After that, we ended up in this weird sort of a relationship where I was constantly giving her books about magic and occasionally guiding her to bring out the full potential of her powers. It hadn't taken me that long to realize that she had a gift for mage-craft and it hadn't taken her that long either to find out that I had been making plans to use her and some others like her to overtake Remedy Corp., and get to the top of the mage world.
Even though she had found out about that though, she didn't really give any opinion on the matter. And so, our relationship continued.
That is, until a particular incident that happened when we were both 15.
"Are you serious?" I had come to know about it only by overhearing some gossip.
"Yes, her house was destroyed. The entire family fled somewhere." Using my magic to get answers out of people, I had confirmed the gossips.
And it was something terrifying.
Some people (which I easily found out were hired by Remedy Corp.) had destroyed Grimma��s home. Her family had fled. What the gossips from my classmates didn't involve was an incident that happened to Remedy – a state HQ of the Corp. was destroyed and many were killed. From what I had heard, a Demoness with a body of a 15-year-old girl had done it.
The dots were connecting, but the line was too unbelievable.
However, it was unbelievable because the situation wasn't really how I understood it. I was thinking that the reason Remedy did all that was because they found out about my plans and that I had been trying to groom Grimma into a force to be reckoned with.
The reality was different; but not knowing that, I thought it was my responsibility to get in touch with her again and make sure the whole family's safe.
From the day I found out about it, I started working on it. I even stopped going to school, though that never really meant much to me.
The way they had escaped and covered their tracks spelled 'experienced' all over it. However, it didn't spell 'smart'.
Booking flight tickets to different places, not boarding any of them; going in loops in trains and even checking-in in many hotels only to escape without anyone knowing; these were all things people learn with experience. They weren't particularly smart and so, even though it took me 2-3 months, I was able to find out where they were.
They had taken shelter in an old shrine in an underdeveloped village. I never found out any relations between any of the family members and that shrine, or even that village. That – the fact that they hid in a village completely unfamiliar to them – was the smartest move they had played.
In the end though, I had found out and gone to the shrine, bumping into Irium rather soon.
"Hey, you little twerp, how's it going?" I remember asking that to him, to which he made a pouting expression, not happy by being called 'little twerp' by me, even though he didn't mind it in the slightest when Grimma called him that. Was that one of those situations where people would say, 'like sister, like brother'?
Regardless, he took me to Grimma upon my request.
When I saw her, she was sitting on some gravel and staring up at the night sky. I think it was around 9 in the night.
"Yo!" I said.
Her shoulders jumped with surprise as she immediately got up and adopted a fighting stance.
"Calm down, will you? It's just me." I said, seeing her rather extreme reaction.
She looked at me with contempt for scaring her but did lower her judo stance, or whatever the hell the stance was that she had adopted.
"Why are you here?" She asked me.
"Well," because I was still thinking that it was my fault that all that happened to her, I interpreted her questions as scorn and said, "This may not make up for everything but I have an idea to improve your situation."
"…" She didn't respond but just looked at me curiously. I continued.
"Can I meet with your father?" I asked then.
"Why?" She asked.
"I assume he has found out by now about you being a mage."
"Yes, of course." She said with sad eyes. "And he's not happy about it."
I mustered up my courage and asked, "I think I have a proposal that he should at least hear once."
"You think?" She looked at me suspiciously as she questioned.
"Well, I don't know if I should really call it a proposal or not or if your father will even like it or not. So, I only 'think' that it is a proposal he should hear."
"Hah!" She sighed and started walking towards the interior of the shrine. "Follow me!"
*****
"Dad?" Grimma said with a voice that couldn't hide her guilt. "There's someone who wants to meet you."
Her father, Kaylith Glice, turned to me and asked, "And who is he?"
"An acquaintance." She said.
"Hah!" I sighed and stepped forward as I introduced myself. "Sir, I am Cartel Hopkins. I'm-"
"You're Cartel Hopkins?" He asked with wide-eyes. "You are the one who kept giving her books so she could learn about magic?"
I glanced at Grimma, who had her head down with a mix of shame and guilt, and then glanced back at her father.
"Then, aren't you the one who is really responsible for all that has happened to us?" He suggested.
I could tell it from a mile away that he was going to say that. Yet, I couldn't come up with any response but,
"Yes, sir. This is mostly my fault." At that time, I was thinking that Remedy had destroyed their lives because of Grimma's association with me. So, I naturally accepted the whole blame. Since it was actually not the case though, Grimma looked at me in surprise as she heard that.
"I see." Kaylith, on the other hand, had veins popping from his head. "Then, I think you should repent a little."
*****