Sebastian's POV: (Still remember him? You know, the troubled cute butler)
It was time for little Taya's tutor. I waited and waited but she didn't show up. That's odd. She usually is an obedient child and won't miss her lessons that easily.
I decided to go check on her, but when I went to her bedroom she wasn't there. I went to look outside in the garden of the palace where she usually plays and picks flowers, but she was not there either. I checked the kitchen, the main hall, the dolls' room, and she's still nowhere to be found, hell I even checked the warehouse where it's impossible for even a fly to enter. The only place I haven't checked was this cellar that no one is allowed to enter apart from the queen who had the only key, but yeah, there is no way for little Taya to be there.
I started to get so worried at this point, if the queen knew Taya was missing she would hang me! I have to find her NOW!
While I was panicking in my place I suddenly remembered what little Taya told me earlier.
*Flashback*
"Taya wants to go on an adventure today!" She yelled with excitement.
"Taya wants to see the city and the stores and the playing children on the playgrounds and the markets and the bakeries an-" she couldn't finish her sentence when I interrupted. "Oujou-chan (milady), you're still too young, but hopefully you will one day visit the civilians as their princess and make them respect you and look up to you" I said as I ruffled her golden hair. She pouted innocently and puffed her cheek. "But Taya wants to visit them as a friend, not as a princess" she said. I was surprised to hear a 6 years old child talk that way, especially a princess who'd grown up in an environment like THIS. She's really going to be a great ruler in the future, at least better than her selfish older brother.
*Back to the present*
That can't be real! Did she seriously go by herself to the city?! I ran fastly to my room and put my cloak on ready to go searching, that was when a sudden awful realization hit me.
She is a magician, not even mentioning that she is the princess, and the daughter of.... of HER! If anybody found out about her identity she would be in big trouble!
I have to hurry.....!
********
Youya's POV:
This sucks, I have been wandering with Hina- and Ayane-san for weeks but we didn't do a single useful thing! Ayane-san would go around the city EVERY SINGLE DAY to ask and search for someone. They didn't even tell me about who we're looking for. Hina-san and I would help Ayane-san sometimes, but mostly we would fulfill random tasks to earn money. The tasks were often impossible without magic, and that's why the civilians (unwilled) would leave it to Hina-san and her powers.
Through this period I was told that I'm a special kind of half magician half normal human. They say that I cannot use magic nor control my aura but I am able to sense other people's auras, which apparently means I'm a "familiar", and don't ask what that means because I have no idea!
Either way, the only person that helped me sharpen my "ability" was Hina-san, she explained most of the rules and basics of magic. She also taught me some fighting skills, because I'll "clearly need them" as they claim. Not sure what kind of danger will I face but at least I get free food and shelter. I even earn much money from the tasks we've done, more than what I used to earn at the obasan's bakery.
Today was another day of training.
"Now, Youya-chan, focus on your surroundings, clear your mind, don't think about anything, use your senses as much as you can, listen to every voice in the neighborhood, no, in the whole city and take a deep breath, in.....and out...in.....and out" Hina-san guided me as I had my eyes shut. WE were sitting in the hotel room to avoid unwanted attention. Ayane-san was, as usual, out somewhere looking for him.
I started to hear clearer and clearer, my eyes were still shut but I swear I could almost see the crowded streets in front of me. I could clearly, almost blindly, see Hina-san's blue aura. I learned how to do that last week.
I then started to notice a faint scent?...or a color? Anyway, I noticed something walking slowly in the crowds. "Hina-san! I can feel something!" I said with excitement.
"Good job! You're steadily becoming better and better every day" she complimented with a big warm smile that I could somehow see even with my black vision.
"It.... it feels familiar to me as if I know this...aura" I continued. "That's probably Ayane-san, she's the only one with a magical aura around here". Hina-san explained. That explains the familiar feeling, but wait, whaaat?!
"I thought that Ayane-san wasn't a magician?!" I half yelled with a query. "She isn't, I'm sure of that" Hina-san informed.
"But you're right, even I noticed her aura when we first met, but I don't really know how, we're not supposed to sense the normal non-magical auras" Hina-san said as confused as I am. I mean seriously! what's with all this mysteriousness?! It has been 7 chapters already but we still don't know anything about the characters! (Rip the forth wall🤣✌)
I got distracted with my own thoughts that I didn't notice another shiny aura running towards Ayane-san's faint scent. However, Hina-san seemed to notice it directly. She quickly jumped to the door and went out to their position. I sat there confused not knowing what to do, but I finally decided to follow Hina-san.
"What's wrong? Is there a magician attacking Ayane-san?!" I yelled while sprinting forward to keep up with Hina-san's fast steps.
Hina-san was running eyes closed to focus on sensing the auras. She didn't answer, but the sweat and the worried face exposed her doubts.
We were almost there when I was able to get a glance at the situation, Ayane-san was on the ground and someone was...somehow pinning her down, I think I saw someone on top of her but I couldn't really see. Hina-san charged her aura and formed it to sharp blades that floated around her, she even placed two in front of me to protect me from any danger while she got ready to attack with the other dozens of blades. As soon as we were in the range to attack, the blades flew directly at a black..... small figure sitting on ... Ayane-san's.... stomach?
While I was surprised by what I saw the blades were already about to hit the attacker, but they all froze in their place at once and then fell to the ground.
Hina-san looked up with fear and hesitation, Ayane-san who easily removed the person on top of her looked at us with wonder. "What the hell are you doing?" She asked.
"Can't you see Hina-san is trying to save you?!" I said almost angrily.
Ayane-san looked at me, then she started to laugh hysterically "You want to save me from her?!" She continued laughing as we looked over to the small attacker.
"What do you think you're doing, throwing blades at Taya?" The small attacker said.
"A-a little girl?" I asked without waiting for any answer because it was right in front of me.
"Ayane onee-chan (big sister), are those your friends?"
"Yeah" Ayane-san answered. "But you really got me with that sudden hug, I fell painful on the ground, you should be more careful Taya-chan" Ayane-san said as she squatted down to the little girl's level.
"But I see you're still as powerful as ever, little one" she said while pointing at Hina-san's blades.
"Mind explaining what's going on in here?" Asked Hina-san who was back to her calm self again.
"Well, meet Taya, the prin- uhm, a friend of mine, she is like a little sister to me, I took care of her since she was born "Ayane-san said while carrying the little attacke- no, friend, allowing her to sit on her shoulders happily. "Oh, and she is a golden ranker, but you probably noticed that" Ayane-san added with a bright smile that looked so creepy to me.
Taya-chan turned her head to the right and to the left repeatedly in some confusion that I didn't really understand the reason behind "where is onii-" she started but eventually got interrupted by Ayane-san "I AM....." she said loudly and in a weird interrupting way "...really hungry. I didn't have any breakfast today, and I'm sure little Taya ran away before her meal, what about a snack?"
Taya gave an excited noise and asked for a lollipop, she eventually forgot whatever she was trying to say earlier. I gave no attention to that and just went along with them heading to a nearby store.
I probably shouldn't have ignored that...