We Are Very Similar, Alvin

The young woman narrowed her eyes as she looked at Alvin. "Do I know you?" Even though it seemed like he knew her, she had absolutely no idea who he was. 

Alvin tried to calm himself. "Eh? Ah, right! Ahem! No, you don't. However, I doubt there are many people in the academy who don't know who you are."

"I see..." Milia nodded. "You are also a student there then, I believe?"

"Yes," Alvin then took out his MCOM and opened his academy's registration ID to show her.

Milia slightly nodded once again. "That makes things easier. I need to talk about the incident with the fishing boat earlier. The sir on your side should be your father, right? It would be nice to hear the recount of the story from him."

Lucau was puzzled, though. "You talking about the Magical Sea Beast that swallowed my boat? I already told the Marina Guards everything that happened today."

"Hey, you two," Felia intervened. "Are you going to keep the visit standing up at the doorsteps?"

"Right, right!" Alvin quickly came back to himself. "Milia, please come to the living room so we can talk. This is nothing like your mansion, but it's definitely better than staying outside."

Milia had no reason to refuse. She looked at her bodyguards outside and gave them an order. "You wait for me here. I shouldn't take long."

One of the bodyguards didn't like it. "Young lady, we can't allow you to be alone with strangers."

Milia's expression turned dark. "I told you to wait outside. Did you not hear me?"

The bodyguard sighed and accepted the order in the end. "Yes, young lady. We will wait."

Milia then entered the house with Lucau and Alvin. As for the bodyguard, he took out his own MCOM and made a call, explaining to his employer what had just happened. Soon, an answer came from the other side. "Forget it. No one knew you were going there anyway. Just make sure to not let a single fly enter the house."

"Yes, sir!" The bodyguard quickly accepted the order and finished the call.

Inside, Milia was gathered with Felia, Lucau, Alvin, and Linfel. 

"I'm going to prepare something to drink. Linfel, come and help me," Felia. 

"Eh? But I have no idea how to prepare anything..." Linfel, indeed, had never eaten before, so he was clueless.

Those words puzzled Milia, though. "You... don't know? But all Familiars come with knowledge of the various types of dishes and drinks of our world. Is he a defective one?"

Lucau, Alvin, and Felia felt a chill in their bodies. 

"Errr... no, nonono!" Alvin quickly tried to cover for Linfel. "When I created him, I specially configured his AI to not have any knowledge about such things."

"Why?" Milia didn't understand. It wasn't like such knowledge would make the Familiar worse or anything.

"Why? Why indeed? Hehe... Hehehe! I just liked to mess with the options, I guess? Hahaha!" Alvin answered with a cheap smile.

At the same time, his father whispered in his ear. 'Is it true?' Little did he know that a Magus's hearing ability was exceptional, so Milia heard everything.

Alvin nodded at his father. 'Have you never noticed that Felia can do pretty much all chores? Do you truly think that I taught her that?'

'Now that I think about it, your dormitory in the academy would probably been half destroyed by now if you were the one responsible for its upkeeping...' Lucau answered, knowing his son very well.

Alvin's mouth twitched. "I'm not that bad!"

"Said the kid who almost put my house on fire not long ago," Lucau answered without caring at all.

"I was five! How was it not long ago?! It's been a decade!" Alvin wanted to cry already. They weren't even whispering anymore.

It was then that Felia commented. "Well, he did indeed almost put half of the dormitory down... twice..."

Alvin bashed his head on the table at the center of the living room. Why is his familiar doing this to him? Did he mess up with the creation process?

*Psfff...*

Only then did they notice the girl trying to hold her laugh.

Linfel then patted Alvin's shoulder. "It's okay, Alvin. Now I see we are very alike. I got an entire boa-"

*Pah!*

Alvin and Lucau immediately grabbed Linfel's core, stopping Linfel's words. "You just shut up!" The idiot wisp almost handed himself out. No one knew he was responsible for destroying the boat, after all...

Alvin glanced at Milia, who tried to hide her smile with not much success. He got all red again, feeling like burying his head on the ground. Linfel and Lucau didn't know, but Milia was like a goddess in the academy, and here he was, being humiliated by his family and a wisp he barely even knew! "Enough with the chores thing. Felia, Linfel, go prepare something for our visit to drink." He just wanted to change that topic already.

Felia then pulled Linfel along, both going to the kitchem. There, Felia used her Magic Energy to create a simple sound barrier and spoke to Linfel. "Sigh... I completely forgot about this detail. Indeed, we Familiars are AIs, so we obviously have many random things added to our memory during the moment of the creation of our souls. Linfel, try to not mention such things anymore."

"Is it that bad to not know how to do chores? To be honest, I truly have absolutely no idea how to do any of this..." Still, Linfel was determined. "However, I'm very willing to learn!"

For some reason, Felia felt like the whole academy would go down in flames if he tried. Indeed, she could see the similarities between Linfel and her master. "Errr... let's not mention it anymore, shall we? Just look how I do things, and that should be fine."

In the living room, Lucau looked with a smile at Milia. "That's a lovely smile, young lady."

Milia was taken aback and immediately went back to her cold expression. "What smile? I don't know what you are talking about."

"Just now-"

"I don't know what you are talking about," Milia insisted, looking away.

Lucau shrugged his shoulder. "Yes, yes, you don't..." He then went back to the main topic. "So, why the sudden visit?"

Milia closed her eyes for a moment before speaking, "I came here due to the incident with the Magical Beast in the ocean that you were involved with."

"That much I know," Lucau nodded. "But as I said, I have already given the full report of the event."

"Yes," Milia continued. "The Marina Guard called a Magus to check, and I was selected to carry out the investigation. I found traces of high-level Magical Energy in the water. It became clear to me that someone had tried to lure the beast out of the water, so I'm making this visit to gather more details from you. After all, you were the victim. Do you know anything else that could be used to help with this investigation?"

How could Lucau not know? The culprit was right there in the kitchen, learning how to make tea... not that he would say that, of course. "I'm sorry, but it was too fast. First, I got a lot of Tunas, then the White Stripped Demon Whales arrived. Lastly, they all fled when that monster appeared. Now my boat is history..."

Milia narrowed her eyes. "Following the traces, it indicates that it originated right where your boat was located. Are you sure you don't know anything?"

Lucau was an old fox, so he showed an angry expression in response. "Are you implying I lured that thing out of the water just to have myself killed and my boat destroyed? I'm sorry, miss, but that doesn't make much sense."

Milia shook her head. "Perhaps that wasn't your intention. Perhaps someone was truly just trying... who knows? Gather more Tunas for you to capture, and things spiraled out of control?"

Lucau and Alvin couldn't help but feel impressed. To think this girl would hit the nail that easily. Of course, they still couldn't mention the truth. "Hum... I definitely tried to attract more Whiskers Tunas, but I used my Undersea Magic Wave Generator to do that, like I did so many times. Could it be that it got some issue and ended up calling that Magical Beast?"

Milia pondered a bit and couldn't discard that possibility, even if it was hard to believe. "Such equipment shouldn't have the capability to achieve such result. However, I will admit it is possible. Unfortunately, the Level Two Magical Beast ate your whole boat, so I can't check that anymore."

Lucau nodded. "That's a bummer indeed. By the way, I'm going to file for insurance tomorrow, so I should get a similar boat to my own again. If you want, you can check the Undersea Magic Wave Generator in it when I get the boat from the insurance company."

Milia sighed. "It's pointless. I would need the same one that was taken by the beast."

Felia then came to the room with several tea cups filled with warm tea. "Here, Miss Milia. It is simple, but I guarantee the quality."

Milia nodded and took a sip out of respect. "It is indeed very good, thank you," she said without a change of expression.

Seeing that she wasn't getting anywhere, she decided to end the conversation there, even though she felt like they were hiding something. "Anyway, it seems like this case will go without resolution. I will just add that it might have been a defective Wave Generator in the report." 

Milia didn't really care too much about this case. There were no deaths, and any prof was gone with the sea beast. She only dug it deeper out of curiosity. Since the victim himself didn't seem to want to talk, she had no reason to waste more time here. It was all part of the task given by the academy, after all, and she has completed it.

Milia then got up, preparing to leave.

"Ah, wait!" Yet, Alvin couldn't help but call her attention. 

Felia and Lucau looked at him, puzzled. Why is he stopping her?

Naturally, so was Milia. "Is there anything else you wish to add?"

"Eh? Errr... No, not really." Alvin was a little lost at what to do. It wasn't every day he had the chance to talk with someone like her. If he tried as much as exchange a single word in the academy, he would probably be blocked by her legion of bodyguards before she even noticed his existence. Due to the difference in talents, they were in different classes, too.

Lucau looked at that and finally understood, so he just faintly smiled and said nothing.

Finally, Alvin remembered something and decided to ask. "I just wanted to ask you something else. That Level Two Magic Beast. Have you found which one it was?"

Lucau was taken back to that day by that question. Indeed, he was also curious about it.

Milia shook her head, though. "Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out. By the time I arrived, it had gone back to the bottom. However, the few debris that remained were taken, and I should get a result by tomorrow. The teeth marks on them should point out which type."

Alvin's eyes lit up. "Alright! I'm going back to the academy tomorrow anyway, so I'll ask you then. Would that be a problem?"

Milia pondered a bit and shook her head. "It's not a problem. Very well. I'll let my personal know." She could have just said she would send a report through the MCOM. However, she still thought something wasn't right, so she might as well use this opportunity to find out what.

Milia left the house, followed by her many bodyguards. Soon, they entered several vehicles and left the premises. 

Once they returned inside, Linfel finally came out of the kitchen. "Did I really have to keep hiding?"

"Asked the wisp who almost talked about how he destroyed my father's boat to Milia and got busted," Alvin answered helplessly.

The wisp looked away, pretending to not hear anything. "It's such a nice day today, isn't it?" It was night...

"Hmph!" Alvin decided to let it slide. 

It was then that an arm appeared around his shoulder—it was his father. "Now, now, now... Why don't you tell your father more about that young lady? You seemed very interested in continuing that conversation instead of just letting her go away."

Alvin bitterly smiled. He should have seen it coming.