9 Little Devil and Big Devil

"Evelyn!"

There was no mistaking that voice! The thing Evelyn had feared the most when she sneaked out to 'educate' Tristan was Amara waking up before she could return. It was definitely 'educating', by the way, and not just beating him up! The phrasing is very important, okay?

'Calling my full name, huh? What happened to little Evey and little miss? Humph, make one mistake and you show your true colors! No wonder you call your sister 'little devil', it's because you're the big devil!'

Evelyn turned around cheerfully, quite contrary to her inner feelings. "Amara! It's great that you're here so quick! Look, look… this little girl needed my help, and I'm such nice pers– bweh?!"

The redhead didn't react to her words at all, and started squeezing and stretching her chubby cheeks.

Her big, teary eyes looked at the redhead pitifully. "Ow ow ow ow… I-I'm shorry, stahp…"

"Trying to distract me? How old are you again? How old am I?"

The younger redhead whom she had just saved seemed quite satisfied just watching Amara bully her 'savior'.

'Do people in this world not know what a life saving grace is?! At least cry to distract her!'

A few minutes later, Evelyn held her swollen face pitifully. The color of her cheeks and her shiny pink hair looked almost the same now, and they felt slightly chubbier in her hands. But her pouting look didn't seem to faze Amara at all.

The older redhead seemed quite satisfied, having done her part as an 'adult' by punishing the naughty child.

She clapped her hands, as if to commend herself for a job well done. "Well, I see you've met the little devil already. Vivi, c'mere!"

And the tiny devil that Evelyn had saved glomped into the big devil's arms cheerfully. "'Mara!"

The redhead squeezed one of the child's cheeks, although much more gently than she had done with Evelyn. "Alright, I know you like to run around on your own, but this time is really too much."

The child seemed to feel a little ashamed and lowered her head with 'Uuw' sound that Evelyn found absolutely adorable. It didn't excuse the big devil from bullying her though!

'Aaw, even if it's not as much as what she does to me, how can the big devil bully such a cute little sister?'

After nagging for a while, Amara sighed helplessly and picked the two children up. Despite both of them being only around three years old and tiny, the older redhead wasn't too big herself, so Evelyn found it a little awkward to settle in her arms.

'Oh come on, not this again! It's so weird getting carried around! Big sister, can you not act like this?'

Evelyn could only whine in her heart and keep quiet. There's no need to provoke the big devil into bullying her again when she's finally moved on!

She was half tempted to lift her up with one hand just to show her that she's not a child anymore, but that would really be incredibly childish. It would just establish her image as an absurdly strong, gifted child with mental deficiency! Amara would make fun of her for at least a few weeks just for that! That big meanie!

"Well, let's get the two of you cleaned up first!"

Amara seemed to head for some place other than the third lord's mansion, but Evelyn didn't really pay attention. She didn't even care about what kind of scolding little Vivi was getting in her ears. Her attention was fully focused on the status window of Amara's sister.

[ Vivian Gilmore (Age 3)]

Level 8 [Exp: 41/45]]

Special Physique: Blessed Spirit

Physique: 30

Spirit Power: 55

Soul Value: 33

Vitality: 505

[ Enhancement (available): Pyromaniac ]

[ Affection: Stable ]

'I knew it! So she does have an enhancement just like her sister! But to think both of them have this 'Blessed Spirit' physique must mean that this Gilmore family was really quite something. No wait, more importantly, just what the heck is up with these stats?!'

When she saw Amara's vitality being over four hundred, Evelyn had just treated it as an exceptional case. But when both Amara and her sister had vitality that was several times that of herself, it gave her a bad feeling.

'I think… no, it's very likely at this point, I can't deny it. Probably among people born from these 'spirit eggs', I'm the one with an abnormally low vitality!'

Evelyn was lost in thought even by the time Amara had already arrived in a room that the pink haired girl had never seen before.

Only when she was plonked down on the soft carpet did she break out of her daze. Looking around the place, she was slightly startled. With a large bed, walk in wardrobe, and a modest amount of furniture, it looked slightly better than even her own room.

After putting the two of them down, the redhead started rummaging through the wardrobe. While Evelyn was looking around curiously, Vivian had already shot off like a bullet towards the vanity table and opened up a huge box full of colorful stones. Happily adding her new loot to the collection, the little redhead gave her a proud look, as if asking for praise.

'Oh wait a minute… wasn't she giving me some of those stones earlier? How come they're not mine anymore? Well… it's not like they're useful to me, and looks like she already forgot about the entire thing.'

As the gears in her mind turned a little more, she belatedly realized another thing. 'Didn't her status say her affection for me is already 'stable'? Hmm… strange. For mom and dad it started from 'stable', and now it should be quite close to 'strong'. And for Amara, it's 'budding'… so I guess it should be like this…'

'Alright I got it… So, if someone has good thoughts about you, the affection should start from budding, then go to stable, and then strong. But for a child, like Vivian, it's very easy to form a very strong 'good feeling' if she gets a powerful impression. No wonder her affection for me directly went from budding to stable in one go! Great!'

Amara walked out of the closet and stared blankly at the mud all over the carpet—no thanks to Vivian running around. Evelyn gave her a 'Don't look at me, I didn't do it!' look, and the redhead almost popped a vein.

Heaving a deep sigh, she pulled out a red and green frock that looked like they would fit either of the two girls, and put them on the bed.

The ten-year-old Amara wondered if she would be getting wrinkles before reaching adulthood, being responsible for taking care of these two little troublemakers. "Alright, I'm going to wash this little devil up. You take that time to change into new clothes, okay?"

The pink haired girl innocently waved goodbye. "Okay!"

Evelyn didn't think her clothes were dirty at all, but she didn't care if she had to change. No point in arguing over pointless things. After changing, she tried to use her probe skill on various objects in the room. Anyway, if Amara left her alone in the room knowing her habits, she already acknowledged that anything can be turned upside down and anything can be broken.

It was all normal as expected, so she was slightly disappointed. She was especially disappointed with the big box of stones, as all of them only showed 'Shiny Stone' when probed. Although probing objects usually didn't provide much detail in the first place, whether it was a regular object or not could still be determined.

For example, the status window when she had probed that recording orb clearly stated that it was a 'Imagery Crystal: Grade 3', while a normal glass ball would just have been shown as 'Glass Orb' or something similar.

It didn't take long for Amara to walk back out of the bathroom with a little steamed bun looking thing rolled up in a towel in her arms. After dressing her up, the redhead put her little sister on the bed.

Grabbing Evelyn by the waist, she plonked her on the bed beside her sister too.

"Alright, now that both of you are done cleaning up, care to give me an explanation?"

Evelyn opened her mouth and closed it again.

'Wait a minute, even if she caught me, she doesn't know what I did! Ohhh, I can still get away with it!'

Thankfully she hadn't blabbered too early!

"Actually, I'm not sure what's going on… I just heard a lot of noises and was curious so I checked it out. Then I found a duck was trying to hurt her, so I chased it away…"

Amara shifted her imploring gaze to Vivian next, and the little redhead gave her older sister an aggrieved look. "I-I not bad girl, I wash jushth cowwecthing gemsh, and I shaw a wittle burd, and I play wid burd, but ith become fire… t-then, then big burd bithe me, and I run. Big shishter save me, wove…"

She started bawling while clinging to the girl next to her, and Evelyn could only pat her on the back awkwardly. She felt that the little girl was more embarrassed than distressed from the ordeal.

'No wonder she didn't speak! Looks like she's smart enough to realize her speech is broken, but she can't speak clearly yet. Must be very embarrassing. I don't really get all the babbling, but I suppose she was just collecting stones and had an accident…'

Amara was rubbing her head as if she was getting a massive headache.

"Well, you two play together here. I'll be right back…"

After walking out of the room and making some distance, Amara stomped her feet several times and pulled at her hair in frustration.

"I told her to not leave this building! I told her! Aaargh! And show she's gone and cooked the goddamn babies of the first elder's pet duck. How in the hell do I deal with this?!"