand on the boy’s head and Mr. Rose watched in wonder as his features changed to match his own. In a matter of seconds, it was impossible to tell if the child was his or not.
It could only be called a miracle to see such a sight in front of his eyes.
Had Mr. Rose not seen it happen, he would not be able to tell that this child was not his. His wife and his family will surely be tricked by this.
“This child, hand him over once someone comes to this village to help you out. You will understand when the time comes. As for the girl, leave her be. She needs to bear her fate.”
The goddess whispered in a monotonous voice. It felt more like an order than a piece of advice.
“B-But it should not be right. What if I make a mistake and the child is found out to be not mine? I will be killed off. And what about equality?”
Mr. Rose was trying to find excuses at this point but the goddess was not going to give him an out.
“You either follow my words or you all die. Do not test my patience human, you won’t like it. After all, you humans are such fragile creatures.”
For the first time, Mr. Rose thought of the goddess as scary. She was just sitting there, smiling at him and he felt his soul shiver in fear.
Had Mr. Rose been a good man, he would have argued against such a treatment being given to the girl.
But Mr. Rose was a coward and all he could do was agree with the goddess and take care of the boy while leaving the girl once she grew old enough to look after herself.
As for the goddess, one day she walked toward the forest and was never seen again. The village forgot such a woman existed and her memory faded away from the village.
Only Mr. Rose remembered those unique eyes of the female. The star-shaped grey eyes were inherited by her children.
Everyone lived on happily from that date on, unaware of what had happened in the village or the identity of those kids they adored.
==========================
“…And that was all that transpired. Since we never saw that woman again, I did not wonder too much about things. But now that you are here, I cannot help but wonder if you were the one she was talking about.”
“So, I would like you to ask for a favor. Take this kid with you as well. Joseph is a good kid and he won’t cause you too much problem.”
Mr. Rose pleaded with a passion Aurora had not expected from the meek man. Guilt was oozing out of the man in abundance and it was clear to see why he was behaving in this manner.
“I understand what you want me to do. But this kid should stay with you. Despite him being a goddess’s kid, he has no magic inside him. He would become a burden to me.”
“Even so, you have to take him with you. Please, I beg of you.”
The man was adamant about getting Aurora to take the kid away from this village.
Perhaps, he knew of the fate that was about to fall on the village and wanted to do one last good task to ensure someone’s survival.
“Alright. I will take both kids and leave in the morning. Be prepared and meet me at the village gate when the sun rises.”
Aurora would curse her soft heart for her decisions later. For now, she had a lot of planning to do and a letter to send to the Rocx valley about their new members.
The night was still young when Aurora exited the village leader’s house so she decided to do some more groundwork and strengthen the defenses.
She wanted to go and visit Clove but Aurora held herself back.
Now was not the time to visit her former wife. Aurora could not be allowed that luxury as long as she had not taken care of things on her end and made sure she had Clove’s soul with her.
When the morning came it felt all too soon and too far away.
“Are we going to leave now? When will we be leaving?”
Emilia’s hyper voice called out and the energy in it exhausted Aurora even more. Had it not been for necessity, Aurora would have delayed this encounter.
“We’re waiting for one more person to join us. Then we can leave.”
Emilia looked confused but she did not question Aurora’s decision. And Mr. Rose did not take long in arriving with Joseph either.
“Joseph, this is Miss Aurora. She will be in charge of you starting tomorrow.”
The kid looked shy. He could not even look Aurora in the eye and Aurora felt worried for him. Knowing Damian, the kid would eat this shy one alive.
“H-Hello”
The teen bowed to Aurora with some hesitation but she decided to wave her hand and ask him to stand.
The teen followed without delay.
“We shall be going now. Take care of yourself and your family.”
With the last bow, the Aurora parted from the village with two kids at her side. It was all quiet till they hit the forest.
And then Emilia started firing questions at the nervous teen.
“Soooooo, why are you here? Can you do magic as well? Are you strong? What can you do?”
The more Emilia questioned, the more withdrawn Jospeh became. Aurora could spot his nervousness from a mile away.
And the glamour his mother had cast on the teen should be getting uncomfortable as well. Aurora decided to help him out by removing that cast.
“Emilia, keep quiet for a minute. The circumstances for Joseph being here are special, just like your case. But he is not like you in the magical department. You will understand in a minute why that is so.”
Aurora waved her hand over the magic seal and it disappeared in a single second.
Normal features bent and then disappeared into the unusual look only a divine being could give off.
Emilia’s gasp of wonder sounded far too loud in Aurora’s ear. But Joseph did not look shocked to see his face in the small pond nearby.
“He looks just like me. How is it possible? Is he a g-ghost?”
It looked like Emilia had a far more vivid imagination than Aurora had first given her credit for. Really, to see this and think about ghosts.
Where did this girl borrow her imagination from?
“F-Father said it was because we share a mother. He also said that I was not his real son.”
This was the first time Aurora had heard Josphe’s voice and it was far colder than she had expected from such a small kid.
Now that she paid attention to the kid, his body temperature was lower than Aurora expected as well.
Was it a side-effect of the spell being cast on him or something else? Aurora had never heard of such a case before?
“Oh. So you got adopted? Well, I don’t care about it. I’m just happy I have a family now. Also, did you know that we have a mother? I mean, an alive mother. Aurora is taking us to see her.”
“Is it true?”
“Yeah, she said that she would do it.”
Initially, Aurora had wanted to wait to see the goddess of victory. She had no idea how to approach this subject with two kids with her.
It would have been difficult to defend a single kid had the goddess taken offense, but defending two of them would be a nightmare.
But the choice had been taken out of Aurora’s hand by two twelve years old. Their expecting eyes looked at Aurora and she knew she could not say no now.
She could not dash the hopes of two innocent kids in front of her.
Especially not the ones she was hoping to work to the bone later on and convert into her helpers.
“Alright. Buckle tight because it is going to be a long trip from here.”
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