Chapter 6: Snake-like

On the training grounds of the Redbird's barony were two children.

"... Do you fear me?" Asked the little girl as she looked at the young boy on the ground.

"... I-" As the young boy sat up to answer, an indescribable feeling befell them as a—

"Did I sleep for too long?" Said Lilith instantly after waking up in the carriage.

"Yes, you snored too much, as well." Raphael answered as she instantly stared at his clothes.

Hmm.

"Where did you get that robe?" She asked, ignoring his previous statement.

"...?" 

"It was a gift from fath-" He answered after looking slightly dumbfounded for a second.

"It just doesn't look like anything from the mansion."

"... I-" Sigh "I found it with one of the bandits that... you killed."

'Hm, he's still just a soft boy.' Thinking about it, she couldn't help but snicker slightly before putting on an emotionless façade.

Pfft.

After staring at each other for a few seconds, Raphael went back to reading his book.

'What the fuck was that? Is she going insane now.' Raphael thought.

...

As the second moon started to appear on the horizon, we decided it was best to set up camp for the night.

Sigh.

'Her instincts are scary.' Sigh 'She's still eyeballing me since I got this new robe and weird book.' I thought as I stared at the grilling sausages with my mouth watering.

Hmm.

'I wonder what happened to that guy... This book seems to be bound to him, so I'll either have to hunt him down or somehow pick the lock.' After staring at the big white rose on the front cover, I started to push mana into it to see if I could sense some sort of mechanism.

'...' Hmm 'I really don't kn-'

Sniff, sniff.

"What the fuck?" I nearly jumped out of my chair as she appeared behind me.

"Just checking something." She said shamelessly.

"...?!?" Is this woman clinically insane?

'Did this woman lose her common sense?' I sighed as the knights started to look at us strangely.

"You're smelling weird. You should take a bath when the tent is set up."

"How do you know how I usually sme-" She disappeared.

Sigh.

"Young master, the tent that you and your... bodyguard will be using has been set up." An old knight, wearing silver armor with a few medals on it, said with a smile on his face.

"Huh?"

"Why the fuck do I have to sleep in the same tent as that fuckin-"

Ahem.

"It wouldn't be proper for a man to sleep in the same tent as a lady, would it? Mr. Knight?" As I felt her gaze on the back of my head, I instinctively retracted my words.

"You can call me Sir James, young master. This was one of the Lord's orders. There's nothing I can do about it." He had a forced smile on his face after I forgot his name.

Sigh.

"Alright..." After Sir James guided me towards my own tent, I ordered the maid to prepare a bath and sat down.

'This is going to be a long night...'

As I took out the originally flowered book, I couldn't help but furrow my eyebrows as the flowers in it had disappeared. As I opened the book, I couldn't help but grimace slightly, as I felt as if there were millions of needles prickling the skin of my right arm.

After quickly throwing the book away and taking out my robe, my only thought was to call someone to help me. However, when I tried to speak, no words came out as I fell to the ground. My right arm, which was in front of me, was filled with weird red flowers.

[Consider this a gift of mine, Descendant of Sitri...]

...

*T-they are all monsters, all of them...* A man with a face riddled with scars kept muttering to himself as he ran further and further into the forest.

Rustle, rustle.

"Hello, Mr. Lawrence." A man with serpentine, green eyes jumped from a tree branch into his view.

"You...!?!" After a moment of shock, the man's twisted in anger.

"Didn't you use to have a flowery robe?"

His presence exhaled nobility as he combed his hair with magic and checked the state of his black suit.

"Why did you send us to th- that... to those mon-monsters?!?!"

"I was actually looking forward to taking it for myself after this whole ordeal was done..." He continued speaking casually as he straightened his own light-green tie.

"YOU!?!? IT WAS AL-"

Hrrrkr

His blabbering, which was getting louder and louder, came to a halt all at once as a scrawny, whitish hand held him by the neck effortlessly.

Hrrkkr, Hrrkr.

"Oh, well, I never looked quite good in robes anyway." A smile came to his face, and his eyes squinted slightly as the scarred man slowly stopped struggling.