This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Serena gazed calmly at Kain as he stared at his brother.

"You two look nothing alike." She said to break the silence.

"We're not related," Kain said without looking away from Bridge, "we were taken in by the same orphanage. However, despite no blood relation, we're just as much a family that loves each other."

"Care for one another is what's most important in a family. Blood ties aren't everything," Serena said while looking a little sad.

"Especially when those blood relatives try to kill you…" she muttered under her breath.

"Huh? I didn't here you clearly." Kain turned to her in confusion.

"Nothing…how did he get the name Bridge? It's quite unique, especially when compared to your name." She discreetly tried to change the subject.

"Ahhh…haha…Our orphanage director's naming sense…I'm very glad that I already had a name when I was brought to the orphanage."

"Bridge, Cherry, Key, Parker, Sunny, and Melody were all named by the orphanage director. And he always uncreatively names them after the first thing to pop into his mind after finding them.

"Bridge was found on a bridge as a baby, and so was named Bridge. Cherry was found beneath a cherry tree. Parker in the public park in the middle of the city. Sunny and Melody's name origins are at least a little better.

Sunny is called that because of how bright and happy she was even as a baby, also on the day she came to the orphanage the sun seemed to create a halo around her head…she was truly the most adorable baby…" Kain though wistfully.

"Meanwhile Melody would not stop crying as a baby no matter what. However, when we found out playing music could get her to finally be quiet and fall asleep, we started calling her Melody. Before that, the director just kept calling her Scream, we had to beg him to change her name."

"Scream…that sounds more appropriate for the name of a horror story not a baby girl." Serena interjected while chuckling.

"Indeed…but it's still not nearly as bad as the name that he tried to give Key at first. Key's origins are probably the most confusing. He was found in a cabin deep within the wilderness. It was smack dab within a dangerous area filled with yellow-grade and higher spiritual creatures. Imagine how surprised the mercenaries were when they heard a baby crying inside of an abandoned cabin."

"I'm surprised he wasn't eaten by the time the mercenaries got to him…many species prefer to eat humans over spiritual creatures." Serena thought in disbelief.

"That's the thing, there were no spiritual creature for miles around that cabin. The cabin had been sprayed by a green-grade spiritual creature—Reekling." Serena winced slightly at the name of the skunk-like spiritual creature who was known to emit an odour so foul that even blue-grade and higher spiritual creatures would give them a wide berth.

"The smell from the Reekling still clung to Key for months after he was brought back from the wilderness. Which was why the director had initially named him Stinky. Once the smell faded, we were thankfully able to convince him to change the name to Key and drop the Stink…" Kain told the story while chuckling in remembrance.

Serena looked at his nostalgic smile with a hint of envy. "You're all so close. I always wished to have a sibling or relative my age that I could be close with. How many of you are there in total?"

"Well we didn't have our birth families, we didn't have much money either, we only had each other. Of course we'll become close. In order of age, there are eleven of us in total. Bridge and I are the same age and don't know our real birthdays, but everyone usually considers me to be the oldest and then Bridge.

Then there is Milo, the twins Jasper and Jasmine, Cherry, Key, Parker, Sunny, Charlie, and Melody. There was another member of the orphanage a couple of years older than Bridge and I who went missing when I was around 10 as well.

However, we try not to mention her since her disappearance was so painful for the director… She was his biological niece, and pretty much the inspiration for why he opened an orphanage in the first place." Kain smiled sadly.

"Ahem…a-anyways…" Kain tried to choke back tears to prevent the atmosphere from becoming awkward and tried to think about a suitable subject change.

Ding

Thankfully a new notification on his phone saved him from a potentially awkward situation.

It was the notice for the next recruitment of entrants into the relic. However, this time they limited the entrants to those in the second-year.

"Damnit…" Kain muttered while reading the notice.

"As I said before. They'll probably let you and I enter once we can prove that we are not at risk of getting sick." Serena stated as a matter of fact.
Experience the magic at m-vl-em-pyr

"YOU and I. Why would you be re-entering it again?"

"Of course I'm re-entering. I was the team leader for Bridge and the other first-years that got sick. I need to take responsibility until the end and find a way to cure them. Let's go." She said coolly before getting up to leave.

Kain nodded in agreement and left to follow her out. However, he still left behind a single Vespirae guard to care for Bridge while he was gone. Although not at the level of human intelligence, as orange-grade spiritual creatures the guards' intelligence has developed enough to know how to guard, feed, and care for Bridge.

Kain also left behind a packet of medicine to help with the fever and instructions on how to use them. Although the Vespirae won't be a great help to him, it can prevent him from dying of an overheated brain or starving to death in Kain's absence.

'Wait…She never did say how she planned for me to prove that I have resistance against whatever is making them sick. Am I even resistant?' Suddenly Kain was struck by another worry.