After a few weeks, Daphne started to be more comfortable with Spera’s touch. This gave her a certain peace of mind, as she could finally have a place where she could stop worrying about the people in her vicinity.
This also affected her behavior towards others as she started to be nicer to the staff and her subordinates lessening the rumors that circulate around her and lightening the atmosphere.
She still refused to touch others except for Spera but didn’t almost run away when somebody entered her personal space, which for her was an immense progress.
Spera, however, could still remember the first time Lorain had seen Daphne touching her.
As Daphne’s mother she was the most aware of her daughter's condition, and even with her own immense Mana pool, touching her daughter had always caused her pain. Not only physical but also mentally as she had wanted to touch her but couldn’t.
So when she found them in Spera’s bedroom, playing on the floor, her daughter tickling the little princess, she hadn’t registered Spera’s laughter or delighted expression only the fingers that tickled the princess.
Screaming at her daughter she had taken Spera away from her, cradling her in her arms.
“Daphne! How could you! You know what your touch can do!!!”
Seeing her mother's reaction and the fear in her eyes, Daphne couldn’t react.
If my mother even sees me as a monster, then maybe I am one.
“Lorain! No! Daphne didn urt me!” Spera exclaimed after seeing the effect Lorain's words had on her new best friend.
When Lorain sat her down on the floor, the shock of her proclamation making her a bit dizzy, Spera immediately went to Daphne and held her hand, showing Lorain that she had nothing to fear.
Looking back on it, maybe that wasn’t the best way to handle the situation.
Lorain had fainted after seeing it, the relief and shock at the discovery too much for her.
Even Spera started to think about the peculiarity of this ability to touch the untouchable.
If what Daphne had said was true, the reason people felt pain was because her Mana pool was too large, causing her to emit much more mana than anybody she ever met.
This caused her touch to be harmful to those that had less than her. For example, somebody that had a small or almost non-existent Mana pool, like some of the servants, could even die at her touch.
Daphne hadn’t gone into too much detail, but Spera was sure that it was in some way similar to what happened when her seal opened.
Thinking about it, the seal caused her a searing pain, that had immobilized her for almost two months, and if she could trust Deli, these repercussions would only increase as the years went by. Whereas Daphne’s touch had only tingled a bit.
“I look forward to my future …” Spera murmured, so lightly that even Daphne that sat beside her, once again on the floor, couldn’t hear.
“Princess … what did you say?”
“Nothing … Oh yeah, Daphne … how is the situation with my parents going?”
“My, my, princess you still shock me with your language progress. But this is as expected. Well, back to your parents, there seems to be still no change.”
“Haaa ~ Really? I want my parents back!”
Turning her pitying eyes on her Daphne gave her a small smile.
“You don’t have to tell me! I also want to have my mother's good mood back! Do you have any idea what pain in the ...” Having realized her almost blunder, Daphne ‘suddenly’ had a coughing fit.
“Oh come on… do you think you are the only one that swears around here? Did you ever have the pleasure to be present when one of Solomos’ subordinates made a mistake or Leon didn’t make any progress in one of his techniques? I think even you would blush on a few of their choice words.”
“Oh really? … It seems to me that I need to have a little talk with my brothers.
But could you tell me why you were attending both of my brother's training sessions? I thought you had to remain in your room for all eternity?”
“Hahaha ~ funny joke. No, just until my father thinks that I am safe again.”
“So, until all eternity and ten years?” Daphne said, breaking out into a laughter that was infectious, making both of them giggling a few moments later while laying on the ground.
“Yeah … but jokes aside …” Spera said, trying to breathe again.
“Do you have an idea?”
“Well, I think the best option would be to ask my brothers …”
“Samuel and Leon? They will never help me …” Spera said, her head dropping as her eyes saddened. She had wanted to befriend them from the first time she met them, like Daphne, but they both didn’t give any indication that they would appreciate her friendship. Her sudden improved speech, gifted from the portion of her memories that she got back a few months ago finally fully integrating, disturbing them more than others.
“Hahaha ~” Daphne couldn’t help but giggle. How cute this dense little princess was.
“It’s no laughing matter. Yesterday, Leon glared at me when I moved just a little bit and when I got down from the bench Samuel started yelling at me … I just wanted a bit of water …” She said, tearing up at the memories.
“And it’s not like this was an unusual behavior. This is normal!”
Looking up she could see Daphne sitting next to her, as if in a daze. Staring at her as if she was the cutest thing she had ever seen.
“Trust me ...” She suddenly said, “that was just your impression.”
“What do you mean? Can you help me?”
“Let’s just say … you didn’t say the two magic words …” She said with a mysterious smile on her face.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Magic words?”
Getting closer, Daphne’s lips almost touched her ear as she whispered “big brother.”
Looking at her in astonishment Spera couldn’t believe her.
Just those two words? Can it be that easy?
But the smile that Daphne gave her after she leaned back confirmed her words. Her expression said that she was looking forward to a good show.
Giving her a shaky smile Spera just thought Trying cost nothing … I hope.
The next day, Samuel had the first shift of the day.
Like always he took Spera out to the training field to let her watch him train his subordinates.
This, however, was just a manifestation of his attitude towards this ‘guard duty’ that his Majesty had ordered. Even after all this time he still wasn’t satisfied with the time left for him to ‘educate’ his team.
He couldn’t care less what the child did, as long as she was still unharmed by the end of his shift he was fine. Well, that was how he first thought about it.
Now a few months later, he slowly felt attached to this fragile, cute little creature that seemed to hold a great burden but didn’t want to let others help her carry it.
He thought back to a few weeks ago. His men had just started training with their new equipment, courtesy of his sister, that had small projectiles shooting through the air with just their mana as fuel.
He had almost fainted from fright when Spera had suddenly moved from her spot, putting herself in such unimaginable danger that he roared at her in fear, making the little girl frightened of him.
Today they would once again practice with new weapons. Having learned from the past, Samuel, however, decided that his men would do one-on-one practices instead of freestyle. This hindered their process of fully understanding their new weapon since they couldn’t use it to its full capacity but detained them to a range of a few meters that could be avoided without problems.
Checking the equipment once again, Spera found him crouched next to the bank she always sat on, on the edge of the huge training field.
The rest of the squad was a few meters away, talking with each other, except for Rui.
When Spera had first met him, she had the feeling that he was on the wrong team.
The feeling she got from him, resembled Leon and Jeanne so much that he stood out from the entire squad that had more than twenty members.
Now after Daphne had told her about her two brothers, it all made sense. Rui was originally a subordinate from Leon, who he trusted so much that he entrusted him with his brother’s safety. Now she finally understood Daphne's laughter after she had told her about Rui.
Thinking about Daphne’s encouragement, she hyped herself up and slowly approached Samuel from behind, deliberately making enough noise for him to know of her approach.
“Samuel …” She called out in a low voice, her nervousness making her voice quiver a bit.
“Yes, princess?” He said, turning around on the balls of his feet, still crouched down to be on eye level with her.
She froze for a moment, her courage fleeting as his face stayed in a cold expression.
You got this… Daphne said you just had to call him!
Lowering her gaze, she stood before him, lightly shifting her weight from one foot to the other and back, giving out the clear signal that she was nervous.
“I wanted to ask …” She began but felt the words stuck in her throat.
Seeing her so obviously in discomfort, Samuel took pity on her and lowered himself on his knees, shifting closer to her while making the effort to dampen his constant powerful aura.
“Princess, take your time.” He encouraged her but wanted to smack himself since the words he wanted to say came out cold and distant.
Peeking at him, Spera took a deep breath, closed her eyes and thought to herself Just get it over with!
“I-I-I wanted t-to ask i-if I could start calling you b-big b-b-brother …” She finally squeezed out, her eyes still tightly shut and her body starting to curl in itself, making herself smaller than she already was.
Suddenly two strong hands grabbed her under the crook of her arms and quickly lifted her up.
Shocked, Spera opened her eyes to be greeted by Samuels' face, dazzling with a huge smile as he hugged her tightly against his shoulder.
Spera was so shocked that she froze for a few minutes, only coming back to herself when Samuel started to spin her around, repeatedly shouting “Yes, Yes, Yes!”
Seeing his obvious joy at her request Spera couldn’t help but laugh out.
Daphne was right! He is a big ol puppy!
For a few moments, the atmosphere was very warm and sweet. Spera loosened up and started smiling and laughing at Samuel who started asking her, again and again, to call him “big brother”, seeing his happiness she gave in and started calling him again and again, making the grown man delirious with joy.
Suddenly she could feel the shift in the air.
The warm breeze that had encircled broth of them started to get colder and colder until everyone felt a shiver run down their spine.
The chatter of the squad quieted down, only whispers could be heard, that got lost in the wind that suddenly picked up.
And then in the middle of the training field, a black shadow suddenly appeared out of thin air. Spera recognized him as Leon when he crossed the distance between them in an instant and appeared only slightly further away out of thin air.
His sudden appearance, shocking the entire squad, the entire training field quieted down, only the birds in the vicinity could be heard.
“What is up? Why do you create such a commotion?” His deep voice sounded out, making the hairs stand up on each person that heard it.
Samuel however totally ignored his basic survival instincts and happily ran to his brother.
“Leon, Leon!”
“I heard you the first time!” He growled out, a slight tick could be seen at the corner of his left eye, signaling his annoyance at his brothers' behavior.
“You wouldn’t guess what just happened!” Samuel exclaimed, stunning everybody by his unaffected mood.
Leon shot him a glare which didn’t impress Samuel but intimidated Spera who was still held in Samuels' arms.
Frightened she borrowed her face in his neck.
Daphne even if you tell me that he would never hurt me, he is still scary! I don’t want to! Samuel was hard enough … I don’t want to try the same with Leon. Spera thought, near tears.
But thinking about her parent's current situation, her small hands grabbed onto Samuels shirt, gaining support from the contact.
Forcing herself to ignore the bone-numbing fear she felt in Leon's presence, she slowly looked up and forced a wobbly smile on her face as she faced Leon.
To say that he was surprised would be the understatement of the year.
The small princess, that always feared him and started shivering when he only came near her, was now before him trying to smile at him.
He knew that he was terrifying to others. Even experienced veterans had a hard time not shivering in his proximity. But now before him was the little angel, who wasn’t even two years old and overshadowed these veterans by a large margin by trying to smile at him.
“L-L-Leon …” Her soft voice sounded in the silence that had ensued after Leon’s glare.
Everybody's attention now lay on her, and she could feel her nervousness being taken up a notch.
Seeing his unemotional face and the murderous aura that emitted from him, she tightened her grip on Samuels shirt.
Skipping the entire conversation since she knew that she would only stumble over her own words, Spera took a deep breath and directly looked into his eyes.
“Big Brother Leon!” She almost shouted, the relief at having finally bringing herself to utter those words making her voice louder than intended.
Even with his facial paralysis, she could see the shock that Leon experienced at her words.
She was fascinated as his hard green eyes softened, and she could feel the atmosphere immediately warming up.
She had hoped for maybe a smile but knew that this was something to work for in the future. For now, the lightened air was a great process, causing her to beam at her new big brother.
Seeing as everything had worked up just fine, exhaustion suddenly hit her small body and she could feel her eyelids falling close. Making herself comfortable in Samuels embrace she started dozing off. But before she could fall asleep she could feel cold fingers stroking her hair, causing her to smile.
I really have to give it to Daphne, she knows her brothers better than anybody. Samuel the big ol puppy and Leon the shy facial paralysis but caring big brother ... my mind is screaming at me that it is some sort of cliche, but since I can't remember what it is it shouldn't be important right ?
… I hope everything works out according to our plan.