“This is Andihar Dayarunar, S-ranked Awakened and one of the most prominent figures in the Nidafjeld Alliance, and his lovely wife Molanda who is A-ranked and one of the most skilled healers I’ve ever met.”

  “… Oh…” Philip breathed, going slightly pale upon realizing what kind of titan he had just shaken hands with.

  “And here we have Gul Ougi, Ihasu’s grandfather and Bin’s great grandfather. S-ranked Awakened, leader of the great Ougi clan, and just as influential in the Alliance as Andihar. Oh, and how could I forget,” he said as a certain old fart wandered over after getting in a little pre-lunch snack. “Chop the Blade. Mythological warrior capable of, quite literally, cleaving a five kilometer tall mountain in half. I’ve seen him slice a kilometer-long abyss in the Earth that could swallow a city. The only known X-ranker in existence.”

  Philip’s eyes were wide and he swallowed visibly as the color drained from his face. “Gr-Great to meet you…” he stammered as Ihasu’s glare crackled in anger.

  “I’m forgetting myself, aren’t I?” he said with a gentle smile. “My name is Eik Magnasen. Sole S-ranked Awakened of Earth, owner of Eik’s Excellent Elixir Emporium, sponsor of—well—almost everything in Forest, and, most importantly, Bin and Goo’s dad.”

  ***

  “Thank you again for such a wonderful invitation,” Philip’s mom Rebecca said, digging in to a second helping of the dishes. They were all seated around the large table, feasting on the many different foods laid out. The kids had managed to stay at the table for an impressive seven minutes before they had to run out to do all-important kid stuff. “This lunch is just absolutely delicious. Where did you get such luxurious food? Most of this I’ve never had or even seen.”

  “Have you been to Gimleh before?” Ihasu asked.

  “That big city behind the portals?” she asked. “Uh, no, that’s always been a little…”

  “Intimidating?” Ihasu finished with a smile.

  Rebecca chuckled nervously. “Yeah, kind of. Is that a totally ridiculous thing to be nervous about?”

  “Not at all. Our existence was thrust upon you rather suddenly, wasn’t it? I can only imagine how frightening it must have been to have your perspective of the world and universe forcefully expanded like that. I’ve heard a lot about the reactions from Eik. It’s quite difficult for me to put myself in your shoes since I was born many, many years after my own world was initiated into the Unified Mass”

  “Truth be told, we weren’t thrilled with the whole thing back then,” Philip Senior said, glancing at his wife who nodded her agreement. “Initially, we were pretty firmly against the alliance. With the way that lady with the bubblegum hair just kind of arrived, it felt like a scare tactic.”

  “It is a scare tactic, in a way,” Andihar clarified. “For the people of fresh worlds like yours, there is nothing the first contact can really say to convince you to a satisfactory degree that our intentions are good, so one standard strategy, among others, is to go the other way and instill the reality of the dangers in the Unified Mass. I don’t know how Atla of the Nidafjeld Administration of First Contact handled it, but I myself am not a supporter of this particular method, I must admit.”

  “She kidnapped Eik,” Ihasu told him.

  Andihar’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh… That’s… That’s not what I would call a proper course of action.”

  Eik couldn’t help but laugh at the memory. “She picked me up by the collar of my shirt and hurled me headfirst through the fracture. I nearly shit myself in fear and my virgin trip through a dimensional door made me throw up on the other side.”

  “She actually ignored procedure like that?” Andihar asked, his face revealing anger while Chop cackled at the mental image. “Where is she now?”

  Eik shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I haven’t spoken to her in a long time. Mikla told me that she was reassigned once I began to take over as the connection between the Alliance and Earth.”

  “Hmm,” Andihar grumbled.

  “Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s all in the past, and it turned out well for us in the end.”

  “I would like to make sure that she is not in charge of any more first contact operation,” Andihar said. “She failed to represent the Nidafjeld Alliance properly.”

  “Listen, Andi,” Eik said, leaning in as the conversation became more serious. “I’d really rather not get into this right here and right now, if you don’t mind.”

  As if suddenly realizing where they were, the muscular elf’s eyes flitted around the table where many conversations had stopped. Sheepishly, he picked up his knife and fork and dug into the food on his plate. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “The food is very good.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Anyway,” Ihasu said, pulling the topic back on track as other conversations resumed. “You said you have never been to Gimleh, Rebecca. If you’re up for it, Eik and I would love to take you there one of these days. We can bring the kids as well and make a little excursion out of it.”

  Clearly taken aback, Rebecca exchanged glances with her husband, anxiety announcing itself on her face. “Oh, I don’t know, Ihasu. It’s such a kind offer but I honestly don’t know if that’s a good idea…”

  “Are you afraid that something will happen?”

  “Well… yes,” Rebecca admitted.

  Ihasu leaned in a pointed at Chop. “See that old fart snacking on roasted potato wedges?”

  “Yes?”

  “Eik wasn’t lying when he introduced him before. He’s called Chop the Blade. He’s at least five hundred years old and an X-ranker. Can I assume you are afraid because you’ve heard stories of all the powerful Awakened in the Unified Mass?”

  With difficulty, the mother tore her eyes away from the man whose legend and appearance were so different from one another that they should have been able to exist in the same reality. “Yeah.”

  “Well, he is very literally magnitudes stronger than even the most powerful among any of those individuals you fear. And Eik, Bin’s father, might well be the second strongest in the Alliance now that Chop has shown up.”

  “Really?” Philip Sr. asked, looking at Eik with new eyes. Eik had long since given up on being an anonymous existence in both Forest and Gimleh but he had never really done anything to make his face known. The true depth of his power was also largely unknown to humanity.

  What would be the point of demonstrating it? Most humans couldn’t even comprehend how strong some Awakened were, and it would do no good to force that realization upon them. Fresh as their world was, it would be better to approach it as gradually as possible.

  Eik scratched his nose at the praise, forgetting to maintain the stern facade. “Really. You quite literally could not be in safer hands than with us,” Ihasu said. Philip’s parent’s exchanged glances again, curiosity beginning to overwhelm fear. “Gimleh is a city full of families with children. Families like yours. There won’t be anything to be afraid of.”

  Philip Sr. couldn’t hold a smile back and burst out. “Rebecca, I think I want to go. No, I definitely want to go. We’re going to have to face our new reality at some point, and what better time to take that step then when we have the offer of the greatest protection in the world? If for no other reason, then in order to be able to guide our son properly when his time to take care of himself eventually comes.”

  Rebecca didn’t look convinced. “I don’t know…”

  “Listen, honey,” her husband continued. “Whether we like it or not, this is the world he will become a part of in just a few short years. Do you want him to walk blindly into something the two of us are completely ignorant about as well? Don’t you think we owe it to our little boy to be able to navigate it as safely as possible? He was born after the world fell. He doesn’t miss what we’re missing. This is the real world for him.”

  Eik hated to admit but he liked this guy a lot. Such a practical approach to something that scared you so much, and for the sake of giving his child the best chance in life, was a quality to respect.

  “Your husband has the right of it,” Eik said with a nod, losing even more of the hard-assed facade he had been trying to maintain. Bin’s friend and his family had now been here for about half an hour and in spite of his best and most petty attempts, he hadn’t seen any real indication of the shitty attitude he had hoped to crack down on and turn into ammunition against that little boy.

  The boy seemed to be like any other kid—maybe even a little better than most other kids—and Eik wasn’t about to do anything to jeopardize his daughter’s relationship with him. If she was going to be more than friends with someone, Eik supposed it wouldn’t be too terrible if it was with him. In the future!

  He continued speaking. “Being more involved with other civilizations than anybody else on Earth, I can tell you with certainty that we are only going to grow closer with these people. Perhaps not with the Nidafjeld Alliance as an organization, but… just take a look around this table. Only a few of us are human. We will mingle, love, and coexist—not because of any allegiance to the Alliance but because that is our nature. Getting to know the largest and most prosperous city that any of us have ever seen will give your son an advantage when he inevitably finds himself involved with its affairs in one way or the other.”

  Eik sat back and watched the parents’ brains work at high gear. There was something different about an actual man from Earth saying it, it would seem.

  “Have you done the same with your own little boy?” Rebecca asked, glancing at Goo who was intensely focused on a particular patch of grass. “Prepared him for the future, I mean.”

  “Erh, well…” Eik said sheepishly. “I know he looks like a normal kid but that really doesn’t describe him very well.”

  “What?” Philip Sr. asked with puzzlement.

  “Hey, Goo!” he called, the boy looking up at his father’s voice. “Come over here for a second.”

  Goo cleared the whole garden in a single leap, landing in front of his father and eliciting gasps of horror from Philip Sr. and Rebecca. “What?”

  “Can you hand me the salt over there, please?”

  The boy followed Eik’s finger with disinterest. The salt shaker stood at the edge of the opposite end of the table. At least the distance of three or four of Goo’s arms. As if made of rubber, his arm lengthened and he handed over the salt without taking a single step.

  “Wh— I d-don’t understand,” Rebecca stammered.

  Avoiding details, Eik smiled. “Our son isn’t exactly normal, as you can see. And it is exactly because of the reaction you two just had to seeing him that it is so important to get to know our new reality. You will see stuff like this from time to time,” he lied. “It is a part of life. And to answer your question, yes, we are preparing our children for everything we can,” he told them, conveniently neglecting to mention the fact that he had spent the entire morning flipping out at the thought of his little girl being in love with a boy.

  “Honey,” Philip Sr. said, putting a hand on his wife’s. “This is an opportunity that is too important to miss, don’t you think?”

  She bit her lip, fingers trembling terribly. “… Yes,” she finally admitted.

  Ihasu caressed Rebecca’s back soothingly, her smile warm and kind. “I swear it will be okay. Maybe even fun.”

  “What day to you intend to go?” Philip Sr. asked, determination shining in his eyes.

  Eik shrugged and looked at the others gathered around. “How does in three hours sound?”

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