Chapter 12

GREY

Caera and I walked downstairs to see Seris sitting on the couch sipping tea. "Hello Grey, Caera," said Seris as she put down her tea. No one else was in the room and I assumed no one was nearby because they wouldn't dare disrespect a Scythe.

"Hello Scythe Seris," greeted Caera as she bowed. I followed suit.

"Judging by the sudden bloodlust I assume Grey got wind of the marriage offer?" Seris teased. My face turned red and I noticed Caera's did too.

"Why are you here?" I questioned, trying to deflect the teasing.

"Aww, you're no fun. Anyway, I just came to check up on you." Seris said. "I wanted to see how your skills are progressing Caera."

"I'm doing great! Grey has helped me a lot! From swordsmanship to book smarts to being constantly paranoid that he'll attack me out of nowhere for 'ambush training'' said Caera with a bit of hostility at the end. I laughed sheepishly.

"That's good to hear. I'm glad you're taking care of my disciple while she's at school," said Seris as she eyed me down. "Define 'taking care of'' said Caera.

"I was teaching her the basics of basic survival," I said confidently. Caera gave me a weird look, "'Basic survival?' You keep ambusing us!" Caera exclaimed.

"It worked didn't it?" I asked teasingly.

Seris laughed slightly at our dispute. "Are you ready for the bestowment ceremony next month, Caera?"

"I'm excited! I'm hoping for an emblem." said Caera excitedly. "I wonder if it's possible for Grey to get one."

"No, it's not possible," responded Seris as she shook her head. "And why is that?" I asked, not that I wanted a spellform but I was just curious. "It just isn't," Seris said, refusing to elaborate. I knew it went deeper than that but I wasn't going to be able to get any more info from her.

This got me thinking, was something happening under the surface here in Alacrya? I still have yet to go to a town, I spent my entire time here with Caera in high society so I don't know how the common person is treated. Nor did I know much about the history here. I tried but it seemed everything was filtered, from simple transaction records to public events, some things didn't add up. There were events that happened at the same time and same place but records show no trace of that happening. Of course, the more public something was the "realer" it looked, to the point that I couldn't tell what was real or not.

I knew something was up but I didn't look into it farther than what I could find in the library. Since this was happening for decades–at least from what I could tell–there was probably a really powerful organization behind the scene that I didn't want to mess with. While I probably held some power from living with the Denoir's and my connection to Seris–albeit a weak one–something told me it would be a bad idea.

I talked to Caera about it but she brushed it off, saying I was crazy. The other reason I didn't push farther was because of Caera. I didn't want to drag her into anything I might find myself in.

My first suspicion was the sovereigns. They could be behind it and if they were I stood no chance as I am now. Everyone seemed to worship them since according to legend they gave us "mortals" magic. It was also a possibility that the one who killed Sylvia was one of these sovereigns.

"-ey, -rey, Grey!" Caera's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Yeah?" I asked.

"Are you ok? You just stood there staring into space. Seris also left." said Caera as she waved her hand in front of my face. "Yeah I'm fine, just a bit tired." I replied.

"Let's go see Sevren," I suggested, not knowing how to pass the time.

Caera nodded and we went to Sevrens room. I wanted to know what he had done with the beast will we gave him. As we approached his room we saw him and Noah standing outside Sevrens room with… garden clippers?

'So care to tell me what happened?" asked Noah as he stared down Sevren. "I was experimenting with something and it went haywire." replied Sevren.

"That doesn't explain the garden clippers," I interrupted. Sevren turned to us with a wide evil grin. "You guys are here! Come and help!" exclaimed Sevren as he pulled out two more clippers from his ring and threw them to us.

"Did Corbett prevent the maids from cleaning up your mess again?" asked Caera as she looked at Sevren with a judgemental look. Once again Caera called her dad by his first name, I should make a mental note to ask her later.

"Yeah, I got carried away with my test on the core you gave me," said Sevren. Noah raised an eyebrow, I wasn't sure if it wasn't sure if it was from what kind of test Sevren was running or the fact we were the ones that provided the base for his experiment.

"Alright everyone, get ready!" Sevren exclaimed as he opened his door to reveal that his entire room was covered with vines. They weren't small vines either, some of them were 50cm in thickness. It looked like an actual Elderwood guardian was forming here. "In my personal opinion I don't think that garden cutters will be enough," I stated.

I brought out Dawn's Ballad and started to cut the vines. Caera did the same with her long red sword. Noah used air blades to cut them as well. Sevren was the only one left to the garden clippers.

After a while we had finally got rid of all the vines. We left the debris up to the maids. I looked at the table which seemed to be the source of the vines. There lay the Elderwood Guardian beast core. It had wires sticking into it, I assumed it would insert mana to activate it. I didn't see any mana runes so…

"Sevren did you just flow mana into this thing without telling the mana what to do?" I questioned. "Well when I put mana into it the first time the device I was using caught fire. Today was the first time it did anything and in my defense, I wasn't expecting it to be that chaotic." replied Sevren sheepishly.

"This'll be a fun week," I mumbled as I prepared myself to deal with Sevren.

CAERA DENOIR

I barged into Grey's room to find him still asleep on his bed. An evil smile came across my face as I approached him. We hadn't done much this past week other than just train and hang out. Sometimes Grey would hang out with Sevren and Noah while I would watch them tinker with random artifacts. It was all so confusing so I never paid attention.

Today however was different. I got permission from Corbett to go out to town without a body guard. The only condition was that Grey would have to come with me, not that it was a problem. "Now, what method should I use to wake him up today?"

After pondering I knew exactly what I should do. I tied each of the corners of his blanket to the bed then, "GREY!! GET UP!!" I yelled into his ear. Grey tried to shoot up but was stopped by his blanket

Once he realized what had happened he looked at me deadpan, "Caera, did you tie my blanket to my bed?"

"~Maybe~" I said with a teehee expression. Grey sighed, "Could you please untie it?"

"Only if you agree to be my bodyguard for the day," I replied. Grey eyed me suspiciously, "that depends, where would we be going?"

"Oh just out to town, it would be just me and you," I replied.

Grey's eyes lit up at the mention of going out to town. It just occurred to me Grey has never been to a town. "Sure I'll come, only if you let me out of my bed though." replied Grey.

"Sure," I chuckled as I untied his sheet.

"Alright, I need to change and get ready. Get out unless you want to watch," laughed Grey. I rolled my eyes and left.

Once Grey got out he was wearing what I could only describe as casual clothes. I wonder where he got them, he never brought any with him when he came to Alacrya. "So, where do you want to go?" Grey asked.

"Well I know a few restaurants that would be good." I said, my excitement showing clearly on my face. "Alright," chuckled Grey.

SEVREN DENOIR

I was about to talk to Grey about the beast core he gave me when I noticed Caera and him were leaving the estate. The two of them were in casual clothing. "Something is up," I thought as I grabbed a mana suppression bracelet. I put it around my wrist to make sure that Grey couldn't find me.

I followed them from a safe distance as they got into a carriage and left for the town. "Why would they be going to the town?" I pondered. As I followed them I saw them go into a restaurant.

"Are they going on a date?" I thought. "They must be, why else would they be alone and in a restaurant." I thought. I knew Grey was a good person and he was someone that could take care of Caera but I couldn't help but be worried. They're too young to be doing anything.

Luckily they were sitting at an outside table so I didn't have to sneak inside. I knew about Grey's crazy instincts from Caera and testing them myself so getting too close would allow him to notice me.

Soon I saw a boy and girl approach Grey and Caera. They all seemed to know each other. "Oh good school friends," I thought.

They all sat down together and they all ordered food. After a while I was about to leave when I noticed what the waiter was bringing. It was a heart shaped cake with pink frosting. I was stunned at the sight. "A double date?" I thought.

The waiter put the cake down in between the unknown two. He then put a giant cookie in front of Caera and a cinnamon bun in front of Grey. "Oh good, it's just a date between the two others, good for them."

The unknown boy was a deep red while the unknown girl fed him cake. I then watched Caera stick her fork into Grey's sinnamon bun and fed it to him, WITH HER FORK. They kept eye contact the entire time. The other girl had a smug look on her face, she was probably trying to get them together.

Once they finished eating the four of them made their way to a clothing shop. I was about to follow when I felt someone grabbing my collar. I turned around to see Noah. "Sevren, what are you doing?"

".... Nothing…"

Noah sighed as he began to drag me backwards. "Let's go back to the estate, you don't need to stalk the love birds."

I tried to get away but his grip was too strong.

GREY

As Caera, Seth, Mayla and I entered the clothing store the feeling of being watched left me. I was honestly afraid Seth's face would stay bright red. Mine was too, I kept thinking about how Caera fed me some of my own food with her fork.

She did it so naturally. Almost second nature. "Why did she do that?" I thought.

"Grey, what do you think of this?" Caera asked me as she showed me a dress. It was the same color of her hair and fell down to just under her knees. It had no back and looked nothing like a 12 year old should wear. "It looks… mature." I spat out. Caera went bright red, "I see, I'll get it then."

I looked over to Mayla to see a sly grin on her face. I only grew redder. "Seth, what do you think of these?" asked Mayla as she held a numerous amount of different dresses for Seth to look at. "T-They look good on you," stuttered Seth.

"Thanks!" yelled Mayla with a huge smile on her face. It wasn't hard to see what was happening. Mayla had dragged Seth out and she probably thought of this as a date. Knowing Seth he's probably overthinking it.

"Seth, come on, let's go over here and leave those two alone." said Mayla as she dragged Seth to the other side of the store.

"H-Hey Grey? Can you come over here?" Caera asked, her voice was quiet, just loud enough so only I could hear her.

I went over to Caera to see she wearing a new outfit.It was a casual outfit but it fit her perfectly. She was wearing short shorts and a sleeveless shirt. I felt my face heat up as well as… "Curse these hormones!!"

"W-What do you think?" Caera asked, her face bright red. "It's a bit revealing," I admitted.

"...not that I don't like it," I mumbled so Caera couldn't hear me.

"Okay then I won't get it," said Caera, sounding a bit disappointed. I grabbed her wrist before she went back into the changing room. "No! Y-You look good in it!" I said, failing to look Caera in the eyes.

Caera somehow got redder. "O-Okay. I-I'll go buy it."

Caera went and bought the outfit, not changing out of it. "Not going to get any more?" I asked.

"N-No, I don't really like shopping. I came in because Mayla suggested it," replied Caera. As if on queue Seth and Mayla came out of the store. I expected for Mayla to have on a new outfit on put instead it was Seth. The only one who wasn't red in the face was Mayla.

Mayla looked over Caera, "Looks like you guys had fun."

"Y-Yeah we did." We replied together. "Thought so," Mayla said smugly.

"So where do you guys want to go next?" Caera asked, trying to further the conversation. "Why don't we try Karaoke?" I suggested. "What's that?" asked Caera.

"It's singing along to the lyrics of a song," I explained. Everyone's face lit up in excitement. I was ready, I had made this in advance. I even managed to record some old songs from my old world. One of the many books that I memorized was a music book.

"Where is it?" asked Mayla, clearly excited. This world doesn't have much entertainment, Alacrya has a bit more than Dicathen, but barely. So something as simple as Karaoke would excite them. I'm not going to lie, I was excited too. I only ever got to play Karaoke once in my past life. Nico remade an old computer into a machine only for a spoiled noble brat to destroy it when he saw us using it outside. It took all of my self control to not force-feed him concrete.

"Actually, it's not a thing here in Alacrya but I did manage to recreate it," I whispered.

"So should we go somewhere to use it?" Seth asked, now interested. "Yeah I know just the place.

***

Caera and I were on our way back to the Denoir estate. Our little Karaoke match was really fun. Caera was a really good singer and I like to think I did a pretty good job myself. I held a smug look on my face thinking about my singing skills, everyone was staring in awe. "Grey, what's with the smug face?" asked Caera.

"I was just thinking about my singing skills. You guys were stunned." I pridefully answered.

Caera looked at me weird, "Grey, I don't know how to say this in a kind way but, you suck at singing."

"What?!?! But everyone was stunned whenever I sang." I retorted.

"Grey, we were in stunned silence because of how bad you were." Caera replied deadpan. I fell down, comprehending my situation.

Caera laughed, "you don't even comprehend how tone deaf you are."

"Leave me alone," I replied as we entered my room. "Grey, can I see your sword?" Caera asked.

"Sure," I replied, handing her Dawn's Ballad. Caera tried to unsheath it but failed to. "Grey, how do you get this thing out?"

I took it from her and unsheathed it. "How did you do that?" Caera asked suspiciously. "That's a trade secret." I replied as Caera took a closer look.

"You said you found this by pure chance?"

"Yeah, my bond found it…" I said sadly as I remembered the day Sylvie found Dawn's Ballad for me. "Bond?" Caera asked, "Aren't they like an animal companion."

"Yeah, I used to have one. I left it with a friend because I felt she would be better without me," I replied. Caera had a look of pity, "Do you want to talk about it?"

I was about to open my mouth to deny her offer but no words came out. Can I trust Caera? She's done nothing but good, but then again, so has everyone else. Reynolds, Alice, Virion, Tess, Elijah, they all were great friends or family but despite that they didn't care when I told them. But this isn't that secret, it's much smaller.

Maybe I should try and open up more often. "Sure," I said as Caera got up. Caera suddenly slipped on the sheath and lost balance.

SEVREN DENOIR

Nessa had just informed me that Grey and Caera had just returned. If I knocked they would stop everything they were doing. So instead of knocking I opened the door to see something I never expected. There, on the ground, was Caera laying on top of Grey, their lips connected. I slowly backed out of there a smile on my face.