Chapter 91: A few nights before the Birthday
"How do you do it?"
"Hmm?"
"Make these little demons like this. What’s the spell?"
"Ah..."
Sister Leha took little Mime from my lap while brother Volcano, as Alex calls him, took the little sleeping beauty from me.
"They like playing with me. And they play until they get tired. Plus it’s the peace, I guess. When they’re at peace, it relaxes them."
Little Mime and Alex had fallen asleep on me in the central garden on the ground floor of the castle once again.
The same place that had chirping elemental birds and sweet winds all day long was also the best napping spot in the house.
Every time we are playing or training in this place, the two of them fall asleep while playing with Nyx and Felix.
Ever since Art came, the two had been especially cheerful. And it has been quite a while since then.
"Are you done with your preparations already?"
"Almost. We are ready to greet the guests that’ll arrive starting tomorrow."
The long time between bonding with art and the day I’ll get to leave the house had arrived before we knew it.
And since I obtained the permission from all the elders after a month long torture, they had nothing they could extract from Art or me anymore.
’They respected her, but aside from the phoenix that they never managed to catch, the three of us had fulfilled all their curiosity.’
And so, I had their permission, making it a rare occasion where a Sungrade was leaving the house as a (Free) individual.
It wasn’t as small as one may think. To nobles, a free child was more a liability than anything else.
Not just anyone can be freed from the bounds of their family once they are born in nobility, but there are rare times when that does happen. And since this was one of those rare times, the celebration wasn’t being limited to something small.
"Pretty sure I am, the guests are eager. Two youngest of the Sungrades are the stars of the show~." There was an excited smile on brother Vol’s face right now.
He knew I did not like this social event, but it was a fate that all of us were destined to suffer.
"You sure are having fun, brother."
"Fun fun, of course~. It’s my dearest sister’s birthnight!"
He was happy. And he’s annoying.
"Stop teasing him! He already looks nervous."
"That he does."
He only stopped when his wife shouted at him. Thankfully, it seems like he listened to her well.
"Very well then. Leave you we shall now." The two smiled at me and stood up with the children. "Bye bye brother Prism~."
But before leaving, that brother just had to mock me in that childish voice.
"You..."
I wish I could beat that guy. I wish... but beating a (tier-5) high mage and a rare cultist isn’t something I can do right now.
Even with Art and Felix, even before I start attacking him, I might find myself without any knowledge of who or what I am.
’If father is the strongest in the house, he is the most dangerous man in all of the east.’
The two toned mask he always wears doesn’t hide his face, it shows his identity as a (Clown), a follower of the [Mystical god].
They truly are a bunch of fascinating people.
"Mii~."
Anyways, Art liked him quite a bit. She even says she knew people like him in the past.
’So I guess their cult isn’t something new after all.’
We don’t know much about the clowns anyways. Even as academic fellows, some things like them remain a mystery to us.
"Now what do we do..."
I was working so much that I don’t even know how the past few months passed by so quickly.
Handling the elders, teaching new techniques to the people in the house, separately teaching Alex and looking after Mime while doing so... everything took away enough time out of my days that I only had enough time to look after Rainin’s condition and train a little.
I had to leave a lot of my work to Nyx and Lexie, but thankfully, with Rainin helping them, they were a big help to me.
’Then the last two weeks were spent in preparations for the birthnight celebration that we are having this time.’
It’s going to be a big event and a lot of important figures from the noble families of Topaz as well as some of our personal allied nations will come to visit the house.
Sister Mariabell and the fifth lady of the house, Lady Zoana Michal Galechaser Von Sungrade will be coming back to us by the end of tomorrow.
Able will be coming back as well and Ian, son of Lady Isha, will visit us on the day of the celebration from Stanox.
All five ladies, my three sisters and four brothers, will be here in this house for the first time since I came back to the past and even though I’ve never been in this kind of situation in my past life, I really am looking forward to seeing them all together.
’I still can’t be in the family that was so cruel to my mother and my past self. Even if the me right now doesn’t hold any grudges against them, they are not clean of the sins they committed in this life.’
The patriarch is a good person and he must have had his own reasoning to do everything he did, but, my life would not start until I got out of here.
I’ve waited for this for long enough. And now that it’s so close...
"I just want to grab it."
[ "Grab it?" ]
"?"
I had my hand extended out but even before I could feel any presence, I felt someone’s hand on my hand, and their fingers between my own.
The fingers that I felt in my hands were small, perhaps as small as Alex’s. They were warm, almost hot.
However, there was no hand before me. There was, however, a familiar green lizard.
"You come here often... do you like this place that much?"
And just when I saw the burning lizard, a familiar voice entered my ears as I felt a sudden presence right beside me.
"...!"
The green lizard was Eon, and sitting right beside me on the grass covered floor was my father, the Sungrade patriarch.
"You’re surprised. Haha, I don’t see that side of you anymore."
He was sitting beside me, looking a little sad, and the small hand I felt a moment ago must have been an [Expression] from Eon.
It doesn’t happen often though. There are few creatures who could express themselves as clearly as this one.
Eon and Art had a big age gap, but the two Salamanders seemed just like good friends to us tamers.
Every time they meet, they’d run around together, causing trouble for us and trying not to destroy too many things.
But, why were they here?
"Greetings, m’Lord-."
"Father."
"Huh?"
"Call me father until you leave. It is my request."
The sadness on his face seemed heartbreaking to me.
He really did... seem to have a lot of regrets.
"If that is what you wish, father."
At the end of the day, even as an assimilator, he really was no different from me, from the rest of us.