Sometime during the night, as the dinner party went on, I decided to stop using up my mana so I would have anything in case an emergency happened.
As we all know, emergencies always happen with me.
A lot of them were surprised when all of a sudden I shined golden, and then the wonderful lady was gone. In her place was a tiny girl, one who could barely see over the table. Noticing this, Kitri decided to take me into his lap, but the girl next to him decided to take the cute girl and do the same.
A war of glares and daggers went between their eyes, until I asked, "Is it that important?"
"Very," Kitri narrowed his eyes at the sister and she gulped, then gave up.
Don't tell me he's yandere. I don't think I could stand that.
He was positively beaming when I landed in his lap, wings instantly around my waist. Thinking it was a faux pas, I decided to not pull my plate towards me to finish my meal and just sat there.
Staring at it.
It'd tasted so wonderful before.
I remember how slick that syrup was down my throat.
And my first time since coming to this world, I dared to try the meat. That was a feeling I'd never forget.
Really badly, I wanted to save it for later. My commoner instincts, no, my hunter-gatherer instincts from when I was Kaya kicked in. I needed to save this for later or I wouldn't have food. "Mother" would probably keep a constant watch on the fridge if I wanted to sneak down and raid it.
Wrong life! Never mind!
So, forlornly, I stared at it rom the corner of my eye.
"Do you still want it?"
"The best food I've ever had."
"Your mother's cooking wasn't enough?"
"She's a noble, cooks make the food."
"No, not at all," I shook my head. "Since she came from a humble life, she decided to try her hand at cooking for three months. When I woke up from my coma and she decided to make it again, to warm up her poor daughter's heart, I had to honestly tell her what I thought. As far as she knows, I don't know she practices and blows up the kitchen sometimes."
I told this story with a bit of trauma leaking on my face. Those days were good, but until both Thérèse and Mother gave up cooking I had a constant fear of coming to the table.
"I should've known better," the girl who asked shook her head as if apologizing.
"No, people always assume Mother's perfect. However, just because I was baby when I experienced it does not mean my memories are in any way hazy."
No lie.
That topic was dropped.
"So Firea," the oldest one, one of the farthest across the table from me, spoke up. I learned sometime ago that she was called Tuila. "What're your plans for the next few years? You've already got the basic educations of any human child, and much more in fact. How will you spend your livelihood?"
I didn't even have to think before answering that, I'd pondered this so many times. The words flowed smoothly from my tongue as my head was tilted to the side, oddly thoughtful. Kitri's wings looked like they were undulating in color-or was it in pattern?-but I didn't pay them much regard as I fingered the ends of my dress.
"Training. Raising my mana total. Helping Knight, if she ever decides to drag me with her. Learning more about this world, since I know next to nothing about it. Perhaps helping my father with his territory, since I'm already reading magic books every single day in his office. Hm...making friends my age, besides the ones I already have," I was kind of thinking about where to find the capture targets, leaving the heroine until magic school.
Milo and Adri, I knew for sure were targets. The Church kid from long ago was also one, but I remembered the heroine and him wouldn't meet for a while. Either way, she's supposed to give him a name and they all become friends or something, and if she gives him a last name then they marry. Happy ending for all, because no one goes after the prince that I have yet to meet.
Louise marries the second prince, they find out she has a curse after actually listening to her and get some Church member to break it. I think it was the boy that the heroine marries that does it. After that, Milo takes over the house and marries Hera or something, Adri marries the henchman #2 who had been falling in love with him, henchman #1 married the first prince, and Firea died when she attempted to summon a Demon so they could kill the heroine in magic school.
Great ending, right? Everything is perfect if the heroine falls in love with the boy from the Church. You know why that route wasn't very popular?
Because he's seven years older, because he can't break away from the evil Church that easily, and because he's very shy.
The only reason he got the girl was because the second prince, a charmer who'd been sent off to war on a small scouting trip that became a good boy since he wasn't exactly a man yet, saw that besides the curse Louise was a lovely girl. Out of pity and eventually growing love, he married her. Besides, she was the daughter of a duke. What's not to like? I mean, the first prince is kind of older than henchman #1 as well, but there wasn't much problem because nobles do that a lot. The heroine was not a noble, and the Church boy most certainly wasn't either. He was also of the Church, where you can't have attachments like that unless you step down from the position the gods have granted to you, like Lady Coccinelle did.
That was the chain of events that led to the perfect end for almost everyone.
Firea dies in all routes. There was a bit of death in the game because of the war, but it was a romance-they had to focus on the castle and the school when they made the game. So, to make it even the least bit more serious and set up the failure routes for the villainess noble girl Louise, someone close to her had to die and she needed a blow into her forces. It was to show that the side of the "good" was winning.
So, my life was meant to be a throwaway in the first place. There's no good ending for Firea-Madeline de Libellule.
That's about to change.
I continued the thought I had earlier and told Tuila, "I want to become," I raised solemn, serious eyes, "the strongest in the entire world."
Whoever said Firea could stray away from the death route? That she had to die? That she would bend with her destiny?
No one.
And so, my destiny was all my own.
At that proclamation, many people froze. Kitri's wings stiffened, changing color dramatically just like a few of the other girls' wings, and the older girls looked over at me. They seemed to have heard something they thought they'd never hear again.
Tuila's twin, Kindle, raised her eyes back up to me after looking at her counterpart. She was wearing glasses, being the proper "all I care about are books" type, and looked to be about twenty-five.
"The last extraordinary human that we liked said that too," she announced slowly. "And they died a few hundred years later."
Hey, at least he got a few of those solid hundreds in. I don't think I'll even reach fifteen if I don't break away from the plot line in time. Beneath the scenes, I can see the similarities that haven't really changed compared to the game. This world may be different, but it's not a complete 180. 360 more like it? It went through quite a few blenders before it got back to the plot.
Flo looked over at me and said, "Is it that spot at the table or something?"
Her younger sister, Iona, asked, "Is it cursed?"
"Do we need to get a new table?" Lorice questioned. She was the one who'd been trying to take me from Kitri.
For some reason, the book from the duke's house popped up in my head.
I remembered a particular line about someone destroying the passage between Larjulias and the country next to Zueltina. It was a Deviant who'd been fighting with a god, a great magician who'd conquered so much and became one of the best in the world.
He died because he was Tiyana's contractor, and they made a deal that if he won he would go free. If she won, he'd be more than just a slave as the contract states. Another god fought for Tiyana because she promised him something as well.
The Deviant lost.
"Tiberius Avon, is it?" I looked over at Kindle. She flinched while Flo's eyes widened slightly.
"You-how do you know about him?" Lorice leaned away from me and Kitri's chest, against my back, stopped moving.
"Oh, I found out about him along the way. But I'm not a Deviant contracted to Tiyana, am I?" I gave a smile. See what I did there? Not a Deviant...contracted to Tiyana. "Also, I've been stabbed through the heart more than once, cursed, 'blessed,' and have a mana disease. What more could happen?"
"You've not been alive long enough to know," Kitri whispered in my ear. I didn't know if the Fae could control the emotion their wings showed for them, but it felt like he was trying to feel something else so the true colors didn't show through.
"Margaret knew. And she lived long enough to pass it on to me," I looked back at him so that my hair fell back. "Why would I make the same mistakes as others?"
"You're only human," Lorice shook her head forlornly. "Humans always make those types of mistakes."
"I'm not human. Besides, you can't say you haven't met a single spriggan, Elf, or fairy that hasn't done something similar. You don't need to have a long lifetime to be able to claim you are free of imperfections."
"Dragon..." Flo remembered, mumbling about my mother. "You're not a pureblood, not even a half-blood, so you didn't get that much from that side of the family. It'd be a miracle if you could even use it the way your mother can."
"Oh really?" I asked. My eyes had reverted back to their messed up state when I released my transformation, so it must've looked very creepy when my pupils became slits and my teeth sharpened a little. Like a mutated snake.
"So, you can change your features a bit. If you aren't a pureblood Dragon, you still can't do much."
Of course, when I use Dragon senses my ears sharpen little and all of the above occurs, but the same happens with a Vampire too.
"Who ever said," my teeth got even longer as I smiled, "that I was talking about Dragon?"
"Of Paivla..." Tuila was shocked when she realized what I was. Maybe...maybe I shouldn't
have said that in retrospect? That thought process of "oh crap I messed up...!" only started the moment I said "Dragon." I wanted to face palm right there and then, remembering that people here were not gray but instead saw things as black and white. Demons are bad, any Demon is bad.
But wasn't Tiberius Avon a Demon too? And they knew him.
I think that, at that moment, they saw me as a second "Tiberius." That may have been the only thing holding back the churning thoughts of their minds from thinking I should be put down while I'm still "weak."
"Since when have you been a Vampire?" Flo asked breathily, features full of disturbed shock.
"Vam-what?!" Kitri's wings suddenly got a lot stronger and they turned me around. His features paled when he saw my eyes. "But you were a human..." He felt for my pulse, searching along my short arm and even poking around my neck. His ear went down to my heart as I was uncomfortably leaned back, and displeasure was evident on my face as he pulled only slightly away to poke my teeth and look their threatening cuteness. Buddy, you shouldn't get that close. I can taste the shock on your breath, and it's divine. Don't cut your finger; I might just not need that wonderful dead meat on a plate tonight when I've got you right here... "You're alive."
"I can be many things, Kitri. Human is only a small part of that," I made my features to return to normal, pushing him away so he wasn't the immediate source of my temptation. "And Flo, I'm not just a Vampire. I'm a Living Vampire."
"That's impossible," Kindle shook her head. "Living Vampires can't be made anymore."
"I wonder why I'm still alive then," I shrugged. There's not any sarcasm here, what are you talking about...
"When did you become...one of those?" The one holding me wasn't doing it so tightly anymore. He'd turned me around so I was face full with a bunch of eager questioners, which was quite uncomfortable, but I stuck with it. I didn't feel the need to hide anything here...which is not a good thought process, let's fix that.
Why do I sense a jinx-
"Another time I almost died, a friend came and made me drink some weird stuff. I asked her what my miracle drug was, since I was no longer suffering. Blood. From a Vampire. And from there, I'm now a little more than biracial. End of story."
Silence. A lot of people were nervous I was a Vampire, a Living Vampire, so they went a bit quiet. Should I leave?
I was sure my thoughts were secure when I whispered to Kairea and Takuya, since they started to feel bad about the situation and comforted my tortured soul by hugging it, Don't worry. You know this always happens.
What? I heard in my mind.
Kitri! Since when do you pry into other's minds?!
He hasn't purposefully listened in on my thoughts since we met!
"I didn't," he said out loud, surprised. "You spoke to me."
"My walls are all sealed up. There's no way I would make such a mistake," I rounded on him, boundaries gone again as I frowned. I think we got over the Vampire thing quite fast...or is it just me that's oblivious to something the others know? It feels like I came to the party speaking the wrong language even though I'm using [Linguist's Comprehension] to understand speak their language. They speak Bytristian, but here I slipped into their language so we just kept going. This seems to happen everywhere I go.
"I heard it anyway. But what are talking you about? 'This always happens?'"
Kitri...there's a reason that thoughts are meant to be private. I wish to do more than just a face palm right now.
"None of your concern, thank you very much. I feel that this Living Vampire should leave, so if you excuse me I'll be on my way-"
I had started to float off of Kitri's lap and pull my feet from under the table, but the wings suddenly got tighter.
"Fir, that's not why we were..."
"Shying away?"
"Sure," Ionia butted in. "Like we're scared of a little Vampire with those cute little fangs."
"The reason is because our mother is very...reluctant to be around anything other than the native races. If she finds out you are from somewhere she has no power whatsoever, like the territory of Demons, she's likely to flip on you," Flo shrugged. "She's always been that way."
"Why does that remind me of those people who threw Orixes at me...?"
They immediately assumed I was an evildoer, an undead, and that I wasn't welcome. This is like the typical alternate world novel, where Demons are all-around bad guys and not a single one of them has the slightest bit of good.
That's awfully prejudiced, you know?
"Another adventure from another time," I explained when Lorice looked at me with a face of having given up. "I haven't known you for more than a few hours and you already make the same expression as my parents," I noted while Kitri strongly pulled me down from the air. I'd been struggling to get away from him for the longest time, but I didn't want to rip his wings or something from tugging too suddenly.
"Well, Fir, we now understand what they go through on a daily basis," Kindle looked over at me while pushing up her glasses, eyes lowering as she answered for her sister.
"I can't change the way I am." I chewed on my lip, looking down at the table briefly. It's possible they thought I would cry because the supportive comments started up.
"No one's asking you to."
"Whoever said it was bad?"
"I get the same look wherever I go after staying for a while," I shrugged. "No matter what race it is."
"That makes it seem like you've met many," Kitri's father, who's name I still have yet to discern, spoke up while leaning forward on his folded hands. I completely forgot he was there. I think that, if I wasn't sitting on Kitri's lap and was just with all these girls, I'd forget he existed as well and would get swept up into multiple side conversations. Sorry Kitri, your presence isn't that strong. Aren't you one of the oldest siblings? At least a few hundred, to be able to support Kindle's claim on Tiberius.
"Too many," I thought back on it.
"Care to elaborate on your extremely long travels?" Lorice was interested.
"Sure...?" I looked at her weirdly as she leaned forward with sparkling eyes.
"Don't mind her, she wants to travel but Mother won't let her," Drazga waved a hand at me. "Continue." Now I think you seriously want to travel as well, looking over with similar eyes. She was trying to keep it under wraps, but I saw a bit of her wing beyond the bright dress she wore and it was red. I'm guessing that's for passion, since she didn't look angry at all.
"Okay then...well, the very first race I met was a human. After that was mother representing half-Dragon, then someone claiming to be a goddess," eyes, which widened, were ignored. "Then a Demon, after that was a certain spriggan." I pointed above and behind me at the boy. I rattled a few others off, unable to identify the few I saw in the forest and the bottom of that depthless stream.
"But I met you were you were a month old? I'm last?"
"I met all of the really interesting beings before you, and there are still some that I can't identify since I had no clue what they were," I shook my head.
"What business do you have with a goddess?"
"...nothing." Yet. "But I've met more than one. Some lady called Paivla dragged me off somewhere and the Demon God decided to have a telepathy session with me through my Demon friend. There's also some beastkin I-"
"Paivla?" Ignored.
"Demon God?" This one made more people lean forward and glare.
"Well yeah," I tilted my head at Flo. "My friend is kind of high up in the ranks." I think. Aloire, you're high up, right? That's not a lie...?
"She makes it sound so casual..."
"What's he like?!" Lorice was very enthusiastic, even to a Demon.
"He's so moody. His word choice makes me think he is most certainly not the life of the party," my eyes rolled as I complained.
"Again, she says it like it's nothing..." I was just surprised they didn't doubt me.
"Why would the Demon God ever talk to you?" Tuila was curious, eyes glinting in the lowered light of the mana stones.
"I don't really remember much from that time unless I went back through my memories," I took a deep breath. "All I know is that all four of the sentences he'd spoken were threats telling me to sleep or die."
Hm...now that I think about it, he was able to listen in any time he wanted, right? Still being a creeper-
I could feel a faint stirring in my mind, the one that made me suddenly freeze in place and hope I hadn't ticked him off too badly this time.
It was only a light warning, he was probably doing something right now that required him to focus elsewhere. Thick irritation was rampant in it, and after a few seconds of standing still on the edge of my mind as Takuya and Kaya pretended not to notice it, it went away.
My body was shaking slightly, even though it was only the feeling I'd felt. The threatening feeling held power, strength. I could tell, even from over half way across the world, I was right to stop forming that goal about overthrowing the Demon God.
There was a rumble in the back of my mind:
"Damn straight," but it was not the god. It was the collect murmurs of Takuya and Kaya.
Lorice had flipped her fork because Kitri shocked her with his reprimanding me aloud for the cursing he heard in my mind, being so close to me, but I didn't pay it any mind.
"Are you kidding me? Why would he even be interested in a pipsqueak like you?" One of the wilder sisters asked while looking at me funnily.
"Well, I may have...done something. It wasn't my fault!" I assured. "It was the Church's fault! I was the victim there!"
"Yeah, right," Kitri snorted, making Tuila glare at him for lack of manners. So you reprimand me for mine, but you can't take it yourself? Hey, don't ignore me. I don't know how, but I know you can hear me. He simply kept speaking, patting my head and ruffling my hair. My wreath was not straight anymore. "And since I definitely heard your little comments, I think we bonded." He ended that lowly, the sentence.
As long as you didn't feel the absolute anger that I just got from that one Demon guy a while ago...
Kitri's wings didn't change color at all, but I noticed a slight change in the way the lines shimmered. Before they had been straight, now they were looping a lot. Hey, I noticed that they weren't so straight earlier. They were changing and it really wasn't just my imagination, good. I thought they gave me alcohol in that drink, I wasn't sure.
But they were like those loops that the Disn*y channel used to do when Tinker Bell was dancing around...
Wait, that's a fairy. This is a spriggan.
"What's a Tinker Bell?"
"Kitri..."
"I'm not trying okay!"
He unfolded a wing and looked at the loops, his sisters unsurprised while he gulped.
"Well, would you look at that? The first one to get betrothed-" Flo's eyebrows lifted as if she was not expecting this, yet expecting it at the same time.
She wasn't expecting that her sister would reach up a hand and shut her mouth.
"What's a bond?" I asked, looking around curiously. I could see different expressions on all these faces, but it seemed as if, rather than exasperation or fear as I was expecting, there was excitement. Kitri's father had mild surprise, but other than that he was perfectly chill. I remember when my father was like you. It was before I could speak.
"We'll break it for you, don't worry. You won't have to spend the rest of your life bonded to that fool," Tuila shook her head. "Kitri, you said you didn't do anything..." She looked at him with dead eyes.
His eyes were darting around, searching for an explanation, until they flashed open. "I may have...given her access to magic on Larjulias, in case you hadn't noticed."
"That's right! You're not a native!" Flo sprung up in her seat. "Kitri! You need Mother's permission to do that!"
"Since when do I have to get permission for every little thing?"
"Unless you want Mother to kick you out of the family again-"
-which doesn't sound so bad sometimes...actually, a lot of the time-
Kitri's thoughts! Not mine! I value my family to the highest standard and would never think of letting them go!
"Filial piety, Kitri!" I warned him and sent a bit of static electricity, pouting.
"Why do you do that every time?!"
"Revenge for leaking my thoughts!"
"Those were some serious thoughts!"
"Exactly! Not to be shared with your whole family!"
As Kitri went at it with me, Flo whispered in a manner that I could pick up perfectly to her closest sister, "Awe, the first couple fight-"
"Static electricity for you too!"
Since Kitri and I apparently now shared thoughts, he heard it as well and had to turn his face away. His wings drew back and I knew he couldn't keep their color from changing to pink again.
"What does pink mean?!" I exclaimed, exasperated.
Lorice grinned and started, "When a being with wings has them glow pink, it means-"
"Frostbite!" Kitri mumbled hurriedly and sent a gust of cold under the table at her.
The next thing I knew, she was yelping. The people around shook their heads, and I suddenly understood why the older girls were so solemn. They'd likely seen these same scenes everyday for a very long time.
It felt like I was seeing the future versions of the twins in the ones like Lorice and Flo, while Tuila and Kindle were Chord and me...Anthem was just Anthem. Or Kitri's father, forgotten in the midst of women.
"Welcome to the family, Fir," Flo looked very pleased at this change of events. "I bet we'll have tons of fun in the future!"
Oh Stars...