Chapter 2: Don't trust fairy tales

A young man is currently sitting on bench and right besides him is an old man, no older that 70 years who has no discernible traits other than his aging physic and graying hair.

"Good morning, young man"

Hearing the person besides him trying to converse with him Ishida kindly replied back with a caring smile on his face.

"Good morning sir..."

After the greeting the old man, he no longer replied making the atmosphere around them a little awkward.

Sighing internally Ishida tried to start another conservation with the old man so that it wouldn't get any more awkward.

"So sir how was your day today?"

Hearing the young man, the old man made simple smirk before replying.

"Ishida didn't you grandfather tell you, that the in a time of serenity, silence is much appreciated?"

Ishida's heart skipped a beat the moment the old man uttered his name and was then again surprised that the old man knows the the phrase his old grandfather used to say to him as a kid when he was being a little to noisy in the house.

'Is this old man a friend or relative to grandpa?'

"Yeah, my grandpa said that a long time a go, sir are you infact one of his friends or relatives?

The old man stroked his chin before he continued looking towards the bluish sky reminiscing of something.

"You could say that."

"Oh, I see"

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The pair continued observing the calm park in the comfort of their bench and no longer continued talking to each.

Only after the sun was starting to set, the old man finally stood up from the bench and spoke in caring manner.

"Ishida if you ever have a wish that could give you anything what would it be?"

Hearing his grandpa's old friend say that, Ishida started to scratch his cheek to contemplate what his wish was.

"I don't know old man, as of right now not even a single wish will be enough to get what I want..."

'I need money to pay rent...'

'I want to have enough time to play games...'

'I want to get a decent job that pays well...'

'I want to see what heaven is like'

'I wish to see a world without pain and suffering'

'I want to have the power to change the world.'

'I wish to talk to God'

'I want the world to burn...'

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The old man raised his eyebrow and chuckled before speaking again.

"Then how about if you have infinite wishes?"

"Old man be realistic here, even if I lived till the end of time, Infinite wishes wouldn't be enough..."

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'I wish I never got infinite wishes'

"Bwahahah!"

The old man laughed whole heartedly before asking another question to Ishida

"If infinite wishes isn't enough then what would be?"

'No wishes'

"No wishes"

Ishida answered without any hesitation.

"Bwahahah!"

"Why are you laughing?"

Ishida questioned the old man

"Young man, you remind me so much of your grandfather"

"My relatives sometimes tells me that I'm like a carbon copy of grandpa..." Ishida rubbed his head in embarrassment.

Chuckling again, the old man then started rummaged towards his pocket before finally taking out a simple bracelet made of wooden beads and throwing it towards him.

"That bracelet used to be from your grandpa, he entrusted it to me until you were ready."

Ishida inspected the the wooden bead bracelet and wasn't able to find anything peculiar about it, other than a strange old man just gave it to him saying that It was once his grandfather's heirloom.

"What do you mean when I was rea-"

Ishida was about to ask for more questions but suddenly the old man he was talking to just vanished like he was the second coming of batman, not believing that a person just disappeared out of know where Ishida tried looking around the now darkened park bench and wasn't able to find his old man's friend.

'The hell?'

Ishida then looked at the mysterious bracelet on his palm cautiously before sighing inside and went to walk back to his apartment.

'The new episode of Frieren just released...'

'I wonder if Himmel and Frieren will be able to meet again in future.'

Inside the apartment Ishida is currently watching the new episode on his TV and inwardly thought.

'I wish I could live there...'

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*Gasp*

Opening his eyes Ishida was able to see the root ceiling of his home and tiredly rubbed his eyelids.

*Yawn*

'Another day, another life...'

Opening up the notebook he was holding, Ishida started writing on it all over again.

(Day 365: It's been a single year now... this can be considered my birthday, sadly I have no one to celebrate it with...

I had the same dream again, its about the time I met a friend of my old man and he gave me a mysterious wooden bracelet... maybe the real reason why I was transmigrated here was because of the bracelet?

I don't have enough evidence to prove that claim and it seems that when I transmigrated here the bracelet also didn't come with me...)

Standing up from his bed, Ishida started stretching his arms and legs before going to his make shift kitchen where he stored all of his cooking utensil he stole from the past and smoked meat he stored for the week.

Taking out a stone jar from one of the wooden cabinet, Ishida was able to see seven strips of smoked wild boar bacon that he slowly made from two days of waiting.

Feeling his saliva watering down his mouth. Ishida quickly took four pieces of meat and munched on them like it it was food made for the goddess

'Thank you dad for teaching me how to survive in the wild! If It wasn't for you I wouldn't had survived this long!'

Ishida felt grateful for his dad lessons and quickly stored the rest of the meat for later.

*Burp*

Drinking a cup of water that he got from the clean river Ishida then started rummaging towards his hide bag again to look at the book/grimoire he stole.

'Nope, I still can't read it...'

After skimming through all of the mystical hieroglyphs, Ishida was still unable to understand what it means and closed the book again

'I wish I can read this book! , hell even learn how to write this language!'

Ishida frustratedly thought before putting grimoire back into the bag and then took out the silver dagger.

'it doesn't seem to be a ceremonial dagger or has any graving or magical seals on it... Maybe it's just normal silver dagger, luckily I can finally change my rusty dagger for a more effective one!'

Tapping his right side, Ishida was able to feel his combat and hunting partner for the past year.

"Don't worry Vain, I won't stop using you, not unless you break and have to be replaced by Glory"

Taking out Vain from his home made sheath, Ishida then started dual wielding his rusty and silver daggers in tandem before finally getting a feel on the overall reach of each blade.

'Glory is a little longer than Vain but I think I can manage it, uncle used to teach me a dagger martial art technique where one dagger is used to "catch" the opponents weapon while other is used as a counter attack.'

'Not sure how practical this would be when mages can just fly out of range and shoot you with a barrage of Zoltraak's...'

Putting Glory into Vain's sheath Ishida then started inspecting each of the colorful stone one by one.

'For the red stone it feels very warm to the touch, maybe if I add mana to this maybe it can make a flame?, the blue one seems to water,the green is wind and so on'

After while of inspecting each individual mana stones, Ishida was able to see a whitish stone in bundle and touched it.

"Aggghhh!"

Feeling his fingers were put on an open flame Ishida instinctively let go of the whitish stone leaving it fall to the ground.

'Goddess Magic?'

Ishida painfully thought before carefully observing the stone just a couple inches away.

"I should probably store this away for now"

Ishida then used a piece of leaf to pick up the white stone and carefully put in a jar.

"Now the money, 12 Strahl gold coins, 5 Strahl silver coins and 50 Strahl bronze coins, if I do some mathematics, 1 gold coin is an equivalent to a 100 dollars, silver is 10 dollars and bronze is 1 dollar that's what girl told me before, meaning I got like 1,300 dollars of currency on me right now"

*Sigh*

"I hate this... I can't even use this money... It Is too dangerous for me to go any village or city to trade because of the risk of me getting exposed and the fact I barely even have any knowledge of magic to protect my self even though I'm only like 10 years old in demon years!"

Ishida felt like crying all over again.

'if only I was a human! And also where even are my parents?! Why would you leave your 10 year old son alone in the forest at the south lands?! At least give me a reason for abandoning me!'

After a couple minutes of lampooning he started organizing all of his belongings, went outside to scavenge for more berries, meat and maybe some old pieces of paper he can use for his diary.

In the forest a boy with short brown hair and girl with long bluish hair no older than nine years old are exploring the area just a two kilometers away from Ishida's base to find a mystical creature called "Faries"

"Johann how far are we going to keep on walking my feet are already tired!" The tiredly grumbled at the young boy who was taking the lead to find the mystical creature in there mother's fairy tale.

"Don't be a wussy Lea, it's only just a couple more steps and we should be able find a Faries home!" Johann assured his friend before continuing on walking to what seems to Ishida's tree.

After a minute of walking the pair was able to see a weirdly unnaturally round rock covering a side base of large tree.

"Is it true that most fairies live in a tree?" Lea curiously asked Johann in anticipation.

"Hush, I've heard from my grandma if you can get some of fairy hair and grounded up into a fine powder and mixed it on some herbs and flowers it can cure any sickness and disease." Johann whispered silently into Lea's ear in case the fairy is actually awake and heard them speaking.

Following Johann's lead Lea also proceeded to whisper in his ear

"Then how are we going to get in?"

Johann grinned before answering while pointing at the large rock.

"You, of course knock on the rock door and go inside"

"Eh?!"

Lea had a shock of disbelief written on her face.

"Why would I go inside a fairies home?!"

"Well I heard from my grandma that faires like little girls who has smells like flowers"

Feeling betrayed and scared of meeting a fairy, Lea immediately refused Johann's request

"No! My mom said that faires should never be provoked if you don't want to be cursed!"

"Those are fake fairy stories, I have read a real authentic monster encyclopedia, they can't curse you!"

'Well they can't curse you but how ever they can hex you instead'

Johann immediately lied while assuring Lea that faires are harmless in nature.

"You better not be lying if not I will curse you until you die!" Lea made threatening tone towards Johann before finally complying to his request and knock on the rock.

*Knock*

*Knock*

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The rock didn't even budge or even move.

'Maybe the fairy isn't home today' Lea happily thought to herself and waved at Johann who was hiding behind a couple meters away from her.

"The fairy isn't home Johann why don't we come back next time?"

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Johann didn't reply or even move, he waited behind the tree patiently knowing full well that faires are not what seem to be in the fairy tale.

'Faries are magic beings that are capable of shape shifting into any animal, plant or items, they are know to be very cautious of any other animals but it isn't classified as "magical creature" but instead was given the classification "6th class monster" in the monster encyclopedia it likes to lure to little girls in the forest and devour there skin until there is nothing left but a husk of meat.

Johann patiently waited for any abnormalities like if there are moving leaves, rocks, birds and even worms who started to to go towards Lea's position just Infront of rock entrance.

Feeling scared Lea spoke up again.

"Johann this isn't a joke reply to me!"

But Johann didn't move even a single inch until suddenly a bush of leaves started to move on Lea's left side.

"Johann!!"

"Johann Answer Me!"

"Joha--"

Lea continued panickly screaming for her friends name but her voice fell into deaf ears, before finally she saw a small silhouette with a dirty cloaked 'Fairy' covering it's face and head creepily looking at her like she is some sort of prey.

Lea stopped screaming for her friends name and froze in place because of fear.

"!"

Seeing the silhouette Johann immediately took out him wand from his pocket and used a magic spell he learned from his grandmother.

"Flame Conjuring: Flammenschuss!"

The moment Johann finished his chant a ball of fire the size of a basketball shot towards Ishida's position.

Ishida on the hand was oblivious of the fact that a fire ball was going towards him and is currently having internal dilemma.

'Wait isn't she the same human girl that I last met 11 months ago? How did she find me? Wait why did she start screaming another person's name?'

"!"

Feeling his survival instincts kick in, Ishida immediately side stepped to the left

*Boom!*

The ground from his right immediately bursted into flames causing some of Ishida's cloak to catch on fire.

'A surprise attack?!'

Ishida quickly quickly deduced where the fireball was fired from and immediately saw a young boy almost the same age as him coldly looking at him.

'Fuck...'

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