Is it bad to think that his gaze reminded me of Benladann when we first meet? It is almost identical. That gaze of someone lost in the way. Someone that was swallowed by the darkness of their past, and who had gone through a lot of pain.
Maybe he didn't go through as many as Benladann, but her certainly had a good dose of suffering.
The interesting thing was that he wasn't speaking about it nor trying to appeal as someone that needed to be pitied, he wasn't kneeling in the ground for us to listen to his sad story either, he seemed mostly silent and timid.
Could he have insomnia? I don't know… I would have to check out his own brain first. But I guess I can't go so far . Perhaps it is better to leave him be and give him some food.
We served him a big cup of warm milk, alongside pancakes with fruits, and grilled cheese sandwiches. We ate the same thing too, I was craving grilled cheese for a while.
He ate everything energetically.
"Nom… Am… Hmm… So yummy…"
He drank the milk and ended cutely leaving some milk stuck on his lips, and then continued to eat the grilled cheese, the crunchy and warm toasts, and then the sweet pancakes with fruits on top. It was all tasty, and it seemed as if he was finally eating in days.
He finished his meal incredibly fast, as he sighed in relief and rested over the chair.
"You ate it all so quickly! Will your tummy not hurt?" asked Flayr.
"Ahh… S-Sorry… I-I was a bit hungry…" he apologized.
"I always eat a lot and my tummy never hurts." Said Noirenn.
"W-Well, that's because we are not normal, and we are ice giants, the little Cassim is like half our size too." Said Flayr.
"Well, he's kind of my size. A bit smaller." Said Ruby.
"But even you're big, Ruby." Said Hansel.
"He's around… half my size! I won!" said Yuki.
"This is not a competition for who is taller, Yuki…" I sighed.
"Dear, do you want seconds?" asked Benlah, Benladann's mother.
"Ah… C-Can I have more milk, nya?" asked Cassim, as he suddenly released a little "nya", and then quickly closed his mouth cutely, as if he shouldn't have said that. Everyone, however, looked at him as they blushed a bit.
I could guess what was inside everyone's mind…
"Fufu, of course, waits a bit." said my mother-in-law, as she brought the cat boy some more milk, he slowly drank it, like a cat, he loves milk.
"So from where did, you come from?" I asked. I decided to be a bit bolder here, I wasn't going to wait for him to suddenly decide to talk, and it would become pretty awkward if we stayed with his past being a mystery for way longer.
"A-Aren't you being a bit bolder by asking that so suddenly…?" asked Miranda at my side, as she drank tea.
"I have to be bold. I mean no offense, but I cannot keep someone here whose past I don't know anything about." I said.
"…Fair." Sighed Miranda.
"I… I come from the Cat-kin Village…" said Cassim.
"Oh, so there's a village of you guys! How are you doing? Did you got lost and attacked by a monster? We could bring you back if you want to." Said Pekora, as she seemed interested in the kid's village.
"Ah… W-Well… The thing is… I-It's gone… probably." He sighed.
"G-Gone?" asked Benladann.
"What… happened to it?" I asked.
Cassim suddenly began to tremble a bit, his tail got all paralyzed, as his lips trembled a bit nervously. His eyes seemed to be containing tears.
"W-We were attacked by scary monsters made of shadows and… people… from the Dark Shadow Sect…" he said.
Dark Shadow Sect?! Talk about an edgy name! Couldn't you call it Bloody Edge sect instead? God, the names of this world are something else. Wait, I bet there is a sect named Bloody Edge…
"Dark Shadow Sect? A-Are they bad people?" asked Flayr.
"I-I don't know very well… Papa once said they were people that strived from the righteous path, demonic magus." Said the boy.
"D-Demonic magus?!" asked Pekora.
"So there is a sect of them here!?" asked Tisha.
"So Demonic Magus are bad I guess?" I asked.
"Yeah, they're bad. They're like criminals in a way. They're chased down by the righteous sect by the crimes they commit to grow stronger and survive, targeting innocent people, causing disasters… You could call all bandits within their category too, but if they made up a whole sect, they must be way higher level than just your run-of-the-mill shitty bandits." Said Pekora.
"Demonic Cultivators are degenerate and insane people. They don't know any morals and are driven by their own selfishness and madness." Said Tisha.
I've read about Demonic Cultivators in Xianxia novels, although… 70% of the main characters of these stories are always Demonic Cultivators that do all sorts of immoral atrocities. But you can't help but feel good when you read a good one… I have to admit it, I was also an avid reader of Classics such as Reverend Insanity, Grasping Evil, and so on…
But applying such things in real life? I mean, fiction is fiction for a reason… I wouldn't really like to act like any of them in real life.
But I guess these people from the Dark Shadow Sect are an exception, they're just like these main characters, I suppose. Or well, maybe the other side characters? Not like I feel like I am the center of this world, it clearly moves without my consent everywhere, so I am just going with the flow most of the time.
But still, these people are dangerous and ruthless people that probably don't have any concept of morality, probably even more dangerous than Bandits because these bastards actually are strong.
Probably like Vampires…