"I'll miss you, Eiko."
"Eiko, make sure to remember us okay?"
"Sis Colette, Sis Helen!"
The baby Slime cried as she was hugged by Colette and Helen. The two Dwarves were also teary-eyed as they tried to pacify Eiko, who was already bawling her eyes out within their embrace.
Lux could only look at this scene bitterly because he knew that exchanging goodbyes was a difficult thing to do. His friends were about to leave Leaf Village and set out on a new adventure to the Intermediate Towns where Colette's sister, Aina, was waiting for her.
"Take care of yourselves in the intermediate Towns, okay?" Lux smiled as he rested his hands on Andy's and Axel's shoulders. "Things will be more difficult there, so always be on your toes and never let your guard down."
"We will, Big Brother," Andy replied.
"Big Brother, we'll be waiting for you." Axel nodded.
Matty had his arms crossed around his chest, but he was standing right beside Lux. Till the end, he refused to take the initiative to say goodbye, so the Half-Elf decided to do the Simp Dwarf a favor and patted his head.
"Colette will definitely attract many handsome boys," Lux commented. "If you don't step up your game, someone is going to sweep her off her feet."
Matty snorted. "I'd kill them before they could do that."
Surprisingly, he didn't swat Lux's hand away and allowed the red-headed teenager to continue patting his head.
Five minutes later, the two little girls managed to calm Eiko down and returned her to Lux with tears in their eyes.
"Big Brother, come see us soon," Colette said as she hugged Lux's waist. "I'll make sure that you'll get married to my sister as soon as possible."
"Big Brother, don't make us wait too long, okay?" Helen pleaded as she also hugged the Half-Elf, sandwiching him between her and Colette.
Lux smiled as he patted their heads. "Don't worry, I will come to find you guys, and when I do, we will go into an adventure together."
"Okay!"
"Un!"
Colette gestured to Lux as if she wanted to whisper something to him. The Half-Elf thought that she was going to tell her about her sister again, so he lowered his head and waited for Colette to say what she wanted to say.
As if waiting for that moment, Colette and Helen exchanged a glance and kissed Lux's left and right cheeks simultaneously.
Matty immediately reacted and was about to drag Colette away, but Andy and Axel both grabbed his arms, preventing him from ruining Colette's and Helen's goodbye.
"Thank you," Lux said as he held Eiko in his hand and kissed the baby slime's cheeks. "Go on, Eiko, kiss them back for me."
Eiko happily puckered her lips and kissed Colette and Helen, making the two girls giggle. After that farewell ended, all the Dwarves stared at the Half-Elf who gave them all a nod of assurance.
"Goodbyes are not forever," Lux said softly. "Goodbyes are not the end. It simply means Eiko and I will miss all of you until we meet again."
"Yes!" Eiko echoed as she looked at her first friends in Elysium with teary eyes. "Bye bye!"
"Bye bye, Big Brother, Eiko!" Colette said before turning around to summon her Warg.
She immediately climbed on top of it and ordered it to run away, because she was afraid that if she stayed a minute longer, her resolve would shatter like a crystal glass.
Helen sobbed before summoning her own Warg and ordering it to follow Colette.
Unlike her leader, Helen wasn't able to stop the tears from falling from her eyes as her Warg passed through the entrance of Leaf Village.
"I will wait for you, remember that," Matty declared as he also summoned his Warg and followed the two girls who had now put a good distance between them.
Andy and Axel both bowed their heads before summoning their mounts and rejoining their partymates.
Eiko buried her little head into Lux's chest as she cried sadly. She had also tried her best not to cry, but the sadness was too much for a baby like her.
Lux lightly patted the baby Slime on his chest, as his eyes blurred due to the tears that he had held back for so long.
As everyone's Big Brother, he knew that he couldn't cry in front of Colette and the others because it would make their parting more difficult. He resolved himself and forcibly acted like a mature, collected, and dependable Big Brother who was seeing his little brothers and sisters off as they left on their new journey.
Colette and her friends had been Lux's first friends in Elysium and he treasured all of them in his heart. Now that they were no longer here, the Half-Elf stopped holding back his tears and allowed them to fall freely.
The red-headed teenager and the baby Slime cried in each other's arms, until they no longer had tears to shed.
—-
Randolph and Grandma Annie looked at the Half-Elf that was standing by the West Gate of Leaf Village that led to the Heartwood Forest. This was the path that everyone took whenever they left for the Stronghold of Norria, which allowed them to use the teleportation gates to go to the different Intermediate Towns in the Kingdom of Gweliven.
"Although they are foreigners, seeing them go still makes my heart ache," Grandma Annie said softly.
"That is just the cycle of life," Randolph commented from the side. "One of these days, Lux will also leave us, and a new batch of foreigners will arrive to continue the cycle."
Grandma Annie nodded. "Yes. The legacy is passed on from those who come before, to those who come after, letting this Village, that is located in the outskirts of the kingdom, have a breath of fresh air."
Randolph chuckled. "Still, I have high hopes for Lux. The Only Half-Elf that has appeared here for hundreds of years. I'm sure that he will become something great in the future."
"Funny." Grandma Annie smiled. "I feel the same way myself."
The two old people exchanged a knowing glance at each other before returning to their shops.
Back at the gate, Lux wiped the tears from his eyes, as he walked back to the inn, carrying Eiko in his arms. Today, he planned to take it easy, resting his body and mind.
Tomorrow, he would leave Leaf Village, and venture to the other villages in the territory of Norria. All for the sake of the promises he made, and the friends who were now waiting for him beyond the gate.
