"Mom, I can't find Eth!"

A tiny Isabell climbed on top of the chair and stared at her mom. Her mom who was preparing lunch awkwardly smiled.

"Maybe he hid in the attic?"

The little Isabell didn't seem convinced and kept staring at her mom.

"Caught you!"

Suddenly another kid appeared behind Isabell and tapped her back.

The little Isabell stared at Eth who suddenly appeared out of thin air and then at her mom.

"Mom, why did you help him? That's cheating!"

She stomped her feet on the ground.

"You always spoil him. Even today, he fought in class but you didn't say anything."

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Seeing her daughter almost on the verge of tears she decided to soothe her daughter and scold Eth.

She picked up Eth and placed him on the table. Then she sternly asked him.

"Eth, why did you fight?"

"B-but they were making fun of Bell."

She smiled when she heard the reason why Eth fought.

It had been a year since Eth started living with their family. At first, Eth and Isabell fought regularly but over time they became good friends.

Both of them didn't show it but they cared for each other.

"Did you beat them properly?"

"They won't make fun of her even in dreams."

Eth proudly answered while raising his chin. Isabell's mother played along with him.

"Our Eth is so strong. He will become the strongest in the future."

Eth giggled as he was picked up and swayed in the air.

"Eiek"

On the side, the little Isabell was pulling her twin tails. Like always, Eth and her mother ignored her and kept up their weird conversation.

Isabell didn't find their talks one bit funny.

...

Seeing Isabell who broke into tears her mother put Eth down and picked her up. Only when Isabell was in the air for double the Eth's time did she stop crying.

"Humanity is truly peculiar."

Caim quickly bowed when he realized that his master belonged to that peculiar race.

"I didn't mean it in a wrong way, master. What I want to say is that humanity is different from other races on a fundamental basis."

I didn't speak and stared at Caim.

I was still having a hard time adjusting to Caim's unwavering loyalty and submissiveness.

Mistaking my silent as anger Caim elaborated.

"Humanity is the only race that needs to 'awaken' to get access to System. The restriction of being older than 15 years to get exp from killing monsters is also unique to humanity."

This was the same as in the novel.

In it, this was a kind of thing to highlight how strong Leon was. To show that even though he came from a weak planet, he was still capable of fighting other races' geniuses.

Though since the novel was now reality will there be a reason why humanity was being restricted?

"But even though humans have to awaken to get the access to System, Aether evolved humanity in many ways."

Watching how 5 years old kid could hold an intelligible conversation, I could only nod.

Even an unawakened has high intelligence and life span after Aether came to Earth.

The increase in intelligence meant that kid could learn a lot faster than in my world. A 5 years old kid mentality was same as a 10 years old from my world.

"Aether is a blessing."

Was it?

From how I saw this, it was more of a curse than a blessing.

A person's intelligence slowly increases as they grow older and gain life experience. But what about this world where the children's experience is a lot less than their intelligence?

...

"I want to be in the red team."

A little Eth declared.

But unlike the norm, where the other kids welcomed him, all teams rejected him.

"No, we don't want him. Eth is bad luck. We will lose with him."

The nursery teachers tried to placate the situation, but the kids didn't budge.

The kids kept saying that Eth was unlucky and refused to team up with him.

All of this was because of an incident that happened a week back.

Last week, while playing with Eth, a kid fell from the slide and was injured badly. The incident wasn't anything major in itself.

The accident happened because of the caretaker's mistake. Eth had nothing to do with it but the kids didn't focus on that.

Eth was always the focus of the class and the limelight. But not everyone liked Eth.

They didn't like how he always bragged about his sister. Why was he bragging when it was not him doing those things? Were they any less well than Eth?

When the incident happened, the kid whom Eth had beaten started talking behind his back.

"Eth is unlucky. If you play with him, you will also be injured. The last time Timmy broke his leg, he was also playing with Eth."

As a few kids started staying away from Eth, others followed the suit. Everyone was excited as they played a new game where someone was being ignored.

"..okay"

Eth, who wasn't used to being alienated, cowered. With slumped shoulders and heavy steps, he was walking back when Isabell spoke.

"Teacher, can Eth and I make a team of two?"

The caretaker happily agreed, and the situation ended with Isabell alone playing with Eth.

The caretaker didn't think much of Eth's situation. Kids usually forget about such things in a few days.

Time continued to pass, and the summer passed into autumn.

Dry leaves produced a crunching sound when kids stepped on them. Kids wearing mufflers and scarves were playing with each other.

In the corner, away from the other, two kids were playing with each other.

"Bell, I don't want to play today. You can go with others."

Isabell only shook her head and passed the ball to Eth.

Eth only stared at the ball and didn't move. His eyes were dull, and he had dark circles underneath his eyes.

Unlike what the caretakers thought, the kids never allowed Eth to play with them.

For the kids, ostracizing Eth was a game. They didn't do it out of malice. No, they were only doing it because it was fun.

They thought of ignoring Eth as a game and nothing much.

The caretaker also didn't do anything. She tried to add Eth to groups but the kids always protested.

Being constantly shunned was becoming unbearable for Eth.

He didn't understand anything. Why was this happening to him? Did he do something wrong?

With thin arms, Eth picked the ball.

These days he was having trouble sleeping. He will have nightmares where everyone, even Isabell and her family, ignored him and left him alone.

Eth's parents rarely came home and met him. Eth had more memories with his sister than with his parents.

Last year his sister, who was a decade older than him, entered into Ward. Since then Eth had been living with Isabell's family.

In his new home Eth found something that he starved for. The love of family.

He loved Mrs. Parker cooking, he enjoyed her jokes, he feared her anger, he looked forward to her night-time stories.

Even though it had only been a year, Eth loved her more than his own mother whom he had rarely met.

He feared that Mrs. Parker will also ignore him like everyone if she knew he was unlucky. He pleaded Isabell to not tell her about anything at home.

Under the stress, he started eating less and less and lost a lot of weight.

Mrs. Parker, Isabell's mother, asked Eth if something was bothering him many times. Eth always laughed off her question, saying there was nothing.

Eth believed as long as he endured his situation would improve.

His situation changed, but not as he wanted.

…..

"Make sure to hold each other's hand."

The caretaker reminded everyone. Today they were on an outing to a beast farm.

Beasts farms were areas where beasts were reared for the young awakeners. The beasts here were weak, as such young awakeners could train here without going into dungeons.

Dungeons give a lot of exp, but they are very dangerous. Beast farm was used as a safe alternative for dungeons.

"Don't wander alone."

The children were divided into groups of four. The caretaker used this situation and placed Eth into a group of children that least interacted with Eth.

"It will be fine."

The caretaker whispered to Eth and patted his back.

Eth also thought this was a chance. He had been looking forward to the trip.

'I can make friends again.'

Eth hadn't given up yet. This was the beginning of becoming normal again!

"What are you guys most excited about? I want to see a Hammer Hog!"

Eth spoke cheerfully to his new group members. With all of them holding hands, they couldn't ignore him.

"Don't talk to me."

The one directly holding Eth's hand spoke curtly.

"Don't be like that, Wim."

A kid in the middle spoke and turned to Eth while flashing a smile.

"I also want to see a Hammer Hog."

"Really?"

Eth couldn't believe it. Someone was talking normally with him!

He could make friends again!

From there, Grey, the kid who reprimanded Wim, merrily conversed with Eth.

Grey changed places with Wim, and now he was directly holding Eth's hand.

Eth was surprised to find that he and Grey had so many similarities.

"Did you see that?! That Smoke Leopard was so beautiful."

"We did."

Grey pulled Eth, who was standing on the edge for another peek at the beast.

The area they were in showed beasts like animals in a zoo, similar to Nathan's previous world.

The two other kids couldn't understand why Grey was acting like this. Wasn't he the one who hated Eth the most after Eth beat him?

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