Chapter 1411: Visiting Ruby's Uncle
Chapter 1411: Visiting Ruby's Uncle
"So that's how it is, I guess the Gods didn't knew you had demon blood?" wondered Celeste. "Or did they know about your mum?"
"My mom wasn't the most demon-looking woman either... She had long antlers because of her dad, and her skin was only slightly redder than dad's skin," said Ruby. "Soo... they might have believed she was just half-Anime or something?"
"Damn..." I muttered. "I'm fairly sure that if you had developed your demon bloodline beforehand, they would have definitely not blessed you... Those guys detest demons."
"I can tell," she said. "My first interaction with them wasn't the best. I've hated the gods ever since and have stopped to ever pray or see them as gods entirely since then."
"I wonder what makes you heroes be chosen anyways," said Celeste. "I know that with Sylphy and Aquarina there were some big reasons, they're the children of heroes and were already pretty strong at the beginning but what about the rest? Luck and Lara?"
"I don't really know..." I said. "But I think Lara had her connection with Spirits since she was born, I think the blessings are additional powers that boost our already existing talents even more and grant divine energy. Hence why they're always fitting of the elements were mainly use beforehand."
"So that means that Luck was already an exceptional fighter, and someone born with an innate talent and closeness with the divine beast spirits?" wondered Celeste. "I guess I'll have to believe that for now..."
"Then it's the same for Ruby! She was born talented!" said Celica.
"M-Me? I don't know... I just really like crafting, even if I suck a bit..." she sighed. "Mom and dad inspired me a lot since I was a kid. I don't know, the whole concept of just taking the stuff the world produces, putting it together, and making something out of it, it's art. Its... beautiful."
"It sure is, I agree!" I nodded. "I also love crafting and synthesizing with alchemy, you'll learn alchemy too, Ruby?"
"S-Sure, if I can, I would gladly learn, I've always been interested," she said. "But I've never had... the knack for alchemy myself."
"You don't need a knack or something, anybody can learn!" said Celica. "Right?"
"Yeah, you don't need talent to learn alchemy, or crafting, or any art," said Celeste. "Art just comes from inspiration and imagination. The efforts to achieve it, however, is something not many are willing to put themselves through. Sometimes people want the end result right away, so they feel frustrated when at the beginning they'll fail many times. But that's just the process of learning. You have to truly enjoy it to become a good crafter, alchemist, or artist." "Or all of it, I guess..." I nodded. "Now that I think about it, we're artists, yeah."
"Hah, you've just realized?" giggled Celeste. "Ruby, this girl's really good at drawing too, you have to look at her portraits or all the drawings she makes of the stuff she wants to make! She doe sportraits of everyone too, so you'll probably get yours eventually."
"E-Eh? Is that so? I also like drawing my stuff," Ruby smiled. "Maybe we can share... art together?"
"Sure!" I nodded happily. "So! Where does your uncle live at?"
"Hmm, over there," Ruby quickly walked down a stair leading to another street on the lower streets closer to a large river that intersect across the entire district.
We walked down the paved streets, which were a bit darker here, there were a few people walking around the streets, most of them were Onis or descendants of Onis.
A lot of them recognized Ruby, greeting her, but gave us weird looks, squinting their eyes at
us.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
"Hey Ruby."
"Hi."
"Ruby! Good evening."
"Same!"
"Look who's back!"
"Hey!"
As she greeted everyone as if she had known them for years, which might be true, she reached a house, it looked a bit shabby and run down, made of black stone and wood, one of the two windows was broken and barely repaired with glue stuck together.
Knock, knock!
Ruby knocked at the door, as we patiently waited for someone to respond. After a minute, we suddenly heard someone walking here, until the huge door finally opened.
Creaak...
And then a huge man greeted us, with skin even redder than Ruby, resembling red pepper in color due to its red intensity.
He had two black horns; one was half-broken. With long white hair and while wearing small glasses, that barely fit his big orange eyes, the burly and very manly Red Oni greeted us.
Yet, despite his very intimidating appearance, he held a very gentle smile on his face, and also very kind eyes. He even had two small tusks coming from his lower jaw, and a slightly... well "rough" face. Like that of a warrior hardened through many battles.
Yet...
"Oh my goodness! Ruby?!"
"Hi uncle..."
"You're back!"
Her uncle quickly hugged Ruby and easily lifted her off the ground, Ruby groaned in annoyance, but let him hug her and even kiss her cheek.
"I missed you my niece! Why haven't you visited me in over a year?! What happened! I was worried...! I've gone to visit your father to look for you but he only greeted me with screams and throwing me alcohol bottles..."
"I'm sorry... I just... didn't want to rely on uncle's money anymore," Ruby apologized, as she quickly went back to the floor. "So I just... I knew you would insist, so I stopped coming... I wanted to be truly independent."
"But Ruby..." sighed her uncle, looking very sad. "Well! If that's your decision, then it's not like I can force you but... Hm, who are these girls with you?"
"They're... my friends," Ruby smiled. "I've only met them some time ago, but we've grown closer. They're alchemists and crafters like me."
"Oh? I see! It's rare to see humans around here..." the man glanced at me.
"I'm a half-elf, actually! Name's Sylphy," I showed him my ears that my hair sometimes covered.
"Half-Elf! Ooh! This is my first time seeing one!" laughed the man. "You looked just like a human girl! Hahaha! And you two as well! You're demons? Welcome to our community!
Haven't seen your faces anywhere before."
"Yeah, we come from afar," said Celeste.
"Eastgrain!" Celica said.
"Eastgrain? I don't know where that is, but we can talk more while we have some green tea and some rice crackers! Please come in! Don't be shy! Oh! I think I got some Dango too! Do you
want it?"
"What's Dango?" Celica wondered.
"It's like a sweet you make using rice!" laughed the Oni man. "It is one of the sweets from our original tribe. You see, rice was everything we had so we had to get creative, hahaha!"
"So that's why you also made crackers from it?" Celeste asked.
"That's right! There's even alcohol made of rice, but that's not for little girls like you yet,
hohoh!" the man entered, quickly inviting us in.
The intimidating man had a very soft voice and a very welcoming attitude, after he invited us inside, we had to accept his kind invitation, quickly walking inside his huge house.
As we walked inside, we noticed large statues sculpted out of stone and wood, many of them
half-made and in the process of being finished.
He seemed to be a sculptor!