01.29 - In Another World with My Family

First Ryu’s breech birth and now a premature Akatsuki.

‘Soul Catcher’ and ‘Vessel Creation’ were among my first and last thoughts on the matter, but this was an option of absolute last resort.

Akatsuki barely breathed and was cooling out by the second.

We wrapped her in a few warmed blankets while I tried my best to restore and enhance her organ health and lung capacity with ‘Divine Healing’. It worked, but barely.

Dawn, and her three magic students Akane, Koharu, and Loreley took turns keeping the room temperature up with fire magic, while Kentaro, Reiko, Alfred, and Geber made sure our firewood reserves would last through this ordeal. Isabella was tasked with the production of potions against germs and similar dangers.

I repeated my healing efforts every other hour, while also trying to assist Dawn by enhancing her mammary glands. Sleep was a privilege I had very little time for in the weeks to come. Heat, milk, and a support of Akatsuki’s lung functionality would be crucial for the time ahead.

We constructed a special crib and did our best to keep her clean and isolated from too many outside influences.

It was though, I won’t sugarcote it, we almost lost Akatsuki on more than one occasion, but she soldiered through the worst of it and was mostly stable after a month. She did continue to appear weaker than the other kids, though her early and heavy exposure to magic seemed to have enhanced her capabilities with the arcane.

Her older half brother Ryu was the exact opposite.

He was easily the rowdiest among all the kids, while Akatsuki was a very shy and reserved girl.

She did regularly play with Inari, Ariel, and Kei, even if they were usually the ones to initiate the play.

Kei in particular seemed to mostly mingle with the girls.

Hermes ended up as Ryu’s best buddy, despite initial adversities and a different disposition.

Nagi and Nami were inseparable at all times, but they did not usually join the others. There were some rare occasions of them joining Akatsuki, Inari, Ariel, and Kei in playing house, but those could be counted on two hands.

The housing, fields, mines, hot spring pools, utility buildings and total area of the farm grew year over year. With the bee hives and fruit trees ending up seeing the largest growth into 23 hives and two big orchards.

I started actively supporting the kids' growth in Classes and Skills using ‘For the Good of The Many’ around the time most of them were between five and seven years old.

The black haired Ryu came right after his parents. He had a strong constitution, and was a cut above the other kids when it came to height, strength, and stamina, even beyond what could be expected of the oldest.

Kei did share Ryu’s hair color and capability with the sword, but he seemed almost unwilling to focus on his training, when compared to Ryu. Kei ended up with a higher affinity for the ‘Spellblade’ and ‘Psyblade’ classes. Ryu in contrast tended more towards Classes like ‘Berserker’, ‘Dreadnought’, and, who would have guessed, ‘Dragoon’.

Hermes had inherited his mother’s green hair and did join the two in training with the sword occasionally, but really excelled in alchemy. You could see the sparkles in his eyes whenever Isabella and I introduced him to a new technique, ingredient, or potion recipe.

Ariel shared her mother’s blue hair and disposition to music and poetry. She had that in common with Kei, though he was more of a writer, and she was more blessed when it came to music and especially her singing voice. Lorelay taught both of them when it came to singing, composing, and writing lyrics.

The blonde Inari had a great affinity for divine spells and especially healing. She would have been snatched up by the church early on, if we still lived in Lichtheim. Luckily, she was spared that fate. Dawn, and especially Inari’s mother Koharu supported her in her studies.

Koharu even picked up some advanced healing spells of her own, but slower and on a lower overall Level than our daughter. The potential learning aptitude of a kid could be a scary thing.

The two red haired siblings Nami, and Nagi, as well as Akatsuki who inherited Dawn’s crimson hair, were leagues above the others in terms of arcana capacity, mastering most medium and even some advanced elemental magic before the age of ten.

While Nami and Nagi usually stuck to themselves, they did make an exception with Akatsuki and included her in their play from time to time. The three of them were a regular audience for Ariel and Kei’s songs.

Despite their otherwise slight eccentricity, both Nami and Nagi were inseparable and did seem to have a keen eye for other people's behavior. They did start to pick up acting naturally from Akane, and had developed a kind of secret language only the two of them seemed to have in common.

Akatsuki was shy and a bit of a problem child. She did not play all that well with the others, beside the two twins, and spent most of her free time reading tomes and learning magic from Dawn.

—

Summers came and went.

Most of us adults were busy picking apples in the orchard, for later use for juice and cinder, when the now almost 11 year old Hermes came running.

“Ryu’s gone,” he said.

“What do you mean gone?” I asked.

“We were playing Stealth but… I can’t find him,” he said.

‘Stealth’ was a game of hide and seek involving the Forager Class’ Skills ‘Tracking’ and ‘Camouflage’, or the Thief Skill ‘Stealth’. I had started it with the kids as a way to spice up the usual games and make it double to Level up essential Skills through play.

Ryu was the best user of ‘Camouflage’, but Hermes’ ‘Tracking’ Skill had leveled up alongside.

“How long have you been searching?” I asked.

“He started hiding after lunch,” Hermes said.

That was at least three hours ago.

“And you haven’t found him since then?” I asked.

Hermes just shook his head.