Chapter 37 - Maya Rosenwald P4
Chapter 37 - Maya Rosenwald P4
~37.4~
*****
I stood up and turned around. "You know, you two were very pretty as blondes." They blushed with my compliment, and I snapped my finger. "Have you thought about trying that again?" I just used my illusion magic to turn their hair blonde.
Their eyes widened, they exchanged glances, looked back at me, blinked a few times, and their faces reddened. Aliana turned around and faced the wall and Liliana walked up to me. She grabbed my sleeve, and looked down at my arm, but didn't speak aloud.
"Eli, please turn our hair back."
"You don't like it?"
"It feels wrong."
"Do you want to talk about it later?"
"Not really. It's just, Liliana was born with white hair, and it feels out of place to be blonde now. Aliana feels the same about her black hair."
"When we eventually go back to the living world, do you want me to change Serah and Stella's hair color to match Lily and Ally?"
She gasped and looked up at me. "May we think about that?"
"Of course. You can change however you want as many times as you want. I'll help no matter what you want." I snapped my fingers and their hair colors reverted to white and black. "I think you look beautiful either way, and the way you reacted was adorable."
She let go of my sleeve and turned around. "Thank you, Princess."
"You can ask to be spoiled sometimes, you know. You don't have to be prim and proper all the time. And it was cute when you used my name."
"Your name?"
"Yes. You didn't notice, huh? When you grabbed my sleeve, the first word to come out of your mind was 'Eli'."
"Oh. It was, wasn't it..."
"Ally, this goes for you, too. Both of you. I know you keep yourself composed like this and take everything very seriously out of loyalty to me. You don't want to mess up anything and disappoint me. But I want you to understand that you'll never disappoint me. Drop a cup and it breaks. Grip a plate too tightly and it breaks. Get upset and yell at me for something or another. Hit me in a sparring match. You could walk up to me right now and slap me in front of everyone, and I won't think any less of you. In my mind, you are my sisters. You've been with me through everything. Living world, Athas, Atlantis... so never hold anything back with me. AN-Y-THING. Got it?"
Both of them smiled at me and Ally said, "Princess, you seem to be on a warpath to give everyone a measure of mental peace and happiness."
"I want everyone I love to feel better, and I mean every word."
"I absolutely believe you. I feel so happy to hear you say we're your sisters."
"As do I," Lily added. "Thank you, Eli."
"Thank you, Eli."
I gave them a warm smile then sat down. The rest of the room was looking at me quizzically.
"What?"
"Heh." Alethea smirked at me.
"Why are you all looking at me like that?"
"You just had an entire conversation with Lily and Ally, but from our point of view it just looked like you were making faces at each other," Michelle said with a shrug. "It looked a little strange. Like, we know what was going on, but it was honestly pretty comical seeing you three make those faces with very little context. The only part we had any clue about was when she grabbed your sleeve with her face red." She eyed Lily. "That was really cute, by the way."
Lily fidgeted and looked away, her face reddened again.
"What can I say?" I shrugged. "My sisters are cute."
"Sisters?" Alethea repeated. She glanced between me, Lily, and Ally a few times, then settled on the twins. "Hmm."
"What? Don't tell me you're questioning that. You and Athy are no different."
"You're not wrong..." She shrugged.
It seemed like she was thinking deeper about it. Maybe I'll ask her about it tonight. "Alright, let's get back to-"
"Eli, before you do," Luma said.
"What's up?"
"Are you going to show everything from the start of our first year to the World Tower?"
"Yes." I nodded.
"Including the romantic things?"
"Why are you asking."
"I'm curious about how you developed feelings for me."
I giggled at her. "You have it bad right now."
"Well... yeah."
I could see her face flushed.
Yeah. I'm glad she's happier now.
*****
The next morning I went to the office before classes began to discuss the dorm change. The staff were receptive about the idea once I told them Serah and Stella were my attendants back home. Not exactly the truth, but close enough to not be a lie either, and it seemed that's what they wanted to be. If it made them happy, I didn't want to stop them, especially after basically telling them to make their own choices. We're set to switch dorms after school hours.
"Oh, Maya!" Fourth period was the first class I shared with her. It also happened to be the one class I had with both Serah and Stella.
"Oh my," she said as I approached her with the twins behind me. "Are you related? They have the same shade of blonde hair as you, and have similar..." she eyed our breasts, "features."
I snickered. "Wondering eyes tell no lies."
"It's completely normal for girls to compare each other like this."
She was blushing, so I wanted to tease her a bit. I patted her head, leaned in, and whispered, "Look all you want. Just don't touch unless you're ready to accept the consequences."
"Consequences? What do you-?"
"I'm just joking. But you know if you ever want to go to a bathhouse, you won't have to imagine anything." I smiled and turned to introduce the twins. "Anyway, these are-"
"Wait, back up. Bathhouse? You do that?" She had stars in her eyes.
"Uh, yeah. It's normal in Aindrea. No mixed bathing, but the three of us, my mom, and my aunt went to the bathhouse together all the time." I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the twins. "It was actually one of the few times my shadows would come out in the open."
"Shadows?"
"It's why I didn't introduce them yesterday. These are my cousins." I gestured at them and they each curtsied.
"I am Serah Aindrea. I am Princess's attendant."
Maya raised an eyebrow. "Princess?"
I sighed and shrugged. "They started calling me the Princess of Aindrea when we were kids. It stuck."
"Technically speaking, it's not incorrect. You're not a royal princess, but you are the daughter of the current head of Aindrea, so calling you the Princess of Aindrea is no inaccurate."
"Just please don't mimic them. I've been trying to get them to call me by my name, but they won't. I don't want others to do what they do."
She smiled apologetically. "No worries. I won't call you anything you don't want me to."
"Thank you. Anyway..." I gestured to Stella.
"I am Stella Aindrea. I am Serah's younger twin, and I also serve Princess."
Maya snickered. "I want to mimic them so bad."
"Hey! You said you wouldn't!"
She laughed. "I said I wouldn't, and I won't. But I want to. Hehe."
"Yeah, yeah." I glanced at Serah. "Connect us, please. All four of us."
"Connect us?" Maya asked.
*****
Revision: 2025-2-12