Carrying the soaking Lola and Kusana with his miruku tendrils, Lumios lightly tapped his cheeks to keep himself awake, the amusing afterglow of his abrupt awakening from his slumber still fresh in his drowsy mind. He strolled to the bathroom, leaving a trail of water droplets behind him as the water on the kids dropped off them, before sliding its door open and entering the room.

"Hey, Mr Gold, why are you bad at waking up?" Lola asked before a towel was dropped on her head, completely obscuring her and Kusana excluding most of Kusana's hair. Lumios cheerfully smirked at the question, finding the focus of it humorous compared to the usual way people ask about his tiredness.

"It's hard to say. When you get to my age, many things will start to weigh on your mind," Lumios explained, a mild hint of smugness and a flare of grace to his voice.

"Aren't you nineteen?" Kusana asked boldly. Lumios' miruku tendrils flinched, almost dropping the duo in the process as Lumios physically recoiled from the remark. He clasped his chest, the pain of hearing his age coursing through him like a corrosive venom and felling him to one knee.

"To think I'd receive such psychic damage at being called a baby, from a baby," Lumios uttered dramatically, clasping his chest even tighter from the sharper pain seemingly being jabbed into him. The duo pulled the towel from their heads with Lola looking worried for Lumios while Kusana had a more annoyed one.

"Kusana is glad you're studying alchemy and not acting," Kusana remarked emotionlessly. Lumios rigidly flinched as he felt Kusana pierce her gaze into the back of his head before he ultimately sighed in pessimistic defeat.

"I... believe you're just extra perceptive thanks to those observation monsters you call a mother and grandmother," Lumios grumbled amusedly as he pulled himself to his feet before drying over the two girls with the towel.

Later on in the day, Lola marched through the halls of the Sakamoto Residence, peeking her head around every corner and checking the coast for anyone, only moving on once she confirmed the coast was clear. After rolling and bouncing her way behind the many pieces of furniture in the living room, the furball that was Lola arrived at the foot of the front door and stared up at it as it goaded her with her rightful freedom.

"Where do you think you're going? Son of Providence should be in attendance if we are to leave the house," Kusana stated as she descended from the ceiling and floated in front of Lola. Lola puffed up her cheeks and tails, lightly whining at her niece for being a stick in the mud.

"But he only takes us to the park or with him when he goes to shops, where's the fun in that?" Lola complained, flailing her tails around in rhythm with her over-enunciated words. Kusana crossed her arms, her coldly neutral expression overpowering Lola's annoyance with its freezing spite.

"And given the events with that yokai, Kusana is sure that won't change any time soon; Since he wouldn't wish to incure your mother's wrath by endangering us.". Kusana's explanation only served to make Lola pout even further as she curled up into an even tighter ball of fur before speedily rolling away in a strop, only being halted by her slipping off the wooden floor and sharply ricocheting straight into Solus' bedroom. Kusana rubbed the back of her head, finding her aunt's demeanour displeasing even if she was younger than herself; however, as Lola showed no signs of leaving the room, Kusana grew concerned Lola might have knocked herself out on one of Solus' weights.

Acting swiftly, Kusana floated over to the open door to be sure; as she peeked into the room, a wave of cool air hit her face and any concern she might've had was replaced with annoyance at seeing the Lolaless room and the obnoxiously open window.

"... ... ... Son of Providence! Daughter of Chronia just fled through the window," Kusana shouted down the hall with Lumios' response being for her to refer to people normally, making Kusana break her neutral expression streak by aggressively frowning at Lumios' nitpicking.

Outside in the snow-covered shrine courtyard, Lola left a trail of small imprints in the snow leading from a short trench in the snow.

"Stupid snow, making rolling around hard," Lola whined swatting at her hair and tails to remove the snow off them. As she continued to walk the courtyard, Lola was completely concentrated on dealing with the troublesome snow with her focus so high she didn't even notice Inaka floating beside her. With Lola continuing to ignore her, Inaka's expression continued to sour into pure agitation before moving her mouth to Lola's ear and taking a deep breath.

"PRINCE, SHE'S RIGHT HERE!" Inaka exclaimed, blasting her voice directly into Lola's brain and making Lola's tails flare up into spikey bushes. The shock to Lola's brain forced her to freeze up and go from her usual pale complexion to fully white before falling forward like a statue and collapsing face-first into the snow. Inaka crouched down and poked at the back of the unconscious Lola's head while smugly grinning at her work.

"And you say I'm a monster," a deep male voice stated as a large shadow crept over Inaka and Lola. Inaka angrily huffed under her breath as she picked Lola up and floated off the snowy ground.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"What's the point of sending a letter if you're just going to show up a few days later?" Nym asked sassily as she and the other shrine spirits floated by while carrying multiple bags of sweets towards Inaka's house.

In a smaller version of the academy's combat stadiums, Nebula, Tsarina, Oshi, and N sat in the stands as the sound of infrequent clashing attacks and an explosion of air bursts blasted over them. Tsarina strongly gripped her fingers against the border of the stadium, eyeing the circular stage as Solus and Nini trained together. Tsarina lightly nibbled at her bottom lip and struggled to contain her frustration as her focus shifted to Nebulous Requiem.

"I don't believe blowing your eyes out will help with forming a spirit weapon," N remarked as he could she the blood vessels constrict around her eyes.

"Hush. I'm trying to focus," Tsarina barked in a hushed voice as she forced her eyes to remain open for every second of the fight and even leaned forward to improve her view of the fighting duo.

Solus hopped backwards, narrowly avoiding Nini's green wind-type rapier as she thrust it at him. The two momentarily paused, casting their gazes at Nini's wind rapier before she brought the tip of its blade to her face.

"What's with this thing? Sometimes it shoots, sometimes it doesn't, and then sometimes it shoots off in random directions," Nini grumbled disparagingly as she tapped the rapier's blade against her free palm before a small jet of wind booped her in the nose. With the wind agitating the hairs of her nose, Nini's face scrunched up into one resembling someone after eating a lemon.

"Perhaps... your stance is off... or your grip isn't firm enough," Solus mentioned. After pinching her nose to soothe it, Nini placed her hand on her hips and cast Solus an adorably contentious glare.

"And what makes you say that?" Nini asked smugly while playfully swaying her hips and poofy tails. Solus itched his head before sighing.

"It's what the guy who trains me hammers into me every day, so it's the first thing that came to mind," Solus explained. Nini huffed in defiance, denying such a simple solution could be the answer but inadvertently tightened her grip on her rapier's handle. A massive cone of wind erupted from the rapier's blade and shot straight into the roof.

"So it was the grip," Nini whispered before lightly coughing and repositioning herself to continue sparring against Solus.

Meanwhile in the Headmaster's Office, Sovereign entered the functionally pitch-black room, a content smirk appearing on his face as he saw the slouched silhouette of the headmaster sleeping on her desk.

"Curse you, Shogun. Making me have to get a replacement measuring device... and allowing a question mark and overflow to be answers," the woman mumbled in her sleep while lightly punching her desk. Sovereign raised his eyebrow condescending before shoving the door with one hand and slamming the door shut. The bang from the door rippled through the room like a screaming banshee, startling the headmaster awake before following it up by tumbling out of her chair.

"Need I remind you my deer, Kalikou, that you explicitly told me not to use my powers of truth and knowledge, deeming them untrustworthy and against protocol?" Sovereign asked in a playfully condescending way, his voice oozing with sass as he placed a hand on the desk while Kalikou grumbled in pain.

"Why does it feel like you made a pun at my expense," Kalikou grumbled as she pulled herself up to her desk before being greeted by the light from the outside. As the blinds fully rose, the sun beamed into the office revealing the dismal state of the stacked paperwork and the equally exhausted expression of Kalikou's face.

(Kalikou Kauou is an adult female, human kid-sized, dark-skinned deerlusia; she has ear-low curly cerise hair with silver ends, ruby red eyes, crystalline pale ruby deer antlers, five chonky cerise deer tails with silver undersides, and the lower half of a deer with cerise fur and silver metalic hooves)

(She is wearing a black leather vest)

"I dread the thought, my deer," Sovereign remarked, his voice cracking as he couldn't stifle a smirk at seeing the glow of Kalikou's antlers grow to blinding floodlight levels.

"Don't think you can go around pushing my buttons all the time just because you're the guy at the top of the country; so, I suggest you get to the point before I lose it like Hazuki after losing her house keys for the sixth time in a row," Kalikou requested while pulling at one of her antlers. Sovereign half-heartedly shrugged with a chair made of red qi forming behind him as he went to sit down.

"Very well, I thought it would be interesting to have a food fair," Sovereign suggested calmly. Kalikou narrowed her eyes, her disdain almost palpable as her face contorted from confusion at slowly processing the normal-sounding suggestion.

"What's the catch?" Kalikou asked with unbridled disdain. Sovereign chuckled heartily which only served to trigger the nerves of Kalikou even further.

"Who can say, Lady Chronia never said what doing this fair would cause," Sovereign explained contently. Kalikou lowered her head to her desk and dragged the tip of her antlers against it in frustration, groaning like a groggy sleeper after being forcibly woken up.

"Like I'd by you not knowing something... whatever, I suppose having a food fair wouldn't hurt. Is next Validay fine?" Kalikou said defeatedly.

"It is, given that's the day Lady Chronia said," Sovereign added calmly, a sizeable amount of cheek in his voice. The calm remark sent shivers of rage through Kalikou, making her convulse and tremble in her seat as she clawed at her desk with her antlers to hold back her bubbling frustration.

"The lot of you are nothing but a thorn in my side," Kalikou uttered meekly while itching the base of her antlers under her hair, wishing she could go one day without Sovereign causing her constant headaches.