Did I hear them right? They're talking about gods as if they exist and can interact with reality. I turn to look at Hestia, and throw my preconceptions out of the window. Of course gods can exist, this is a fantasy world where angels, demons and intangible corruption with actual effects are very real. The problem that this opens up is that when I think of a god, it's an existence with powers a mortal being could never hope to match.

The fact that such gods are beginning to move against maou-mama is bad news, to say the least. While I may not have spent much time with her, and my memories of her generally involve bad parenting, and she's a real ditz... I don't remember anything involving her that gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling - beside my first meal in this world.

Actually, where does this feeling of loyalty I have stem from? Could it be programmed into my genes? In either case, I wouldn't ever have considered raising my hand against my own mother in my previous life, and I won't change that now. She's my mother, and I won't abandon her.

"Are you sure you can trust me?" I want to know where their confidence in telling me this information comes from.

"Master Eklundstrom said that he saw no falsehood in your wish for a peaceful life. You show no ambitions and your every action so far has supported that wish." Basarab says. I may not seem ambitious, because there's no goal in sight for me. I have this convenient body, a good position within the academy, cute companions to spend my time with and the potential to learn all the magic in the world. What more could I wish for? Well, I do want to return to maou-mama's side within these three years, but what happens afterwards I don't know.

But wait, this means that the cunning old man has some sort of ability that lets him detect lies? I'll have to be really careful around him, then. It worked out in our first talk, since I never explicitly lied, but if he asks the right questions, I won't be able to escape being seen through.

"We will have you sign a Vala, if you decide to join our endeavor. It will keep you from telling anyone who has not signed the same. If not, you will be made to forget about everything we discussed here." I wouldn't like to lose all this progress I gained here. But I don't want to sign whatever this Vala is, since I feel it might be quite the dangerous magic. The conditions sound like some sort of curse will be applied to me.

"I will have to discuss this with these two." I need some time.

"Go ahead, but we will not be able to let you leave until you make a choice." Basarab is quite confident of himself that he can deal with the three of us. I doubt Flann is going to make any sort of impact during a fight, since he clearly still seems scared of me. But if this does devolve into a battle, it won't be contained within just this room. And even if these two disappear quietly, I'm sure I'll be the first to be suspected after just a tiny bit of investigating.

"Personally, I'd prefer not to get involved." I lead Hestia and Kamii aside and whisper. "I don't want to risk your lives over something like this." In truth, I'd like to know more about their plans, but if that means I can't warn maou-mama about them, it'd be pointless. I mean, they must be really confident in that Vala thing and its power to keep this secret.

"I will act according to your decision, Chloe." Hestia states with a serious expression. She understands what's at stake here.

"Onee-sama decides." Kamii says with an innocent grin. To protect that smile, I'd do anything. And becoming irrevocably involved with these rebels is the surest way to destroy the life we've built up here.

"Everything will be alright." I hug the little dark elf and give Hestia a confident expression. "Trust in me."

"Yes, always~" She breathes to me with a love-struck expression. Hey, I think I'm getting pretty good at this. I turn to Basarab and Flann to announce the decision we have come to.

The three of us are allowed to leave the Demon Mages Society secret base together, since apparently it would be more suspicious for us not to be seen together. Basarab's wishes for a good night sound more like an encouragement for some sexy times. I'm actually horny. His voice has such an effect on me when I'm not careful. I think I'll have another meal with one, or maybe both, of my companions tonight.

When we reach the dorm room I notice that something feels itchy about my body. And no, not that part. We enter and are greeted by Senka sitting on her bed as usual, with her eyes fixed on the door. She's acting like a doll, but I think it's now fine to tell Hestia about the fact that she's actually kinda alive.

But first, this itch... I reach inside myself and pull out the survival kit backpack given to me by maou-mama, which I've practically forgotten about. Damn, I was in the process of slowly digesting it and the metal survival knife was poking out! How could I make such a mistake? Well, there aren't any important things inside... except for the map of the world! Oh no, I hope it's still intact.

Hestia and Kamii watch me curiously as I rummage through it and pull out the piece of leather. Ah, it's fine, only a corner is slightly singed from my digestive fluids or so. Hm, what's this? There's something written on its backside, using the ink from the writing set I store inside my body just in case. It's in Japanese and quite badly scribbled.

"Old man lie detector, Basarab, Flann, Arcelia, gods, rebellion against mama." I read it out loud. Huh? "Flann is Mithra's son, sign Vala and can't tell or memories erased." What...?

"Your mind was tampered with." Senka suddenly stands up and speaks, causing Hestia to squeal in shock. Even after your personality changed you're still that scared, huh?

"Wha-what are you?" She asks the cursed doll while pointing at her, keeping a defensive stance with a bewildered expression.

"That's not important right now." Senka says with slight annoyance and turns back to me. "What you did there is a technique I've used many times. A message addressed to myself, when I faced those who can manipulate memories, with a sort of timed alarm so I find out by the time I'm either alone or in safety. What do you remember last?" She suddenly has a very reliable atmosphere about her.

"We went to this support group calling itself the Demon Mages Society. There, someone noticed that I'm a Crawling Chaos and everyone was afraid. They found out that I'm the demon lord's child, and Basarab, the overseer of the society, adjourned the meeting. Most likely to keep the other children from me. The others were sent away in pairs so that the society won't be found out by someone passing by. Hestia, Kamii and I were kept until the very end, when he told me to be careful about my nature. Then we were also allowed to leave." I recall everything perfectly. No hint of memories being erased. But this message I wrote to myself suggests otherwise. I can't even remember when I wrote it.

"This means that something happened between when everyone else had left and when you were allowed to go." She takes the piece of leather and looks over it. "Bad handwriting aside - I guess you did it blindly inside your body - this message suggests that there's a rebellion against your mother brewing, and it names those who are involved."

"Can you get our memories back?" She did say that she has some skills regarding memory manipulation.

"No, I can't. Rather than a book where pages are ripped out from, imagine a folder where some papers are taken out from carefully. There won't be a hint of these pages having been removed in the first place, so there's nothing to work with to restore them." Her expression suggests that she's well versed in this topic. "But I'm impressed that you were able to think up something like this. I thought you were a simple high school girl before."

"I didn't even know that such a method existed..." I'm actually dumbstruck by my own resourcefulness.

"Regarding the 'sign Vala' part... it's a sort of curse that controls one's actions according to the contract." Senka points at the words. "They must have given you the choice to either sign a Vala which would have made you their accomplice and restricted you from telling anyone, or have your memories erased. You made a really smart choice, really impressive." I can't even feel proud over this achievement, since this is a pretty nasty situation.

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"We can't let anyone know that we have this information." I look at Hestia and Kamii. Especially the latter is a dangerous case, since she's still like a child. As if noticing my concerns, she puffs up her flat chest and shows a determined expression.

"I won't tell anyone, Onee-sama. I promise!" Now that's a good girl. I pet her cheek and she nuzzles into my hand. I turn to Hestia, who shows a supportive expression.

"I understand, Onee-sama." She says with a lovely smile. Apparently she decided to call me that, too. I don't mind - rather, I actually like it, since Chloe sounds more distant to me. It's my last name after all. "But the issue now would be how to get this information to your mother." She brings up a good point. Who knows when they'll initiate their plan. It might be before I can get back to tell maou-mama about it, so I'll have to do some proper research into space magic now.

"Assuming that they're confident in their memory wipe, we should have the freedom to do as we have so far." In other words, no changes in our behavior should be the best camouflage. "For now, I'd like to know your affinities of magic and how good you are with them." I start with Hestia, since I already know that Kamii only has the dark affinity.

"I have the wind and light affinities. I am only a beginner in wind magic, but I can cast up to advanced light magic." She responds. I somehow doubt that she still has light, considering she is now fully corrupted, but trying it out won't hurt anyone.

"Have you performed any light magic today?"

"No, I have not... oh." Yep, she realizes what my question implies. "Sano." She holds out her palm towards me and speaks. A warm glow surrounds her hand and I can feel its effect on my mind, if not on my body. So she actually retained her light affinity. The old man did say that the cursed will gain the dark affinity but lose their inborn ones most of the time, but not all the time. This reminds me...

"Also, I have reason to believe that you have gained a curse due to the corruption. Do you feel anything strange about your body?"

"My eyes have been feeling a little strained all day now." She actually points something out immediately. But I can't tell if that's from a curse or lack of sleep after what we did. In the first place, I think Kamii isn't really aware of the power granted by her curse, either. We'll have to get some training in for that.

"Have you ever felt something similar before?"

"No, never... am I going to go blind from the curse?" Her expression is one of fear. Yeah, losing one's vision is a scary thing alright. "I would not be able to see you anymore, Onee-sama." That's what you're afraid of?

"Let's observe the situation regarding your eyes for the time being. If it gets worse, you should see Madam Idunn about it..." I have no idea how curses work and the rules that govern them. In other words, if she really is cursed and something will happen to her eyes, I can't help her at all. I hope it won't, though... "Now, for you, Kamii-chan." She looks at me questioningly. "Regarding that arm of yours."

"This?" She lifts her crab claw. It's as intimidating as ever when seen from up close and lifted above her head as if it weights nothing. Well, it actually really weights only slightly more than her normal arm. Its bright red is in stark contrast with the dark purple of her skin. But it's cool~

"Remember what you did under the mountain? When we were surrounded by trolls and you hit some of them with your claw? I believe that your curse allows the strength in your arm to be increased every time you hit someone with it." As for the detailed conditions for how it stacks, we'll have to work that one out in due time. Kamii clearly looks surprised, so she didn't even know that she had such an ability. Strangely enough, it fits her.

"I feel like I know something similar to that..." Senka comments and suddenly Hestia remembers that the creepy-cute doll was moving just earlier.

"Before we continue, can you explain this to me?" She clearly refers to Senka as if she was an object. Yeah, I do owe her an explanation.

"She's Senka. You can trust her, simply for the fact that she's very much like me." Maybe I phrased that wrongly, because the doll in question is not too happy with being compared to me based on the image I've shown of myself at this academy. "We both come from the same place, in a way." I correct myself.

"You put an awful lot of trust in me, you know?" She says with a sarcastic smile. I pick her up and cuddle her in response. The fact that she doesn't struggle and her expression softens shows that she actually likes it. You're not being honest, Senka-chan~ "You could bring me along from time to time..."

"Awww, are you sulking?" Even though she may seem very mature, despite appearances, she's still quite childish in some parts. "If you want, we can have some fun tonight?" I say it jokingly and she rolls her eyes.

"Maybe some other time. You should be thinking about the situation at hand." Wait, are you for real? I'm gonna take you up on those words for sure! "Especially how you're going to warn your mother, as Hestia brought up earlier."

I think I already have an idea. But I'll leave that for tomorrow, since it might be suspicious if I already take action tonight. Now the question is what to do until it's time to sleep - the Demon Mages Society meeting didn't take that long, and I'm wide awake due to our situation. We are four girls in one room, so I'm sure there's something...

In the end, we simply talked about what we should do about this brewing conspiracy against my mother. There's too little information to be able to say what the specifics of the plan is, but considering that gods - most likely beings with such immense powers that humans and even demons call them that - are involved means that my mother is posing such a significant threat. With Senka on my lap we listened to her speak about the rumors surrounding maou-mama's ascension to power and why the demons fear us Crawling Chaoses so.

I didn't even know that maou-mama was called Pelomyx, and her title - Cradle of Chaos - sounds so cool! I want one like that, too!

We went to sleep a while after, when I cooled down from being subjected to Basarab's voice for so long. As always, Kamii and I went to sleep in the same bed, but Hestia announced that she would remain in my room, too. Of course, all three of us - especially with her huge angel wings - wouldn't fit into the same bed, but the conundrum was that she still had an aversion to Senka's rather gruesome appearance. Eventually, I decided to bring the creepy-cute doll over onto our bed and things worked out. Hestia did look jealous, though.

The morning after, Senka nudged me awake rather than calling out to me as she has been doing all this time. She had a slightly sullen expression, but wouldn't say why when asked. Don't tell me I did something to her in my sleep? But there are no signs of that...

My class after breakfast is Multi-Elemental Magic. Since I suck at melding, I doubt it's going to help me much, but the afternoon lesson is something I'm more interested in: Flow Control. Basically the one thing I need the most. Maybe I can also learn about where the energy for magic comes from in that class. If nothing else, I can always try to ask the teacher during or after class.

As expected, I simply can't cast any multi-elemental spells, even if I know their incantations and the elements that are their components. I'm basically just watching the other students slowly improve themselves and create all sorts of impossible seeming spells from the specified elements.

Thus, I'm slightly frustrated during lunch, and both Hestia and Kamii notice it. With their pampering I revert to my usual self, and by the end of lunch I'm rearing to go for afternoon classes. I think Hestia was quite proud of herself afterwards.

Flow Control, the one thing I lack the most. My spells always come out more powerful than they're supposed to, and while I may not feel any effects such as mana deprivation or fatigue, there has to be something negative associated with it. Thus, the first order of things is to ask the teacher directly what activates magic. Incidentally, this is the same teacher as the one for the Basics of Water Magic class. I guess water and wind may require the most minute control over the flow, so he must be a master at it.

"Well, the flow is what gives a mage his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the world together." That's a very vague way to explain it.

"Can it be depleted?" It's the one thing I'm most interested in.

"Think of the flow like the ocean. Imagine that when you cast a spell, you take a cup of water out of it and use it to create a cloud." That's easier to understand. Even I know that as long as it's within a closed system, the cloud will rain down, feed a river, which will flow back into the ocean. In other words, there aren't any drawbacks to letting out too much power in magic. That is very good to know. "Think of an individual's control over the flow as the cup. Whether you fill it to the brim or only part of it is entirely up to you. And that is what this class teaches."

"Is the cup size determined at birth, or is there a way to make it bigger?" Because that would mean I could cause even the most basic spells to be as destructive as high level ones.

"Training can indeed make your cup bigger, but it would then be easier to simply weave a larger spell." He smiles at me. "But you already have a large enough cup size, Miss Marcott." I think there's never a "large enough" when it comes to that... wait...

The remainder of the class is me trying to put less flow into my cup while casting basic spells. Everyone else is adjusting perfectly fine, but whatever I do is always blown out of proportion. At one point I very nearly drench the whole class in a pool's worth of water, when I cast Inebriat again, trying to make the volume smaller this time. Again, the teacher prevents that from happening just in time. Well, this is only the first class, so there's still a lot of time to learn... I hope... haha...

And then, dinnertime arrives~