Grandma Clare told both siblings about her morning encounter with me.

"...... That's it, from now on Sylve will be part of our family. Both of you are older than her, so you have to let her take care of her in anything ...... Barry, do you hear me, you are not to bully her!"

"...... I won't!" Barry snuck a look at me, then blurted out as if he was covering something up.

"Sylve, are you a child of a noble house?"

Aria's eyes widened, and the eighteen-year-old mountain village girl was very simple-minded. She had not been educated much, her heart was not so much bent, and was of the character to say whatever she thought.

"I ...... am not."

"I don't believe it, you tell me!"

"Aria! Shut up and eat your food."

"What's wrong grandma, I can't even ask ...... Why are there so many sweet potato again! Grandma didn't you say you'd bring out the venison for dinner at night, why didn't you see it! You did not secretly give Barry ate all! I've been thinking about it for days, you know."

"The venison was given to Sylve. I'll go to your Uncle Doyle tomorrow when he comes back from hunting and cut some more."

"Sorry.. ., I ...... I'm too hungry ...... I'm too hungry."

"Ah ...... No Sylve! I'm just afraid of Barry he stole the food, if it's you eating then it's okay, after all ...... You're so cute, hehehe." Aria fluttered her eyes and ignored Barry who was muttering something on the side, and said to me, "Sylve, will you come with me to the woods tomorrow to pick herbs?"

"...... Picking herbs?"

"Yes, picking herbs. There are so many fun things to do in the woods! I'll take you to--"

"Aria, why are you so lively today? Don't go anywhere tomorrow Sylve, rest for two days first. Barry you go along with your sister tomorrow."

"...... Okay." Barry replied in a jarring voice.

"Barry ...... What's wrong with you today, you look sullen." Grandma Clare touched Barry's forehead with some confusion, "Is it something wrong?"

"No ...... I just think Aria is too childish and don't want to talk to her."

"Barry! Don't you dare call me childish!"

"How are you not childish! Yelling and screaming, where's the way to be a sister."

"You ...... See if I don't rip your mouth off!"

"You two! Be careful of touching the plate off, what a way to eat a meal!"

"Giggle."

"Look, Sylve is laughing at you guys."

............

At night I slept with Grandma Clare.

Grandma talked to me a lot and told me that she originally had a son, the father of Aria and Barry, who was an ecclesiastical knight of the Seventh Order of the Holy Church. The son had always been her pride and married the most beautiful girl in the village, but unfortunately died during a massive bandit fighting operation organized by the church some years ago. The mother of the siblings, on the other hand, died of a hemorrhage when she gave birth to Barry, so the family was left with Grandma Clare and the siblings to depend on.

When their son passed away, Barry and Aria were still snotty little kids, and Grandma worked hard to raise them alone, suffering a lot in the middle. The good thing is that the son was killed in the line of duty, the church sent a fairly substantial pension. Everyone in the village is also very enthusiastic, usually help them when they need, life is finally better step by step. Little Barry was now sixteen, a half-grown man, and much of the family depended on him.

Grandma says she is getting old and her body is not working. When the day comes that she sees Barry get married, she will feel like she can close her eyes ......

Grandma's rambling homely words reached me with a sense of comfort I hadn't had in a long time, and I drifted off to sleep.

............

Clare's house is home to a child whose beauty is like a goddess.

The news soon spread through the village.

The entertainment itself was quite scarce in this era. Such a thing was quite a big anecdote for the village. As far as the villagers were concerned, my appearance was indeed too conspicuous, and I would be recognized wherever I went.

"Ah, this is the little girl who came from Clare's house ...... Tsk tsk, what a beautiful one."

Pointing at me like this.

So for a while, Grandma's house had a particularly large number of visitors.

There were people who came over to see my face, people who asked about my origins, and people who brought their son over to see me two days ago.

It was a dark, thin boy with a silly face who stared at me and smiled.

Finally grandma also tired, and push and pull people out.

The most depressing thing is that whenever I go out alone in recent times, there is always a group of kids, the oldest looks 18 or 19 years old, and the youngest is even bare-assed. They do nothing but follow me around my ass like a monkey at the zoo.

There were times when I was annoyed by the sight of them and picked up a stone on the side of the road and smashed it into the pile of people. The children burst off laughing, and as soon as I turned round they gathered round again.

Then I was really bored with the situation, and once I complained to Aria through casual talk.

Aria told me that the oldest boy was named Ryan, the leader of the children in the village, who was always idle and running around with a bunch of kids. The more I feel humiliated the happier they are. She has been caught before and has no bad intentions.

Really ...... It's outrageous how immature he is to get the attention of girls in this way. He's not as good at picking up girls as my neighbor's kid, who knows how to trick a girl from the next class into kissing him with snacks when he's in kindergarten

So when I saw those bear kids again, I ignored them no matter what they did or said around me.

............

It seemed like the relaxed day could go on forever.

I got up early this morning to go out and pick some herbs in the forest.

The village has a regular monthly merchant team that comes to collect some herbs or fruits and vegetables, which is one of the few economic sources for the village.

There is nothing special about this world's currency, the ratio of copper, silver and gold coins is the common 10,000:100:1, but most of the people in the village only use copper coins or salt to trade, until now I haven't even seen silver coins, let alone gold coins.

I went out with Aria, carrying a small bamboo basket, and headed towards the direction of the forest.

The road to the forest is the same muddy path that I came to the village on. The forest is rich in resources and the villagers go there to hunt or collect herbs like this, but they usually only move around the edges and few dare to go deeper inside.

"Sylve, I'll tell you, there are dragon gods in this forest."

"Dragon gods?"

"Yes, a huge white dragon, it's amazing, isn't it, that dragons actually exist in this world!"

...... That's what I'm supposed to say, right? Is it possible that dragons are also a legendary level of existence in this magical world?

"Aria, ever seen one?"

"Never seen it ...... I heard it from Alan, his father is the most powerful hunter in the village and dares to go into the forest very deep by himself, he said his father once saw it."

The Alan that Aria spoke of was her lover, a sturdy boy two years older than her, and the two were about to be married.

"Dragon God, how does it look?"

"Well ...... Not really sure, it seems his father only saw it from afar. It is said that the head is full of huge horns, covered with white hair look like, will turn into a light and fly up into the sky ......" Aria said she herself was puzzled, "Sylve, don't dragons have long scale armor?"

"I, don't understand, those."

"Well ...... What does a dragon with white hair look like, can't imagine. But it must look super strong and majestic!"

Well, although I don't know what the dragon god you made up in your head looks like, it might be a little different from the reality.

Not only did that dragon have white hair, but it also had bad breath.

...... I also wonder what Big White is doing now, I miss it a bit.

"Last year, an uncle who lived in the west end of the village got lost in the forest and woke up from a nap to find himself back outside the forest again, amazing, right? It must be the Dragon God blessing us."

"......"

Well, you're probably right in understanding that.

"There's another strange thing. Before you came to the village, there was a time when many monks and knights from the church came. They said that terrible monsters had appeared on the other side of the forest and took us to the next town for refuge. When you arrived at the village, we had just returned not two days ago." Aria said, with an excited glint in her eyes, "The church knights are all tall and handsome! My father is a knight of the Church!"

Is that all you can say about people?

"Grandma told you, my father was killed by robbers ...... But the monks said that Dad killed a dozen bad guys all by himself before he died!"

"You're not, sad?"

"Why should I be sad? My dad was a Knight of the Church, a hero who died fighting to protect his people!" There was pride in the girl's words, "But ...... Occasionally, I still dream of him touching my head, hehehe."

"......"

The ...... A hero protecting people?

A very impressive person then.

............

Walking to the entrance of the forest, Aria and I then had to come apart so that we could pick more and sell a little more coins when the merchants came in a few days.

"Make sure you don't go far." I nodded to Aria before she left.

In fact, Aria had brought me here many times before, and the route had been memorized long ago, so it was impossible to get lost.

But every time she would still remind me.

What we are going to pick is a kind of grass root called Ganrong, which is a healing herb for injuries.

Something like finding something is not difficult for me, who has unusually sharp senses, and I can pick a basket full of the amount in an hour.

My main purpose every time I come over here is actually to solve another thing.

My hunger.

This is something I unintentionally discovered while training Abyssal Power, or Black Smoke, in the forest a while ago, and why I always felt underfed before. It's not because I didn't eat enough, but the Abyssal Force inside me desperately needed to draw energy.

It needs to devour living creatures in order to stay alive and not "die".

So every few days, when that strange hunger hit me, I would come to the forest.

Rustle rustle ......

Not far away an animal that somewhat resembled a rabbit but had four ears appeared in my line of sight. My eyes stare at it, and a fist-sized ball of black smoke shot out with a whoosh. The bluish light was sucked into my body.

There was a tingling sensation all over my body, and I unconsciously clenched my legs, feeling my hunger slowly fade away.

That's right, it was like this, drawing energy for the power of the abyss.

I hadn't tried what exactly would happen if I was starving to the limit, and never thought to try it, it would definitely happen quite badly.

So sorry about that, bunny.

Such a feeling as if devouring each other's souls always makes me uncomfortable. Every time I get to this moment, I recognize from the bottom of my heart the fact that I am a monster.

Physical pleasure, inner rejection.