Chapter 21

"Because they are intelligent and powerful!"

Kyle couldn't help himself but sigh. She has the knack to make him suffer today. The question truly left him speechless and now she was praising their nemesis.

"Nothing is interesting about them." Denied him.

"But they are." Argued her back in her tiny voice.

"No, they are not. They are just loud and annoying."

"Why?"

For a few times now, he was so speechless. She loved to throw a random question leaving him baffled with her audacity to question him everything. "Why what?"

"Why Kiki said so?" She tilted her head as she brought her chin to his shoulder.

"Because they are." Said him firmly. The smile wavered. This is her first time someone's testing his patience. This was considered classified for a reason and now his sister's asking the question without stopping.

"Why?"

"Why what?!"

"Why does Kiki dislike them?"

"Kiki doesn't dislike them. They… they're just annoying." He smiled yet again to mask his real feelings.

Elizebeth clamped her mouth then. Tilted her head still.

"Why does Lize look at Kiki like that?" She was looking at him as if she was admiring him.

"You have met Mr. dragon and Mr. phoenix." She was whispering for no reason. Making a hushing finger in an understanding gaze.

The sudden accusation threw him off yet again. How many times did she do this tonight? Entertaining Elizebeth was hard, he knew through his past experiences but the level has upgraded it seems. This was a grandmaster level. The genius Kyle was mystified to answer the question. He now doubted his own knowledge.

"Why are you saying that, Lize?" Honestly, he wanted to crack open Elizebeth's head to see inside it.

"Because Kiki knows them too well."

"When Kiki said Kiki knew them too well?"

Elizebeth started to get confused. She detached her chin from her brother yet still connected their gaze. Kyle saw the tiny frown front those cute lips and he despised the idea so much. Should he lie?

"But Kiki said Mr. dragon and Mr. phoenix is loud and annoying. Only people who meet them know their personality. Judging others by the rumors is wrong. Kiki never judged the book by its cover so Lize thought Kiki had met them."

His lips twitched for the second time. It was a big missile that his sister dropped inside his heart. It hurt. His innocent sister is the best after all.

"Okay. It's Kiki's fault." He surrendered.

"Kiki's fault? Why?" She looked so shocked.

He exasperated. He needed to master the grandmaster challenge today.

Whilst Elizebeth just laughed inside her heart. It's her job to make everything difficult so Kyle wouldn't have any enough energy to question everything and anything. The strategy seemed to work just fine.

"Okay." She said it so suddenly.

Kyle turned at her warily. "Okay?" Skeptical by the sudden change of attitude. Was she just playing with him or something?

"Next question."

He huffed tiredly. Her questions were so difficult even for him. Why didn't she ask brother Demien? "It is difficult like the previous one?" He came clean to his sister.

"Difficult? Kiki is a genius. It's not hard. Lize loves Kiki." She giggled.

Kyle emitted a bark of disbelieving laughter and patted her head before kissing her cheek. Elizabeth levitated his mood straight away.

"Why do we hate them so much?"

The silence that followed her words was crushing. Kyle blinked slowly, tried to understand her way of thinking, wearing an expression like she'd spoken something sensitive. Elizebeth was staring at him, anticipating the answer like always. For every passing second, her breathing became louder to his ears. She was excited.

When Kyle recovered from the shock of her question, he looked calm, so calm like a lake of water. His demeanor told her otherwise. "Because they are not human and they are below us. Animals shouldn't be put in the same category as us." He said as if it was something trivial and natural.

Prejudice; she described him inside her mind. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if everyone in the kingdom thought the same.

"We are the ultimate predator. The highest in the ranking." His dark intentions slip off from his lips, unconsciously.

Narcissistic too.

"So Lize. Don't associate with them. They will think they rule the world. They are barbaric. What possibly animal knows about the actual world anyway?" He emitted a similar sound as scoff in his smiley face. Deviated the entire purpose of smiling.

Elizebeth looked straight into his eyes without saying anything. She wasn't aware of the deep misunderstanding and how egoistic Shar's people are. The confession by Kyle was enough to prove her several theories. King and her father thought their power alone was enough to conquer the world without weighing the other entity. It was their first mistake.

"Why does Dada hate magicians?"

"Magician? Because a magician is not a true human. They use other forces to be who they are."

"Other forces?"

"They use the spirit to help them. The only weakling asked others for help, especially other entities."

That's the second mistake. The magician was powerful enough to destroy the other continent. In her dream, she heard that the magician kingdom attacked another kingdom to expand their power and the result was an instant.

Luckily, Shariz Kingdom wasn't part of their plan before but she didn't know the future yet. It could happen in the future as she will change the entire story. Keeping on living wasn't part of the original plan in the book so surviving peacefully on the timeline where she was supposed to live in misery has already changed the major story.

"Do you think Mr. dragon and Mr. phoenix won't attack us?"

The dark energy circling them as Kyle patted her head softly. The smile got bigger but his eyes became evil. "No worries, Lize. We are strong."

The third mistake. They are not strong. She knew that much. The real reason dragon and phoenix didn't touch the Shariz Kingdom was because they were living peacefully in the jungle. They had no contact with humans and no humans ever touched their lair due to prejudice. But what if someone decided to hunt them and then what? She could tell they are not ready to face the wrath of the strong creature or let alone to fend the attack.

She plopped on the bench lethargically. It was too much. Too much for Elizebeth to bear, her brother's words, his intense gaze, the arrogance of his. All of it, it was too much, and so her body reacted purely on instinct. With every cell in her body screaming at her to retreat to her bedroom to rearrange her though.

"Lize tired. Lize wants to sleep." Informed her to her brother. She knew her brother would comply with her wish.

The effect was instantaneous. Kyle swiftly stood up and hugged her by supporting her lower body and patting her back. He let Elizebeth rest her head on his shoulder as he kissed her head. It was a rare occurrence to see Elizebeth surrender her fate to sleep.

"We will talk again." Promised him at her ears softly. He knew that Elizebeth had tons of questions that needed answers. He didn't want to take away her right as an excuse for her falling asleep when he was fully aware of her inability to sleep freely.

"M'kay." She nodded drowsily. "Mr. dragon and Mr. phoenix are the coolest." She instigated something unawarely.

Did this Mr. dragon and Mr. phoenix just steal her attention away from him? That unknown creature? The pang of jealousy clouded his whole body. Clicking his tongue.

"Kiki… sleepy…" Whined her in a sleepy voice.

It snapped him from the thought. He started to walk towards their chamber area. "Let's sleep." He kissed her forehead.

"Sleep with Kiki?" She was not in her straight mind to think straight. She only spoke something entirely out of mind.

Kyle didn't expect the offer and smiled again. "Let's sleep together."

She answered him with a cute snore which Kyle just giggled softly. "She'll sleep with me tonight." Told Kyle to sir Derrick that was awaiting them both along the way.

Derrick bowed to both of them and followed behind them without a word as he looked around. Weirdly he felt like someone or rather something stalking them. He found nothing suspicious during his inspection which he never stopped to do when the safety of his young lady and young master was on the line.

From among the trees, the two main topics that had been discussed by the siblings eavesdropping without getting caught. The expressions for both were so bright despite the constant ridicule from the elder brother.

"The sister is cool."

"True. She said I was interesting."

"You? She said to me."

"Please, phoenix. She put my name first. Mr. dragon. You are the second option."

The phoenix that disguised as the sparrow just chirped annoyingly to the crow.

"Speak human language. I don't understand. We agreed to practice so we can meet her in the future." The crow chopped the sparrow's neck with its wing.

"Don't abuse my weak body, dragon." But the phoenix skillfully dodged the attack.

"She will be my bride. We need to be familiar with humans for her sake."

"I will."

"Let's call the siren."

"The siren? To help us to achieve our goal?"

"Yes." Dragon nodded.

"I know some around. Let's try our luck."

Then, both dragon and phoenix flew towards the direction that they only knew.