4 This Simple Life of Mine

Under the light of a lamp, two men sat at a table with some wine between the two.

"So after meeting him what do they say? Fortine or misfortune?" Zhou asked.

"There wasn't any response to his presence from the spirits. They didn't even warn me when he had my child in his hands." The slight irritation in his words told Zhou he was being truthful.

"I see, well what do you think about him yourself, Thomas?"

"I don't know. The kids definitely not human, but he doesn't give off that dangerous beastly vibe either. Although, he certainly does want the villagers acceptance. I could tell just from our walk here, he's been genuine so far."

As Zhou look at the man before him, he could see that unpleasant memories were starting to come back to light, so he threw back the wine and smiled.

"Well then I hope you can go on supervising him while I play the role of psudo chief for a while." Zhou said as he laughed.

"Of course, with how curious my daughter is there's no way she would leave him alone anyway."

"Ah, that's right how old will she be this year?"

"How could her uncle forget such an important thing, hmph!! She'll be 4 years old next month." He said with a solemn smile.

"She sure is getting big."

"And more than ever her mind wonders about."

"Only shows how much a genius she could become in the future."

"She is my daughter after all."

Chuckling at his remark, Zhou replied in kind.

"Surely she gets it from her mother. You're just a brute."

Throwing a cup at Zhou as he ran from the house with laughter, Thomas leaned back in his seat and chugged the bottle of wine.

"Ah, surely he's right. After all, I could never beat you in Hudai." Thomas said as he looked at the ring on his finger lovingly.

…

It's been a few days since me and Thomas met and it seems like the villagers have begun to at least greet me when I came back with lumber.

I no longer put much thought into how my appearance could scare people as they seem to be more interested in it more than scared.

Like my skin is a darker color than the dark elves and my red eyes being reminiscent of the ancient vampires that roamed the night.

Ah, that reminds me, I've been picking up on books and all I can say is that the world is bigger than what it seems. Currently, this village is in some backwater spot within the Holy Empire Lubelius' territory.

Although there is a huge mountain range seperating us and the kingdom, one day I wanted to go there. However, as for today I needed to prove myself.

"Prepare yourself, Nixus!!"

Ygornamo was a huge man and probably the biggest in the village. His hulking figure and bald head with such a young face stood out way too much and today was the day I beat him as well.

Man to man.

Strength for strength.

An arm for an arm.

Wel maybe that's too far, but basically a few days ago I beat a guy in an arm wrestle and some other guy saw it and challenged me as well. About a dozen men and 3 days later, everyone got Ygornamo to challenge me next.

The event became a spectacle for the village as everyone either sat in a chair or stood up around us to watch.

"Ygornamo, do you really think you can do what a dozen men couldn't?" I asked smugly with a smirk.

"NIXUS…MY STRENGTH IS WORTH 100 MEN!!"

*CLASPPP*

We clasped our hands together in some fashion causing everyone to erupt in cheers and shouts about who they thought would win.

One man put both of his hand on ours and gave us a count down.

"3…2…1 BEGIN!!"

"HAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

"UGHAAAAAAAAA!!"

With every bit of might we could muster in our bodies we struggle against each other.

"He's actually putting up a fight against that behemoth?!?"

"Isn't it Ygornamo we should be more suprised with? He's going toe to toe with Nixus after all."

"Indeed, but he hasn't won yet."

"Thomas, don't you think you're putting too much faith into him? After all, Ygornamo was a former D-rank adventurer."

After I heard that, my eyes went wide. You mean this big, muscle showing, competitive lug was an adventurer?

"So..you were an adventurer?"

My words were shaky as I spoke, but neither of us were giving out as our arms went from left to right continuously struggling for power.

"Yes, NOW FEAST YOUR EYES UPON MY DIVINE SKILL, [ENHANCE]!!"

"EHHHHHH?!?"

Suddenly I felt a pressure go over my body as Ygornamo's muscles bulged and suddenly my hand crashed through the wooden platform and my body was flipped with my arm causing the crowd to erupt in cheers.

"What was that about not losing yet, my dear Thomas?"

"Tch!!"

…

After the event, Ygornamo roped me into workingout with him saying I lost because I was too scrawny.

"Cheating with no shame are you? Why don't you have a match with me you shameless muscle head?"

Thomas stretched his arms out with a dangerous glint in his eye, while Ygornamo simply stood before him flexing his musin all his muscular greatness.

I let it sit in my heart that I really wanted Thomas to beat him for cheating so shamelessly. While that commotion was taking place I sat on the top bar of a fence and looked at my hands.

Through my peripheral vision I saw Sabrina, Thomas's Daughter, wobble in front of me and raise her arms in an imitation of Ygornamo.

"Yes, he's very strong. As expected, skills are awsome. Although I'm still surprised he was standing up to my full strength like that."

Even if his hand literally covered mine entirely…

"Hey, If you had a skill what would it be? Probably one that lets you know everything about everything, right?"

Her face scrunched up as I spoke.

Suddenly a calm voice spoke as a pair of hands picked Sabrina up from my lap.

"If I had a skill, it'd be a tracking skill to hunt her down. Then again I can always use you as bait." Thomas said as he looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

His intuition was good, so he most likely already knew what I was thinking about.

"The path to strength is a long and treacherous one. You have to be ready to discard everything if you really want to pursue it. Are you ready?" Thomas asked with a smirk.

"Y-yeah I'm ready…."

His eyes sank and I felt a chill as he spoke with each word filled with disdain.

"Then you need to leave this village."

I stood there stunned as he walked away and into his house. Was it bad to want strength? Why did he suddenly start acting like that? Should I really leave the village?

I felt irritation swelling within me as though about what he said.

"Tch!!" Clicking my tongue I kicked a stone and went home.

…

Somewhere within an underground labyrinth a man in a blacked out robe could be seen mumbling something to himself under the light of the torch filled room.

He took out a rusted dagger and after saying either a prayer or curse the man slit his wrists as the blood seeped onto the cold stone floor.

The blood touched the ground and continued with an unnatural flow, making a complex symbol as more blood was pulled from the corpse which then had its flesh and organs pooled into the middle of the symbol.

A swirl of demonic energy brought the bones, flesh, blood, and organs of the man who sacrificed himself together and peering from behind the veil of chaos was a creature of death.

"Kek…"

…

"So the chief's coming back in a few days, right?"

*fwip*

"Mhm, not only that, but apparently he's got so much to bring back from the neighboring villages he'll be arriving with a small caravan."

Looking up from his book and towards Zhou's mirrored image Nixus was quite surprised.

"Did he include how many people would be with him? I'm sure the village doesn't have enough accommodations for a caravan of any size."

Zhou raised an eyebrow as he stopped brushing Nix's hair.

"Since when were you so knowledgeable about the village's affairs?" Zhou ask, teasingly watching Nic with a sly smile.

Averting his eyes back to his book, Nixus huffed as he didn't want to take part in Zhou's teasing. Of course it's only right that he knows about the village's affairs, he has to get all the lumber.

'This is the duty of one who lives for the village!!'

"Hmph!!"

Chuckling at his antics, Zhou read the title of the book he was reading and became thoughtful.

"At this rate you'll be finished with the office room books in another week. Don't tell me you want to become an adventurer?" Zhou asked with a wondering gaze.

"What's wrong with being an adventurer? You get to travel the world, meet so many cool people, and find amazing treasures. Why doesn't everyone become an adventurer? It looks like they make good money too."

"I see you have your reasons, but there's many hardships along the way. Some that would make you even regret walking into that guild building…"

Zhou's words trailed off as his brush strokes staggered for a second before a smile graced his face.

"Isn't this simple life much better?"

Nixus flipped the last page of [Shaw's Guide to Wepons] and closed the book.

"Yup, I just thought of a way to get back at Thomas for testing me like that yesterday. Hehe."

Seeing his smile, Zhou gave his hair one more stroke with the brush and sat the brush aside.

"All finished, now don't go messing it up today."

"Eh, it looks the same though."

"Why you little…!!!"

Nixus escaped the house dodging everything that was thrown at him and safely made it out the door.

His hair was totally disheveled.

*****

With this the seed has been planted and everything can finally go accordingly. See yall next chapter.