When it was eventually Emilia’s turn to be served eggs and toast, Zora made sure to trudge over and steal one of her crunchy eggs, tossing it into his mouth as he gave her a playful wink.
“Wait for the two of us in the eastern foyer, okay?” he said, patting her head over the countertop as he slipped a piece of bloodberry candy onto her plate as well; she started salivating the moment she smelled the human-flesh candy in front of her. “We’ll go out and get the other teachers soon, so finish your plate and don’t throw any of it into the bin. Even a spider saves every thread for its web.”
He didn’t wait to see if she was doing as he asked. The water was boiling and popping violently behind him, so he raced back over the stove and turned the fire down, peering into the pot. The legs looked red enough. Cecilia eventually walked over to check on his progress as well, and the two of them stared blankly down like witches waiting around a magic cauldron.
There was still the giant moth carcass they could eat in the western foyer, but they’d closed that door for the time being; they wouldn’t have the stomach to eat any part of the moth for breakfast, and they didn’t want any kid wandering in and freaking out over the giant carcass.
“... For a language arts teacher, you sure know a lot about the Magicicada,” Cecilia said quietly, helping him stir the pot with her wand.
“A butterfly knows more than the garden it lands in,” he said plainly, poking one of the legs with his wand to see if it was tender enough. “In fact, I’m surprised you don’t know what the Magicicada are. Our old-fashioned magicicada system classes were developed a long time ago based on their abilities.”
“The Magicicada Mages are quite the secretive bunch, after all,” she mumbled, “and so are you.”
“...”
“Do the Magicicada have something to do with why you ran away from the Fabre Household ten years ago?”
He stabbed one of the legs with his wand and pulled it out of the pot, still steaming. Cecilia did the same, and for a few seconds all they did was blow on their legs, trying to cool them down to room temperature.
“... It’s okay if you don’t wanna tell me,” she said, kicking the back of his knees and smirking as he yelped. “You were always the quiet kid in class, ever since grandma picked you up and brought you here ten years ago. Given you’ve never told us about your past even as you opened up to me and Marcus and Julius, I’m not about to be annoying and start prying now, but… if there’s anything important I need to know about the Magicicada, then you have to tell me, okay?”
He snorted, kicking the back of her knees in return.
“That goes without saying,” he muttered. “If I knew how to kill Nona, I’d tell the world in a heartbeat. It’s not about either of us here—our kids are the top priority.”
Cecilia scowled at him as she stood up straight, rubbing the back of her knees. “Glad we’re on the same page, then.”
They clinked their wands and started stuffing the katydid flesh down their throats, choking and gagging once more as they forced themselves to finish the entire pot.
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[// STATUS]
[Name: Zora Fabre]
[Class: Magicicada]
[BloodVolume: 4.7/5.0 (94%), Strain: 24/500 (5%)]
[Unallocated Points: 0 → 57]
[Strength: 4, Speed: 3, Dexterity: 1, Toughness: 3, Perceptivity: 2, Strain Limit: 500]
[// MUTATION TREE]
[T1 Core Mutation | Resilin Tymbal]
{T1 Branch Mutation | ???}
[T2 Core Mutations | Acute Tympana | Hollow Abdomen] 50P
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{T2 Branch Mutations | ??? | ???}
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He glanced at his status screen as he swallowed the last of the katydid flesh, trying not to vomit all of it back into the pot.
“We’ve got… how many points do you have?” he asked, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. “I got fifty-seven. It’s a bit more than enough to unlock one of the tier two core mutations.”
“I got fifty-five,” Cecilia said, squinting at her own status screen. “Fifty-five points are a lot, though. Do we have to unlock one of those mutation things? What if we just put everything into strength so our spells hit harder?”
“The core mutations are typically worth the points. They’re like… additional skills, I hear, while our attribute levels only influence our physicality,” he said. “Sure, we could raise our strength levels to six and spend the rest of the points on the other attributes, but I think getting at least tier two mutation’s worth it. Shame I don’t know what either of them would do, though–”
“A ‘tympana’ is the membrane that protects and amplifies an insect’s hearing,” she said, pointing at the left mutation. “I’m assuming ‘Acute Tympana’ means our hearing will be specifically enhanced to that of a cicada… and when you’re holding more air in your stomach, you can generally project a deeper, louder voice. It’s called ‘diaphragmatic singing’, so I’m assuming ‘Hollow Abdomen’ will make our spells hit harder, go farther, and last longer.”
He stared at her, blinking pointedly.
“I do think you’d still be better off as a cooking teacher instead of a music teacher–”
“–quiet, you–”
“–but ‘Hollow Abdomen’ sounds better for the time being, no?” he said, cracking his neck as he mused at the options. “We can get both if we have enough points—and we’re really not supposed to eat more than ten points’ worth of insect flesh a day unless we want to die from point poisoning—but right now, I’d eat even raw moths for more firepower.”
Cecilia nodded quite firmly. “Sharper hearing sounds nice, but it’s also pretty lame if you ask me. We’ll go for ‘Hollow Abdomen’, then?”
“I’ll go first to see if it actually does what you think it does.”
It was the same as increasing his attributes; all he had to do was ‘will’ his system to unlock the tier two core mutation on the right, and immediately, he felt his stomach groaning and warbling and… expanding under his skin.
Visibly, nothing changed.
Internally, he felt as though he was just lighter.
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[T2 Core Mutation Unlocked: Hollow Abdomen]
[Brief Description: Your abdomen is as hollow as can be, filling your lower belly with more air than usual. Your overall stamina and stamina regeneration has increased. You can project your voice and carry it farther]
[Strength: 4 → 5]
[Strain: 500 → 600]
[Unallocated Points: 57 → 7]
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“... Yep,” he said. “It also increased my strength by one level and my strain… my ‘stamina’ by a hundred, so this fifty-point mutation is, at the very least, worth a hundred and sixteen points in strength and stamina. You unlock it as well.”
Cecilia needed no telling twice. She gulped and lurched a little as a pop came from her stomach, but then her eyes flitted over her status screen as she read the description as well—he was quite sure they made the correct choice picking this mutation.
Hopefully the stamina regeneration comes in handy as well.
After all…
“... Who are we looking for first?” he asked, both hands still on the counter as he endured the painful rumbling in his stomach; the mutation process had yet to completely finish. “I was the only one who survived the south, and you were the only one who survived the west, so what next? Go east for Marcus, or go north for Julius?”
“Marcus,” she grumbled, without missing a beat.
“Agreed,” he said, nodding vigorously.
“And we’re taking Emilia with us again, right?”
He frowned, giving her a blank, empty stare.
“We can’t just leave her here with the rest of the kids, can we?” he said. “She… should stick with me. Just in case.”
“If we’re going to be running into a Lesser Great Mutant, maybe it’d be safer if she were here. Even if she is helpful, and she did save our asses, she’s still–”
“I know,” he mumbled. “I don’t like it either, but…”
“...”
Cecilia sighed, kicking the back of his knees again.
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… And Emilia heard all of it.
She’d ducked under the countertop the moment Mister Zora gave her her favourite bloodberry candy and turned away, the two teachers whispering quietly amongst themselves while they stirred the sweet-smelling pot of bug meat with their wands.
She hadn’t planned on overhearing anything—she just wanted to clean her plate and suck on her bloodberry candy somewhere close to Mister Zora—but she heard it all anyways, and she couldn’t help but feel a painful twinge in her chest as she took small bites out of her toast.
I can’t be a bother to Mister Zora and Miss Cecilia.
If they think I’m weak, they’ll leave me behind.
I... have to help.