"Hah?" Ciel dug his ears to check if something happened to his hearing during the eve's formation.
"Little sister." The newborn eve nodded, as if confirming his identity.
"No wait. Are you saying I'm your little sister?" Ciel was baffled by this unexpected development. Why was a newly formed eve calling him little sister? Besides, what was with people thinking he was a girl all the time? Was it because he was short?
"You are my little sister. I am your big brother." The eve repeated.
"No wait a minute, even if we're siblings, I should be the older one?"
An extremely grumpy captain slammed the door open, interrupting the conversation about to awry.
"Aren't you two going to let people sleep? Family conflicts can be settled later."
"He's not my—"
"Sleep. If you two make any more sounds I will shoot you." The captain shot a bullet Ciel barely dodged before slamming the door shut again. It seemed like he had gotten a little too familiar with Ciel in the short time frame, even daring to point a gun at him.
'Why only me?' Ciel glanced at the snake eve who looked at him innocently. From the novel, he knew that although newly formed eves would lose all memories of their time as animals, they would have basic knowledge that varied according to the knowledge they gathered during their time as an animal.
He touched his snow colored hair. Did this guy have a white scaled snake sister or something?
'Whatever.' Ciel grabbed the snake eve and shoved him into the box as a mattress before slipping in himself. He was tired. Troublesome things could be dealt with tomorrow.
The snake eve seemed to sense his intentions and closed his red eyes obediently.
Ciel was quiet as he laughed. 'As expected, beings with consciousness are always the most interesting.'
***
"So what's your name? Do you have one?" Mason used the fork he was holding to point at the snake eve. The entire group was having breakfast in the same room with the playing cards last night.
The snake eve, who was now dressed in proper clothing similar to Ciel's black clothes and had his long black hair tied in a ponytail, nodded proudly. "My name is Erin. It means peace."
"So why am I your little sister?" Ciel had been woken up early to cook breakfast and it was only now that he remembered the issue from last night.
"Don't know. Maybe because I'm taller than you." Erin shrugged with a blank face.
"That's not the issue. Why are we siblings? I have no relatives." Ciel refused to take a complete stranger as his family member, even if they seemed interesting.
"The boy already took you as his sibling. Why argue? Newly formed eves act according to the knowledge they gathered in their animal years until they grow more. When they're younger, they'll imprint on the ones who were closest to them right before turning into an eve like a newborn chick. You've been with him the last few days during transportation right? Of course he would stick to you." Lanae interrupted. Her eyes were fixed on Erin's feathery wings on his back, and her eyes kept moving from Erin to Jadiel.
"Captain, I can raise this one right?"
Jadiel also glanced at Erin's wings, and at the black scales scattered across Erin's skin.
"In his state, we can't put him anywhere else."
Ciel jumped into the conversation.
"So after a few years, he won't be calling me little sister anymore?"
"Depends on how fast he grows and what influences him. He can be counted as fully independent eve when he can completely transform into a human form." Mason interjected.
"Ok. As long as it's temporary." Ciel nodded.
"Why do you reject him?" Kierra asked, compared to last night, her eyes were more lively.
"Would any of you like more food?" Ciel pretended he didn't hear her, standing up to go back to the kitchen. As a highly adaptable man—no, boy, he was quickly accepted as the group's all-rounder servant.
Fortunately, before anyone else could continue Kierra's question, Ivan raised his hand.
"I'd like some more sweet fish steamed with fruit."
Obtaining the excuse he needed, Ciel exited the room, his smile pasted onto his face like a mask. Someone tapped his shoulder.
"Can I help?" Erin asked hesitantly. He had a nagging feeling that an older brother was supposed to help his younger siblings.
Ciel turned away, "No, go eat." He took some more fish and fruit out of the knight's mana freezer box. Turning up the fire, he started to cook. As a foodie, he was a decent cook with many recipes in his arsenal.
After a while, Ciel couldn't endure the feeling of two red eyes staring at his back anymore. "What?"
"Nothing. Continue." Erin shook his head innocently. Ciel glanced in his direction before turning back to his cooking, thinking about his future plans.
It would be a good idea to stay with the knights, they never questioned why he hid his eyes, nor how he could behave like a normal person when blindfolded. They also seemed soft to children. Coupled with what the captain had said about Lanae wanting to raise a child, he would probably be treated well in the group. Besides, from their earlier conversation, they were also taking Erin in. Since this child was temporarily attached to him, Ciel would get better treatment by associating with him.
After a few more minutes of enduring the ruby-eyed snake's staring, Ciel finally gave up.
"Wash these fruits."
Erin's eyes lit up. He took the fruits gently and scurried over to the sink. Ciel watched his mana flicker happily before returning to cooking.
After a while, the two took the steamed fish with fruit to the waiting knights. What met their eyes was a solemn atmosphere.
"Both of you, go change." Ivan handed them both different outfits. Erin had a knight apprentice's uniform that had a mask and a cape that would hide his wings, while Ciel had a simple maid uniform.
Seeing the maid uniform, Ciel's forehead was covered in black lines. Maybe it was time for him to correct some misunderstandings.
"If you haven't noticed it by now, I'm a boy."
"This is no time to joke. Change before I shoot you." The captain shoved him into a changing room. Ciel gave up protesting and simply changed.
'I don't care anymore.'
Anyway, in his past life, his sister had liked dressing him up in dresses. He had become numb to it a long time ago.
When he came back out, the other knights had also changed from their common clothes to formal knight clothing.
'They must've been summoned by the crown prince.' Ciel concluded as they filed down a luxurious hallway. He didn't notice before, but their small house was a part of a larger palace.
Soon arriving at a large throne room, the captain knelt down on one knee. At this, the rest of the knights dropped down too, perfectly in sync.
"The second prince's division greets the rising sun of Anatol."
Ciel and Erin quietly followed after them.
A young, boyish voice replied succinctly.
"Rise. I didn't summon you here today to hear you greet me. You should know that your master, the second prince you follow, has become this prince's subordinate after death?"
Even without lifting his head, Ciel knew there was a boy around his age sitting on a throne.
{ The newcomer was a handsome young man with flaming red hair, and his iridescent eyes changed with every movement he made—as if it could see through !@$#&*%'s every thought. His smile was amiable but snake-like, giving !@$#&*% an inexplicable feeling of a snake coiling around her neck. Besides her, Theodore gave a playful smile that radiated hostility.
"Dominic, what brings you here?" }
Remembering the novel's passage introducing the protagonist's third harem member, Ciel frowned, feeling an emptiness in his memories.
Strange, what was the protagonist's name again…?
"I am well aware of my master's current circumstances." Meanwhile, the captain replied to Dominic's rhetorical question, standing up.
"Then are you aware that he would have never fulfilled the agreement?"
"What?" Kierra jolted up before being pressed down by the captain next to her. Four swords had instantly pointed straight at her throat. She immediately calmed down, but her eyes gleamed with discontent.
"If you please, I'd like to speak in a more private room." Still wearing an amiable smile on his face, Dominic waved the knights away.
The captain nodded.
In another room with no visible guards, Dominic spoke again.
"Jadiel. A cheetah eve. Your entire village was enslaved by slave traders and only you and a few others escaped. You then started the Fatalite mercenary group with other eves who had no other place to go."
Ciel's eyes glinted underneath his blindfold.
'Fatalite? That large anti-slavery organization Dominic used to trade with eves?'
"I'm honored to have the crown prince know about my past." Jadiel's face didn't change. However, Ciel could feel the surrounding knights' pressure grow slightly. By now, if he didn't know what the pressure was then he had no brain.
'Turns out the murderous aura emitted from sentient beings and non-sentient beings are different. I'm learning new things everyday.' He smiled cheerily on the inside.
"My second brother promised you that if you served him as his second division of knights, he would support you in finding the slave traders and clients among nobles, am I correct?" Dominic smilingly intertwined his fingers on his knees.
"Correct." Jadiel's face was becoming more and more stiff.
"But has he never told you? He was one of those nobles." Dominic put on an obviously fake smile.
"!"
The air filled with tension.
"How do I know you're not lying?" Jadiel broke the silence. Ciel watched the live show in front of his eyes with gleefulness.
'Just this show in front of me is enough for me to join this group. I'm really glad I decided to escape! The tower has no interesting dramas like this!'
Dominic smiled leisurely, an expression that didn't fit his childish expression at all. "See for yourselves." An older brown eyed man with the same sunset red hair as Dominic entered the room. No, rather than entering the room, it would be more accurate to say that he floated into the room. Holding a file, he had mentally tired expression.
"Second prince?" Jadiel called out to the man, his eyes narrowing with suspicion as he looked at the file. The man did not reply, and his eyes were vacant. Ciel looked on with interest, in his perspective, the man's figure was constantly flickering, but it felt empty and cold, much unlike the lively mana from the knight group around him—although the mana he could see had no color, Ciel could instinctively feel their states.
'Is this what a ghost looks like?'
Dominic sneered. "He recently tried to take over my body, so he's currently being punished."
Another expression unfit for his face, Ciel observed—completely in audience mode.
Jadiel took the file, his expression growing colder as he flipped through the contents. Soon, the file was thrown right through the second prince's face. Ciel stared at the file's direction but he couldn't grab it outright, it was a pity he couldn't see what was in it.
It would be disrespectful to the ones sitting down and the other knights standing beside him. He couldn't even look at it with mana because other than having zero colors, mana sensing worked the same as normal eyes. It just took a little time for Ciel to assemble the shape of everything through mana.
Jadiel wanted to stroll out of the room in anger, but before he could act on his thoughts, Dominic spoke.
"What are you leaving for? Our talk isn't done yet."
Jadiel sat down at Dominic's words. As angry as he was, he couldn't act out in front of the future emperor of Anatol.
"My second brother has great acting skills right?" Dominic kept his smile. "That's why I wanted to propose a new offer because we have the same goals—I want to abolish slavery as much as you do."
Jadiel was direct, "How can we trust you?"
"Don't get me wrong. I don't want to help from the kindness of my heart. As the next emperor of Anatol, my position is actually quite unstable, especially when I have to go to Ouroborus academy in four years. And as a shaman, my two older brothers will keep on trying to take over my physical body. I need something to stabilize my position."
"We won't become your knights."
"I'm not asking you to. I want to create an organization. The organization will focus on catching slave traders and the consumers who buy slaves. Right now, the continent of Anatol is too divided. Humans barely see eves and eves take certain parts of regions with special resources and keep everyone but their own kind out. I know for certain they wouldn't be able to get everything they need to survive in a single region, as Anatol's topography is very specific. Each region only houses a few specific types of ecosystems."
"What's your point?"
Dominic took out another file. "Take a look at this."
Ciel wished to burn a hole into Jadiel's head to take a look at the file. However, his yearning was blocked by his blindfold. On the inside, he was almost crying from curiosity.
Erin glanced at his slightly smiling younger sister. She looked incredibly cute in the maid outfit, like a delicate doll. It was just that she was too skinny.
But somehow, he felt like his younger sister was a bit irritated.
"You want to return the enslaved home and use them to establish a trading point from their hometowns to Anatol?" Jadiel finally finished reading.
"I won't force them to trade. But I feel it would be more beneficial for both eves and humans. Humans living in Anatol can only trade overseas because much of the continent is occupied by eves and demons. Besides, it's almost time for the demons to have a new king again. As divided as Anatol is, we might not be able to hold on if we don't unite when the demons get strengthened and start to rampage again."
Dominic became serious.
"Even though I'm young, I know better than my brothers to fight for the throne. What's the use of the throne of a ruined kingdom?"
Jadiel was silent. While Ciel was clapping on the inside. 'As expected of the businessman of the harem. His negotiation skills are pretty good for a young child. It's just that there are a few ulterior motives there. Seems like the captain also sensed them.'
"Give us time." Jadiel finally replied.
Dominic nodded, "Gladly."
Jadiel gestured for the others to leave as he himself walked out behind them.
"By the way…" Dominic called out behind them.
The group turned to him.
"Little winged serpent, your wing's sticking out." Dominic smiled cheerily just as the door shut in their faces.