Chapter 16 16: The Mischievous turns Mysterious
After brandishing the Waning Moon Sword a couple of times, Dylan was satisfied by its sharpness and strength. With the correct usage, he could even fight an 8th level Spirit Veins Realm Expert. He exited his mindscape and went back to the real world.
Dylan suddenly reminded himself something. He lifted his hands up and a sword materialized in his palm. He brandished it several times to test it's veracity and after confirming that it was legitimate. He suddenly thought of something.
"What if I command it to go back? Will it go back to my mindscape?" He thought of it and tested his conjecture. The sword vanished and when he closed his eyes it was within the gates. He reached out to grab it and the sword moved passed the gates as it placed itself on Dylan's palm. He parted with the sword once more and went back to reality.
He thought of materializing the sword once more and it did. Seeing that his hypothesis was right, Dylan felt blissful.
"Hahaha. It works!" Dylan celebrated. 'Does this mean the Cosmic God Mansion is a portable storage type treasure as well? Since it is within my mind, it means that my treasures are safe as long as an expert attacked his mind.
"I wonder." Dylan thought of experimenting a bit. He came tin front of a chair and thought of it to be transported to his mindscape but to his disappointment, it did not. He, then, deduced that the Cosmic God Mansion only allows materialization of things in the real world and his mindscape that are from within it.
"It's time for me to go and entertain my job applicants." Dylan reminded himself and exited his house.
As he was going to wards the stage, he looked at the back of the platform. He remembered Scarlet and went inside the restaurant to see how she was doing. She entered the kitchen and saw a girl lying on a bed sleeping soundly.
When Dylan was just about to leave, he heard a peculiar sound.
"Nu..weh..bee..a..po...yy..."
The sound had an archaic feeling surrounding it and it heated up the environment.
"What?!" Dylan felt baffled. What was currently happening inside this room? After the sound faded, everything went back to normal. However, this caused Dylan to feel more baffled. The most baffling thing was that...
The origin of the sound was familiar...
To be precise, the voice was familiar...
"Could it be.. Scarlet?" Dylan was dumbfounded but the voice he was sure that it was Scarlet's voice. This made Scarlet become more mysterious. He began to recall how he found this girl. Whilst he was searching for an Alchemist that would be able to heal his affliction, he came across a rumor that a village which was suspected to be burnt down by wildfire could be found somewhere near the area he was travelling.
Dylan became curious about this matter so he decided to take a slight detour. He asked for directions and eventually found a mountain range. The locals told him that the village could be found after you hike around the foremost mountain of the range. So he hiked for half a day until he reached his destination.
On the mountain range, he saw a burnt down valley. This burnt down valley was where the village originally stood. Dylan saw some remanants of houses even though, he was from afar. He walked closer towards the valley. The rumor said that the fire started at late midnight that was why no survivor was left alive. Only charred bones were left on the remaining corpses.
The ruins of the village were apparent and could be inferred that the disaster happened recently. After scanning the place and going for a few rounds, he felt he satisfied his curiosity already. So he decided to go and continue on to his search.
"Waaah... Waaah... Waaah..."
Dylan heard a faint cry that seemed to come from a small little child. He followed the direction of the crying as it loudened. He reached the place where the cry sounded most. It was a house that was completely burnt down. In the middle of the house, he saw a young girl crying. This crying little child was of course, none other than, Scarlet.
Dylan approached her but the little Scarlet was far too afraid of strangers. So she trembled and cried. Dylan figured that this girl should be the only survivor of the village. He thought that the girl would be somewhat hungry from not eating for a few days.
So Dylan took out a piece of meat and threw it in front of Scarlet. The little girl did not want to but her stomach and mouth betrayed her. Her mouth was salvaging and drooling while her stomach churned and growled.
Unable to fight her hunger, she dived to that meat and devoured it. Dylan kept throwing some prices of meat that trailed towards him. It was a common method to lure an animal. It was a good thing that this little girl walking just an infant. So her intelligence is only like a baby animal. She followed the trail of meat and gobbled them all.
When she finished the final piece, Scarlet then realized that she was tricked. Dylan grabbed her and rubbed her little stomach with his fingers. He tickled the stomach of the little girl as it laughed loudly. He offered her water and she drank the entire container empty.
The little girl was satisfied as he cuddled herself and slept on Dylan's embrace. Dylan noticed that she had beautiful scarlet long hair so she named her Scarlet. It was not because he wanted to but when he asked the little girl what happened but she could not remember anything at all not even her name. Dylan felt helpless and disappointed at the same time
Dylan felt helpless because he was left with a girl he was supposed to take care of now. Because if he reported that there was a kid in the site, he would be asked why he was on a restricted site. He would then be imprisoned. He still needed to heal his affliction so how could he afford to do so. He felt disappointed because he would be unable to ascertain what the true cause of the fire was.
"From now on, you are my little sister. I'll call you Scarlet because of your hair." Dylan adopted her as his sister. So, he carried the little girl and walked out of the mountain range.
Presently...
"That's right I found Scarlet at that burnt down valley!" Dylan recollected. However, his train of thought caused him to feel goose bumps all over his body. Because he thought, " What if the fire was not an incident? What if it was man made? What if it was... because of Scarlet?"
Although he did not want to accept it, it was the only possible reason. Everything became clear to him now. The reason why Scarlet was the only survivor would be because she was the one who started the fire.
If it was a wild fire, then the some of the villagers would have been able to wake up and evacuated their family. But what if it wasn't? What if it was caused by a large amount of exceedingly hot flames? What if it was caused by a sudden influx of energy?!
If what he thought was true, then Scarlet was in possession of a power that was vastly more superior than what she could handle. If Scarlet had a sudden influx of overwhelming energy inside her and was unable to control it perfectly. However, Scarlet was as asleep when it happened so she was unable to control it.
The fire that was released was so powerful that it could burn an Awakened Spirit Realm. If Dylan were to receive it, he would be roasted alive. This flame caused flames to spread from Scarlet's house and to each and one of the neighboring houses. The flames burned fiercely that no one was left alive as they themselves were unaware of how they died. The flame spread throughout the village so fast that it was on every house in a minute.
But even if his sister was another or some kind of freak, he would still love her and accompany her all throughout their lives because he was Scarlet's elder brother.
"No matter what secret you may possess, big bro will still like you. With big bro here no one will be blessed to bully you even once. Sleep well, lil sis. I love you." Dylan caressed her hair and patted her back several times. No matter what happens, their bond as siblings will never break apart.
Dylan put a blanket on top of Scarlet. The beautiful scarlet haired girl was really astounding even if she was asleep. Dylan kissed her on the forehead and wished her a good nap.
"Don't worry, Scarlet. Big brother Dylan will give you the best life you could ever have and we will leave happily together. This is just Brother's initial steps to Greatness. " Dylan promised to the sleeping little beauty in front of him.