How Many are Left

"Will you be spending the week with me, Elaine?" Nia asked as she looked at Elaine with expecting eyes.

Rose and Luna's eyes narrowed at Nia's question and quickly said, "Elaine has to prepare for the trial so she will be very busy."

Nia looked downcast at her maids answer but Elaine said, "The other Sins can do it instead. Say, Nia how about we spend the whole week together?"

"YES!!!" Nia practically screamed in excitement at Elaine's question.

The two maids were visibly upset but could not do anything about it because of look of excitement on Nia's face. Elaine giggled when she saw the reactions of the other two.

After a few more hours of talking and Nia playing with Rose, Luna, and Elaine, it was time for the day to be over. Elaine left after dinner.

The next day both Cassandra and Naomi came back by lunchtime with Freya and Eris and all four of them were shocked to see Elaine eating with a happy Nia and grumpy Rose and Luna.

The days passed by until the week was over and everyone was in the courtyard. Nia looked around and noticed that there were visibly less candidates than the last time everyone was gathered.

"How many are left?" Naomi muttered under hear breath in a somewhat sad tone but was heard by the group.

"Well it has been a whole year since everything started so many must have died then and in their haste to get stronger than the others they must have lost their lives due to mistakes." Cassandra said as she gave Naomi a small hug.

"They must not have listened to their maids since they were probably taught similar things to what Rose, Luna, Freya, or Eris taught us." Nia said as she rubbed her face on Naomi joining the hug causing her to blush.

Nia saw that Cassandra and Naomi were close and that they wanted to be close to her also, so she started being more affectionate with them both during the week and learned that it was fun to tease them since no one could get used to her beauty and charm that kept growing along with her mastery over LUST. It seems that LUST was a lot more than what Nia first thought when she noticed her increase in charm.

After a few more minutes of talking and teasing, Elaine and the other Sins arrived.

"333 girls in each Sin division. That's how many of you there was a year ago." It was not Elaine who spoke but Nora crimson eyed Sin of Wrath.

"Out of 333 girls of Envy only 238 Remain, of which most died because they were jealous of the other Envy girls and fought each other."

"Out of 333 girls of Lust only 168 Remain, of which most died outside in different cities and villages because they were not strong enough to protect themselves from men and women who wanted them for their own."

"Out of 333 girls of Greed only 199 Remain, of which most of them died after being caught trying to steal from either the cities or the merit hall."

Nora spoke about how these girls died and a wave of embarrassment washed over most of the other girls.

"Now that I've said that I will also announce the first trial will begin tomorrow and it will start with the Envy girls. The next day will be the Lust girls and the third day will be the Greed girls." Nora said and then proceeded to tell everyone about the rewards and the 1v1 fights meant to cut the number of candidates down by half.

"For the Greed girls since there is an odd number of you girls we will have a fight between two girls right now. Is there anyone that wants to go now and yes the winner will still have to go again on the third day." Nora spoke out loud.

She looked around and sighed in disappointment when no one raised their hand but as she looked out again she was surprised to see a small hand being raised.

Not only was Nora surprised but the two girls next to her. One was beautiful in fact Nora thought that she was too beautiful and the other one next to the girl with her hand raised had an aura around her that makes others envious of her.

That's right the girl who raised her hand was Naomi and the other two girls next to her were Cassandra and Nia. The maids were in the back of the courtyard making stands turning half of it into a fighting arena.

Nora was happy that there was a volunteer and told Nia to get in the arena.

"What is your name little one?" Nora asked.

"Naomi" She said with a small voice.