Chapter 19- The Lores

I plopped a stack of books down on the table and Alex gave me the most horrid look ever.

"We're gonna go through all that?"

"Yep." I nodded. "These are all the books I can find that have something related to the Witches and the Eyes of the Seven Deadly Sins."

"This will take a while…" Alex murmured.

"Then we better get started," I said as I sat down across from her and picked up the first book.

During this lovable Sunday morning, Alex and I have decided to spend the day cooped up in the library researching. Well, technically it was supposed to be just me, but Alex tagged along because she was afraid to bump into Lady Viola after what happened yesterday. Alex was still mad at me for abandoning her, but she forgave me when I made the excuse that it was to help give her an opening with Prince Leonhardt. I honestly don't know if this girl was dumb or smart. She's biologically fifteen, but I don't know if remembering her past memories reverted her brain back to a thirteen-year-old or something.

Alex lazily flipped through the pages of her thick book. "So are we looking for something specific or…?"

"I just want to soak up as much information about this subject as possible, but if I have something in mind then it would be to find out what kind of Eye Lady Alexis possesses. If we can figure out that much, maybe we can have a counter-attack," I said.

"But we already know her abilities, do we really need to know what kind of Eye it is?"

"Hmm… Good point. Maybe it's better to find an Eye that can counter her Eye's abilities."

"Even if we do find an Eye that can counter Alexis's mind-controlling abilities, how are we even gonna get our hands on that Eye? It's already hard enough trying to get the Eye of Pride," reasoned Alex.

"Well, then we better start learning some magic or witchcraft, or whatever that exists in this world, because the Eyes are magic based. While Fight for Love and Acceptance was supposedly a romance genre, it also has a subgenre of supernatural. And in a sense, the supernatural is fantasy, magic and all that other crap that is humanly not possible."

"Okay, I see your point, but this world is similar to Earth where magic doesn't exist and that fantasy is unrealistic."

"But the supernatural exists," I pointed out.

Alex gave me a confused look. "Huh?"

I sighed, "Remember what Lady Claudia said back in Etiquette class? She said magic is not real, but the supernatural is. Because there are people that can hear God's voice or, sorry, Goddess' voice."

"Oh, right… But isn't that kind of hard to prove if they can actually hear the Goddess's voice or not?"

I rolled my eyes, "Well duh! Even back on our Earth, people say they can hear God's voice, but that's just because they were near death or they just wanted to take advantage of people's faith."

"So how can you take Claudia's word?"

I smirked, "We're in another world."

Alex's face lit up for a moment only for it to turn back to a vacant stare. "Yeah, I still don't get it."

I groaned. "How can you not!? We have been reborn into another world with memories of it. We know reincarnation exists and that's part of the fantasy genre! Granted, I'm not sure if we're supposed to remember our past life, but we did."

"That is true… But I actually don't remember anyone from my past life. Even my own name…" Alex revealed.

"..." So she was having the same problem as me. "You're not alone on that…"

"You too?"

I sadly smiled. "I remembered the events, feelings, the words, yet… The faces of everyone in my past memories are blurred. It's as if all their names have been removed from my mind. I don't even remember the very parents that raised me before I died. I'm a pretty bad daughter if I can't even remember the parents that once raised me before…"

Alex mirrored my expression. "Then I was also a bad daughter because I also can't remember their faces. Nor my relatives, teachers, or friends. Even people that were once close to me. It's like I remember them, yet I don't. And because I kind of can't remember who they were, I can't really feel any sadness towards these memories."

I took a deep breath and nodded, "I always thought it was weird, you know? Like, I died. I DIED. But I don't feel sad or remorse for leaving all the people I care about behind. I don't even think back to them all that much. Is that even normal? Am I supposed to be living so happily right now when all the people that cared for me could be grieving over my death? What's even worse is that I don't even care about them all that much anymore… I must be the worst human being alive."

Alex shrugged, "Eh. I've seen worse. And I'm also in the same situation as you, remember? So don't beat yourself over the fact that you don't feel sad or guilty for dying and reincarnating."

"How could you not worry about this? About the people that were once in your life? What if they were important people that you shouldn't have forgotten?"

"But we're not who we used to be," Alex said. "You're Reiré Norman. The only daughter of the Norman Family that runs a bakery. And I am Alex. Alexandra Bailey, daughter to a single mother who works as a waiter now." She took my hands and looked straight into my eyes as she smiled. "Whoever we used to be isn't us now. We may have our memories from the past, but maybe the reason we can't ever remember our own names or the names of the people we used to love is because that's not who we are anymore. We don't belong in that world anymore."

I took a deep breath and it felt like a huge burden, that I didn't even realize was there, was lifted off my shoulders. I couldn't help but smile. "When did you become so wise, Alex? Who are you and what have you done with the fool that I called friend?"

"What!?" Alex gasped as if she was hurt and playfully slapped my hands, causing me to giggle. "I'll have you know that I'm super wise!"

I rolled my eyes at her and went back to the book at hand. "Anyway, we're getting off-topic. We have a lot of books to read."

Alex groaned, "Right, more homework to do…"

"If you didn't want to read, then you shouldn't have come with me."

Alex pouted as she absentmindedly flipped a page of the book in front of her, "But I don't want to stay in my room the whole day. Grace will scold me for being lazy."

I chuckled, "Then that's your fault. Also, got some new info. It seems that the Seven Deadly Sins came from Pandora's box."

"Pandora? As in Pandora from Greek mythology?"

"Yes and no," I answered. "The Pandora we know is the one from Greek myths but the Pandora I'm talking about now is the Goddess of the Underworld in this world."

"Hold up… Who's the Goddess that this world worships again?"

"Celestia, who's also the younger sister of Pandora."

"A name I don't recognize from Greek mythology."

I huffed, "Can you not compare this world's religion to Greek mythology? That doesn't exist here."

Alex chuckled. "Sorry. So how does the story of Pandora go in this world?"

"I wasn't that into the religion so I didn't read up much on it." I closed the book in front of me and went through the stack until I came upon the book about Pandora and Celestia.

"I'm pretty much the same…" Alex flipped through the book as her eyes scanned through the words.

"Let's read as much as we can and share our thoughts," I suggested.

"Okay."

We fell silent as we tried reading the story of Celestia and Pandora. The two Goddesses are twin sisters that created this world. Celestia was the one that created life while Pandora created death. So famine, war, poverty, and illnesses, and all that stuff that can cause death. You can see why Celestia was the more loved Goddess. I don't know how true this book was on Celestia and Pandora, but apparently, Pandora was jealous of how her younger sister was loved by humanity while she was seen as the Devil. So Pandora 'gifted' humanity the Seven Deadly Sins. This gift created more war, more poverty, and more death. Celestia took pity on humanity and sealed off the Seven Deadly Sins in a box and returned it to Pandora. Hence how Pandora's box came to light in this world.

"Question. Are those two the only Goddesses in this world?" Alex curiously asked.

"They are," I answered. "This world only has one religion technically. Those that worship Celestia. Pandora was seen more of a Demon than a Goddess since she's painted in a darker light."

"I think my mom is a believer of Celestia," Alex murmured as she searched through the stack of books in front of her.

"I'm not that surprised. My mom is also a believer of Celestia. Almost everyone is a believer of Celestia. Some people worship Pandora, but they'd be considered a part of some evil cult."

Alex grimaced, "Eesh."

Back to the book, once the Seven Deadly Sins were sealed away, Pandora and Celestia got into a big fight. You know, a sibling quarrel, which led to major earthquakes in the Calore Kingdom. Pandora threatened to release the Seven Deadly Sins from her box, but Celestia won the fight and trapped Pandora in the Underworld, leaving Celetisa the only free-roaming Goddess in this world. Okay… So what happened to the Seven Deadly Sins? Clearly, they are no longer sealed in a box if Alexis Pearl has one of them.

While thinking about how the Deadly Sins came back to light, Alex voiced, "Hey, did you know the Eyes of the Seven Deadly Sins were given to seven different spirits that Celestia trusted?"

"Huh? Really, spirits?" I felt my blood run cold. "A-As in… g-ghosts?"

Alex grinned at my behavior. "Reiré? Could it be you're afraid of ghosts?"

"What!? Pfft! No!" I denied. "I'm not scared of ghosts. They aren't even real."

Alex giggled. "I don't know. Ghosts are a supernatural thing. They might not be real in our past life, but maybe in this world they-"

"Lalalalalalalala!" I covered my ears as I sang loudly to block out anything Alex was trying to say.

"Now you're just acting like a five-year-old," Alex chuckled.

"I may like mystery and ghost stories, but I was never a big fan of horror movies, haunted houses and such, alright," I defended myself.

"Really? I love horror movies and haunted houses. They're so much fun!"

I shook my head. "No. No. They are not fun."

Alex giggled, "You're just a big scaredy-cat."

"Shut up and tell me what you found out about the Eyes."

"Alright, alright. So in this book, it said that each Eye was given to a spirit. The spirits were handmade by Celestia herself. The spirits were said to represent a lion, wolf, snake, pig, goat, fox, and bear."

"Hmm… so it's based on Christianity's lore?"

Alex blinked. "What does this have to do with Christianity?"

"The Seven Deadly Sins were originally from the Bible," I answered. "Of course there were more than seven, but it was simplified down to seven. Lion represents Pride, wolf was Wrath, snake was Envy, pig was Gluttony, goat was Lust, fox was Greed and lastly bear was Sloth."

"Oh, were you a Christian or something?"

"No, I got curious about its lore when there was an anime based on it."

"Well, coincidently it follows the representation you just mentioned. The lion spirit gets the Eye of Pride, wolf gets the Eye of Wrath, and so on."

"Okay, I get that. But what I'm confused about is that, from what I've read, the Seven Deadly Sins were sealed away by Celestia. Did she just decide to release the Deadly Sins and give them to some ghosts?"

"Spirits," Alex corrected.

"Same thing."

"Well, it said that Pandora was sealed in the Underworld with the box. Pandora was able to unlock the box and released the Deadly Sins. She actually wanted to use the powers of the Seven Deadly Sins to bring her back to the world of the living. Celestia caught on to her plan and sealed the Deadly Sins into the spirits," she explained.

"Sealed in the spirits? So the spirits are acting like vessels?" I questioned.

Alex nodded, "That's what I'm assuming. The spirits also roamed the lands under Celestia's order. As you know from the witch lore, gather all the Sins and you summon Pandora. It's the same with the spirits here. If the Seven Deadly Sins were to gather, Pandora would be released from the Underworld. What I'm more confused about is how the witches got their hands on the powers if the Seven Deadly Sins were sealed within the spirits."

I agreed, "Right… In the Witches of the Seven Deadly Sins, Pandora gave the sins to the witches personally."

Everyone knows about the folklore about the Seven Witches. It was a good story to tell children to scare them. The folklore told the story of how seven sisters sold their souls to the devil, in other words, to Pandora, and in return, they were granted godly powers. As followers of Pandora, they were to spread famine, war, illness, and death. People feared the seven sisters and they were given the title of Witches. Witches of the Seven Deadly Sins. The King in the story ordered the sisters to be executed, but the problem was that the sisters always wore black robes and their faces were always covered by their robes. No one knew the faces of the sisters. All they knew were that they were female and lived within the Calore kingdom. Fingers were pointed, faces were turned and betrayals were made. In hopes to smoke out the witches, many massacres occurred over the kingdom with many burnings of villages and towns. Within one year, the population of women dropped extremely low, but the fingers never stopped pointing. And no one could confirm if the seven witches were actually dead or not. Honestly, this folklore reminded me of the Salem Witch Trials, only that it was a sexist version and that witches were actual witches with powers…

Powers… "Does that book ever mention elemental powers at all?" I asked.

Alex looked down at the book in her hands and flipped through a few pages. "It does. As we know, Pride holds Light and Envy holds the Water element from the novel. Here it says that Wrath is Darkness, Gluttony is Wind, Lust is Charm, Greed is Fire, and Sloth is Earth."

One element stood out for me. "Charm? What kind of element is Charm?" I questioned.

Alex shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's just what it says in the book."

"You said it was Lust that has the Charm element?"

Alex nodded. "Maybe it like… seduces people?"

"Let me see that." I reached across the table and pulled the book that Alex was reading in front of me. I flipped through the book until I found a section with a drawing of some kind of goat with a third eye on its forehead. Below the drawing was the name Asmodeus… Isn't that the name of a devil or something? Reading more, it says that Lust has the power to distort minds and cause someone to lose themselves in their own desires. That doesn't really sound like what Lady Alexis's powers were, but there are many different versions of the Seven Deadly Sins, so maybe this was just how this book describes the Charm element.

"Hey, Reiré. This book says how the Witch of Lust had the power to read minds."

I looked up from the book in front of me to see Alex pointing her finger to a page that had a drawing of a woman with a pair of large curved horns and a third eye on her forehead. Below it there was the name Asmodeus again.

"What else does that book say?"

"It also says that the Witch of Lust can lull in men like a siren."

"Hmm… We should look through the different versions of the books to see what Lust's abilities can do. I feel like the Charm element is the closest to Lady Alexis's abilities."

"It's also the most unique one," Alex commented.

"Yeah. While we're at it, can you also tell me when you find out how the Seven Deadly Sins turned into Eyes? So far I understand that Celestia sealed them up in these animal spirits, but I still can't connect them to the Eye artifacts or the Witches. If the Deadly Sins were sealed away, then there was no way that Pandora would be able to give the Deadly Sins' powers to the Witches."

"I understand your thinking. I'll see what I can find through these books. These are only lores so they have been altered as they were passed from person to person. There might be some things that were left out."

I hummed in thought. "You're right. At least we know a little bit more about the Seven Deadly Sins in this world. Now, all we need is to confirm if normal people can learn magic without selling their souls to Pandora."

"Question. Alexandra had to ask the Witch of Pride to stop the Witch of Envy in the novel, right? How, exactly?"

"When Lady Claudia got possessed, Alexandra performed a ritual to summon the Witch of Pride. She agreed to help Alexandra and gave her the power of Light. Only enough to kill the Witch of Envy, though."

"So Alexandra didn't get possessed?"

I answered, "Nope, only gained the witch's powers."

"Do you know the ritual she performed?" Alex asked.

I frowned at her question. "You want to summon a ghost? Do you actually want me to get a heart attack?"

Alex couldn't help but chuckle. "I was just wondering."

"The novel mentioned Alexandra reading some ancient text when visiting the Royal Library in the Castle. That's where she learned it. The novel didn't describe much of how she performed it other than drawing some magic circle and chanting some words."

"Well, that's not helpful," Alex murmured.

"That's why going to the Royal Castle during winter break is very important for you. So hurry and seduce Prince Leonhardt already."

Alex pouted, "You make me sound like some slutty prostitute that's only going for Leo because of some ulterior motives."

I gasped, "How dare a thirteen-year-old use such words. Go wash your mouth with soap!"

Alex groaned, "Stop treating me like some kid! I'm fifteen! Fifteen! I'm the same age as you!"

I smirked, "Only physically. Technically, I'm mentally older than you."

Alex whined, "Reiré!"

I giggled, "Sorry, sorry. Just teasing."

Alen grumbled as she grabbed another book to read. "I'm not talking to you anymore…"

"Awe, don't be like that."

"Hmph!" Alex puffed out her cheeks like a six-year-old having a tantrum. Quite adorable honestly.

- - - - 0-0-0 - - - -

A few more hours later, my stomach was begging me to feed it. I sighed and closed the twentieth book I skimmed through. I was able to learn a lot about Celestia and Pandora. I kind of want to visit the Church near here so I can read up more about the religion and maybe ask the Pope or the Priest some questions. If I can even get an audience, that is.

One thing that was a bummer was that magic cannot be learned. Why? Because it's fantasy. You don't think I already know that, huh? You stupid books. What a waste of time. Witchcraft, on the other hand, was actually a real thing back then, but instead of witchcraft, it's actually more like science. The person who first discovered electricity was deemed a witch that followed Pandora and was killed. Next, the person who discovered colored flames was accused of being a witch and was also killed. Then a doctor who created a new medicine to counter, well more like delay, pneumonia was thought to have sold their soul to Pandora to get their hands on this medicine. Guess what happened to him. Yes, also killed. See the pattern there? Yeah… They killed someone that was practically Benjamin Franklin, then someone who might know mineral properties to create colored fire, and also killed a doctor that was so close to finding a cure to pneumonia. Does the humanity of this world want to go extinct early? Did they swap out their intelligent genes for beauty? Is that why everyone in this world is so good looking but dumb?

Luckily, as time went on, the citizens became smarter and realized that they were killing smart geniuses that could actually benefit their society. They literally blamed Pandora for their shortcomings. In my opinion, I think Pandora is more like a victim here. All the blame just goes to her and everyone just accepts that reasoning without complaint. You have my sympathies, Pandora.

I sighed and stretched my arms feeling a slight pleasant pop in my shoulders. God, my body is so stiff. "Alex, you good? We should go grab some late lunch."

I stood up and heard sniffling. A bit confused I looked over across the table to see Alex crying silent tears as she was reading a book. I narrowed my eyes to a glare when I realized what kind of book she was reading. "Seriously, Alex?"

"Huh!" Alex looked up and saw my stern expression. She gave me a nervous smile as she pulled the book closer to her chest. "Um… I learned that the Witch of Lust can create illusions?"

"You were reading some sobby romance novel while I was slaving away on those lores!?"

Alex flinched under my tone. "I-I got bored! I just decided to take a small break."

"Small?! You're practically done with the book! How long have you been reading that!?"

"In my defense, it's a good book. Besides, I only read about…" She looked down at the page she's at and hesitantly looked back up. "Um… Hehe… 379 out of 400 pages?"

"That's almost the whole book!"

"But it was so good! I couldn't stop reading! I haven't read a good book in a while!" Alex voiced. "I'm at the part where the villainess of the story revealed that she was actually the heroine's older sister. I thought she was just some mean bully that hated the heroine's guts, but she was actually trying to protect her sister from all those manipulative boys that were trying to get her hand in marriage just so they can get her family's fortune." Fresh tears formed in her eyes as she explained, "And now the heroine is holding her sister's dying body in her arms. The villainess was such a good girl. She took a stab to the stomach for the heroine. This is such a sad scene! I want an older sister too!"

Ugh, she's full-on sobbing now. I never thought she'd be those emotional types that would cry to a book. Though, I shouldn't be talking either since I'm the same… Hmm, speaking of sisters, I think I had an older sister in my past life… Why do I feel so bitter all of a sudden?

Alex wiped her tears and sniffled, "I can't believe the love interest was actually a hidden antagonist. The villainess was actually one of the good guys. I can't believe I thought she was a total bit-"

I quickly tuned her out as she went into a full-on ramble. I have a feeling we'll be here for another hour, but I'm kind of hungry… Should I just ditch her? Staring at her, I saw her eyes glued to the pages as her mouth continued to spew words. Yeah, let's ditch.

Standing up, Alex still doesn't notice. I then began to slowly walk backward. She still doesn't notice. I pursed my lips at her lack of awareness and completely turned around. I can now hear her cursing at the male lead. She still hasn't noticed me walking away.

Welp, time for lunch. I'll grab something for Alex too. I'm not that mean. It'll also give me an excuse as to why I ditched her. I'll say this again, I'm a selfish human being, but that doesn't mean I'm cruel.