Another one!

"She- She's brought another one!"

'What?'

Yuki tilted his head, a thousand questions raging on his mind.

What did she mean by another one...?

And what the hell was going on!? Why was there someone on the ground being... dominated?

He bit back a laugh that threatened to escape his mouth.

"What are you doing Sylvia?" Asteria sighed as they stepped inside.

The sly smile that had been stretched on the girl's face was all but gone now, replaced by a look of surprised horror. She quickly scrambled on to her legs, helping the maid up in the process.

"Nothing..." Having failed to come up with an explanation, her voice, a little guilty but playful, trailed off into silence as she averted her eyes from them.

Sylvia had a mischievous air to her, her lithe body fidgeting as Asteria's stare bored holes into her.

"It's really nothing..." Sylvia tried convincing her in a shaky voice, which did not sound very sure about her own statement.

Instead of replying to her, Asteria turned to Yuki, lightly shaking her head as she spoke to him in a sweet, low, advising tone.

"Make sure you never turn out like her alright?"

Yuki nodded, in complete agreement.

Jumping on top of people wasn't something he liked anyways...

"Hey!-" Sylvia squealed in protest, her voice cutting off mid-sentence as she saw Yuki nodding.

"Why are you agreeing with her?!"

***

It took Asteria a while to stop laughing, after gathering herself, she let the maids do their thing and quietly lead Yuki to the living room upstairs, with Sylvia at their tail.

Asteria had told him who Sylvia was on the carriage, just like Asteria had chosen to let Sylvia stay in their estate when she had found her alone in the wilderness a year ago.

Yuki felt an immediate sense of kinship with the girl, not only had they been in similar situations, even their appearances was quite similar.

Apart from Asteria, this was the first person he had come across who had the same dull red eyes.

Yuki wondered if her peculiar appearance had to anything with the new attribute he'd received, then did that mean Sylvia had something to do with the trial?

He decided to save his questions for later.

For now, instead, he focused on surviving.

Once she'd shaken off her initial embarrassment, the girl had turned quite chatty, whispering questions to him behind Asteria's back.

"What's your name?"

"Yuki"

"Are you really gonna stay with us?"

"Yes"

"Do you really not remember anything?"

"No"

"You're really pretty you know"

"..."

'Right...'

Her last statement had lifted his spirit somewhat.

...Nevertheless, he was slowly starting to struggle under the barrage of questions, Sylvia's enthusiasm was seemingly never ending, even after his responses had started turning a little dry.

What kind of person was this oblivious to social cues?

Extroverts were truly the worst...

Thankfully it hadn't taken long too long for them to reach the living room, unlike the palace, Asteria's home didn't seem to be littered with confusing hallways, navigating through the house was pretty straightforward, even for him.

The estate, house... whatever it was, had a lot of open space with a main hallway that connected the whole of the building, it had taken only a short walk to reach the living room.

The living room they were in was a huge one, adorned with various artistic tapestries and ornate furniture, bookshelves lined the walls wherever there wasn't painting, making for an interesting sight.

There was a lit fireplace not far away from the couch they were sitting, sending a wave of familiar vertigo through Yuki.

Asteria was telling Yuki all about her home and its history, with Sylvia interrupting her at each sentence to know more about her adventure, the one in which she and her companions had come across Yuki.

The conversation was a mess, with the topic being changed each now and then as Sylvia and Asteria chatted away with Yuki joining in with his response to questions pointed at him.

Honestly, he had stopped paying attention to them after the first sentence, letting his mind sit back for a while as he absentmindedly stared at the fire, too tired to do anything.

Considering his situation, ironically enough, the first he wanted to right now was to go to sleep.

But the events of last night were still weighing on his mind, spurred into life from the slightest thing that reminded him of the dread inducing ordeal.

Those creatures, with their chilling stare had left a scar on Yuki's mind, one he was sure wasn't going to heal anytime soon.

A slight shiver ran down his spine, a wave of nausea seizing as the conversation around him died out, the voices not reaching his ears anymore.

"If you... To.... They... Just ask...."

The world pulled back, turning into a blur as waves of memories came crashing down on his mind.

He took a steadying breath, doing his best to push away the unrelenting waves of his dreadful experience.

"And the rest will... "

The world paused for a moment.

"Yuki?"

Then promptly snapped back into motion.

Asteria's concerned voice spurred him awake, the world returning back to its place as if he was waking from a trance.

The champion was silent for a moment, making even Sylvia glance at him concern.

She got up from her seat, heading towards him.

"Are you ok?" She whispered gingerly as she kneeled in front of him.

'No.'

"yeah"

He lingered for a moment, coming up with a suitable excuse.

"...I was just thinking" 

The cold sweat that lined his forehead didn't help his argument.

Asteria let out a sigh, patting his head as she took a seat next him on the couch.

She then turned her gaze to Sylvia, who had been remaining dead silent the entire time.

"She gets overwhelmed easily, make sure you take it easy with her" Her tone was gingerly, but stern at the same time. Like a mother reminding her child to be careful with fragile things.

Sylvia nodded, leaving all three of them silent for a moment.

An awkward silence hung around them.

Asteria coughed, bringing her hand to her mouth.

"Anyways, I think it's time you both got to bed."

Yuki agreed, he needed sleep.

Sylvia though, groaned in protest.

"You're gonna leave in the morning anyway, just... five more minutes..." Her groan turned into a mumble under when she noticed Asteria staring at her.

She continued staring at the silent sylvia for a moment, then sighed.

"I'll be staying home for the next two days, we'll talk in the morning"