It's not like I'm trying to hype myself up more than necessary or anything like that, but given the fact that it was not Maia but the Recruits themselves that asked me to come and train them again the very next day… I'd say that it was a pretty big success overall. Though I did deviate from the initial training plan a little to be fair, which was to just do a few duels real quick then watch over them. Instead, I ended up doing a whooping 10 extra duels before I finally managed to actually convince them to start practicing among themselves.
Not that I mind though, since I honestly had so much more fun than I expected. Granted, I still prefer training with opponents that are stronger than myself, since my sword skill itself doesn't really need any improvements so it's a matter of pure matchmaking requirements. But even if they couldn't fulfill them since, well, it was a pure swordsmanship training with no powers, I still found it relaxing.
Either way, I think I'll probably tag along again once in a while maybe? I've asked Maia if that would be an issue and she told me to just "do whatever you want" so I don't think it is. But that's enough talking about that matter, since now we had greater concerns, or rather, I guess not concerns, but more important things to pay attention to. After all, as we all sat at the table in the morning as usual, Luna being there as well, we waited patiently for a few moments before she finally came into the room.
Once again, she had a smug grin on her face, and was accompanied by a few adults, carrying a strollable garderobe behind her. Why was this relevant? That's because Nala was about to reveal to us the new clothes she'd worked on until now, which will be what we will wear tomorrow… At our trial.
One thing I did notice right away though, was the fact that it was noticeably smaller than the one she used last time. Of course, the clothes were still covered so I couldn't count them or anything, but the thing itself was definitely smaller. I guess Luna probably noticed my slight confusion or something, because she was the first to confirm my doubts.
"You're probably not wrong, Cael. After all, there are in fact less outfits than last time."
"Is that so? Why?"
I glanced over at Nala, whose grin faltered for a second after hearing us. She let out a disappointed sigh, then replied.
"Apparently, only us family members will be allowed inside… I really wanted to make something for Aldric and Lysanna, or Luna as well tho…"
"Well, it can't be helped, can it? Me and Lysanna will be watching the trial from home either way."
"That's right, Nala. You don't have to be sad about it. Me and Al have our little kid to take care of as well, which would be troublesome inside the courtroom. What if she started crying? That sort of thing."
As Aldric and Lysanna took turns comforting her, Nala's expression did regain most of her vigor thankfully, but I was personally still pretty disappointed. After all, the person sitting on my right was also not gonna be able to come to court with us.
I honestly couldn't help but sigh, as I leaned forward and rested one arm on the table, then my face on my palm alongside it. Luna, as she noticed my clear distress then placed a hand on my back, and rubbed it gently.
"Come on, don't make that long face, Cael. We can't help it, can we?"
"But I wanted you to come as well… for that matter, why are you even prohibited from entering? Aren't you like Maia's assistant or something?"
"Don't get it twisted, Cael. Though Luna is technically my assistant, it's more of an unofficial thing that Mio just allows. Other than our family and the Sentinels, only high ranking nobles are allowed to partake in the courtroom, since you guys will also see Mio's face."
"Hasn't Luna seen Mio's face already though? I get wanting to keep her identity secret until she comes of age, but it doesn't even make sense if she's aware of Luna's existence, but doesn't allow her."
"Haha, that's actually mostly because I'm not actually a noble more than anything else, Cael. I've actually spoken about it with Maia and Mio a few days ago myself, and the main reason why I'm not allowed in is to keep it consistent. I'm technically Maia's assistant on paper but I don't even work every day, nor am I a family member yet or a noble. If she started making exceptions for me, she'd have to do it for a lot of other people."
"Y-yet?!-"
"So basically, summing it all up: it's just a matter of consistent regulations. I will still be watching it live either way though, so don't worry about it."
"…alright."
Maia then cleared her throat, and spoke up.
"Hehem… Well, putting those shameless lovebirds aside, you can go on now, Nala. We're ready. Though we've all already seen the sketches for them. Besides Cael at least."
"Wait, for real?"
"Yep."
"Yeah"
I looked at Luna lastly after both our parents confirmed it, hoping that she would at least deny it, but…
"Sorry Cael, but I've also seen the sketches already."
"So I'm the only one who's completely in the dark??"
"…"
Hm? Why's everyone so quiet out of the sudden?
Everyone looked pretty gloomy there for a moment… I'm not really sure why, but it felt like I had somehow hit a sensible spot? Am I supposed to apologize here? Luna was the one to break the ice beneath that moment of weird and confusing silence though.
"We're sorry about that. But hey, at least you're the only one that gets to have a genuine reaction to them right now, no?"
"Y-yeah… that's right. I don't mind it at all in fact, I'm happy that I'm the only one left in the dark about them."
Maybe that'll fix the mood…?
I looked around the table, and thankfully enough… It seems like that got the job done. I genuinely have no idea why the mood had gotten gloomy to begin with though, so I'll just leave it at being glad that it didn't last long.
"Anyway. Nala, you can go on and show it to Cael as well now. Though of course, we're also looking forward to the real deal."
Maia then gave her the signal, which left me speechless, and eyes widened once again when the reveal actually came a few moments later, after Nala's proud nod to her words.
So you're telling me that this 6 year old little girl… designed those?…
Prodigies are truly terrifying.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Maia's Pov)
It was around midnight and a half by now? Something like that at least. Me, Mio and our parents were all in my office at home, which had a similar layout to Mio's own office at work for the record. I didn't sit at the desk though, we all sat down at the coffee table in front of it, face to face, Mio sitting next to me. She had also made 4 cups of tea for each of us already, which by the way, dad actually really likes. In fact, he likes Mio's tea so much that Mio often makes a few batches and leaves them in a bottle just for him to have at home whenever she's not here, and enchants the bottle so it stays warm as well. What a nice daughter that she is, huh? All that for the old man somehow liking black coffee as well, even though this tea specifically is fairly sweet.
But regardless, since it was the night right before the trial, we obviously have more important things to address, rather than dad and Mio's tea buddy relationship. For starters, we already talked about the "script" for tomorrow, which of course isn't really one, but just a general idea of what they should and shouldn't say, and what the king will probably try to use against us.
To Mio at least, he's pretty predictable to put it frankly… in fact, when she went over all of the possible outcomes of his lines, even I was thinking "damn, that really sounds like something he'd say!" You know what I mean? Which as far as I'm concerned, can't be anything but a good thing.
If there was something left to discuss, it's probably the reason why Mio is most likely as anxious as she is currently. Well, she was trying to conceal it but honestly, all 3 of us had noticed it from the moment we entered the office pretty much. I'm not even sure if she realizes it, but she's been biting her finger nails and dead skin ever since this whole interaction began. That was one of her nervousness ticks. Whenever she's anxious about something, which does happen rarely to be fair, she often, not always but often, begins to bite her finger nails on both hands, and dead skin as well.
Of course though, we all had an idea of what this was about. We had even spoken about it once, but I guess that wasn't enough for her to be entirely reassured, huh? She didn't show any real signs of nervousness or anxiety after all, so it's hard to tell how she feels sometimes, even for us. Mio's painfully good at hiding her feelings… unfortunately. But now that we had an obvious idea for what it probably was, I decided to just go straight to the point.
"You got any more nails left to bite? You're giving yourself a homemade manicure at that point, you know?"
"Huh? Are you looking for a fight or something?"
Though she tried to look confused, from the way she instantly dragged her hand down to her thighs, she most definitely realized that we had caught on.
"I'm sorry to be the one breaking it to you Mio, but we agree with Maia this time. It's pretty obvious after all."
"…"
"It's about Cael, isn't it? The little one's always on your mind after all."
Seeing as mom and dad backed me up, Mio was left with no choice but to admit to her worries. She let out a sight, then began explaining slowly.
"Well, you know how we talked about it once, right? About what to do when Cael sees me for the first time in my real body… I'm just thinking that we should take it more seriously than we previously did."
I began ruffling her hair a little, though she did smack my hand off after about 3 seconds or so.
"You sure love my dear little brother, huh? My, my, how lucky I am to have you as my sister in law."
"Of course I love him. More than any of you for that matter… but regardless, I do think my point stands."
"Hmm… I can't say I don't understand where you're coming from honestly. Especially after how me and dear reacted to seeing you ourselves."
"That's true. It wouldn't be weird if the little one broke down completely at first sight or something along those lines."
"Even then though, didn't we agree that I'd be forming a barrier around us? I'll be sitting next to him anyway."
"But what next? Do you think he's just going to calm down after a moment or two because he has privacy thanks to the barrier?"
That's a good point unfortunately…
I'm honestly not really sure myself how to approach the situation after I protect him from public embarrassment.
"It would also be a shame if the little one missed the trial's details because of it after all. He may be needed as testimony sometime along it too, so it would be better if he could focus."
"Not to mention, if he can't calm down from seeing her alone, it's pretty hard to tell whether he'd be able to testify to her outloud."
"…"
I may have overlooked the matter a little. I get why Mio was anxious now, since this didn't only affect Cael himself, but it could potentially affect our performance as a whole. Of course, we're not guilty, and that much is obvious, but we still need to convince everyone watching it. We can't waver, not even for a moment. Not even Mio can simply deduct that we're not guilty if we can't put up a great and convincing performance after all.
"…I would have an idea. But it's only a temporary solution, which may require further maintenance after the trial itself."
We looked at her, and she was visibly doubtful of her own idea. It could only mean a thing, as far as I'm concerned.
"You're gonna need some time alone with him afterwards, aren't you?"
"…yeah. But of course- don't worry, if he begins to remember somehow I'll erase his memories, and-"
"'Alright, we get it. You can go on with it.'"
All 3 of us replied simultaneously, since there honestly just wasn't any point in bothering questioning her. It was pretty obvious that it would've gotten to that anyway, and it's not like we could've avoided him and Mio talking forever, or until Mio would think he's ready.
"Are you guys really not going to object to it?"
She looked surprised, or rather almost shocked at that point, but our answer was obvious.
"Why should we? As long as it prevents him from tweaking out during the trial."
"Not to mention, my sweet boy deserves a little time with his lover, even if it could potentially result in his memories of it being sealed. We can consider it a small break for him."
"And for that matter, you are the one who'll feel worse if the situation calls for his memories to be sealed, so what right do we even have to object? As far as we're concerned, you can just tell us the plan once, then we'll listen, agree and go on with it tomorrow."
"Everyone…"
Tears started forming in her eyes. A few had even managed to escape and pour down her face, as she tried to wipe out the rest.
"Thank you… really, thank you."
"…You're still a kid after all."
I patted her head, as we waited for her to calm down so she could tell us her plan. It's almost mind blowing that she was this anxious about proposing us an idea which would result in her being the one hurt to begin with, in its worst scenario. It's almost as if she wouldn't dare do anything with him unless she has our approval. I'm honestly hoping that this will change as they get older at least, but it's not like I'm bothered by it, and I'm sure neither are our parents. I'm pretty confident that we're just happy about how much she cares about all of us. Which is exactly why, we're going to reciprocate her feelings, and always have her back.
It took around 5 minutes or so, but Mio was now ready to explain her idea to us.
"Alright, I'll go on with it now, so bare with me."
"We're all ears, little one."
"I will create the barrier myself, just when I enter the courtroom, so you just have to stay next to him and make sure he doesn't get hurt somehow, whether it's him falling or anything of the sort, Maia."
"Got it."
"Then, to actually calm him down… I'll send a mana message, but not towards him. Towards all of them."
"You mean…"
"That's right. Truth be told, I've actually slipped out once before. Maia, you remember when Cael saved Jun and Juna?"
"Yeah, in that alley, right?"
"…it was actually my fault that it got to that point to begin with. You see, by mistake I had accidentally told him something along the lines of "we're not really strangers after all" when he said it's weird that he feels so comfortable around a stranger, aka Luna. And after that… one of them came out, as Cael's consciousness wavered enough for that to happen. We spoke for around half an hour or so, then I placed his head on my thighs before sealing his memories, and told him he fell asleep when he regained control. I had also put up a barrier around us though. It was to prevent others from detecting us, but that also prevented me from noticing the thugs and Jun with Juna, who appeared in the alley after us."
"I see… don't blame yourself too much though. It must've been so much harder than any of us can imagine, to hold back for the whole day until that."
"I appreciate that, but I can't deny what's true. To begin with, if I hadn't slipped up, Jun and Juna wouldn't have ended up in that position to begin with. But that was also why I was so sure that he'd wake up when he was unconscious, so I guess there's also a positive to it, huh? He taught him how to enhance his body at least."
"Haha, it really did save me some time. I managed to help rebuild the village a lot sooner thanks to it after all."
"I'm not really sure who Jun and Juna are, but basically what you're saying is that Cael almost remembered once before, right?"
"Well, kind of. His soul- souls, Remember after all. It was probably after I told him that. One of them managed to grasp a weakness in Cael's consciousness and slipped through."
"That makes sense…"
"And then that past reincarnation of his, is the reason why he became able to enhance his body at will, right?"
"I think so, yeah. I'm pretty sure he had taught it to his body directly, though I'm not sure if Cael remembers it."
"Alright, we got it. You can continue."
"As I was saying… I'd like to prevent the others from actually taking over him for the duration of the trial, and in the near future if possible too. So once I get in court, I'll send a message with mana, that only they could understand. The goal being for all of them to calm down, which should help Cael do the same."
"I'm not really sure if I got it right, so let me check. If Cael himself is faced with something that may make him remember the past, you're saying that his past reincarnations will interfere? So you're going to send them a message to stay quiet?"
"That's the gist of it, but not quite. I'm not going to get into details, since I also could be wrong about some of them, but the grand picture of the analogy is as follows: you guys already know I can't unseal Cael's memories of the past, or his power, and the reason. I'm not going to go over that, but then it gets a little complicated as to why he isn't remembering it himself, even though he's surrounded with you every day, which his soul 100% remembers. This is again only a speculation, but I think that it's most likely that Cael himself… doesn't want them to make him remember. And as far as I'm concerned, they may also have some kind of superlative grudge against him, don't you think so? I think that until Cael himself is ready to remember everything on his own, and face his past… it just won't happen."
"However, if I talk to his past selves and tell them to at least not mingle with him, I can stabilize him. Then whether they decide to talk to him in his sleep or whatever isn't really in my reach of power, but you get the point. Not to mention, I don't think I have the right to be by his side as his lover, or at least not as Mio yet. I want to wait until he's at least reached his main goal that he seems to have in this life, which is becoming an adventurer and having tons of fun exploring the continent and whatever other things he wants to do. Until then, I'm more than happy with staying in the shadows as Luna, and protecting him from his curse as much as I can, until he's strong enough to stand on his own."
"That's why, I won't allow him to know that Luna is me. Not until he truly needs me. Until he's become who he wants to become, or if his curse gets too hard for him to handle alone, and for me to handle from the shadows. Only then I'll step to his side as myself. Not to mention, he still has all of you to support him, no? then soon he'll have his best friend back with him, and the one and only friend that gave her life to save him in his previous reincarnation. Honestly, now that I'm thinking of it, I don't think I can actually execute it without needing to seal his memories after all."
"So after the trial is done, leave the twins with the Sentinels, and you 4 come to "talk to me". You guys can pretend to not know me, of course besides you Maia, then leave the room. I'm sure that by then Cael won't be able to hold back the urge to talk to me anyway, so that's a perfect occasion. You can listen or wait home afterwards, it's up to you to decide."
You can't do this…Mio. Don't say something so heartbreakingly mature… only 5 minutes after I called you a kid.
It may not have been obvious to Mio, but as I looked at our parents it was to me. All 3 of us were fighting with all of our strength to not show it on our faces, but we all felt the weight of her words, to such an extent that it was crushing us. Tears were the least of our concerns too I'm sure. All of us probably wanted nothing more than hugging Mio at that point, and comforting her to our best capabilities… but we had to hold back.
Mio was taking on such a hard decision for his sake, even if it meant that she'd get hurt. We had no right to baby or pity her. All we could do at that point, in order to honor Mio's feelings was to nod in agreement, even if it hurt us. Because in the end, we all knew… She was hurting the most.