"Are you alright, Carl? Ms. Chen said you were low dehydrated after physical education over."
Leona asked me as I took my seat in the last class lesson. The last class lesson was chemistry, taught by Ms. Liyue, who had returned to her killer teacher mode.
I nodded at Leona. "It seems I'm dehydrated because you guys always do that to me..." I said with a faint smile. Leona hmphed, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Even if you're dry, tonight is my turn."
"Can I have one night off?"
"No."
Leona then gave a small smirk, seeing me complain. I snorted and started focusing on my tablet. The chemistry lesson taught by Ms. Liyue was only theoretical. There was another teacher for the practical part, but that was tomorrow's lesson, not today's.
Lilia sent me a message via tablet. It was the conclusion of the biology lesson I missed earlier this noon. And there was a note to meet her in the library, just the two of us, before going home.
I lifted my face and looked at Lilia's back. She didn't turn around, but I noticed her glancing back. I could only let out a long sigh.
"Nee~ nee~ will Carl have free time after school today? I want to try the hologram cafe with you again, Carl." Elena leaned sideways to whisper after getting a chance to see Ms. Liyue focused on explaining the gold element on the digital whiteboard.
I turned to Elena. Her eyes were cheerful and full of enthusiasm. I neither shook nor nodded my head. I just gave an awkward smile.
"It seems I don't have time for today. How about tomorrow?"
Elena looked a little disappointed, but she nodded cutely.
"Sabik will wait for big brother♥ So, today, just give Sabik a suck, okay?"
Elena, whose consciousness seemed to be taken over by Sabik now, made a gesture of sucking something, one hand stroking the empty air and her mouth half-open. She smiled cutely at me. I saw it more as a hidden lewd smile. Elena's innocence was truly gone since last night.
I sighed deeply in silence. I really wanted to drop my face onto the table and fall sound asleep into dreamland. But Ms. Liyue, in her killer teacher mode, would throw her magic chalk if I did that.
"Besides, I have to find clues about my mother's whereabouts... If she is indeed a goddess, then among the goddesses I know, someone should recognize my mother."
I turned to Elena, whose eyes were spinning, looking at the dizzying chemical numbers and symbols.
"Sabik doesn't seem to know, considering she's from the same place as Artemis."
Then I turned to Leona, who turned back to me. Questioning.
I sighed and set my gaze forward again.
"It's impossible for Leona to be a goddess too. If she were a goddess, she should have told me from the beginning."
Then I looked at Lilia in the front row.
"I don't know anything about Lilia other than that she comes from the renowned Eiai noble family. She's still a mystery to me. And every goddess can merge with the soul they possess. It's possible that Lilia is one of the goddesses, considering she raped me on my very first day of school." I said softly to myself. It almost sounded like gargling.
But I had no evidence to support that statement. At least I had to confirm it this afternoon at the library.
"Pay attention, Carl."
Thwack!
"Ackh!"
***
In the library. At this moment, hardly anyone came here except for a few girls returning the books they borrowed and immediately going home because the bell had rung.
I told Leona and Elena to go home first. I had a little business at the library. Meanwhile, Lilia had left thirty minutes earlier without saying anything to her friend.
There, at the row of reading tables. Lilia sat on the sofa near the window. Along the window wall to the bookshelf, there was a long sofa accompanying a table of the same length.
The view outside the window was the back part of the school building. A garden with various trees and flowers could be seen from inside the library.
Lilia was reading a book. From its title, it was an ancient book. In other words, a book without hologram projections. A book filled with dry black ink writing.
I sat beside her and placed my study tablet on the table.
"What are you reading, Lilia?" I asked curiously.
Lilia lifted her face and turned to look at me.
"I'm reading tales of gods and goddesses. This book is titled 'Tale of Gods and Goddesses'. I accidentally saw it when putting books back on the shelf of ancient stories."
I nodded slightly. "Sounds interesting. That reminds me of someone who said she was a goddess. Have you ever met a goddess, Lilia?"
Lilia shook her head. "Even if they exist. They must have incarnated into human souls."
I neither shook nor nodded. It felt like every word Lilia uttered was always an accurate guess, even if she didn't intend to say so.
"Are you a goddess, Lilia?"
Lilia tilted her head at me. Her face was still flat, but her eyes questioned me.
"Do I look like the goddess like in this book?"
I shrugged. "But you are as beautiful as a goddess in my eyes."
Then Lilia stopped talking, looking at my face, and focused back on her book. I could see a slight pink blush on her cheeks.
"I am not a goddess. I am just an ordinary girl."
I moved closer until our shoulders touched. I smiled slightly at her, who was still blushing.
This way, I had confirmed that Lilia was not a goddess.
"But are you interested in becoming a goddess, Lilia? If you were a goddess, what kind of goddess would you want to be?"
Lilia opened a few pages, then pointed to a paragraph on the top right of the book, the third paragraph in the row.
*Its the god and goddess ruler of the ocean. His eyes are blue as the sky, the ocean, and ice combined. His hair is shimmering silver-white with dignified ash at the ends. With a trident in his hand, he rules the seven seas of the earth and the seven seas of the heavens.*
"I want to be Poseidon. He looks similar to me."
Poseidon? The paragraph says he is a god and goddess? Does that mean Poseidon can be female and male at will? Or are they two people with the same name and same power but different genders? This book is truly ambiguous.
"Does that mean you want to be the ruler of the ocean, Lilia?"
Lilia shook her head. "No."
"Then why Poseidon?"
"Because he is the most similar to me."
Lilia repeated her statement, which confused me.
"But the paragraph in the book says Poseidon has blue eyes, while you are the opposite, Lilia."
I opened a mirror hologram and offered it to Lilia so she could look at herself.
Lilia shook her head. "When I was little, my eyes were blue like ice, after adolescence, our eye color changes to red, and after adulthood, it will become purple. That is a change in our iris that has occurred in my lineage since grandfather had children."
Hmm... so she has a change in eye color as her body develops? That's unique. This is the first time I've heard of such a genetic case. In this era, it's not impossible for that to happen given that genetic evolution has occurred.
I nodded slightly. "That's cool."
But Lilia shook her head. "As we grow up, the descendants of Eiai will see things that most ordinary people cannot see."
"Really?" This confused me even more.
"My grandfather said we will slowly begin to be able to control the element of water. Freezing it or making it explode. I think this happens normally to other noble families, considering I once saw someone from Ruo family descendants who could control fire."
This time, I furrowed my brows. I truly just learned that every noble family has special abilities unknown to the general public. Does that mean, perhaps...
I felt like I was getting a clue about my mother.
I excitedly touched Lilia's shoulder. "Lilia!"
Lilia seemed surprised by my sudden action of touching both her shoulders and speaking loudly. She unconsciously looked at me with wide eyes.
"Y-yes?"
"I want to meet your family."
***