Unlike the usual, Samuel and Samara didn't ask him to play with them. Instead, they asked him to watch them practice and point out what they were doing wrong. Samuel was stronger, but Samara didn't hesitate in attacking anymore and her counterattacks were landing more often as well. Also, they sure were good at dodging and parrying.
"Not bad, you both are on the right path," Billy said.
"Really? Yay!" Samara said.
"No, we can't be satisfied yet! I want to defeat Billy and then I will be the new prodigy of the tribe," Samuel declared.
"Do you even know what prodigy means?" Billy frowned. "In any case, you sure are ambitious, but I can't let my younger siblings surpass me."
"Did something happen?" Camilla asked while she was watching her children playing. "Billy seems a bit different."
"Well, actually…" Drew said and then explained what happened in the last three weeks.
"... Billy is just twelve, he isn't ready for that kind of role," Camilla said. "Besides, marrying someone and watching them die… shouldering the destiny of two tribes… that is too much. Why didn't Edward marry again?"
"I asked him the same thing, and he said that he won't because he won't love any other woman like his previous wife," Drew said. "Even if he has to pass his role to someone else not connected by blood, he won't marry again. Besides, he wants to give his daughter as much attention as possible while he can."
"I respect his devotion, but in the end, he is only causing trouble to Billy," Camilla said. "If he says yes, he will be burdened by the rest of his life, if he says no, then he will make the life of the girl even more miserable."
"Yeah…" Drew said while scratching the back of his head. "I don't know what is the right answer in this scenario either."
Drew said that he would respect Billy's decision, but now that he thought about it, he realized that he had just put more pressure on him. Camilla wanted to protect her son from those kinds of troublesome situations, but they will never stop coming as long as Billy continues standing out. As for Billy, he decided not to think about it for today, he just enjoyed his day off with his siblings.
However, he was forced to think about it again the next day when everyone left home. Anna went to her job, the twins went to the training grounds. Camilla and Drew left to oversee the area where the villagers were raising some crops. It looked like they wanted to give some privacy to think things through, but some time alone wasn't something he wanted right now…
"Let's see what my options are… accepting without a care, that will mostly cause problems to me but not to Edward and his daughter," Billy thought. "Going to meet her and accepting, she will probably think that I accepted to marry her out of pity. Going and not accepting… she will think that I thought that she was ugly. Not going… I won't have to worry about anything, but that will probably trouble her and Edward."
There was no perfect answer as expected… Billy wondered if he could help her with his powers and then give her the chance to find someone else, but until now, he didn't find any skill or effects that worked against diseases or negative effects. So, the possibility of working was quite low.
"I suppose I should at least try… I have to visit her anyway," Billy said and then got up from his bed.
While Billy was waking toward Edward's mansion, he recalled that he forgot to check if Jean had books or if the other states had the habit of documenting things. Perhaps he should study medicine… or maybe he should ask Anna. Even if she and the healers of the world didn't know how to treat the girl's disease it might give Billy some insight. Regardless, the guards didn't try to stop Billy, even though he came without telling anyone. In any case, he found Edward on his office studying a map.
"Billy? You came a lot sooner than I expected," Edward said. "Have have already made up your mind?"
"No, not yet," Billy said.
"Are you planning on deciding after you see what she looks like?" Edward asked. "Well, you will be astonished, but she is a beauty like no other."
"I see, so she takes after her mother," Billy said.
"Hahaha, that was a good one, but it is true…" Edward said and then showed a sad smile. "She is pretty like her mother…"
"I am not worried about her appearance, I am more worried about what will happen once I made my choice," Billy said.
"Well, I am glad that you are thinking things through," Edward said. "Even if you refuse, I won't resent you, but it would be great if you could become my daughter's friend.:
"That is not a problem, but having a single friend is fine?" Billy asked. "I can't imagine you letting her receive many visitors."
"I let some of them visit her… but those kids were too insensitive, they had some things as a joke and that hurt her feelings," Edward said.
"That is rough… what kind of topics does she dislike to talk about?" Billy asked.
"About the disease itself, mentions of deaths, basically, everything that is too depressing," Edward said. "She likes to hear stories, but not fairy tales."
Billy probably wasn't the person to hope for that kind of thing, he basically was a machine that liked to train whenever possible and the few adventures that he experimented with were quite the bloody ones… Regardless, Billy knew how to interact with kids around his current age, he had years of experience in doing that, after all. He should be fine… or so Billy thought.. When Edward guided him to her room, he didn't find a teenager, he found a young woman.
