"Auntie, is this really okay?"
"No problemo, no problemo. Just don't snitch me up to your other mother the moment you are found, okay?"
"Ehhh...bu-but she really is so scary when she is angry..."
"Don't worry about that. Just watch her in the eyes without averting yours and confess that Thaleasin has been giving it to you in secret."
""Ehhh...""
"Hehe, as long as that old hag doesn't find me out I can give you many more of these, deal?"
"D-deal." "Um!Deal!"
A raven-haired woman weirdly grinned together with two elven kids as with their pinkies they made a promise.
In the distance, two other elves were watching such sight with some complicated emotions.
"They usually don't smile like that even to me, their big sister."
"They do not behave like that even with Thaleasin or with Courtney...just give up, that's Deva we are talking about, a tree might have a higher favorability towards her instead of us even though we are elves."
They were none other than Theresa and Edea.
In these ten years of free time the Deva family oftentimes passed their time with the royal elven family, they especially saw Lyra and Glyny grow, taught them every major subject from history to geography or etiquette to basic swordsmanship and were praised as great genuises as they absorbed knowledge like sponge but they only behaved like real kids when they were around Deva.
Multiple times Thaleasin lamented that he seemed to talk with two adults every time he interacts with his two cute geniuses.
"Deva is surely hiding something about Lyra and Glyny, I recognize that smile amongst others! There's something fishy as to how she has been behaving towards those two."
"I mean, I can sense it too. But will she really do something bad to them? At the very least I think she'll just use them to do something but not to the point of causing death."
"I hope so. I don't think she'll do that to Thaleasin or to us." Theresa sighed thinking how indifferent Deva can become in a heartbeat without notice or reason. In fact, if the two kids in front of her were not the children of anyone related to her she might even crush their bodies without hesitation or give them a great amount of gold to live their lives without reason.
She might even wipe the existence of an entire village if she was in the mood...
"Wait, she did that in the past...shit!"
"Theresa?"
"Ooops, sorry, nothing important."
"No, that's not the point, the kids heard you, you know?"
"Ah."
"Shit?" "Shit!"
As if enlightened, Lyra and Glyny started to curse with bright smiles and together with Deva they danced and held each other's hands as they did so.
"P-please n-no..."
D-don't, okay? Please, don't..."
With crumbling expressions they pleaded but were swiftly ignored as the three laughed and chanted the word with delight.
"Oh? It seems we have unwanted visitors." Deva stopped.
Theleasin and Aalrie could be seen in the distance with tattered clothes seemingly running away from someone. Just several metres from them one could a figure with several wings chasing the two. No, she wasn't alone, behind her swarms of fallen angels were following her lead.
[Report. The defences outside the forest crumbled, all the elves that were present there were all captured and are being brought to their city while the most powerful fallen angels decided to continue their attack.]
A mechanical voice reached my mind.
[The numbers of elves are massively inferior compared of that of the fallen angels. The probability of the elves to win the war has decreased from fifteen percent to two percent.]
"Indeed, it has been a losing war the moment you decided to cure them instead of going all out."
"Deva! Theresa! Edea! Protect Lyra and Glyny!" Thaleasin shouted and making us involved in such matters.
"Well, sure thing." I contemplated several things as the elves and the fallen angels confronted each other once again just outside the gates of the city.
"Auntie? Are Papa and mama going to be okay?" "Auntie, auntie shouldn't you go help them?"
"Okay, okay, calm down there. Aren't we in our city? I believe Thaleasin can overcome such little pesky things and defend you." As I said that I glanced towards the direction of Theleasin and Aalrie but instead of making eye contact with the two I made eye contact with someone else.
The moment we did so a strange light shone in her eyes and in response I gave her a slight smile before turning around.
"Let's see the battle from the terrace!" Seemingly convinced from my words before, the two regained their cheerfulness.
Unlike the three, Theresa and Edea worriedly glanced at the unfolding battle in front of them. The two opened their mouth but hesitated.
"What's wrong with you two? You can intervene a little bit, you know? Your participation won't cause any death nor change the outcome of this war just with a battle alone." Deva said as she watched Lyra and Glyny running in the distance.
But those words were enough for the two.
"Mmm, you've been supressing it for really a long time, huh." Deva murmured to herself before chasing the two girls who went ahead inside the tree.
A decade passed and Edea and Theresa watched their own kin reduced to mere slaves without being able to do anything especially if their very family have the possibility to fall in the hands of these nymphomaniacs.
...
...
...
It was just a moment.
She gazed at those crimson eyes.
There wasn't a single being that her eyes cannot see how corrupted a person is since she became a fallen angel. Even a child has a small stain in their body but never has she seen someone so monstrous and fiendish as the woman.
In the Matriarch's eyes, a heinous criminal has the entire body shrouded with darkness and the more pronounced and darker the darkness is the more grievous is their sins.
And at that moment everything other than the woman's eyes was shrouded by darkness.
...
...
...