Late that afternoon, after dropping off the unconscious and injured woman at the village gates, the three children sprinted toward their house. They burst through the door, causing Helen and Eluisa—who were busy in the kitchen—to whip around. Both were startled half to death; Leon, Lucia, and Livia were a complete mess. Their bodies were caked in mud, their faces were streaked with black soot from smoke, and they were soaking wet.
"Hey, what on earth were you three playing?" Helen asked, untying her apron as she hurried over.
"Um... we fell," Leon answered.
"Yeah, that's right. That's why we're so dirty," Lucia added, looking down at her messy clothes.
"I'm wet," Livia piped up, trying to dry herself off.
"Let's get you bathed. Take those clothes off," Helen said, kneeling in front of them to help them undress.
Once the three were stripped down, Helen gathered their laundry and led them to the back of the house to wash them. Eluisa watched them go while stirring a pot of soup, smiling and shaking her head. But as she turned back to the stove, her expression grew serious. Moments later, "knock... knock," a sudden knock came at the door. Eluisa set down her ladle and walked over.
She opened the door and was surprised to find three men with tanned skin, red eyes, and guard uniforms standing there.
"Good afternoon. My name is Kal Thor. I'm the son of the village chief. May we ask you something?" asked the man in front.
"Um... sure, what is it?" Eluisa asked.
"Just now, the two guards behind me reported that three small triplets escorted Lut Tesh—one of our hunters—back to the village. She was badly injured. We also saw smoke rising from the forest and have sent hunters to investigate. Do you know anything about this?" Kal Thor asked.
"Wait... are you saying my younger siblings brought an injured female hunter back to the village?" Eluisa asked, stunned.
"Exactly," Kal Thor replied.
"That's impossible. They're only six years old," Eluisa insisted.
Kal Thor turned to the two guards and spoke to them in a different language. He looked very serious. Eluisa could tell the guards were trying to convince him they were telling the truth. After one of the guards finished explaining, Kal Thor turned back to Eluisa.
"When these guards helped Lut Tesh, she was delirious. She kept mumbling about three small children who defeated an Orc General with ease. Do your siblings possess some kind of extraordinary power? Because what she described is impossible. There is no way three six-year-olds could take down a monster that ten grown men might not survive," Kal Thor said.
"W-what? That can't be right. Forget fighting monsters—they've never even held a weapon," Eluisa countered.
"Hmm... very well. Once the investigation is complete, we will return. Excuse us," Kal Thor said.
He left immediately, followed by the two guards. Eluisa closed the door, her brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed in deep thought. Suddenly, an acrid smell wafted from the kitchen. She snapped out of it and ran back to her pot. She frantically stirred the soup, scraping the bottom with her ladle. She took a sniff and exhaled in relief.
"My soup was almost ruined. But still... they're only six. They're so little," Eluisa, who was now eighteen, muttered to herself.
A while later, Helen returned, drying the heads of Leon, then Lucia, and finally Livia. All three were now in clean clothes. Eluisa moved the pot aside and took off her apron. She watched the triplets as they joked and played like perfectly normal children their age.
"Yeah... there's just no way," Eluisa whispered.
Leon, Lucia, and Livia noticed Eluisa shaking her head with a look of utter confusion.
"What is it, Big Sis?" Leon asked.
"Nothing, it's nothing," Eluisa replied.
"Who was at the door, Sis?" Livia asked.
"You knew someone was here?" Eluisa asked, caught off guard.
"Um... we heard the knocking. Right, guys?" Livia said, looking at Leon and Lucia.
"Yeah, we heard it," Leon nodded.
"I heard it too," Lucia added.
"Someone was here?" Helen asked Eluisa. She had been busy with the kids and clearly hadn't noticed the visitors.
Eluisa didn't answer. She just kept watching her triplet siblings with a puzzled look. Eventually, Leon, Lucia, and Livia asked to go to their room. After Eluisa nodded, they raced off. Once they were gone, Eluisa sank into a chair, and Helen sat across from her.
"What's wrong, Milady?" Helen asked, taking Eluisa's hand across the table.
Eluisa didn't hold back. She told her everything that had just happened—how three men from the village had come by and exactly what they had told her. Helen was visibly shocked as she listened.
"Could that really be true, Milady?" Helen asked.
"That's what they claimed, but it's impossible. They're only six years old. There's no way they could fight off a monster, no matter how weak it was," Eluisa replied.
"Maybe they just didn't see things clearly. Don't let it weigh on you too much, Milady," Helen said comfortingly.
"I know. I'm just terrified that the prophecy of our House is actually true—the one about triplets being born into our family. They say it means the three great rulers from a thousand years ago have been reborn. That's why my family was murdered... they were afraid of those three kings and queens coming back," Eluisa murmured.
Helen was speechless. She could only squeeze Eluisa's hand as it rested on the table. Eluisa looked heartbroken; to her, her entire world was wrapped up in her three little siblings. She lowered her head, lost in thought.
***
Meanwhile, inside the bedroom, Leon, Lucia, and Livia sat on the edge of their beds, lost in thought. The three of them remained silent, reflecting on what they had just experienced and analyzing their actions afterward. After several moments of quiet, Leon finally broke the silence,
"Come to think of it... this is the first time we've run into monsters and actually fought them again in this second life," Leon noted.
"You're right. It turns out we're still as strong as we were before... well, maybe not exactly the same, since we're still so small, but at least our power hasn't vanished," Lucia replied.
"We're even using the same weapons... though our birthmarks are gone. I wonder what that means?" Livia mused.
"I just realized that too," Lucia added.
"From now on, we have to be extremely careful about showing our strength," Leon warned.
"I agree. It's too risky if anyone finds out," Livia replied.
"Whose bright idea was it to bring that woman back to the village anyway?" Lucia asked.
"We couldn't exactly leave her alone in a pile of corpses, could we?" Livia countered.
"Forget it. What's done is done. The main thing is that we have to be careful from here on out," Leon said.
"You were the one who moved first, weren't you?" Livia asked.
"My body just acted on its own... by the time I realized what was happening, we had already finished putting out the fires," Leon explained.
"Alright, whatever. Let's head out. I'm starving," Lucia said, rubbing her stomach.
With that, the three hopped off the bed and ran to the door. They slipped out and pulled it shut behind them.