“Hey, Adam!”

“Heyo Danil!”

*Clasp* *Clasp* Feet on the ground, and push.

“Hrrnggg!!!”

“You always give such a warm welcome; your hands are so warm!”

“...and you aren’t budging!”

The two have just met and they’re already having a contest of strength. Each finger locked within each other, their hands almost the same height as their heads, leaning toward each other so that if one were to suddenly vanish on their current position, the other would surely fall face forward to the floor.

They are currently in one of the empty rooms the house has, but since it kept being used by Adam, it got a few furniture here and there, and a very wide carpet. It’s spacious since it’s not filled with any decorative items, it’s a real plain room with more space in mind.

*Grip grip*

Adam: using his feet to stand his ground, his legs to give the small burst of strength needed to push, the slight rotation of the hips that connects to his core and up to his chest, his shoulders girdle with the use of the back dealing with a weight that’s comparable to be pushing a wall, and finally his fingers who are gripping with its utmost strength trying to dig in to the other’s hand.

Literally doing his best to push Danil away from his spot. Though Danil doesn’t look like he’s even trying.

“You shouldn’t be making such a face, Adam. Girls shouldn’t look angry all the time; mama said you’ll have wrinkles.”

Adam’s face is currently showing gritted teeth that’s almost forming a grin, narrowed eyes with creased brows, a face that looks like he’s really struggling.

Though this little shit still thinks Adam’s a girl. Doesn’t help that his hair is longer now.

By the way, Danil is still a head taller than him.

“…I’m not angry. Grrr… just. Trying. My best!”

Danil took a simple step forward. Just a single step.

*Step*

“Gn!?”

A single step. That was enough to overpower Adam and make him lose his form, him leaning forward almost turned into him standing straight.

*Hop*

But Adam immediately hopped a bit and pushed on the hands he’s currently gripping to regain his earlier stance of leaning forward. He succeeded, though Adam lost his position because he further pushed himself back with that move.

*Lands* Adam exerted more effort on his feet to his toes, just so he doesn’t get easily pushed again.

“You don’t have to worry; most girls don’t join hunts.”

“Hump!”

Adam swiftly took a step forward by crossing his legs then reaped Danil’s feet off the floor by hooking his leg inside of Danil’s leg then pushed him down.

*Thud*

“Ow, that’s a weird foot movement.”

That takedown was personal, wasn’t it?

It was done in one fast motion where Danil didn’t even realize that Adam changed his stance before it was too late. Utilizing a move close to Judo, one that was called O-uchi-gari; the time when he looked at martial arts moves on his free time is paying off, just needs execution of it now.

It feels weird. If it’s a contest of strength, then I can’t budge Danil one bit, but the moment I tried utilizing just his weight, it became possible to move him. It’s like the heavy brick wall I was trying to push suddenly became legos.

“…”

“Hi, Riette.”

Riette walked closer to Adam, preparing to do her greetings. “Hello…”

*Clasp* *Clasp*

The two also started a contest of strength!

What the hell are they even doing?

I can’t really help it if she wanted to join too…!

Danil and Riette sometimes visit Adam to hang out and spend time with him. This is just one of those instances.

This happened a month after Adam got his dream about C. At first, it was just Danil escorted by his parents, they basically just dropped him off like to Adam’s house like it was some sort nursery school.

Since he was left there with Adam, Adam had this awesome idea to gauge his training progress by making their greetings into a contest of strength. To this day, Adam has never won a single contest of strength against Danil.

Riette would start to visit afterward. Adam, not being used to having a lone girl visitor, just invited her for a tea party, upon the suggestion of Emily. Well, that act itself felt awkward already, since there really isn’t much to do other than drink tea, and talk, but there’s really no topic to talk about with a child. So he started rambling with Riette about stories that’s mostly just based on his experience and the accumulated memory of manga, anime, light novels, series and what not.

She’s a very good listener, she nods and stares at the speaker for God knows how long without getting tired.

“Hrnngg!!”

“Nnn…!”

Then why is she now also joining the contest of strength?

One time, when Riette visited, she coincided with the visit of Danil, albeit a little late. So, when she got to the Room where Adam was, she saw Adam and Danil in the middle of their roughhousing.

Riette’s initial glimpse shocked her so much that her little mouth was just left hanging. Adam had to stop what they were doing, and he immediately thereafter started to explain himself; though he also isn’t sure why he had to explain himself in such a hurry even though he was also sure that they weren’t doing anything wrong in the first place.

And so, we are now in this situation where Riette insisted on also joining the roughhouse play. She doesn’t usually assert herself, so in the end, Adam just agreed. And to that day on, Riette and Danil would coming together, it’s also easier for Adam since he really isn’t used to accommodating a single girl visitor.

“Your hands are… very warm…!”

“Hrnn…yup it is!”

The two’s contest is almost equal, but Riette is ahead by just a little bit by slowly and surely pushing Adam back.

“Hnph!”

“Nn!?”

Adam is managing to even it back with pure guts in the form of small bursts of explosive strength that happen intermittently.

“Nnnnnnn!”

Riette’s response is to steadily maintain her momentum which in turn, recovers the distance that Adam managed to gain on her when he isn’t bursting with strength.

“Kuu! KrrrnnNGG!”

Gritting his teeth tightly with a face almost the same as earlier, Adam has now started to consistently and continuously burst with strength that finally made Riette get steadily pushed back.

“Don’t lose Riette!” Danil cheered for the losing side.

His cheering didn’t help much, but it did remind her that she was losing against Adam.

“huff…. [Enhance – Strength].”

There, her hands started to faintly glow and her grip on Adam became tight.

*Grip grip*

“Ow ow ow!”

Very tight.

It was so strong that Adam’s grip was forcefully getting loose due to the pressure of her fingers over his knuckles.

“Nn!”

Riette started her comeback as she slowly and surely pushed him back even with Adam’s burst of strength, it just slowed her momentarily but continued to push back normally afterwards. She’s pushing him faster than how Danil normally would.

“Ow! Nng! – Humph!”

A repeat of the move he used on Danil earlier. Adam crossed his legs and forwarded a leg to reap the inner leg of Riette like a hook!

*Fwish*

“!!” She dodged it!?

Riette just raised the leg that was about to be hooked, which made Adam miss. She must’ve been observing intently earlier and guessed that Adam would use the same move once he started to lose.

I salute you for foiling it, however!

At that moment quick instance of Riette raising her leg, she let herself open! Before she could even properly land the leg that she raised, Adam alternated his feet, now hooking with his other leg to reap the leg that was still on the floor.

*Sweep*

“u!”

Having your last leg swept, of course, will make you lose footing. For Riette, it’s like she floated in the air while facing the ceiling, still trying to process what had happened, then comes gravity to do its work of pulling her whole body back to the floor.

“…ah.”

*Grip*

Adam maintained his hold on her hand and pulled her closer just so she doesn’t badly hit the floor, but now she’s looking straight back at his face; the same face that looked beautiful, brown eyes that’s intently staring at her, a fitting nose that’s cute, and glossy lips that looked like cherries.

“…” Riette faced to the side because she can’t maintain continued eye contact with him for some reason.

*Clap clap clap* “You two look like you just danced!”

They really do, it looks like they just did a move from a dance that looked similar to a dip. Hands intertwined and one of Riette’s legs was raised and the other finally landed on the floor. Although they’re both just wearing tunic shirts and fit shorts.

*Unhands*

“!”

Since Adam already stopped her bad fall, it’s easier to just let her go at that position, making her slowly sink down to the floor.

It looked funny how Riette tried to swim in the air, wiggling her arms around to try and stop her slow and inevitable fall.

*Thud*

“Ow… Bully.”

Adam stretched his whole body by raising both his arms in the air. “Hnnng! Just try to win next time.”

Riette just blinked slowly but quickly stood up. Some of her salmon-colored strands of hair are sticking to her face due to sweat, so she quickly tidied herself and took out a a small towel to wipe her sweat with.

With her standing straight, she’s half a head taller than Adam.

“Why are the two of you not tired?... Both of you didn’t even sweat.”

“I’m used to it.” Adam nonchalantly said.

Danil raised his hand while still sitting on the floor. “I help in butchering meat!”

“Huh? You actually know how to do that, Danil?”

“Of course, Adam! The cleaver is heavy! I also had to repeatedly strike the bone before it gets chopped!”

So that’s why you’re extra tough for a four-year-old! Though, it’s good that he can still help with some physical labor despite having asthma.

Overall, it feels like there’s still more to it rather than just a full body workout that is similar to chopping wood to be that strong.

Learning something new about Danil made Adam curious as to how Riette had also been doing to easily catch up to him in strength.

“What about you, Riette? What have you been doing?”

“…I’ve been accompanying father on some of his hunts.”

Danil looked surprised. “Wow, you join your father in hunts, Riette?” He then crossed his arms and tilted his head as if thinking of something.

“…Is it that hard to believe?”

“No! I believe it!” Danil shook his hands in front of Riette, denying what she had said. “I just thought that we should all go on a hunt once we’re older! We might be able to make it more normal for girls to join in hunts, if it’s the three of us!”

This little shit is implying that I’m a girl, right?

Taller than you.

As much as Adam wanted to agree in joining a hunt with them while denying the girl allegations, he thought it logically if he really could.

Some kids can get free reign to join their parents whenever and wherever, unless your name is called ADAM and you’ll just be told to sit back and stay safe. I still have the “coming of age” ceremony, maybe I can change it by then.

“…Yes, let’s all go on a hunt once we’re older.” Riette is seen to be smiling while looking at her hand and she formed it into a fist.

“…”

Adam is starting to get a little worried that Riette is growing up to be such a tomboy. It might’ve been a bad influence to let her join in the contest of strength. She’s still soft spoken mind you, but her agility and strength aren’t something to scoff at, especially when you add her enhancing magic.

She was so meek before…

“…What about you, Adam? What are you doing?”

“Yeah! What have you been doing? Don’t expect that we wouldn’t be curious too!”

Since Adam asked, it’s only fair that he’ll get asked too. The two have their curious gazes directed at him.

“Uh… nothing much, painting, I guess?”

“How do you get stronger by painting?”  Danil dropped his hands on his legs, looking confused.

Riette tilted her head. “…is your brush heavy?”

“It’s not that! I really haven’t done much… Though, I do eat more food now.”

“I see! Mama said to me that if you eat more food, you can grow stronger!”

“Are you eating something… funny?”

“I don’t have any recollection of eating something ‘funny’.”

At least, he thinks that the food he has eaten so far, is something to be considered as “normal”.

They’ll never believe my method anyway, and even if they do… It’s going to hinder my progress.

A method that will question whether you’re still human after seeing the results.

I don’t feel like human anymore.

He doesn’t even feel like joking about it. Even if it would’ve been the perfect reference of one of his favorites. That’s how much he values the last shred of feeling human in this world.

“!”

*Step back*

Adam felt that there was something foreign that made contact on his arm which made him back off and subsequently grasp the area.

Riette, she tried to touch his arm, one can easily say so because her hand is suspended in the air as if to reach on something.

“…is something wrong...?” Riette slowly retracted her hand back, her eyes that could usually look at Adam with clarity started to look unsteady.

As to why she touched Adam, she felt that he suddenly became sad, so she decided to reach up to him. But seeing his reaction made her feel like she was the cause. “…I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“What’s going on?”

It must’ve shown on Adam or just like how children can tell when their parents are expressing emotion, they are just more sensitive to it. Even Danil had stood up and went over after asking in worry.

Even if Adam was wearing the most perfect poker face, they probably would still feel it. He needs to be extra careful when having these sorts of mood swings when anyone’s around.

What the… what the hell am I doing?!

His reaction was quite excessive; Riette cowered, not knowing what to do.

It’s because of his “method” for training, making him quite sensitive to any physical stimuli. He’s usually ready to any sort of skinship, as per the earlier contest as an example.

As long as he’s ready for it, whether he’s confused, in shock, or surprised, it won’t be a problem. But it seems when he’s reminiscing about something that can be related to his past, in this case his “humanity”, he becomes temporarily vulnerable at that moment.

What have I done? Enough worrying about being human for now! Especially when I still can’t overpower Danil in a contest of strength and Riette easily managing to catch up!

There’s more to it than that, with Danil and Riette’s weight combined, Adam is confident enough in his strength that he can lift them both on each hand and run a kilometer without running out of breath; He could do 100 push-ups now without getting tired, though he is avoiding doing so, in case someone else saw him again.

That’s why he feels like there’s some sort of disconnect in being “human”, an actual visible and practical feat; no 4-year-old from earth can do that!

“Nothing! not much of importance, I was just startled!”

“We are all literally talking to each other, and you got startled by Riette who’s just beside you?”

“…”

Darn, why do you have to be accurately observant now?

“…You were just startled…? Not because I touched you?”

“……Yes, I was thinking of something else that I got startled.”

He thought about lying, but it would be safer to tell the truth in a roundabout way. Still, the impression that he was sad is still pronounced.

“I see, this must be the same one mama had.”

The two looked at Danil, they were curious about how this could be the same. So, he continued,

“Mama gets angry at dad for seemingly no reason at all, but when she was asked, she always said that she was thinking about something. Dad would usually just hug mama to help her calm down.”

“…” 

Of course, it’s related to being a girl again, why did I expect something else?

Riette looked at Adam intently, it’s quite obvious that she wants to test it out.

…Seriously? Well, I guess it would prove that my reaction is not the cause of her touching me. Kids these days.

Adam spread both of his arms and beckoned Riette. “…Come here.”

“…I’m supposed to start the hug.”

“…”

“…”

“Yeah, dad did it, so… It’s supposed to be Riette to initiate the start.”

SHIIIIIT FUCKING KILL ME! I GOT TOO EAGER ON PROVING IT’S NOT HER FAULT! NOW IT LOOKS LIKE I WANTED A HUG!

Adam stiffly let down his hands and tucked it to the side, it looked very unnatural along with pressing his lips together while looking red. His eyes looked like it wanted to run away in shame with how it tried to move around.

*Hug*

“!”

Riette hugged Adam when he looked like he needed it. She hugged him like she has used before, it came naturally, and she wasn’t even embarrassed.

Getting hugged by someone that’s about the same size as you is nice. Adam can feel himself relaxing and feeling warm. With each breath, he felt lighter and relieved. He didn’t even notice himself that he was already hugging her back.

This is… not bad.

Danil asked, “Feeling better?”

“…Yeah.” He looked at Riette who was hugging him. “Thanks, Riette.”

The two let go of each other and Riette smiled at Adam. Seeing a genuine smile like that made Adam smile back.

Danil may be mistaken at times but he still means well. I should be thankful to him too.

“…I feel like I want another hug, come here Danil!”

Adam didn’t even wait for Danil’s response, he already started walking toward him with open arms.

“Hugs are great!” Danil accepted the hug as he also tackled Adam making a bop sound when they made contact.

“Ow!- Heh, thanks, Danil!”

*Glomp*

Something pushed Adam forward from behind, it made them almost trip over. It was another hug from behind him, it’s Riette, she joined in again.

Adam glanced from behind. “So, Riette wanted another hug too.” 

“…”

Riette didn’t say anything, she just hugged tighter.

“I also join in when mama and dad hugs! Everyone here is also so warm!”

“Yup, both of you are warm.”

“…but Adam is the warmest.” Riette said in a muffled tone.

“I agree! Adam feels warmer than anyone.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

 

 

Chapter 21 end. ~~~Having friends is nice in another world~~~

 

 

 

Glossary:

LEGOs - Plastic building block toys. Please tell me you know about this, I feel sad for your childhood if you don’t know about legos.