Human form

Next day, earlier in the morning, the sun's rays entered Eric's room brightening his black world of dreams.

Eric didn't plan to wake up too early this morning but since he was tired last night he forgot to draw the curtains and the light of the new day hinder his peaceful sleep.

"Ugh... I want to sleep more..."

Eric talked to himself with his eyes still closed while protesting against the merciless sun, then turned on his right trying to cover his eyes.

When he did that, his left arm landed on something soft like a pillow and he hugged it without a second thought.

Although he was still sleepy, Eric slowly realized that he didn't have another pillow except for the one he was sleeping on, then opened his eyes confused.

When he opened them, in front of his view, what he thought was a pillow was, in fact, a sleeping girl with long, golden hair, smooth white skin, a child-like figure, and dressed in a white nightdress.

Eric looked at the girl that he was hugging but he couldn't recognize her, no, he never saw that girl.

Because of the situation, he was in, Eric let out a little scream and trayed to put some distance between them but the bed wasn't long enough and he lost his balance, hitting his back on the cold floor.

The girl in his bed heard the noise and woke up with a sleepy face. She didn't seem to be so surprised and rubbed her eye with her hand then let out a big yawn.

Eric looked at that scene and asked panicked.

"W-w-who are you!? Why are you in my room?"

The girl looked at Eric with an expressionless face and then bowed politely.

"Good morning Master! Although I don't expect my master to be the brightest person, at least do the bare minimum to remember Krystal's name..."

Because of her way of speaking and the mention of the name 'Krystal', Eric finally realised who was in front of him but before he could say something, someone knocked on the door.

"Eric, wake up! We need to go into the forest to search for the secret entrance we talked about yesterday."

On the other side of the door, Eric heard Alice, that come here to wake him up, and he started to panic. Not just that there was no way he could explain why was an unknown girl in his bed, even if he could explain it, the secret that he was the real Guardian would be known in that case.

He didn't know what to say and remained silent praying that she would leave but what he heard in the next second made his heart beat even faster.

"Are you still slipping? If so then please excuse my intrusion!"

In the next moment, the handle of the door moved and Alice tried to enter Eric's room.

Eric started to panic even more and before the door was cracked more than two fingers he jumped from the floor and closed the door not letting Alice enter.

"Wait! You can't come in, I-I'm naked! I will get dressed and I will come to you in five minutes, wait for a while!"

"Ok but... are you alright? I heard some loud noises earlier."

"Ah... that... I just fell out of bed while sleeping, don't worry about it!"

"Oh, alright then... I will wait for you in the living room!"

"Sure!"

Alice didn't question him any further and after hearing her footsteps leaving, Eric breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at Krystal that was still in his bed.

"Now explain yourself! Why can you take human form and why were you sleeping in my bed?"

"Master, I am the strongest artefact created ever so why wouldn't I be able to take a human form? As for why I was sleeping near Master, last night I finally recovered enough magical power to take the human form and although I don't really need to sleep, it become a habit to enter in sleep mode to recover my mana after the orders of Master's past reincarnations."

Eric listened to Krystal's explanation then looked at her from head to toes and sighed while talking to himself.

("I bet they had ulterior motives...")

("Ulterior motives?")

While Eric said so, Krystal's voice resounded in his head and Eric looked at Krystal that tilted her head in confusion.

("No, nothing... go back to your crystal form! I need to change and go to meet Alice. We will talk more on my way here.")

("As you wish, Master!")

Krystal's body transformed into light and entered Eric's palms then he started to change his clothes.

After changing, Eric come out of his room and headed toward the living room.

There, staying on the sofa were Alice, Iris, Yuki and Ari. They were talking while drinking a coffee but they stopped when they saw Eric and he greeted them.

"Morning!"

"Good morning!" ×4

"We will go just us five?"

Since they were the only ones here, Eric knew that they are the only ones who will go and doubted if it was a good idea or not but understanding what he was thinking about, Alice answered his doubts in a light tone.

"You don't need to worry, we five are enough. As you could see two days ago, Kratos's troops suffered quite a heavy blow and I don't think they are so reckless to attack us while we are there."

Eric understood her reasoning so didn't question it any further and changed the subject.

"I understand, well, then, if you girls are ready, should we go?"

He didn't want to lose any more time and go already but Alice stopped him.

"Wait, you aren't going to eat something first? Is possible that it would take us some time so is best to be ready in case we stay too long."

"Neh, is alright, I'm not hungry so let's go already!"

Eric was ready to leave but suddenly he felt a chill down his spine. He turned back and looked at Alice that had a cold smile on her face while her eyes were showing an intense killing intent.

"No... you will eat first, then we will go!"

Eric felt that his death will be close if he refused so he lowered his head and headed toward the kitchen.

"Ugh... fine, I will go!"

"That's better!"

Alice come back to her normal self and the rest of the girls that watched that exage looked meaningful at one another and giggled quietly.

Eric sighed and was about to open the kitchen door but he heard Alice's voice again behind him.

"Oh, one more thing! From tomorrow onwards you will come with us when we will train Yuki!"

"Huh?"

Eric froze in that place because of Alice's words and he thought that he heard it wrong. He slowly turned back to face Alice and asked her with a confused look.

"Say again?"