A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 54: "You're Too Young For Boys"

     Nope. We've been attacked at least three times, and that's just today. Like, what's up world? You're trying to kill me still? Is the Deviant's Plague in effect or something?

     I didn't understand, so I left it alone.

     With the five other people in my carriage, I continued being on the lookout for anyone that might come along to attack us again. Hera and Adri were warming up to Chord quite nicely, as I knew they would. I had secretly taught them patty-cake and some weird handshakes I had seen boys at school use, so they were now teaching her and having a blast. Chord wasn't a very outgoing girl right now, but I could tell that in the future she would be a very loving, all-around, easy to interact with type of person.

     Her shy smiles turned bright, and her limited actions gradually opened up. Whereas before she kept all to herself and only talked to her brother, even that being rare, she was forced out of the shell she built in the Church.

     I felt like a glad parent as I watched her grow more open during the trip, asking for seconds when it came to meals or starting conversations on her own. I think Mother wouldn't take too kindly to that since it would make her seem old.

     Either way, a few days after leaving the capital Leonera, we arrived home. It was early in the morning, before dawn again. This time we had also been using the magic powered carriages, where we got them from I had no clue. It must've been the power and influence of the de Libellules of the last generation, our grandparents, for us to have such a rare luxury. Not many people could get their hands on mana stones big enough to channel the energy put into it for it to move, so there weren't many.

     When we arrived at the gates, we found that there was a small disturbance. The guards were opening the gate, but they wouldn't open the barrier.

     Getting close enough to see why, I frowned and then ultimately, face palmed. We had been switching out carriages in between our drives so that there were different people every other day, so now I was in the luggage carriage with Mother and Father while all the rest were in the other one. Not much of a difference, other than the fact that I was booted from the other carriage by Thérèse because she wanted me to spend time with my parents, having been gone so long.

     It was an awkward silence for me, since they were both not the types of people to start a conversation. Me being a naturally quiet person in the first place, I didn't even think to speak and simply stared out the windows, dazed for hours.

     Father was messing with some little trinket that he had come across in Leonera, while Mother was playing with some magic.

     If anyone looked in right now, we would seem like a family that didn't care about each other.

     But, all those things I had mentioned, were just the surface.

     What was really happening was that I was using magic to look at Mother and Father, spying at them while it seemed my eyes were somewhere else. The trinket in Father's hand was easily identified as a crystal to look at Statuses, in a metal box with a cushion in it to keep it from breaking. He was testing it out on me since he realized I was suddenly a very high level human, and wanted to see the difference in stats from when he first saw me to now. Of course, I didn't allow him to.

     Since the device was meant to be a covert backdoor type of thing, I wasn't supposed to know he was accessing my Status. Utterly confused and thinking that I didn't know he was accessing it, he thought the device was broken and was trying to see what was wrong with it. Or, wrong with him.

     Sorry, Father. You aren't going crazy.

     Mother wasn't messing with just any magic, but trying out direct mana manipulation which I was best at.