GUARDIAN OF THE END

Amber had no reply to what Jason had said. She stayed quiet for a few minutes before opening her mouth slightly and replying.

"I…" Her voice trailed off after the first word since no matter what she said now, Jason would get suspicious.

[ Looks like you caught her off guard. If she says no, she took way too much time to answer. If she said yes, it's the truth. No comments could be a reply but that too can be taken as a yes. ] The system sounded impressed.

'I just connected the dots. It was something fairly obvious if you knew where to look.' Jason replied while mentally shrugging.

"Don't worry, if it's a secret, I won't tell anyone about it," Jason reassured her yet Amber didn't look half convinced.

"I shouldn't have spoken that much…" She muttered while sighing as she had no choice except to trust Jason's words. But since she had only met him some time ago, she had zero percent trust in him.

"You are not the only one who slips up. I have done the same thing multiple times so I can understand how you are feeling." Jason gave her a charming smile but it looked as though his looks weren't going to make Amber trust him more.

"Are you a thunder mage then?" Her eyes moved across his face as she tried to notice any slip in expression he might have.

"Yes, I am a thunder mage." Surprisingly, Jason replied with the truth.

Amber was left shocked by how casual Jason sounded while revealing that he had the thunder element.

It was even more shocking when considering the fact that both Jason's father and grandfather had the thunder element as well, something that was told to her by her parents.

Amber couldn't help but wonder what kind of genes were going through the family to have three thunder mages in three generations one after the other.

She even wondered whether they were going around doing cult business or some kind of ritual to ensure this.

"I have a feeling that the heads of our families are discussing about us now and sharing some of our powers with each other. There is no point in hiding my power if you are going to know about them anyway." Jason informed.

"Now that you mention it, my grandmother would definitely do that…" Amber muttered before looking at Jason's smiling face.

She had been raised in a very special manner which had allowed her to meet all kinds of people and get a good appraisal of people's personalities.

Amber could tell that Jason had told her the truth yet she couldn't seem to figure out his personality. Though she had to admit that this wasn't the first time she had failed in doing such a thing.

"Looks like I was worried over nothing." Amber sighed in relief before picking up Flamey and pressing her hand over his head.

The temperature in the room suddenly climbed up by multiple degrees as Jason could sense the movement of mana around Amber's hand.

[ Host, try using vision control right now but make sure to keep the mana input above nine hundred and below one thousand. ]

Jason did as told and toggled the skill on. He subtly controlled his mana to use the right amount of it in his eyes and all of a sudden, he could see tiny red and brown particles leaving Amber's hand.

The particles were flowing directly inside Flamey which seemed to relax the salamander to a huge extent. It seemed lost in its own world as Amber suddenly lifted her hand.

"What are you staring at?" She asked with a confused expression as Jason suddenly averted his eyes and shook his head.

"I was wondering how Flamey feels." He replied with half the truth while shutting the skill off.

Jason was immensely happy to see that there was no defect in his vision this time. He had also controlled the mana well enough to not face any problem and hadn't let it go out of control.

'With the right amount of mana control, I can do a whole lot of things with this.' He thought with a slight smile before standing up.

"Wanna go outside?" He asked Amber since he had gotten bored by sitting inside the entire time.

"I was planning on doing that with my twin but I guess the more the merrier?" Amber smiled as she too stood up with Flamey wrapped around her right hand.

"Right." The two of them then walked out of the room as Amber went to get her twin while Jason waited for her near the entrance of the manor.

[ Hmm, you seem excited host. ] The system muttered as it saw Jason being in a good mood. There weren't many times when its host was in the mood for exploration but the system knew that it was due to the fact how peaceful Duphia and its surroundings had been.

'This is because things are going to be much more interesting here and I want to see how people react. It's not easy to get the stereotypes from novels out of one's mind.' Jason explained before remembering that he had to inform his family about it.

"Alfred." He spoke aloud as the butler suddenly appeared in front of him. After all that Jason had seen, it wasn't a surprise for him that someone could appear in front of him that quickly.

"Please tell grandpa and grandma that I am going out," Jason ordered before adding something as an afterthought. "Do tell them that I am going out with the twin grandchildren of Ariana Feuer and inform her about this too.

"As you say, young master." Alfred vanished at the same speed he had appeared as Jason continued to wait.

"Sorry if we made you wait too long." Amber walked down the hallway a few minutes later with her twin right beside her. "I had to take care of some emergency related to Flamey."

"No problem. I understand how hard it is to take care of a pet." Jason had experienced taking care of the goats when he was training with Karna.

However, he had only taken care of Feta which was much easier as compared to taking care of all the goats in the shelter.

"You seem to be familiar with all things I have a problem with. Are you telling the truth or just lying to impress me?" Amber narrowed her eyes a bit as Jason shook his head.

"Nah, I take care of a goat back at my home. She requires a lot of care but I can tell that she is a lot less troublesome than Flamey."

"You might be right," Amber replied with a smile before turning towards her twin.

He seemed to understand what she meant and stepped forward towards Jason.

"I am Andrew Feuer. Nice to meet you." Andrew said while extending his hand forward. Jason shook it enthusiastically and told his name in response.

After the introductions, the three of them were ready to go out and explore.

"So, where do we start from?" Jason asked curiously as the twins shrugged simultaneously.

"Honestly, we are coming here for the first time as well so we know the same amount of things as you do," Andrew informed honestly as Amber nodded from the side.

"We were hoping that you might know a bit but I guess we were wrong," Amber sighed. "But I guess we can now roam around the place like friends."

"Yeah…" Jason muttered while feeling strange. He didn't want to feel like a character from a novel but he had to admit that he had never known making friends would be this easy.

He had spent most of his second life restricted to Duphia and had missed a lot of childhood experiences. Nora was the same yet Jason didn't feel as though the demi-human was bothered by it.

[ After all, that was what had been normal for him. If he had grown up on Earth or had perhaps experienced a much normal childhood before, things would be different for him as well. ] The system explained before chuckling a bit. [ Also, congrats host! ]

'Huh?' Jason looked visibly confused but the opening of a system window left him baffled.

---

< Achievement Unlocked: FFF! >

< 10 system points have been awarded. >

---

'What does FFF mean?' He immediately asked while glancing at the twins to make sure that they weren't looking in his direction.

Fortunately, the two of them were discussing nearby places where they could go without any worries and enjoy a bit.

[It means First Female Friend. ] The system replied while giggling which sounded extremely weird considering how it had a mechanical tone.

But Jason didn't focus on that as his jaw was twitching slightly after hearing the full form of FFF.

'That is not funny.'

[ Not to you. ] The system corrected before deciding to stop teasing Jason.

Jason wanted to reply to it but the twins had decided on something and wanted Jason's opinion on it.

"There is a statue in the center of this section of the city which is quite famous. We will go there later too as it is on the way to the arena but going on our own would be more fun. What do you think?" Amber cocked an eyebrow as Jason took a few seconds to reply.

"I guess you are right. It shouldn't be that far anyways so we can go there right now." Jason replied but before the three of them could set out, Alfred suddenly appeared in front of them.

"Young master Jason, young master Andrew and young mistress Amber, your grandparents have said that you can explore the city freely and that they would come to pick you up in thirty minutes at the statue of hope. Stay safe." Alfred recited before vanishing.

The three children exchanged a look before smiling. They had nothing left to worry about and could explore with freedom now.

"Let's go, guys!" Amber exclaimed excitedly as the trio started making their way to the statue of hope, not paying attention to the stares they were getting.

***

"Why do I have to be stuck with watching the children?" Ray questioned as he followed the trio through the streets.

"It's because we can't allow them to go without any protection but we will ruin their fun by sending someone alongside them. That is why we are following them undercover." Replied a calm and collected male voice.

Ray could only sigh at this as he looked at the man beside him. Both of them had been assigned to keep an eye on the children or rather, they had lost against their wives who were originally going to do it.

"Then can I at least ask why the hell are we dressed as clowns?"