47 Chapter 47: Leonard House
The sound of footsteps is heard before a child shorter than Paige opens the door and freezes.
Leonard, who just turned 10 a few months ago, had a problem. He had no friends, and his mother and family didn't help with that. His mother believed that on his birthday, she should be celebrated because she made all the effort to have him, so Leonard never had a birthday. He only got older, seeing Leonard's strange family, the children distanced themselves from him, resulting in him being excluded from friendship circles. Therefore, seeing a child, especially a girl, at his door made him nervous.
"Uh... Yes?" Leonard speaks, stuttering, and adjusts his glasses nervously.
"Hello, you're from the Hofstadter family, right? I presume you're Leonard, if my memory serves me correctly," Connor speaks to Leonard, who looks at him awkwardly.
"Yes, this is the Hofstadter house, and yes, I'm Leonard. How did you know?" Leonard asks genuinely curious.
"Because of your mother's book, and we saw in the neighborhood that you lived nearby, so we came to visit as good neighbors," I say, pointing to Paige, who had a folder in her hand. As we all know, Leonard's family is a bit eccentric—they didn't exchange gifts but rather articles and corrected themselves because of this. Therefore, I presented some articles that Paige had written before.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Connor Kenway, and this here is my girlfriend, Paige Swanson," I say with a smile, looking at Paige out of the corner of my eye, freezing but then a smile rises on her lips.
I introduced Paige as my girlfriend because Leonard is a bit emotional in this regard, and as confirmation of this thought, I could see Leonard's downcast appearance when he heard my words, but then he asks, "Are you dating her? Isn't she too young for you?" He asks, confused by the situation due to my tall stature; Leonard probably mistook me for a teenager or an adult.
"No, he's only 13, I'm 11, it's not a really big age difference," Paige says with a beautiful smile on her lips before taking my hand and shaking it; she seems like she'll make the most of this.
"Ah, yes," Leonard says, hope once kindled is extinguished again. "Leonard, are you done answering the door?" Before Leonard continues to speak, a beautiful girl taller than Leonard with black hair, dark eyes, and black rimmed glasses (similar to Alex from Modern Family) appears.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't know you were still here. Nice to meet you; I'm Marly Hofstatter. Who are you two?" Marly asks us.
"I'm Paige Swanson, and this here is my boyfriend, Connor Kenway. We're future students at Princeton University. We bought a house slightly above yours and wanted to say hi to the neighbors," Paige proudly says.
Soon after Paige said this, I'm met with judgmental eyes before Leonard coughs and whispers in his sister's ear, who then looks surprised and nods, looks in our direction, and says, "Princeton? The university nearby, are you going to attend it? At 11 and 13 years old? Honestly, this doesn't seem right to me. Are you sure it's not some kind of joke?"
Paige then speaks with a proud smile on her face, "Here's our acceptance letter. We received invitation letters from the university's director himself, confirmed over the phone. We came to prepare to attend classes at Princeton next year."
Receiving the letter and looking at the director's signature and the seal (Hogwarts, just kidding), Marly is surprised and quickly confirms the authenticity of the letter. Despite being intelligent, Marly was still in high school at 16 and looking at two children entering university was really a shock to her, who considered herself a genius, much less for Leonard, who at this moment was frozen like a statue upon hearing his sister speak.
He had finally met kind people who didn't judge him until the moment of strangeness; he thought these people were normal, but they turned out to be geniuses above his siblings and mother.
Taking the letter back, Paige looks at Marly with a smile and says, "Is Berly home? I'd like an autograph from her," Paige asks, which Marly automatically answers, "She's at work and will only be back in the evening."
Paige's smile widens even more with the news and then says, "Leonard, can you stay at our house? To play a little and play chess, we stay in the cottage on that hill over there," Paige asks, pointing to a house a bit further away from the others.
Seeing where it was pointed, Marly is surprised again, living in the region, Marly is clear about the value of that house, the value of that house could buy six of hers.
"Of course, I believe my mother won't mind. When she returns, I'll ask her to call the phone at that house, and then you can talk," Marly says, planning to tell her mother what happened that morning.
"Thank you very much, Marly; we've wanted to be friends with Leonard for a long time," I say as I shake Marly's hand and mess up Leonard's hair.
Leonard, who was the first time he had people who wanted him as a friend, was radiant, forgetting his fascination with Paige initially.
When we head towards our house, I say to Paige, "Paige, show Leonard around the house; I need to go somewhere before that," I say to her and receive a nod of agreement and head to a specific location.
As I was looking around the surroundings of the house, I saw a nest of an American eagle. The eagle was majestically perched at the top of a nearby tree, carefully watching its surroundings with its piercing eyes.
The American eagle, also known as the bald eagle, is one of the most recognizable and iconic birds of prey in North America. It is known for its impressive wingspan and distinctive white head, which contrasts with its dark body, and the coolest thing is that it lives throughout the North American continent. When I did the mission with Paige, I got a reward that I still haven't accepted, waiting to find an eagle, and it didn't take long for me to find it.
So I open the system and take a look at the reward.
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Assassin's Creed System
Name: Connor Kenway
Age: 13 years
Occupation (Novice Assassin)
Health 100/100
Strength 5 (Adult Men 5)
Agility 6 (Adult Men 4)
Intelligence 187 (Qi)
Resilience 10 (Adult Men 10)
Available Points: 5.00
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Item Box: High-tech Headphones (1) Mac book Pro (1)
Weapons Box (10)
Weapons AK-47 (4)
Kukri (2)
M1911 (1)
Glock P80 (3)
Mini-Uz (2)
Beretta M9 (1)
Winchester Model 1912 (1)
Consumables: First Aid Kit (5)
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Talents: Item Box: (20 Cubic Meters) lv1 Walk from the Shadows: (Walk on the Shadows Without Being Noticed) Lv2 Unarmed Combat: Lv2 Combat with White Weapons: lv3
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Knowledge: Advanced Automotive Engineering, Musical Talent, Eidetic Memory, Average Hacking Knowledge, Advanced Hardware Knowledge, knowledge, parkour beginner
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Main Missions: Stop arms dealers (Complete)
( Eagle Eye) (military combat)
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Secondary Mission (None)
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Daily Missions
Do 5000 Push-ups
Do 5000 Squats
Do 5000 Sit-ups
Run 10 km Reward:(Points 0.01)
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Yes, the symbol of some assassins, the Eagle Eye, was given to me as a reward but as I didn't know how it worked, I didn't take it. Maybe it's time to test how it works.
As soon as I press Receive Reward, I receive a notification:
[Congratulations, host for receiving Eagle Eye]
[Congratulations, host for receiving Military Combat]
Upon receiving the reward, my unarmed combat skill increased from 2 to 3.
And I felt a strong headache in my head; I could feel as if there was a third eye on my forehead, it was hot tingling with pain and suddenly everything calmed down.
I tried to use the Eagle Eye, but since I didn't have a partner, I couldn't use it, and then I look at the eagle a few meters away from me looking at me threateningly.
If I can make friends with it, maybe I can activate the ability, so I equip myself with the Hidden Blade and slowly approach the eagle with pieces of fish in my hand.
She stares at me with her piercing eyes not caring much about the fish in my hand, as I approach 30 meters, 20 meters, I receive a system notification:
[The host in your relentless quest for a partner, meets a companion on your journey, do you wish to link Eagle Eye with "Bald eagle"] (Yes) or (No)
When I received this notification, a body at an impressive speed came crashing towards me, knocking me down. When I look at what hit me, I see the eagle returning to the branches of its tree, looking threateningly at me not to disturb her. I feel something dripping from my eyes and falling to the ground; as I put my hands in that red liquid, I am surprised—it's blood. It seems the eagle considered me a threat, so she attacked me, resulting in a wound around my eyes; it was indeed my carelessness due to the system notification.
I look at the eagle returning her threatening gaze and press accept in the system.
"Bloom" a sound came into my mind, making me kneel on the ground.
It seems the eagle also received the sound because on the tree she was on, she fell straight to the ground.
"aaah, aarg" Soon after I receive that sound numerous times before my head starts to ache and move to my whole body. Soon, I see—
I see a ground much closer than it should be and a human being kneeling in front of me. Soon I understand it was myself; it seems I met the requirements of the Eagle Eye, and now I was seeing myself through her vision.
Suddenly I am sent back to my body; apparently, there seems to be a time limit, which is justified as I am not looking with my own eyes. The pain had dissipated, and then I stand up and go towards the eagle that had fallen from the tree.
As I approach, I see a bird struggling; I begin to feel some emotions coming from her direction—anguish, sadness, and pain. It seems that Assassin's Creed does not count how to bond with your eagle, and why do I feel this emotion coming from her, maybe they didn't address it or it's something exclusive to the system.
I squat near the eagle and pick her up; surprisingly, she was taller than me with her long wings spread open, and I see a wound, it seems in the impact that happened she ended up injuring herself on a protruding rock on the ground and hurting herself; her blood mixes with mine in my hands.
As I was taking her to my house, I feel her struggling more and more, and I feel her in total despair trying to break free from me; only then do I remember, the bald eagle, when she makes a nest, she has a lifelong partner who together take turns caring for the chicks and warming them; it seems this eagle seems to have a family, and I took her away from it.
I quickly return to where I found her, and in the distance at the foot of the trees, I see a pile of branches, it seems the nest was alone; I look at the eagle eagerly looking at her nest and let out a long sigh before shooting a nearby tree with my harpoon that I have in my gauntlet.
As soon as I climb near the nest, the eagle starts to calm down giving me a little opportunity to treat her wound; some time passes before I hear a sound that seems like a seagull singing; I look up and realize a second eagle flying above me; it seems the other member of the family returned, to my great surprise, the eagle quickly descended at an alarming speed towards me; I quickly try to defend myself by crossing my gauntlets towards my face…
nothing, nothing happened. After a while with my eyes closed, I feel something heavy piercing my shoulders; I open my eyes and see the second eagle slightly larger than the first perched on my shoulder looking at me.
Not understanding anything about the situation, I quickly think of a possibility "System!" As soon as I say the name of the system, it appears in front of me; I then confirm.
In the assimilation with the Eagle Eye, it seems I gained another ability—affinity with eagles; it's a talent that came with the maximum level, meaning all eagles see me as one of their own.
I quickly look at the second eagle that landed on my shoulders and say, "Hello companion, how are you?" and she sings in response.
Unlike the movies on TV with that majestic eagle's song, the normal eagle you find in nature doesn't have that sound that we see in movies; what we see in nature sounds more like a seagull.
The song we see in movies belongs to the red-tailed hawk; the red-tailed hawk has a majestic and beautiful song.
Soon I make a decision, because she's injured, the eagle won't be able to leave the nest, and the other will have to work tirelessly to increase the nest and find food; I decided to change the nest's location; I will put it in my house since apparently, they don't see me as a threat allowing me to put the eggs in my hands while they sit on my shoulder and watch me transport their nest made of branches to my residence.
As soon as I enter the house, I am greeted with an impressive sight.
Paige was proudly speaking as she played a chess piece while Leonard felt completely exhausted. This reminded me of a scene once inside the house Paige challenged Sheldon to play chess resulting in Sheldon turning the entire board onto the floor.
"I'm back, Paige, Leonard," When I said that, both turned to me—Leonard as if he had seen his savior and Paige with a playful smile on her face, but their faces froze.
"What happened, Connor? Why are you injured? And why do you have two eagles on you?" Paige runs worriedly towards me while picking up a first aid kit to close my wound, and Leonard was still frozen looking in my direction.
Fiiiih'' Leonard then grabs an asthma pump and shakes and puts it in his mouth before pulling in as much air as he could.
Before screaming...
-End of Chapter-
