Bathing in the warm breeze, Hilda sat on her squishy lap and gradually fed today's breakfast. It was a slight inconvenience, but using the Book of Heresy wasn't an option for sothing as minor as this.
"Does it taste good?" Hilda asked.
"Mhm, it always does. You made it this ti, right?"
"Yep! I've been practising~ Mommy has been teaching so that when I get m- uh, Never mind. But I've been practising well, little dummy."
Hilda puffed out her chest, but from this angle, I could see what she was waiting for.
"Good job, Hilda."
"Hehe~"
She wants praise.
This big, big idiot.
After a couple more munches of Hilda's delicious food, I quipped up and asked her, "How long for you to reach the Third Step?"
Putting the spoon back on the plate, she tilted her head to the side, nuzzled my scalp, and said, "Not long? 3 more years? I think? I'm pretty sure the others are also the sa, except for Nemora. According to Yulei, it'll take her two more years to advance."
"What about you, little dummy? You hit the Second Step at 9! That's crazy! How long until the Third Step?"
...Well, the accomplishnt isn't entirely mine. I could only do it thanks to Es completing her Approval on ti.
But, knowing her-
"She'll do it in ti."
-five more years.
Once we reach the age of 14, we'll have done it.
I can Descend, and she can Ascend.
Then, I'll tell her everything.
No more lies.
No more secrets.
I'll bare it all.
She, a titled Cleansed of the Third Step, and I, a titled Profaned of the Third Step. At that point, there is no going back, even if Es wants otherwise; I'll be a little selfish this ti around, my adorable Es.
Taking a deep breath:
"Hilda, what's after the Third Step? Are there more? Is the path long?"
Shrugging, "I don't know, little dummy. No one has ever told , Papa always tells it'll co to the further I advance, and that he won't say it."
"How long, then?"
Hilda raised her fingers in front of my eyes, "There's the Awakened of the Initial Step."
That's the sa with my Descent.
"An Entrant of the First Step."
I was a Defiler at the First Step.
"An Ascendant of the Second Step, that's where we're at."
I'm a Fallen of the Second Step at the mont.
"And, finally, a Cleansed of the Third Step."
A Profaned of the Third Step.
"That's all I know." Closing her raised fingers, she pulled it back towards and loosely wrapped the hand around my neck.
"Now open up~"
Nom.
I playfully chomped on the spoon and drank the soup.
With that in mind, I don't have much to do. I simply have to wait for Es to complete her Approval, and we'll be entering the Third Step.
On my end, everything is already prepared, or even overprepared.
Licking my lips, "Your Approval, Hilda, is it anything complicated?"
Scooping up another spoonful of soup, she pushed it into my mouth and responded, "Kind of? But not really? Mine is weird."
"How so?"
Leaning her face down and forwards into my clear vision, she smirked, "Can't tell you little dummy~"
Oh.
"Fine. No more desserts."
"Eh?!" Hilda jumped slightly.
"Just joking."
"That's a cruel joke!"
"I'm a cruel person."
"Eh?!"
"That's also a joke."
So gullible.
-----
...Nevertheless, ti was destined to pass.
Seconds turned into minutes.
Minutes in hours.
Hours into days.
And days into years.
Throughout these years, each ti Es ca and went, my heart would flutter and my stomach prickle with the flapping of butterfly wings.
Hilda was still as innocent as always; it almost made question her parents' education system; she never kissed again, ever since that day. Or maybe she wasn't innocent, I'm not even sure anymore.
We hung out with Yulei and Vanessa a few tis, and each ti Vanessa's face grew darker and Yulei's frailer.
Jill and Elden were like passing ghosts, appearing here and there, but never truly sticking around with us.
As for Hildekar-
Almost no one has spotted his face since that day.
Nemora, on the other hand...
"What would you like, Alora? The peach-flavoured or the mango-flavoured ice cream?"
She stood before in her electrifying adult beauty.
She was already 18 years old.
Hilda was 17.
Es and I are now 12.
Still lying in Hilda's thick, tender lap, the cushion behind my head has grown drastically to the point where if I stick my head into the valley, her breasts turn into ear muffs; no, not just ear muffs, I'd probably suffocate to death in there.
"I'll take the mango flavoured."
Plucking a scoop of ice cream from the array of delicacies filling the table, she passed it over to Hilda for the sake of my feeding.
Don't ask .
I think I know, but I also don't know.
"Open up~" Hilda's sultry voice hissed in my ear.
Fleetingly pulling my chin down, she slipped my mask up slightly, opened my mouth and waited for to stick my tongue out. Following through with the 'instruction', I consud the delicacy with bored 'delight'.
She likely reached the Third Step.
Her Authority is high enough to rember the contents of The Canary and the tapestries. That's why she's here now, to glean information from .
...That's what I'm assuming, at least.
As for Hilda-
Wow.
That's all I can think or even say when I look at her face. When I feel her body on my back, my head, and my butt.
The Third Step Cleansed her like no other.
If when she was 14, I'd have considered her a blossoming beauty, then now she'd be almost fit for the status of a motherly lady; a seductress not just in the making, but a Queen.
And she was only 17.
Imagine when she hit 18, 19, 20...
Or when she reached even higher up the Heirarchy...
Gulp.
I almost always forget the pain I'm constantly under during these monts. And, these monts also make wonder... How beautiful will my lovely sister, Es, be after her Third Step?
And, in that regard-
189,432,112HowProfanewillibe?189,432,641
189,433,091Howuglywillibe?189,433,791
I'll find out in 2 years.
"Say, Alora, the black. The waves. Do you know?"
Just as I had my mouth stuffed with ice cream, Nemora's questioning voice crashed into my ears like thunder.
It instantly proved my previous assumptions.
She's reached it, the Third Step.
I stared at her silently, my modest body's reflection glaring back at vividly in those crystal clear green eyes. Incapable of moving my head to check out my body at the mont, I could only rely on that reflection.
"Alora?"
"Oh, right."
Waking up from my thoughts, I pondered over my response, then said, "It depends on Hildekar, if he can finish it in ti, in the next 2 years, we can figure out what the waves are. I have a solid suspicion, but it's not 100% certain. We'll have to wait and see."
"Is it what I think it is?" Frowning, Nemora asked with no hints of her previous scorn and hatred towards .
"Probably."
Funnily enough, I didn't even have the urge to nod my head anymore. It's been too long now, I've gotten used to this useless body.
"What are you talking about, little dummy?" Hilda habitually nuzzled my scalp with her chin. She practically purred in my eardrums.
"Sothing too complicated for your dumb brain, big dummy."
"That's rude, little dummy! I'm average intelligence, don't even test ~ I'm not as stupid as I was when we first t."
"You an jumping out of a bush and ambushing ?"
"Well, that was entirely your fault, wasn't it, little dummy? You were the one crying on that side path."
"...Fine."
"Ahem!" Nemora cleared her throat, redirecting our attention to her, "I'm here as well, you guys."
Giving us that familiar icy gaze for a split second, the frosty pupils lted monts later, and she continued questioning .
"How about the bird and the ruins?"
"I'm not sure. It's too cryptic. I'm only familiar with the crown; you should also be familiar with it."
"Yulei's one, correct?"
"Correct."
Picking up a handkerchief, Nemora wiped her hands, neatly stood up from her seat, and said, "I'll see you soon, Alora. I still have more to ask, perhaps too much."
Bowing slightly, she waved at and left the patio, leaving and Hilda behind in the warm breeze of the main gardens.
Pinch.
"What were you talking about? The cavern? The three tapestries? Yulei's issue?" Hilda pinched my waist, and, having also reached the Third Step, decided to ask a few of her own questions.
Funnily enough, I'm sure that if Nemora hadn't brought the topic up, Hilda would have never questioned .
"Mhm. Nemora was curious. But I don't know too much myself, so I couldn't really help her out."
"Hm..." Swinging her body side-to-side lightly, my vision also swayed with the playful movent, "...When are we leaving? Papa and Mommy haven't said anything these past few years, but their eyes have been looking at funny. So I'm sure they know sothing too."
When are we leaving?
"Two years. After Es and I reach the Third Step."
"And after Hildy finishes building The Canary?"
...I froze.
Hildy?
Did she just?
Hildy, really?
From the bottom of my pitch-black chest, the maddening sprout swayed with glee, spewing its horrors out and into my veins, "Hilda Von Lamperard."
Every word ca out with a cold undertone.
"Um. Little dummy?" Her body stiffened beneath .
"His na."
"Uh-"
"Say it properly."
Gulp.
I don't know what my face looks like at the mont.
I don't know what Hilda's face looks like at the mont.
But 'Hildy' is unforgivable.
"H, Hildekar, little dummy."
My frosty smile lted instantly, "Good girl!"
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