[Tessia Eralith POV]

"Let's get you ready to sleep... Y-yes.. Get you ready..." My mom said, her voice still a little shaky.

After we arrived at Lilia's family home, I had been taken by my mother to a room that had a bathroom. It was still a lot to think about... Were my parents already here? Why?... Well... Anyway, it was a pleasant coincidence at least...

"Mother... Don't worry, I'm not hurt or anything... I can take a shower by myself..." I said as I was taking off the clothes I was wearing.

It was the field study uniform from Xyrus Academy, but it was completely dirty and torn from what happened at Widow's Crypt. But there were bloodstains too, the blood wasn't mine, in fact I hadn't hurt myself, not even to get a drop of blood out of my body, it was BigSis Alea's blood...

"Alea..." I thought a little more about her situation and my eyes started to fill with tears. She suffered so much and on top of that she panicked easily when we were out of danger... It really affected her... I hope I can talk to her later or at least... Try to bring up other subjects so she doesn't remember this so much...

"Of course, it's hard to forget the fact that her limbs were ripped off... Tessia, you idiot!" I got pretty frustrated with my own thoughts and got into the shower so I could wash all the dirt off my body.

I kept my head up feeling the hot water touch my body and the rest of my skin, breathing a little deep to calm myself and with my eyes closed. I tried to think of good things to get my mind busy, and soon thoughts about Art came to mind.

I couldn't believe how silly that was, but it seemed to be working. Thinking about him was slowly calming me down, good memories like the walks we had in Zestier started to fill my mind, making me smile calmly and serenely through it all. I slowly ran my hands over my body, more recent memories with him emerging. They were memories like our dates at Xyrus Academy, the dance we had at the Winter Party... and our special night that happened less than a week ago.

I took a long breath and finished my shower, wrapping my body, from my bust to below my knees, with a towel I had there, in addition to using wind magic to dry my hair faster. I looked into the mirror, seeing my now dry but messy hair, and finally stepping out of the bathroom.

I watched my mother there and gave a weak smile as I walked towards her. She was sitting on one of the beds in that guest room and so I sat next to her, with her starting to brush my hair with a comb she had. We were silent, my gaze focused on the floor as I felt her hands shaking a little.

"Mom..." I shattered the silence, looking into her face.

There were tears on her cheeks, and after a few seconds, she hugged me tightly as she buried her face in my shoulder. I could hear her breaking into tears, which seemed to go on forever.

"M-My dear... I-I was so worried about you... For a moment we thought that... that..." She tried to speak but couldn't stop stuttering.

"That I had died...?" I spoke a little coldly, but my voice was still shaking, but I continued to try to help her. "Shouldn't worry... You knew Art was with me... he always keeps me safe..."

"But that's the problem..." My mom said holding my shoulders. "Even if he was there to protect you... What would happen if he was killed with the objective to keep you alive...? W-We would find you in a worse state than when you were still young..."

I soon understood my mother's real fear... Not only she was afraid that I would die, but also specifically afraid of "The Happy and Gentle Tessia" dying...

I'm not proud of it... but I can remember how I acted when I was still a little elf. Before I was kidnapped, I was a cold girl... The world and nobles around me were trying to use me because I was the only child of the royal family... And it was leaving me in a state, which made my parents think that I would never see my people with kind eyes, only with a cold stare, as if the whole world was just an exchange of favors and never something kind...

But then came Arthur and Luz... who broke my state of not trusting anyone... making me more open to people like Feyrith... Lilia... Cynthia...

If I really lost him during this whole insane event we've been through... I think... I'd be in a worse and more broken state than my old self... I can no longer imagine a world where he's not. with me... I can't imagine a life where he isn't protecting me... I couldn't live without him...

"Tessia..." I snap out of my thoughts when I hear my mother's voice. She was now holding tight to my cheeks and looking worriedly at me.

"I'm sorry... I just..." I tried to say something, but I couldn't form any words, so she kissed me on the forehead.

"I love you, my daughter... ah.. we are so lucky that Art is your guardian angel... He really is a gift..." My mom said silently as she hugged me, but that's when I remembered of something.

"M-Mom...you can let go of me...I-I want to see something..." I spoke with my voice being muffled by her clothes, and soon she released me.

"What...?" She said as she followed me with her eyes.

I walked to the shelf where my dirty clothes were and took my dimensional ring, from inside it I took that dark green retangular box that had a beautiful yellow bow. My mom looked at me curiously when she saw that and I slowly walked over to her again, sitting on a chair that was next to the bed. Looking closer, I noticed that the box had a plain little slip of paper on which it had written "To my dear Tessia, with all love, your warrior in shining armor".

"Oh... What is it, Tessia?" My mother asked, as she wiped the tears from her face with a piece of the blanket on the bed.

"Well... Before we entered the dungeon... Arthur had given me this... We were going to camp on the first floor, so he said that I should open this present after the dinner period..." I replied as she moved closer to me, sitting on the edge of the bed, right next to me.

My cheeks warmed a little looking at the box and I slowly took off the yellow bow that was there. With that, the box could be easily opened by taking off the lid. My hand started shaking for no reason, it was as if my unconscious knew what was there, even though I didn't understand. Slowly I took the lid off the small box.

Inside that dark green box, there was some kind of soft fabric, and in the center of the fabric, there was an item that made my eyes go wide. "A-Arthur..." I said his name, my eyes filling with tears.

The item he wanted to give me was a beautiful silver bracelet with gold accents, along the center line were several small jewels that reminded me of emeralds. Outlining the jewels themselves, the bracelet's silver was painted a light lime green.

"Wait... T-That's..." My mother tried to say something, but she was equally shocked.

"H-he finally..." I said to myself, whispering, trying to contain my happiness.

My mind started to explode with various imaginary scenes of how everything would be from that moment on. That in my hands was a very special bracelet... Arthur knows very well about our customs, so he was sure of what he was giving me... Such a beautiful and ornate bracelet like that, meant that it was a marriage proposal in elf culture... I could see myself wearing a classic human wedding dress, while he would wear an elven wedding uniform, all to match our strange love and seen by many as forbidden. My heart started beating at an absurd speed, remembering all the kisses we had, all happening at the same time, so that in the end, there was the imaginary scene of how our first kiss as married couple would be.

My mind returned to reality when I heard an excited scream next to me, dad and grandpa, both had entered the room, to see how I was, and ended up seeing the bracelet. My dad's gaze was incredibly bright, a smile creeping across his face, while grandpa was giving another excited squeal.

"Yeaaaah! Finally this brat made it!! And I thought you would be the one to do the first step!" When he said that, I felt insane heat at the tips of my ears and in my cheeks.

"Grandpa!" I was quite blushing and tried to get him to stop saying those things, it took a while but finally he stopped teasing me about it.

I explained to the two of them when Arthur had given me this and when he had said that I should open the present, the mention of the dungeon I was in, made my grandfather's gaze tense a little, and he soon sighed seeing the situation as it was. one all. We thought I should talk to him tomorrow about it, to no one's surprise, everyone seemed to know about the fact that he and I love each other, and so they've already told me that they would without a shadow of a doubt approve of Arthur as an official part of our family...

But everything wasn't like roses... Now I was wearing old pajamas that were in that guest room and I tried to sleep in one of the beds, next to grandpa, since the room I was in before was for my parents... but I couldn't sleep, I was having difficulties... it was agonizing...

Even without asking my parents in advance, I went to grandpa, seeing that he was also sleepless. "Grandpa...I could go sleep with-" Before I could answer, he just looked at me and nodded. I didn't like that he knew exactly what I was going to say, it made me sound like a weak girl...but...who could I be kidding? At that moment, I was feeling weak and fragile because of what had happened.

Walking through the corridors of the second floor of that mansion, I noticed Elijah entering a nearby room, so I called his attention just by saying his name. Strangely, his pupils were slightly red in the center, and he sighed in reaction to seeing me awake at this hour.

"Tessia...did something happen?" He asked me, and I soon noticed that he had a glass of milk, possibly still warm.

"I-I wanted to know where Art's room is..." I tried to speak as calmly as possible.

"His room is the third on the left.. after the stairs..." He replied giving me a yawn and entering his room.

I slowly walked to the indicated place, and when I got inside, I ended up seeing my 'brother', Luz. He was sitting in a chair drinking some kind of purple potion from a long glass vial. Sylvie was sleeping on top of a bed next to the window, and Arthur didn't seem to have come here yet. After drinking that, Luz seemed to notice my presence there, giving a weak but sincere smile.

"Tess... Is everything okay? Feeling... better than before at least?" He asked carefully, strangely his eyes kept changing between yellow and blue each time he blinked.

"I'm fine.. actually I'm great!... But I can't sleep, so..."

"Okay... I get it... wants to sleep in a room with both of your two favorite guys." He said silly pointing to himself as if he were the greatest, that made me laugh a little, but then he looked right at me, with a slightly bigger smile. "And what happened to go from fine to great?"

I didn't need to say anything, I just showed him the bracelet that was in the gift box, now in my arm. It took a few seconds for him to process what he was seeing, and then his eyes widened.

"The motherf—...he really had the courage for that, right?...congratulations to the couple." he kept clapping his hands, but his look looked worried.

"Hm? What is it?" I said noticing the expression on his face.

"It's nothing that... ah... you saw that around your parents?"

"Yes, I opened the present that Art had given me, next to them. It's funny saying that, but they said it like they already accepted that this was going to happen and wanted it." I said with a slight smile as I sat on the bed where Sylvie was, stroking her as she made a cute noise, clearly in a deep sleep.

"I see... You must love and trust him so much, right?" I tilted my head with his question.

"Of course! But why the question?"

"....." He was silent for a few seconds, looking at the ground, until after that he spoke again, staring at my face. "I know you love him so much... but knowing my brother, it's very likely that he'll tell you a... very tense thing... so... I just tell you, to really trust him."

My expression became confused. "Are you saying that you hide even more things from us?"

"Well... yes... we hid..." I was startled by that and saw him scratching the back of his head as he continued to speak. "It's something that only me, Elijah and him know... Let's say... By discovering this, you'll start to understand our ways of acting, however... people may look at it as something bad or good, it depends a lot on the point of view..."

"Is that why you asked me to trust him? Do you think I'm going to see this secret as a bad thing?" I asked calmly and soon he looked quite thoughtful on how to answer me. I was really wanting to understand that, curiosity was eating me, but I needed to stay strong at least in this case.

"Actually... I think it's your parents who will make you think on the bad side... Meanwhile Virion will remain neutral and only follows what you say, since... As the person who loves Art... You in theory is the person who will be able to understand his heart..." He took a deep breath and chuckled "Yeah... that last part was pretty corny, but it's true..."

"I see... I really can't imagine my parents seeing him as something bad... But I'll take your word for it, brother... And what about you with the girls? From what I understand, you also have this secret... Will you speak to them, as the same way Arthur will speak to me?" I stroked Sylvie's fur more in my lap as I watched the look my brother had.

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He looked surprised, not with the fact that the question was asked, but apparently it was because the question was asked so soon, after all, unlike Arthur, the people he loved were more than one, and he apparently hadn't thought about marriage at that age. And unlike my relationship with Arthur, where there was no "dating" and it would go straight to marriage, he still had that relationship step to make before something more serious.

"I honestly will do the same, and I don't feel horrible for having started it all with a secret or a lie... what matters is that the rest is purely honesty, being loyal and give attention to the partner." He lightly commented on it, but soon he felt the need to add. "Of course... some might think I'm not loyal because I have three girls as possible wifes, but loyalty is related to trusting someone and knowing how that person will act... I'm loyal in the sense that I will always give people good and the best I can do, and if there's any lies in my words, it's in order to protect people. You see me not acting that way?"

I just had to agree with his question, he really is someone who completely follows through on what was said. Then I slowly layed down on the bed, hugging Sylvie. "I'll then wait for Art to get here..."

"I recommend you go to sleep now... tomorrow will be a day for all of us to recover from what happened..." Luz said, getting up and kissing my forehead affectionately, as well as giving Sylvie a light pat.

"Goodnight, Tess." He said calmly and then returned to that table, thus continuing to write something.

I stayed there, trying to sleep, but I couldn't, even hugging that super cute mana beast, I couldn't fall asleep. I thought about even counting "Sylvies" jumping off imaginary fences, but when I got to 5000, I stopped, bored. Until I heard a noise and slowly opened one of my eyes.

Arthur had entered the room and walked to the bathroom there, after a few minutes, he left the bathroom, already dressed in pajamas. He went to the bed that was next to me and watched me when he noticed that I was awake. Soon I held out my hand to him, and he held it tightly in mine.

In this way, I was finally able to feel my consciousness lightening, and so I closed my eyes.

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I didn't know what time was when I woke up, but I just knew it was before noon. Because when I opened my eyes, I could see Arthur still sleeping beside me, while Luz was no longer in the room. The window was a little open, letting in sunlight, along with a slightly cold breeze, characteristic of winter.

I slowly sat up in bed, feeling something touching my face. On closer inspection, Sylvie was awake, and what touched me was the tip of her fox-shaped tail. Even though she had worn herself out quite a bit during our rescue, she now seemed to have the energy to at least walk around and be as cute as ever.

"Sylv, you are soo cute!" I said hugging her and giving kisses in her head, soon after I went to out of the bedroom, since it was Luz/Art bedroom and not the one Lilia's father choose for me.

I walked a little in that corridor, seeing a door where BigSis Aya was protecting, there also were some maids going inside that room, with some potions and a tray of food. It was obvious for me that BigSis Alea was inside there, so I went to see how she was.

"Hello, Princess. What brings you here?" Aya spoke calmly, preventing me from entering that room. Her gaze looked tired, with a dark line under her eyes, and little reddish eyes , it was as if she had been awake this whole time, crying nonstop. A vision completely impossible to imagine, knowing a little about her.

"I came to see how Alea is doing... I know her situation isn't the best, but I care about her, not just as one of my parents' faithful guardians, but as a friend..." I spoke with a serious, but calm, expression on my face, while Sylvie jumped on my back, as if she wanted to be with me.

Aya, for a second, flinched when she looked at Sylvie, but then she answered me. "Okay...but just saying beforehand...your brother-in-law is doing everything he can to help her." I blushed slightly at what she said, but then she commented, as if reading my mind. "This isn't the best of moments, but the queen told me about the news... so I can only congratulate you on your achievement..."

"Thank you..." I said giving her a light hug, Aya didn't seem to expect it and then hugged me weakly, I felt like she was still quite affected by that, and I tightened the hug a little more.

After that moment, I entered the room where Alea was, as expected, that room had two single beds, but the mattress of one of them had been removed, to be used as a low table where there were some magical recovery items. I could see several elixirs, with most being quite expensive, possibly my parents had bought them all while I was sleeping. There were also some maids, who, when they saw me, bowed and left the place, as if they thought it was better for me to stay there than for them.

Soon, I noticed Alea, she was with bandages all over her body, with one covering part where one of her eyes was supposed to be. She seemed awake, but very weak and confused, to the point that she didn't seem to notice my presence... this information gave me chills, for the simple fact that she was considered the best sensory mage on the continent, so her not noticing my presence was something scary.

I observed the surroundings more while Sylvie left my back and was lying on a chair there, the bathroom door was open, and inside I saw my 'brother'. He seemed to be cleaning some things using magic, possibly to get rid of any impurities. Moving a little closer, I noticed that he was actually cleaning items like razors, stilettos and some tubes, and at the moment he appeared to be sterilizing a small glass sphere.

"Good morning, Tess. Did you sleep well?" He noticed my presence, but he didn't look at me or at my reflection in the mirror in front of him.

"Yes... I know it's silly... but being around you and Art really calms me down..."

"I can understand... anyway. Can you get the pink Elixir the maids left there?" He asked, extending a hand towards me as he was paying more attention to that small sphere.

I looked back at the bed that didn't have a mattress and saw two pink Elixirs, they looked identical so I handed him just one. Luz took the elixir and seemed to throw the entire contents into the sink that was covered by some kind of cloth, and soon I watched him do something at least curious.

The glass sphere was placed inside the pink liquid and slowly it began to glow. With that done, Luz used his strange ice magic to make the liquid float in a sphere shape, with the glass ball in the center, and then froze the liquid itself. I could see that slowly, the color of the frozen elixir was being absorbed into the strange glass object.

"That'll make things a lot easier... Tess, can you take the bandage off Alea's face? Of course, if you don't mind..." At his request, I eventually understood what he wanted to do, so I approached the injured Lance.

I watched her tired face, while the only eye she had left noticed my existence, she gave a very weak smile and I could see her remaining arm trying to move towards me and hold my shirt without much strength. I carefully caressed her hair until I held the bandage on her face and slowly removed it, exposing that grotesque wound.

Even with a clean face, it was eerie to see that empty space without her left eye, I didn't have the stomach for it, so I decided to turn my face away. Luz soon approached us, that small sphere of glass now filled with a pink glow. He put gloves on his hands and slowly seemed to fit the sphere into the empty spot on Alea's face. I felt her holding my shirt more firmly, while the remaining eye just stared at me and some tears flowed. I decided to hold her hand and feel that strong grip, she was feeling a lot of pain with the procedure, but she seemed to be still strong enough to focus on something and not scream.

My brother soon put a new, clean bandage on Alea's face, and she seemed to relax a little more. "This should help speed up adaptation with the new mana core, as well as serve as an anesthetic..." He commented as he was now going to remove the bandage covering the dismemberment cut on Alea's right arm. "Hm... looks like the recovery is getting a lot better..."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked focusing where he was looking, and my eyes widened.

In the place where a grotesque dismemberment scene should have been, I could see what looked like a small cluster of reddish tree roots completely covering the wound. For a second I didn't understand what that meant, but then I remembered that, in addition to being a great sensory mage, Alea is also a plant mage, more specialized in roses and trees.

"Without Aya and others seeing it, I put a very small piece of wood, found in the Forest of Elshire, on each of her missing limbs. Apparently, her new mana core is a success and thanks to the use of plant mana that you injected it, Tess... looks like Alea is going to turn into a pseudo version of an Arch-Druid."

"Arch-what?" I asked, very confuse about that information.

"That's not a term known to many people, but druids are beings that are connected with nature to such an absurd level that they can even transform into animals..." With what he said, my eyes seemed to widen and my pupils shrink.

"I've never heard of something like that, where did he get that?!?" I thought, in complete shock, if this was something that happened to beings so connected with nature, why did me, an elf, never hear about it!?!

"The more powerful these beings become, the more they manage to manipulate nature... Arch-Druid is the name given to those who have exceeded the level of learning, and now manage to control everything that is natural to an astonishing level, as if it were equal to breathe... an absolute extension of their bodies with the world..." He continued to speak and slowly stroked Alea's hair, she seemed to have a slightly blank look, as if she couldn't hear us.

"In short... Aside from recovering and surviving a near-death situation... Is she going to become a more powerful plant mage?" I asked, because that whole conversation was making me confused.

"Exactly." Luz snapped the fingers of one hand as he grinned at me, but then he seemed to stretch his arms upwards. "Well... I think I'll finally have my breakfast. So far I've only had water! Want to come with me?" He soon looked at Sylvie there and the mana beast jumped to his left shoulder.

"But... and Alea?" I asked while he putted back a bandage in her right 'limbless-arm'.

"She'll be fine... I asked Aya to feed her when I'm done with things for now. But I think it would be nice for your parents to see you downstairs instead of inside this room." He said as he walked out of there and I saw Aya coming in. She and I exchanged glances for a few seconds, until I decided to follow my brother.

Following him, we ended up entering a simple room that had a table and seemed to be connected to the mansion's kitchen. There I could see all of my family and the Leywin family, with the exception of Arthur, everyone seemed to be eating and talking a little, until they noticed my presence there.

"T-Tessia! It's really good to see you, is everything okay?" Arthur's Mother asked, and I just nodded as my grandfather got up, and so I sat where he was before.

"Calling her by name and not using her title? I see Merial really convinced you to take it easy on the whole royal family thing." Luz made a comment that caused a couple of people to laugh together while his mom and dad looked uncomfortable.

"Son, you are the odd one to talk to them so casually!" His mother tried to retort.

"Well, I've been living with them for long 4 years, plus they already see me and Art as part of their family, due to our friendship with Tessia." He soon countered, making his mother speechless.

"Anyway, did you sleep really well? I heard you had to stay in my kids' room because you're having some frightening moments..." His dad asked, as one of the maids brought me my breakfast.

"I did manage to sleep... There were some nightmares... but having Art and Luz around helped me forget about them..." I spoke calmly, taking the mug in front of me and drinking the contents of it, it seemed to be hot chocolate.

"Really? I thought Arthur alone was enough for that~" Luz spoke mischievously and soon I opened my eyes noticing a strange look coming from Arthur's parents.

"Hm...?" I was quite surprised.

"S-so it's true?..." His mother looked at me in disbelief.

"What?" I asked, taking another sip of the hot chocolate.

"That he proposed to you?" When I heard those words, I ended up spitting the chocolate into my mouth and making a little mess on the table in front of me.

I looked around me, extremely confused... How would they know that? Did Arthur speak beforehand?... But soon I saw Luz, with a smirk in his face.

"You..." I said, my voice filling with anger and embarrassment, feeling my face get completely warm.

"What? Can't I tell my parents that my dear brother is getting marr-" Before he could continue talking, I got up and lunged at him with all my strength, trying to grab him by the neck, but he just dodged showing the tip of his tongue playfully to tease me.

"LUZ! I WILL KILL YOU!!!" I exclaimed angrily at how embarrassed I was and started chasing him around the house, as if we were cat and mouse respectively.

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[Arthur Leywin POV]

I ended up waking up in my bed to the sounds of screaming and amused laughter coming from downstairs. I slowly sat up, noticing that no one was there, not even Sylvie. With that in mind, I got out of bed, showered a bit, and after being fully dressed, I started to go down the stairs.

Downstairs, I saw Tessia, her face completely red, chasing my brother, who was using several wind and lightning spells to get away from her. One of the doors to the main hall was open, and I could see Virion standing there in the entryway to the dining room.

"Brat! I'm glad you woke up, you can come, breakfast is ready!" He exclaimed to me, and soon I went to that room.

There, my family and Tess's were all together, talking and eating a few things, while I slowly went to sit next to Elijah, who was also there talking to Ellie. Before I sat down, I ruffled my sister's hair a little, making her pout.

"We already know the news, and we would like to congratulate you." Merial commented, causing me to stop moving as I was reaching for a glass in front of me.

"What you mean?" I asked, a little confused.

"About the marriage proposal you made to Tessia. What else would it be? By the way, you have our blessing! We've been waiting for this since we saw how much she adored you!" Alduin answered me in a mega happy way, and soon my face got really warm, I really didnt expect all of this going in this way.

"We were going to tell her that she also has our blessing... But she is now chasing your brother for telling us before you woke up..." my dad said, while ruffling my hair. "I'm really happy for you kiddo!"

"I'm also very happy, I thought you would be dense like your father." My mom started laughing after saying that, making my dad get a neutral expression and then hide his face with one of his hands.

"At least your husband isn't as dense as mine, Alice! oohohohoho!" Merial started laughing covering her own mouth, while Alduin looked exactly the same as my father.

"Hm... Guys..." I tried to get their attention, but amidst the laughter and conversation, only Virion heard me.

"Yes, is there a problem, brat? If it's related to what happened in the dungeon, no need to worry, we'll sort the whole situation out while you and Tessia are happy out there." He smirked.

"It's not that... it's just... as I'm now going to be taking a big step in my life... I feel, that in order to take this step in the right way... I have to lighten my heart..." again, only Virion heard me since everyone was talking, and he looked at me confused, but understandably.

"Can you explain it boy?" he asked, but not before using a spell so that really only he would be listening to what I said.

"I have a secret... and I need to tell Tessia if I want to really open up to her... not only that, but even my parents don't know this secret... and the more time passes, the more I feel like I must talk about it with all of you... what happened in the dungeon... it was just a warning to me... that I must talk about, before I'm not here anymore..."

Virion looked very worried about me, and then looked at our family members, who weren't even aware of this conversation. "Boy... That look of yours... I know it must be something quite serious and possibly something that will break your heart..." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Even though I'm glad you trust us that much... if you've never said that to me before, or even to your family... is it something else related to the dragon that gave you your beast will?"

I shook my head. "It's something that will really make you see me in a different way, that's for sure... But... I hope... I trust... that you still managed to see me as a person..."

"To see you as a person...?" Virion's gaze was quite confused by my choice of words.

I just nodded in agreement and soon he looked intently at me. "If you want, we can talk about it later... but of course... before an official wedding takes place. Since you think it's better to get married without having a heavy heart... and relax... I trust you, brat." With his words, I began to feel a little of my various sins that I had since my last life... leaving my back.

Soon the spell he cast was lifted, just in time for me to see Luz running over here and hiding under the table, as an enraged Tessia emerged. "Where is he?!" She exclaimed, her face still red and causing widespread laughter, but when she realized I was also here, the expression on her face softened almost instantly.

What was also almost instantly was my mind remembering of all the times I've made her angry and she attacked me non-stop. "This is going to be very complicated... but Virion is right... better we have this conversation... a little later..." I thought for a while and then focused again on my family and the happiness we still have.