"uh… By chance do you speak lad?" the lady asked but got no reply again instead he proceeded to look around as he stared at a direction blocked by the wood outside which he should not be able to see but with his soul sense, he could clearly perceive the kid within five meters trying to snoop in on his mother.
This brought another irregularity as the kid within his soul sense was different from both the elf and his mother.
The lady seeing him distracted finally concluded maybe the kid was indeed sick, she had suspected it or maybe it was not a kid at all but she didn't entertain the thought much at the moment.
However she was in a tricky situation, she was kind of lost on how to proceed from here.
The reason the had not told the town warden about this was simply because they saw him as fortunes hand and that was why his coincidence of appearing the same day the cliff fell was nothing short of a revelation.
Unlike what everyone thought, the farmers were aware of what the stream was doing to this part of the lands, however they persisted for one reason known only between themselves, in conclusion greed.
After pondering for some time by both parties.
She then thought maybe it was time to give up, it was within their plans anyway.
If the kid did not wake up before they were done packing, they'd leave him alone here, because there was no way they'd pass the town guards with an unconscious stranger.
However if he did, they'd help him however they could that wouldn't inconvenience them and then split their own way.
but she couldn't even get the kid to talk in this scenario, unlike what others may think, he wasn't some overly matured person, he came with the stature of a sixteen year old and that was why they associated him to be a kid.
To max though, he got some basic information of this world from the puppets picture-book memory or what remained of it.
However he did not know what part of the world he was at right now nor did he know how outdated the memories he had received were.
And as curious as he was as to why his soul sense showed slightly varied attributes for each person, he had no answer to that, and so he decided to skip the one with many answers and boil down to the main thing, which was who were these people.
He had heard and understood her monologue but that didn't give him any foothold.
Play along for now he thought to himself
And that was when she decided to ask him
"At least do you have a name?"
He nodded
"what is your name then?"
After a brief silence making her to think maybe he is truly a mute, he replied..
"Adam" in a calm tone of a young boy
He didn't know how he pulled it off as he said his name but he did it with control, and he actually heard his voice, he actually talked.
Well that was the good news, the bad news was that unlike his previous world where talk was cheap, he just expected a large amount of soul essence and he could feel it leave him,
He was not new to this feeling though.
He has been mostly working this body with his soul essence giving him a quarter of a full day to be alive and the rest for recovery and this was with training.
But never had he actively tried to directly expend it like this and the result was a shortage of essence.
In summary talk was no longer cheap to him.
"So you can talk?" she said happily knowing conversation should be easier now.
He nodded
"so uh… Adam, where are you from?"
He raised his hand as he shook his head in a saddening manner which translated to I don't know
"you don't know?"
He nodded
This puzzled her a little but she proceeded to ask
"So adam… where are you headed to?"
He replied with the same gesture and this time she didn't need to ask twice to understand.
"Where are your parents?" she asked again apprehensively
But he repeated the same gesture
By now she could understand where this was heading to, but she only took a though and then smiled again.
"well don't worry too much about it for now, we will take care of you for now" she said assuring Adam who was stunned at the conclusion but instead just nodded.
He couldn't show a smile in the first place anyway, his control over the puppet didn't allow for that, that was if there was even a lip on this mask.
Immediately afterwards she patted Adam on his shoulder and she hurried out to go get some food for the boy to eat and gracefully on her way out she saw Ra who she had sent to arrange the crops in the barn sneaking a peek on Adam, and the crops? They were untouched, sadly the same couldn't be said for him.
At the end of the day with the issue of Adam and how to go about with him as well as Ra, she ended up not being able to go to the market to trade her produce and so she kept them for the next day.
Soon at night, which was most of the time the only time Ra and his mother was able to see their husband and father Clint.
He was what they called an entrepreneur, he could go from a businessman today to a blacksmith tomorrow and then to a seafarer the next.
He was a jack of all trades however everyone had their own story as he was once like his wife Marie who is a labourer and quite the healthy strong one, the only reason she was not like him was because she did not succeed in the profession she chased and so even at her age, she was still kicking as resourceful as ever.
Clint on the other hand looked to be in his mid 50s to early 60s.
He came back home with a big smile and a hug from the family as dinner was immediately served hot and ready.
Minutes into the family eating and Ra had already drank the soup to his fill as he immediately sat to hear another of his fathers adventure when he suddenly started yawning, he felt the need to hold on but it was night time and his body demanded sleep and so he snoozed.
Almost immediately his father then asked
"how is the kid?"
"hes awoken and so far hes fine, he did not sustain a single injury, however he seems to have a little cognitive dissonance and is easily lost in thought, frankly speaking the only thing assuring me he is human is his mana circuits beneath that armor of his" she said in a swoop
Clint took another sip of his food before dropping it on the table.
"I secured an apartment in town, it should be enough for us three as a family and only costs five low grade mana crystals per week, we should be able to leave tomorrow, there's no longer any hope in these lands for commoners like us"
"i haven't finished selling the produce though"
"how much is remaining?"
"around a pound more and some spills would be left"
"not much then.. we can sell it off tomorrow as we leave, if not we could make do without it"
"what about the boy then?"
"send him on his way, we've done our part by saving him, he should be able to continue on his way, I doubt this backwater town is his destination"
This time it was Marie's turn to drop her food bowl as she broke the news about Adam to him and watched as his face slowly crumpled like paper before he let out a sigh.
"i am guessing you already have something in mind?" Clint asked knowing his wife was not that heartless to throwaway a kid on the street .
"lets take him in for now and see how he grows"
"if what you said is true then maybe he is not who we think he is, what if he is one of those mutates?" Clint asked with a hint of fear
"i considered that as well but that would be quite the heavy mutation however I remember you saying the kingdom has started enforcing rights to mutates to accept them and integrate them into our society, I have no fear of the critics that may come our way, weve received worse… remember?"
Clint nodded and kept silent for a while and after some contemplation he came to a conclusion.
"this doesn't change our plan much other than expending a few mana crystals, at the end of the day the choice is up to him, since you haven't gotten his permission yet"
"i know.."