A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 156: A Tiresome and Chaotic Peek

     "Congratulations, little godslayer. You're in the system now."

     -a system. It was a system.

     Of course it was. I always knew that. It was a system that very few people across the world could access, scarce enough that even Fae and Dragons shook their heads when asked if they could. It was a system Aloire could reach, and Kiki, and after Magaris crossed over to a questionable side of her humanity, one she could reach as well.

     What if it's not a system that's random in letting someone use it, but one instead that is restricted from the majority so that the few can master it, manipulate it, and rule it?

     And if it was a system, then someone must've been in control. Then someone must've been the one picking and choosing who to give it to and who to restrict it from. Then someone must've had power somehow, to pick and choose, sometimes, what could appear on someone's Status, and what did appear.

     I thought things just popped up as they wanted. I got Skills and titles quite easily, something I also attributed to being a Deviant in the system, but...what if that system Keir had said I was a part of, then, was one I hadn't even been a part of until I became an apostle? Despite being able to use Statuses before then.

     It was a confusing mess that was revealed to me just because of that strange situation being plopped in my lap. Or rather, being one I'd walked into without much thought.

     But the main thing I took from it was that there must've been someone in charge of said system, and that not everything appeared in the Status that I thought would. Staring at the race tag, it was just a few words floating on the screen, and nothing beyond it. Unlike the Status I had appear whenever someone tried to look at mine, the double screens I had to disillusion those that sought to pry, there was nothing hidden about hers.

     "Lady Elizabeth was a Demon."

     "She is."

     Is.

     "Let me guess." My hand pressed harder on the barrier my sister lay inside of. It was cloudy black as I sunk my hand inside, searching for her own. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the feeling of crumbling, shriveling skin beneath my grasp. "Lady Elizabeth is back in the Demon Territory now."

     Not was.

     "She is."

     Is.

     My sister didn't even twitch in response. Her Status showed she was in a coma anyway, so I understood the reason why, but it unnerved me. She was so cold.

     "What can I do?" I asked, floating up to kneel in the air and reach her head. I was not surprised when I felt a single little horn protruding from beneath the skin of her head, on one side. "Kiki."

     "...it is possible to remove this condition by using your [Race Change] Skill, Master, and make Hera a complete human."

     "However?"

     "Hera, from what I've observed so far while monitoring her condition, is like one of the Demons mentioned in Olei Latrun's books. Her heart and mind are not corrupt; it is only her body which is subject to change. In a world as turbulent as this, and one that will increasingly become more dangerous in the future, I believe it would be beneficial to instead find equilibrium and let her cultivate her Demonic heritage under proper guidance so that it may become a strength."

     "You think it would be beneficial of my sister, who goes to school in a capital saturated with Church members, in a kingdom that hates Demons...to keep this side of herself as a wildcard."