When I came back, I saw that Lucille looked more uncertain than outright terrified.
Which is great since it means that she wasn’t scared off by Laceresta yet, and since that’s the case, it means this situation can still be salvaged and Lucille can still be trained by us without her feeling uncomfortable from the fact or in the worse case, feel burnt out.
I walked over to her, looked down, and noticed that she’s actually kind of short isn’t she?
Lucille stands literally just below my neck.
Even with the height difference though- and her discomfort, - she met my eyes without flinching.
Okay, time for some pep talk, and I’m feeling kinda self conscious right now so I’m not doing this because she’s my daughter or anything like that, but I do feel that it’s a similar thing- I’m getting off track, and very confused by the concept of Lucille being my daughter-
Okay- that got out of hand quickly-
“I want to train you,” I started before my thoughts managed to dig themselves into a deeper grave.
Lucille just stared, continuing to meet my gaze without flinching or blinking- that last one can’t be healthy right? Even if she’s a Pledge Bearer? I’m getting distracted again-
“Genuinely,” I added my words of commitment.
And what I’m saying now is the truth, I want the girl in front of me to be the best version of herself and if I have to train her in order to get to that point then I will, no matter how reluctant I feel about the whole affair.
But at the same time… I also want to put some distance between us, “I care about- everyone, equally and I won’t hate you even if you asked me to train you, got that?”
She looked away, “but aren’t I forcing you to do this? It’s okay if you say that you don’t want to do it,”
“No, of course not,” I shook my head, “you’re not doing anything to me, if at all,” I hummed and gave her my best smile before bending down and hugging her, “I’ll tell you when it’s a bother to me alright?”
I felt her nod and I smiled just as our moment came to a close and then Korbinian went on to immediately ruin it.
“Is it just me or did that feel like a mother and daughter conversation just now?”
I stood up and stared summoner down, “all pep talk sounds the same, so get your mind out of the gutter,”
“Okay?.. But it still sounded like what I said just now,”
“We know that, Korbinian,” I sighed and moved away from Lucille whose confused expression was absolutely justified, “but like I said,” I crossed my arms in defiance, “all pep talk sounds and looks the same,”
Instead of the concession that I was expecting, what I got in response was a giggle-
“I’m so sorry your majesty but-” she stopped herself short and started laughing and that went on for a second before she calmed down enough to start talking again, “- what-” she cut her own giggle short, “what did I just see?”
“Nothing-” I huffed, “you saw absolutely nothing, other than me agreeing to train Lucille, I mean.”
I hid a smile as Lucille beamed, well, at least she’s now happy, so with that being said, it’s time to take this more seriously, “do you trust me?” She nodded, “then believe me when I say that I’m not training you for now because I hate you but because I think that Laceresta will help you more than I ever could in this stage,”
Lucille turned to the Lioness in question before bowing, “alright, I understand,”
“Good,” I propped her up and patted her shoulders, “I’m going to wait for Prescine and when she arrives, we… will go to the library before heading to my suite,”
“Wait- sorry, but you guys are going to your suite?” I looked around, that familiar voice undoubtedly came from Zyra and I was curious about how the girl managed to find a hiding spot in such an open space like our classroom.
I genuinely didn’t see her listening in on us after all this time and turning to where she was just got me to know that she was somehow near the lockers- she didn’t hide, did she? She was just watching everything unfold and I ignored her because she wasn’t directly in front of me.
I faced her and nodded, “yeah,” I said, “we’re going to my suite since the gravity well there is military grade and well, we also have everything that we’ll need back there so it’s only obvious that the suite is where we go right?”
“Fair enough,” the blue haired girl replied, “we also want to go with you guys,”
"We do?” Right next to her, Yhaine fidgeted, “why?”
“Because I also want to learn how to fight,” Zyra answered without missing a beat, “is that fine with you?”
I felt my smile get even wider and I nodded energetically, “it is!” I gestured for her to go near, “so, what level of gravity can you guys handle?”
“Uhm… 2x than normal?” Yhaine answered with uncertainty- which is fine, I'd feel the same way if I was about to enter a military grade gravity well for the first time as well, “but maybe we can handle 3x if we push ourselves?”
“3x sounds good,” Laceresta agreed with a nod, “that's the level you guys should be in,”
“Then we'll do 3x the normal gravity then,” Zyra mirrored the Lioness’ nod, “when are we going?”
“In a bit,” I responded wryly at Zyra’s brashness, guess the group also has their own Laceresta huh?.. Kinda neat and I never knew this was the kind of personality Zyra has, “we just need to wait for Prescine, and then we'll go to the library before heading straight for my suite,”
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“Got it,” Yhaine said, “we'll wait for her then,"
Her words seemed to have put a spell on everyone because silence was our only response before we on and started doing our own things, with Zath writing down something on her notebook, Fafnir starting a conversation with Laceresta the same way Lucille and her team did.
Both groups went to the corner of the classroom and out of our earshot,.
Meanwhile, me, Korbinian, Sleet, and Karsten just sat around, doing nothing- at least until Korbinian started talking, “that was clearly a mother and daughter thing earlier right?” She eyed me oddly, “what was that about?”
What kind of question is she even asking here? My sudden closeness to Lucille or is it my willingness to help her?
Both? Definitely both.
“I just want to support everyone as best as I can,” I lied and hoped to steer the conversation this way since I didn't want to tell Korbinian that Lucille was the new Hero since that kind of attention would just put unnecessary pressure on the village girl, “also, I think Lucille is getting bullied by Vicissi.”
“You think?” Sleet said, eyebrow shooting upward, “what he's doing to her is as clear as day,”
“I know,” I glared at the still-collapsed boy and he glared back in response, “did you do something last night?”
I'm thinking that it's some kind of physical assault because that kind of thing is either ignored or lightly allowed during this time given the whole Envy Demon paranoia our teachers have, they were waiting for something severe enough to happen to make them act, and that’s why they’re willing to let the students harm each other.
“Lightly” otherwise it will be “punished”.
“Why do you care?” He laughed, “wait- right, you want to help everyone in our class,” he wheezed, “because what? You're the president and so you think that we're your responsibility?”
“Something like that,” I replied coldly, “so, what did you do to Lucille? Talk and I’ll let you off with just a slap on the wrist.”
“What? A punch isn't enough?” He snapped.
“No, I want Prescine to mark you as a threat,” my words clearly riled him up because he tried to push himself up before falling back down with a pained wheeze.
“You-” he ran out of breath and cut himself short.
“Don't even try,” I didn't let my glare waver, seriously, is this guy really supposed to be one of Lucille's love interests? With his kind of attitude towards the girl I was leaning on him being one of those assholes that get killed at the first few arcs of the story, “I'm gonna do it no matter what you say to me,”
“G-go die in a ditch,” he managed to breathlessly retort.
I snorted, “and… what did your words do to me exactly?”
He only glared at me in response.
I swallowed a sigh of relief at that, well at least he's not escalating, it makes me think that the “bad boy” love interest that the player character is supposed to redeem actually exists and didn't get butterflied away by me or something along that line of thought.
I looked away from Vicissi.
I feel that it didn't matter that his bullying of Lucille went worse here than in canon because, in the end, it's not like he's going to be her love interest here, as the person who's going to be in that role would be Bismuth, who will be guaranteed to meet Lucille thanks to the fact that I can ask the girl to go to the center of the school and ask the tree there for strength or better recovery or some other wish every day.
That should allow her to meet Bismuth daily, and I don't know if they'll start talking to each other or not but I hope they do, even if there aren't any text boxes with dialogue options that pop up during that particular “event”.
“Vicissi, you should just… stop,” Sleet said to her cousin and I watched in silence, hoping that her words would get through to him, “please?”
The guy looked down and I held back the light smile growing on my face.
I'm glad that Vicissi can still listen but why do I feel that for some reason, it was me who got him to escalate last night?
Did my interference with his banter with Lucille yesterday mess things up?..
I don't know if it's true or not but it's possible that I was the reason why Vicissi escalated instead of being competitive with Lucille and if that's the case then I made another mistake, did I?
I shifted my gaze back to Vicissi, who thankfully looked calm and not angry.
Okay, how do I fix this?
Right. I'm being unfair, aren't I?..
I left Korbinian and Sleet behind to head towards the latter's cousin, he opened one eye to glare at me, which, great, guess he was also pretending to be asleep while eyeing us in secret.
I ignored my feeling of disgust and bent down to place my hand on his shoulder, “sorry,” I started, “I know that you feel like I'm being unfair for how differently I treated you and Lucille,,” all it took was basic realize this, “You're here, sitting down while wheezing from chest pain while Lucille is about to be taught by us,”
“If you think that-” he was cut off.
“Oh give it up,” I turned back to Sleet just in time to see her roll her eyes, “you clearly feel that way so shut the fuck up, she's helping you out here,”
“DOES-” he coughed and glared at his cousin, “does it hurt you to be less aggressive?!”
“No? But what about you?” The other Nimbusegia rebuked, “you were being aggressive at a girl you only know for two days, that’s why you're sitting there, wheezing!”
“OH SO IT’S MY FAULT THEN?!”
“IT LITERALLY IS!”
I scratched the back of my head, man… it's like watching a tornado and a typhoon fight, both just won't give up and are willing to raise their voices just to one up each other.
“Oh yeah?!” Vicissi looked guilty and from past experience with Topaz, I knew that his retort just now was to buy time for him to think of a reply.
"Yeah! What about it?!” Sleet didn't give up and pushed on, guess the Tornado's winning- and to my lack of surprise, she took a step forward and glared at her fallen cousin.
“WHAT?! SAY IT!”
Before yelling at him in challenge.
Fafnir shook her head at me, okay, so maybe I need to step in and resolve this-
“You two, stop,” I stood up and shook my head at the two of them before leaning down and offering Vicissi my hand, “but Sleet is right, that was wholly unnecessary, don't be aggressive towards Lucille,”
“Why- she's just a village girl who got lucky-”
“Oh fuck off!” Sleet was the one who replied for me, “shut the fuck up please- each word that comes out of your mouth is just-” she pointed at her ears before moving her fingers in circles, “- it's messing up my hearing, that's how irritating you are,”
“You bitch-”
“Stop. The two of you stop or I'm going to put you both on opposite ends of the room,” I clicked my fingers to make sure that I got their attention.
“Like you can do that.” Vicissi crossed his arms.
“It's not that hard for me to carry you,” I glared at him, “just make sure that you don't puke on the floor once I'm done,”
“What do you mean- oh.” Sleet's aggressive tone died down and she zipped her mouth.
“It's not like she'll do it!” Vicissi was very brave huh?
“Try me.” I didn't budge.
He looked away before falling back to his chair, “whatever,” he sighed, “leave me alone and we'll wait for the President so that she can put a mark on me or whatever,”
“Are you sure you just wanna sit there?” I asked and shook the hand I was offering to help him, “and you're not exactly sitting right,” I pointed out, “to me, you look like you're squishing your lungs between your collar and stomach,”
Vicissi sat straight up, “there, is that better now?”
I nodded, "yep,”
Well, at least he's listening now so that's a plus.
When I made my way back to everyone else, I joined Karsten and Korbinian in staring at Sleet in complete silence while waiting for an explanation, she stared back, face equally confused.
“What?” She questioned as if what she just did wasn't a complete 180 of her regular personality, “that's how I usually am when talking to family,”
“First off-” Korbinian raised a finger, “what? What is wrong with your family?” Another finger went up, “and second- I did not know that you could swear like that, where did that come from?”
What Korbinian got in response was a dry stare, “I have always been able to swear like that, it doesn’t just pop out of nowhere,”
“We know that but…” Karsten eyed Vicissi in concern, “how are you fine with this?”
“Who cares?!” The poor guy snapped, “I'm not dead aren't I?!”
“That- I do not think that's how you should view this situation, you being alive doesn't mean anything when what we are talking about is Sleet cursing you out,” the pious girl finished her words by glaring at Vicissi's cousin, “you shouldn't do that kind of thing,”
“Sorry?” Sleet said, sounding confused- about exactly what, I didn't know, - before adding, “also I'm not going to stop swearing even if you tell me to,”
“I know that,” Karsten said with a bow, “and I think you are mature and polite enough to know the difference between right and wrong and also when not to start cursing people out,”
“Pretty much,” Sleet shrugged, “I only really do that when I'm really mad at someone, which you know?..” she gestured at Vicissi, who I'm sure is observing us even when his eyes are closed. Karsten nodded, “well, that's not really important now-” she looked around before stopping on me, “when is Prescine coming?”
“I don't know,” I replied, “she's probably doing something related to her position so things are going to take a while,” probably. What do student council presidents do for their work anyway? “We should just wait things out and see how things go,”
“Got it,” Sleet replied.