After Stealing Hero's Mother, I Reincarnated in the Fantasy World!

Chapter 43: On the way to stealing a hero's opportunity

Today, Aelorian was dreaming about that day again.

When she announced her decision to abandon tradition and not continue her studies in the Great Forest, and instead enroll in the academy. As a consequence, she had to listen for a long time to the violent reactions of all the elders, almost shouting to convince her to change her mind.

But despite that, she didn't give up the idea, because she had already become the best among the young generation of elves and she didn't see the point of staying here any longer. She wanted to go out into the open world and explore its vast expanses.

Especially from the rare stories from the elves, she knew that because of their rare appearance outside of their forest, humans were used to underestimating them and looked down on them.

So Aelorian decided that she was going to break that stereotype and prove her superiority. And she knew that the best way to do that was to beat humans on their own turf, at their own game, so she decided to leave the forest and enter the academy, becoming the best there.

Just before she left, her mother, the Elf Queen, visited her.

"I'm not changing my mind."

Aelorian said confidently, figuring that her mother, like everyone else, would talk her into changing her mind. But contrary to her expectations, her mother spoke in her usual gentle voice, looking at her lovingly.

"I'm not here to discourage you, dear. Instead, I've come to bring you some happy news. For the first time in two centuries, I have received a message from the World Tree, and it is directly related to you."

Seeing her daughter's surprised look, she took her hand and continued.

"It said that you would have a chance to restore the greatness of our race if you found the man who..."

Before her mother could finish her words, her surroundings began to blur and in the next second she saw the face of a red-eyed young man in front of her.

"Rain?"

Aelorian stared at his face, unable to look away. It was not until the remnants of her dream finally passed and she saw the sun already high up that her eyes widened.

"Did I sleep that long?"

She said shocked and returned her already clearer gaze to Rain.

"Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

"I just woke up myself."

Realizing that it would be foolish to blame him for this, Aelorian got up from her seat and began putting her things away in the storage ring. After gathering everything up and making sure there was nothing left, she pulled out and drank one of the potions. She hadn't gotten a good night's sleep tonight, so she needed something to increase her alertness and concentration for battles.

When they were ready to leave, something suspicious caught her eye. She began to shift back and forth between Rain and the spot where his bed had recently stood.

"Aren't you a little too cheerful this morning?"

It was the first time Aelorian had seen her partner in such high spirits.

"It's just the aftermath of a night on that comfy bed. I've already told you that you have a lot to lose by giving it up."

Rain's smile grew even wider.

"What's more, I can't wait to score a bunch more points tonight."

Aelorian looked at him strangely, but nodded approvingly nonetheless.

She, too, wanted to get as many monster points as possible today to climb as high as possible in the rankings among the students and she was glad that her partner shared her ambition.

So, each with their thoughts, they left their night's camp and traveled eastward.

This time Rain volunteered to lead them himself, which made Aelorian surprised and distrustful. After all, all the previous day he had told her to look for monsters on her own and only joined her during battles. But despite her doubts, she decided to follow him.

'Perhaps he's hiding something else.'

She had already realized over the past day that he was completely different from what she had heard about him at the academy.

She even wanted to laugh at the academy for failing to see his true strength, and at herself for foolishly believing the rumors and thinking she could easily beat him in a sparring match. And in the end she had to suffer that humiliation.

As they walked they would occasionally come across groups of monsters in their path, but they quickly brushed them off as they continued on their way.

After killing another monster, Aelorian sighed sadly.

"Killing artificially created monsters is no fun at all."

Rain only nodded his head.

It was true that monsters in artificial rifts had less intelligence than in the real world. But he smiled, thinking that once they got to that place, her opinion would quickly change and she would be glad that she had only encountered weak monsters before.

With another kill, the number of points on their bracelets jumped to 4855, which was a good result considering they had only entered the rift yesterday.

From the second day, the bracelets started showing their ranking among all the students, so Rain looked into it out of curiosity. When he saw that their team was in first place, he was a little surprised.

'I thought the Will of the World would work a miracle and let the hero take first place'

But remembering what he had seen before entering the rift he realized the truth. His partner now was a beautiful elf girl, very experienced in the forests, so they could gain points quickly, and with the hero on the team was some fat, clumsy guy.

'Sometimes even the intervention of the World's Will can't change the facts.'

Grinning, he continued to lead them in a certain direction.

As time went on, they stopped encountering groups of monsters in their path altogether.

And because there were now no monsters to help Aelorian distract herself, her attention returned to what she had seen that moonlit night.

Swallowing, she unconsciously shifted her gaze to Rain's crotch. When she didn't see anything suspiciously large there, she was a little confused.

'Did I really dream it? But after all, there's no reason why I'd dream about his...'

With some hesitation, she continued to cast occasional inconspicuous glances at his lower body. At least she thought they were unnoticeable until his voice came to her.

"Can't you forget what you saw last night?"

'I didn't dream it!'

Aelorian shrieked to herself, but didn't dare admit it out loud and decided to go off topic.

"You mean the moon? Yes, it was very beautiful."

"I mean my dick."

In a calm voice, Rain replied as he continued to lead them in a certain direction.

Aelorian flinched at his directness and blushed, remembering even more clearly what she had seen that night.

Rain had to admit that teasing this innocent elf girl was fun.

"No need to be embarrassed, it was just a night boner, a common occurrence."

'N-night boner?'

She realized she needed to say something to avoid embarrassing herself.

"I just..."

At that moment, however, Rain's senses caught on to something and in the next second he grabbed her, jumping sharply off to the side with her.

"What the...?"

Aelorian wanted to be angry at his sudden actions, but her eyes narrowed when the rocks and trees near where she had just stood were cleanly chopped in half.

Any hint of amusement was gone from Rain's gaze and he became completely serious.

'We're already here.'

***

Thanks for reading, everyone!