I glared angrily at Thérèse as she fed me some disgusting baby mush soup with literal liquid vegetables barely holding their form inside. She didn't even look apologetic as she set up a soundproof barrier around us and continued with her conversation in this new room.
"Why don't you just take the little one to your parents' house? I bet she'd be much safer there."
A spoonful of disgustingness was forced into my reluctant mouth. I was hungry, but I wasn't that hungry. Actually, I was that hungry, but I just took pleasure in making the maid focus on me after neglecting me for so long.
"Because that would mean I am suspicious of him. Then, he would do his damnedest to make us stay or drag us back. I already have one tie with him, I don't want anymore than the four we have: my title, our marriage, this child, and my to-be-born son. I don't want to have a son because if I leave, he might come out as twisted as his father. I would stay here and raise them myself, but even that's not an option. The bitchy maids abuse this newborn, what will they do to her when she's older? You can't raise a child in this type of hostile environment," the Lady Lilly ranted, peeved. I take it that she doesn't have many allies here that she can talk to properly.
I could tell this because of how everything just came streaming out from the smallest question, and the kind demeanor was replaced with a strict woman who didn't hold back with her words. At all. I put some censors in there so I wouldn't hear some of the stuff she said.
"I know..." Thérèse sighed. "This is a really bad place to be. It's a typical noble trouble situation too. Why don't you check if he's got any illegitimate children and force him to take them in? If there's a son, they can be the heir. Simple enough, right?"
Lady Lilly's face contorted a bit. "It's a good idea, but I wouldn't force anyone to put up with that crazy guy. Especially a child of his-they are better off where they belong, whether it's in the slums or with their mother...fucking megalomaniac makes things so hard to deal with..."
I think I heard something mumbled under her breath that I shouldn't have again. I'm gonna just ignore that...
"That bad? I knew he was a piece of work, but I didn't think we'd need to beat some sense into him," Thérèse sat back in her chair nonchalantly, as if she hadn't just threatened the safety of one of the most important nobles in the land. Instead, we were talking about how to decorate cupcakes.
Yeah, I haven't had cupcakes in a long time. Or mochi. Even chocolate, something I hate, sounds good right now.
"Sadly, we can't do that. This household isn't so free where you can get away with beating up the lord, like with Earl's wife."
You considered it. You seriously considered it.
"Yeah, that's quite the special relationship if I do say so myself. Not that healthy, but it works," the maid nodded, looking at me as I refused the spoon.
She frowned, unpleased, and reached over. Her left hand pried my tiny jaw down and the right one put the spoon in. My tongue was not strong enough to prevent this.
"Sometimes I just randomly wonder how he ever got...lucky...enough to marry her. He's five years older than her. How did that even work?"
Yes, pray tell. How did that work? I'm curious myself.
...I think while fighting to get that spoon out of my mouth.
"She met him while adventuring. She was a hired escort of Earl when he was traveling alone a few years ago, before his wife died. She was fourteen when she first met him, he was her age of nineteen. She always amazed him with how she was already a C+ rank fresh out of adventuring school and could beat up anyone she pleased. Of course, what mattered more was how she was a favorite of his wife and did the job efficiently...He frequently requested her and she was always accepted. Despite the age gap, they all always got along so well. Lady Elizabeth, little Firefly Anastasia, and the unfortunate Earl Earl. They made quite a group, you know. Lady Elizabeth was a former adventurer and loved fighting, so she battled it out with Anastasia every time they met. It's much like how Ana and Earl battle every time they reunite..."
Thérèse looked off at a painting behind Lady Lilly, reminiscing with cloudy eyes. I spit out the spoon she had left in my mouth, and wiped my face with my bib as much as possible. No one noticed how proficiently I cleaned up with perfect, intelligent mannerisms.
"After Lady Lilly had the twins, when Ana was seventeen, she died. Actually, she didn't die. She disappeared. No one knows what happened to her and there was enough blood in her room to suggest death, so she was given a small funeral and that was it. Of course, Earl and Ana were both devastated. They had the right to be. Who could defeat an S+ rank like her? No one thought she would ever die like that."
They both sighed while pondering. It was a complicated topic, not something you discuss over breakfast with small children at hand so casually.
And yet Thérèse still went on.
"After that, the story goes like this: Earl was required to have a new wife to mother his children, and Anastasia was very good with them. Nine months after they were born, Ana was already their mother practically, so he married and took her in. Thirteen months after that, here we are now," she finished, gesturing to me.
I don't like the way you did that. Pointing at me so unsure of everything.
I know that I was unexpected...
But...Ikagen'ni shite! (Come on!) Was I unwanted as well?!
Lady Lilly nodded while looking at me, then turned her attention to the one she was feeding as well.
"I hope I can raise this one just as well on my own. It'll be quite a task."
"Nonsense," Thérèse stated, waving a hand in the air. "You don't have to do it on your own. Your mother would love to pamper her grandchild, Little Fir needs a friend outside the family for when she grows up, there's me, and I bet Anastasia wouldn't mind having another pseudo child of her own. Heck, you can make her the godmother. There'd be no problems anywhere."
The receiving party's eyebrows raised surprisedly. "So many options..."
"There's more, but that's where it gets tedious so I'll stop with that. Anytime he gives you some bull crap, feel free to come over. The de Libellule doors are always open to a friend," Thérèse smiled warmly.
Lady Lilly smiled back. "That's nice to know, Tess. Thanks for that."
"Anytime."
There was a glowing atmosphere where they previously talked about a probable taboo topic.
Boss was not traumatized by the events of this morning. Instead, she was even more energetic after that.
That means she deemed it appropriate to act a little wild as she slammed her hand down on the table with mush while crying out randomly.
That mush just happened to be set up in a position that it would easily reach me two feet across the table.
And so, I started gagging because the smell was all over me from the uncommon projectile. My own projectile was going to start soon if they didn't get this horrid stuff off of me. They needed to fire the cook, whoever it was. They didn't deserve to be in a duke's house, no matter how terrible of a man the noble was said to be.
-----------------------------------------------------------------x----------------------------------------------------------------
Five days later...after enduring flying mush, Boss's antics, Thérèse's ignorance, and being exposed to a lady's fury after she ranted about her ******* and *****, ignorant, uselessly stuck up husband. It was quite a trial for me who couldn't really do anything.
It's that time now. The one where we head back through that monstrous forest and go home. I wished I could take one of those books with me to be entertained on the ride, but sadly they didn't even think to do that. Thérèse just satisfied herself during the whole ride by pointing out different deadly daytime monsters on the side of the road, some alive and some not, like we were at the zoo in Saitama. I'd never been to a zoo, but this is kind of how I imagined it to be.
In the end, I never met that crazy man that they had been complaining about so much. He was apparently "sick" from a cold of some sort, but it was obvious to the lady-maid duo that he was down in bed while facing the repercussions of summoning a monster from the Demon Territory. It changed your appearance for a time and caused great illness called the Black Mark to subside in you for a while, so he was secluding himself from the public eyes of curious nobles that had surely heard about the faulty attempt to curse his daughter.
Also, there was a startling whisper that I heard around corners sometimes, about the holy magic user that had specifically come to save the duke's daughter. There had been some people down in the courtyard who looked up and saw the window at the time of the fighting, noticing that something was wrong. They claimed that they saw someone in black and white fighting against the curse monster, flying up and down while avoiding its advances. There were bright flashes and amazing magic used, and it looked like "...someone was fighting against that monster with really high level magic. It was an amazing fight."
That was one of the things I had heard from some page boy that went out for a morning run in the courtyard. I wanted to hit him on the head with a fan as large as Temari's, from Naruto.
Violently:
Hey.
Hey.
Yeah, you.
The one that had been standing down there while watching my desperate battle.
Why didn't you go wake up the guards?
Why did you just stand there?
Because you are a baka. That's all.
You dense baka. How could you? Just get fired already.
Wait, a better idea is if you go back in time and fight that creepy thing yourself. It looked like it came straight out of a horror anime.
Or one of those terrifying movies from America. Americans are really brutal, you know? They love horror movies.
My Little Pony is about the only decent kids' show there was. Or Sponge Bob. You can't trust anything else.
Just like how you can't trust people to come up with decent names. Or keep quiet about stuff.
The duke had ordered everyone in the household to stay quiet about the event as to not draw the church's attention, and I completely agreed with him. I'd seen certain younger maids fan-girling about someone they'd never seen, just happy that someone so powerful came here and stirred things up a bit. They immediately started fantasizing that it was a man, a handsome one with pretty blond hair like Glaedis and sparkling blue eyes like the sky, handsome and cool like a prince...it was so typical that I wondered if this was a story and someone else had saved us from the wraith. I was just a delusional baby and that some ikemen was seen dashing out after doing some heroic deed.
Yeah, right. Sorry ladies. Just a regular baby here, no riajuus that the men wish would explode.
They decided to call me, an unknown magician that had only appeared once to save the young miss, Knight. Night Knight, is what the young page said, but someone hit him with the next best thing besides a gigantic fan-a frying pan-and just cut it down to Knight. Why did they even bother to name me in the first place? It's not like they would name the captain "Knight" if he was the one to save us. Is it just because they like the mystery of it or something? They wanted to make a big deal of it? Entertainment for themselves in this strict militant noble's house?
Either way, it had attracted the Church. Four days after the incident, people wearing white robes came up to the gates with not a single carriage in sight. They had used magic to come here, surprisingly enough. Wasn't that a long distance from the capital? Like, over a hundred miles?
They didn't even look winded from their magic usage, and I noticed the reason why. I had become adept at recognizing what had magical properties and what didn't, so I knew that the clasps used to close the front of their short cape things were gems with mana storage properties. They were slightly glowing, giving off a sensitive feeling, so I could tell they had been used.
The priests, three men and a woman, were stoic. They all had a conservative look about them and blank expressions, their hair only brown. The woman looked to be in her late thirties as the oldest, the youngest one about six years old.
They walked in unison when coming up to the front gate, and demanded attention with their presences. The gates opened to them without a word and we watched them walk through from the courtyard, stealthy. Thérèse really didn't like Church people for some reason, and snarled at their perfection from the moment she laid eyes on them.
Lady Lilly reprimanded her with a pout, obviously a pious believer in the Church. She had used the magic of a priest, so it was no wonder she was respectful. Probably wanted to be a priestess just to escape this marriage sometime ago.
They came into the house while giving standard greetings to the duke behind a curtain, then came to Lady Lilly.
"Hello, Sister. It's been a long time," the dull brown haired lady smiled dully, releasing dull words. Everything about her was colorless, unnoticeable, and forgettable. There was just no helping it, I couldn't focus on her.
"Indeed it has, Margaret. How's the Community these days?" Lady Lilly responded brightly, making up the missing warmth in the room. The men were inspecting the house for any signs of abnormality, tracing the black magic trail that was left behind to its source. The young boy was standing in a corner, looking around cutely like an innocent little boy. His doe brown eyes were fluttering gently as he looked at the war torn room.
I still couldn't believe what had happened to this place unless I remembered what caused each of the wreckages.
The door was destroyed because of that one time...
The floor was burned because of that one spell and had holes in it from my "creation magic" stakes.
There were wire thin lines checkerboard style on that wall because of that other spell.
The crib was missing the front because of the [Black Magic Block] bouncing off that one intense force when it jumped at the maid.
Oh, and that one time ten minutes after the fight started when it dragged its claws across the ground for a few feet and left giant gouges there.
The book shelves and old wooden toys were smashed and shattered, collapsed in place. The books had scattered pages, burned edges, and scraped up covers. It was a sad thing to see such a sight, because I had been best friends with books in my past life. Pity.
And who could forget the time I slammed the maid into the ceiling? There was tons of dust all over the floor and wood chips littering the ground, the ceiling a bit broken because of how much mana I had put into the spell.
There was even a maid shaped and torn up paper shaped space on the floor from where they had fell on it and picked up the dust. It was like the nursery was home to extremely bratty tyrant babies in their hyped up terrible twos.
Now that I thought about it, the sun didn't come up faster that day. We simply fought for a long time by me tossing weird spells at it and it trying to constantly dig a claw into Boss.
"It looks like quite a battle went on here for a C+ rank curse wrath," the priestess monotonously described while looking all around.
"It may be that low level, but it has some nasty qualities if you touch it. Curses, plagues, even death in the very worst case if you are unlucky. No one would want to touch that thing."
"Quite so. It may be C+, but the danger level is very high. Whoever fought this must be at least B rank, possibly B+."
"Indeed."
"Au."
They all looked at me, including Boss and the boy.
What's wrong?
"Hey, who's this?" The priestess asked.
AH. I drew attention to myself. Avoid the churchgoers! They follow those devious gods!
"Earl Earl de Libellule's new daughter, Firea."
"Why is she here?" Eyes narrowed.
"I brought her with me to make a new friend out of Louise. Is there a problem with that?" Thérèse's eyes also narrowed, hers daring the priestess-Margaret-to say something else.
"None at all. I was just wondering," Margaret backed off, relaxing her shoulders.
"She was in this room when the attack happened as well," Lady Lilly added.
"Hou? Then she would've seen the knight in shining armor all the servants of this house love, prancing around in here, correct?" The first bit of amusement peeled back her plain features.
"No. She was on the floor, hidden by the crib. As you can tell, the fight mainly took place over there and this crib is quite tall. There's no way she would've seen anything, especially with how confused she was."
Thérèse's arms tightened around me. We both knew perfectly well I had been watching and had a clear mind, because I had been perfectly fine when she came in. If I could have spoken, I would have asked, "What took you so long?" or "Hey! What's shakin'?" like nothing was wrong after the fight.
"Fir seemed perfectly fine, oddly enough, when we came in here. Extremely hungry and tired though. She was facing the window the whole time and it's not like she can move very much by herself yet, so she probably saw nothing."
Not helping! I don't want to be noticed!
Thérèse leveled a plain, unamused stare at her friend, clearly not happy. She was haughtily ignored.
"But if she was facing the window, she would have seen this person come and go, right?" A small smile of triumph lit Margaret's plain face.
"They would've gone through the door like a regular person, right?" Thérèse countered.
Thérèse, I take back every single dubious thing I've said about you! Fight on!
"There were no reports of an unfamiliar person in the house, so it's likely they used the window to get in."
Completely wrong, but please keep going that way.
"There were no fluctuations in the barrier on that night, so they used the door probably."
Also wrong, but whatever works, works.
It was a back and forth battle, hopefully leaning on my caretaker's side. I didn't know what she was so desperately trying to shield or what Margaret wanted to do, but whatever it was I wanted to firmly reject. I didn't break anything so I don't have to buy it.
Or at least, I didn't mean to break anything. The wraith did most of it.
"The door was destroyed by the monster and the battle took place in this room. That infers the attacker might have countered inside the room towards the monster, becoming in through the door. The monster was summoned from somewhere inside this manor, so it came through the door while the attacker was inside the room already."
"The window was locked."
"Lock magic can be used. Or, break it and then fix it afterwards."
"What type of cheap method is that?"
"I thought someone of your profession might use a method like that. If you didn't know it, you should keep it in your books for future reference," Margaret taunted, losing her kind exterior. She never really seemed kind to me, but to Lady Lilly it seemed to be so. She looked a bit shocked.
"I'll keep it in mind, thank you very much. I actually find it funny how you think you can tell me how to do my job properly. Shall I give suggestions for you as a priestess too?" Thérèse looked completely open and innocent as she smiled sheepishly, a threatening glare in both of their eyes hidden deep in the depths. They shown through wildly so that even Lady Lilly picked it up, face distraught.
"Thérèse, I know you don't want to do this, but you have to bend to the Church sometimes. My daughter was almost cursed and I would like you to cooperate in this investigation so this doesn't happen again," Lady Lilly stated firmly like an ignorant woman.
My whole image of her shattered. I can't believe this. You selfish piece of-
Thérèse's jaw dropped like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could that kind and selfless lady from before become so selfish all of a sudden?
"In case you didn't notice, Fir was almost cursed as well. It's not our fault that such a thing happened, so I don't see why we have to 'cooperate' in a mind scan," Thérèse was flabbergasted at the sudden change in her friend.
Even I thought it was unnatural, but I didn't want to check her Status for abnormal qualities for fear that the Margaret person would catch on to me using magic. And then she would find out I have intelligence, that I'm a Deviant, Thérèse wouldn't protect me anymore, my family wouldn't want me, I'd be killed or sold away and discriminated against...the list goes on.
Like hell I was risking my freedom for a Status check.
Thérèse did feel like it though, even if she didn't have the same stakes as me to lose.
"Stop that right now, you puppeteer. What you are doing is despicable and goes against the very meaning of the church," she spat at Margaret, who had on that blank and uninvolved face again.
"Stop what?"
"You know what, bitch. You dare come into a duke's house and mess with your own Community member. How low can you fall?"
"Very, for the sake of the Church. I am conducting a simple investigation here and you are obstructing my work. I can have you removed from your standing with the flick of my wrist for doing so."
"That would be an abuse of power, and you have no right to do so."
A mischievous grin played on the priestess's lips, smirk manipulating her dull features to make them come alive.
"There is nothing fair in this world, so I don't know what you are complaining about. Just give me the baby and I'll do my job, and I will let you do yours once we are gone."
"I refuse," she sternly replied.
"That was not a suggestion."
Lady Lilly's eyes were glazed over, having fallen prey to some sort of manipulative spell done by the priestess. She ignored and was ignored by our conversational partners who were going at it, tossing around some difficult words.
"That was not a halfhearted answer. If you do wish to go through with your mind scan, you must have the proper documents as well as the consent of her guardians. Last, but certainly not least, you have to remove your control off of Lilly."
"Who are you to tell me what to do? Or command me around as such?"
"I am no one but a guard and a friend. Someone who wants to do things the right way, if anything."
"Your authority does not stretch far."
"Yeah, but sometimes physical prowess stretches even farther," she hinted while making a every tight fist and a pleasant smile. The literal blood-lust that rolled off Thérèse in waves made me shiver, Boss cry out fearfully while burying herself in her mother's breasts, and Lady Lilly snap out of her trance. The aura was not something I wanted to encounter.
Ever.
(AN: Ignore Text in photo)
The Margaret person who had seemed so confident before, backed down while taking a barely audible shuddering breath. Her concentration and hold on Lady Lilly had snapped.
"Fine. We'll come back another day. We're leaving," she told the boy without looking his way.
The boy nodded fearfully, as if he didn't want to go with her. Just before he walked out the door to trail behind, he glanced back sorrowfully and with great apology in his eyes, bowing to us. His eyes caught with mine and I could tell he was genuinely sorry. I gave him what was hopefully a small, healing smile for his troubles.
He froze for a few seconds, staring at me. His eyes flashed violet for a few seconds before he smiled widely and dashed out the door, more happy than when he had come in. I guess I just had this healing smile, because everyone I showed it to just melted.
Have a good day~
I didn't allow myself to be affected by this solemn and threatening mood, tugging on the brown hair that was next to my head to make Thérèse snap out of it as well.
Wake up!
As if she got my message, she exclaimed, "Ow! Alright alright! Lilly, we don't want to stay here any longer than we have to. This whole monster and Knight business is unsettling and involves us with some bad fellows, so we'll be heading off tomorrow."
Lilly still hadn't snapped out of it.
"Lilly? Lilly! The mind magic's gone now, so wake up!"
Tug on her hair. It worked for me.
"Wha-huh? Thérèse? Where's Margaret?"
"The wolf in sheep's clothing? Gone, hopefully. I don't want to spend anymore time here than I have to, so I was trying to tell you we're leaving tomorrow."
"Really? That's too bad, we could've gossiped more..." She looked a tad bit downcast.
"Next time, when there aren't any Church members involved."
She sighed. "Okay then."
"Well, I'm going to get prepared now. Please watch so that they don't come near me, or I will surely snap and kill one of them." That particular smile came back to her face and Lilly's smile froze like a deer in the headlights.
"O-Okay."
"Thank you."
We trudged out of the room, stepping over a piece of shelf and being careful not to track too much of the crime scene outside. This world didn't think much of preserving things so they could come back for exact scenes later.
That was probably because they thought they could rely on that mind scan spell or something, looking into the minds of witnesses to see what actually happened.
Hey...? They were about to do that to me, right? Search through my memories.
Thérèse, I thought while looking up at her casual face, unaware of my admiration. The spotlight fell on you again. Please teach me well in the future.
And so, we were traveling through the forest on the next day after bidding Lady Lilly and Louise good bye. Thérèse also told Lilly to be wary of the Church and anyone that looks unfamiliar in the house, but Lilly disregarded it with blind faith in the church. Thérèse looked uneasy, but knew she couldn't change her friend's views even after telling her about the brainwashing and threats.
"The Church has their way, you have yours. We cannot change those facts," she had used as an excuse.
"And if they lead to the death of your daughter? Or Anastasia's?" It was a test question for Lilly's values.
"I'm sure it won't ever lead to that," she answered again, in obvious denial as she looked to the side, uncomfortable.
My maid's eyes narrowed. "You can never be too sure of the future. Do not set it in stone with your flippant words."
"I'm merely implying my faith in the will of those who seek to do right."
"Right through wrong? Is there such a thing?"
"I don't know. Why don't you ask yourself that?"
"Because I know already that I don't have the answer."
"There you go. No one knows."
"But that can't dismiss the Church's wrongdoings, against you as someone who is blindly faithful and me, who has earned their scorn for no other reason than being a thorn in their side that they placed there themselves."
"This conversation of morals can go on for a long time. Your journey is very long, so I suggest you get going soon."
Thérèse looked at her friend and the distance between them, pondering.
"I suppose I shall. Until next time, Lilly."
"Until next time."
And then, we left the mother and daughter behind at the foot of the steps of the house that would surely be their downfall, one day.