8 A parent?
Katarina was definitely not expecting that. She stared at the man who had just asked her the question thinking she had misheard.
"Uhh, can you say that again?" She asked.
"Would you like to become my daughter? I promise I'll take care of you and give you a good life." The man said while looking at her with something like a nostalgic glint in his eyes.
Seeing that she hadn't misheard, Katarina hung her head.
"I'll uhh, I'll think about it." She said while scurrying away with her head down. Meanwhile Adam was just standing next to his dad looking at Katarina with a sad look. 'Well, she does look a bit like her.'
***
Katarina sat on top of the cliff overlooking the boundless blue sea, contemplating what had just happened to her.
She was used to sneers and insults in her previous life with hardly anyone acting nice to her. However now there had come a man who asked her to be his daughter. She didn't know what to do at all.
'Why would he want me to become his daughter though? It's not like he knows who I am, I haven't even done anything,' thought Katarina.
She picked up a rock next to her and using all her strength stat, she hurled it over the edge.
*SPLASH*
"I know you're there, come out." Katarina said out loud while still staring into the sea.
"Wow, how did you know I was there?" asked the boy coming out of the rock behind which he was hiding.
"Well Adam, my senses are just better than average, I guess," replied Katarina. She swung her legs over and turned around to look at the boy who had just arrived.
She had never properly looked at Adam but now she focused all her perception stat and took a good look at him. Just like his dad he had purple hair. Katarina knew that it was impossible to naturally get purple hair, but it suited them so much!
Other than his impossible hair, he was also quite cute and would no-doubt become someone good-looking in the future. He was only 1 year older than Katarina, but he was around 5 cm taller.
"So, is it true that you don't have any memories?" asked Adam while sitting down next to her.
"Well...yeah, the only thing I remember is my name and my age but that's it."
"Then, you probably don't know your affinity or if you have one, I see." Adam sighed.
Wait, affinity? Katarina had only heard of affinities from Tet and he hadn't even given that much information. This was her chance to learn more about this world. As some irrelevant person said, 'Knowledge is power' and she wasn't going to let this knowledge go.
"What are you talking about? What's an affinity?" Katarina asked while trying to put on her best confused face.
Adam, seeing that Katarina was curious decided to tell her everything he knew.
"Around 20 percent of the population at the age of 8 obtains an affinity for anything. These affinities are mainly occupations such as swordsman or refiners or cooking and plenty of stuff. It's basically given talent and it just nudges you in a direction to go in.
But without status magic it is also a bit difficult to find out what your affinity is. My affinity for example is swordsman.
"Is that good?"
"Yes actually, it is quite a lucky affinity to have but they just give you a push, what really matters is hard work.
"Wow, that's cool."
"It is but affinities decide lots of things in Mylonia"
"Mylonia?"
"Oh yeah, so basically there are 3 supreme continents in this world, our human continent otherwise known as Mylonia, the beast man continent, Ygmolfir, and the fairy continent which is also known as The Druidian Forest."
"Oh, I see."
"Ok but I forgot to actually tell you the reason I came here. You don't really understand why dad wants to adopt you, do you?"
"No, it sounded like a spur-of-the-moment decision."
"Well I also used to have a sister around 2 years ago, but when my dad took her on another merchant journey she died. Ever since then, it's been like a hole in our family that can't be filled up. He promised me that he would find me a sister and to-be-honest, you remind me so much of her, what with that attitude and you even look similar."
That was when Katarina realised that she did not know what she looked like, at all. She had assumed she would look exactly like before, but she was 8! Not 16! Throwing the matter to the back of her head she concentrated on what she had just heard.
"So, will you become my sister?" he asked.
"I'm still thinking about it, but I'll tell your dad later.
"Good to know," Adam replied as he got up and stretched his arms before walking away. Katarina looked into the distance whilst deciding her fate.
-Time-skip to night-
The campfires lit up the night outside the forest with the sounds of men talking and eating. Katarina walked up to Adam's father who was sitting on a log next to one of the campfires.
She sat next to him. "So, Katarina, how are you?"
"I'm fine, I came here to ask you a question, is your hair dyed or not?" The man cracked a smile and started laughing.
"What? What's so funny?"
"My hair and my son's hair are completely natural; I don't even know why you asked that question."
Feeling confused, Katarina asked Tet about her newfound knowledge.
[*Well, in your previous world, you would probably think of this world as a real-life anime world. People in this world are just better looking and their hair can come in all sorts of colours. *]
'Then, why were the noble children so strong.'
[*Imperial energy leaking into the layers of this world have also strengthened this's world's objects and living creatures. However noble children have probably drunk loads of elixirs for strength increase. *]
'Sure.' This whole mental conversation occurred in less than a second allowing Katarina to start talking with the man again.
"Adam told me what happened to your daughter." His eyes widened and then came back to normal.
"I see, so he told you, huh?"
Katarina made her final decision to tell him her answer. She straightened her back and looked at the man straight in the eyes.
"About your question earlier..."
"Yes." The man had a hopeful tone in his voice.
"I'd be extremely happy to become your daughter."
"..."
His face lit up into a bright smile and his eyes started watering. He immediately hugged Katarina and spoke. "Don't worry, you made the right choice, I'm glad." Katarina smiled and hugged him back. "Dad...". The word felt strange coming out of her mouth, she hadn't said it for an extremely long time. " I can call you that, right?"
"Of course, you're my daughter now." He said in a happy tone.
"What's your name?" Not expecting the question his eyes widened before relaxing.
"It's Andrew, Andrew Garcia." Katarina inwardly grinned. 'Katarina Garcia, sounds cool.' She stopped hugging Andrew and got up. "Soooo, where do I sleep?" Before the merchants arrived, she had only slept next to the coast outside the forest since she couldn't really sleep near trees. She had just fallen asleep staring at the stars while contemplating life.
"There's a tent right around the campfire around 30 steps in that direction." He said while pointing behind Katarina. "It's the woman's quarters and you can sleep with Alicia. That's tent number 3."
"Ok thanks." Still getting used to the concept of having a dad she made her way over to tent number 3. She spotted an orange sort of canvas shelter propped up with some metal poles and walked over to it. She unzipped the flap and walked in. Katarina could see there was enough space for about 3 people to sleep comfortably but it was only being used by Alicia.
She could hear the cute snores arriving from her nose and tucked herself into the quilt next to Alicia's. Excited at the prospect of having a dad for the first time in her life she couldn't sleep for 20 minutes before closing her eyes from exhaustion.
******************************************
Name: Katarina Hylphine
Level: 1 (200/1250)
Class: Blacksmith (Novice)
Title: None
HP: 100/100 (+5 per minute)
MP: 100/100 (+5 per minute)
[Status]
Strength: 30
Vitality: 15
Agility: 30
Intelligence: 20
Perception: 19
Luck: 10 (Cannot be changed)
(Stat points: 0)
[Skills]
Active skills:
Basic Sword-Mastery: Lvl 1 (0/1250)
Description: User's skill with a sword.
Basic Blacksmithing: Lvl 1 (0/1250)
Description: User's skill at blacksmithing
Unnamed Movement Technique: Lvl 1 (0/1250)
Description: Increases movement speed by 200%
Passive skills: None
[Items]
Grey shirt (Grade: F)
No effects
Black shorts (Grade: F)
No effects
**************************************
