PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Created through unconventional means, the tree that served as Athena’s nest was not only exuberant, it had a vitality that seemed to radiate from each of its leaves, filling Athena’s nest that was located inside the tree’s crown with a comfortable environment similar to being inside a relaxing sauna but without the discomfort of high temperature or humidity.

Due to the strange arrangement of magical flowers around the clearing where Athena’s nest was located, she did not have to worry about hostile creatures invading her nest, so Athena enjoyed rare security in the beast world.

Added to all that, she had the perfect hunting ground close to her nest so her comfort could only be described as plentiful, perhaps her only complaint was that her friend Kyuru couldn’t visit her more often and her partner Desmond came by on rare occasions.

Thinking of Desmond, a naive smile filled Athena’s chubby face as she used one of her feathered hands to rub her flat belly, the poor harpy still believing she was pregnant because she kissed Desmond; God only knows how her parents raised her to be so naive.

It was quite a coincidence that while she was thinking of Desmond, he appeared at the base of the tree waving in her direction, Athena being the naive harpy that she is, she didn’t notice Desmond’s awkward expression as he watched her rub her flat belly with her hands.

On Desmond’s side, he felt the enormous need to spit blood when he saw Athena make a gesture that one saw in women who were months pregnant, the problem was that it looked ridiculous on Athena who didn’t have a single extra gram in her belly that completely ignoring the fact that she obviously wasn’t pregnant.

Even now Desmond was still in awe of the harpy’s strange mindset, but he was forced to leave all further thoughts of it for another day as he had come to ask Athena for help.

Climbing down from her nest, Athena immediately clung to Desmond like glue rubbing her feathers steadily against his body with a happy expression.

.....

“Husband, you’re finally back kurururu.” Athena’s melodious voice used a term that nearly gave Desmond a mental breakdown before ending with that adorable owl song.

Forcing the awkward feeling away, Desmond wondered for a moment why he was so unlucky, aside from Claire and Sasha with whom he was just forming a stable love relationship, Desmond had at least three strange creatures obsessed with him.

Perhaps it was a bit cruel to call Kyuru a strange creature, but between her, Estela and Athena, Desmond felt a bit overwhelmed, his only consolation was that at least in Estela’s case he was the one who simply had not adapted to the way of thinking of the little maiden and it was not that she had a romantic interest in him.

But Kyuru and Athena were different, Kyuru had clearly fallen in love with him, the only reason the dynamic of their relationship hadn’t changed greatly was that Kyuru was a fairy and her mind processes love differently.

In any case, Desmond would have to think of a way to deal with it in the future since now he had more important things to do since he didn’t have much time.

Rubbing Athena’s feathered hair, Desmond asked, “Athena, I need a favor; can you help?”

The naive Athena didn’t even think twice before nodding, she lived a very comfortable life, more comfortable than she had ever been and it was all thanks to Kyuru and Desmond; They being her only friends, Athena wouldn’t refuse if she was asked for her help.

Desmond’s only complaint was that Athena kept using the word husband when referring to him, Desmond was pretty sure it was Kyuru who taught her that word with who knows what mischievous reasons, that′s why he swore he wouldn’t give the honey to the fairy for at least a week.

Putting the faery’s punishment to the corner of his mind, Desmond proceeded to tell Athena what he needed from her. Hearing that Desmond wanted to fly with her, Athena was more than happy to comply, for her spending time with Desmond was very comfortable although she didn’t fully understand why; As naive as Athena was, her knowledge of the male gender was limited to what her unreliable instincts told her.

Desmond on the other hand did not find his experience flying with Athena entirely pleasant, it was not that he did not enjoy the company of the beautiful and incredibly adorable Athena, the problem is that he had to spend the entire trip being held by the shoulders by the sharp claws of Athena as they flew at a speed of hundreds of kilometers per hour.

Although amazed at Athena’s top speed when flying, Desmond had to maintain a windshield throughout the entire trip so that the wind pressure wouldn’t hurt him.

Seeing the blissful, relaxed expression on the harpy’s face, Desmond didn’t know whether to be annoyed at her nonchalant attitude or amazed at her physical power; though the harpy seemed tired by the end of the journey.

Deciding it was best to just thank the harpy and reward her efforts, Desmond tried to say something when he nearly died immediately in reaction to the comment that slipped from the harpy’s lips.

“Kurururu Flying is harder because of the baby.” Clearly exhausted from carrying Desmond’s full weight up here, Athena somehow blamed the obviously non-existent baby that was definitely not in the belly she was lovingly rubbing.

At this rate, Desmond sensed that he would develop pregnancy-related trauma if he allowed the harpy’s irrational words and actions to continue to affect his mind.

Breathing heavily Desmond needed almost three seconds to calm his mind, this was unheard of, in Desmond’s premonition he took less time to react to a sniper bullet with his chest half shattered; perhaps not even the conversation with Katya took that much mental power from Desmond.

Although perhaps it was Desmond who was being too sensitive to the word pregnancy and baby after all these words were the ultimate curse for any irresponsible womanizer, which Desmond had been for many years.

Unable to keep his composure Desmond left Athena alone who was still lost in her fantasy world while he got into position on top of the hill they had landed on.

Beneath the hill there was a small grove that stretched for just a few kilometers, it was common for some mutated beasts to roam the plains far from cities and moved into groves like this, although these beasts used to not be very strong as the most powerful beasts lived in massive forests or huge mountain ranges like the ones to the west of Green Seed Town.

Beyond the small grove was a long road that stretched from Kars city to Green Seed town.

According to Katya’s words, someone who would cause Desmond’s death would arrive in the city in a couple of hours, at first Desmond couldn’t deduce much of it but as he tried to remember the events that transpired during the premonition; Desmond remembered something that his premonition self had missed.

A small military convoy arriving in Green Seed Town at noon was originally something Desmond didn’t even experience first hand but something he had overheard in one of the hallways on the base and didn’t pay too much attention to as the traffic of military personnel were quite common.

But now it was different, after all, Desmond had died at the hands of the army, no, strictly speaking, Desmond had died at the hands of Commander Rundert and his private squad.

Combining the coincidence of the time the military convoy arrived with the individuals who caused his death, Desmond was fairly certain that the person who convicted him was inside the military convoy; this was reinforced by one of the last comments Desmond heard that day about the convoy.

“Greeted personally by the commander... does the commander already suspect me? or the person in the convoy traced me from scratch, judging by Katya’s words all the responsibility related to my death is traced back to this person so the commander only became hostile towards me after meeting this person” Thinking out loud Desmond was still trying to rationalize the whole situation.

Desmond still hadn’t forgotten the last words he heard from Commander Rundert, the reason Desmond had been killed was because of the mess he had caused during his escape from the military base a few months ago when Commander Rundert tried to recruit Desmond after the defensive battle that day.

In escaping Desmond had killed an entire squad of espers who had underestimated him too much, due to their carelessness Desmond had been able to kill the best fighters before they could even mount any kind of resistance; though it also helped that Desmond’s lethality was so high when he had a bow in hand.

Having murdered the squad of espers, Desmond escaped dragging Paulina who was betrayed by her lieutenant, after which Desmond had tried to cover his tracks as much as he could and even used Paulina to divert attention away from himself; to some extent, the esper crystals that Desmond left for Paulina were a kind of bribe.

Whatever the case, Desmond had gotten away with the whole thing and Paulina seemed to have kept her end of the bargain, but now Desmond knew he had been arrogant, with all sorts of abilities popping up everywhere, it wasn’t entirely impossible that there was an esper with a peculiar ability that would allow him to discover what happened that day, the worst of all is that Desmond knew of the existence of espers with said abilities but they were so rare that Desmond automatically determined that his plan was infallible; the price of his arrogance would have been impossible to bear were it not for Katya.

Now looking at the way the military convoy would come, Desmond was determined to annihilate the source of the threat before it even set foot in his territory, there was not even a hint of mercy in Desmond’s eyes as he planned how to destroy this threat even if the rest of the convoy would die as collateral damage.

It was a pity that his determined expression was completely broken when he heard Athena next to him say, “Kururuu, do you think the baby is a boy or a girl?”