"Cut it out Jaice. Give me 5 more minutes." Gideon mumbled feeling the pull on the thick bed-sheet he was covering himself while sleeping, but he still felt the pull for a minute before it stopped.
He pulled the bed-sheet close to his neck with a smile, adjusting his posture for a more comfortable sleep, only to sit up startled with his hands on one of his ears which was stinging in pain.
He looked around startled to find the culprit and saw Jaice, his pet 'Breeze Crow' standing on its usual place, a cloth stand near the window watching the sun as if it didn't peck his ear just a few seconds ago.
Controlling his anger looking at the tiny face of the only monster he could afford, the breeze crow, which he named Jaice.
Everyone in this world gets to choose a monster as their partner for soul integration at the age of 14, if they could afford to. Gideon, being an orphan didn't have much and saved all his earnings and bought Jaice 6 months ago and has been with it since then.
He actually got it for a cheap 5000 'dallans' which is the universal currency for this world. Any monster would be more than 8000 dallans, but he got it cheap because Jaice is a breeze crow which doesn't have good attack or defensive capacity and Jaice was had an arrogant nature which only went along with Gideon for some reason.
He took his smart phone and looked at the time. It showed 08:07 AM, May 1, 2537 which made him slightly happy as it was his birthday as per the official records. Being an orphan, he doesn't know his real birthday and knows his age just because the medical tests conducted on him by the school he was sent to by his foster family resulted with.
He just turned 15 today, officially.
He can integrate his soul with the soul of Jaice and start his life as an adventurer like all his peers who are already ahead of him by at least a month, as he is the youngest in his class in this small village, Kamisk, which is a part of the country Herian Republic in the eastern continent.
He hastily got up from the bed, went to the bathroom that was outside his room to take a quick shower and change into his school uniform which is the only set of clothes he has that can be considered as presentable clothes.
It is not like his foster parents don't want to get him some clothes, but they are just farmers with steel claw hens as their monster partners and with only a small fertile land to farm, their income is only able to cover their daily necessities and food. But, they show him more love and care that he never knew before being adopted by them.
After wearing his school uniform he looked at the full size mirror in his room to see a confident dark-brown skinned boy with black hair and brown eyes with a thin physique smiling back at him. His thin physique is considered a disadvantage in this world as he could not excel in strength like his peers who are strong and his weight is very less which can be compared to a kid who is 5 years younger to him.
This does not bother him as he knows he can be better not with strength, but his other qualities, like speed which he will get after integrating his soul with Jaice and also his stamina which he has developed in the recent years through long walks and small straining exercises and his will power to find about his real family.
After admiring himself for a few seconds, he called out "Come on Jaice, time to leave." and the crow watching the yellow sun flapped its wings to fly and landed on his left shoulder sitting on its favourite spot pecking softly on his head, which did not make him angry anymore.
In a way he has to be thankful to Jaice as his head is free of any fleas or dandruff as she would clean his head almost daily keeping it in good condition except for a few small wounds because of her enthusiasm of killing the small fleas that try to escape its tiny beak.
The house he is staying in is not big. It just had a master bedroom for his foster parents Henry Rodsin and Sienna Rodsin. A common room attached to the kitchen and dining room. The store room that has been converted into his bedroom when he was adopted and a common bathroom for all to use.
Coming out of his room, he saw Henry reading the newspaper as usual while holding a hot steamy coffee cup on his other hand while also listening to the news channel on the Television. Sienna was as usual preparing breakfast in the kitchen while their monster partners were lying lazily beneath the dining table.
"Happy Birthday son!" Henry said with a smile after hearing his footsteps that were hard to hide on the hard floor.
"Thanks dad. Good morning." He said with a sly smile looking at the news that was going on the television which was about a nearby town where monsters invaded the defense killing a few civilians near the defense wall which made him sigh involuntarily.
"Good morning son. Happy Birthday!" Sienna came in from the kitchen carrying a glass of juice for him along with a small tray with wheat for Jaice to munch on till the breakfast is prepared.
"Thanks mom." He said and got the juice and the tray from Sienna, placed the tray on the table for Jaice and started to drink the juice while continuing to watch the news which detailed how the town security delayed in gathering enough forces to kill the monsters that invaded the town.
The news reader also speculated that the defense in the town was either bad or someone from the higher-up might have deliberately let the monsters in to show some power which has led to the deaths of 18 civilians and another 23 injured.
He was glad nothing like that has happened in Kamisk or his foster home, being at the border of the village will be the first to be destroyed by the invading monsters.
"Breakfast ready!" Gideon was brought out of his thoughts by Sienna's call for breakfast. He joined her, Henry and their monster partners at the dining table ready to have his breakfast which was surprisingly smelling with meat which was not often served in the house.
The breakfast was served with fresh bacon, scrambled egg and beef cutlet. Comparing this one breakfast with their every other day meals, they could eat breakfast for a week for the cost of preparing this, which made his heart melt like cubes of ice on a hot fry pan.
"You shouldn't have done this mom. This is too costly." he said looking at Sienna with tears of joy in his eyes.
"Nonsense. You turn 15 only once in your lifetime, kid. It is a joyous day in your life which should be remembered, always." Henry said with a tone of pride with his already muscular chest puffing even more.
"Besides, you should gain more weight and strength so you could become the adventurer you always wanted to be." Sienna said with a wry smile on her face. She was upset and disappointed with themselves, that they couldn't feed him nutritious food for him to gain strength and power, but only feed him to keep him out of hunger.
After that, they didn't talk much, but dug into the breakfast along with their monster partners who were too eager to have such a delicious meal after a very long time. Even Jaice dug into the small clay pot that was having freshly caught live earthworms that was a delicacy for her for the first time.
By 10:00 AM they all left the house towards the village center where the Integration Bureau and Adventures Association is located for Jaice to integrate with Jaice and register him as an adventurer.
Gideon walked in the middle flanked by Henry and Sienna on either side with Jaice, the breeze crow on his shoulder. Henry and Sienna had sent their steel claw hens to their farm to guard it against wild monsters.
While walking towards the Integration Bureau, he noticed that they were greeted by many villagers. Kamisk is a very small village with a population of only about 5000 adults. So, everyone in the village knows almost everyone, but no one knew today is Gideon's birthday as he wanted to keep it within the family all the time.
On the way, he saw various types of monster partners of other people, from a tiny sparrow to a large wolf. There were also people who had partnered with turtles and even centipedes that would help them in agriculture which is a primary resource for Kamisk which they use for trading to get other resources needed to run the village.