I stayed like this for an entire minute before lifting my head up. I blinked my eyes a few times before looking at Lily's eyes. I still trying to regain my composure, as I'm a mess right now. Looking at Lily, her long ears are perking up. I had an uncontrollable urge to touch, so in the end, I softly grabbed both ears and began biting one of them. It feels soft and smooth, despite its pointy sharp shape.
"W-Whaa! Don't t-touch it~ Eeeh~" Lily's knees gave up.
"Ah..." I snapped out of what I'm doing and let go of Lily's ears.
"Sorry..." I apologized, as I remembered that she hated it. But the look on her face tells a different story because it looks like she's in bliss. She immediately snapped out of it and darted a glare at me with her beet-red face. She stood up instantly, not breaking contact with my eyes.
"Y-You... I told you to not touch my ears, so suddenly..." Lily said in a soft voice.
Inside my head, I thought to myself upon witnessing a spectacular adorable sight of Lily that I can't really control this urge of mine. It makes me want to see more, but for now, I need to hold back and don't go overboard.
"Sorry... I didn't mean to do that." I reach my hand forward to her.
"I-It's fine." Lily picked up my hand, as she's still speaking in a soft voice.
To clear the air, I asked a question to redirect her attention toward something else. "What do you want to talk about? Is it about earlier?"
"Yeah..." Lily answered with her watery eyes locked to my face, giving me the full view of her face.
"Argh, I want to take you somewhere else. If you keep speaking like that." I blurted my thoughts out loud.
Lily slaps her cheeks. "Wake yourself up, Lily! Let's get straight into it!"
I hold back my laughter. Lily forced herself to wake up, and now, darting her eyes to me, forcing me to stop my laughing. Lily coughed a few times before proceeding. "Okay, I-I bought you h-here. Koff! Apologies. As I was saying, I'm here to talk about earlier and different matters."
"Nice recovery." I gave her a thumbs up.
"S-Shut up—Koff! Ahhh!"
Throughout her talk, Lily's voice was through the summit. I burst into laughter because of that. It took me a while to stop and Lily watched me with a frown on her face.
"Are you done now?" Lily asked in a deep voice.
"Y-Yeah—Snort—Pft, wait... Huuuu... That's good."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it." Lily scoffed.
"Thank you for that, so what were you saying again?" I wiped the tears that were coming out of my eyes.
Lily narrowed her eyes before speaking. "Before you interrupted me, I was just about to say that we shall occupy the empty spots of committee with the likes of Stephanie or Rinna... or any people that we can trust. We can't cover everything once we get recruits."
"Are you sure that we would even have?"
"That's why I wanted to talk about that."
"What about Adelle?" I asked.
"Why did you mention her?"
"Isn't she also a part of this since Arya listed her name?"
"I-I'll just tell it to her later. So, can we go back to the topic?"
"Hm... From what I've seen, she truly respects you a lot and listens to you. But at times, her childishness is the problem."
"Indeed... I'm fully aware of all of that. Our problem would be her intercepting the recruitment."
"You're getting into it, huh?"
"This experience would benefit my future... But my father would be disappointed once he hears this."
"Just tell him Arya's fault. That basically explains everything. I'm pretty sure he's an understanding person."
"Indeed. He's truly an understanding person, but still... I already told about it my dear older brother and he approved it."
"He approved it because it's already been done."
"Precisely."
"So, is your brother willing to join us then?"
"No, he said, he's not interested, but he's willing to give me support whenever I need it. So now, that begs a question, what can we do to gain Arya's respect."
"Didn't you hear what I just said earlier?"
"I did, and that's preposterous if you think about it. We wouldn't even be discussing it if that's really the case. The meaning of respect is different from draconian like her. What she's showing to us right now is not respect, Claude. In her eyes, we're like slaves or in her words 'vassals'."
"And we need to show her that we're stronger than her, to prove our worthiness? That's the most barbaric way of her which doesn't surprise me at all. But aren't you too harsh with your words?"
"It doesn't."
"Okay... So what's in your mind? Defeat her in a sparring match?"
At the back of my head, Arya does act like a person who is always bossing around. But in a weird way, I don't see it in a bad way as what Lily was portraying Arya to be. It's probably her cheerfulness that's throwing me off, but I see it as Arya expressing herself—like it's her friendly way of expressing.
"I would've done that in the first place," Lily grunted.
"I think you're misunderstanding her. She wouldn't accept you if she doesn't see you as someone worthy. Do you seriously believe that she accepted it, for the purpose of just enslaving you? I don't think so."
Lily rolled her eyes.
I raised an eyebrow because of that. "You did? This is where the problem lies, you're too untrustful toward other people."
"Me untrustful? What about Stephanie and Adelle? Explain that."
"Because they're different. You trusted them because you used me as your validation whether they're trustworthy or not. Do you want me to go into exact details on why? Like physically, or like in bed—"
Lily shut her mouth off with both of her hands. "I get it okay?! There's no need to say those inappropriate things!"
"Puha! You don't want to hear, yet you're the most proactive among all of them and sucked me dry for an entire week before the academy. I'm surprised that you managed to suppress your urge since the first day of class. I thought like Clara, you will pull me somewhere else and strip my clothes." I forcefully removed her hands out of my mouth.
"S-Shut up!"
"Okay, okay, I will not continue, so what's your plan?" I patted her head while smiling gently.
Lily locked her glare at me, trying her best to look intimidating; yet, her flustered face is in full display. "You better not bring that up ever again."
"I won't. Trust me."
"... Then how about this. I'm planning to create a plan to convince her for the student exhibition where students will showcase their abilities through the main center stage to be evaluated and get recruited by other factions. It will happen next month, so before that, we will try our best to lower Arya's standards with people."
An exhibition, huh? I have no idea that there's an event that will be held for the purpose of recruitment. It's smart rather than partaking in an evaluation exam like what I did in the guild before.
"And how would you do that?"
"T-That's... I haven't really given a deeper thought about it. I will give you the details, next time."
"Good luck with that. I have low hopes for that to work."
"You don't buy it, huh? But I'm still going to make it work."
"You have my full support."
Then suddenly, Lily's face darkened. "Also, I've heard a rumor lately, regarding a black-uniformed student attacking a student in the open field of the academy. Even attacking a few students along the way while escaping."
"Words go fast, nowadays. I was already expecting for you to confront me about it, but I didn't expect for you to slide it into this conversation."
"So? Any explanation?"
"Well, trust me, I'm not at fault. Unfortunately, the man that I attacked was crazy in the head for attempting to put a mid-tier curse inside me." I scratched the back of my head while explaining.
"Curse...?" Lily frowned upon hearing it.
"Yes."
"What happened to the curse inside you? Are you okay? Did you remove it? Did it affect you?" Lily became anxious, as she held my body from both of my arms.
"I'm good. Diana had already taken care of it."
Lily sighed in relief. "But that doesn't make any sense... Why you out of all people? Did you get into an argument with someone?"
"I haven't from what I've remembered... I haven't really interacted with other students, except for a few exceptions."
"Do you know the guy?"
"Actually, that's what baffled me because it's my first time seeing his face. He introduced himself to me and it was our first time interacting with each other. So, I have no idea."
"Then why?"
"Probably a person was jealous of me and used that guy? I mean, I have the checklist, all checked. Got a good-looking face. Check. Surrounded by goddesses. Check. Perhaps, they're scared of me stealing the other goddesses too. Check? Scared of me? Probably. Diana also checked everything. From influential curses or control-related magic, but there's nothing."
"With that in mind, aren't you in trouble? You attacked a few students along the way."
"I barely call it attacking." I scoffed.
"What happened to the guy who cast the curse?"
"I gave him to the headmaster to clear out the misunderstanding because of my actions. And used a favor..."
"The favor... What if it was Albert's doing?"
"Albert? Most likely and unlikely? I don't know."
"Speaking of Albert, why did you let him join us? Isn't he holding resentment towards you because of Stephanie?"
"Yeah, he does, but that resentment changed because he's resenting me for taking Rosalyn. You wouldn't believe it but in spite of his aggressive behavior. He's actually a siscon." I snickered.
"Siscon? What's that?"
"A sister complex. A strong attachment toward his own sister."
"Why are you laughing at it? I don't see any problem with it. He loves his sister, so?"
"Ah..."
"You're taking this matter too lightly, Claude."
"Well, it's already been taken care of. Do you also want to know what happened before with Rosalyn? I think I haven't given you an explanation yet."
"I know what you're trying to do, Claude. But do tell." Lily sadly cast her eyes down.
"Y-Yeah..." I sighed exasperatedly before summarizing everything to her, leaving some unnecessary parts of me taunting the phoenix which almost endangered my life—a quick summarization of what happened to me like getting trapped inside an 'astral space' which Lily probably doesn't know.
"Astral space? You can manifest your astral body?" Lily's eyes widened.
"You're also familiar with that?"
"Of course I do... It's the most important secret we keep for thousands of years... The secret of the royal family." Lily snapped her fingers.
She then invoked a spell while holding my hand. "Shrouded by the ancient sacrament, remove us from the sight of the uninvited, my defense is without flaw. I beckon you, protect us with your benevolence."
The unprotected room was suddenly coated by these mysterious transparent flakes of snow, soaring through the ceiling above me. When it finished, the entire room was shrouded by the pale whiteness even the ray of the sun can't penetrate, as the windows are also completely covered. We're sealed inside.
"No one can hear us now. Let's proceed on the topic about you, specifically about your astral. Since when can you do this?" Lily narrowed her eyes to me.
"Hm... Two years ago? It was all Diana's doing. I didn't do anything special. She often calls me to have— Train. Training. Yes, to train." I coughed a little.
Lily looks at me with suspicion. "Your spirit... What even is she? A humanoid spirit with a transcendent beauty. She's obviously a high-ranking spirit, but I get a feeling she's more than that."
"She is a goddess," I said proudly.
"Claude..."
"Lily..." I put my hand over her shoulder. "I'm not lying. She said it herself. Whether you believe it or not, it's your own choice. I know that believing it would contradict your elven beliefs, so there's no need to force yourself to understand it. I'm being transparent as I can be. In the end, it will be up to you. Well... You're not the only one... Even Adelle or Stephanie doesn't believe it too."
"Because—"
"Shhhh... No need. I don't want to hurt Diana's feelings with your words. I don't want to experience that madness." I touched her lips. Because last time, Diana was deeply hurt by Lily's words. It's painful to see Diana's disheartening face. Diana got hurt when Lily called her out to be a 'self-proclaimed goddess'.
The word 'deity' in this world is taboo among people, especially the elves since they worship Gaia. Or the race loved by the Gaia itself. This is also the fact why I don't often talk to Diana with them. For some reason, they don't believe every word that I tell them. It's weird.
Lily blink a few times before shaking her head sideways and removing my finger out of her lips. "... We already had this talk, but I can't do anything about your spirit. However, do you have any idea how controversial it would be if this reaches my father's ears?"
"No?"
"No? It's about your astral manifestation capabilities."
"No idea. You tell me."
"This is so vexing... The astral plane... Where do I even start... My father wouldn't be pleased... In the best case, he would try to either bring you over which sounds good... For now, let's keep that a secret. It's a forbidden topic that shall not be mentioned, okay? Am I the only one who knows it?"
"Yeah? I don't really mention it to others."
The corner of Lily's lip twitched upon hearing it. She tried to hold back her smile. "Ehem! Then it's good. We shall keep this into the two of us. I assure you I will think of ways to resolve this."
"Or don't tell anyone—You sure looked excited."
"I'm not!" Lily attempted to refute by shoving her face up close to me, but it showcased her mouth gradually transforming into a smile. From her words, it seems like it is a sacred forbidden topic to discuss, that may perhaps be related to Gaia. I chose to not question her further.
"Anyway, the phoenix is a household spirit of their family that passed through their bloodline generation by generation. However, no person can withstand its taxing power. They either get consumed by emotions or get their soul devoured by the phoenix. To put it simply, it's a lesser version of a rogue spirit."
"Albert is the one receiving the drawback of their contract so that Rosalyn would live normally without experiencing the dreadful nature of it... And then Rosalyn... At some point, her mind was also influenced." I added.
"That's quite unheard of. Then... I will help you with them. Adelle and I should be able to monitor them if their behavior is suspicious, especially Albert, right?" Lily slightly tilts her head to the side.
"Yeah, that would be a huge help. Thank you for understanding." I smiled.
"Also..." Afterward, I explained to her about the million people residing in one's soul which is impossible to think of. And how, it restricted the phoenix from entering the spirit realm. I carefully explained it all to Lily thoroughly. Her initial reaction was what I expected. Furthermore, I also noticed the more I tell her everything, her eyes glistened in curiosity.
The phoenix hasn't entered the spirit realm considering he had those million souls residing inside him. It's baffling to think of. But not impossible considering the phoenix is a high-tier spirit which means his soul would naturally be stronger than anyone. It may be taking a huge toll, but looking at him up-close. He's definitely among the strong ones. Perhaps stronger than the White Dragon. A higher status among the elites.
"It's not believable right?"
"No, I believe it because if it's truly was the phoenix from the books then it matches perfectly. Perhaps, it's trying to save its people because of the sense of duty given to him by Gaia? So, I believe you."
"Okay, so you believe this, but not Diana being a goddess?"
"They're two different things. One includes clashing against my beliefs, the beliefs of all race, and the other one involves a high-ranking spirit that has deep knowledge about the astral space, and probably the world around us." Lily crossed her arms underneath her endowed chest.
"Hm..." I contemplated.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Lily approaches me and wraps her arms around my chest. "Let me stay for a while like this... Haaa... Curses and then the phoenix. Can I just imprison you back home forever? You're attracting too much unnecessary attention."
Hearing her words made my brain stop for quite a while before responding to it. "Oh please, don't joke about it. Ha-ha-ha... This feels familiar..." For some reason, I felt her words are genuine.
"I was actually taking it into consideration." Lily looked up to me and flashed a smile.
"..."