It didn't take too long for us to get back home but as soon as we got in front of the door, the girls stopped and both looked at me with puppy eyes, as if questioning whether I'm going to tell on them or not. Though to me the answer is quite obvious, I won't, since the moment I agreed to help Lilian, I too became an accomplice in all of this.
While I'm not a fan of lying, omission is already a part of my daily life whether I want it or not.
"I'm not saying anything unless there's no way out already." I reassure them with a smile.
"Thank the Great Seven, you're not a total loser." Crystal sighed in relief while saying despite the fact she was still holding onto me, this girl... She'll definitely regret this later.
"Don't mind her, she always has a stick up her ass, but I do agree with one thing, thanks for helping us out." Lilian added.
Without saying much more we went inside and we soon found the adults in the living room, calmly conversing.
"But I do think that it should be possible to accomplish in another 2 to 3 years now that things have reached this point, especially considering the popularity of some of the products I have access to, though I must admit that things will most likely get rough with how competitive the environment is for merchants at this level." Dad said before she sipped from her tea.
"Oh please Loralaine, don't play the nice girl with me. We both know you're the one your competition should be worried about, besides, if anything, won't your parents just cause havoc and bring disaster if something goes wrong?" Grandma waved her hand as if to shrug it off as an unnecessary worry.
"Amelia, how can you be this insensitive? Can't you see the girl's not comfortable with that?" Grandpa shook her head as she pointed to father who indeed seemed bothered by grandma's words.
"Fine, fine, I won't say more, but you can't just run away from the truth forever, especially when that truth is blood-related." Grandma continued.
"Amelia! Really?" Grandpa questioned.
"Enough Chandra, I got your memo. I wanted to talk to my daughter but she's taking too long, tell her to come to my room once she's back." Grandma said before getting up to leave.
"Oh! It's my adorable babies! Where have you been hiding from grandma all this time?" She immediately came to us when she noticed our presence.
"We went for a walk!" Crystal responded.
"And we're not babies!" Lilian added.
"Is that so? It's always nice to see you all together like this! Finally getting along!" Grandma used her six arms to play with all of our cheeks at the same time.
"Hehe! It is indeed good, but you're pulling their faces a bit too strong, if you keep that up, you'll hurt them." Grandpa interjected.
"Can you blame a grandma for loving her grandchildren?! Honestly, Chandra, if you have nothing nice to say might as well stay shut." Grandma retorted.
"Fine then, don't complain to me later when I don't stop your antics." Grandpa replied.
"I won't!" Grandma told grandpa before turning to us and saying "Now my sweet babies, I would like to stay and chat, but I'm tired, so just remember to behave and stay healthy for grandma, ok?"
We all nodded our heads and she smiled before leaving.
"Well, I'm going to go check on that woman, or she'll throw a tantrum about it later. So difficult..." Grandpa complained as she got up and followed grandma.
Dad chuckled as she said goodbye before focusing her attention on us.
"Come here and sit, I still have to tell the girls the good news." And so we did as she asked and sat on the couch in front of her.
All in all, it seems they never came across the note in my room, how lucky.
"Your brother already knows, but I'm not sure if he told that I've been p-" Just as she smiled in excitement and began to talk, she was interrupted.
"LORA! This is an emergency! I just found this note inside Zandrius' roo-." It seems I spoke too soon as mother came into the room holding the note I left with an expression containing horror only to freeze upon seeing us sitting calmly on the couch.
"Amora? What's wrong?!" Dad immediately got up and went to check on mom, while the two girls beside me stiffened.
"It's... Just I found this note in Zandrius' room while looking for him and got worried something happened to them... Thank the Great Seven they're alright!" Mom seemed to be under a lot of stress which made me feel guilty for writing the note in the first place, but I didn't know the magnitude of the situation at the time...
After that dad got her a cup of water with sugar and soon she had fully calmed down, before going from that to anger looking at us, both of our parents waiting for an explanation of what's going on.
When it comes to this type of situation I could easily make something up or take the blunt blow by saying that it was just a prank or something among those lines, unfortunately, I prefer saying the truth as much as I can, especially when it comes to close ones like family... That's a habit of mine from way since earth, and one that has been called a weakness a few times before, but it's not that easy to let go of as one of my values... Actually, I don't really want to let go of it. It's not like I hate secrecy or plan to tell everyone close everything about myself, since I vehemently believe that there are things you don't have to tell others and have the right to keep to yourself, and all, I just prefer not lying to people and that's all. Not that it means you have to tell anyone anything if you don't want to.
"It was a prank! I was the one who told him to write it! We didn't want to cause trouble! We're sorry!" Crystal immediately took the initiative and lied.
"Is that so?" Dad asked.
"..." I choose silence.
"... You can't just do something like this! This time nothing happened, but what if we had gone to the knights and started looking everywhere for you!? Do you have any idea of how worried your mother was when she read that?!... This isn't a game! I should definitely forbid you of training with Ross... But that wouldn't be fair for him as he came from very far and even brought his party along. All of you are now grounded for the next 3 months, no going out or talking to friends... As for you Zandrius, you have to now work with your sisters at the bakery, and spend the rest of your time aside from training with uncle Ross and studying, helping grandma and grandpa with your sisters. Also no allowance for anyone anymore. You understand me?!" I had yet to see Dad being this mad or strict, especially towards me since I spent most of my time alone. At least I lucked out and didn't lose my right to physical training, as that would have been a real setback.
We had no choice but to nod. I have to look at the positive side of things, at least I didn't have to explain how I could kill six adult men on my own as easily as I did. That would lead to having to explain a lot more...
My privileged life pack expired... Truly a depressing moment.
After that, we were all ordered to go to our rooms.
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(3rd person POV)
"Honey, weren't you a bit harsh on Zandrius, after all, he was dragged into one of Crystal's mischievous pranks..." Amora asked her husband as they cuddled.
"Yes, but that was only because this incident made me realize something. We've been treating Zandrius like he's a researcher at work, and I admit that I too was blinded by his abnormal level of intelligence, but at the end of the day, he's still a child and should be treated as such. If we just let him isolate himself, it will be problematic for him when he grows up. He needs more social activity and a bit more of a harsh environment to help him grow. That's why I gave him the same level of punishment, and it's not that bad, they'll probably thank me for this when they grow up anyway." Loralaine answered her wife.
"I see... And, you're right. It will be the best for them in the long run." Amora agreed as they then continued to chat and about various other topics.
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-The next day-
It started with the lessons and I wasn't even let to exercise at all, which was a bit much, but I couldn't really do anything about it.
Today unlike any of my days so far, my mother came to take me to the bakery where I started to work with Lilian and Crystal. There wasn't too much to do besides talk, since there weren't that many clients. Most were people who wanted to buy bread and leave while the small minority were servants of some house wanting to make a big order.
Honestly, it was less interesting than spending my time training... Well, it could be worse I guess.
Eventually, it was break time and we had to go check on our grandparents during that time. They weren't really in need of anything or more so grandma refused to make us work for her, while grandpa didn't really seem to need anything at the moment.
The work then continued and it was still boring.
Lunchtime broke that cycle and we went home to eat with the family. Nothing notable happened at the table. Once that was over, once again we were thrown back to helping our grandparents, who basically just took us for a walk to give a bit of freedom, though they still refused to let me exercise since I should have 'fun' instead.
In this world, not much was going on in terms of entertainment, so kids would just play around with sticks, mud, run around or prank each other, not necessarily what I would call peak entertainment, at least not as fun as trying to figure out the best way to cast a spell or the refreshing feeling of satisfaction after each training session.
The time was eventually up and I didn't think I would be grateful to go back to the bakery at least not this soon, but here we are. This moment also ignited my resolve to make entertainment for this world aside from theater, violence, music, Sex, and decapitation or hangings.
Let's start by remaking a bunch of board games from earth. Happily for me,
Once the work was over for the day, we were taken home to help out with organizing and cleaning which was honestly more interesting than just standing there hoping a customer pops up.
As it was my first day doing all this, I decided not to, but from the next day on, I'll just train magic in my mind space while working at the bakery, it shouldn't go too wrong... Probably...
Things looked great and the house was all ready to receive our visitors, and it didn't take long before they arrived. We went outside to find a man and five women.
The man was obviously my uncle Ross, but what I didn't know about him was that... He's a wolfman one of the subspecies of beastmen, he looks like a normal human but has the ears and tail of a wolf. Not only him, two of the women present also had nonhuman characteristics, one of them had green skin, and the other was a cowgirl... Having cow ears, though I couldn't see if she has a tail from where I was, though she probably does.
Mom moved forward as they got closer and said. "Numia, Ross, Litia! It's been so long!" She hugged all three of them in a group hug.
They are here.
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AN: Feedback on whether you're enjoying the story so far or not would be much appreciated, a comment, or maybe even a review.
Anyhow, thanks for reading, and I hope you're having a great day.