Celesse Witherspoon
I waved over to the prince, but he flat-out ignored me before he got into his carriage. "Rude..." Lucille put her hand on my shoulder. "He's just not very social. Are coming to our house again?" I nodded with a smile. "My parents aren't going to be home for a little bit, so I think it's best if I do." Adrian groaned, but he didn't verbally complain, which is a step up.
We walked down the street up until we reached their house. We walked in, and the smell of stew permeated throughout the house. "Smells yummy!" Lucille yelled. Their parent smiled as they turned to us. "Parents not going to be home for a while again?" Their dad asked me. "Unfortunately. Thanks for taking care of me until they get home again." Their mom waved it off with a smile.
"Did anything interesting happen at school?" They looked at each other before turning to me. "The prince returned to class today with horns that reached his chin," I explained for them. "That's... interesting. I didn't realize he was going there." His mom glared at her kids. "I forgot there was a prince. I've only ever met Princess Rexana."
"What was she like?" Adrian asked. "She was nice. Reserved and refined, but that's to be expected by someone with a royal upbringing." I scoffed. "It seems the siblings are very different, then. The prince is always either lost in thought or taking notes. Whenever he entered the school a few days ago, he beat all three of us with just his swordsmanship, and then today, he was using his sword so... skillfully.
"He offered to help me with my sword, and it felt very alien to me. It was a lot, but it felt much easier with his help." Lucille snickered. "Oh yeah, he was helping real good." My face went as red as a tomato. "What does she mean by that?"
I quickly explained what happened, embarrassed. "Oh, that's not that bad. I think it's sweet," Their dad said.
There was a knock at the door, and their mom opened it. "Kasan! Lovely to see you again!" A bald man with markings and scars entered the house. "You're new. What's your name?' he asked, looking down at me. "Celesse Witherspoon. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Witherspoon? That's a good, noble house! How did you get involved with this lot?" My head drifted down solemnly. "Oh, it must have been Balere... Anyway, I bring gifts!"
Out of a bag, he pulled out multiple metal sheets about the size of my palm. "Kasan! How did you afford these..?" He shrugged. "I'm a doctor, so I make a lot of money." He counted the number of sheets and smiled. "It seems I'll be able to give one to you too, Ms. Witherspoon."
"Is that OK?" He nodded. "Sure is! Come on and grab one, and then I can explain how to bond with them." I grabbed one and waited. "All you have to do is smear some blood on the back of it. I believe you should be able to do that with your mana."
I pricked my finger and smeared the blood on the metal sheet. Soon, writing appeared on it. "This is a status plate!"
Celesse Witherspoon
Level 4
HP: 119/120
MP: 329/330
Kasan Whistled as he looked at my card. "You have a lot of MP for your age." I laughed. "You should see the prince. He creates dummies made out of the ground in a split second. Today he made more than twenty, and they were plenty tough."
The adults all looked at each other suspiciously. "What does the prince look like?" Adrian cut in. "It isn't him. His hair is brown and his eyes are light blue. I had the same thoughts as you."
The parents seemed down. "So, how is Delmor doing?" Kasan asked. "He's getting better. He's still shaken up from what happened, but other than that, he seems to be fine." The bald man nodded. "Well, at least he's getting better."
I looked back down at my status plate to look at my skills.
[Fiery Will]
~You have the Will of a warrior and a lion. Makes you unfazed in the middle of a fight~
[Friend to a Royal]
~How did you manage that one? Well, I don't think that matters, now does it? A royal family member has a positive opinion of you. Allows you to use one of their skills whenever they allow you to~
"These are pretty useful..." I leaned over to the twins' cards and saw that they had the same [Friend to a Royal] skill that I did. "He barely knows us. Maybe he just trusts people easily..." Adrian was already thinking of why, but Lucille didn't care. She simply smiled at it. "We only have one skill, but that's normal, isn't it?"
"More than someone your age would have. Although, your brother had ten when he was your age." Their parents turned to him. "How do we know that?"
I could Kasan was about to start crapping bricks. "Alright, alright. Don't kill me, but the kid had asked me for one, and I just couldn't say no to him, like these guys!"
Their mom just sighed. "Well, what were the skills he had?" I asked. "He had a bunch of skills that confused me. A few of those were skills I had never even heard of. Let me see..."
He was lost in thought as he tried to remember what was on his card. "I know the four main elements were on the card... Oh! There was also one that was just bracketed. Other than that, I can only think of [Mana Absorption]. I don't even want to know about how that works..."
"Just brackets? That's kind of scary, don't you think?" Lucille said. "Yeah, who knows what the details could have been."
There was a knock on the door, and their dad opened it. "Patrem! Come on in!" I turned and ran to my father. He was a full foot taller than their dad, but they looked somewhat similar. "Hey, Princess! How was school?' I hugged him. "It was fine."
"Hey Patrem," Kasan said with a smile. "D-Dr. Maginius! What brings you here?" My father seemed shocked. "I'm friends with the Lowell family. It appears you are, too. How is Alva doing?" My father's head sank a little. "She's getting better, but she's still bedridden... Anyway, I just came over to steal my daughter. Thank you again"
"It's no problem! The kids love her, anyway." I smiled before grabbing my bag. "Bye guys!"
My father began walking me home. "I'm telling you, being a doctor is hard." We laughed as we ended up in front of my house. I mentally sighed. "I don't like seeing Alva like this, Dad..." He nodded. "No one does, sweetie pie."
We were about to open the door when a carriage pulled up. A beastman with yellow hair stepped out and approached us. "This is the Witherspoon residence, no?" My dad nodded slowly. "I'm the man training the royal prince, and when I heard of what was happening with your daughter, I simply had to come to check on her. Do you mind if I can come in?" He nodded before taking us in.
Our home wasn't anything special. It was a medium-sized house, but it felt like home. We walked up the stairs and into a blue room where I saw my little sister laying down in the bed with a tube running into her arm.
She was only two years younger than me, but she always felt like she was my age. Her stark white hair was obvious, even when she was first born. And now, she lay in bed all day, only conscious for an hour or two per day.
The beastman pulled up a chair and sat next to her bed. Alva stirred awake and turned to him. "Hi, Alva. My name is Laurence. Are you able to sit up for me?" She turned to us, and we nodded. She struggled to sit up, and that's when I noticed how thin she looked.
He quickly did some quick check-ups on her before turning back to us. "I just need to get something from the cart. Don't let her fall asleep."
"Dad, Celesse, what's going on? Who is that guy?" My dad looked like he was about to burst into tears, so I took over. "He's with the royal family. He said he was here to check up on you." She leaned back. "I'm not sure if he can even do that..."
Despite being so thin, she was scarily beautiful. Her eyes were as yellow as a cat's iris, and her hair was as white as snow. She was also pale, but that was because she hadn't been out in a few years. She had gotten her unexplained sickness when she was sick, so it had been four years.
"Balere, don't you—!" We turned as we saw the beastman enter, the prince in tow. "Balere?" He barely noticed me before sitting where Laurence had sat.
"Can you sit up and look at me?" She nodded before doing so. He took her wrist, the one without the tube, and examined it. "Very interesting. Quick question, have you awakened to mana? Doesn't matter when, I would just like to know if you have."
"Let me think... Maybe a few months before the sickness started?" He nodded. "This is going to sound a little strange, but I need to directly touch your back. Are you OK with that?" She seemed wary, but she nodded before raising the back of her shirt.
"You're going to feel a sudden chill if I had to guess." She nodded before taking a deep breath. He closed his eyes and began concentrating. She jumped a little before calming down, and I could see goosebumps covering her arms.
We stood there for a few seconds before he took his hands off of his back. "Her mana has poisoned her. I'm going to try and extract it with my own, but I'm going to need something. Can you get it for me?" I nodded. "Absolutely, anything you need." He smiled softly.
"A bedpan."
We all stood there confused, even Alva. "Do you not know what that is?" He asked. "N-no, we know what it is, but not why it is needed?" He sighed. "My mana is going to make her pee the poison out. I didn't want to have to do it, but I have no choice. It's either that or I destroy her eyes with the poison."
My dad sighed before going into the next room to get one. "I'll be cured after this?" She asked. "You'll be as good as new. While we wait, wanna tell me about yourself?" She looked down. "My name is Alva, and I'm ten. I've had the disease for about four months now." He nodded. "You're very pretty, Ava. Do you wear any makeup?" She shook her head. "I don't like makeup very much. It makes me feel artificial."
"How did you learn that word?" She turned to me. "Sometimes Dad will come in here and read to me while he thinks I'm sleeping... Mr. Balere?" The boy was reaching into his bag, but he pulled his hand out without grabbing anything. "Please, you don't have to call me Mr. Balere, I'm only two years older than you, after all."
"How do you know so much about mana?" He leaned back. "I've messed around with it a whole bunch. That, and one of my skills gives me some extra perks. Unfortunately for me, it also gave me these," He said before tapping his horns. "I think they look good on you. Before I got sick, there was a boy who would have loved to have horns."
"Oh yeah?" She nodded. "He was all about stuff like mana and dragons. I never was sure why, though." Dad came back in with the bedpan and got it into place. "I'm ready whenever you are," Alva said. "Good. I'm going to start soon."
He immediately got o work. They both were grunting, and I could tell that something was happening. Suddenly, they both went silent. We all were on the edge of our seats until we heard liquid falling into the bedpan.
"Alright! I think you're all good now! I think you should get a few more days of rest, but after that, you'll be as right as rain." Alva leaned over and hugged him. "Thank you." He smiled softly before standing. "So, I'll see you at school tomorrow?" He asked casually. "U-uh, yeah..."
"Good, because your swordsmanship still needs a bunch of work. Let's go, Laurence!" He clapped twice, and the two left as quickly as they had come. "You go to school with him?" Alva asked me. "Yeah, Sissy. How are you feeling?"
"Much better. I'm going to get some shut-eye. Goodnight, you two." We smiled and stood up to leave the room. "I wonder how Danny would react to all of this..."
Who's Danny?