Cassandra watched as Jack walked away from her, and over to a shelf, looking over the spines of the books. His fingers were tracing over the characters woven with golden thread.
So with his back to her, she reached up to the back of her head and pulled her hair out of a ponytail before wandering over to the mirror. Looking at herself, in the mirror, she smiled a bit before nodding.
It would appear that she liked her hair down, rather than up.
Jack glanced over his shoulder towards her as he raised a brow seeing her with her hair down. He wasn't going to go over and change her hair back. The fact that her hair was so long bothered him, but at the same time, he saw it as a strategic weakness. If she were to ever find herself in a fight with someone, long hair was a weapon that would only work against her.
It wasn't practical to have such long hair in a world where anyone could be trying to kill or hurt you.
Jack huffed a breath of hair through his nose as he would pull a book from the shelf, looking over the characters still. He couldn't read them which he was finding to be annoying.
All of the glyphs were unique in the sense that it could be more relatable to Eastern Asia's diverse written languages: most prominently China, Japan and Korea.
However there were also the addition of various irregulars which he couldn't really comprehend either. Without something of reference, he wouldn't be able to figure any of this out.
He wasn't a linguist even though he had plenty of fictional or occult languages in his head.
Letting out a sigh of aggravation, he turned to look over at the girl again as she was walking over to him. He could hear her dainty feet padding on along the rug.
"Are you not able to read…?" Cassandra asked as she walked up to him, placing a hand on the book, before slowly tugging it from his hands. She looked over the cover for a moment, before looking up at him awaiting an answer.
Jack feigned smiled down at her as she had taken the book from his hands, "I can read the languages pertaining to angels… But I've never read that language before."
"Ah, I see." Blinking a few times she would put the book back on the shelf, tilting her head up at him. "How about I teach you?"
Jack raised a brow slightly, "Perhaps… I have an easier way."
"Easier way?" The girl looked up at him rather confounded at to what he was talking about. Yet it was too late for her to reach as both of his hands clasped down on her ears. Her eyes widened as she looked up at him, his face close to her own. Her lips curled in for a moment, polishing her lips in confusion.
"Wha-What're you doing?"
"You should close your eyes," Jack answered her question with a recommendation, rather than a true answer. "This will only hurt a bit."
"H-hurt?" The girl lightly tugged back, it had been a recommendation, not an order.
『Memory Meld: Take』was the spell of choice this time around, a sharp pain would shoot through the girl's brain, as if someone had poked it with a cold unfeeling finger.
Yet what he was feeling was complete chemical bliss whilst her head jolted and spasmed about involuntarily, her hands reaching out to grab onto him as her legs gave out and she fell to her knees.
Jack went down with her, kneeling down with her as she rested her forehead against the cold plate of his torso's armored chest.
For a brief moment, drool and saliva was dripping form her agape mouth as she was panting shakily. Her eyes stared at the ground, the rug that she could see between her knees firmly planted on the floor.
"You alive?" Jack asked sarcastically, he knew she was alive and undamaged.
Jerking her head back, she looked up at him with a loose constitution, "What… Whack oh? Did… was..." She shook her head slightly as she couldn't get a number of words together.
Pursing his lips at this, his hands would move from her ears and onto her cheeks. "Take a deep breath," he kept her facing him, his eyes readily looking through hers.
Taking a deep breath, she would slowly exhale, "Aaaah..." She groaned as her body relaxed a bit, "What was that…?" She asked as she looked up at him, her eyes were on his lips, before traveling to his eyes. More like a predator sizing up a meal if anything at all.
Jack raised a brow at the gaze she was giving him before smiling softly, "I learned how to read and write, directly from you."
Her mouth almost immediately dropped open and her eyes widening beyond their normal width, "Eh?"
"Much more efficient don't you think?"
"I thought I was going to die!" Her brows creased as she made a panicked expression, balling her hands into the fabric of his studded gambeson, shaking at his jacket in her grasp.
"But you didn't," Jack would place a hand on the top of her head, playing with her hair slightly between his fingers before standing up, helping her stand with one hand under her arm.
She glared at him for a moment before looking towards the door, not necessarily expecting her father to come in with Brother Tonic yet. She then shifted her gaze back to him, sizing the tall angel up for a moment before walking over to the door.
Jack did nothing but watch as she had went over and latched the door shut, before turning her head to look back at him. Her hand was slowly working their way down to the corner of her gown, but his eyes didn't follow.
"What do you think you're doing?" This time Jack had his turn to ask this question, and when he had asked this, he had suddenly appeared standing behind her.
His hand grasping her wrist and squeezing it until she let go of the corner of her nightgown. He wasn't about to have her propose something like that to him, not so suddenly.
"I want more knowledge, and all I have to give in exchange is myself!" Her eyes seemed to be filled with a fiery lust for magical knowledge. To the point that she would do anything for it.
Did her parents not give her an allowance or access to money?
Jack just kept his sights set on her eyes as she squirmed, trying to lightly tug her hand out of his grasp to no avail. It wasn't as if she was actually trying though, there was no struggle.
"You will learn in time, but for now," Jack would release her wrist and take a few steps back, "make do with what you have."
Cassandra pouted and gave a muffled cry, stomping her foot in a miniature tantrum. "I want to learn now!" She curled her toes on and off, facing him as he went to lean on the desk of her father's.
"Open the door, so your father can come in when he gets here," Jack folded one shin over the other.
Cassandra sucked on the back of her teeth, "Fine!" Turning back to face the door, she flipped the latch as to unlock the door before leaning against the wall beside it, opposite from the hinge.
She'd cross her arms over her chest, her hands resting on her elbows as she rested the pad of her right foot against the wall. She kept her eyes on Jack, not once moving as she kept her breath shallow as to stare at him longer.
Jack just blinked at regular intervals, watching as she silently glared at him.
She was definitely a brat, only mildly behaved when attention was given, but acted up once there was something she wanted or didn't get.
To Jack, it seemed she would be chasing after him the more they got familiar with one another. Something that while he didn't mind, didn't believe he would be able to necessary return the feelings.
She also seemed spoiled, believed she could get anything she wanted. Even if it was in exchange for herself, so her self-value was probably rather low. Perhaps something had or hadn't happened? Was she suffering from neglect? Abuse? He couldn't quite tell what was going on with this girl.
That or it could just be her sense of entitlement?
Was learning just an excuse?
Questions were endlessly popping up in his head, assumptions, presumptions. Finally something clicked in the back of his mind. Her father had wanted her to marry in order to be protected? His eyes remained on her as she seemed to sway with her shoulders pressing against the wall behind her, and her body arching out towards him, clearly trying to orchestrate something.
Jack gave no response as his eyes flickered over towards the door, somewhat regretting that he sent the Lord to go off and leave him here alone with his daughter.
"We're going to be waiting a while for him..."
Jack didn't reply.
"We could go wait in my room?"
Jack's attention momentarily went back to her, an uninterested and relaxed expression on his face. "You're not going to give up are you?"
"No… Since I was little, the only thing I've been good at is magic. So, you'll give me exactly what I want," she rested her arms against the wall, trying to puff out her chest a bit more.
"Or I could drop you off the side of one of the many towers," Jack rolled his eyes at what she had said.
"Err..." The Daughter just sat down against the wall, sliding down it in the process. "Father wouldn't like that you know." She snapped as she looked to him again after taking a gander at the floor.
Jack's eye twitched slightly, while she wasn't wrong, it was already too late for the Lord's allegiance to change. He couldn't be betrayed by those who have the faith and loyalty he instilled in them.
…
Kokei was following the Lady Carmichael the closest compared to everyone else. He walked at a quick pace, his padded boots shielding the floor from the sharp points of his toes.
His eyes were locked on the woman as her black hair bounced with each lady-like step she made.
Runa was directly behind him with the two sisters on either side of her, and Vivian directly behind her. Her hands were folded in front of her, watching the maids and other staff of the castle gaze upon the unusual gathering of people following the lady of the house.
"Is that a skeleton?" One could be heard whistling.
"I'm sure it is… He has blue eyes…"
People didn't seem to fear Kokei at all, but he himself was fearing their many gazes. His white bald head could be seen since he had once pulled down his hood as they made their way up another set up stairs.
They were on the third floor now, having taken a different route than Jack had with the Lord to the Study. His gaze dropped to the floor as the Lady came to a stop in front of a trio of rooms.
"This shall be your..." the woman grimaced as she looked over the skeleton mage, "Your room." She gestured with an open hand, all her fingers pointing towards a dark wooden door.
Pitching his head forward in acknowledgement, he would practically stride over to the door, like a suddenly anxious child and latch it shut behind him.
Resting his robed bony back against the door, he stared at the window which peered out towards the sky. It was a beautiful sight. Though it didn't stop his legs from trembling. He didn't have a nervous system, nor muscles, and yet he was finding it hard to walk.
"So many people..." He thought to himself, his own voice echoing in his head as he was using telepathy on himself. Which was rather abnormal for about anyone to do, if not impossible.
His eyes wandered over to the bed, letting his mind wonder, not knowing if he could even sleep in this avatar form. He had tried in that Inn when they first arrived, and it didn't quite work.
Even when he was laying there in the dungeon, pretending to be dead, he couldn't stop seeing the world. Closing his eyes wasn't an option, as he had no true eyes. He saw everything with magic. It was strange, but something that almost came natural to him, so it wasn't all that bad.
Pressing two of his fingers against the forehead of his skull, he took a few steps away from the door, listening to the girls go into their rooms. From what he could tell, Runa and Vivian were sharing a room and the two sisters got their own room.
He could hear the words of Lady Carmichael who was retreating soon after, mumbling about how elves were disgusting and how it was horrible that they had to have an undead as a guest.
His shoulders fell slightly and his head shook side to side in disappointment.
"Jack should have been with us… Perhaps he is having an interesting conversation with the Lord of this Castle." He was speaking to himself some more, putting his fingers between his teeth as he slackened his jawbone slightly.
"Or he's using that Divine Fealty… That might not be a bad idea..." His eyes darted to the door as he sat on the side of the nearby king sized bed. That was when Kokei's sight moved over towards a bowl which was situated on the nearby dresser, filled with water. "I could go see what he was doing..."
Pushing himself from the bed, Kokei would pull off his boots before scampering on over to the bowl. Looking down into the water. Waving a hand over it slowly, he would cast a spell of 『Divine Sight』causing the aquatic surface to ripple until an image appeared.
Soon enough he could see the whole study, Jack and the Lord's daughter.
She was standing in the middle of the room, pointing and shouting. Kokei didn't have a high enough spell to hear what was going on. So this was getting hard to interpret. However the first thing he noticed about the girl's attire was the strap on one shoulder was down her arm.
"Is she trying to seduce Jack and failing?" Kokei chuckled at this, before narrowing his sights on the hair on the ground which she was standing in the center of. His sight then rested on her head. "Wait.. Did he cut her hair?"
Jack didn't seem at all responsible to her yelling at him, not one bit.
"Ooof.. Jack," he used telepathy to talk to the angel in the study.
"Hm?" Jack looked directly towards the lens of the divination spell, which was invisible to the naked eye. His eyes narrowing on the spectator. "What is it Kokei?"
Kokei stepped back for a moment, slightly unnerved by the fact that he could see the lens, before moving forward to look into the water once more.
"Why is she yelling at you?"
"Oh…" Jack's eyes wandered back over towards the girl who was all tensed up now and red in the face. "Not sure… I kinda spaced out, if Ivan takes any longer getting back here, I might take a nap."
Kokei shook his head, his neck clicking as he did so. "I… I see… Oh, I am curious, what were you doing with Runa at the Inn?"
"Oh, she was being a plush pillow." Jack responded with his head lulling to the side.
Since Jack was speaking out loud as he was using telepathy for the time being, Cassandra was looking at him with a rather confused face. She had an idea that he was talking to someone, but she didn't know who Kokei was.
"Are you going to be doing anything with this one?" Kokei inquired, he was rather happy that he hadn't done anything perverted to Runa. That and it seemed after the stuff that went down, he wasn't necessarily picking on or clinging to her either.
It made him feel rather uncomfortable, and he was sure it was some of the fuel that lead to Nakajima turning hostile towards Jack to the point of violence. Jealousy was a dangerous thing indeed, as was an over reactive imagination.
"I was thinking about it," Jack let out a sigh, "But all I can do is break this one."
"B-break?" Kokei and Cassandra both stuttered at this at the same time, in unison, without even being in the same room as one another. However Cassandra's face was beet red.
"Yes, Break." Jack raised a hand and cracked his index finger with the use of his thumb.
Kokei would grind his teeth together slightly in thought, "Did you use Divine Fealty on them?"
Jack nodded at this before looking to the lens once more, "Why?"
As if closing his eyes, he face palmed slightly. "You have to remember that while the spell keeps their personality in tact, it may alter their aspirations towards you. If I remember correctly, if you were to use it on an NPC with a high infatuation value, it'd center on you."
"Right… Forgot you could pretty much use the game as a dating sim." He glanced up towards the ceiling now, not looking at the lens. "Interactive nulls..."
"Game?" Cassandra blinked a few times, "What's a game got to do with dating? What's a sim? Are you calling me a null!?"
Seeing how confused Cassandra was getting about what was going on, Kokei rested his hand son the dresser. "Are you confusing her on purpose?"
"Yes, yes I am. I don't believe there's a problem with it, do you think there is?"
Cassandra was just staring at him now as he completely ignored her questions and went on to talk to his 'invisible' buddy or something. "I'll strip if you don't pay attention to me!"
Jack's eyes flickered over to her, "Oh? Here we go again..."