Madman’s Retirement

¹So I'm like three days late on this unfortunately, sorry. Ill admit, this chapter, wasn't sure how to precede with it, since I was more focused on the next chapter, which was much more interesting to me.

Perhaps one of the greatest things that Grant knew in this world was the happiness of a child.

One of the few things that kept him going through the centuries was the smiles his students had as he took them out to have fun, the simple joy and amusement that was impossible to experience as one got older.

A joy that one could no longer enjoy firsthand as they got older, yet there was a different kind of joy to be felt in being able to give this joy to the next generation.

That is what Grant felt as he took the child out to play in the york outpost, now that the cultists were gone, and that he felt more secure in his actions.

Ursa Honey was out too, working as support for the child. The child had grown comfortable with the big bear, a side effect of spending so much time with him.

The ingredients in his apron were bulging as the amount of ingredient biomes grew, so too did the ingredient list.

Grant could tell that the ingredients were infecting the bear, as his evolution drew closer and closer.

He did so enjoy inducing evolutions in other creatures.

The results would be interesting, and if they failed, he could always fix it.

The child was rather excited as he ran around, more free than He'd expected.

He wasn't that scared around him initially, so Grant supposed his trauma focuses more on his own kind.

That could be troublesome in the long run. But that would be a problem for later.

For now, Grant was out to have a little fun.

Well, and a little inspiration.

Seeing in particular, one poor old beggar desperately trying to hawk his wares, Grant felt a surge of inspiration.

Yes, yes he could do this too.

He did have a lot of artifacts after all, so many clogging up his space when they were never going to be used.

What if he disguised himself as a beggar and hawked his wares, and hidden amongst them would be an artifact, dressed up as an unusable item, meant to be grabbed by destined hands.

Yes...

Yes..

YES!!!

While Grant was getting weirdly hyped up about role playing, The young ogre boy was doing something else.

Holding the bears and the mysterious masked man's hand they were wandering around stalls having fun.

He liked this man.

At first the young ogre distrusted the man, this unknown person.

His parents had warned him of humans. Dangerous beings, vicious against those who did not look the same, people who would skin ogres all in the name of new materials, and other scary stories his parents would tell him at night.

Though his father warned him of demons, he warned him more against humans.

"The demons may reject you, but humans, humans will hate you"

These memories rang out in his head, as the boy had observed the man with suspicion, even as he brought food out for him.

The man was a weird man for sure, but he was a good adult.

The boy could see how kind the man was, watching him curiously in that small house he had found himself in.

After he at- NO!

The boy shook his head, trying to get the horrifying memories out, as the anguish washed over him. The horrid memories overflowed, drowning the boy in self-loathing and regret.

He could feel bile coming up his throat, and tears beginning to form in his eyes.

The man stopped as he quietly smoothed the boys hair over, and as he did so, he felt the memories being repressed again.

Repressing memories may not be a healthy thing at times, but Grant felt that the child wasn't ready to face these memories. Not until he was old enough to face them.

The boy found relief in the suppression of the memories, leaning his head deeper into the affectionate hands. The boy didn't know that his horns were digging into the mans hands, though the bird-masked Grant made no comment.

A flick of shadow passed the boy's gaze, causing the young ogre hybrid to pause and quietly pull on the man's arms.

Grant looked over curiously, abandoning his idea of redistributing treasures across the land.

A young child had ran pass them and into a nearby alleyway, his hoodie pulled over his head inconspicuously, and a small, moving bulge in the hoody.

"That looks exciting." Grant murmured, as he looked over to the child. "What do you want to do?" Grant asked softly and the boy seemed to consider it seriously for a minute, before responding.

"Wait." He said simply. Father always told him to watch and wait, to better observe the situation before entering the fray.

The child did not know fray at the time, so his father had shortened it: "Wait and see"

Grand chuckled. "Very well then"

Watching the boy run away quickly led Grant to a simple deduction.

Not the run of course, but rather the face and the clothes.

Grant couldn't help but sigh in amusement. No matter how hard they try, nobles going undercover will always be easy to discover.

For one thing, their beautiful, well kept faces, their natural mannerisms imprinted since youth, and of course, the huge number of enchantments they use on themselves.

Even the "Rags" they put on in an attempt to hide often brings more attention than it deflects it.

So Grant was thinking probably rich child who had chosen to run away from home to have fun, and discovered the harsh reality of the world?Looked about right.

The boy was running from a group of thugs.

"Young man, how about you come play with us?" Said their leader, who had a crooked mustache and a golden tooth.

Kidnappers. Grant sighed. So cliche. On the bright side, it wasn't cultists again, goodness he couldn't be bothered to put up with more of those.

But like, cultivators could've been fun. Demons maybe? Perhaps a plot by fellow nobles to destabilize one's position?

But no, they were just normal generic thugs.

Well, one of them was a lizardman, so that was a little flavor maybe.

"No! Mother said never to trust ugly people!" The boy said firmly.

Oof. I think she met ugly on the inside brat, but that don't matter to the thug before you.

Tssss, that's a rather huge throbbing vein on his forehand.

"Alright, you asked for it brat, I'm sure it won't matter if we break a leg or two, you'll still be worth something!" He said, as he indulged in his advance as him and his gang slowly advanced.

Alright, guess now is the time to intervene.

Grant jumped down, landing between the thugs and the mysterious child, much to the surprise of the thugs.

"You! shouted one thug. "The mysterious weirdo at the bar!"

Grant shouted back. "And you! The guy who pissed his pants last week after a lizardman sneezed all over him!"

The man's face turned red. "You don't know what it's like to see all that teeth in your face! You don't know!" He said furiously.

"Pissbaby!" The boy looked on with more curiosity than anything else, leading Grant to suspect that he felt safe enough to do this. He suspected that the bulge in his hoodie was his guarantee.

Probably a pet.

The other guy was steaming, but he didn't move yet. Neither did the others.

"I heard he's pretty strong. He brought in a mimic that was posing as a paladin."

The leader scoffed. "It's a mimic, how strong could it really be?" Even as he said that though, he looked over cautiously. Clearly unsure of his next move.

"Good lord, what a bunch of cowards. Fine, if you're not gonna come to me, I'll just have to come to you!"WIth this, Grant flicked his wrists, as a bunch of thin needles flew out, immediately piercing three of their friends.

They fell face first. Tarantula gauntlets make for good poison shooters.

The lead thug cursed as he realized clearly that Grant had no intentions of letting them go, not even sure if the other two were even dead or alive.

"Split!" He commanded his gang as they quickly separated and ran, but how could Grant let rats run?

A horde of dravens responded to the progenitor's call as they flew over, pestering the thugs, and forcing them to the ground, before Ursa Honey leaped over. slapping them each with a clump of honey.

And then knocking them out, just to be sure.

Grant huffed. Only C-ranks. Shame. Boring.

He walked over to the child, curious at the lack of fear at all, with the ogre child and ursa honey following closely behind.

The boy had blond hair and blue eyes, making him think of five different noble families. He looked a little skinny, though the baby fat had yet to truly fade from his face. The ogre boy also had the same fat, having regained it after being fed well once more.

"Are you not afraid?" Grant asked, and the mysterious boy shook his head, and the bulge hiding in the hood squirmed moreso the closer Grant got.

"No."

"And why is that?"

"You're a raven sage. Raven sages don't hurt people"

Grant looked at the bodies on the floor, and the child corrected himself.

"Good people."

"And have you been a good boy?"

The boy responded "yes." yet glanced away.

Grant laughed mirfully. "Good boys don't run away from home."

The boy coughed awkwardly, and the cloak slipped down, revealing a lizard.

No, not a lizard, a dragon? Grant narrowed his eyes behind the mask. Clearly the boy has higher status than he'd thought. No matter what part of the world you were part of, dragons were valuable pets. But dragons were a rare commodity, and even dragon beasts were considered quite valuable.

The little dragon before him seemed to be of the life type, made abundantly clear by the twigs that were meant to be horns, and the small pair of wings sprouting out from its back. Few creatures besides dragons follow this 6 appendage appearance, much less lizard types.

It's head had a bit of a snapping turtle shape, with some flat molars in the back, feeding into the idea of it being a vegetarian.

It was also a tiny dragon. Either it hadn't hit the growth phase or it was going to turn out to be a very small dragon one day.

Whatever the case was, it was clearly very curious about something.

The boy seemed rather apologetic. "I'm sorry. Ever since we came here, he's been going wild, looking for something. He's never acted up like this before."

Grant waived it off. "Dragons will be dragons, and kids will be kids."

Before the boy could stop it, the dragon hopped onto him, clearly looking for something.

It was probably attracted by something. He wasn't sure what, but given the sheer amount of crap on him, at least something was bound to leak out.

Well, dragon and seemingly a plant type of sorts.

He'd hidden the more valuable dragon blood, and the saplings of yggdrasill...

Hmm?

Ahh, one of them had started growing out of his divine realm.

Grant clicked annoyedly, as he pushed the sapling back in. They weren't strong, but were sneaky enough that if he wasn't careful it would grow out ad attract unwanted attention.

Note, plant those later when he got a chance.

And for the little dragon who had probably saved him some trouble, he looked for something less potent, but undoubtedly a wonderful enough

He pulled out the inconspicuous little stick, which despite its innocuous appearance, clearly attracted the desire of the boy's little lizard friend as it eagerly drooled, looking at the stick as Grant waved it around for a bit before giving it to the little dragon who was chomping at the bit.

It eagerly chewed on the stick.

"A gift" Grant commented cheerfully as he watched the dragon gnaw on the stick. "From one dragon lover to another."

"What is it?" The boy looked at the stick curiously, but he did not receive a straight answer.

"Something from a strong tree spirit. It won't promote his bloodline or anything, but for a young dragon it should be fun and stimulating."

And indeed, the dragon was clearly enjoying the gift of the stick.

"Gale likes it! Thank you!" The boy said gratefully as he rubbed the head of his dear friend.

"No problem. Now, go along, I think your guards have finally caught up. "Grant commented as indeed, a group of people showed up. Though dressed in commoners clothes, they had a presence befitting a group of guards, more so than the criminals from earlier.

"It's alright, he's a friend!" The boy told the guard, though the guard looked confused.

"Your grace, who are you talking about?"

The guard asked in confusion, and the boy turned around, his face filled with shock.

"What? Where did he go?" The boy asked.

Grant was quietly standing on a building nearby as he whispered.

"Batman!" To the confusion of the bear and the child next to him.

"So he's finally approaching civilization?" Grant asked with a complicated look on his face.

[Yes]

Grant rubbed his non-existent mustache.

Richard Thorsten. A child of the Thorsten family.

In some aspects, his descendant. And yet, in some ways, absolute strangers.

Grant had... complicated feelings about him.

Ultimately, he made his decision.

He quickly noticed through his connection with Canuck that one of her descendants was in contact with Richard.

This was an opportunity.

Him and his motley gang were actually quite close, within a days distance.

"Canuck I want you to tell him these things..."

Grant wasn't sure how he felt about his descendant but if you don't know how you feel about something, sometimes the best solution is to face it head on.

"Richard Thorsten." Grant murmured as he tapped his finger on his desk thoughtfully, chuckling.

Flamel told him to go live a life and build a family.

Did he know?

Did he think himself unable to make one, and found one for him?

"Hmph!" You bastard!