Yen woke up quite early the next day, recalling all the letters people had sent her yesterday
Yen: 'Right, I should ask Aquie if I could go to Miss Bella's picnic today..'
A lot had happened yesterday, so it was normal for Yen to expect Aquie to decline it for now but she still had to try.
Yen knocked on the door three times
Duchess of Ceresé: "Come in."
Aquie was shocked to see Yen up. It was still quite early but it was expected for her to still be in her night gown.
Duchess of Ceresé: "Oh? Is there anything you need?"
Yen: "I was wondering if I could.. go to Lady Bella's picnic later on."
Aquie started thinking, this urged Yen to try her best to convince her
Yen: "I know a lot of things have happened yesterday, but I really don't want to decline her invite. She's a sweet lady and I do really need to go outside and take a breather."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Hmm.. alright then."
Yen: "Thank-"
Duchess of Ceresé: "But you need to take Marione with you."
Yen: 'M-Marione?!'
Duchess of Ceresé: "Hm?"
Yen: "..."
Yen: "Alright then, I'll ask her."
She closed the door behind her ask she walked out of the room.
Yen decided to rest a bit more in her room first before dressing up and knocking on Marione's door.
Yen: 'I've been going in there quite a lot lately..'
She always thought that Marione was busy and needed time to herself but it seems that wasn't the case. It was good for her to know, and she would definitely need her help a lot more in the future.
Kayla helped Yen dress into her clothes, it was much more comfortable with the clothes Marione had changed her into the other day, but she cannot simply just wear those kind of clothes in a picnic.
Yen knocked on Marione's door.
Marione: "Come in."
The room was as tidy as yesterday as Yen took a seat on the couch.
Marione: "Anything you need?"
Yen: "Are you busy this afternoon?"
Marione: "Not really, I got to finish everything yesterday night. Why do you ask?"
Yen: "Aquie wants you to go with me if I want to go to Lady Bella's picnic. Safety precautions."
Marione: "Sure."
Yen: "And.."
Marione: "..And?"
Yen: "..."
Marione: "..?"
Yen: "It would be alright but, I don't really want you speaking or you drawing the attention of others."
Marione: "Oh.. wait. Give me a moment to think."
Marione paced around the room for a bit, closing her eyes.
Yen: "..?"
Yen: 'Is she trying to clear her mind? I don't think that method actually gives ideas..'
Marione: "Ah! How about this?"
Yen: "..?"
Marione: "What if I shapeshift into an animal?
Yen: "An animal?"
Marione: "You can just say I'm obedient and won't ruin anything. It might work."
Yen: "Hmm.. what animal though?"
Marione: "There's a snake, an eagle, a-"
Yen: "Something that looks safe and harmless.."
Marione turned quiet, thinking of the many kinds of animals she could shapeshift into.
Marione: 'I don't wanna be a small bird.. seeing people that big just scares the living hell out of me..'
Yen: "There are plenty that fit my description."
Marione: "A polar fox?"
Yen: "Show what it looks like."
Marione was covered in smoke, one that didn't affect Yen in any way yet it shocked her from how sudden it appeared. Once the smoke cleared, she could see a fluffy white fox on the floor, sitting down.
Yen: "Looks safe.. I don't know if it's harmless though.."
It was a size enough for her to carry. Marione turned back to herself.
Marione: "So?"
Yen: "Is it harmless?"
Marione: "Of course not. But if you say it's under my care.. they might change their minds."
Yen: "..."
Yen: "That could do. Just make sure not to do anything."
Marione: "I won't, just please feed me from time to time. I'll get hungry from watching you girls eat dessert.."
Yen: "Al..right.."
Marione: "Do you want us to communicate mind-to-mind too?"
Yen: "Sure, just in case you've seen anything."
Marione: "Okay, you can start carrying me after lunch."
Marione turned back into a fox and ran to the dining room, sitting on the chair before turning back into her normal self. Aquie was such sitting there, unfazed.
Duchess of Ceresé: "I knew it was you.."
Marione: "Of course you'd know. It's quite normal for me to use magic."
Yen sat down and started eating.
Duchess of Ceresé: "So, is that your solution? Bringing Marione as a fox?"
Yen: "If you think it'll cause trouble, just tell me."
Aquie looked unsure as she turned to look at Marione, who was eating away all the food on her plate.
Duchess of Ceresé: "Marione, just don't risk anything."
Marione: "That's why we'll do mind-to-mind talking for the time being."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Good."
Lunch ended quickly as Marione turned back into a fox and leaped into Yen's arms.
Yen: "We'll be leaving."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Enjoy yourselves and tell me if anything out of the ordinary happens in the picnic."
Yen: "We will."
Yen hoped into the carriage with Marione in her hands. She went on the seat opposite to Yen.
Marione to Yen: 'Testing. Hello, can you hear me?'
Yen to Marione: 'I can hear you, now let's just wait till we arrive in the Grace's Residence.'
Marione to Yen: 'Grace sounds similar to Garce.'
Yen to Marione: 'That's because they changed their last name to Grace. Do you live under a rock?'
Marione to Yen: 'I lived in a pile of research and magic books.. if you count that as a 'rock'.'
Yen to Marione: 'Alright then..'
Marione went in a lying position.
Yen to Marione: 'What should I call you?'
Marione to Yen: 'Whatever name suites the best.'
Yen to Marione: 'Alright. Hmm, Kyrie shall be the name.'
Marione to Yen: 'Kay then.'
They arrived in the Grace's Residence quicker than they expected.
As Yen and Marione went out, they saw a young lady near the entrance, who they assumed was Bella Grace. She had beautiful hazel hair tied up in a bun and golden yellow eyes.
Yen: "Greetings. I assume you must be Miss Bella?"
Bella: "Yes, that's right! I'm so glad I can finally meet you face to face."
Yen: "The same goes for me. Rumor says you're as sweet as honey."
Bella: "How nice of them to say that."
Bella spotted Marione standing beside her.
Bella: "May I know who this is?"
Yen: "Oh, this is Marione's pet, Kyrie. Marione's quite busy these days so I have to help take care of Kyrie for a while. I hope you don't mind.."
Bella: "Oh, it's alright. Polar foxes are quite harmful but under Marione's care, I trust she's responsible."
Yen: "Thank you, Lady Bella."
They were led into the garden, where there were 4 other nobles with them. 3 of them were new faces to her but there was one who she knew ever since she was a child.
The name of that girl was Beatrice Yulan, who could also be called Bea, but they had such a dark history in their childhood.
____________________
Bea had been her classmate in their tutor lessons. Bea had a mean character, and would make fun of their classmates who were of lower status. This annoyed Yen, as what Bea did wasn't what a noble should be doing.
Bea had been bullying a few younger nobles but Yen had interfered once she saw this.
Yen: "This isn't what you should be doing. Being a noble is simply just a status and you're taking advantage of the fact that your family is only a bit wealthier than others."
Though Bea's family was not that acknowledged as nobles, she had always thought she had the highest position as a noblewoman.
Beatrice: "You shouldn't defend those lower than you! They are just like pawns in a chess game!"
Yen: "Have you not played chess? A pawn can turn into a knight, bishop, or even a queen. You don't seem to know your chess at all."
Bea: "Y-you-!"
And with that she had run off.
____________________
Bea started hating Yen to the point she devised a plan in framing her for breaking the classroom.
The tutor was bewildered and stunned. She couldn't believe at all that any of his students were behind this.
Bea said she had seen Yen in a sour mood and breaking all the things in the classroom. Luckily, they were still children, so Bea's plan came to fail as Yen was with another one of their classmates the whole time, so she had an alibi. Another classmate said he had caught Bea destroying stuff in the classroom but he was too scared to tell anyone.
Bea was scolded harshly for her wrongdoings and she soon apologized to Yen, to which Yen had forgiven her. It was rough history, but it was all in the past. The Bea now could be different.
____________________
Yen: "Lady Bea! I haven't seen you in years!"
Bea: "Same here with you, Lady Yen."
Bella: "You two know each other?"
Yen: "We were classmates of the same tutor."
Bea: "Yes. Our memories together were quite embarrassing but let's put the past behind us."
Yen: "Of course."
Marione to Yen: 'What'd she do?'
Yen to Marione: 'Bully others because of her status. She also tried framing me one time.'
Marione to Yen: 'Now that's one hell of a history..'
Yen: "Shall we catch up later on?"
Bea: "I'd love to!"
Bea seemed much sweeter than before. It was great character improvement, and Yen was glad she wouldn't do the same thing all over again.
Over time, Yen got to know the other 3 nobles. Emily Marquez, Riley Tanue, and Felisse Willow. All 3 were kind souls, and it seemed unusual that things were going too well. This made Yen keep her guard up for any sudden attacks.
Marione to Yen: 'Keep your guard up, I can feel something will happen soon.'
This made Yen even more nervous.
Bella: "Miss Yen, might I ask your relationship with your sisters?"
Yen gave a snack to Marione without anyone noticing, hoping they don't tell her it's not good for animals.
Yen: "The Duchess is quite the caring sister. She treats us like we are her children and it makes me feel safe. Marione, on the other hand, is caring but most of the time, she always locks herself in the Grand Tower."
The picnic ended quite smoothly as Yen and Bea decided to walk together, catching up about what has happened in their life so far.
Bea: "By the way, Yen. I have something to whisper."
Yen nervously went closer to listen to Bea.
Bea: "I'll.. never forgive you. I never will."
Yen: "What..?"
The smile on Bea's face sent a shiver down her spine.
Yen: 'Why does this feel like I'm having deja vu..?'
Bea: "It's quite the obvious answer, you bitch. I still hate you for getting me in trouble, and I shall humiliate you in front of others until you are nothing more than a pawn. I won't make you queen, not on my watch."
With that, Bea walked away with an evil grin, satisfied with her confession.
Marione to Yen: 'Now that was just bitchy. She's quite self-centered, I wonder how she was able to survive until now.'
Yen to Marione: 'Let's just talk about this in the carriage.'
They walked in the carriage that had been waiting for them and as soon as they left the residence, Yen decided to speak.
Yen: "You can change back now. We need to discuss about Bea."
Though it was a bit smoky, Marione turned back to normal in an instant. She was yawning and stretching.
Marione: "Ahhh, yes. I'll also tell you what I observed after you tell your conclusions in this."
Yen: "From our small talk and her confession, she doesn't seem to have forgiven me for humiliating her in front of the class, even though it was something she had started by herself."
Marione: "Right. Yet she's holding quite the useless grudge, in my opinion."
Yen: "But what she had said did make me sense a wave of deja vu.."
Marione: "Now that's what I'll be talking about. Miss Bea seems to have some kind of interesting aura surrounding her."
Yen: "Aura? What kind?"
Marione: "High status demon, if you know who I mean?"
Yen's eyes widened.
Yen: 'Is she implying that Bea.. summoned a demon?!'
Marione: "She was behind the letter. It adds up as we now know you have some sort of hater. She would be delighted upon seeing your demise. The demon lowered their guard so that was helpful."
Yen pondered into thought. How such a grudge from childhood could have lead to her eventual second death.
Yen: "We have enough evidence, don't we?"
Marione: "'Patience is a virtue'. It's best we wait for their next moves in getting you in trouble. That way, her punishment against the divine will be much more worse."
Yen knew she couldn't try to convince Marione otherwise. She decided to just let her do what she wanted.
Yen: "We should still tell Aquie.."
Marione: "She would agree to the plan.. but she hates risking the lives of many."
Yen: "She'll only be after mine. It would convince her if we told her the truth."
Marione: "She already has a lot on her shoulders, being the Duchess. It would only be like fire on her shoulders if she were to receive this kind of news."
Yen: 'Right. She's already busy enough.'
Yen just nodded in reply as they arrived back in the mansion, heading to Aquie's room to report partly of what had happened.
They knocked into her door.
Duchess of Ceresé: "Come in."
Marione: "We came in to report about what happened in the tea party."
Aquie looked seriously at them.
Yen: "Nothing bad happened in the tea party, but Marione had sensed an aura of dark magic lingering around us, the one similar to the letter."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Oh?"
Marione: "But the matter will be alright. Just give me some time to find out about who's behind this."
Duchess of Ceresé: "Alright then. You are excused."
____________________
They headed straight into Marione's room after dinner, as Marione said she'd talk about her revival, saying she might have some leads about it.
Yen sat on the couch as Marione used magic to get a book on the shelf.
Yen: "So?"
Marione: "This 'going back in time revival' thing might have been your doing."
Yen: "Really?"
Marione: "Yes. This is a small possibility for someone in our family to have this, like the high powered sorcerers in our family. It's a rare occasion, but it isn't impossible for you to have it. It has been quite long since the last person in our family has awakened this kind of magic."
Yen was in denial. She only had powers about average and how Marione had described it seemed to be ones for experts.
Yen: "How are we sure it isn't somebody else?"
Marione: "Just tell me to check your magic level once you do the same thing again. It usually is in the same level as those with that ability after using it. There's a book about it."
Yen: "I see.."
Marione: "Just come to me as soon as possible. The effect only lasts for an hour, so you have to be quick."
Yen: "Alright then."
Marione: "You may go to your room now."
Yen walked out of Marione's room, full of information. Because of that, as she lay in her bed, it was hard to sleep as she over thought every detail pointed out. What happened in the tea party, black magic, and time revivals. It was such a headache.
Yen: "This is all just confusing.."
She mumbled in anger as she closed her eyes shut.
She had eventually fell asleep, hoping this would all be resolved in time.