Inside a hut in the slums of Sal City, a little girl with dark brown hair sat in the embrace of her father. The man holding her was quite thin but traces of his previous muscular stature remained.

His cheeks had sunk due to malnourishment and his bones showed. Yet, his eyes watched his daughter with delight as she munched on the sweetened hawthorn berry.

“Qiqi, do you like the treat your father brought for you?”

The man asked, gently trying to tame the wild hair of his little girl with his hands.

Luo Qiqi nodded like a hen pecking at grain, fully engrossed in eating. She looked like a cute squirrel as she took small nibbles of the tiny sweetened berry, trying to prolong the eating process for as long as possible.

“I am glad.”

The thin man whispered. He looked out of the hut at the rising sun and gently moved the little girl out of his lap.

He got up and slung the short bow made of wood over his shoulder and picked up the quiver lying in the corner.

Luo Gan kissed the forehead of his little girl and ruffled her hair. She threw her father a disgruntled look.

“Father, your beard is itchy!”

The thin man with a scraggly beard smiled and kissed her forehead again causing her to groan.

“Father!”

The man stopped his actions seeing his little girl irked.

“Qiqi, I will be back by the evening, okay? Be good and don’t wander outside.”

The little girl nodded and continued nibbling on the berries. She watched the back of her father as he exited the hut out of the corner of her eyes.

Luo Qiqi believed his words as he said the same words every day and he was back by sunset every day.

However, that day was different. When the 5-year-old girl returned from playing with her friends, her father was still not back.

The sun went down and a crescent moon hung in the dusky sky, yet her father had not returned.

Luo Qiqi started to grow afraid as the dark curtain of night fell. Her stomach growled with hunger and she began to miss her father.

The scared little girl asked neighbors, and some of her father’s friends for his news. Nobody knew anything.

She went back to their hut, dejected and alone. Tears streaked from her eyes as she remembered the time she spent with her father.

“Father, come back…  Qiqi will not ask you for treats. Qiqi will be a good girl… come back please.”

The lonely little girl mumbled as she wept in the dark before she exhausted herself to sleep.

Xin Ruo had found Luo Qiqi soon after her father went missing and brought her under her care. She had helped the little girl move past the painful memory.

Eight years had passed since that incident. And yet, Luo Qiqi was seeing that same event in her dream.

“Father, come back….”

Luo Qiqi mumbled in her sleep, her clothes drenched in sweat.

The time she spent in the dark of the Planar Rift had dug up the old memories she had buried deep in her heart.

She saw the same scene again and again when she was stuck in the darkness of the Rift. It was a wonder how she did not go mad.

Even after she had come out, the memory of her last exchange with her father haunted her. Although she was no longer the same 5-year-old girl, these memories had become a cause for her nightmares.

“Qiqi!”

“QIQI! Wake up!”

A hand vigorously shook her body while loud voices called out her name.

As the thirteen year old teen groggily opened her eyes, she saw the concerned faces of Ikasa, Xin Ruo, and the other kids. Then she remembered where she was.

She was in a carriage, on the way back to Birch City.

“Are you alright?” Ikasa asked the girl with concern.

Seeing Ikasa and Xin Ruo, all the negative feelings Luo Qiqi had felt when she was inside the rift came rushing back.

She jumped and hugged Ikasa and Xin Ruo tightly, sobbing loudly.

Ikasa was taken aback by her sudden outpour. He gently patted Qiqi’s back to calm her and looked at Xin Ruo, raising his right eyebrow.

She helplessly shook her head slightly, unaware of the reason for Qiqi’s crying.

After wetting Ikasa’s back with her tears, Luo Qiqi calmed slightly. Her sobs now had longer intervals between them.

She released Ikasa and Xin Ruo from her tight hug and looked into their eyes.

“Brother Ikasa…  Sister Xin Ruo…  you…  you will not abandon Qiqi, right?”

Ikasa tried his best to suppress the smile forming on his lips. He gently wiped the tears from her eyes and held her by her shoulder.

He looked her in the eye and firmly replied, “Never.”

Ikasa also met the eyes of the other teens in the carriage.

“Ever since I offered you kids a place in my home, it also became your home. Your well-being became my responsibility, and you guys are now my family. So, don’t ever think I will abandon any of you!”

Feng Yan’s ‘desperation training’ had not only traumatized Luo Qiqi but also the rest of the teens.

When they could not see or hear, every single one of them had called for Ikasa, Xin Ruo, and Feng Yan until their throats went dry. Yet, they had received no response.

Fear of being abandoned had taken a root in their psyche. They were afraid of being thrown away as disposable objects when Ikasa had no use for them.

It had motivated Hei Ying into activating her Spiritual Sense but for the rest, it had the potential to become a heart demon.

At this time, Ikasa’s words full of conviction assuaged their uneasy hearts. When he called them his family, the unreasonable fear of abandonment was wiped out from their minds.

They knew Ikasa meant the words he said because each one of them had experienced Ikasa’s care and love for them at some point.

May it be Luo Qiqi’s unreasonable demand to eat at a restaurant beyond their reach or be it Pei Yuan’s wish to get a dagger. Even Hei Ying’s stubborn wish to keep a dangerous Foundation Establishment stage Spirit beast as a pet had been fulfilled by Ikasa.

The person they called Big Brother merely out of courtesy had become a real Big Brother when he had stood up to a Path Finder for wrongly accusing Chu Qing!

If they could not believe his words, were there any people worthy of their trust in this world?

Teary but radiant smiles bloomed on their youthful faces as they began to let go of their dark and gloomy past. The light of the bright future beckoned them to embrace it.

They vowed to become so capable that the unreasonable fear of abandonment would hold no power over them.

—–

Without the notice of the people inside the carriage, it entered the boundaries of Birch City.

Feng Yan who was sitting beside the Coachman announced their arrival in the City with a loud cheer.

The worn out travelers looked out from the windows of the carriage and saw the familiar environment of peaceful Birch City.

Shops here were bustling and not broken. The wooden houses here did not need rebuilding. Pedestrians walked on the streets without fear of offending some foreign power.

Most importantly, there were no Sense Trainers patrolling in the City.

It comforted them as they looked forward to returning home, to the comfort of their familiar room.

Their carriage turned to the eastern route to reach the north side of the City. They could see the vast fields of their Herb Garden from the window.

At this moment, Moony who was napping on the lap of Hei Ying for the entire journey woke up. He jumped out of the window of the carriage and ran towards the Herb Garden.

Noticing the fox’s unusual behavior, Feng Yan stopped the carriage. Everyone in the carriage tensed up. They got ready to fight but their caution was for naught.

Soon, they heard a familiar voice scold Moony.

“You little critter, give me back my roujiamo!”

Who else could it be but Chu Kuang? The only person Moony liked to steal food from.

Everyone in the carriage let out a sigh of relief. Then small smiles formed on their faces that turned into wide grins. The carriage started moving again and  only came to a stop when they reached the Villa.

Ikasa got out from the carriage and Xin Ruo and the kids followed him out. Caretaker Han hurried over with other servants to take the luggage inside.

He took a moment to gaze at the vast villa made of wood and stone. It was not as luxurious as the City Lord’s Manor he stayed at in Beech City but it evoked the feeling of comfort.

Seeing the familiar sight, Ikasa voiced the thought in everyone’s heads.

“It is good to be back home.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep