Natural Born Warriors

From that day onward, the warriors’ sorties aboveground grew more frequent, and it was less for securing food and more for catching Narkals for the children to kill.

Day after day, they were made to kill them without fail. And as the event became routine, the cries and tears lessened until, before long, no one flinched or shook as they drove their blades into the helpless monsters.

Ashen had been afraid that this would perhaps traumatize some of the kids, but he was rendered speechless when they adapted at an alarming pace instead.

Forget flinching at the sight of blood; now they were competing over who could kill their prey most spectacularly.

The patriarch responded to their growing confidence by removing some of the shackles. At first, it was just the Narkals’ hands that were freed, then their feet, and finally, even their gags were removed.

The children did not disappoint. They kept adapting with surprising ease, and as Ashen watched them beat and easily dispatch the Narkals in duels, he wondered if he could even call them ‘children’ anymore.

‘Is this also because of Mother’s constitution?’

The only explanation he could come up with was that. Because being raised in this dreary environment wasn’t enough to explain their abnormal rate of adaptation.

What Ashen did not know was that his conjecture was only a minor reason for it.

The main contributor was simply how humans had evolved to live in this current era.

The majority of humans had to learn how to pick up weapons and fight for their lives from a very early age. This was true all over the continent and wasn’t something unique to this tribe.

Being warriors was practically coded into their DNA at this point.

If they still had to deal with the trauma and mental fragility that people of the present would have suffered from, they would have gone extinct ages ago.

The patriarch seemed to be aware of these limits, so he pushed them without worry. In his eyes, the children being able to handle this much was a matter of course, and not something to be surprised at.

If he had to name one surprise, though…

“Haaapp!!”

“No! That’s my kill. Sister… you stole it again…!”

“Heh. The early bird gets the worm. Ever heard of it, you slow, cute brother? Hehehe…”

Yes…

It would be that.

The patriarch groaned as he massaged his forehead, not knowing how to deal with this anymore.

“Lapis… come here.”

“Yess~”

As he saw his daughter approach with a smug look on her face, he wondered how things had gotten to this stage.

At first, it started with her asking to watch their training from the sidelines. Since she was praised by the women teaching her as a genius, and since she was always done with all her lessons before anyone else, he saw no problem with allowing her that much.

But who knew that she would force her way into the boys’ training and start competing with them for Narkal kills?

The ease with which she killed them did not surprise him much. From time to time, kids with a stronger spirit would emerge. They would be more fearless than the others, willing to step up when everyone else cowered, and they would grow up to become the bravest of their tribe.

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His son, Ashen, was one such child, and he too had been the same when he was young. But this was the first time he was seeing this phenomenon in one of his daughters.

“Lapis… did I not tell you not to disturb the boys’ training? Do you want me to ground you by forbidding you from entering again?”

“Ugh… but it was just one. Why are you guys so stingy?”

“Haah…”

‘Where did I go wrong with this one?’

He complained in his mind about how his wife should be handling this instead, then tried to put on his most gentle expression.

“It is not about stinginess, dear. This specific training has a very important reason. You can’t disturb it, no matter what.”

“Then you should just give me my own target, right? Then I won’t disturb anyone.”

She tilted her head halfway, trying to play cute, but it only made the poor father let out another groan.

“No… this is not how it’s supposed to be…”

“Hey, Dad. I can share, no problem!”

Raising his head, the patriarch’s expression improved ever so slightly when he saw his most prized son.

Ashen was waving his hand leisurely atop a still-thrashing Narkal. He had already broken all of its limbs and was boredly provoking it by poking his spear into its eyes as he sat atop it.

‘This one is also a headache, just in a different kind of sense…’

“Ashen. How many times did I tell you not to play with your prey? Even if you are stronger than it, always act with all your strength. This is a vital rule of survival, understand?”

“Ah, yes. But you are here with us, Dad, no? So I can play around because I trust you, hehe…”

“No… this will just make you adopt bad habits.” He shook his head in exasperation. “And what do you mean by share? This is not your lunch. Now kill it at once!”

“Aye, sir…”

He twirled the spear once and slashed at its neck without even looking. Most of the veins ruptured, and the Narkal finally ceased its struggle after a couple of twitches.

“So? I’ll take care of that troublemaker. How about it, Dad?”

The patriarch looked between his smiling son and the corpse. He was about to refuse, but when he met the eyes of his expectant daughter, he held his tongue.

In the end, after a bit of internal struggle, he nodded reluctantly.

It seemed that the saying that dads couldn’t win against their daughters was true universally, no matter the era…

◉◉◉

“Slowly… slowly… yes… eat well, kids… Daddy’s here for you, hehe…”

Ashen let the dribbles of mana flow from his fingers into the soil, taking care to imprint every bit of his love into the energy.

No matter what kind of training they had been made to go through, or how many lessons they had in a day, Ashen never missed going to the farm to care for and feed the manaweaves.

“Oh my god… I know how valuable and rare they are, but are you really treating them as your kids now?”

Lapis, who was crouching beside him, had a hard time stifling her laughter.

Ashen did not answer until he was done pouring his mana. Only then did he raise his head and look at her with a disapproving grunt.

“What do you know? Unlike a certain someone, these kids are always well-behaved. And they certainly won’t betray me when they grow up!”

“Huh? Are you still holding a grudge over me leaving you to deal with Cain? What a baby.”

“Tsk.”

She came closer and poked his side with a pacifying smile, but he did not budge.

“Come on~ How can you keep acting like a baby in front of your kids? How will they look up to you as their daddy when they see you like this, huuuuh?”

“Tsk.”

“Oooh… playing hard to get, are we?”

Even as she tried to placate him, her poking eventually reached his puffed cheeks. Her eyes twinkled unknowingly as she saw this unexpectedly cute side of her brother.

‘Being in a kid’s body is making him show all kinds of new expressions, haha~’

“Then how about this?”

She reached out to touch a leaf of the tree-plant.

“If they are having a dad, it’s only natural that they should have a mom too, right? If you stop pouting, I’ll volunteer to be their mom~~”

Ashen turned his head to look at her with a strange expression.

“…”

“Whaaat?”

“…pervert.”

“Pfft!”

Lapis doubled over in laughter despite being called a pervert. The way Ashen said it was just too much for her.

“Okay, okay, I deserved that one. But don’t forget that you’re the one who started it! Calling me your little wife, you perverted big brother~”

“Yeah. And you went ahead and decided to be the mother of my kids. I can only bow down to the shamelessness. Tsk tsk.”

“Hmph. If it takes a bit of shamelessness to make our Ashen stop pouting, I’ll take it as a win.” Lapis stuck out her tongue at him, and the latter couldn’t handle the cuteness and gave her a big hug.

“Ah! You beast! Are you finally showing your true colors now~?”

“Yes, prepare to be eaten now, little one…”

Unfortunately, the beast could not sink his teeth into his prey, as a valiant hero had come to the rescue.

“Sister!!!”

The moment she heard Cain’s voice, Lapis’s expression froze before she let out an irritated sigh.

“The kid’s here. He is too annoying, so I’ll be going.”

“Don’t you dare…”

Ashen spoke with a healthy amount of fear, but Lapis was already standing. She shot him a sympathetic look, but didn’t hesitate.

“Cya, brother~ I’ll keep my promise to be the little plants’ mom, so please forgive me just this once, hehe…”

“No, what mother…! Come back here!”

“Byeee~”

“Sister!!!”

“Lapis!”

“Sis?”

“…little wife?”

“…”

Alas, she had already disappeared, and Ashen could already see Cain charging ahead.

‘Fuck, not again.’

He palmed his face and then gazed at the ceiling, already resigned to his fate of having to be the babysitter once again.