Chapter 37 - Maya Rosenwald P2
Chapter 37 - Maya Rosenwald P2
~37.2~
*****
I laughed dryly. "Heh. Yeah. That'll be me." I took a sip of my drink, which was just fruit punch. Despite it being called a tea party, it was more like a regular party. "You know how everyone has their mana checked at five years old, and a letter classification assigned based on how much? Well I suppose demons have theirs checked at one-year-old, considering how fast they grow up. If you are willing to answer, what were your readings? Just the letter classifications."
"Mine was S," Lanti said.
"SS," Rhia added.
"SS," Aira said.
""A,"" Celine and Christine said.
"SS," Helena said.
"SSS," Maya said. "That's as high as it goes."
"Officially, mine is SSS, too," I said. "But in truth, the reading was blank."
"Blank?" Helena asked. She and the others looked puzzled, except Maya and Lanti.
"Yes. I had to have my mana tested the old-fashioned way since the altar couldn't read it. One by one, somebody of each rank was brought in and our mana compared. They had to bring in the only two known SSS ranked people in Arcadia, The Demon Lord and The Beast Queen."
"So it was you," Maya said.
I raised an eyebrow, unsure what she meant.
"Everyone, may we take this conversation to somewhere more private?"
I raised my hand to snap my fingers, but she stopped me.
"No. Soundproofing isn't enough."
Lanti had a serious look in her eyes after Maya said that. "Very well. Come with me, girls." She led us out of the party and held her hand out. She formed a magic rune in her hand, turned it over, and dropped it on the ground. "This will take us to my villa. We can talk there with privacy. The rune will not teleport you if you do not consent. Just think it, and the rune will work."
Rune magic. Interesting.
"I'm triggering the spell in 3... 2... 1..." She snapped her fingers, and our surroundings instantly shifted. We were inside what looked like a training room. Nobody else was around. "You can show them here, Maya."
Maya nodded and stepped back. Her dress was backless, and from her bare back sprang a pair of demon wings.
My eyes widened, as did Helena's and the wolf twins.
"Allow me to reintroduce myself." She did not curtsy this time. "My full name is Maya Nacht Weltwald, daughter of Demon Lord Velarus Nacht and Beast Queen Mabel Weltwald."
"I see." For once, I was genuinely surprised. I hadn't expected that the first friend I made would be a princess of two different nations.
"To think I would meet the only other blank by happenstance. I knew of the existence of a human girl with mana so powerful that not even my parents could overcome it together."
I chuckled. "That explains why you were able to stand unbothered this afternoon when I formed the Detonation Catalysts."
She smirked. "You put enough mana into those catalysts to put most people on their knees and even cause discomfort to even an SSS."
"I thought you might be SS and were simply bearing the pressure gracefully, but in fact you were simply not bothered by it."
"No, not at all." She held her hand out, her palm facing me. "My mana was greater than my parents combined as well. Shall we see who has the most?"
"Very well," I agreed. I'll put out about five times what Lord Nacht did. If she can match or exceed that, she can have the win. I'm not concerned about winning this sort of competition anyway. A mortal could never compete with a Transcendent.
I held my hand up to hers.
"I'll proctor this," Rhia said. Each of you slowly ramp it up so that there's no sudden pushback.
We both nodded and began pushing mana through our hands. After sixty seconds, we both had brought it up to S level and kept going until we reached five times her father's mana.
"Looks like we're both SSS5."
She giggled as we both stopped. "Funny way to put that. You remember precisely how much mana my father has. That was five times his output. I take it SSS1 is using his mana as a baseline since he has slightly more than my mother?"
"Yes."
She sighed as her demon wings disappeared. "Everyone, please keep this to strictly between us."
"Of course, Your Highness," Helena said. "Your identity is safe with us."
"Don't call me that," Maya said. "And that's not what I meant. Don't say anything about our mana, mine or Eli's. I don't want my parents getting wind that we know about each other's unofficial ranking."
My eyes narrowed as I ran through theories in my head. "Why not?"
"They tried to set us up as playmates when you were found out, but I refused so you weren't told. When you were five years old, I was already a grown woman. I'm half demon, so I grew up fast like any other demon. They tried to force us to become friends back then, and I'm certain they'll stick their noses in now if they find out. I want to make friends on my own, not out of obligation. And I want any friendships I gain to develop naturally."
I nodded at every point she made. "I agree completely. I would have refused as well had I been told. And even now, I won't allow anyone else to dictate how my friendships go. That's our business alone."
"Thank you, Eli." The smile that followed was so bright that it made my heart skip a beat.
Gosh, she's beautiful. And we meld so well together. She really does remind me of her.
I smiled warmly at her. "Yeah."
The sound of somebody clearing their throat brought us back to reality. It was Lanti. "I'm tempted to say 'get a room'. If you two are done treating each other like eye candy, we should probably wrap it up here and get back to the party."
"Eye candy?" I glanced back at Maya and briefly noticed her cheeks were red, but Lanti reclaimed my attention.
"Yes. You were looking at each other almost like lovers. Is there something there, perhaps?"
"N-No! I wouldn't dare..." Maya said, almost as if defending herself. "We've only known each other for today. We're friends, no different than the rest of you."
"Dang, friend zoned," I said obviously fake disappointment to lighten the mood.
Maya giggled, and the others soon started laughing with us, too.
*****
Revision: 2025-2-12