It was a bit past mid-day when a young girl with fiery-red hair and an even fierier temperament suddenly burst into his room and shouted, "Lucas! I heard you were better!"
Lucas was in the middle of doing a set of stretches he felt oddly familiar with yet had no recollection of ever doing before. While he found this strange, moving his stiff body felt good, and the exercises weren't too strenuous, so he decided to just continue with them.
However, when the girl who looked a few years older than him abruptly appeared while Lucas was trying to hold a certain stance, he immediately lost his balance and fell on his butt, thoroughly embarrassing himself.
"Ah! Lucas! Are you okay?!" Eris Newton, Lucas' childhood friend and overactive Big Sister rushed over and started patting him all over, a gesture that only made the young boy's face blush a brighter shade of red.
Coughing a bit to cover his embarrassment, Lucas smiled and reached out to pat Eris' head as he said, "I'm fine, Big Sister Eris, I was just… surprised you came to see me so suddenly."
Eris froze at that moment.
While she and Lucas had grown up together, and had known each other for much of their lives, in her mind, she was always the one doting on and taking care of him, so it felt a bit out of place for him to be the one patting her head, an act she had never recalled him doing before.
In fact, Lucas was also a bit surprised by his own actions. He had reached out and comforted his Big Sister like it was a completely natural thing to do, almost as if he had done so many times before, but as far as he could remember, this was the first time he ever interacted with Eris like this.
The two young children both stared at each other in something of a daze for a time, unsure of what to do next.
This awkward silence only lasted for a moment, though, before the pair heard two women chatting outside the young boy's room. Before they could be spotted, the young ones hurriedly separated and faced the door, not quite sure why they were feeling embarrassed but instinctually knowing they shouldn't be seen in such a position.
A moment later, two women walked into Lucas' room. The first to enter was the black-haired Anna, dressed in the light, flexible leather armour which she typically wore when she was performing her duties as the Town Guard Captain.
The second woman wore a long-sleeve shirt and pants which, while quite simple, were clearly made from good quality fabric and complimented her nearly waist length crimson-red hair nicely. She had noble flare about her, but didn't come off as overbearing or arrogant.
She was Sasha Balfour, the Lady of Redwood Town, wife of Charles Newton, and mother of Eris.
Quickly getting to his feet, Lucas called out in his still childish voice, "Hello, Aunty Sasha."
Eris on the other hand, seemingly forgetting all her previous awkwardness and embarrassment, simply shouted out, "Mom! What took you so long?"
Letting out a sigh as she rested her cheek on her hand, Sasha turned to Anna and complained in an exaggerated tone, "Just where did I go wrong, Anna? Your little boy is so proper and polite, but my Eris is such a rambunctious troublemaker… What am I going to do if she can't get married in the future?"
Playing along with her long-time friend, Anna shook her head and commented, "Don't worry, Sasha. I'm sure Little Eris will grow up to be a proper lady. Besides, even if she is a little more active, I know at least one boy who would happily have her as a wife."
"Oh ho… now I wonder who that little boy might be? Do I know him? I need to evaluate him well to see if he is worthy of my daughter!" Sasha joked along, the two mothers both not so subtly poking fun at their children.
Lucas, who by now was wishing he was still in a coma so he could avoid this shameful scene, wanted to interject to change the subject, but with the strict discipline his mother had given him since young, he was finding it hard to 'rudely' interrupt the adults' conversation.
Eris, of course, had no such qualms and shouted in an even louder voice than before, "Mom! Aunty! You… you!"
"Eris! I've told you many times not to shout, it's impolite!" Sasha scolded, causing Eris to purse her lips and stomp her foot in frustration.
Seeing a chance to cut in, Lucas seized it with great enthusiasm, "Aunty Sasha, what brings you and Big Sister Eris here today?"
"Silly boy, we're here to see you, of course!" Sasha also took the opportunity to move the conversation forward, deciding she could scold her daughter to her hearts content later, "We've all been so worried about you. It's good to see you up and about."
Once again throwing away her previous upset mood, Eris chimed in from the side, "That's right, that's right! When I heard you had fallen asleep and wouldn't wake up, I was so scared and worried!"
Lucas looked at the two red-heads who were like a second mother and big sister to him and couldn't stop his eyes from becoming a bit moist. He wanted to say how thankful he was, but when he tried to open his mouth to speak, he was suddenly overwhelmed by emotion.
Seeing Lucas start sniffling and nearly shedding tears, Eris began to panic, wondering if she had done something wrong. Anna and Sasha were also a little perplexed by this reaction, but they soon chalked it up to the boy being young and not able to express himself clearly.
With none of the arrogance or haughtiness one would expect from the wife of the Town Lord, Sasha Balfour squatted down and began stroking young Lucas' head with clear warmth and affection.
In truth, she very much liked this young boy who, unlike many sons of wealthy or noble families, had a kind and upright personality. Of course, she didn't expect the son of her best friend to be a degenerate, but having a naturally good heart and head were rare qualities Sasha could still appreciate.
After taking a moment to compose himself, Lucas didn't forget his manners and quickly bowed, "Thank you for worrying about me when I was sick, Aunty, Big Sister."
Smiling brightly, Sasha nodded at the boy and got up to speak with his mother, "Anna, are you sure you don't need some more time off to take care of little Lucas?"
Shaking her head, Anna replied with an equally bright smile, "It's alright, Sasha. Old Erwin already said there was no problems with Lucas' body and that he will be back to normal after a few days, so there's no reason for me to not resume my duties."
"Haa… Fine, if you say so, then I won't object. Just remember, if you ever need some time, just ask. You may be the Guard Captain, but honestly there's nothing to guard against in this town," Sasha relented in the end, knowing that her friend could be a bit stubborn when it came to her responsibilities.
In fact, other than regularly scheduled breaks, the past 5 days was the longest period of time off Sasha could recall Anna ever taking since Lucas was born.
Thankful for her friend's understanding, Anna smiled and nodded before she turned to her son, "Lucas, it's good for you to get up and move around, but don't overdo it, understand?"
"En, I won't do anything to worry you, Mom," Lucas nodded obediently.
Her son was quite sensible for his age, so Anna wasn't really worried, but she had to remind Lucas anyways because he had inherited her stubborn streak and tended to push himself too hard when he was focused on something. Determination was a useful trait, but not when one ignored their own wellbeing.
"Does that mean we can't play together today?" Eris asked from the side, looking a little disappointed.
"Eris, Lucas is still recovering from his accident, so of course he can't run around and play with you right away," Sasha chided her rambunctious daughter lightly.
Eris had always been a lively child who couldn't seem to sit still. Just a few years ago, she was often mistaken for a boy as she kept her hair very short and would often frolic in the mud or on the banks of the Belton River. She even got into fights with some of the older children in the town who were bullying the younger kids, causing many of the little ones to look up to and admire her as some kind of hero.
Even Lucas fell into this category to some extent as he tended to follow Eris around when she went out on her 'adventures'.
Seeing the sad look on Eris' face, Lucas couldn't help wanting to comfort her, but he didn't know what to say in this situation as he could feel that he wasn't up to moving about outside like normal. But, if he didn't say something, Eris would likely have to return home, something Lucas didn't want.
Unwilling to just give up, the little boy wracked his brain to come up with something the two of them could do together when suddenly, the vague images of those strange stretches, the ones he was doing earlier, came to mind.
Without worrying about where he got the knowledge from, Lucas latched onto it and asked, "Mom, Aunty Sasha, I still feel a bit stiff from lying in bed, so stretching and exercising a bit should be good for me. Since Big Sister Eris is here and is about my size, can she help a bit? I promise we won't do anything too difficult!"
Anna knit her brow slightly at this suggestion; not because she objected to it, but because she found it a bit out of place. She was rather strict with Lucas' upbringing and had been very satisfied with his development both physically and morally, to the point that she felt he was a bit too mature for his age. But all doting aside, she couldn't help feeling that the way in which he made this request, and the reasons he gave for it, were too sophisticated even for him.
Certainly, this wasn't a bad thing, but it was a bit abrupt for Anna, which gave her a slight sense of discordance. It wasn't like Lucas never asked for anything or made suggestions in the past when he wanted something, but when he did, his reasons would always be appropriate for his age, based more on simple wants and emotions rather than on reasoning or logic.
Providing an argument which was so grounded and being able to explain himself in such a concise and convincing manner didn't quite match with her image of her still young son.
However, after thinking about it for a moment, she couldn't come up with a reason to refuse, nor did she have any reason to believe that Lucas was being anything but frank and truthful, so Anna quickly turned to the other mother in the room and asked, "If you and Eris don't object, I don't see why not."
"Hmm… Eris doesn't have any more lessons today, so it's fine with me," Sasha commented, not bothering to ask if Eris was alright with Lucas' suggestion as she could already see her daughter's eyes sparkling.
"Okay then, you two can play together for a bit, but you have to stay in the yard where we can see you," Anna finally agreed.
"Yay!" Eris cheered before grabbing Lucas' hand and dragging him out of his room.
"Eris!" Sasha called out after them, but it was too late as the pair of children had already left the room. Shaking her head once more, she sighed and muttered, "That girl didn't listen at all… when will she start acting a bit more mature."
"Hahaha, oh, don't be so hard on her. I remember you also being quite unruly in your younger days, and you turned out just fine," Anna laughed and commented.
"Stop bringing that up already!" Sasha blushed and smacked her friend's arm before the two of them had a good laugh and walked out to watch over their children.