Chapter 17: Fear, Eyes, and FamilyRecepti Pov

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  I wake up, surprisingly not from a nightmare. The nightmares that tormented me for the past week are gone! Ever since Lunar Rabbit left, I had a nightmare every single night. It was always a different way to torment me, but without exception, those two red eyes always appeared in some form. Whether in the form of moons, in mirrors, on others, or one time, I even found myself standing on them. Every single night, those red eyes would torment me. But now they were gone! Is my fear of her gone now? It would not be a surprise after what she did yesterday.

  As I think that, I reminisce about the end of the battle. After Lunar Rabbit pulled such a massive massacre, killing all the wolves with ease, before turning to us in the most childlike innocence and ciming she had killed them all with the tone a child might use when looking for praise, naturally, apprehension followed. Humans fear what they don't understand, and illogical or unnatural things go right down that ne. So when a child covered in blood comes to you asking you to praise her for killing more than a thousand living beings, then the scene is so bizarre and unnatural that your most likely reaction will be fear and apprehension.

  When you then realise that she could easily sughter you as well, it will only grow. But that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was the eyes. I swear, those eyes have some kind of fear-amplifying factor. Why do I call it amplifying, you ask? It's because I found those eyes to look like beautiful rubies when I first looked at them. I'll definitely need to talk about them with her. Well, all that made the adventurers not only not rex, but instead made them warier.

  Lunar Rabbit, seeing everyone look at her as if she were about to pounce on them at any time, frowned. The look on her face was the one one might have when they tried the fifth or sixth solution to a problem, and it didn't work again. But somehow, I could sense that her frustrations were way deeper than she let on.

  Disappointed and disgruntled, she rose into the air before raising her arms to the front, as if blessing everybody. Then miraculous stuff happened. I looked at my bitten-off arm and noticed how the stump was slowly growing. It was very slow, only about five millimetres per hour, meaning that it would take about seven days for my arm to regenerate, but the fact that it could at all was nothing short of astonishing.

  Then, a portal opened under her, and she fell through it. Everyone watched the spot where she disappeared for a whole minute, until they were sure she left. Still, it was so silent that you could hear a pinprick fall several tens of meters away from you. Eventually, I couldn't bear it anymore. This was a joyous occasion! There should be no downtrodden expressions!

  "WE WON!" I shouted with all my might. It took a moment for my shout to sink in before they started celebrating as well. When we calmed down a bit, the city lord started speaking.

  "We successfully defended the city! I am proud of you. Of every one of you! If it were not for you brave warriors, everyone would have died! You saved many human lives! In three days, I'll be giving a speech regarding the fight on the square. I hope you all can attend. Additionally, if anyone has information about the girl, please come to me afterwards. You are now dismissed."

  Hearing him, I ran up the rubble. "Mr Tylord!" I shouted. I don't know why I was so desperate to tell him what I knew about Lunar Rabbit.

  "I have information about the girl as you requested." I then proceeded to retell how she registered, how she brought a lot of dead wolves, how she cared for me, and how she then disappeared for a week. Somehow, I talked way longer about how she cared for me than about anything else. Finally, I even told him that I used a one-time method of communication to summon her. Heh. Looking back, I may have sounded a bit biased towards her, but whatever. He asked me to try to find her before his speech and bring her to him, even temporarily relieving me of my guild duties.

  After reminiscing, I decide to do what the city lord asked of me. However, there is only one spot I know where she could be. If she isn't there, then I won't be able to find her. It's the inn. I go there and ask if she still lives there. The dy confirms, so I go to her room. Then, I knock on the door. A few seconds ter, it opens.

  "Hello?" the owner of the room says. I then ask for entry and expin the situation.

  "And you're saying that one of the guys who was staring at me like I was about to eat them alive, bite for bite, would ask you to introduce me? Are you sure you just told him that you know me personally?"

  Damn, she is sharp! "Yes!"

  "Okay. So when and where is it?"

  "Whenever you want, I'll lead you there."

  She opted to do it immediately. On the way, I start asking her questions.

  "What is your name?"

  "Luna, and you?"

  "I'm Recepti. Can you tell me how you got this strong?"

  "I trained."

  "Did you start training in your womb?! You are only eight years old!"

  "Well, some people are just talented," she says while smirking with a smirk I can only view as provocative. She is clearly bragging, isn't she? What is she? An eight-year-old? Oh, right!

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  Luna Pov

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  Ha, I love being a child. It allows you to be childish without a problem. You can do the most shameless behaviour, and people will say, "It's just a child." And when you add a few crocodile tears, then everybody, safe for the most heartless, is gonna believe you, no matter what you say.

  As we are walking, Recepti suddenly turns to me. "Ah, right!" she says, "I wanted to ask you about your eyes. Do you know that they have some kind of intimidation effect pced within?"

  "What?"

  "Literally looking at them always amplified my fear of you by several fold at once. You were right in your note that those wolf corpses did not scare me. It was only when I looked at your eyes that I was scared."

  What? What is she saying?! My eyes have intimidation effects? Why do I not know about them?! Wait! Who could even pce such powerful effects on my eyes without me noticing? Isn't it just the goddesses?! Didn't they say it's a reward? Why do they torment me with the same shit as st life? Why? Why?! WHY?! WHY WHY WHYWHYWHY-

  "LUNA!!!"

  I am snapped out of my thoughts by a shout. Recepti is looking right into my eyes. But her eyes don't reflect fear. They reflect concern. That's right. Calm down. This life is already way different from my past life. My mind fshes to Mom and Dad. I already have people who care about me. With that thought, I calm down.

  "Everything is alright. Thanks for the concern," I say before strolling forward.

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