-Break-

Location: Abais Castle

Φ Feeling a tingling in my nose I sneeze and open my eyes. Then as I do I see some kind of creature on my face.

I scream, which wakes up Willow beside me, and he says, “Maple what’s wrong!”

I point to the creature on my nose, and as he sees it, Willow instantly reaches for it and says, “Get off of her.”

The creature moves away from me, and as it does, I see it is around the size of Buloke’s fist, and it is quite thick throughout its body.

The creature then starts to glow as if it is made of light and then files around the room, as this happens both me and Willow chase it around the giant room, we are all in but we are unable to catch it.

As we do this the giant doors to the room we are in open and a woman walks in and claps his hand bringing which makes the creature fly towards him.

“I see you two are having a good day.”

The woman in front of us is a beastkin like the rest of the people we have met, she looks like a sheep.

Willow immediately becomes very shy at the sight of her, so I hit him in the stomach, then glaring at her, I say, “What is that thing.”

“Oh, this little one is a wonderbeast known as a pixie. You see these little ones are responsible for all the light we have down here, during the night they rest up and in the morning they spread it everywhere.”

“But then why was it on my face?”

Letting go of the pixie, he says, “It is because it likes you.”

As it flies around me and touches me, I say, “It sort of looks kind of cute.”

Grabbing its soft body, I place it on my head and say, “Well it can stay then.”

“Good to know,” The lady says snapping her fingers. Soon a group of others dressed similar to her come in and she says, “Now let’s get the both of you changed, lady Cultúir has invited you both to breakfast.”

The people surround us and start to have their way with us.

-One grooming later-

Walking through the hallway, with the servants following behind us, I say, “They brushed our teeth, wiped down our bodies, did our hair, completely removed our hair from private places, and changed our clothes. And they were thorough, I feel so violated.”

The pixie on my head jumps up and down, and its soft body makes me feel better.

Noticing that Willow is smiling, I say, “What’s so funny?”

“It is just that I got to have a close look at all those beastkin!”

I kick him in the shin, and say, “You dirty cheater!”

“How does this count as cheating, I am just interested in them.”

Walking ahead of him, I mutter under my breath, “You shouldn’t be interested in any woman but me.”

From behind, he hugs me and says, “I care not that they are woman, I am just interested in what kind of animal they are. Please don’t be jealous.”

Turning back around, I say while shaking, “You don’t care if they are a woman?”

“Ehh?” Willow says.

“I always knew you liked animals, but I didn’t think you were like that.”

“Maple I think you might be misunderstanding things.”

I run off at full speed, and Willow follows behind me saying, “WAIT!”

This continues until we exit the hallway we were walking through and enter an area that allows us to see outside, and as we do I completely stop and gaze upon everything with Willow doing the same beside me.

I wasn’t able to get a good look at everything outside during the first time we arrived at the castle due to how dark everything was, but now that I can see it I am completely blown away.

This castle is much larger than Orb’s home. It is comparable to the difference between, the Grand Druid and Willow the 2nd. The city that we can see far below us, more than tens of thousands of the village of Aplos, yet despite being so much bigger it looks as if it is running even smoother. What kind of leadership would be capable of this?

The people are smiling, the buildings are beautiful, and I can see countless different wonderbeasts throughout the area, yet the people are not afraid or hurting them, they simply live beside them. Even a giant Wonderbeast is running through the area and all the people around simply accept it.

It feels like I am staring at a world that only exists within my dreams. So I slap myself on my face, and say, “I can’t be mesmerized by this, I am the leader of Aplos. I need to hold my head high.”

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Willow putting his hands on my face says, “Then I will help you when needed.”

“Ok, animal breeder.”

“Hey!” Willow says annoyed.

So, I run away, and says, “Oh no, an animal breeder is screaming at me.”

Embarrassed, Willow chases after me and says, “DON’T SPREAD LIES!”

Location: Prosúnfore

Φ “That castle is rather big, I would love to go look inside it,” I say looking at the giant castle in the distance.

Dillion replies, “Only the members of the red branch are allowed anywhere near the castle, people like us would be struck down in an instant.”

“Ehh, I doubt they could even land a blow on me.”

Dillion says with a calm yet angry voice, “Don’t underestimate the warriors of the red branch, they are butchers who will kill countless. If there is one thing you must never do during your time in Nialathrú it is to anger them. Please.”

Feeling emotion sealed behind those words, I say, “OK, I promise I won’t. Make sure you follow those words as well Suzuka.”

Looking at her, I see that Suzuka is shaking, so I say, “What’s going on with you.”

“I AM TOO EMBARRASSED; EVERYONE CAN SEE ME!”

“Don’t worry about that, you’re not eye-catching enough to get their attention.”

Taking her hands off her face, she says, “Really!”

“Of course Suzuka, because you’re the second most unappealing woman I know of, be proud.”

Suzuka gets annoyed, then asks, “Who is the first.”

“Elia the fallen angel herself.”

Location: Orb's mansion

Φ As I stand in front of a door with Gheorghe at my side, I look inside and see adults complaining and whining like children.

Gheorghe beside me says, “They have been complaining non-stop for a while now about their current situation, but It seems they are extra rowdy today since Orb isn’t around,”

Before I can say anything, I sneeze, and then Gheorghe says, “Bless you.”

“Someone must be talking about me.”

“If you're sick, it might be better to get someone to do this today, you have been dealing with this personally since this country was founded, taking some time off and resting is important.”

Stretching, I say, “I have been doing this for the express purpose of reducing the workload on the young king. If he had to deal with all of these people’s complaints his mind and body would be too preoccupied, that’s why we can’t let too many people find out about this or he will know.”

Tapping Gheorghe on the back, he smalls his fists against the floor, which quiets the whole room, and as we enter a man named Musa says, “The witch has returned.”

With my best smile, I say, “Orb is nowhere around today, so I don’t have to worry about him hearing your screams.”

Musa taking a step back, says with sweat trickling down his face, “If you plan to beat us into submission that would be no different than treating us like slaves.”

I snap my fingers and Gheorghe places his hand out for me. Sitting down on his giant hand, I cross my legs and say, “Of course, I would never do something so barbaric. And it would be a waste of time since, unlike the mind, the body heals rather quickly. So I am going to make you two promises, first, you won’t be hurt physically, and with just my words I will make each and every one of you docile. Ok, start!”

Location: The city of Prosúnfore

Φ Suzuka looks at me and says, “You know you're sort of like Orb.”

“DON’ T INSULT ME!”

The beast we are riding on suddenly stops and both and all of the people who have been stuck to it our flung off onto the floor. Both Suzuka and I land on our feet, Suzuka uses her tails to catch quite a few falling people including Dillion.

One of the people, who Suzuka caught says, “Thank you so much, usually we all fall and get hurt but not today.”

She goes stiff as if her mind can’t handle this sudden interaction. This issue is multiplied by the large amount of people who come and start thanking her as well.

Looking in front of me, I see the school building and I say, “Is this where you all get educated?” to Dillion.

“Yes, it is one of the oldest and most secreted buildings in all of Nialathrú. The grand hall of Eche, now we need to go otherwise we will be in trouble.”

As Dillion runs off, I grab Suzuka who was getting surrounded by people in admiration for her, and say, “I need her.”

The people wave to Suzuka bye, and she does the same back while saying, “I think I like it here.”

Looking at the mask Suzuka was gifted, one of a fox, I start to laugh to myself, then I say, “That mask is so stupid!”

She says in retaliation, “So is yours!”

“What do you mean bats are cool.”

“So are foxes!”

As we run Dillion says, “We need to go into that room there.”

Me and Suzuka cease our fight and follow him, and when we enter the room, I say, “This lecture hall is even bigger than the ones in Elpída!”

With a small sense of pride, Dillion says, “Even compared to whatever you humans have built us beastkin shouldn’t be underestimated.”

Suzuka stares at some big beastkin who walks past her, and says, “There are a lot of adults here, are we supposed to be here?”

Dillion looks slightly confused, then a few seconds he says, “Due to having the genes of certain animals and wonderbeasts, the mental abilities of beastkin differ a lot despite age so you are put in a class with people who can think on the same level as you.”

With a smile, I say, “Then you must be a pretty brilliant bug.”

Giddy, Dillion responds, “Of course I am, I can’t shame my brother or my people.”

Someone from afar, says, “The very existence of a Fanalis like you is already a shame.”

Both Suzuka and I turn our heads and we see a group of beastkin, human-looking ones, with one in front that looks like a deer.

Dillion with his head hanging low says, “Sorry for that.”

Seeing his face, I say, “Who the hell are you?”

“I see uneducated bugs, keep ignorant acquaintances.”

His words upset both me and Suzuka.

“Well, why don’t I enlighten you to who I am. I am one of the children of our people's leaders, a decedent of the red branch, My name is-.”

Suzuka cutting him off says, “We really don’t care, thank you for your time bye.”

“Ehh?” He says confused.

Turning to face, Dillion Suzuka asks, “Is a Fanalis what you beastkin who look more like animals than humans are called?”

“HEY DON’T IGNORE ME.”

Turning around with a disgusted aura, Suzuka says, “You still here?”

She really does get a lot more rude and disrespectful with something covering her face. “You heard the lady, now vanish.”

“I will not take this slight.”

Dillion grabs both of us and says, “You both need to stop, he is from a powerful family, he is not someone to be trifled with.”

“Oh don’t worry Dillion I will never trifle with anyone.”

Secretly activating my legacy, I make the gravity around us reduce, then say, “If only someone could fan me down.”

Understanding my intent, Suzuka uses her tails to fan me extremely hard making a gust of win that sends the annoyance flying.

As he lands in a rather embarrassing position, I say, “Oh what an unfortunate turn of events!”

Suzuka says, “Who could have ever foretold this.”

The boy's men move towards him, and as this happens Dillion starts to panic and says, “Do you know what you two have done!?”

Patting him on his head, I say, “Of course I do we protected you from bullies and as long as we are around you're getting a nonstop amount of that, so you better deal with it.”

Walking past Dillion, Suzuka says, “So what about my question?

Dillion smiles, and says, “Yes, Fanalis is the name of us beastkin who are more beast than humans have,” he runs walks with Suzuka and Iancu to their seats.