These Familiars Are Strange

"Come, sit down and let's talk."

I was surprised to hear this the moment that I opened the door.

But I couldn't help revealing a faint smile after hearing this since I had sort of been expecting it already.

During the past month, I had been running around in the dungeons most of the time, so I had spent very little time at home. It would be strange if they didn't think that something was up, but they didn't actually confront me about this during this time.

Instead, they chose now to talk to me about this.

I wonder if they knew that something was up.

"It's tomorrow, isn't it?"

I was surprised when I heard my father ask me this.

This certainly wasn't what I had been expecting to hear since I had been keeping the information about the competition a secret. I had made sure that none of them knew what I had been doing during this time since I didn't want them to worry.

That was why they didn't even know about what had happened with Governor Nangong.

Seeing the surprised look on my face, the three of them all revealed smiles before my father said, "Did you really think that we wouldn't be able to figure it out? We've known you long enough to know what you're thinking. With the way that you've been running around, for you to suddenly come home like this, it must mean that something is happening tomorrow, right?"

I looked at the three of them in silence for a moment before also revealing a smile and giving a slight nod.

At that, my mother suddenly stood up and walked to the kitchen.

When she came back, she had several dishes prepared.

These were all of my favourites that she would cook whenever a big occasion happened.

It seemed that they were prepared and it seemed that they supported me.

A warm feeling filled my heart when I saw this, but I also felt a trace of pressure. After all, this was what I was trying to protect by becoming as strong as possible, so if I couldn't do it…

I threw those thoughts out of my mind.

After all, instead of thinking about what ifs, it was better to think about what was about to come and what I would do to face it.
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If anything, this made me more determined to see this through to the end.

My family also knew that since I didn't want to talk about it, they wouldn't be able to get anything out of me. So they just wished me luck with whatever I was planning to do and didn't ask anything else.

But when dinner was over, my father suddenly waved his hand at me.

I had a confused look on my face when I came over, but I waited to see what he had for me.

After I sat down beside him, he reached into his pocket and pulled out something small. It was small enough that he was able to hold it in his hand without revealing anything.

Then he suddenly opened his hand to show that it was a pocket watch.

It didn't seem like anything special, but I couldn't help slightly knitting my brows when I saw it.

That was because I could feel the mana fluctuations coming from it.

It was very faint, but I was able to feel it in the end.

Only it seemed like I was the only one that was able to sense the mana fluctuations. It seemed that everyone else in my family was just looking at this thing as if it was some kind of normal pocket watch.

But they also seemed like they recognized this thing and it had a special meaning.

It was just that for the life of me, I couldn't remember what this was.

"Isn't that our grandfather's special watch?" My big brother suddenly asked.

When he asked this, I suddenly remembered what this thing was.

That's right, this was our grandfather's special pocket watch that he said had been in our family for many generations now. It was something that he passed down to my father when he died.

It was just that he died very early on, so I had forgotten about this.

But now it seemed like…

"Take it." My father said when he saw me looking at the pocket watch.

"Are you sure?" I said without taking the watch. After all, I knew how special this thing was to my father, so I was hesitating.

But there was also a part of me that wanted to take this pocket watch to have a closer look at it.

I was curious about the traces of mana that were coming from this watch.

Those mana fluctuations that came from the pocket watch showed that this thing wasn't normal.

It showed that this thing was most likely some kind of special magic item.

That was why I wanted to take a closer look at it.

"It's an heirloom that has been passed down for many generations, but it's also an heirloom that has watched over our family through these generations. I hope that it will protect you as well." My father said in a serious voice.

I looked at my mother and brother and it seemed like they were thinking the same thing as they looked at me.

So I slowly took the pocket watch from my father.

I didn't even look at it as I put it away in my pocket.

It wasn't the time for that.

At this moment, I forgot about the fact that there were mana fluctuations coming from the pocket watch as I looked at them with a touched look.

I opened my mouth before closing it.

Then I said, "I'll take care of it."

My father gave a nod before patting me on the shoulder, but he didn't say anything in response.

That was because there was no need for words at this moment.

Words would just cheapen this moment.

All we needed was each other.