The duo of father and son traveled through the forest they lived in. Occasionally hunting some monsters and animals they met on their way.

Lucifer figured that like this he could teach Ciel more hunting techniques and let him gain some experience.

By the end of the day both of them reached the outskirts of the forest. But since it had already been dusk they camped outside.

And continued their journey the next morning.

Walking for a few minutes we finally succeeded in leaving the forest.

 

"Fuu...We're finally out of that forest..!  " Ciel said as a grassy plain spread before his eyes.

 

"Wow....this is beautiful, so these are the plains . Aren't they..?"

 

"mmhm...you can admire it's beauty while walking. Or else we're not gonna reach anywhere soon" Lucifer said walking forward.

 

Walking from there , they stopped time to time for resting. And by noon they were in front of a village.

 

"Ooh..this is a village huh. I thought it would be much smaller. But unexpectedly huge." Ciel said admiring the walls surrounding the village.

 

"Usually they are not this big. But due to the recent dragon attacks many villages have been destroyed. So the remaining people who survived would band together at some place, so that they can live safely." 

 

"But wont the dragons attack again if there are many people in the same place"

 

"Dragons are not the only threats in this world, kid" He said looking at the entrance of the village.

 

Two gatekeepers were standing at the entrance of the village. With a serious expression on their faces they looked at the people approaching the settlement.

 

"Looks like they're quite serious about their jobs." Ciel said watching the gatekeeper's expression.

 

"Crimes have increased in the recent times. So they will be careful about the people entering their villages." Explaining the matters to his son, both of them moved towards the village.

 

"Halt..! Who are you.? What business do you have in this village.?" As soon as they approached the gates , they were stopped in their tracks.

 

"Greetings. My name is Lucifer and this is my son Luciel. We were on our way to Lupinus Town, so stopped here to restock on our supplies. " Lucifer replied in a monotone voice.

 

"I see. Give me your Identification , please." It seemed like after hearing him , they loosened up a bit.

 

Giving the papers to the guard and verifying everything, the father-son duo stepped into the village.

 

"Welcome to fire village. We hope you enjoy your stay." The guards said with a smile giving them a way in.

 

As they were finding an inn to stay the night, Luciel was busy sightseeing.

After all, it was his first time in a human settlement other than his house. He was very happy , hopping around place to place dragging his father behind. He was dragged into every kinds of stores by the curious kid.

And finally he was tired from all the running around and sat down on a bench in the street, giving Lucifer a moment to breath.

 

"Woahh...villages are totally awesome right. There are all kinds of places and people here." The boy said as he chewed onto the meat skewer they had bought early.

"And this meat skewer is delicious too"

"Yeah...there are..but towns and cities are much bigger than villages like this." He also said taking a sip of water from his bottle and looking around.

"Really..?"

"Really."

"Ok , then let's go now..!" The boy said jumping from with his suddenly replenished energy.

 

"Not so fast kid. We'll leave tomorrow. Today we're staying in this village." 

 

"What..! Why.? Let's leave now. See I'm fine now."

 

"Nah. I'm too tired to continue today." The older man replied in an indifferent tone.

 

"What...No..I want to lea.." Before Ciel could finish his tantrum a fist was implanted to his head.

 

"Oww...that still hurts.." he said rubbing his bumped head.

 

"Then don't be such a kid.."  The man replied , starting to walk again.

"Hey ,but I am a kid" The young said following.

 

Some people who saw this chuckled , seeing the boy follow the man like a duckling would go with it's mother.

---

After their stay in fire village, They were ready to continue their travels again. Paying the rest of the inn fee , both father and son went outside.

 

"Hey dad..What is that..?" While they were making their way to the gates, Luciel asked.

 

What he pointing was stone circle. In the center of the circle there was statue of a phoenix.

 

"Hmmm...seems like some kind of ceremonial altar or something." Said Lucifer, watching the stone circle from afar. It was inside the village. In the west corner , where no houses were seen near.

 

"Woah...that statue looks like a phoenix , like in the books.." The boy said in amazement.

 

"Mmm..come on now. We're getting late." The man said continuing to walk towards the exit.

 

Thus saying their farewells to the guards both of them left the fire village resuming their travels.

 

Seeing the leaving figure of the duo one of the gatekeepers asked the other.

 

"Looks like they weren't our enemies after all."

 

"But the man had so much magic. There's no doubt that he was a mage. Even the boy , how come a child have that much magic in him."

 

"But our men were following them throughout their stay, they didn't do anything suspicious."

 

"Hmm, you're right. Maybe it's just us." The guard said staring at the travelers as they vanished from their sights.

 

Meanwhile with Lucifer and Luciel.

 

"As I thought. They were spying on us." Lucifer thought as he heard everything the guards said using his wind magic.It was an advanced spell in which one would control the winds to direct the sounds from afar to the caster himself.

 

During their stay in the village he had picked up many presences following them. But since Luciel was with him he chose to ignore them and keep him away from harm's way.

 

"The village must have had many attempts of attacks for their phoenix stone.So they thought we were spies that came for it. They must have been planning to capture and torture us."

Looking at the boy who was happily walking in front of him oblivious to any of this , he quickly dismissed all the thoughts and walked faster.