Fox ears

The following morning, the Duke had left the mansion and headed to the Capital escorted by six knights including sir Tulian, sir Alphonse and the Duke'son, the Knight-Commander Adrian and three others. The house-Magus also left with the Duke.

Sir Pecka and five other knights were left to take care of the mansion. An aura of uncertainty was flowing around the mansion and everyone felt it. Even horses seemed to be alerted.

There was a special training organized to the soldiers at the barracks that would last from early morning to late evening. The shouting could be heard up the the third floor. Sofia and Lisa had come back from their morning walk and were eating.

To Sofia and Lisa, it had been silent morning. They had changed only "mornings" and few other words.

"You are not going to eat? Lisa, you have been awfully silent from yesterday up to now. Everything alright?" Sofia asked and then took another bite from her bread.

"I do not have a good appetite today."

"Is it cause what happened yesterday?"

'Obviously, her tail doesn't lie.'

"Hmmh. Miss, just eat. I am fine. It's a little bit scary though."

"... sorry I have food in my... mouth, but what is scary?" Mumsmums*

"The war."

Sofia stopped eating. She forced the food lump down. Lisa normally didn't speak like that.

'Hmmh, it's hard for me to say anything to that. Where I come from, it's just a word on newspaper and most of the time not even headline.'

"Hmmh. If you want to talk about it, I can listen."

"It's fine."

Lisa's eyes were empty as if she would have turned into a ghost.

'She has a trauma from the war probably. She is quite young. Sister? Brother? Parents? Ah, I cannot ask that. I somewhat already guessed there was something.'

"It makes you feel a little bit better if you eat something. Just like me, I get much happier when I eat the food you bring."

Lisa let out small breath. She was staring the empty plate in front of her.

"If you won't eat, you don't have energy to work today. I still need you to teach me a lot of thing... that I don't recall."

"Hmmh. I...I am fine...I am," shouting at the front yard interrupted Lisa, "... sorry."

"Hmmh. Don't apologize so much to me. I am not a noble."

"Sorry."

"Lisa?"

"I am sorry."

'She is like my sister. I see...'

Sofia stood up from the chair and walked behind Lisa. She put her hands on her shoulders.

"M-miss?"

Sofia didn't listen and leaned down until her cheek was against Lisa's.

"It is all fine. There is nothing to be worried about. Nothing is going to hurt you."

"I am..."

This was something Michael had done with Sofia who had light panic attacks after their parents had died in the car crash. They were inside the car back then. He never would forget that sight. Sofia had lost consciousness. Her father was crushed and all he could see from mother was an arm. The truck had hit the car sideways leaving the backseat intact. Michael had broken only few ribs and gotten concussion. Sofia has broken one arm and multiple ribs. But they survived, looking it now, Michael knew how lucky they were.

After the crash, Sofia had started to have slight panic attacks during evenings. Michael had read a book about them and searched internet. A doctor had mentioned that most important was to simply be there. Normally Michael had simply calmed Sofia down with low voice and hold her while touching her neck. She said it made her relax and sleepy.

"It's fine. Just relax. I am here. There is nothing to worry about."

"I am sorry miss..."

"Eh... there is no reason to be sorry Lisa."

'Hmmh? I was wrong? She looks down like she is guilty of something. Dogs do that same thing she does with her ears.'

"I am. I did something I shouldn't."

"Hmmh?"

"I eavesdropped you and the Duke and the house-Magus. I heard you mention ... that you are going to leave the mansion. I heard it had something to do with you exploding that bird back then. I didn't really understand what happened. So I ... eavesdropped you."

"What did you hear?" Sofia asked calmly.

'Hmmh, it's my maid so this is maybe not a catastrophic. I didn't tell her a lot about my magic training anyways so she must have been curious. Specially after that explosion and the bird... huoh.'

"Um.. I heard about you having a flexible mana pool. I don't know what it is. I didn't hear a lot. I swear. And then something about leaving the mansion. Now I just thought this morning that you are going to leave with the Duke... but you didn't... I think I got a bit selfish... as I don't really get along with others... and..."

"It is true that I am going to leave the mansion eventually. I need to find help with my mana pool problem. Simply put, it makes me store more mana inside my body than my body can take in the first place. And if I cannot release it when I want or need, the results are... well you saw them. In worst case, I might die."

'Wait... If I explode, I actually die!'

"I am sorry. I am selfish."

"Stop saying that." Sofia hold Lisa tighter. Tail went up and down.

"I am sowwy..."

"If you want to cry, it's all fine to me. There no one else here."

Lisa forced herself out from Sofia's arms as Sofia didn't force her to stay put. The maid hugged Sofia tightly. Lisa was 157 centimeters making her far shorted than Sofia and she covered her face into Sofia's neck. And cried, first silently.

'So close. Hmmh. Why do I feel like crying too... the emptiness inside my chest. I see.'

"Miws... why are you cwying twooo?"

"I felt... like crying."

"Miws?"

"... just a little bit."

"Miws. I am sowwy? Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I don't know why you are lying, but it has to be really important... I am sowwy. I shouldn't have listened... I don't want to be a burden!"

Shock went through my spine and the feeling of relief changed to fear.

'Lying? Wait... did she listen later on too...'

"How much did you hear? Lisa?" Sofia tried to keep her voice calm.

"Um... ah... I did... hear you mentioning that ..."

Lisa was silent. She clearly was thinking something.

"Lisa?"

"I heard you and Duke later too. I know that you are level seven."

"Hmmh. Did you tell anyone."

"N-no..."

Sofia was holding Lisa in her arms. They were both frozen and cautious.

The Duke had given Sofia's equipment back to her before leaving. She needed still few levels to leave to the capital. So Henry had told her that he will handle the situation and investigate while Sofia could continue her training with Lisa. The basics where quite much self-learning anyway. But now the maid had become an issue and there was no Duke to help Sofia out.

Henry had also advised Sofia to not take the thing inside the cloak out for now. She would need more levels to actually start using it. What it was, Henry didn't know yet, but he had told Sofia that it was strong and possibly dangerous, so she should be not having too much conversations with it now. Sofia had decided to let the thing be in sleep. There was not a fitting name for it yet either. She had time. And if it was dangerous, she needed to be ready for trouble, though, it didn't feel so ... ominous the times Sofia had talked with it.

Sofia stepped back.

Lisa looked like a dam was going to burst from her eyes.

"Miss? I am sowwy. I don't have anyone else to rely on and I don't want you to not trust me... miss, I am sorry!"

'I suppose it's useful... to have companions.'

"Explain exactly what you heard."

"Yes. Sniff* Miss. I didn't understand really much. But I know that miss has bad amnesia and that miss is level seven. I heard the Duke mention word blessed at some point. I don't know why he is so interested into you cloak though, but you were talking about something... about magic training. Has miss lost her powers for real?"

'This is pretty bad. I have to bullshit my way out of this.'

"Truth is that I have really awful amnesia and it is secret that I lost my levels. Now I have been able to raise my level up to seven. I seem to also be unable to use magic the way I used to be."

"That... is all? I... mean. I suppose... Thank you miss. I am just really confused, but again I am really young too, so I cannot know everything."

"It's fine. It's fine. But I would prefer you to not tell about this to anyone, probably better that you knowing about my level situation stays as our little secret. I don't think the duke would be extremely happy about it."

"Yes, miss. I promise not to talk about this and if I break it, I shall cut my own tail in half." Lisa wiped her eyes.

'That's pretty extreme.'

"Well now as you know this, I have been investigating a bit the theory of leveling."

"Eh?" Lisa went and sat down. She was smiling again.

"I seems that I need to get hurt or use significant amount of mana to level up. Killing something also works as long the target is high level... I think, might work with lower levels too, but I think it isn't as effective."

'Or I could eat living beings souls.'

Lisa was now eating something.

'So she was hungry! That little rascal! So much like my sister! Is she even listening?'

"Miss, what are you thinking?"

"Ah nothing. Anyway. I was hoping to kill something."

Lisa almost choke to her bread.

"M-miss?"

"Don't get me wrong. I am pretty sure, its one of the faster ways to gain levels..."

'... just like a game.'

"I see, um ah... that's what you meant. Well, you could try to kill bugs."

"Bugs? Lisa, you mean I should go and start stepping on ants?"

"No,no. I mean. The big bugs. Ah, we didn't read about them yet! I forgot as they are so normal and don't really pose a threat in most cases."

Sofia was silent.

'Big bugs. What is this maid taking, no matter, I want the same.'

"Could you explain what you are thinking Lisa?"

"Miss. if you really want to kill something just to level up... I have never heard it being something that is necessary for such thing... It's so dangerous to fight after all. Hmmh... If you really insist, we could lure bugs from near forest into a trap and then you could kill them."

"Eh? Trap bugs, sounds like a plan. How big are them?"

"Depends miss. If we are lucky, there could be spear worms, but I think we are just going to catch something much smaller."

"Spear worms... Lisa, you mean that the worm itself is one whole spear long or that it has a stinger of some sort."

"Eh. Both miss. They are one of the most easiest monsters that are made from calamity. Slow. Blind. Not really tough. I have killed few when I was a child you know. Only thing is that, if you hit the wrong end, they might sting you with their poison, but it's just paralyzing poison. Normally they live underground, but with a pit-trap, we could catch one or two."

Lisa looked at Sofia to make sure the sorceress was following.

"Eh? Continue please."

"Yes, miss. The pit-hole trap is fine. We can just wait on the edge of it. If there is worms near, they will eventually come for the bait and drill themselves from the edge of the pit-hole and then drop on the bottom. The moment they do that, miss can kill them with magic... I suppose. I used spears when I was younger."

"Lisa."

"Yes, miss?"

"Why did you hunt... these thing when you were young?"

"Eh? They are the most common monsters to be eaten. Even villagers, if there is nothing else to eat, will try to catch these fellows. Unfortunately in dry areas, normal spear worms won't live there. So people starve a lot."

"Well, Lisa. It seems to me, that today's schedule has been rewritten!"

"Miss?"

"We are going hunting today! What is the bait?"

'I am going to grind levels with worms! Hopefully this works. Need to try this once at least.'

"Um. The worms eat almost anything that is rotting. It takes a while though since the aroma from rotting meat has to spread in the ground. Normally one pours some water on the bait to make fluids from the rot to dug inside the ground. It takes hours, miss. You sure that..."

"Yes! Let's go to the kitchen and find something that is going to be thrown away."

"I-I see. You really want to do this... now?"

Lisa had a shocked face on her. She remembered the experience from her childhood. This was going to be messy.

'Where did the last drop of being a lady vanish from miss Rivermore! What have I done! My miss Rivermore is a monster!'

"Well, after you have eaten, then we go. We do this!"

As Sofia was watching Lisa, the maid's level was still saying "approx. 10", this was slightly strange. Considering that Sofia was able to see levels of most of the staff now and even few novice-knight's had their levels revealed. The maid was still... "approx. 10". She didn't mind it too much since this bug killing operation had gotten her full attention.

Sofia wanted to know how fast she would gain levels. There wasn't an absolute experience indicator, only percent to next level, but Sofia was going to make an experiment.

If she marked up the percent before killing one bug and then compared it to percent value after the kill, she would see the amount in percents gained per worm. Then, after leveling up eventually, she would make same calculation again. She would this way get to know how much the experience cap from one level to another changed. If the first time, she would gain 10% per kill, but on next level she would gain 8%, she could start approximate in the future how much she needed to every time to kill certain enemies to gain the next level.

Considering that probably the experience gained per kill wouldn't be stable value, she could only guess. Sofia wanted to know this though. It was at least something. The system was unreliable. Who ever made this shitty console into her eyes, should learn some development skill first and take more care of the products usefulness. Not mentioning their customers!

Lisa was smiling as she saw how happy and energized Sofia was.

Worm hunting it is then!

--------------------------------------------------------------

Three men were standing inside a small office. Blonde beauty was sitting on a small chair holding a quill in her right hand. She was poking the desk with it. The men were giving glances to each other. This was awkward situation. They had succeeded with the assassination in some sense, but at the same time, they hadn't.

"So. Gentlemen. One more time. You didn't burn their house down, because the little sister was killed and they now had hired seven mercenaries to guard their home? Am I missing something here? This was suppose to be done two days ago? But only fire I have heard of is the funeral of that whore?"

Woman stopped murdering her quill and put it down.

"Miss. That is correct."

"And still, you are enough arrogant to claim that the job is done? It's not even half completed! One dead! One alive! Hello? And the fucking Oakwoods now have surely the Duke's support as the girl died inside the fucking mansion!"

If someone was going to walk on the street under woman office, they could probably hear some her screaming. She calmed down and covered her face with her hands.

"Miss... we still need to eat. And if we don't get the money from you, we will get it from somewhere else."

"Are you threatening us?"

"I am simply pointing the facts. This isn't honest business."

"Yeah. I do see your point."

One of the men stepped forward. The woman took out a huge bag of coins.

"Then here it is. Twenty per person. The payment is inside. There is sixty silver coins inside the bag. You can count it."

Man grinned and the woman rose her left eyebrow.

'I see. They are like this. Greedy.'

"We want hundred coins or we are going to make a mess for you. You know that we are just normal thugs, it's not so hard for us, but how's your husband's house going to handle such hassle during these days? Hehehe."

Woman closed her eyes and sighed.

"Darling."

And arrow came from left. It pierced the man's head who was threatening them. The body was still in the middle of falling while the woman pulled a crossbow from under her desk.

The arrow sank into the throat of the man standing on the right side. The third man had only time to turn to look were the first arrow had come until a sword had been struck into his chest.

"Darling. Can you get rid of the bodies?" Woman was holding her head.

'Such a fucking pain this is. Like we were going to pay you in the first place. Reminds me why I hate these third level monkeys.'

"Sure honey. I am going to look into that Oakwood situation too. It's strange. I thought that we had an agreement with the Greenrock-house and the others, that we take care of the Oakwoods. Apparently they want the mines to themselves or something. This is rather problematic indeed."

"Hmm.. maybe. I suppose we need to have another meeting."

The man pulled the sword out and the thug was left on the ground to suffocate in his own blood.

"I suppose that is correct. Hey man, can you die faster. I need to cut you all into pieces soon and if you shake and spill your insides all around while I do it, it gets so damn messy."

Man walked next to the thug and struck the sword into the man's mouth.

"Huoh, Darling, we need a new carpet."

"Yes, that seems to be so. I go get Syylas help with the cleaning."

"Ah, yes. Could you while doing that, tell that damn butler to make some tea for me. I am starting to get headache again. It's pretty bad. I can't move."

"Oh. Surely Honey. Does it hurt that much?"

The man walked to the blond woman and gave her forehead a kiss.

"Not so much anymore. Thank you."

Woman gave him a wide smile. Then they kissed.