As the dull silver glow of the ever-rising moon bathed the Davis family estate in a beautiful light, she and Aella walked along the path leading to the house, their footsteps echoing softly on the cobblestones. The day had been eventful, to say the least, filled with whatever you would call what they did in Japan. And now, a sense of calm after the storm.
A calm that was quickly broken by four words.
“That’s… That’s quite terrifying.” Aella mused, prompting Blair to look at her.
“Your daughter knows we’re here. Judging by the pace of her steps and how closely a second pair of footsteps are following her, They’ll be out the door in about 13 seconds, and neither of those children are happy. I’m gonna throw a ball at left field and say I’m gonna get tackled again.”
As if on queue, just a dozen seconds later, the tranquility of the night was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a door swinging open with enthusiasm. Seraphina, accompanied by Cid and Indigo, who looked defeated for some reason, burst out of the house, their faces alight with a mix of excitement and relief to see them, as well as anger that the two had disappeared for five hours.
Upon seeing that Aella had returned with a third tail, Seraphina’s eyes widened as she called out, “Aella!” Cid following suit with a weak but still noticeable, “Sis!”
Reading Seraphina like an open book, Aella saw the young fallen angel charging towards her, her eyes sparkling with determination to capture Aella and not let her go again. Unfortunately, Seraphina was a couple of centuries too young to try the yandere bit with Aella, and she easily sidestepped her attempted apprehension. “You are so unbelievably predictable.” Aella chuckled lightly.
Undeterred by her initial failure, Seraphina readied herself for another attempt. She lunged forward with more speed, her arms outstretched to grab Aella. But Aella, light on her feet, danced away effortlessly, her laughter mingling with the breeze she called upon to assist her movement. “If you stop, I’ll explain everything I pro-.”
Clicking her tongue in annoyance to cut Aella off, Seraphina’s mind raced as she snapped her fingers. The earth below trembled at her call as she used her Mana to create a couple of small golems crafted from the soil and pebbles of the estate’s garden.
Emerging with a rumble, Aella let out an amused hum, pleasantly surprised by this sudden development as they grabbed her legs tightly and anchored themselves to the ground.
‘She’s managed to figure out how to create golems and give them an order at the same time? How though? Does she have an old monster like me stored inside of a ring or something?’
Pushing her questions to the back of her mind, Aella summoned her fan and was about to blast the crude rocks away, only for Cid to grab her. “No! You’re not leaving again! I got you!” he declared, his youthful voice filled with triumph. His hold was firm and determined, hindering her movements.
Looking at her brother briefly before changing her attention to Seraphina, who instantly took the chance to hunt for her again, Aella let out a sigh as she let out a slightly bemused sigh.
‘Seraphina used Cid as bait, so I couldn’t use my wind without risking hurting himself. There was a slight delay between this little one grabbing me and her acting, so it shouldn’t be her plan… Did Cid come up with that?’
“You have a lot of explaining to do, Aella!” Seraphina demanded, now holding her so she couldn’t run away again. Like she was going to in the middle of the night after returning, that logic checked out with Aella, yeah.
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“You’re not gonna help me, are you, Blair?” She asked, sending her words to Blair with her sound manipulation, only for the woman to smile back at her and wave.
“Let’s go inside. I’ll explain what happened over dinner.”
‘You traitor! I’ll remember this, Blair!’
Rolling her eyes at the woman walking away, Aella once again returned her attention to the children clinging to her. “And I was planning to even if I shouldn’t because of this little stunt of yours.” She paused, her tone light. “Although you’ve miscalculated.”
Flicking her wrist and fan, a powerful gust of wind lifted Seraphina and Cid, an arrogant glint revealing itself in Aella’s eyes. “I can very easily incapacitate the both of you without harming either.”
Catching up to Blair and Indigo, who were taking their time to walk inside while carrying the two kids on the wind, Aella refused to drop them until they got inside the house. She considered pushing for an apology but decided against it for two reasons.
Firstly, she was in the wrong. Aella wouldn’t try justifying herself disappearing for such an extended period of time. And secondly, their plan to capture her wasn’t all that bad. If not for the fact that Aella had wholly mastered the wind ages ago, she wouldn’t have been able to manipulate them so freely with it. It was for that reason that she let their plan work at first. She found it resourceful.
“You got into a fight again! How’d you reach level 50?”
“I talked to the leveling fairy, and she kindly gave me 20 levels,” Aella joked. Even if her third tail wasn’t a dead giveaway, both Cid and Seraphina possessed [Apprasial], so the moment they looked at Stormy, who had ranked up, the truth would be clear.
“Aella! Seriously! Where did you and Mommy go? Do you know how worried we were?! And then Stormy suddenly vanished into thin air!” Seraphina complained, sticking close to Aella and staring daggers at her as if she were trying to read the little fox’s mind.
Thankfully, she cannot. The trauma that would come from a glance into Aella’s memories was not something she could deal with. Forget becoming a Demon Lord; her heart would stop from shock instantly.
With a wry smile, Aella nodded, “You’re right… I’m sorry.” She apologized, Stormy, following along with a low chirp for some reason despite none of this being his fault. “We were about to start returning when we got dragged into an ordeal with those freaky cultists.”
Both Seraphina and Cid nearly fell back at the mention of the cultists, confusing Aella slightly as Cid shouldn’t know about the cult unless…
‘Oh, Mom and Dad didn’t fail to protect his parents from the Miniboss…’ Aella nearly let her expression of realization leak through. This realization made things slightly easier for her, which was nice with the new sense of urgency.
She was planning to try and convince Cid to support her cause eventually, but if he held a grudge against the cult, it’d be that much easier.
“Why didn’t you come get me? Aetherion and I could have helped!”
“Ah… About that…”
Before Aella could defend that point, Seraphina cut her off, “What was the point of helping me grow stronger if you’re not gonna let me help if you’re in danger!”
Irritation and worry clearly and evidently painted Seraphina’s face with a pale sheen, nearly causing a crack in Aella’s stone heart.
‘I’m gonna have to use stat points on my Mind at this rate.’ Aella said inwardly, mildly panicked that a mere child was getting so close to getting a genuine reaction out of her.
“That wasn’t the intention. How about this! I’ll explain in detail while we eat dinner, and then after, I’ll tell you both a really fun story as an apology? Does that sound good?”
Seraphina and Cid looked at each other, pondering the offer before eventually nodding and giving in. No matter how worried they were, Aella wasn’t injured, so nothing big could have happened in their mind, and they’d be severely lying to everyone, themselves included, if they tried telling someone that a story from Aella didn’t sound interesting.
'System. The trials opened up again, right? Can I begin one right away?'