Laws wasn't an unreasonable person, or rather, he understood Shirou and Rudeus's personalities better than anyone else.
So, he quickly understood the situation, realizing that his daughter's crying wasn't because Shirou and Rudeus were bullying her, but because Sylphy was worried that Shirou and Rudeus would leave Buena Village in the future, leaving her alone in this place.
For Laws, he was naturally very concerned about Sylphy's situation. If he could, he would like to ask Shirou and Rudeus not to abandon his daughter. But he also knew that Shirou and Rudeus's talents wouldn't be confined by a small place like Buena Village.
Sylphy was destined to have a separation from these two brothers in the future. It was only a matter of time. It was better to start accepting reality now.
So, he didn't take too much care of his daughter. He even showed indifference to Sylphy, who was crying non-stop. Then, he turned his gaze to Shirou and Rudeus.
"Laws, what are you doing here?"
Shirou looked at the blonde half-elf. "Didn't you ask Sylphy to stay with us temporarily? Is there something you need to call Sylphy back for?"
"No, I'm not here for Sylphy today."
Laws shook his head. "In fact, the person who asked me to come find you is Mr. Paul."
"Paul?"
"Father?"
Shirou and Rudeus looked at each other, never expecting to hear Paul's name here.
Zenith and Lilia, who were taking care of the children, couldn't help but look over, very concerned about the news Laws brought about Paul.
Seeing the Greyrat family looking at him, Laws quickly opened his mouth: "Mr. Paul moved to the forest before, to guard the forest alone, right? He has been very dedicated this year, to the point that Buena Village doesn't even need to have regular hunts. He cleared all the demons in the forest by himself."
"That guy is working pretty hard..."
Hearing Paul's actions, the corners of Zenith's mouth couldn't help but curve up slightly.
She really hoped to see Paul sincerely repent and become a more reliable man than his previous carefree appearance.
Laws obviously wasn't there to praise Paul's achievements. He quickly changed the subject and said seriously: "Originally, relying on his efforts, the demons in the forest would basically be wiped out quickly. But after winter came, the situation became different. Many more demons appeared in the winter forest, in even greater numbers than last winter. In addition, the winter environment affected visibility, making it difficult for ordinary people to kill demons. As a result, the task of exterminating demons was forced to be given to Mr. Paul alone."
"You mean, Paul went to the forest to exterminate demons alone?"
"That's right, it was his choice."
"..."
Unexpectedly, Paul would do such an impulsive thing to atone for his sins. Strange expressions suddenly appeared on the faces of the Greyrat family.
They had already realized that Paul was truly trying to repent his mistakes and become a more reliable person than before.
"In that case, why did Uncle Laws come to our house?"
Rudeus noticed the contradiction in Laws's behavior and couldn't help but ask, "Father went into the forest alone, so there's no way he could send you any messages, right?"
"Indeed, Mr. Paul hasn't been heard from since he entered the forest. But before he entered the forest, he came to me, saying that if he didn't receive any news from him within three days, to come find Shirou, and have Shirou lead the villagers to build a defense line on the edge of the forest to defend against the demons' attacks."
"Is the situation that serious?"
Shirou's expression suddenly became extremely serious.
Since Paul had given such instructions, it meant that he had noticed that something terrible had appeared in the forest. He preferred to risk entering the forest alone rather than come back for support, probably hoping to solve the problem alone and not involve the rest of the Greyrat family.
"That idiot!"
Now, a worried look finally appeared on Zenith's face, complaining about Paul's know-it-all actions.
Lilia comforted Zenith, but her face also showed unease.
In this situation, Shirou showed a serious expression for the first time. He realized that he had to stand up and protect everyone in this family now.
So, he immediately made arrangements, telling Zenith and Lilia to stay at home to take care of the children, while he put on his clothes and went to the village to gather adults to deal with the demons.
"Shirou, I'll go with you too!"
Rudeus volunteered, unwilling to sit still and wait for death at this time. He wanted to fight alongside Shirou.
"...Okay."
Shirou nodded. Rudeus was a Water Saint-level mage, so he couldn't be regarded as an ordinary seven-year-old child. At this time, he would naturally need to rely on the other party's strength.
Seeing the two brothers about to leave, Sylphy couldn't help but stop crying. She looked at the two of them with complicated expressions as they put on their thick coats and left the house, but she didn't have the courage to follow them.
"..."
For a moment, Sylphy finally realized what she lacked compared to the two brothers of the Greyrat family, and where she fell short. Her expression suddenly became extremely dim.
"Sylphy..."
Laws noticed his daughter's expression and couldn't help but touch her head.
Being with geniuses is always a painful thing, because geniuses are like a whirlpool, unconsciously swallowing everything around them, like a storm, using their talents to overturn peaceful daily life.
Only geniuses of the same level can accompany each other, either moving forward together or confronting each other.
Meeting geniuses like Shirou and Rudeus, who are by no means ordinary people, is both Sylphy's luck and her misfortune.
And no one knows what direction all of this will lead to in the future...
...
After leaving the Greyrat house, Shirou and Rudeus immediately came to Buena Village.
The people in the village had obviously been reminded by Laws in advance, so before Shirou and Rudeus arrived, they had already organized a team to resist the demons around the forest.
"This is..."
When he came to the familiar edge of the forest, Shirou immediately noticed that something was wrong.
The magic power concentration in the entire forest was unusually high, which meant that there was probably an extremely terrifying demon entrenched in it, causing the magic power concentration of the entire forest to rise sharply. This led to a greater number of demons appearing around the forest than usual.
Fortunately, the villagers had prepared protective nets around the forest in advance to cope with the winter demon surge. Simply put, they used wooden stakes and vines to build a defense line, and even dug ditches in some places to prevent the demons in the forest from spreading out and attacking Buena Village.
However, even so, the demon surge was still constantly impacting the protective network.
Among them were not only common demon wolves, forest snakes, and serrated demon rats, but also some strange-looking demons that obviously didn't appear in Buena Village.
Relying on the protective net, the villagers were able to attack the demons with weapons such as pitchforks from a safe place, but this still couldn't solve the fact that an alarming number of demons were constantly spreading out from the forest.
After all, the villagers were generally ordinary people who had not undergone combat training. The most they did on weekdays was farming in the fields, not hunting demons on the battlefield.
In the past, with Paul leading the way and them assisting from behind, there was no problem. Now that Paul had broken into the depths of the forest alone, it was clear that they were not capable of resisting the demon surge.
"Careful!"
Just then, a huge black demon with a B-level strength emerged from the forest. It was a giant wild boar that walked on two legs but had four arms—a Terminator Boar.
Its huge size even exceeded the protective net made by the villagers. It was about to break a gap in the protective net, which would bring great damage to the villagers—
"Crack!"
Just as chaotic expressions appeared on the faces of all the villagers, unsure of what to do, a red-haired boy suddenly charged out of the crowd.
Faced with such a terrifying demon, Shirou directly rushed out of the protective net, drew the long sword behind him at an extremely fast speed, and came straight to the front of the demon!
Faced with the human boy, the boar demon didn't take it seriously and continued to charge.
But to its surprise, even though it was just a human child, the other party's speed was so fast that it almost left afterimages on the ground!
"Soundless—Slash!"
Before the sound fell, the sword light had already cut through space.
"Crack!"
The huge demon hadn't even realized what had happened. Its huge body had already been cut straight in half by the long sword. In the face of a slash so fast that even the sound couldn't keep up, it was cut in two with one slash!
"Rudy!"
After destroying the demon, Shirou didn't waste any time and signaled Rudeus directly.
Receiving the signal, Rudeus didn't hesitate. He jumped to a high place for the first time, raised the magic wand in his hand, and released a powerful magic spell towards the demon surge in front of him—Fire Tornado!
"Boom!"
The fire magic that skipped the chanting suddenly emerged from the boy's hand and fell from the sky like a huge fire dragon, charging forward fiercely.
Under the spread of the amazing flames, the snow on the whole earth seemed to be completely burned away. The demons suffered heavy casualties and were so frightened that they all fled back into the interior of the forest.
"This... is too strong..."
Most of the villagers were witnessing the two brothers of the Greyrat family showing their strength for the first time. The advanced swordsmanship and advanced magic used by the two were enough to be comparable to the professional soldiers of the Asura Kingdom.
Now that so many people have seen this scene and received a shock, even if there is no need to deliberately spread it, the name of the Greyrat family's genius brothers will probably spread automatically, not only may it become famous in the Fittoa Territory, but it may even spread to the entire Asura Kingdom.
---
Read 55+ advanced chapters on patreon.com/yeyeqiu
Free member can read up to 4 advanced chapters