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The Shadows Hiding Within the red Flower

Iris Midgar was tired of it, tired of being forced to meet their expectations and standards by her royal life. Growing up being fed with praises and achievements had made her the way she is in the future. But what if one fortunate encounter had changed that for the better or for the worse.

lanceron2Writes · Anime et bandes dessinées
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2 Chs

New Peaceful Everyday life... LIKE HELL IT IS!

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Chapter 2 : New Peaceful Everyday life… LIKE HELL IT IS!

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You ever get that feeling where you think about your past actions and cringe at them? Yeah, he's having that one moment right

Well, that was only reserved for cringe memories of course. But at the moment, where he should be cringing he was annoyed as hell. 

"Ne, ne, are we going to train or not? You said we'd train, it's been days! " 

An annoying red-head prodded on him, he'd been peacefully sitting around the forest thinking of a cool finishing move when this little shit came out of nowhere and started annoying him, poking him with a fucking stick

Dude, what was he? A goddamn beetle? A dead body? 

This girl's been annoying him for the past three days after she yapped to him about 'Taking responsibility' and made him do a stupid promise about training with her.

And take responsibility for what?! Health insurance for child psychology with a minor in pain? 

Okay, maybe he did deserve some karma for quite literally giving her a breakdown. 

But if she continues this, he's gonna give her a different breakdown in the form of breakdancing on the floor, each limb slapping her in the cheek every time he spun. 

…Okay that sounds like a cool move, put that in the move-list-to-workshop-later. 

Cid's right eye twitched when he felt the godforsaken stick prod on his shoulder again. 

"Ne, ne, ne–"

Look, he was a man of focus. A man who's sights are only set on a single task, becoming an Eminence In Shadow. To achieve that, he needs to be precise, quick, stealthy, classy and very fashionably stylish in his movements and fighting styles. 

And all of that required patience, the patience to be consistent with his goal. So naturally he had to be patient as well, he'd already spent his previous life training rigorously for magic, now that he had magic in this life his patience was on all time high. 

A simple annoying–

"Ne, Cid-kun. Who's Steve Jobs and what's ligma? I heard you mumble that to me yesterday." Iris asked innocently. 

–God dammit! 

"Princess-chan, just because being annoying can be a role for anyone doesn't mean you have to be in the number one position for it." Cid said while gritting his teeth in annoyance. 

"Huh?!" The red-haired princess furrowed her brows. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Oh it's nothing, I wouldn't want to be rude to a princess." Cid rolled his eyes, as cool as he is, his patience wasn't unlimited especially when you're constantly being annoyed by a brat every HOUR OF THE DAY.  "Don't want some rude profanities coming out of that filter."

"I can see your eyes rolling." Iris deadpanned. 

"I'm pretty sure anyone with a working pair of eyes can." 

"You're being awfully rude today, Cid-kun."

"Who's fault is that?"

"...No one?" Iris blinked innocently "Do you actually just have a side where you're mockingly sarcastic or is this your true self? Well, considering a few days ago…"

Cid groaned. 

Instead of poking him with a stick this time, she dropped the annoying piece of branch down and started shaking him. "Come on, it's been three days and I haven't seen you train at least once."

"I AM training." Cid retorted, closing back his eyes and returning to his brainstorming.

Iris blinked again. The young girl was aware of many forms and methods of training oneself from her lectures, having done some of them herself to see if they were any effective as the teachers had implied, some were good, some were confusing while others were just factless ramblings. 

But never had she heard of a training where one would just sit idly and mumble to themselves. She'd deduced that this was certainly no meditation as that needed to relax and empty your mind, what he was doing seemed to be the opposite(Ignore the fact she was intentionally poking him with a stick) 

Or maybe it WAS a form of training, one that she wasn't aware of. 

Out of pure curiosity, Iris stopped annoying Cid and sat down next to him. Closing her eyes and mimicking whatever Cid was doing.

When he noticed she wasn't prodding him anymore, Cid curiously opened one eye and noticed Iris sitting next to him who seemed to be imitating every move he made. 

Well, at least she wasn't being unbearably annoying now. You'd think she would be repulsed and be distant from him after what he did, but nooooooooo, instead she flocked and attached to him like a goddamned flee. 

Really shouldn't have taunted her that day. 

One curious thing about the girl that made him ponder about things though, is that she's arguably nineteen or twenty times stronger than before – Still nowhere his full power though, but enough to give him an actual fight – which was pretty interesting on its own, not to mention his magic being absorbed into her… 

Cid's mind flashed back to a day after that "Make-pwencess-cry" incident happened. 

… 

Cid unceremoniously let himself be dragged by a certain red-haired princess, the girl had suddenly showed up on his free time and dragged his ass to the forest they fought. 

To do what you ask? Simple, spar again. While it did peak his interest, he wasn't in the mood to fight with a brat. 

While being dragged by his arm, Cid noticed that Iris' possession had miraculously healed itself, he'd been intent on healing it himself but that appeared to be of no necessity anymore as the girl practically squashed it out of existence. 

Probably had something to do with her huge power boost after absorbing a portion of his magic. 

At this rate, if the girl continues on her training, she'd be one hell of a powerhouse in the future. 

Reeaallly winging the "Female-Main-Protagonist-Formula" There. 

… 

She's literally already on her way to become the Main Protagonist, with that somewhat tragic backstory and buff, she might as well have a sign nailed to her head saying 'I'm the main character' 

No seriously how did she assimilate his magic? Was this a case of `Eat this for power` kind of thing?

The use of magic was an intricate and complex matter, each and every single fiber of a human could become a conductor for magic just like how blood flowed freely in nerves. However, that required a certain control over magic, one wrong use could have you expelling and wasting your reserves, or in rarer cases, explode like a watermelon. 

Given his control over magic, he's gotten to the point where he can sense his own signature and others with ease. However, Iris' case was a tad bit unique, her initial magical signature had become so different he couldn't differentiate his or her signature now. 

To put it simply, her signature was his and hers at the same time, it shouldn't have been such a problem for him since it was literally just a case of one plus one. But it wasn't, it instead resulted in an amalgamation of magical signature born from a power buff. 

Well, at least this could count as training for when he encounters someone with a concealed presence. 

Speaking of training, what the fuck is she doing? 

Cid stopped whatever he was doing and opened his eyes, looking at the annoying red-haired brat. 

She was still sitting in a similar fashion to his with closed eyes, at first one would have mistaken her current action as meditation, however, he could hear her mumbling some random shit. 

Ugh, if only he could sneak away now and play around as the "Stylish Bandit Slayer", but he's sure as hell this princess would somehow keep up with his speed. 

…Okay, maybe his current persona name needs to have a workshop change in the future, wouldn't sound so cool to have a Shojo-MC princess chasing after a guy with a long ass name and a paper bag on his head. 

… 

Wait, that actually sounds like a good idea. 

Cid stopped whatever he was doing and turned to Iris, raising his hand over her forehead, before flicking her in the forehead and snapping her out of her "Training"

"Wha- Ow?!" Iris groaned, her eyes darting around to see any danger after the sudden pain on her forehead, before her eyes landed on Cid. "What was that for?!"

"To snap you out of your stupid."

"What stupid?! You were the one doing this stupid pose-thing-majig before me!"

"Exactly." Cid sighed. 

"What's that even supposed to me-" "Quiet up brat, we're finally gonna go for some training you've been waiting all this time." "Who's a brat, I'm older than y- wait really?!" 

"Yeah, I've been slacking off." Cid grumbled, not so subtly glaring at the red-headed princess. Her mood literally switched from a bratty princess to a tomboy girl who's been itching for a fight faster than a light switch. 

"No kidding, you've been doing nothing these past few days." Iris innocently said, not aware that she was the reason for his sloppiness. 

'Dude, I swear to God imma rob this brat when she grows up just to despise her.'

Cid decided to let it go for the time being, he may not execute his revenge now, but he will damn sure do it at a later date in the form of pranks. 

"So! What kind of training are we doing?" Iris enthusiastically asked, her eyes practically gleaming with excitement, ever since seeing his graceful form and his awestrucking training, her dreams had been nothing but short of experiencing that same training and growing from it. 

"Hmph." Cid deepened his voice, which literally made no difference from his normal voice as he was still a kid. "This training we will do will help our foundations as a fighter."

"Mhm!" Iris nodded gleefully. 

"It is an integral part of combat."

"Mhm!" Another nod. 

"If this part of you isn't trained well. You're likely to die an early death in fights."

"Uh huh!"

"it will help your ability to weave around attacks and survive in fights!"

"UH HUH!"

"Without it you'd be a snail, a prey that is easily killed by your folly."

"JUST TELL ME ALREADY!"

Cid snorted. "Simple, we're playing catch."

Just like that all, all the excitement and glee Iris had, degraded into irritation and confusion. 

"What?"

"I said–" "I heard you the first time! What I'm asking is why in the goddess' name are we playing catch?!"

Cid rolled his eyes, "I was literally reciting a whole-ass speech about speed and agility, then you ask me why we're gonna play catch?"

Iris pointed an accusatory finger at Cid. "You had me fired up only to bamboozle me with a game of catch! Who trains by playing around?!"

"Clearly you're not imaginative enough." Cid sent a sarcastic snide at her, to which the red-headed girl simply denied. 

"I'm plenty imaginative enough." She crossed her arms.

"I doubt that." Cid was quick to snark with a self-satisfactory smile, until a thought came to his head. If the dumb little princess doesn't see the benefit in playing catch with him, who was he to not show an example? "Actually..."

"Huh?"

"You might be right about playing." Cid shrugged in a false sense of agreement. "I mean.. Who trains by playing around?"

Iris narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "You're.. Rather quick to give up-"

"-So that's why! I'm doing this." Cid announced, reeling back an open palm and imbuing it with magic.

"Wuh- Ow?!" Iris barely had time to react when her new `Friend` suddenly smacked her in the forehead. The magic imbued in Cid's hand stuck to her forehead like a sticker, soon forming from a cluster of magic into masterfully formed words using magic. 

"What did you do?" Iris asked in annoyance, scratching her now itching forehead. She could sense his magic sticking to her head as though it was an Eel. 

"Just some simple, magic-sustaining training with complex forms." Cid snorted, looking at the words that had now formed on her forehead. "Just like the words written on your forehead."

"Eh?" Iris stared in confusion, creating complex forms using magic? Wait, what did he mean in her forehead? "What do you mean words?"

"Just like what I said, words." Cid snickered in genuine devious intent, the words becoming clearer.

"..What words.." Iris slowly mouthed out. 

"Heh," Cid smiled with closed eyes. "Iris Idiotgar." 

Cid's smile became smug when Iris immediately reacted to it by diving at him, of course, the red-head missed and caused her to slam down to the dirt below. She pushed herself back up as fast she could, glaring knives at him. "You!"

"Yes, me–" He ducked from another lunge. But instead of kissing the floor, this time she managed to catch herself by front-flipping. Iris sailed through the air with rough grace, managing to land on two legs and immediately bouncing back at Cid.

To which, he sidestepped once more. She kept repeating this process to no end, growling with each miss, Iris enhanced her footing with magic and flew twice as fast. Unfortunately, due to her new power-up, she wasn't used to this level of speed and accidentally slammed face-planted into the trunk of a tree.

Cid walked towards her and crouched, supporting his head with a bored hand. "By the way, that mark isn't going to disappear any time soon unless you catch me." 

That was enough to get Iris pulling her head out of the tree faster. Pulling her head out in a comedic fashion, she shook her head rapidly and glared back at Cid, giving him a look that promised death if she managed to get her hands on him.

"Woop woop, Princess is mad. Better catch me if you want it gone." Cid taunted by forming an `L` with his hand, turning around and storming off deep into the forest with heightened speed.

"GET BACK HERE!" Of course, she was quick to chase on his tail. There was no way in hell she was going back to their vacation home with a slander plastered on her forehead, her father would have words with her and her sister would probably look at her weird.

She'll, definitely, get her hands on him!

//—————————————————//

Little Alexia was at a loss, her big sister had been acting strange for the past three days. Ever since the day she came back home with dirty ragged clothes and a determined look on her face, she became twice as energetic and eager to go out.

Not that there was anything wrong with it, but the fact her Older sister talked about a boy helping her train was suspicious, a boy of all things!

Boys were annoying in her eyes, they always tried to honey talk her with stupid superstitions and false promises, her father always told her to not trust anyone that felt off. 

She was sure her dear older sister knew this as well, so why in the world is her big sister out with a boy even she, the younger sister, did not know? 

Simple. 

That filthy boy must have done something to force her sister! 

What kind cruel vile acts does he intend to do to her beloved dear sister, what horrors awaits her sister's innocence outside the door in front of her — The main door of the vacation home, something she'd been staring at for half an hour now.

The toddler stared intently at the door, enough that it may melt. She wanted nothing more than to go out there and rescue her dear sister, but oh woe' the cruelty of the world for her father not allowing her to go outside without supervision. 

Hmm…! 

Maybe if she made an excuse? 

Alexia twirled around and ran to her Father's room, the door to his burst open as the little critter called out to Klaus "Father!" 

The man in question massaged his temples, mentally preparing himself for anything that might interrupt his pain-in-the ass paper filling job, the amount of paper stacked on his table was already stress-inducing, he didn't wish his daughter any offense but now wouldn't really be the time. Because why does he still need to fill out these godforsaken papers on a vacation?!

"Yes dear?" Klaus sighed. "I'm quite busy at the time with paperwork right now, so I'm sorry if your dear father can't give you much time—"

"—Dad, I'd like to go sightseeing." 

There it is, another thing to stress about. Klaus rubbed his temples. "Alexia, dear. I cannot let you go outside without any supervision, maybe wait a few hours after the guards are back from their break..?"

He'd have gone himself to accompany his daughter, but less the paperwork won't dwindle by themselves, he needs to finish all of these first. A terrible timing as well from Alexia, most of the guards that are on patrol are currently on break, so there would be no one to supervise her. He couldn't exactly let her go outside on her own, as clean as this part of the continent was, anything could still happen, he wasn't risking it. 

Except for Iris of course, his oldest daughter is strong enough to fend off any thug that dared a malicious intent towards her. 

Unless of course, he hears the name of a certain cult, he knew not if they were actually real, he knew only of their names popping up here and there. But if they were to be real and if he were to catch even a single hint of their presence or word of them here, he'd immediately bring back his daughters to the kingdom. 

"—ad! Dad!" Alexia called out to him, bringing him out of his thoughts. 

"Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts, but just as I had said you will have to wait a little as no one is currently available to accompany you." 

Klaus scratched the side of his hair, hoping that his daughter would understand. 

It may have been his imagination, but he could have sworn his daughter just glowered at him for a moment after he said that. 

"...Okay," Alexia despondently said, turning away from her father and setting her back to the door. 

"Sorry for the inconvenience dad."  She said before opening the door and leaving the room, Klaus merely groaned, disappointed at himself for having to reject his daughter. 

//—————————————————//

Little Alexia bit the tip of her nail after closing the door, displeased that her father didn't allow her to leave, maybe she should have reasoned something else? 

While reasoning that she just wanted to make sure her older sister was okay might sound reasonable, it also sounded silly, this was Iris Midgar, someone who could easily backhand Royal guards, her father wouldn't have allowed her to go either way without a supervisor. 

She walked through the mansion halls with a frown on her face, thinking of ways to get out of the building unseen. 

The basking golden rays of the sun hit her as she walked to a section of the mansion where large windows were, then her eyes traveled to the cemented brick walls of the mansion, with several conveniently loose bricks that may or may not be easy to rearrange. 

Alexia's crimson eyes gleamed. "Hohoho?"

//—————————————————//

The forest nearby the town was nothing but tranquility at times, where birds sang, the flowers freely grew, the air was refreshing to breathe in. 

CRASH! 

Of course, unless something disturbed that tranquility. Several thundering loud crashes exploded from the forest as birds flew away in a panic, trees consecutively  fell down as if they were cut down with a swift stroke. 

"-ET BACK HERE!" Screamed a lively red-head, taking pursuit of a certain boy she absolutely despises at the moment. 

Magic swirled from her body, traveling down the entirety of her lower bottoms, the earth below her exploded the moment she finished enhancing her body with magic. 

Above her, a few dozen feets in the air was Cid, freely gliding through the air as he taunted her. 

He twisted mid-air when he felt the wind shift, stylishly dodging an open arm lunge from Iris. 

"I GOT YO- EEE!"

The red-head panicked upon missing, unused to her huge jump in power and speed, her eyes traveled to the ground that was swiftly approaching and gulped. 

Her peripheral vision briefly caught the sight of Cid smugly looking at her as he bounces off another tree, A determined look appeared on her face upon seeing this, she performed a front flip mid-air, her feet finding purchase on a mighty branch of a tree, magic swirling to her legs again, however this time, it all compressed to the tip of her feet, she bounced off the branch and rocketed towards Cid, now more gracefully and controlled. 

Cid whistled, "Main Character indeed, she realized she couldn't control a sudden burst in magic, and instead focused them all in a part of her body to move more proficiently."

He nonchalantly leaned forward, ducking away from a sudden red-blur that would have crashed into him, Iris went on to do some acrobatics once more, her feet sticking to the side of the tree on contact, then disappeared in a red blur towards him. 

Cid grinned, heightening his speed as well. 

The two became a trail of light within the forest, bouncing off from tree to tree, leaving afterimages as the other pursued, while the other smiled. 

Cid tapped Iris' forehead when she missed another lunge, she grit her teeth in annoyance and sped up, Cid easily keeping up with her. 

The chuni-edgelord breathed in excitement, this girl was keeping up with him despite being new to her power, hell, she's drastically growing stronger as well just from this game of tag, nowhere near his level, but still enough to keep up with him. 

"-ORYAH!" He weaved through a wide swing from Iris, who hastily stomped to the ground and jumped towards him with a spiky expression. 

Cid danced away from her, dodging several attempts of Iris to tag him, this continued on for a while, their speed growing ever so slightly. 

In a rare moment of occurrence, Cid genuinely chuckled. Finding joy at someone being able to keep up with him, training to become an Eminence in Shadow was one thing, but having someone who can play the role as a rival for him? Now that was a golden treasure trove. Better to have someone who can be your playmate rather than waiting for events to happen in the future.

'This might not be so bad after all.'

"OOOORYYYAA-"

Plus, it was really funny to watch her scream around trying to get him. 

//—————————————————//

Alexia painted heavily, her small weak arms shakily reaching out for another foothold of hope, her toddler-body wanted to give up from whatever she was trying to achieve, but her iron-will to save her sister refused to break! 

She may have fallen multiple times, but she'll always get up no matter how many tries it takes. 

Nothing will ever stop her, she can almost see it, the bright luminescent light of the sun, just at the end of her journey! 

She! Will! Never! Brea-

Her right foot slipped from the dangly misplaced brick in the wall. Causing her to yelp, "-Ah."

Alexia fell down with a thud down to the earth, her burning eyes set on her newfound nemesis, the Brick wall she'd been trying to climb for some time now. 

Alexia made to get up, however her body refused to move from the exhaustion. "C-Curses..!"

"Mistress!" Alexia froze when she heard one of the maids call out for her name, it didn't take long for the helper to come to the backyard and see her laying down exhausted. "His Majesty has told me that someone was now available to supervise- Oh?"

The maid stopped mid-sentence, simply smiling when she saw her on the ground, "My apologies, I didn't mean to interrupt your time."

Alexia made to say something but couldn't, she helplessly watched the maid who had probably misinterpreted her exhausted state for playing around in the backyard. 

Guh, and she missed her chance to go out as well! 

She swore, whoever this boy Iris was with, she'll make them pay! 

ALONG WITH THIS STUPID BRICK WALL! 

//—————————————————//

THANK YOU FOR READING!

A/N : Alright, I know this looks bad, BUT PLEASE DON'T KILL ME XD

I was gone for a long time because i wanted to deal with school, now that its over,

i have my free time!

Ill try to update every three days or more depending on the length and the story now.