As disbelieving as she remained about the fact that she’d been making better gains on her Skills thanks to the assistance of an actual toddler, Malwine had been having a great month. Granted, she still couldn’t wrap her head around whatever time compression bullshit Adelheid had going on, let alone the thing about her great-grandma, but it hardly mattered to her. Everyone in this family had their issues.

And timeline inconsistencies were clearly a family trait. Two was more than enough for the anecdotal conclusion, anyway.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Adelheid asked with a surprising amount of trepidation, staring at the two harvestables on the floor before her. They both sat there in their room, alone as they often were.

“I honestly still don’t know how t—” Malwine stopped herself before she actually cursed aloud. “—how you managed to reveal those so easily. But yes, I think it’s a good idea.”

It turned out Adelheid still had harvestables just casually sitting in her inventory. How many, Malwine had no idea, but she’d pulled out a couple and gotten what she needed immediately.

Malwine was more than a little bit peeved at the absurdity of it.

She’d asked how Adelheid had gotten the harvestables in the first place, her own troubles still relatively fresh in her mind even after close to three months.

Adelheid had given her the most innocent look on earth and simply shrugged. “I just went outside and grabbed them.”

Malwine’s pride would not permit her to scream, but damn, the girl was ridiculously lucky. And she only had 12 luck, to boot. Malwine had asked just to be sure.

Her little sister was still looking at the harvestables like they were some ugly pests. She touched one gingerly, lifting it with only two fingers.

Trait Generation Token (Level Privacy)

Harvested by Adelheid Rīsanin

Revealed by Adelheid Rīsanin

Add a random Trait geared towards hiding your level from view to the Skill of your choice. The specifics of this Trait will be generated upon use.

It had been Malwine’s suggestion to start with. She knew it probably made her a terrible role model, but if Adelheid was insisting on leveling up at this age, the fact that she had Skills would become obvious soon enough. Like her, she was kept at the Early Esse by the seeming age barrier before the Mortal Esse, so Skills would be the only explanation for extra levels.

And even the girl herself was starting to get tired of staying out of view to avoid identification.

Adelheid was Level 16, now. Well over a month of practice had taken [Shadow Manipulation], [That Which Lurks], and [The Thirl in Everything] to levels 27, 29, and 11. The last one there was still harder to level, given Malwine’s preference for not having her [Integrity] pummeled into the ground, but the girl had taken to the first two Skills like a fish to water. It was genuinely impressive, and Malwine had to admit she could see Adelheid reaching that third Skill threshold sooner than her.

Her little sister suffered from the same difficulty she did as far as developing Aspects, went. Malwine was starting to suspect leveling quickly might have had something to do with it, but it wasn’t as though they could ask anyone else to confirm.

Well, Adelheid had asked her great-grandma, and she’d gotten a lecture out of it for choosing to level her Skills against the advice she’d been given. That lecture might have also been Schrödinger’s cat from how Adelheid phrased it, because the lecture apparently never happened. But anyhow, she learned from her great-grandma that Aspects weren’t that easy to develop naturally. Apparently, most people relied on either tokens or whatever ‘extreme life experiences’ mean.

That’s some bullshit, had been Malwine’s immediate reaction. If her curse didn’t count for an extreme life experience for [Enforced Longevity] to gain an Aspect the moment it crossed that first threshold of level 10, what could possibly count?

Still, learning and progressing alongside somebody else was doing wonders for Malwine’s morale. She hadn’t noticed, until then, just how utterly lonely she’d felt, with no one to bounce ideas off. Adelheid’s own quirks frankly kept her from considering the fact that she was confiding in a fellow four-year-old. Most of the time, anyway.

Still looking grumpy—as the girl herself would often phrase it—Adelheid crushed the token in her tiny fist, letting it dissolve into motes of light.

“It’s done,” the girl said, in a whisper that was more ominous than it had any right to be. Then again, this was Adelheid.

She read the description out, and as had become the habit, Malwine represented it with a panel.

Trait: [In The Shade]. Linger within, linger without. Your visible level is yours to command so long as you either match or outlevel the individual attempting to use any [Identify]-type Skills, Traits, or Aspects on you. Should you be the one outleveled, only those who outlevel you by double your Lifetime Skill levels will pierce this protection.

“Too many words,” Adelheid complained, even after confirming it looked close enough to her own, personal panel that showed her the Trait itself.

“It’s probably because it comes from a harvestable,” Malwine theorized. “How many Lifetime Skill levels do you have right now?”

“Sixty-seven.”

“So people would have to be…” Malwine slowly went through the math in her head. “Level 150 or over, in order to see your real level. That is so broken.”

“What do you mean? System panels can’t break?”

“Remember turns of phrases? We’ve talked about that.”

“Yes, words that mean something other than their meaning.”

“…Close enough. Basically, ‘broken’ can mean something that’s stronger than it has any right to be. Overpowered.”

“Oh!”

She’d found she didn’t mind explaining things to the girl—not anymore. Especially when she was often the source of the confusion, anyway.

“Yes,” Malwine nodded. “Now. What about the other one?”

“Do you have it too?”

Malwine nodded. “Yep!”

Adelheid sighed, picking the other token up. It was one for the [Identify] Trait. “I don’t know. It just sounds weird. I don’t want people seeing my real level. Is it fair if I see theirs?”

“It’s hypocritical, I know,” Malwine acknowledged. “But life isn’t fair. There are mean people out there. And knowing what to expect helps us keep ourselves safe.”

“I guess…”

Adelheid’s gaze unfocused for a moment. “You’re Level 64!”

Of course she can see it…

She’d reached that level just around the start of The Cold of 5802.

Malwine herself had earned some gains to her Skills while training with Adelheid. Her time using [Earthless Glory] was shortened, but it was for a good cause, even if it did mean she’d have to wait longer to further peruse the records in Beuzaheim. She was no stranger to setting priorities, despite all the signs implying otherwise.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Still, showing the Skill off to Adelheid—as she started to open up more about her Skills to the girl—had actually gotten it to level 4.

[Shieldwork] was the obvious winner, now at a whopping level 27. It hadn't even stalled at 25 like so many of her Skills had before.

[Multitasking] and [The Plurilingual Psyche] had gained a level each, now sitting at 9 and 29, respectively. The latter had likely come from her explanations to Adelheid, but the former was a bit harder to explain. Perhaps she just used the Skill naturally at times. [The Things We Do For Family] had earned itself a level as well, sitting at 3 now, and [Write Anywhere] was at 29.

Never in a million years had Malwine expected that something as simple as having a training partner could make this much of a difference.

“Does your [Identify] also let you see people under twice your Lifetime Skill levels?”

“It does.”

Again, that is too broken. Dammit, Adelheid. Why are you like this?

Malwine was past jealousy at this point, but it was still a little baffling at times.

“Can you pull up your list?” Adelheid asked all of a sudden.

“The census?”

“Yep, that.”

Malwine did as asked, projecting the census panel to the girl.

“Hm…” Adelheid pursed her lips. “I’ll be back.”

With that, she popped out of the room.

Malwine wouldn’t deny it—she was quite curious as to what the girl might have been thinking. She could now use [Identify] on anyone at or under 150, which beat Malwine’s own maximum of Level 118 by quite the margin.

Patiently, she waited. By now, she knew when Adelheid said she would be back, she tended to keep her word. She’d even gone out to search for Alaric after her nap on the first day they practiced, but hadn’t been able to find him. He’d probably just needed to get some rest himself and only left because of that, but Malwine had found herself consoling the girl. She’d been convinced she’d let him down and that he wouldn’t love her anymore.

A quick reencounter later that week proved the girl’s suspicions wrong, but it’d been quite the heavy few days. And Malwine had dispensed lots of back-pats in that time.

“So,” Adelheid said as she reappeared, a bit too casually.

“So?”

“Hildegard is the highest level I could see,” Adelheid started. “150 exactly. She also… wasn’t very happy to see me. But I left very fast.”

Malwine winced.

“Mom’s Level 110, I can’t see Dad’s level,” Adelheid continued. “I can’t see the level of that guy with Sister Thekla, but she’s Level 96. Brother Anselm’s Level 107. I didn’t look at everyone, I was trying to go fast.”

“It’s okay.”

“The maid that carried you like a sack of potatoes is Level 119.”

“Hey!” Malwine shook her head, stiffing a laugh. “But which ranks? Which colors?”

“Hildegard and Dad are the weird orange, everyone else is the greener green. Abelard has no color but it looks weird. Almost silver sometimes. It was weird.”

I already knew Kristian was at Core Integration, but it seems like our mystery butler is, too. Curious. And Abelard is on that higher silver stage?

“I’m guessing he has a Trait to hide his level, too—Abelard, I mean. And you’re ignoring it like you’re ignoring mine,” Malwine frowned. “It’s probably [The Thirl in Everything].”

“What do you mean?”

“Your Skill does insist it can find the gaps in everything.”

“I guess.”

Malwine sighed. “But anyhow, see what I mean? This is useful.”

“I see what you mean,” Adelheid conceded. “The guy with Sister Thekla scares me.”

“Why?” Malwine raised an eyebrow. “Abelard’s a bit out there, but he’s been nothing but nice so far.”

Neither of them had, admittedly, interacted that much with the guy.

“He feels high level. I can’t explain,” Adelheid shook her head a bit too aggressively. “He feels too high level. Wrong.”

That sounded interesting, but by the girl’s own admission, she couldn’t explain it. Malwine knew Abelard had an Affinity, sure, but beyond that? The guy was a mystery. Him being high level lined up just fine.

“What about the forester?” Malwine asked, unable to help her curiosity.

Adelheid shook her head. “I can’t find him.”

Now, that was quite the interesting tidbit. Adelheid had told her before that all she needed was a general idea of where someone might be if she knew enough about them. A name could be enough, but not always.

“Have you checked the mangal?”

“No,” Adelheid admitted. “His name doesn’t exist. At least when I try to move, it’s like it doesn’t exist.”

Malwine snorted despite herself. Of course that asshole’s name was fake. She’d suspected it from the start. “Can you check the mangal? Just to see if he’s around?”

“I can,” Adelheid disappeared. Ever since Malwine had told the girl about how she could kind of feel when she ‘hid and unhid’, she could have sworn Adelheid had started making a conscious effort to be subtler. How, Malwine had no idea. The traces of it had gotten fainter and briefer with time.

Again, Malwine waited—not for long, this time.

“It’s the guy I saw Brother Kristoffer taking to,” Adelheid said just as she returned, without missing a beat. “The same thing as the guy with Sister Thekla. It looks greyish, silver. And the first number is 4.”

“The first number?”

“It has three numbers and the first is four. I can’t see the rest, I tried,” Adelheid huffed. Why the girl had picked that habit up was beyond Malwine, of course. “Four hundred plus, no?”

“It… it would seem so,” Malwine said tentatively. Damn. She’d expected ‘Veit’ to be high level. But there was quite the difference between 200+ and fucking 400+. “Do you think he’s higher level than Abelard?”

“Yes. No,” Adelheid seemed confused by her own words, her brows furrowed. “I don’t think the guy with sister Thekla is four hundred plus. I think he’s higher. But the forest guy feels… thicker? Like they’re both shadows and they’re different. The guy with Thekla worries me more, when I see him. But his shadows aren’t packed as tightly.”

Over the past months, Malwine had learned the girl had been growing more and more prone to using that sort of comparison for things she struggled to put to words. She’d started comparing them to her Skills, almost weaving metaphors out of it sometimes. The results sounded poetic sometimes, even knowing it was simply how the girl worked when she didn’t know how to explain something.

“So Abelard is higher level,” Malwine mused. “But ‘Veit’ is stronger. Their Skills, maybe? Or their points per level.”

Malwine knew how much of a difference the attribute point milestones could make. She would still have been dealing with decimal points worth of attributes, rounded down to zero, had she not started with such a good base of attribute points per level.

Fine, maybe my levels have been a bit broken, too. Adelheid’s still a bit much, though.

“That makes sense,” Adelheid nodded. “It’s scary.”

“Because they’re higher level than us?”

“That, and it’s… multiplied. I was happy when I leveled up to fifteen, first. I imagine doing that ten times. And there are people who’ve done it more than ten times.”

The girl appeared pensive, her eyes bordering on watery. “Malwine, I feel so small.”

Not waiting another second, Malwine reached over to hug the girl who called herself her sister. She’d found herself doing this often. Adelheid was somehow both wise and utterly lacking in self-confidence. She recovered quickly every single time, but still seemed to have low moments often.

“We’re small because we’re young. We’ll get stronger every day,” Malwine assured her. “We’ll get stronger, we’ll get older. And one day, they’ll look small to us.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Malwine pulled away, patting the outer side of each of the girl’s shoulders. “Look, Adelheid. An hour ago, you couldn’t hide your level. You couldn’t see other people’s levels. And now you can. That was less than an hour ago! Two months ago, your Skills were all at level zero. Now two of them are close to thirty. You’re less small than you were before. With every thing you do, you grow less small.”

She hadn’t foreseen herself giving out peptalks, but she could work with this. Even Malwine herself was feeling slightly motivated by her own words now.

Adelheid did seem to brighten by the end of the impromptu speech, brief as it had been. “You’re… right. You’re right. I’m less small than I was an hour ago!”

“Yes!”

“Yes!” Adelheid all but cheered, raising her hands. “Oh! I just thought of it. What if I use it on great-grandma?”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Malwine agreed. It was mostly her curiosity speaking—she still had no idea who that was, or how in any Devil’s name Adelheid could have a great-grandmother in the first place, so she’d take any chance to learn more, especially if it was the girl’s own idea.

Adelheid left, presumably to go do as she said. This time she returned all too quickly. Right, the time dilation thing her great-grandma had going on.

Malwine didn’t ponder that for much longer—not with the look on the girl’s face.

She looked far more terrified than she had any right to be.

“She was angry,” Adelheid said, her voice more high-pitched than it had ever been. “She was angry.”

“That you identified her?”

“Yes. Every thing she would have said was screams,” Adelheid said, a tear now running down her cheek. “Great-grandma never yells at me! She teases. She complains. She never yells.”

Again, Malwine hugged her fellow toddler. The floodgates had opened, the girl now crying with full force. She sobbed and sobbed, saying no further for what felt like an eternity.

Malwine could feel her own heart in her throat, her own eyes watering. Never before had she seen Adelheid this emotional about anything. The girl cried in the way children that age often did, situationally and briefly. This sounded deeper, more raw than anything a four-year-old should be feeling.

It made her want to find this great-grandmother of hers and kick her all the way to the nonexistent moon. How dare she make Adelheid cry like this? How dare she scare this little girl so?

“I don’t know what it is,” Adelheid said after the worst of the crying died out. Her voice was still airy, on the edge of failing. “When she yelled, she wasn’t like great-grandma. But she is great-grandma. I don’t understand.”

“I’m here for you,” Malwine said slowly, hugging her little sister as tightly as she could. Seeing the girl this hurt ignited a rage within she didn’t even know she’d been capable of in this life, but she had to remain steady for now. She had to make sure she calmed down.

“Her name is mine now, always has been,” Adelheid said. “After I left, I… I tried to find her with her name. Not with the place. With her name. It happened. Like with the forester. I can’t find her with her name. But [Identify] still calls her it. It’s like she’s hiding, but she isn’t. No, it’s like… when she got angry, she stopped hiding. And I got so scared.”

“You aren’t there anymore. You’re in our room, and you’re safe.”

“She hates me now. Great-grandma hates me now.”

“You’re awesome, and if she hates you, she doesn’t deserve you.”

“Malwine, I… I don’t think you understand.”

“What do you mean?”

“Adelheid fon… Adelheid fon Hūdijanin,” the girl shook, seemingly on the edge of hyperventilating. “Shattered Sibyl, Level 149, gold.”