«Yami»

“Nyaaaaah.” I let out an oddly cute yawn as I stretched, it felt good to wake up after a whole night’s sleep. I looked around me, everything seemed normal. Fenri sleeping with Aizen on the floor and Cecil and Ari next to each other.

“Mhmm!” I stretched once more before finally fully opening my eyes, it was dark and there was the barely a dim pale-blue light coming from the blinds, the coldness of the air really brought a sense of coziness to the chilly darkness of the room.

With my dizzy vision I looked around trying to make out the things around me, I looked at the walls and blinds. After some more looking my vision finally became clear. I looked in front of me and closed my eyes with a sigh. I opened my eyes and⁠—

“Eek!” A pair of deep amber eyes were closely observing me.

“What are you doing?” It was a confused and soft voice.

“Eh?” It was Aizen, she suddenly popped out of nowhere. “I was confused…” I sheepishly murmured in explanation.

“Weird…” She thought for a second. “Whatever… I got work to do!” Aizen said with a cheerful smile.

I couldn’t help but tilt my head as she woke Ari and Cecil up by shaking them repeatedly. What could she possibly mean with: “work to do”? I don’t quite get it. I mean, I do remember her being some type of new mage thing-title-coronation, or something along those lines. But, what kind of work?

“Mhmm…” Ari made a weird sound as she got shaken. “Stop it... “ She trailed into a mutter. After some more happy mutters she finally groggily opened her eyes. She sat up-right with confusion. “Um… What?” Her voice was rather quiet.

Cecil was still fast asleep, Aizen stopped shaking her for a second and looked at Ari with a smile.

“You know what time it is?” Aizen randomly asked.

Ari quickly looked at me to see what she was on about but I was just as confused, she looked back with doubt and confusion. “Umm… No?”

With a mischievous smile, she opened her mouth. “That’s a shame, you will see soon enough.~” Her mood seemed better than usual. She went back to shaking Cecil.

After a few more minutes she finally woke up and she was just as confused as Ari, and of course, Aizen did the exact same weird questioning. Making her just as confused as Ari in the process. I started thinking on what happened that made her so cheerful like the gauntlet is nice but I don’t think that was it, rather… She wouldn’t be as excited about such a thing. I wonder.

Aizen stood at the center of the room with a smirk and looked at both of the girls.

“So, what time is it?” She asked in a playful yet demanding tone.

“Umm… I don’t know…”

“I don’t know either…”

Both of the girls gave similar replies, in response Aizen sighed in disappointment.

“I see, not knowing… huh…” After yet another sigh she just left the room.

“What was that about?” Ari decided to ask me.

“I don’t know…” I shrugged.

“She was weird… But I wonder what happened? I mean, she seemed thrilled about something…”

“Hmm…” Ari started thinking before her eyes lit up. “Wasn’t she replacing the elf?!”

“Oh… was she?” Was I ever told such a thing? I don’t remember to be honest.

“Eh… Is she really?” Cecil was just as confused.

Well, now thinking about it, it must be very thrilling for her to get something such as a “power-position”, if you could even call it that. I think the elf was important, but I don’t know much about him, besides… Wasn’t the elf a teacher? I mean, I don’t think Aizen would do a good job dealing with a bunch of kids, but I don’t really know much about such things. Now thinking about it, Aizen just left…

“Aren’t you girls supposed to go to the academy?” I asked with a bit of confusion.

“Oh… yeah… I forgot…” Ari commented as she scratched her head, meanwhile Cecil was petrified and after a short pause she left the room in a hurry without making a pause. “Well… I don’t know much magic, so… Can I come with you Yami?”

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“Eh…” What’s this out of the blue? After scratching my cheek as I thought. “Sure… I guess… Will Aizen care?”

“Well… It’s her fault for leaving us, don’t you think?”

“I guess... “ Did Ari become Aizen all of the sudden or what?

Ari suddenly glued herself to my arm. “Let us go!” She cheerfully exclaimed.

“Eh… But, your clothes…”

She tilted her head. “Oh…” Upon further inspection. “You are right… I am wearing the bed-time clothes that Cecil gave me... Do you like them?” They seemed like soft fabric kind of like a pajama, although I kind of wonder why she called them “bed-time” clothes, weird…

“Yeah, I do… But if you don’t change we can’t go anywhere.” I personally always wore the same clothes because wearing anything more feminine would be… Weird… I don’t know how to explain it but I just wouldn’t be comfortable. Not like the clothes I was wearing were manly, but still...

Ari left my side and started changing in front of me, grabbing her clothes from a corner on the ground. I didn’t really worry about it being dirty, I am pretty sure they had the “self-service” function or whatever, and I am also sure the maids and butlers cleaned our clothes whenever they could. However, I was bothered by one thing. Without a second thought, I looked away.

A few moments passed, the calm and constant fabric kneading sound was oddly soothing. Some more time passed, I closed my eyes to the calm and sleep-inducing sounds, my mind started drifting away, I had just woken up not too long ago After I short yawn I indulged on my thoughts⁠—Oh, the ever so precious metal…

* * *

“Yami…” Tug. “Yami…” Tug. “Yami!” I felt a strong force pull on my body, I fell straight to the ground making a deafened dull sound on the carpet.

“eh... what?” I looked around, I was in a slightly dark room, the blinds had a blue light coming through their gaps, the chilly atmosphere felt cold and nice to my skin, the ground was cold and soft. How… Comfortable… Although, my vision was hazy and blurry, I saw a weird pillar-like thing in front of me⁠— Eh… it’s moving...

“Yami, how long are you going to look at the wall for?” Eh, the weird-pillar like thing is talking. “Yami, are you okay?”

I tried following the voice, however, it went up. “Oh…” it was Ari, and the “pillar-like thing” was her foot right in front of my face… I hastily stood up and nodded in a rush. “Y-Yeah… Let’s go…! Somewhere…” I had no idea where we were going, I thought it was better to just stay and enjoy the mansion for once. Didn't help that I had become pretty disoriented.

“So… Where is this somewhere?” Ari asked with a bit of enthusiasm.

Well… I had no idea, but since she asked I guess we could go to... “The market…”

“Eh, that’s not very mysterious is it?” What is she even asking about?

“No?”

She thought for a second. “Well, since you said somewhere in a bit of doubt, I thought it was a mystery, so…” Ah… I see.

“Well, do you have anywhere you want to go?” I decided to ask Ari. Surprisingly, she just quietly shook her head in denial, I guess the market it was. Although, there was nothing there, well… the guilds were there, but I don’t think we could do something entertaining…

I thought about something we could do over there as we left the mansion, we did not run into any servants and the place was quiet, mostly because it was the early morning (probably). As we approached the mansion gate I couldn’t help but notice the guard yawning, he was always in high spirits so it was odd.

“Oh…” He rubbed his eye as he saw us. “You girls also leaving that early? I did not think all of you would leave at this hour… Well, good luck.” With that short sentence he opened the gate and gestured us to pass.

I did not really say anything, just waved and smiled, Ari did the same. What I found weird was that Aizen and Cecil had left already, I mean we did not see them go out, or hear them for that matter. Well, I don’t think we should worry about it that much, Cecil is with Aizen, and Aizen is… Aizen… Yeah.

As we absentmindedly walked down the long paved cobblestone road something came to my mind.

“Hey Ari, do humans give more experience points than monsters?” I asked out of curiosity. She suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked at me with a stone-like-serious- expression.

“Yes they do, although… I hope you are not thinking what I am thinking…” I hurriedly shook my head. She sighed in relief. “That’s good… You scared me for a second. They do for various reasons, actually, if you think about it, they don’t give more experience than monsters.”

“Eh?” That was confusing.

“Well, a monster can evolve and level, just like Fenri for example. However, most monsters will never reach that stage, however, humans do.” Oh… “Anyway, as we all know the more experience a being has the more it gives since according to legends there is a finite amount of experience in the entire world, it’s an ever-cycling-thing.” Eh… I did not inspect such an insightful reply from Ari. She thought for a second and chuckled. “Although I don’t believe in such things, I can only speak from what I hear.” How reassuring… After a more light-hearted chuckle she smiled. “Well, don’t think too much about it, it’s not something you should worry about anyway.”

“Okay…” After an awkward response on my part we continued talking, Ari didn’t seem as cheerful as before, which kind of made me feel bad for asking such a random thing, to a kid out of all things… Also, I had never thought about it before, I mean, in the game monsters did have levels, but it was just a number, it still is, but this kind of feels more like an ecosystem at the moment.

We ran into the guards at the entrance but they ignored us, I guess their check-up was a one-time thing or something. New faces, I suppose… Now… What would be fun to do?

“Hey Ari, want to do a quest?”

She tilted her head. “Quest? Like… Adventure?”

“Yeah!” I cheerfully said.

“But… Fenri stayed asleep…” She said with doubt and insecurity.

“Well, don’t worry, you have me. I have survived being killed two times now!” I said as I puffed my chest with pride.

“Woo! You go girly!” A random drunk guy said that before he passed out. Ari looked at him with a bitter smile and turned back to me.

“I guess… We can do that. Just don’t get hurt.” I nodded to her request as we continued walking down further into the plaza in the market’s direction. Well, I shouldn’t call it market, it’s more of a… Market road that goes directly to a castle… Yeah.

The street was fairly deserted, but the guilds had lights coming from the windows, a few other shops and inns also had their lights on, street food wasn’t really a thing for now. Without thinking too much about it, Ari and I went into the adventurer’s guild.

Who knows what kind of things we could find in there? Needless to say I was looking forward to it!