I am Rontress Owelline. An aunt in the making and someone who would, for some reason or the other— oh who am I kidding! It's because I want to help my family! — improve the lives of everyone inside of my village. Diseases are slowly being eradicated... Sort of, we only have one clinic so far but I'm hoping it becomes three two months from now!

  Becoming someone who leads an entire village was never part of my plan to be honest, it happened anyway and so far? I think I've done a pretty good job, there's education centers along the way and I'm even helping out my wizard buddy make a Wizard Tower! Isn't that so cool?!

  Oh, and his name is Bylor by the way, just thought I'd let you know.

  "Rontress, can you come with me for a second?"

  The speaker is a little girl about my age, she had onyx hair and eyes the same shade as mid-autumn leaves, the way she carried herself is casual, unrepentant. Some might call it arrogant.

  If she ever introduces herself, she'd say that her name is Ifira Starzoga Haromago, or more likely, she'd call herself the Perfect Vessel and tell the unfortunate soul brave enough to talk to her to kneel.

  Unless it's me of course, she and I are good friends.

  "Sure? What do you want?"

  Out of all the things I've accomplished so far, I think befriending Ifira would be the best one. See, we're both fated to become monsters, but I learned that fate can be flipped over its head and avoided.

  Thus, this friendship of ours means that I have a chance to prevent Ifira from becoming a world-ending threat in the future.

  "I don't think I like the way the ice cream shop is looking?" She's just a little girl for now, someone who likes ice cream, friends, and other childish things. I personally don't see the monster she would become.

  Though then again, some people would disagree, and Ifira's family would be among them.

  "It's still just bones isn't it? Walls haven't been built yet." Not me though! Never me, I'd give her a chance at a peaceful life or die trying. "How can you be so impatient?"

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "Impatient?!" She clicked her tongue. "They should be building it quicker! I wanna see it!"

  Ah, so there it is. It wasn't that she disliked the current look of the ice cream shop, rather, she wanted it built immediately. I don't understand her impatience but then again, I'm not really a child mentally.

  If I acted my age, I'm sure that I would be impatient as well. What kid wouldn't want their own ice cream shop?

  "Well, let's go together then." I say softly, choosing to understand Ifira and go along with her whims isn't a bad thing, and I do draw the line more often than not. "I'm telling you though, the ice cream shop isn't that special."

  "I don't care, just tell those people to be quicker."

  "Fine, fine."

  Ifira was fuming throughout our walk, and if I wasn't strolling so casually or if she was alone, the girl definitely would have run towards the in-progress building just so she could vent out her anger.

  As things stand, that won't happen.

  Me walking slowly on purpose means that Ifira would have time to think and cool down, hopefully, when we get to the shop, she would have enough mental clarity to not kill the carpenters we hired.

  "Why won't you walk faster?"

  "I'm feeling lethargic." An authentic yawn followed my declaration, was it because I was trying to be lazy or some kind of weird coincidence?

  "Ugh." Ifira clenched her fists. "Can we please move faster?!"

  "Okay, fine. If that's what you want." Ifira getting irritated by my actions is a good thing, if she's mad at me instead of the workers, it means they have a higher chance of survival. The only thing they need to do is keep their mouths shut.

  On the way there, we pass by another building that's under construction.

  When I sent inspectors to come here and check the land for any aberrants, I never expected that the giant crayfish would have access to a natural hot spring. Seriously, those bastards were keeping it for themselves!

  After eradicating them, I decided to build something on top of the spring, and it was just my luck that the damn thing is located in the exact same area where the noble district would be.

  Now we have more than one attraction.

  Maybe the hot spring would be even more popular than the aberrant viewing platforms? Who knows?

  Once we reached the construction site, I held Ifira back and instead of talking to the workers, I turned to her. "Ifira, it's still the start of spring, you do realize that no one in their right mind would come here to buy right now right?"

  "... But the shop?"

  She sounded like she was about to cry.

  "Look, soon, okay? How about we just go over the wall and start throwing rocks at aberrants again?"

  "Nope." Ifira crossed her hands and shook her head. "I want to do something."

  "Hm... Let me see then." She's very hard to please, isn't she? "How about I build a set of walls and we can start planning an orchard? Unlike the ice cream shop, this would be ours to make and ours alone."

  She lit up, thank god.

  "Okay!"

  And just like that, I got dragged away. Does this girl even know where we're going? She doesn't, right?

  Ah god, it's fine.

  I let myself get taken away, smiling lightly.