Nox's POV:
So, I've gotten myself a sweet new gig. I am the official bodyguard of the little strawberry princess.
After escaping the old man, I got to fixing my core. With all the loot I brought from the 1st continent patching up my wounds were a sinch. I can use my core to some extent now, but it will at least take a couple of weeks before I can use it at full power. Until then I should try to avoid fighting any bigshots. That's when I got a golden ticket.
Apparently, the kid I rescued was the princess of these mountains. So, I got to work on my job application. First, I needed them to know to take me seriously, and nothing says take me seriously quite like a room full of dead guys, but it needs to be creative. Unfortunately, I was kind of out of ideas, so I just copied someone else's paper, but I didn't want them to get suspicious, so I copied my answers from multiple people. Second, I need to show my communication skills, luckily, I got some juicy details from my eavesdropping on their conversations outside the cave, with that I could pretend like I could read their minds. Thirdly, I need them to know I am irreplaceable to the team, and fortunately, the undead mud-lady is just the thing I need to make that happen. I just happened to be an expert on undead things, which is a thing the wife beater was sorely lacking. So, we made a deal. I would hang out with his kid for a couple of weeks, and he wouldn't rat me out to the playboy or old man.
I should really get around to taking down that bounty on my head, it's getting more inconvenient by the day. Luckily, my dragonewt form will help disguise me from the playboy brigade, now I just have to worry about being turned into a fashionable purse or boots as dragonewt scales are almost as valuable as actual dragon scales.
"Tall lady? What is this flower called?"
"That's a sunflower!" I said, as I patted the cute kid on the head.
*giggle*
With the mud-lady too scared to come out, the kid has been free to wander around the place asking me about every little thing she comes across. Right now, we are currently wandering around a flower field not far from the mansion she lives in.
"Tall lady?"
"Hm?"
"Here!" The little kid said as she handed me a flower crown.
It was poorly made, and it looked like all the flowers she had crammed into it would fall apart at any moment.
"Do you like it?"
"Not really! It looks like crap!" I said as I put it on.
"mmm!" She puffed up her cheeks as tears dotted the corner of her eyes.
"You want me to teach you how to make a better one?" I asked as I poked her cheeks.
"Okey!" She muttered.
I then began teaching the kid how to braid together a crown from beheaded plants.
"I DID IT!" She squealed after she finished her sunflower crown.
"Good! now go hand it to the wife beater, before he cries us an actual river." I said, pointing at my employer hiding in the bushes.
"Huh?"
After the kid woke up, she got mad at her old man for swinging a sword without looking and started giving him the silent treatment. He has been stalking us like a clingy girlfriend ever since.
"I don't want to!" She said as she tried handing it to me.
"Okay, then I'll give it to him!" I said as I threw it like a frisbee into the bushes.
*sniffle*
"What's that look for?"
"I made that for you! not him!"
"Then you wasted your time! I already got a crown! I don't need another!" I said pointing at the crappy thing dropping dead vegetation every time I turned my head.
"Huh? But you said you didn't like it?"
"I don't like flower crown's in general! So, you can have this one!" I said as I gave her the one I had made.
*giggle*
I watched the little kid giggle to herself, as she looked happy about the dead flowers on her head, when suddenly, some old bag of scales that shouldn't have known I was here, appeared.
*Swoosh*
*sigh*
"You really are a handful lass!" The old man said as he suddenly interrupted the flower massacre we were having.
"Gwanpa Yang?"
"Hm? Oh, little Hikari? What are you doing out of your room?"
It seems like the old man has brainwashed the kid into giving him some ridiculous title, so he could live out his fantasy of being a grandfather. Good thing this tall lady is here to stop this evil doer from corrupting the mind of this naïve kid.
"Hey, wife beater! I thought I said no old man allowed?" I said, bringing out my secret weapon.
"So, the old man you were referring to was elder Ming?" The flower wearing bush-man said as he left his hiding place
"Who else would I have been talking about?"
"You never gave me an actual name when I asked! You just kept saying to keep the old man at bay! I just thought you had something against old people!" The wife beater said.
"I see you've been acquainted already!" The old man said, while giving the kid a piggyback ride.
"Stop looking jealous and get rid of him already!" I ordered my employer.
Unfortunately, my boss ignored me in favor of talking to the old man.
"Elder, may I ask what your connection is with this one!"
"Oh, she is my long-lost grandchild! Yang Manus!"
"Hey, I didn't agree to that! And don't call me by my fish's name!"
"Oh! So, Ping had another one?"
"Hey, stop ignoring me!"
"No, actually she is Xing's!"
Finally, I got his attention as my employer turned to me with a look of surprise.
"I know right! The old man has lost his mind to a point where he can't even remember peoples' names! It's why I asked you to get me that restraining order!"
"You're Xing's daughter?" He asked, giving me a wide-eyed stare.
"Who cares! Now shoo away the old man!"
"Anyways, I'll take Hikari to her room before you know what shows up! Then I'll take little Nox with me back to the estate!"
"Like hell you will!"
"Yeah, like hell!" The kid chimed in.
Her first curse word, and it was for my sake no less. I could shed a tear.
"I don't wanna go back to my room!"
Or maybe not.
"You shouldn't talk like that! It's rude!" The old man said to the kid.
"I think you're a bad influence on Hikari!" My boss said.
"Slander! I have been nothing but a good influence! Ain't that right kid!"
"Fuck yeah!"
"See! She agrees!"
"I think its best if you two spend some time apart!"
And that's how I got fired.