A/N: Thank you all who have made it this far! I know it's been quite a journey and I'm sad to see it end. I apologize it took so long for this final chapter to get published, but with the holidays it's been hard to get time to write. I will be working on the One-shot series, for now as well as my new Black Clover Tumblr called The Open Grimoire (theopengrimoire.tumblr.com)
Also thank you so much for Kuumi Art for drawing this fantastic chibi art of Ember and Fuego. It really made my week! (I mean look at Fuego's face. He's so fucking pleased with himself it's adorable!) Please visit her on Deviantart, instagram or personal website (kuumiart.com). I will be working with her to do a few more pieces for this fanfic, which can be seen in the next chapter (Chapter 57). Chapter 57 will encompass all the artwork for this fanfic. I will also be more than likely going through the chapters and fixing mistakes and posting the correlating artwork with those chapters at a later date as well.
"Uh... why is there a kid running around here?" a blond fifteen year old boy asks the person next to him. The second guy squints through the crowd of potential new recruits for the Magic Knights to see the child the first boy was referring to. It's difficult though, as there are many people shoved within the coliseum all waiting to show the captains their skills. It also doesn't help that the anti-magic birds are reigning hell from above as well. But sure enough, guy number two spots a small girl, running in and out of people's legs. She's got fiery red hair that's been pulled up into a ponytail and held together with a black bow. Many strands of her hair can not be contained however and go in multiple directions. Her green eyes are a stark contrast from the red markings around her eyes. She wears black booties with white shorts and a dark blue tunic, outlined in gold: the standard outfit for the main members of House Vermillion.
"What? The kid over there? I think that's Captain Fuegoleon's daughter. You know, the one that was born five years ago during the elven attack."
"Really? I thought there was two of them. So where's –" A girlish scream is heard across the arena. Everyone looks over to see the second daughter, materializing out of thin air to scare unsuspecting candidates. "Oh." Guy one stands in the crowd confused while the twin wreck havoc on other candidates. Weird things happen. People's grimoires start to float away from them without being used and people get goosebumps despite the blazing sun above.
"Yeah. I hear they're literally the spawn of Satan. I don't think they have magic yet, but they got this uncanny power to call ghosts and materialize in and out of the spirit realm. They like to play pranks on everyone with it. Or so I hear. I think they got that from their mother."
"Wait, isn't the Captain of the Jaded Moon Rabbits their mother? The one everyone says is the grim reaper?" Guy number one asks as he tries to make sure not to get any where near the twins.
"I think so. But don't let her hear you say that. I don't think she likes it much. Gosh though, having two captains as your parents must be hard. There's a lot of expectations for those two."
"There you two are! What did we say about running away like that?" I scold the girls as I materialize in front of them. Everyone backs away from where I appear, startled by my sudden appearance. Sheesh. It's like they saw a ghost or something. Both daughters stand in front of me shyly, sad they were caught in their antics. "You know you had your Uncle Leo worried. There's a lot of people here and it's easy to get lost."
"We're sorry," they mumble, looking at their feet.
"Come on. Our meeting is done so the selection exam is about to begin." I tell them, grabbing their hands and leading them to the stairs. It seems like just yesterday that I was working the selection examination with Owen. A magicless, grimoire-less medic. Yet now I lead a squad of my own. It currently consists of 37 members, but I hope today to find some candidates to add to my squad.
The stairs wind upwards, with a few windows to bring in light and the summer air. The girls run on a head of me, arguing with one another about who will sit on Fuegoleon's lap during the exam. By the time I make it up the stairs they've found him and the rest of the captains. They're waiting for my arrival to get the exam started.
"Keh, keh. Are you really going to let those runts watch with us?" Jack asks, annoyed that they've been waiting for me. The girls, who had been hiding behind Fuegoleon's legs, shielded with his cape, peak out from behind their father and stick their tongue out at the Praying Mantis. I fully heartily admit they got this from me, not their father.
"That's enough girls. It's a privilege for you to sit with us. You must behave or it will not happen again." Fuegoleon sternly tells the twins. Both girls stick their tongues back in their mouth and look up at their father to see he's quite serious about the manner.
"Eh, at least they're cute I guess." Yami says taking a drag on his cigarette. "Where's the other one?"
"Julian is with Acien at the Silva house. They are too young to sit through today's examination." Fuegoleon explains as he picks the girls up from behind him. "Are we all ready now? I think we've kept everyone waiting long enough." Fuegoleon looks around at all of us to make sure we're agreeing before heading down the stone hallway and onto the balcony where our seats await us.
"Aw, come on Nozel, don't be all pouty like that! If you keep frowning you'll get wrinkles and with you're hair color I'm afraid you'll look like an old man." I taunt the Silver Eagle. He sends a glare my way but I only laugh at his frustration.
"It was a fair decision Nozel. Number 102 chose The Jadded Moon Rabbits over the Silver Eagles-"
"'Cause everyone knows I've got the good snacks!" I gloat, happy that the candidate Nozel and I both rose our hands for picked me over him. Overall I was quite pleased at the selection of candidates this year. Nozel grunts in displeasure before opening the doors to the Silva estate. Fuegoleon and I are close behind him, while the girls stay outside to play in the last bit of daylight.
"Oh you're home my dear! How did the exam go?" Celesta waddles out from the nearby den, where the boys sit on the floor playing together with their toys. The violinist rests her hand on her protruding stomach, at 32 weeks pregnant she was starting to really feel the strains and pains of motherhood. But she takes it all wonderfully, without complaint, which is more than I could say when I was pregnant.
"This year's candidates were not subpar." Nozel informs Celesta before going to see his son in the den. Celesta looks at Fuegoleon and I standing in the entryway.
"He's just butt hurt I stole one of his picks. Thank you for looking after Julian today. How was he?" I ask the blond woman.
"He did lovely. He ate all his veggies at lunch today and went down for a nap pretty well. But it did take him a while to stop crying when Acien took his toys." Fuegoleon sighs at the news. Julian was nothing like his sister. He was quiet, even as a baby and was often pushed around by his sisters and Acien. He just didn't want to fight or stand up for himself, but rather he'd like to observe everything around him. At two and a half years old though he still had a lifetime to figure out these things. Acien on the other hand was quite a chatty cathy. He was always talking while doing stuff. Usually narrating his thought process or ordering Julian to give him something or do something. So it wasn't a surprise to hear that he took Julian's toys.
All three of us enter the den to see Nozel standing in front of the boys. Acien stands in front of his father, talking as fast as he can about each of the toys littered on the ground. The three year old wispy silver hair is strewn about. It's waves untamed from today's earlier styling from the Silva's royal hairdresser. Julian sits off to the side with a small pile of blocks. He ignores Acien's babbling as he focuses on stacking one block on top of another.
"Julian." Fuegoleon calls out to his son. Acien peers around Nozel's legs to see us nearby. Julian perks up as soon as he sees us, but doesn't get up from his spot. The way he's stacked the blocks is much more advance than any toddler I know of and if he moves he may knock over his creation. So he does the only thing he can think of in this situation. He reaches his arms out towards us with big blue eyes pleading to pick him up.
"Daddy!" he cries, but Fuegoleon is already stepping over the hoard of toys to pick up his son. Acien seems to see this and pulls on his father's pant leg with his tiny fists. Nozel looks back down at his son.
"I want up!" Acien demands, throwing his arms up expectedly. Nozel arches an eyebrow before giving into his son's demands. I wonder if he'll be just as giving when his second son is born. Acien looks smug when Nozel picks him up, but Julian doesn't seem to care. He's just happy that his block castle is in one piece for his father to see.
"Look!" Julian says pointing down at the blocks below. Fuegoleon nods while studying the blocks like a fine piece of artwork. Julian looks so proud of his work, I can't help but giggle at them. After wrapping up our conversation we bid the Silvas farewell and head back to the Vermillion estate where Alexa and Mira play fight with one another outside. We wrangle the rest of our offspring and make them wash their hands for dinner. Typically each squad holds their own feast the night of the entrance examination, but we didn't want to leave our family out of it. So the Crimson Lion feast was scheduled the next night and the Jaded Moon Rabbit feast was three days after. Tonight though was just our typical family dinner.
The girls spoken openly about today's examination. Trying to fit as much details as possible before they had to stop to breath. When one stopped, the other started back up where the first left off. They were very excited to tell Julian everything they saw. And Julian was content to listen to them, while picking apart his chicken nuggets. I sip on my wine happy that everyone was getting along for once. Usually the twins were teaming up on Julian to scare him, but on the rare occasion they experienced something exciting, they had to tell him all about it. It was a unique sibling relationship.
During dessert the twins were preoccupied long enough that I asked Julian how his day was, now that he didn't have his sister's tales to contend with. Usually he'd open up about what new things he discover or saw but tonight he was silent. All he does is look down at his ice cream sunday. This is highly unusual for any toddler, my son included.
"Julian? Are you feeling alright?" I tenderly ask. Fuegoleon looks just as concerned as I am about our son's silence, but he's busy wiping ice cream off of our daughter's hands. Getting up from my chair, I make my way over to Julian and push his red locks out of the way to gently rest my hand on his forehead. "Hm. You don't seem to have a fever. Is your tummy upset?" The little boy shakes his head and pushes my hand away, refusing to look at me.
"No." He mumbles.
"Did something happen today?" The little boy nods at his father's question. "Do you want to tell us about it?" Julian's eyes dart to his sisters who are now fighting over the last bit of ice cream in Mira's bowl. He then looks at his father, tears welling up in his eyes.
"I've got no soul!" the little boy cries.
"What?!" I grab my youngest and pull him in tight to my chest. He grabs fistfuls of my hair while sobbing into my chest. "What makes you say that?" I ask him gently, petting his head to calm him down.
"Acien said gingers have no soul and I'm a ginger!" I manage to make out from his incoherent words. By now the twins have stopped their bickering, interested in what has their little brother upset.
"Julian, your sisters and I also have red hair-" Fuegoleon is cut off by his son's wails.
"YOU HAVE NO SOULS TOO!" I can't help but start laughing at my son's response and Fuegoleon's shocked expression. My laughter only fuel's my son's displeasure and he cries harder.
"I'm sorry Julian. I'm not laughing at you. You're just too darn cute." I tell the cub, pulling him away from him and wiping away his tears with the edge of my sleeve. "Let me assure you, gingers have souls. You have one, your sisters have them and your father has one."
"How do you know?" Mira asks from across the table. Both her and Alexa are enthralled with the possibility of story time.
"Your mother is a bit of an expert when it comes to souls." Fuegoleon tells them. All three kids look at me, eyes wide while I blush in embarrassment.
"But mommy doesn't have soul magic! She's got fire!" Alexa chimes in. Mira nods her head in agreement. Fuegoleon and I exchange glances before taking a look at the clock. We've still got time before we put them to bed.
"Let me tell you a story about how I met your father."
FIN
Thank you again to all of you who read up to this point and gave your feedback! It was truly an enjoyable experience sharing this all with you!