"Okay, this... Wouldn't be so bad right?" A stiff smile grew on my face as I opened the door to our house. Thanks to Laself asking Howaph to catch her a giant fish and Howaph dragging dad with him, there's no one inside but my mother.

  And if I enter, it would only be the two of us. Great.

  You know, I never expected Laself to help me out the same way I did to her. Genuinely, I thought that girl didn't have a single spine on her back but I guess I was wrong, and because of that I am now forced to confront my mother about my chosen profession.

  Not talking to my parents about my problem is something that I am familiar with, even in my past life, I rarely went to them whenever I'm stumped with something. When it comes to studying? I'd rather pull an all nighter, what about money? Debit cards.

  Most of the time, I'm unsure if I'm even good enough to be called their daughter but it's not like I ignored them all the time either.

  Like what I'm doing now.

  "Just suck it up and go inside." I said through gritted teeth and before I could process it, I grabbed the door handle and twisted it open.

  A gentle lantern hung on the ceiling, a preemptive preparation from my mom's part since it's close to winter and the afternoon might as well be night with how dark it is. It's warm in here. A proper home, not just a house.

  Old drawings that I made hung on the walls, the paper now worn down and the scribbles barely recognizable. Some of my homework from back when I was still an acolyte for the church are there too, the teachings related to praising the giant light house now faded yet I can still recite them from the top of my head.

  Somehow, the living room looked like it would swallow me whole. Body and all. The furniture didn't change, everything is in the same place it usually is, a few cabinets are open and a pot is resting gently on the hearth at the back of the kitchen.

  Mom is, of course, cooking dinner. Thanks to us often buying the leg, cow stew is tough unless it's cooked for several hours so mom is at the kitchen in the late hours of the afternoon to make sure the meat is not chewy.

  So much care is put into a simple meal...

  "I'll miss this." I suddenly murmured.

  "What will you miss?" Mom didn't turn around.

  As I was reeling from the shock of me actually stepping into the house subconsciously, she adds: "You don't have to miss it, you know? It's your choice to stay."

  "Mom... I don't want to be stuck here." Come on, just tell her! It's okay! "I don't wanna give birth and take care of kids, I want to go out and explore the world." A bit more! "Not just... Sit here all day, tending to a house."

  "Are you saying that my choice in lifestyle is wrong?"

  Ah goddamnit! I knew that she would misenterpret it but what else could she have understood it as?! I didn't know how else I can convey my feelings either so now I'm stuck, unable to do anything.

  "No!" I hurriedly shouted, I hugged her from behind and if someone looked at us at that moment, they'd think I'm a koala hanging from a branch. "Mom, you know I love you right? I will never think of you as pathetic. Okay?"

  "Rontress. If you love me then won't you consider my words?" My mother's voice is no longer cracked, it's outright shaken. Something wet fell on my forearm but I refused to let go of her, I still hugged her, my arms wrapped around her waist.

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  "Of course I do! It's just... I have my own dreams mom." And one of them is now to see you safe, don't you get that? I don't want to wake up one day and know I killed everyone in Flotol!

  "I know that!" My mother shouted. She broke down. "I know that..."

  My hug turned tight and I could feel her breathing strain from how I was constricting her. "Mom, look, I'll... Make sure to visit okay? You can maybe even live in the capital when I get settled there! Wait no! Maybe Wardcruncha can do something..."

  As my ideas trailed off, I thought about phones. That should be possible right? It's not impossible for this world to have a two-sided call between individuals, even if they're separated by thousands of miles.

  "No, you don't have to do other things for my sake." My mom suddenly turned around and cupped my cheek. "You work on what you want to do okay? I know I'm being selfish."

  "I wanna be selfish too." I broke the embrace and backed away from her. Who does she think she is to demand me to not work on finding a way to communicate with her across large distances?

  "What do you mean?" Both something close to hope and despair flickered in my mom's eyes as she stared at me. "I don't... Understand?"

  "I'll find a way for us to talk even when I'm in the capital. Okay? I promise." There's a leyline here and the capital is a place where magic is heavily concentrated so powering devices wouldn't be that difficult. "Just you wait, you won't have to miss me. Okay?"

  My mother slowly nodded. She stood up and wiped her hands on her apron, "I believe you, you'll do great. Like you always do."

  "Thanks." I grinned, "I'll make sure that you won't have to worry about me even when I'm not here."

  "I'll hold you to that." My mom turned away from me and went back to cooking.

  Silently, I walked away from her, my mind a thousand thoughts a minute. First off, that kind of promise isn't impossible for me to fulfill. It's just that I'm a software engineer so the things I know about radio towers, cellular towers, satellites, and other things?

  All of it is useless when I'm trying to make a communication network from scratch. I mean, I can probably etch a magical motherboard into existence, maybe even a CPU, but other than that I'm not sure where to even start with this little project.

  Sighing, I leaned my cheek against my palm and looked at my mother. Even if it slows down my plan for a few months, I wouldn't mind doing research on magical communication. It seems useful too so it shouldn't hurt to focus on it for a bit.

  During dinner, I decided to tell my family about the truth of my hunts, "I use myself as bait most of the time." Pausing for a moment, I decided to correct myself, "used to. Sorry. I have magic now so I just hunt aberrants directly."

  "That's..." Howaph trailed off, his eyes narrowing before he decided to nod. "It makes sense, come to think of it. The first time we went looking for you there were signs of you being chased across the forest,"

  "Rontress... Are you okay?" Dad asked, his face a mask of concern. "How long have you been doing that?"

  "All this time." I told him, my eyes were on my mother's stern face. For some reason, she didn't react. It's almost like the vulnerable woman that I saw earlier was nothing more than a dream. "You don't have to worry about me now since I can just kill an aberrant directly."

  "... You can't blame me for being worried, daughter." My father's voice turned cold, there's a certain edge to it now. "Not when you're apparently out there risking your life every day!"

  "Dad! It's not like Rontress doesn't know what she's doing!" Howaph quickly came in to defend me. "She's fine isn't she?! You're worrying about nothing!"

  "What Howaph said is correct." Mom's words cut through the building argument like a knife. "Rontress didn't fail to come back home didn't she? I say we trust her, like we always have."

  "Atterson..." Dad glared at my mother, she glared back. "You can't do this, I'm not gonna let you talk me into letting my daughter into throwing herself into danger every single day!"

  "Well, dad." This is stupid, I told myself yet I'm doing it anyway. "If you want me to prove that I'm okay we can fight."

  "What?" My father looked at me like I was insane. "Rontress, you can't possibly think you can beat me right? Just because you know a bit of magic doesn't mean that you can take down your old man."

  "That's not for you to decide." I shook my head, exasperated. Speed isn't something that can be affected by stats, only passives, skills, or spells.

  Dad didn't have that... Well, he did, but only when he's attacking with a spear so the chances of him winning against me in a proper duel is pretty low.

  "Are you okay with that?" I asked him. "Please say yes, I really want to prove to you that I'm capable as well."

  Because if my mother knows I'm competent but refuses to let me go then my dad is the complete opposite; he's willing to let me do whatever, but he doesn't think I'm good enough to explore the wider world.