Sacrifices To Jupiter IX

She's finally calmed down.

She's not uncomfortable before me anymore.

I'd rather the kid see me as an idiot than a threat.

I smile at her like a stupid donkey, backing away.

I do respect her. I truly do. But a kid is a kid, easy to lie to, easy to control, easy to persuade.

She has ambitions, and she has a spirit, but at the end of the day, she lacks experience.

Mari, one day you'll become a queen. A star deserving of your name. A real princess. But every queen has to first serve as a pawn. For now, you're just Mira.

"Okay, okay!" I shout, making a reluctant expression. "I won't harass you!"

"You what?" Her sapphire eyes sparkle. "Really?"

I nod.

Of course that's a fucking lie. At the end of the day, I'm still a fucking imbecile.

I may have been acting. But I was also not acting.

This is the art of self-sabotage. Self-manipulation. If you want to deceive others, deceive yourself first. If you want to persuade others, persuade yourself first and foremost.

"Okay… then. But remember, you promised, yes!?"

"Yes, yes," I yess.

"Can you imagine 'status'? A window should pop up in your head," Mari insists.

Pop up? Pop up head? Yeah, that I can do. But I don't think she thinks what I think.

Window. Window? Hey, window!

"Nothing comes up," I tell her.

Mari pinches the bridge of her nose while exhaling through it. "Here,"

A transparent gray hologram forms over her extended palm.

Marisella |Wizard |F+||

Mana |F+|

Aura |F|

Wise |F+|

Life |F|

Gifts:

—Heal |F+|

Title:

—Apprentice |F+|

"Holy shit," I express my shock in the best way I can, gazing at the neon gray hieroglyphs that form. "What's up with this?"

I force my finger onto the panel, yet it only moves through the screen as if the panel doesn't even exist.

"This is the status window," she states.

"Fuck is the status window?" me states.

She sighs like a broken turbine, tilting her head backward. "Let's start from the beginning. At the top is my name, and beside it is my class. I'm a wizard."

"Aha, aha," I insist she continues.

"All angels are wizards. We don't really get to choose a class," she says.

"Followingly, goblins are warriors, beasters are warlocks, and elves are wanderers."

Great. New words. Can life not be simple?

I look at her with a face that assures I'm stupid and need an explanation—

"Wizards throw fire! Water! Bullets! Pew pew!" She makes a pistol gesture with her fingers.

"Warriors swing swords! Clutch-clutch! Swing swing!" she makes stupid sounds while making an 'X' with her fingers.

—Not that fucking stupid!

"Warlocks summon spirits! Large and mythical! Chao chao!"

The fuck is chao chao supposed to mean? She just came up with the word, didn't she?!

"Bao! Bao!" She raises her hands like paws and imitates a bear.

"Wanderers use runes! Crafts and wards! Blessings and curses! Scary—very!"

I look at her with genuine incredulity. What was that?

Forget about the bright future. A queen? No.

She's at most becoming a horse that neiggghhhhs.

"Neiggghhhh!" she neigggghhhs.

Oh my gosh! I can see the future!

"I guess it really works," she says like she discovered an unknown secret.

"What?" I ask.

"When I explain normally, you usually interrupt me. So I decided to take a different approach. You were right in your remark; I mistook you for a human. But you're not."

I gape.

Mari smiles in a way some Saintess Maria would. "I apologize. I'm sorry. It's fine. You'll be fine."

She pats my head.

"From now on, I'll treat you appropriately."

Her smile deepens, radiating holy light.

Okay, bitch. That's it. You're fucking dying. I don't care—

"Nowww onto the attributes! They're super-duper awesome! They're four of them! Mana! Aura! Wise! Life!" Mari rotates her hands, wagging her fingers. "Very cool! Very fun!"

Oh? Attributes? Sounds fun indeed…

"Mana is for majjjjic! Magic—good! Mana—good! More mana, more magic!" 

That makes perfect sense.

"Aura! You strong! Strong—good! Aura—good! More aura, more—" Mari swings her arm, flexing her nonexistent muscles. "Coooool!"

That wasn't cool at all. I guess she has her aura in the negatives.

Very informative. Please continue.

"Wise—smart! Smart—not stupid! Not stupid—not you!" She points at me as if revealing the secrets of the underworld.

Oh, she says I'm not stupid? Well, of course. Why would I be stupid? Wait.

"Life—live! Cultivate life—live long—soul strong! Live healthy! Life bery beautiful!" She waves her hands dramatically.

I punch her in the face. Her nose cracks as she falls back, the floor fixing her head.

Dear Goddess of Life, please forgive this humble follower of yours who's strayed from her path.

Unfortunately, I cannot.

But the Goddess will forgive.

My task is to arrange their meeting.

The horse whips into action. "You! You…"

She wipes the blood off her nose with the sleeve of her tunic and swipes her eyes across me.

"You promised not to kill me! You promised not to harass me!"

"You are a terrible liar, no? Yet you ask me not to lie?! What a hypocrite!"

I may be a strong demon, but I doubt even some hypothetical Demon King has enough energy to bicker with a girl in her teenage years.

"I…" I whisper with hatred. With hatred toward myself.

"I'm… sorry…" I say, but in my heart, third heart, I'm becoming less and less sorry, sorry just for the sake of being sorry. "I didn't kill you, for one."

"As for the second promise, it's not established yet. I've promised not to harass you, but that's my part of the deal. I still haven't said what's required of you."

This is quite a pathetic sight, isn't it? I can't control my body, or the words that come off my mouth, or even my thoughts, for that matter.

Mira— no, Mari, looks at me with a staggered expression. She sighs, bringing her hands up and infusing them in blue glows.

Heal |F+|

I laugh emptily. "Seems to me you've lied. Who was it, saying that they have no mana? A sly little fox."

"I didn't lie…" she bickers. "Healing doesn't require much mana, since it's a gift of mine."

"Look,"