Chap 6

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-- "How... How long have you been like that, Rai?"

-- "Since birth, Pax-nii. The color of my eyes are different since then. But worry not, I do not posses any... abnormalities, that is to say, I have no powers that of like the demons'."

-- "You are mostly normal except your red eyes?"

-- "Yes, these red eyes are worrisome, for it resembles the terror in people's hearts. I am hoping that Pax-nii could lend me a help."

-- "..."

-- "I am only asking within the village, not the whole town, not the capital. I believe this is within your capabilities, Pax-nii."

-- "Rai... I know you are a bright child, but what makes you think I could help you? I am only merely the third son..."

-- "The village chief may look stern, but he places you deep in his heart, Pax-nii. He is proud of you, you know? I'm sure that he will listen to you, after all, you are the only one in your family who studies under my father's. Who wouldn't be proud of their children learning so diligently?"

-- "....hehe, Rai-chan is still the same Rai-chan.  You are the expert flatterer, I'm sure your future husband will be living in clouds with only your words."

-- "Pax-nii sure loves joking."

-- "Mm, I will talk with my dad, Rai-chan. And for your other plans, I suggest that we wait until tomorrow and gather the children in this mountain, okay?"

-- "Thank you, Pax-nii. I will repay you in the future."

-- "Just a six year old but you already know how to owe someone? Haha, Rai-chan is cute!"

___

Pax stood up and bid his farewell with a small smile -- going back to the woods to finish making his fishing rod. It was still early, so I decided to stick a little longer.

"Are you not afraid?" I started, looking gently down at the little girl beside me.

Amisa shook her head, "...No."

I smiled, "Why is that?"

"I already knew before." She answered in a whisper. "Rai-nee is... is not scary. Rai-nee's eyes are pretty."

"Does that mean demon eyes are pretty?"

"No! Only Rai-nee's!"

I chuckled, "Okay, sorry. I was just joking."

She pouts and looks down, then she mumbles.

"Rai-nee's eyes shouldn't be hidden. Whenever I look up to you, I could get a glimpse of bright red hiding behind your hair. I always thought it was pretty, and only Rai-nee could be pretty with them..."

Amisa is usually quiet, she's a shy little girl who likes to cling on to people she likes and sticks to them like a glue, quietly following behind them. When this girl spoke so much today, it made me happy a little inside, petting her head gently, before thanking her.

After that, I told her that we should go back and she was clutching tightly on my arm all the way. I couldn't fault her for that after scaring.

I left the clearing soon after dropping Amisa back to her brothers to go back home. Spending time with the energetic boys took a toll on my frail body, so by the time I reached home I was panting slightly.

I'm used to taking a walk from the small village up to the mountains, but playing with kids while dealing with them took both physical and mental energy out of me. It was exhausting. That's what I tell myself, at least.

I tried to test my limit, but to no avail. Even with proper care and nurturing, I was still weak and fragile. Therefore I concluded that this new body of mine is basically useless.

It's no use investing to something that would bore no fruit.

After entering the house, I went straight to our shared bedroom and immediately saw a baby wrapped in softest clothes we have.

"The little prince," I whispered and he giggles. I cocked my head to the side before poking a finger on his cheek.

It seems to amuse him, making baby noises and catching my index finger between his hands.

I smiled, "You are worth investing for, your highness. There will be a fruit you will certainly bore..."

I paused when I heard a fart noise, followed by an awful smell, and my face twisted.

"Ugh, that's not the fruit I'm talking about, Prince."

Mom is not here, dad is out somewhere, and I have no choice but to clean and change the royal baby myself.

The clothe smells, and I don't want to wash it myself, so I just threw it away before cleaning the prince with water and my hand stuck on his butt.

I couldn't cease the frown on my face, but it was a helpless situation. I have to take a very good care of this prince if I want to have a smooth future.

"You better repay me for this, Prince."

"Haha, gugu!" The baby laughs.

My lips formed into a tight smile. Amusing.

__

My unusual eyes, colored in red just like that of the demon's, is a big liable in my part. People are fearful of the unknown and those who resemble their nightmares --- unfortunately I am both of those. I have to take care of it and I already thought of a solution.

The plan is simple; make myself seem bright and likeable.

I started with Pax, the youngest of the village Chief's son but also my dad's favorite student. He is known as the diligent learner and my dad, Roldo, praises him the most for that. The villagers caught a wind of it and soon he became famous throughout the village. The village Chief was proud of Pax, saying that out of all Roldo's students, he is most likely going to become a scholar studying in official schools.

It's a big thing for a commoner becoming a scholar, as it becomes easier to be the breadwinner of the family.

Pax is just a boy, but every families in the village look up to him. It'll do me good if I attach myself to him and ride onto his high profile made by the village.

Plus, he is the village Chief's child, if the leader of the people accepts me, it'll be easier for them to do so too.

Roldo is the village's only scholar teacher and his standing is more than enough to gather influence, but it's never good to depend on only one source of asset.

I'll take every means to ensure a smooth success.

Three days passed since the last time I met with Pax -- unfortunately my parents didn't want me to go out for a awhile in fear of getting my eyes discovered again, like how aunty Farra did, although that one was intentional on my side.

I guess it was my fault.

I took the sudden free time to be proactive. The sipusan plant I asked from aunty Farra five days ago have been long hanged dried since then. I took them out from the back of our house, where it is shaded from the direct sunlight, but open for fresh air. It's summer, and the weather is mostly warm, this season is perfect to dry some plants.

I am not an expert on plants back on Earth, but one of my grandpa's close friends is a gardener. He owns a coffee company that produces instant coffees which was very popular. Whenever my grandpa pays him a visit with me, that old man always drags me into his garden and educates me about his "babies", which are the plants and flowers.

It was where I learned about natural hair dyeing. A sage is a plant that can be used for cooking to add flavours to the food as well as to color a person's hair and darken it.

It was a simple process; dry the leaves, pour two cups of water and boil it, add the dried leaves onto the water and leave it for two hours. After straining out the leaves and cooling off the infused water, pour it onto your hair and let it soak for about an hour or so before rinsing it.

The old man once said, --"when your grandpop's too old he couldn't even walk for thirty minutes, do this for him. He thinks that having grey hair will make him look like a wise old man. Too childish, isn't he, child?"

--"Then why should I darken his hair? Wouldn't he hate it? What if he gets an heart attack instead? That's a risky prank, Uncle."

--"That old damned grandpops of yours survived a hefty years in our world, and a mere hair dye kills him? It's unrealistic, child. He even lived longer than his oldest son."

Then, as if he just remembered something, the old man quickly added, --"Sorry, I didn't mean to speak bad. This old brain of mine is getting rusty, and sometimes I forget not to say the things I shouldn't. Little Rai understands, right? Forgive this old man, okay?"

I was seventeen years old back then, and I remember not saying anything. I gave him a slight nod after awhile.

He pats me on my back and says, "The Spauldings are strong, and so are you, Rai."

It has been a long time since then, hasn't it? Three years since I've reincarnated into this world. I must say, I adapted so quickly in just a few years.

The Earth was technologically advanced, but here in this world, in this tiny village of mine, is peaceful and quiet.

Sipusan is a foreign plant, although it may resemble the sage plant in some ways, I still haven't verified it yet. I went outside to take some light colored leaves, and after cooling the infused boiled water, I put the leaves inside the pot. I left it alone for hours while I was attending to the little prince.

Baby Ellios almost immediately beams after seeing me, he lets out little giggles and kept reaching out to me so I could hold him. I didn't bother taking him to my hands.

His golden eyes shines like gemstone -- a yellow topaz, a stone that symbolizes harmony and balance. A complete contrast to his original character from the book; a bringer of chaos, a disturbance to the order. Ellios was not a bright stone, he was dark and mad.

But I will have to change that. It should be easy, unlike from the original book, all it has to take is a good environment and a good teacher figure to look up to.

I don't mind acting like a saint for this.

"Your eyes can not change," I whispered, "and so are mine, but we will need to change your hair into a more common one."

The golden eyes and silver hair is the direct indication of the current royal family in the palace. The first born prince of her Majesty the Queen was kidnapped and lost, and the three biggest capitals in the kingdom has been notified; the Northern, Eastern and Southern capitals. Naturally, the towns and villages sorrounding the capitals have long been informed.

Once someone caught a glimpse of this baby prince in our house, it'll simply lead to doom before death.

The eyes can not be changed, but the hair can. Once done, it'll be much easier to make a story for the eyes. Once the village accepts my red eyes, what more with the golden one?

Well, I hope it'll work. After all, we'll have to stay in this village for a few more years to teach this baby the good path. The environment of the village is very good; fresh air, chilly in the morning, warm in the afternoon, the people are nice and respects our family. Cozy, to be exact, perfect for molding a prince into a well mannered one.

After these three days I spent my time analyzing the effects of the sipusan hair dry I halfheartedly made. The lighter colored leaves I picked up for testing turned light brown. I put more sipusan in the hot water and the leaves turned even darker. After contemplating, I went back to find the prince and examined his hair.

The leaves didn't show a visible sign of side effects, although it changed them to turn brown, I won't know if it'll be fine to directly pour the infused water to Ellios' hair.

"Guu... haha!" The baby reaches out to me again.

I smiled and said, "Let me borrow a strand of your hair, it's for experiment, alright?"

The baby giggles and I took that as an approved permission. I grabbed a scissor from my mom's sewing kit and cut a few hairs.

"Thanks."

He seems happy about it.

I run back around and tried again. First, I directly poured a few strands to the infused water. It changed to darker color, but the hair seemed to lost its life. So, it's not safe to put too much into the hair.

Next, I took a cup and put a strand of hair in it before pouring little bit of infused water. The outcome showed the same and I frowned.

I made a new hair dye, this time I put only two slightly smaller leaves of sipusan, boiled it before letting it cool after. Since this era don't have a brush except for writing on scripts, I used my index finger to brush the silver hair with the infused water, wet enough to know that it'll have an effect.

This time, it showed a more acceptable result. The silver hair turned light brown, looking very good unlike the others earlier.

I made a mental note of this. Later on, when Ellios becomes a toddler, I'll have to change his hair and turn it brown.

__

The next day, the village Chief's son, Pax, came knocking to the house early in the morning.

"Pardon me, Mrs. Sera, I'm here for Rai. If you don't mind we..."

I popped my head out of the window and said, "Pax-nii, my parents aren't here. I'm alone."

"Oh!" Pax stumbles back from the front door and scratches his cheeks, "Sorry, I didn't know. Anyways, I have news for you, Rai!"

"What news?"

He smiles brightly, "A good one!"

_______

So I, uh, I guess I owe you guys an apology. I'm sorry I have never bothered looking into this story for 2 months, I've been busy these days. I'll try to create more chapters but, to be sure that I won't let you guys down, I'll change the status of this story into "hiatus" instead of "ongoing".

Even if hiatus, I could still update chapters bit by bit, right? Anyways, I'm going back to my cave and try to summon my braincells back into my brain.

Again, I'm so, sorry. I will try to make it up to you.

PS. I appreciate all the corrections for the grammar and spelling in this story. I hope y'all summon your "grammar nazi" for me so I could correct myself! English is my third language so I can't be perfect with it. I appreciate direct and nicer assistance if you don't mind <3