There was a little blackened figure wrapped in blankets over there that felt like it had my little...older sister's mana signature. There were holy knights gathered around, trying to pull the blanket-wrapped girl out of the arms of a distressed maid. Other little children, siblings specifically, were off casting magic, fighting the knights that only blocked it in turn and sent them sprawling into the snow.
"Kiki Nazira, to me."
"Yes, Master."
"Explain."
"..."
"I said, explain."
I was at Hera's side in a moment, staring down at the black barrier holding her whole body inside like an elongated egg. I knew she was inside, though I couldn't see even a bit of her body, because despite her mana signature being almost completely wiped out, there was just a tiny bit of it left.
It was like a repeat of Magaris. When I opened Hera's Status, her race was full of question marks, her Condition was unstable, and there was a title added there that I didn't quite like.
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Abridged Status:
Name: Scheherazade Tea de Libellule Age: 8 years Race: ???
Current Job: Child, Daughter, Miss, Student
Status: Noble of Bytriste Kingdom, Daughter of Earl Earl de Libellule and Elizabeth de Libellule, Step-Daughter of Anastasia de Libellule, Sister of Ruadri Florian de Libellule, Half-Sister of Firea-Madeline de Libellule, Step-Sister of Chord de Libellule, Sister of Demons
Title(s): Power Three's Attacker, Daughter of the Kind Demon
Lvl: 20
Condition: Race change was forced, remains incomplete, and has disrupted body equilibrium. Comatose. To Cure: Requires a complete race change and removal of surrounding barrier.
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"I couldn't find you, Master, after the God of Darkness came and took you away. Therefore, I placed Hera into a barrier that would delay her change and allow you to come back and-"
"Why?"
I placed my hand against the thing, trying to keep my anger only to my voice. My aura felt like it was leaking like crazy, unlike before I became an apostle. I needed to fix that.
Why is my sister like this?
"Being exposed to verpultra through skin contact caused her faded Demonic heritage to act up. It is now attempting to change her race, but the barrier is preventing this."
"Demonic heritage?" I scoffed, turning back to the light blue-haired girl standing behind me. "I thought Demons couldn't procreate. And Earl de Libellule is a human, through and through."
I already knew what she was alluding to, but didn't want it to be true. I wasn't ready to pick up another mystery and fight to bring a buried truth to light.
Never before, all the times I checked Hera's Status to check on her growth, did I see anything "Demon." Not even that [Daughter of the Kind Demon] tag she had, or the [Sister of the Demons] tag that I had as well after meeting Aloire the first time. Statuses normally revealed everything about someone, so for her to have had a "Demonic heritage" and not let me see it on her Status for years-
"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."
"And be trained under proper guidance, yes. The same for Adri."
Adri. "Is he the same?"
"No. He was not exposed."
"Let me guess again." I was too afraid that I was very good at guessing, but guessed anyway. "She was exposed to verpultra because the earl attempted to summon a Demon."
"At his wit's end and in a daring attempt to bring you, who could not be found and was presumed gone forever, back home, the earl did attempt to summon you."
"...why did my phone not get a notification for this?"
Actually, why hadn't I gotten any tingly feelings or sacrificial offerings calling me to come? I didn't remember anything like that.
"Because his attempt failed."
And then, as per my wonderful guessing skills and the Skill I indeed had if I bothered to scroll through my long list of them - [Successful Guessing] - told me, I knew exactly why his attempt failed.
"His heart wasn't breached by the Black Mark."
"Yes. His heart was too pure to be corrupted, and he could not use his black magic to summon you because of it."
It was actually embarrassing to say it in simpler terms.
"...and what of Magaris?" I turned to look back at the familiar who only stared at the floor beneath her feet. "Why is she in the state that she's in?"
"She was also exposed to the verpultra on multiple occasions."
"You knew, and did nothing about it?"
"I only became aware of it when she was already gone, cleaning up the mess the apostle created and trying to figure out where she'd disappeared to."
"You didn't smell...anything."
"She cleaned herself well."
"How convenient."
"I promise you, Master," the familiar bent over, bowing her head. I stared at the locks that fell down, the hands that clasped in apology. "I did not intentionally allow trouble to befall this household. Not only in Koraco, but Leonera as well, the apostles were causing a stir. I took care of the situation there first before coming here-"
"And what happened in the capital?"
"...the apostles were making a mess of Knight's reputation."
That did sound like a problem. One that I would have to, in fact, learn more about soon while trying to figure out that whole "apostle" thing.
"But what's more important?"
Knight, a fictional persona, who can disappear in a moment's notice-
"I apologize, Master."
-or living, terrified people, swept up in a mess and about to be executed for nothing at all?
What can be repaired?
What can't be brought back from the dead?
"Kiki, we'll talk more about that later. I want to hear all of the details before punishing you unduly, especially when you've been so thanklessly helpful to me until now." It had been a while since we'd met, and no doubt there were other circumstances at play that I first had to take into account. "Tell me what you propose I do for Hera and Adri."
"Thank you, Master, for your benevolence."
Kiki stepped forward, standing before Hera's Status which I'd pulled up. Then, she pointed to the race, and imposed her own words on top of it to see what I thought.
"If it's that simple," I turned to look her in the eye, frowning. My mood was relaxing the more I looked for solutions instead of at problems. "Why didn't you just do it?"
Kiki bothered to meet my eyes with her own yellow ones. Searching, it felt like, for something in me. I stared right back, unperturbed. "Just because one has magic, Master, doesn't mean that they can do anything."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
Sure, I knew vaguely what she was referring to. Just because I had "mana, an image, and a word," didn't mean I could cast whatever magic I wanted. Sometimes, it would backfire, or not even work at all. If I wanted to raise someone from the dead and bring them back to life, it wasn't something as simple as using a spell. If I wanted to reverse time, I'd likely have to go to great lengths to fulfill multiple grand conditions before even attempting to reverse one second.
Mana was everything, and it was in everything. It was flexible - but only to a certain extent.
At least, that was what I assumed. To stay out of trouble and away from any backfiring spells, I tried not to bring people back from the dead, reverse time, or travel through it. There was more headache from dealing with the aftereffects than there were benefits from having acted on it.
"You're a Deviant, Master."
"...?"
Kiki's eyes flicked up to the ceiling as if to say, "She still doesn't get it."
"Kiki Nazira."
"Many things that you do are only possible because you are a Deviant. That race is fundamentally different from other races, in some ways, from birth. Surely you've noticed that some things that normally seem impossible, suddenly become possible for you, while remaining impossible for others...correct?"
"Are you calling my logic warped?"
"I merely mean that you create your own logic and reality sometimes, Master, without realizing that it doesn't make sense, and without realizing that what seals the deal for every single one of your insane actions is the [Deviant's Rebellion]."
"And you know all of this while I don't, why exactly?"
"You need to read more books, Master. Knowledge is power."
Though we both knew that I probably read too many already.
"And you're sure that this won't hurt Hera, or force anything strange?"
"Use [Successful Guessing] if you're unsure, Master, but I hold no reservations on this."
"You're just frightening, Kiki, frightening."
"I'm merely using my copies of your thought processes to come up with an explanation you'll accept, Master. If you think that I am reading your mind, then you are incorrect."
Still as sharp as ever...
My sister lay on the bed inside of the barrier that didn't appear to have been moved since being placed there. Only a few notable mana signatures were capable of being found around it, so she'd had visitors. The room wasn't dusty, somehow, though clearly the signatures didn't leave trails anywhere in those far corners where maids would've gone for their deep cleaning.
When I looked to the sides, I was unable to find my siblings in their rooms, though I felt that they were certainly in the manor. Everyone save for the guards at the gate, was. Chord was in her room, just a bit away, while Adri was somewhere I didn't really expect him to be.
The kitchen. With...oh, that's right. She's here.
Sherfire. I had no clue how she got to Koraco, but she was there, and from the looks of her flaring aura of happiness, enjoying confections to her heart's content with them. And there was another aura there, one I frowned upon seeing, one I went to narrow my eyes at and use [Game Features] to see more closely since my mind was telling he couldn't possibly be there-
"Focus, Master. It is not a healthy state that Hera is in, currently. Magaris as well, though that is something you should take up with the God of Darkness who has left her in such a state."
"I was just trying to find Adri. Why did he not do...this, too, again?"
Of course, my reference was to my sister, who I drew my hand back from in order to begin editing the Status of. I had no fear when it came to editing Statuses, but that was only with my own and that of my enemies. The apostle, for example, whom I had no regard for the safety of and was actually more interested in the death of. Yes, I'd helped out some folks with their stats when trying to explain how it all worked, but not to the extent of changing a race - especially to one that didn't technically exist.
"Those of Demonic heritage do not always react in the same way, if not of a pure variety like you or myself. I do not know about Adri, but I would suggest that the sooner it is done, the better, so that such a thing does not happen again in the future with such inconvenient timing."
"Inconvenient, she says..."
"Please, Master."
"You don't need to plead with me for anything," I replied, using [Successful Guessing] secretly while pressing on the race tag with [Status Editor] and [Race Change] activated as well. It was one of the very first Skills I ever got myself - [Status Editor], not [Race Change] - having already had a bunch from birth like some sort of cheat, when Aloire came and showed me how to hide things in it. "For my little sister-"
"Older, sister."
"-I would do many things."
I hit "enter" after typing in "Half-Demon, Half-Human," already guessing with that stupidly-accurate Skill that I would have to spend a lot more time in the future watching over my siblings to make sure they grew up well. I did want to just change it to "Human" and be done with it, but somehow that didn't feel right. There was another part of them they didn't know about, a part of their heritage that they could choose to either have as their shackle or set them free. A part of their heritage that could come through for them in times of need, when their humanity failed...as mine sometimes did.
A part of their heritage, even, that connected them to a woman, a mother, a Demon, that I guessed missed them dearly and envied every second everyone else had with her two bright twins. One that I wanted to meet myself and see if it was a good idea at all, in the future, for them to become acquainted once more.
Of course, that was just a guess.
But for better or worse, I would leave it. Anything was strength in a world where anything could get you killed as long as you had a neck to wash and a head to chop off. If there was something hidden inside them that could help them see tomorrow - just as Chord had Afriel, that freeloader angel - I would help cultivate it to the best of my ability. Being a sibling didn't just mean sharing the same blood. It meant being together, watching over each other. It meant fighting sometimes, or protecting during others.
It wasn't something to pick up and let go of as I pleased. I already knew what I was getting into when I first interacted with them, and it was not a chore to me to teach them and play with them and watch them grow. It was fun.
"Hera," I pulled back the barrier, seeing the girl that looked to be made of charcoal. The outer layer started to shed as her Condition read that she was beginning to reach "equilibrium." "It's time to wake up now."
Just a little wind magic could sweep off the stuff that was making her nose twitch and sneeze though she wasn't even awake yet. All of it collected in a tumbling mass that shrunk and crackled down to the size of a baseball, before going into my storage. It was interesting, encountering something that one thought they'd only encounter in books, so I of course would study it later...the ashes of a newborn half-Demon.
Ah, that horn. It was hard not to see. And, it looked very, very familiar...somehow...the short, sharp thing, that reminded me of a unicorn's horn but a miniature slim version. It was as long as my finger, sticking up from her hairline. It was distinctly on the left side, making me tilt my head while floating over her straight, wondering if she would have problems in the future if it grew and its weight increased.
"Kiki, do horns grow?"
"Yes, Master. But Hera will not have neck problems in the future, Master."
"Good," I lifted up, crossing my legs and wondering when the eight-year-old girl was going to wake up already. "Should I just go find Adri and get it over with for him as well?"
"I will go find him. Please reorient Hera."
"Fine," I looked after my familiar as she sunk through the floor, changing form while doing it. There was no need for the king's aide to appear in the de Libellule household. "Hey, Hera. It's been a while."
No answer, obviously. My sister liked to sleep. Like me, it was always a fight to get her out of bed sometimes.
"Sorry if I caused you trouble. I didn't mean to. I was just a little...frustrated, about something here, and so I left for a while. I didn't think anything would happen. You know that, right? I go away for months at a time anyway, so who'd notice?"
Still no answer, but I didn't mind it, reaching forward to rub the obsidian unicorn horn sticking out of her head. It was so scarily smooth.
"I think I should just...hide this for you."
Just as Aloire did for me when I first came to new surroundings, I did for her. My little sister didn't need to know just yet. She was still too young.
"Or perhaps, because you're young I should teach you now...but you're also a chatterbox. We don't need the house to fall because someone couldn't keep their lips shut."
I couldn't help but remember when they told me about how they told Alevis de Duèe about me, though I'd explicitly told them not to tell anyone about how I was the one that taught them chant-less magic. Ugh...that was something I wasn't looking forward to dealing with.
"Hey, Hera." My voice dropped a few tones as I watched her stir awake. "I'm sorry."
In her Status, I couldn't help but stare at that race tag somewhat guiltily. It would cause her trouble, I knew it.
"Here, I'll give this to you. I hope it helps."
I opened my own Status and moved some Skills over. Nothing major - it was just enough to help her out a little when it came to self-protection. [Sense Ominous], since I already had a variation of it besides that one. [Clarity], and [Detect]. Then, I may or may not have put a few more points into her LUC stat, and drove up the DEX by a few...dozen...points...
Any more than that and she'd probably get drunk off of power, my cute little-older sister. Not really, but it would inhibit her mental growth and trick her into thinking she was a stud when it was me helping her out briefly. She also already had her bond with Adri, so they were feeding off each other when it came to gaining strength. I could feel already that they'd be a headache someday to their surroundings...and I didn't think Chord would do much balancing-out.
I'll have a talk with Afriel soon. Or, Knight will.
"Here, Master."
"...Sissy?" Adri held onto the hand of the young woman standing there, having teleported over. He was glancing back and forth in the dark, sounding afraid more than excited.
...and only when I spotted a small face of disbelief and tears that I reigned it back in mostly.
I winced at that memory. It just kept coming back. All of them were replaying in my head like embarrassing scenes attacking me just as I was about to sleep.
It was him. Adri in the snow, his little world crumbling down around him, only for a terrifying figure to appear and crush them all under her fearsome aura without discrimination.
I hid. It just seemed like the better thing to do, after putting a glamor over Hera's head and erasing the horn from sight and space. Like with Afriel's wings, it was placed into a little pocket where it was stored until she took it out...not that she'd know how to.
"Master?" Kiki looked straight up at the pink bed canopy that I'd teleported to be on top of. Adri's worried face looked straight up along with her, and I peeked over the side with just my eyes.
"Sissy..."
The word came out of his mouth like he was deflating, somehow, and the tears began before he showed he was upset.
And then the wails began. I was in utter shock, flinching back when he put his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes while letting out these half-sob half-screams. It was just so loud that I was shocked that my Adri, my quiet angel, was just wreaking havoc on his vocal cords and summoning every disturbed soul within a twenty pourik radius to come see what was wrong. That wasn't just a lost-my-ice-cream cry, but a someone-died-and-I'm-only-just-realizing-it cry. An uncontrollable one that didn't let Kiki kneel down and comfort him as he shook out of her grasp and chose to stand alone and cry by himself.
And I was reminded of my early days with those children, the days in which I would put on [Child Speak] to understand what they were saying, only to remove it because it hurt my brain to listen to them. The days in which I had no clue what to do with them when they screamed and cried, or when they were hurt, or when they were making demands of me that I couldn't fulfill.
The days, basically, where I was still terrible with children and didn't know how to deal with them.
Oh wait, I realized, going over the canopy slowly to touch the floor on the other side, wondering whether or not I should approach. I'm still in those days.
Being away from them for almost a year didn't help with my relations with children. I didn't even meet children on a regular basis anyway.
Then there were more sniffles that were beginning to join the other one, and I was looking to my left to see where those were coming from.
Hera, sitting up, was beginning to cry. No, not beginning-
She was already a mess as well.
"K-Kiki!" I exclaimed over the noise, stumbling away from the two sirens. My ears felt like they were bleeding. "What is happening?!"
I felt multiple presences at the door all gathering there, trying to come in. I didn't remember locking it, but thank the Stars it was locked-
Ahhh, Martin, noooo-
His keys were jangling there. For an old man, he moved fast.
I slipped through the floor, leaving behind that scene. Kiki could fend for herself.
Terrible decision, absolutely crap decision-
"Magaris!" I called out, finding the maid after storming all the way outside into the winter cold. I'd tracked her down all the way out there, glancing behind me at the manor and really wanting to get out of there. "Magaris!"
"Firea!" she called back, charging right towards me. "Oh good," she glanced back from the forest, looking spooked. I floated up to her face while she was smoothing down her shoulders, rubbing her palms together. "Can you, I think I-"
"Firea!" another voice called out from somewhere behind, making me flinch at its voice. It sent tingles down my back that had me already dissipating into mana particles, preparing to teleport. When did I cancel [Presence Cancel]? And [Invisibility]? Was it subconscious to meet Kiki?
"-knocked out Sir Frederick."
I blanched, pulling away from the maid's face as we'd collided, panicked. "You did what?"
"I don't know," she breathed, looking down at her hands in fright. "I don't know."
"Oh Stars," I turned around myself, feeling like a target. My senses were on higher alert than being in battle with a god when someone's aura was lashing out at me, intent on "capture." "What now?"
"Patches!"
"I'm not 'Patches!'" I cried out in automatic response. Stars, I almost felt like Kitri with his hellbent desire to correct everyone that called him a fairy. "Sherfire!"
The Dragon had flown out of the kitchen and come to a stop right in front of Magaris and myself, but before her cry, there was another from someone else.
I turned to look back at her, and couldn't help but see someone just a bit into the distance, not even that far away, wearing standard de Libellule clothes for some reason, wings sticking out limply from underneath the white shirt. Someone with curly orange atop their head, and sweet blue eyes-
And I could feel another presence approaching, a distinct one, much slower than the others, but it probably gave me the most fright of all.
"[Blackout Standing]!"
The world stopped moving. Presences were still overwhelming around me, but with all of them fainted standing around me, I didn't have to worry about their thoughts coming up with conclusions or people approaching me to haggle answers.
It felt like the Demon that didn't normally need to breathe was suffocating. My face was red, mouth wide open and puffing beneath my white scarf, glancing around while curling my knees up. It wasn't supposed to feel like there were enemies all around, but it did with how they charged at me. Or, walked, or ran, but still it felt like a charge.
Stars, one at a time, one at a time.
"Magaris," I breathed heavily, unfreezing her with a snap of my fingers. The maid came back to life in her mumblings, still fixated on her hands and the slight bit of redness on the knuckles. "What the Stars did you manage to do in ten minutes?"
"I don't know I don't know I don't know-"
"[Calm]," I smacked a hand on her shoulder, sighing loudly while throwing my head back. Then the maid was much calmer, though still looking down at her hands. "Explain."
"Sir Frederick sensed my aura and found me when I was just getting some water from the well." It felt like that answer was more of one giant inhale than speaking. The next one was a giant exhale. "He was asking me questions about where I'd been, what happened to me, everything, and his aura was just so overbearing...I only began to notice auras after Master Keir took me in, so it was just too much, and he was too close, and I-I-"
"You?"
"I pushed him."
"Okay?" I shook my head, uncomprehending.
"He flew."
"And?" I shook my head again. I'd seen her stats and knew she'd seen them herself, with how frequently she would just stare at the screen. They were all dozens of times higher than anyone at the manor, so no, I wasn't surprised.
But she was, and the disbelief was on her face. "He broke through the trees!"
"Oh," I frowned, peering over her head into the distance. [Far Sight] and [X-Ray Vision] let me see the source of distress. "Oh my."
They needed, it appeared, a new well. The watered-down giantkin was indeed passed out over the well he'd cleared free of the surroundings, bricks spread around his head and under his body. There were also, before the well, trees to add to the damage toll, collapsed against each other and slid away from their roots.
"Stars, Magaris. It looks like you punched him, not pushed him. Do you not know how to control your strength?"
"Firea," she ground my name out in distress as I squinted my eyes and jutted my head forward, estimating the damage. "Please!"
"Fixing," I snapped my fingers, reversing the scene. Trees appeared where they'd been uprooted, shards of wood fit themselves back in place, leaves rustled as they all flew back to the branches. Bricks rumbled as they lifted themselves from beneath the knight, heading back to their former positions. A bucket once again swung above the well's top, its rope no longer snapped, and dirt flew up out of the well. The knight...well, he was a tough one. Wouldn't die so easily. So, he was left there in the snow...with only one protection spell that I flung over just for guilt of not teaching Magaris how to control her strength yet. "Done."
"Thank you," she breathed, also putting her head up to the sky and hands on her chest as if telling her lungs to breathe again. "Now what sort of ruckus did you cause?"
"Uh," I glanced back at Sherfire, frozen in the air and reaching towards me. "Never mind that. I'll deal with it. Did you go to see the head maid yet, or did Brownie catch you beforehand?"
"Not yet."
"Alrighty then. Here you are," I swerved aside, referencing a portal I'd just opened and already flinging spells to the other side of it. Bringing the head maid from the room of Hera, where she'd rushed, back to her office space. Putting a barrier around the room that would block outside noises. Putting some coercion magic in there so Magaris wouldn't have to fight too hard to get what she needed. And...that should've been it. "When you're done, yell. I'm going to take care of some other...things...here."
"D-Does that go to-?"
"Head Maid Sarah, yes. Remember not to tell her anything about me or Keir, please, because even she might not believe it and doesn't need to know." I also didn't really know how much their memories were edited...
Magaris stalked on ahead, only glancing back over her shoulder once in the direction of the watered-down giantkin before going through. She also looked to be too exasperated after only ten minutes, maybe, of coming back.
The portal shut, and I turned to my next order of business.
"Sherfire-"
"-Patches!"
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?!"
Just for good measure, I thunked my hand down on her head as she stumbled forward, catching herself with scissor-like hands with dough on them sliding into the snow.
"Fir...why'd it take you so long to come back?!"
"How'd you even get here?!"
"Lucia sent us over almost two months ago! Together!"
"When I was sleeping?"
"Yes, when you were sleeping. And now I've just been running around this place and seeing the crater you left behind. You know, running away wasn't really the best deci-"
I snapped my hand, letting a nice silencing spell come across her mouth. Surprised, she kept moving her mouth, finding that nothing was coming out.
"Sherfire, I have one question." Please don't start criticizing my life choices because you feel you know everything about me. "Do you want to stay here until the school season starts, or do you want to stay with me?"
"Huh?" Sherfire blinked those wide green eyes, again surprised when her voice did come out. The Dragon reached for her throat, disturbed. "What? Aren't you staying here?"
"No," I turned my face up, lowering just a little to float in the air face to face. "After fighting Thanos, a lot has kind of...changed, and fallen into my lap. I have a new place now where I'm staying with my maid and one despicable lolicon-...so on second thought, maybe you should stay here...I could write a letter to the earl demanding that he send you to school when the time comes-"
"Your father?" My glare must've been sharp, because her response was quick. "The earl! The earl, yes, the earl, not your father, of course-..."
The Dragon trailed off in an ominous way, rocking back to stand on the heels of her feet in the snow. She wore shoes, something I didn't think I'd ever see, and her dough-and-snow covered hands froze in their large, expressive movements.
"Sherfire?"
"Ah...about your...the earl."
"What about him?"
Then her hands lowered, coming together to shield themselves over her legs, defensive. The Dragon's head ducked a little low, and a ribbon that I was sure wasn't one of her possessions was keeping her hair from coming down into her face.
"He really loves you."
"Tch," I scoffed accidentally, looking left and right. "Sher-"
"Fir, why are you trying so hard to run away? Have you even gone to see them yet? Ana and the earl."
"Sherfire, that's not what I was asking."
I didn't need someone else trying to guilt-trip me into going and seeing him. I wasn't planning to initially, but looking around already showed me what happened when I didn't check in on things.
Fine. I'll at least go punish him for trying to use black magic. That, I felt my features harden, I cannot forgive.
Having spent most of my life taking down Demon summoners and cleaning up the tragedies they left behind, I wanted to know the details of what he did just to teach the ignorant human a lesson. The wishy-washy one that couldn't decide whether he hated Demons or loved them, pulling away from me and then trying to summon me. Spending years hating them for "killing" his wife, for having to go to war with them and losing his men, to all of a sudden endangering so many others in his pursuit of black magic...
There was no excuse for a bad deed. Good intentions did not make up for trauma, injury, and death.
"...I will stay here. Your father has already promised to accommodate me here until you came back for me, and if you didn't, he would send me to that school."
"Then I'll return for you after the winter solstice," I decided, breathing an upset breath out, pressing my lips together in thought. She added in that last "Your father" on purpose. "If you need to contact me, just..." I looked up into my storage, rifling around in there. I'd collected a lot of things from my room, so one of them would suffice. "Press this button and wait for me to pick up. If I don't, then try again later."
No, it wasn't a phone, but it was one of my initial many tries when making the one I had then. My experimenting took me to other places than originally intended, but I got quite a few Skills out of it, so it was fine.
The Dragon took the black square box uneasily. The button was inside, of course. I'd summoned the box so she wouldn't get it dirty.
"Don't let it get water on it, alright? Or it won't work anymore."
It honestly felt like I was giving my child their first phone while divorcing my spouse, and refusing to communicate with said spouse. I felt somewhat bad for putting Sherfire in that position, but if she found it more fun to play around with my siblings while waiting for school to come, then I wouldn't hold her back. If she was with me, she wouldn't be doing anything fun anyway. I just planned to work on everything that'd fallen into my lap until then.
"Firea."
"Yeah?"
"...are you alright?"
"Huh?" I blinked, eyes going wide while looking into hers. We were face to face, after all. Despite her being transformed to look like an eleven-year-old girl, and myself still looking like I was five, my floating was making up the distance still. "Of course I am. A few more scars, but I'm alright."
"But after Paivla-"
And then my face scrunched. I couldn't hold back the involuntary flinch and long blink while shaking that away, trying to push away the images that came with it. I held up my hand, looking up to the sun. Was I acting like drama? Probably. Was I trying my hardest not to remember?
Definitely.
"I'm fine," I shook my hand out at her, feeling strange. Feeling restrained. "I'm fine. Paivla's not a worry anymore, if that's what you're concerned about. I somehow got out of being her champion after fighting Thanos."
"What?" she gasped, stepping forward and grabbing onto my hand with both of hers, squishing the box against my palm. "Really?! That's great, isn't it? That's really good!"
"Yeah," I shrugged my one good shoulder, finding it hard to meet her eyes. The weight around my neck felt somewhat heavier than before. I wasn't lying, but it felt like it. Not telling her that I got saddled with something possibly worse was me trying to preserve the little bit of joy someone had for me. "I guess."
"But are you really alright?" she stooped down to look up at my face. "You look tired."
"I always look tired. I just slept for almost a month and a half."
"And you slept for a month when you were with me and Lucia. Does that make up for all the times you never slept the rest of this year?"
And that managed to get a laugh out of me. My cheeks felt a bit stretched. "Yeah, I guess. The rest of this year, I have to focus, though, so I hope it counts from now on too."
"Are you getting it all out of the way so you won't have so much to worry about when we go to school next year?"
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
I stared blankly at her. "'We?'"
"Well," the Dragon blinked back at me. "You're going to pick me up, and then we'll go together, right?"
School? Did I even have time for that? Me?
"I left behind my school days a long time ago," I shook my head, feeling the trauma rising again. No more juku, thanks. No more cram school. No more regular school. No more studying. "That's a past life thing, thanks."
"But don't you want to experience a school life here, too? Won't it be cool?"
"Sherfire, your eyes are sparkling too much for someone that doesn't know the horrors of late-night cramming yet."
"Cramming?" her head tilted, hands drooping. Oh, that innocent look of confusion. "What would you be cramming in school?"
"Oh, my innocent Sher," I lifted my hand from between hers, patting her head. I stooped down just a bit with a wry smile, letting her gain a look of irritation from how I was treating her. "You'll find out soon enough."
"Hey!"
I pulled back when she swatted at me, feet dragging in the winter air before folding back under me. I felt like a ghost. All I needed was the white triangle, my kimono to turn white, for my feet to be one combined squiggle of fog, and it would've been complete.
"I've got some more business to take care of while I'm here, but I'll probably come back to check on you at the end of the month. Again, if anything ends up weird...like with the twins-"
"What was all of that screaming about earlier? That was because of you, right-"
Ah, magic for silencing was great.
"Then hit the button once and let it ring. Alright?"
She nodded. That was what I was waiting for before undoing my rude magic, lifting up a little higher and heading back for the manor.
"Wait! Aren't you going to go see Kitr-"
"Send him home for me, yeah?"
"He can't go back!" she yelled out. I was already up by the third floor. "The Fae Queen disowned him again!"
"Well she'll take him back again, then! See you in three weeks!"
Ain't no way I was going to go see that spriggan. There was only so much my heart could handle in one day.
But I wasn't allowed to have my fill yet. There were three more I felt the strong need to check on, having seen the results of not checking on others thus far, and I couldn't leave until then.
So, reluctantly, I debated how to approach the earl while floating towards his office.
I hate this day sincerely.