“Is there sothing bugging your mind?” Mom asked with a smile, causing my blank mind to be panicked.
I was still hesitating whether or not I should break the news to soone from my current family, but due to my carelessness, I blurted out my words accidentally...in short, I wasn’t ready!
But still, since the rice’s been cooked, I need to do sothing, talk about sothing.
“...Yes, there’s sothing that has been bugging my mind,” I gulped and said.
“And that thing beca the cause of the outbreak before?” Mom asked.
“Yeah...No,” I contradicted myself very quickly. Nevertheless, I added, “Not just that sothing. I have so things that have been troubling my mind. Perhaps the accumulation of them all caused my uneasiness and my dark magic to be easily manipulated. I don’t even know where to start...”
“Is that so? Then, can you start untangling the knots in your heart bit by bit? Maybe starting from the small, easy knot?” Mom suggested.
“From the small, easy knot...,” I pondered.
“Rember, you have , your dad, and your siblings rooting for you. We’re always here whenever you feel like you need soone to discuss them with, or if you just want to share them,” Mom gently smiled.
To have soone on your back.
To have soone always be there for you.
To have a kind, sincere family behind you.
A place I can really call “ho”.
My eyes felt hot upon hearing that again.
What should I do to make sure this ‘ho’ will always be there for ?
I know. I know that one day, I will have to walk my own path and perhaps my parents won’t be there again. Therefore, I definitely have to be able to walk strong even with myself.
And to do that, the biggest knot in my heart...
Right.
Will it be okay if I were to tell them about who I was in the past? To get help resolving this knot?
Or simply the fact that I had mories of my ‘other’ self in the past?
Before, my mind would tell , “Don’t, they won’t believe you. Or they might believe you, but they will see you as sothing weird. Can you say with certainty that you are you, as Lyra, and not just Reinst? Which one is the true you? Won’t that confuse them as much as you’re confused?”
But right now, in the corner of my heart, there was a voice telling that it would probably be okay.
Still, I know one thing for sure.
Now is not the right ti yet. There’s so much I have to figure out and untangle now.
When I have untangled them more, when I don’t feel as anxious, perhaps by then I should try considering the idea. Whether it’s still necessary. To what extend should I reveal if I think it’s necessary.
It’s not sothing I can decide spontaneously on the spot.
“Lyra?” Mom asked in a worry as I was silent for a mont.
“Ah...Okay, Mom. I got it. I will try! I will make sure I tell you or the others if I ever need any help,” I smiled.
“Good. Is there anything else you wish to tell ?” Mom asked.
I hesitated a bit before saying, “Uhm, not yet for now...Thanks a lot, Mom! I’m gonna go to Alt-nii and the twins for another practice!”
I left Mom as I was done with the short rest that I didn’t notice Mom’s small sigh.
“Excuse , Madam. There are guests from Sanctuaria family outside,” A maid hurriedly ca to Mom. I stopped walking to my siblings and turned to Mom and the maid.
“Ah, that’s right,” Mom turned to look at before continuing, “Grandpa and Grandma are here to see you, Lyra. They’ve been very worried about you that they wouldn’t be rest assured without seeing you in person.”
“Eh? Grandpa and Grandma are old already, they shouldn’t have taken the trouble to!” I was genuinely worried over them going all the way here. Usually, we would be the ones to visit them during the holidays.
“Didn’t we already call them through Provice? Geez, let go to the front door to welco them!” I really felt bad that I ought to welco them myself.
Mom chuckled upon looking at like that.
Though I was complaining, I was actually happy to have the two elderly figures be so worried over . This was sothing I had never experienced when I was Reinst.
In the end, our training that day stopped as we welcod our grandparents. As always, they indulged us—their grandchildren—very much, especially the adorable twins. Well, since the main purpose of their arrival here was , I was more or less the focus of today’s visit.
My parents asked them to stay the night for several days after dinner, but my grandparents insisted on going ho as it wouldn’t take much ti going back to their residence using the teleportation service.
***
The next day, I ca back to school. My close friends already saw , yet they were still happy to see back at school. anwhile, my classmates heard that an accident happened to at school and I was injured, so they asked how I was feeling right now.
When break ti arrived, as expected, there were other people who wanted to see beside my close friends.
The first one was unexpectedly Celeste.
She tagged along with Altaire, Clavis, and Harvey. I guess she had beco the mber of Altaire’s circle of friends, I guess? I heard that she had always been a loner and that it was hard getting close to her. The fact that she accepted being nominated in the competition was sothing that everyone in her class was glad of. Then, she and Alt-nii’s team bonded over the course of training.
Either way, it was good to see the additional mber of female friend for my big brother.
“I heard from Altaire that you were attacked. I’m so glad to see you alright,” Celeste said as she gently smiled.
“Thank you for your concern, Celeste-san!” I thanked her for her concern.
“So you...have both dark and light magic?” Celeste seed a bit hesitant to ask about it.
Oh well...I kind of expected this to happen. Not like I wanted to hide the fact that I had dark magic anymore, so it was fine.
“Yes, that’s right,” I nodded.
“Ah, then wouldn’t that be good? I heard that mastering dark magic isn’t easy and so people were engulfed in the darkness. The light magic can surely help you and increase your success rate of winning over the darkness of your heart,” Celeste kindly told .
“Really? I better do so more research about magic,” I was surprised that she knew this fact. Did she try finding this for due to the incident that befell , or did she find out about it out of curiosity over light and dark magic? Her strongest magic was light, after all.
But well, I’m glad to know that Celeste seems to be a good person. She’s beautiful, strong, and kind. Kinda reminds of Mom, to be honest.
I glanced a bit at Alt-nii. I wonder if he’s interested in her?
Anyway, the second person asking for an audience with —or more like, wanting to et was none other than Erneste. He was one of the causes of my dark magic outbreak.
Looking at his face right before my eyes, I no longer felt the urge to avoid him because of what I overheard before. Rather, I was amused by his two-faced act that was so perfect. Even his look of worry right now—it was good enough to deceive people that I might be deceived should I not know that he was insincere towards .
Ironically, he reminded of my past self, of Reinst. Putting on a facade in front of others. Such perfect mask. The difference between us was that he put on his mask to achieve the things he wanted to have, while I put on a mask to protect my fragile self and to answer others’ expectations of .
“Erneste, let’s have a talk alone,” I said as I turned to give my friends the ‘It’s alright’ kind of look.
Erneste might be thinking about sothing else as a glimpse of happiness flashed in his face.
“Of course, let’s,” he said.
I brought the two of us to the school’s empty back garden before I turned to look at him in the eyes.
“I’m ready to give my answer,” I said.
Erneste’s face turned a bit stiff, despite him being able to maintain his smile.
“My answer is...,” I took a deep breath before I said, “I can’t.”
“Lyra...! There’s no need to give a hurried answer now. Let’s just be good friends, okay?” Erneste imdiately asked.
“No. I don’t think we can even beco good friends,” I said with a determined look at him.
At the sa ti, I thought about how pathetic I was for wanting to avoid this confrontation that was bound to happen anyway.
Perhaps it was because I wasn’t used to rejecting people and was still in denial.
But with just summoning a bit of courage, I could stop being anxious. The uncomfortable feeling of confronting soone would only last while I was confronting them, and after that, it should give a longer feeling of relief.
Perhaps after coming back from ‘the death’s door’ that my clarity of mind returned. No, it was more like after being cornered and pressured to actually address my issues. If not, I didn’t know when I would eventually face them.
“Why?” Erneste asked as he made a pitiful face, akin to a puppy getting abandoned by its master. But I knew it was a facade, so let’s not get affected by it.
“Erneste, let’s be honest,” I said as I walked around.
“What do you an?” Erneste asked, still pretending to be oblivious.
“...I overheard you talking with your friends. You don’t really like , right? It’s all for your own ego and benefits, right?” I asked straightforwardly.
“...!!” Erneste’s angelic face twisted.
“So, don’t lie to . Don’t even show your face in front of . From now on, you and I—even our acquaintance-ship—is over,” I decisively stated.
“You--,” Erneste’s tone changed altogether from his angelic gentle voice, into that of a threatening voice.
“What?” I tried to lift up my chin and locked eyes with him.
“Don’t you dare tell about that to anyone else,” Erneste still threatened .
“Tell that to anyone and be ridiculed instead? Hah, as if. Your facade is really aweso, you know? I wonder how long you can keep up the pretense,” I said with a tone of ridicule.
Of course I wasn’t as stupid as to tell everyone about this. While my friends would trust , others might not. I would be seen as soone who wanted to ruin Erneste’s reputation instead. It would be fine for as long as I didn’t have anything to do with him anymore.
But still...! To think that he even threatened ! I definitely couldn’t accept this. I wasn’t the one at fault. He should be ashad and even apologize, hey!
I was really upset now. If only I knew how to induce fear just like Luca did, I would definitely use it at this mont.
I guess that’s more reason I should learn dark magic diligently, then?
“Goodbye, then,” Erneste said as he went past to go away.
When he went past , I had an idea.
I used my silent incantation to secretly form a tiny bit of ice on the ground that Erneste was about to walk in. Sure enough, Erneste wasn’t watching the ground where he was walking and had his feet slipped there.
With a loud thud, Erneste fell to the ground.
“Ouch!”
“Pfft, hahaha!” I intentionally didn’t cover my laugh and let it all out.
“You, what did you--,” Erneste raised his voice again at as he looked up at , still sitting on the ground.
“Oh? Do you have any proof? You’re just too embarrassed to admit that you fell out of nothing, right?” I lifted my chin again.
“...!!” Erneste gritted his teeth.
“Let tell you before you get your head up in the clouds,” I said as I looked down at him.
“You should be thankful enough that I just want you to never appear in front of again. I didn’t even demand an apology nor did I expose the matter. I can actually do more than that, you know? Between you and I, I wonder who’s stronger here?” I smirked.
At my ntion, Erneste’s face that was all bark turned hesitant.
“And maybe you’ve forgotten about it since Harmonia Academy is all about equality. But again, between you and I, who has the lower status?”
I actually didn’t like to make use of my status this way, but hopefully this would be the only exception I made.
Erneste’s pupils widened as if he just rembered it.
“I actually can go and tell my parents about this whole matter, then see what they can do to you or your family...,” I tugged on his necktie as I tried to unleash my dark aura—hopefully enough to suppress him.
Actually, I believe my parents wouldn’t use their status unwisely like that, but with how overprotective Dad was, he would at least be a bit more difficult towards Erneste’s family.
But not all nobles would let it off at that. So could even do horrible things...
Realizing this, and perhaps due to my unleashed dark magic aura as well, Erneste’s face turned pale.
I think this should be enough.
I let go of Erneste’s tie and said, “Now go.”
Erneste didn’t even utter anything else as he quickly got up and ran away from the spot.
...What a loser.
......But then again, that was to be expected when one noticed they offended soone of higher status. That was a given. If he didn’t feel intimidated like this, then he was simply too brazen.
I combed my hair as I looked up at the sky and huffed a sigh.
Well, one simple knot has been untangled!
Hooray, good job, !
That wasn’t too bad, right?
[Achievent Unlocked: Threatened A Male Senior~ ✩]
The Almighty Lyra mode was back for a mont...I guess?
Author's Note:
Thanks for reading and don't hesitate to comnt!
To support this series and gain access to advanced chapter(s), just click the button below :3
If you'd like to mingle with other readers and discuss the story, don't hesitate to join my Discord server!
Reviews
All reviews (0)