Reborn: Demon Core (9 page)

As the story built up Shina’s eyes widened.
Ash had heard plenty of stories like this before, but he kept quiet
and continued to listen.

“As he faced off against his brother, the
younger brother was filled with despair. When the older brother
moved forward, he slipped on the floor that the younger brother had
spent days polishing for his wedding. As the sword skittered across
the ground the young brother picked it up, ending the duel while
the guests laughed. The younger brother spared his brother’s life
and instead sent him away to the far end of the country.”

“An interesting story,” Ash said once it was
finished.

“Yes, we tell it to our children for two
reasons. One so that those with talent don’t look down on those
without it. We also tell it so those without talent don’t try to
reach for something outside their reach and instead try to find
happiness with what the gods gave them,” Huck explained. “Still,
most kids these days want to be adventures. I guess there are worse
ways to spend your youth though.”

After the story was done, Ash went back to
cutting down trees. As he worked with the axe, Shina and Huck would
pull the tree to land in a clear spot then the three would pull it
over and start again. After every four trees they felled the group
would take a small break. During these small breaks Shina would ask
for Huck to tell a story and Huck never disappointed.

At the end of the day, Huck turned in the
small widen plaques they had gotten each time they had brought over
a fallen tree to the foreman so that he could receive their pay. “I
was wrong,” Huck said with a large smile on his face. “We got three
extra silver coins for getting so much done.”

As they parted, Ash promised that he would
work with the man anytime he was free to come work. With the sun
now setting, everyone started to head back and Ash made sure to
take the long way back to his own residence.

As soon as arrived at home Yuki and Allice
were waiting on him. Like they did every day, the two jumped to
welcome him home then ushered him off to the bath.

After cleaning himself, Ash walked down to
the dining room where everyone was gathered. “Master,” Allice said
in a slightly nervous manner after Ash had taken his seat at the
head of the table.

“Humm,” Ash said turning his head to look at
the young blonde girl.

“I made this for master,” Allice said holding
out a small bundle wrapped in brown paper.

Ash took the offered gift and pulled on the
small string wrapped around it. As the brown paper opened it
exposed a small dark green handkerchief with Ash’s name embroidered
on it along with a slightly lopsided sword. “Thank you it is very
nice,” Ash said, holding it up so that everyone could see it.

After carefully folding the handkerchief Ash
put it away and gave Allice a warm smile. Yuki protested by
grabbing his arm and pulling in close but Allice didn’t seem to
mind as she had a confident look on her face.

After the meal, Ash retired to his room but
found that it was quickly overrun. In the past only Yuki and Allice
would come to his room at night. Allice would clean while Yuki
worked on the gear but now with Lillanis accompanied them. With
Lillanis in the room Shina quickly invaded crying that it wasn’t
fair and quickly behind her came Milly.

Ash seemed to be mascot of the small manner.
Whenever she saw Ash, she would hide behind one of the other maids
so the only time Ash had seen her was when she was being held by
either Lillanis or Shina.

Ash’s room had changed a lot over the past
weeks. There was now a large desk in the corner for his work for
Emelia and today a few new letters had arrived for him to overlook.
As he worked, Lillanis sat on the ground at his side while helping
Allice work on her sewing. Yuki sat on the bed, oiling Ash’s armor
and Shina sat on the floor playing with Milly.

After he was finished with his work, Ash
turned and looked around the room. “What is this?” Ash asked with a
slightly confused look on his face.

Milly let out a small squeak when Ash spoke
and quickly skittered around to hide behind Shina only peeking her
head out to look at him. “We only want to spend time with our
beloved master,” Shina said, pulling Milly into her lap. “During
the day you are out of the house and the small amount of time you
are home, you stay cooped up in your room. So how else are we going
to spend time with master if we don’t come in here?”

Shina whispered something to Milly and the
little girl shook her head vigorously but after a few seconds she
got to her feet and approached Ash with a determined look on her
face. Standing right in front of Ash she held up her hands. Without
thinking Ash picked up the young girl and she quickly settled in
his lap.

“Are you comfortable?” Ash asked
sarcastically as he looked at the small girl curled in his lap.
Milly didn’t say anything, she just looked up at him with her large
black eyes. Ash wanted to say more, but every second she laid there
the less he could think to say.

It didn’t take long for Milly to fall asleep.
Once she did, Shina lifted Milly from Ash’s lap. With Shina and
Milly gone, Yuki and Allice yawning quickly followed. All that was
left in now seemingly overly large room was Ash and Lillanis. Ash
fought with himself on what to say to Lillanis, but before he could
say a word Lillanis started to take off her clothing.

Just like before, Lillanis just nuzzled up to
Ash after he crawled into the bed. It still felt odd to Ash, but in
some small way it felt good to have someone beside him. Ash didn’t
know why, but ever since he had spent the first night beside Emelia
he felt slightly lost when he slept alone in his own bed.

At first, Ash was a little nervous the first
time he slept in the same bed with Lillanis. She was completely
unabashed when she was alone around him. Ash had now seen
Lillanis’s nude body a number of times and he found her beautiful
on many levels. She had milky white skin that almost seemed to
shine in the candlelight. Her chest was not merger nor was it
lacking, but seemed to fit her frame perfectly. If Ash was forced
to say who was more beautiful between Lillanis and Emelia there was
no part where Lillanis was lacking.

Those thoughts in his mind made it harder
rather than easier. A part of him felt like he was being untrue to
his wife. Even if it was common in this world, it still felt odd
and wrong for him.

The next morning, Ash woke to find Lillanis’s
arms wrapped tightly around him. He tried to wiggle out of her
grasp, but her arms tightened around him even more. After pulling
his head out of Lillanis’s chest, Ash noticed a twitch of a smile
on Lillanis’s face.

“You’re awake aren’t you?” Ash asked
pointedly.

“No,” Lillanis replied keeping her eyes shut
tightly.

Lillanis lightly chuckled as Ash pulled away
from her. The whole time Ash dressed, she watched him with unmoving
eyes. “Why did you cling to me?” Ash asked slightly flustered at
her penetrating stare.

“You are just so innocent that it was cute,”
Lillanis said as she stood from the bed and approached Ash. When he
turned his back, Lillanis pounced and hugged him tightly from
behind. “I already waited two nights for you to do something. You
know it hurts a woman’s pride a little when the man next to her
just falls asleep without even touching her.”

“I’m married,” Ash said, trying to pull away
but Lillanis clung even tighter to him.

“That excuse won’t work,” Lillanis said
wiggling around to place herself in front of Ash. “We already
settled that with your wife and she didn’t seem to mind at
all.”

Suddenly Ash’s lips were covered by
Lillanis’s. For the first few seconds, Ash tried to pull back from
Lillanis, but his head grew light and he found himself enjoying the
kiss. When Lillanis pulled back and let go of Ash’s lips, he was
left speechless.

After slipping on her dress, Lillanis left
with Ash still standing motionlessly in the center of the room. No
matter how he looked at it, things were moving too fast for him. A
year before, he had been nothing but an unwanted orphan that was
barely noticed by women. He had put all his efforts so that when he
came of age, he could have a fresh start but instead he had been
transported to a new world.

Ever since he had been brought here, Ash had
met a number of people, but most of them had been women. Thinking
about it though it made sense, seeing that women vastly outnumbered
men here. Ash had never considered himself handsome, but for some
reason the women around him didn’t seem to mind. In fact they
easily became attached to him. No matter how he looked at it, he
couldn’t make sense of it.

When Ash made his way to the dining room, he
found everyone sitting waiting on him. Lillanis gave him a warm
smile but other than that, it felt the same as any other morning
yet still something inside him felt different. As soon as he took
his seat, everyone began to fill their plates and eat. Before Ash
was halfway done with his food, he felt something crawling up his
leg and looked down to find the young Milly climbing up in his lap
with a smile. Once she was seated, Milly looked up at him and
opened her mouth wide. Laughing, Ash fed her a small amount of ham
and was charmed as her small mouth chewed the food with a contented
look on her face.

“Master,” Milly said in a soft chime like
voice as she hugged Ash around the waist.

It was the first time had really heard Milly
say something clearly to him. Looking down, Ash couldn’t help but
smile as he softly patted Milly’s head.

After his meal was finished, Gilda took Milly
from his lap. When she was lifted up Milly tried to hold on, but
her small hands quickly lost out. Ash saw Milly’s slightly puffed
out cheeks as she was carried away by Gilda. Ash hadn’t given the
small panther child much, but something about a small child being a
slave still bothered him.

Though Ash was still bothered by his thoughts
about Milly, there were plenty of other things that he had to do.
Pushing his worries aside for later, Ash headed out with the others
to the labyrinth.

As they walked through the streets, Lillanis
stuck closely to Ash’s right side while Shina took his left. Only
the day before, Ash would feel awkward about this situation but now
it didn’t seem to bother him as much. Even when Shina pulled his
arm in tight to her chest it Ash didn’t resist like he normally
would. Ash himself didn’t notice this slight change in his behavior
but Shina did.

Sensing the slight change in behavior, Shina
pushed her luck and rested her head on Ash’s shoulder as they
walked but still he didn’t protest. When Shina lightly nibbled on
Ash’s earlobe he looked at her with a slightly annoyed look, but
didn’t rebuke her like he normally would. Pulling back, Shina gave
a light sigh and looked slightly disappointed but it didn’t last
long before a wicked smile spread across her face.

As soon as the five entered the labyrinth,
they headed through the door to fight the boss. As the darkness
cleared, Ash and the others found themselves facing what looked to
be a large tree. Ash had read the plaque before and knew that the
monster was called “old growth,” but it didn’t appear as he had
envisioned it.

Before anyone could make a move, the tree
shook and a puff of green mist filled the air. Ash and the others
covered their mouths, but nothing happened until the ground below
them began to shake as the green cloud began to disappear. Suddenly
dozens and dozens of green creatures burst from the ground.

The monsters looked much like the ones
outside, but instead of cloning their appearance, they took the
appearance of the monsters the group had fought on previous floors.
Ash spotted everything from the slimes on the first floor to the
ice sprites on the nineteenth floor among the large number of
assembled enemies.

Since there was a large number of enemies,
the group changed tactics. Unlike before where they were forced to
fight in a wide open area this time it was still in a large room,
but they were surrounded by walls. Lillanis took up a position in
the corner while Shina and Jacob stood in front of her. Ash and
Halon stood at the top of the small diamond, distracting anything
that came near the four. While the other four distracted the
monsters, Ash who had the highest stats moved among them, killing
them at will.

Ash darted among the creatures as he dodged
their attacks. The monsters themselves seemed to be only slightly
stronger as they were on the previous levels, but the large number
of them mixed with their abilities made it a much harder fight then
many would assume.

Dancing to the side to dodge a Shadow Whip,
Ash struck out with a Cone of Frost to the front while slicing a
green kobold in half. Rushing forward, Ash killed all the frozen
monsters that got in his path. For those that were out of his
reach, Ash used his shadow whip to stick them. For the monsters
below the fifteenth level, it was an instant kill, those above were
still dealt tremendous amounts of damage.

Right about the time it took to kill two
thirds of the clones, the tree started to shake again. Ash felt his
heart shake as the air was once again filled with green smoke. As
the green smoke settled, Ash hoped that there would be less
monsters than last time, but his prayers were not answered when
dozens of monsters rose from the ground.

Ash pulled back to join the others. “Any
ideas?” Ash asked as he struck down a monster that had come too
close.

“We have to take out that tree before it
releases another batch of spores,” Halon said. “The longer the
fight drags on, the harder it will get with it relentlessly putting
pressure on us.”

“Can you hold out here while I try to take
down the tree?” Ash asked as he downed a stamina recovery potion to
recovery the little he had already used.