Chapter 14- Actual Justification for Anime Hair

Standing at the foot of the great tree was three peerless beauties, a scene any painter would jump at the opportunity to capture. There laid a flaw however to that perfect view in the form of a teenage boy slumped in the centre seemingly depressed for reasons unknown.

『Haaaa~』

『What are you sighing at?』

『Selene huh, you wouldn’t understand it’s a matter of a man’s romance. You see finally, finally a cool beauty appeared! However, however she clearly has a pit in her brain!』

Hearing his words Selene finally grasped what Cael’s problem was, even so there were some things there she couldn’t ignore …

『Oi, you’re the one with a pit in their brain you do realise you’re badmouthing my cousin right?』

After she said such a thing Cael saw that indeed he was in the wrong so opted to change the subject to something else that had been on his mind.

『What’s with that anyway? I can definitely see your related when you stand next to one another. The thing is though I don’t get how she can look so much like you considering her mother is the crazy tree lady.』

At that moment instead of Selene it was Lily who had been until this point standing to the side acting the part of a doll who decided to add in her two cents.

『I don’t look like her.』

Somehow knowing he was going to regret asking Cael felt a migraine coming on, but at the end of the day curiosity won out so he inquired regardless.

『In what way do you not look like Selene?』

『I’m older, she looks like me.』

『God damn it!』

The deadpan delivery just makes it worse! Are you doing this on purpose?! I really can’t tell!

After such an exchange he chose to just write off any previous intentions he may have had of speaking to Lily, instead Cael tried once more to tap into the font of information otherwise known as Ciara unfortunately that too was to no avail.

『Don’t ask me I’m just a crazy tree lady.』

『She gets it from you!』

Seeing the normally whimsical Cael out of breath as a result of taking on the unfamiliar role of straight man Selene couldn’t help the wry smile that formed on her lips. Deciding to spare him some pain, she interrupted the bickering trio by returning back to the original topic.

『We look similar because Granny has been here a long time and the number of princes who fell to her charms whether knowing of the consequences or not is by no means small. Her children, the silkie living near the Elder Wood are all beautiful women of noble blood and every so often a member of the imperial family would take one on as their wife or mistress.』

Cael was finally starting to see the whole picture, though there were still a few blind spots that he was unsure on.

『You said earlier that some of your ancestors were silkie does that mean you’re not fully human?』

At Cael’s question Selene furrowed her brows slightly in thought before eventually finding the right words to respond.

『I suppose it depends on who you ask, silkie as kindred are only ever born one sex for their entire race; in this case female. Though as you can imagine it would be hard to maintain a population like that. Because of this kindred have no recourse but to interbreed with either humans or fae of similar ancestry and this union will usually result in the birth of another kindred.』

『You said usually?』

Hearing Cael’s sharp comment Selene nodded.

『Exactly, if the children of all silkie were born as silkie I would not exist. I’m not sure of the precise ratio but I once heard it was about 1 in 10 where the offspring is of the partner’s race though for reasons I would really not like to think about they’re always born the opposite sex to the kindred parent.』

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Cael blanched at the implications and tactfully did not question the specifics, though this consideration was wasted by Lily.

『She means so they can be used as breeding stock.』

『Lily!』

『Like mother says don’t be a prude Selene. I don’t know why you’re so embarrassed talking about my natural lifecycle. Certainly the fate of one born to a goblin tribe would be most unfortunate but few are as envied in this world as the stallions of the silkie.』

Hearing Selene’s cousin speak in such a cut and dry manner in regards to such a bizarre topic really hit home for Cael that for as much as she looked like a human on the outside, the inside was completely different.

After giving a silent prayer for the poor girls born to the goblin hordes Cael gently reminded Selene that she never finished what she was saying.

『Right, anyways over the years some of my ancestors came to be in such a way. While humans born like this are absolutely still human they will possess and pass on some peculiar characteristics. Didn’t you think silver hair was odd? Because of its distinctiveness at some point it became a symbol of our imperial family and by extension a sign of status among the nobility of the Severin Empire.』

On the outside Cael just nodded as if he found her words extremely logical, whereas on the inside he was panicking somewhat.

I totally just chalked it up to anime hair! When I think back on it now that’s not really a legitimate reason!

After his internal rant Cael decided to move along the conversation so as to not dwell too much on the massive blind spot in the deductive reasoning he’s usually so proud of.

『Right that makes sense though your hair is more of a dark grey if I’m being honest.』

At his words Selene visibly deflated some.

『It’s fine, I hear that a lot.』

Judging from the atmosphere she was giving off her hair seemed like something of a sore spot for her. Cael was about to apologise thinking maybe it would improve her mood but was interrupted before he could speak by Ciara’s musings.

『Yes I remember when you were a little girl the shade was far closer to young Damian’s. A shame that madwoman decided to leave her mark upon you, now it looks nothing of my daughters colours.』

Madwoman?

Cael would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious so listened in closely as the two conversed.

At Ciara’s words Selene softly shook her head before responding.

『To bear the blessing of lady Aria is my good fortune.』

Ciara simply sighed at that unwilling to argue the point. Cael on the other hand had his interest piqued at the mention of the mysterious girl he hadn’t seen since his hijacked summon.

『You mentioned Aria, what does she have to do with your hair colour?』

All three girls took the time to note the strange fact Cael wasn’t the slightest bit reverential when talking about the goddess of chaos. Nonetheless apart from looking at him as if he was some strange animal they had never seen before they did not bother to comment on it.

『As you’ve heard my hair used to be much different from how it is now. For thousands of years lady Aria has personally blessed the second born princess of the main imperial line whenever they turn 10 years of age. I too met Lady Aria when I was a young girl, she approached me in the dead of night and laid her hand upon my head.』

As she spoke Selene placed one of her hands just as described almost like trying to replicate the sensation from that time.

『Most get their blessings at 10 as well when they go with their guardian on a pilgrimage to meet proxies like Granny. By acquiring their blessing they become capable of interacting with the respective element through the aether so long as they learn simple spells.』

At reaching this point in her story Selene took a breath to calm herself.

『It’s not the same when you’re directly given your blessing by the god personally, the feeling is as if a fundamental aspect of yourself has been changed. Different from those given by proxies, the mark can never be removed even if you turned against the one who gave it. So ingrained does the power become that it stains the hair and eyes mixing in the colour representative of that element to one’s natural shades.』

Seeing how much more personal the story was then he initially thought Cael considered that perhaps he shouldn’t have asked. Selene herself though seemed to have passed the worst of it and smiled as she told the next part.

『As for why Lady Aria does such a thing nobody really knows. This is actually something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about myself. There are a number of theories of course the most popular one is that she does it simply so she won’t be outdone by her sister lady Ariel who has historically given her blessing to the first princess of each generation ever since the Empire’s founding.』

For such a revered figure Cael thought that people’s impression of her was that she was fairly petty. Though he himself wouldn’t deny that from the way she spoke about her sister it didn’t seem beyond the realm of reason that she would do such a thing.

『Another well-known theory is that she enjoys the changes summoned heroes bring to Pleiades thus explaining why she also gave the spell we use to call them to the first princess she ever blessed.』

This too seemed feasible as Cael noted that Aria was actually fairly savvy when it came to Earth terminology.

Perhaps she likes watching people from Japan slowly contaminate the culture here in amusing ways. I mean you can see that just by looking at Lily’s damn maid outfit.

Just as it seemed Selene was going to throw out even more reasons Ciara chimed in with her own.

『Dryad actually told me about this once, afterall it was because of that madwoman that my predecessor died and I was created to take over watching the tree. Dryad said that the madwoman was trying to find someone she doesn’t know if she even wants to find so she made some vague summoning spell that would eventually bring them so long as it was repeated enough. Exactly how long it would take could be anywhere from a hundred to a billion years though. I guess your sense of time becomes strange when you can play with it like wet clay.』

Ciara’s story made Cael’s blood freeze, the contents striking a little too close to home for comfort afterall he very vividly remembered her words.

Because I wanted to see you and for no other reason, right?