Chapter 30.2 Conversations 

Not a single clue in a century and a half! Beings like her mother are capable of disappearing without a trace, hiding for centuries without being found or recognized, and then returning. Nurarihyun is a perfect example! This is exactly what Tenno Hinako has been hoping and waiting for all these years.

Everyone hoped to meet the obnoxious and fidgety mother at the market, or in her favorite restaurant, in her bar, finally, just for the sake of the mother and arranged. But no, she was all gone. But she and her mother are long-lived, and they know how to wait for a long time. Hopes and illusions had just been painfully shattered, and the shards, turned to decay, were blown away by the wind. It hurt.

The door opened wide and a girl with long black hair and a purple kimono burst into the room. Without saying a word, she embraced the priestess, who burst into tears. The mother and son remained silent. The woman watched the events with mixed feelings, for she had heard much about both Hinako-sama and her mother and was fully aware of their status.

The boy, on the other hand, saw them as nothing more than people in mourning. He knew what grief was and realized that the words of strangers meant little in such a case, so he remained silent. He was only interested in the fact that the familiar spider woman seemed to be quite close to the emperor.

But he was even more interested in the two children, about three years old, who stood in the doorway and watched the girls with interest. He took a deep breath on reflex and immediately realized everything.

The Spider Twins, two pretty girls in pink and orange kimonos, with the same short black hair as their mother, but their eyes were different. The girls' eyes were violet, a few shades darker than mine. It was strange and interesting, because that New Year's Eve was blurred in my memory, with gaps. Turning to the girls (despite their obvious age in terms of energy), I calmly approached them and crouched down in front of them, smiling.

— Hello, little ones. My name is Sora Hoshino. What's your name?

— Ioshi. — The girl in the pink kimono.

— Madoka. — In orange.

— Nice to meet you. Your mother chose your names very well, it suits you.

— Our mother is the best. — Madoka nodded confidently with a very unchildlike expression.

— It couldn't be otherwise. — confirmed the other sister.

Wow... what a bunch of kids! No, I had expected the daughters of the Seer of Destiny to be unusual, but not this unusual. Talking to them proved to be difficult for me. In the sense that I struggled with the cognitive dissonance of seeing three-year-olds and hearing an adult speak, and the stares, as if trying to enlighten, to see something mysterious. Sometimes they even blinked in an adult way. At such moments, I felt a strong shudder of magic around me, but it was nothing.

It felt like someone had walked over your grave, which is the best way to describe it. If the first time I was just stunned, then after I fell into a light trance and lit the inner fire, brightly, powerfully. After that, the feeling of coldness and the slight creepiness in my chest disappeared, and the girls began to blink from time to time.

With my back turned, I didn't see the girls' mother close her eyes a few times and start to massage them with her fingers, her tears coming out. And then the meeting was abruptly stopped — the mother and I were literally thrown out the door with the excuse that the mistress needed to come to her senses. The meeting was rescheduled for the next day.