Under the warm sun and cool skies, three figures were standing in front of the fountain of a large garden situated inside the citadel of the Aventus.
"Sky! What are you doing with the princess of Vitoten!?"
"She asked me if she wanted to play with me, Why?"
"Do you want to join us? I have some candy. I can give them to you too if you join us"
"C-candy? R-really?"
"They're really cute, Mother gave them to me to share with you guys"
"W-well, If the empress herself says that it was for us to have, I can't be as impudent and disrespectful to deny such gracious charity from someone of her position.
Helena streched out her hand towards Kali who had her fist balled, waiting for Helena's hand to hover below her fist.
"Here you go" Kali innocently said with a bright smile.
kreeak*
"Eh?"
Helena felt something spiky on her hand, crawling and squirming creepily on her palm.
It was a small centipede.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Sky who was also expecting it to be a piece of candy jolted backwards in shock, stepping away from the horror in disgust and fear of getting pounced on by such an abhorrent creature.
Helena, despite being the representation of all Life itself, had a fear of insects.
Helena waved her palm away, tossing the centipede to a bush nearby, saving her heart from fainting on the spot.
Kali, seeing Helena's panicked reaction, laughed softly, a mischievous glint sparkling in her black eyes.
"Huhuhu. Your reactions are so funny, Helana"
"Princess Kali! Please, never do this again. lying can develop into a habit, which may lead to people distrusting you!"
Helena pointed at Kali with disdain, disapproving her initial prank.
"Ehhh, but you'll trust me no matter what. Right, Helena?" Kali said with a cutesy smile and innocent like eyes, mimicking a cat that's asking for their meal.
"Ugh, No! A sin is a sin. Misdeeds shouldn't be developed-! Ahhh! Where are you taking me Princess Kali!?"
Before Helena could lecture Kali, she pulled Helena's arm, intending to take her somewhere.
"I'm not listening to you until Helena calls me Kali. Come on, I want to show you a cool bird that my father bought for the garden to protect it!"
"Wait! Big Brother Theo is this ok!? Can I just roam and follow Princess Kali!?"
Helena shouted, almost with a pleading face at Theo who sat under a parasol drinking tea with Selene, who was eating a slice of cake that was made by none other than Theo.
"It's ok! Go play with Kali and Sky! Enjoy yourselves!"Theo loudly replied to the distressed Helena.
Theo couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of the disciplined and hardened Helena getting her walls forcefully broken down by none other than Kali.
Selene on the other hand was disappointed at Kali, fearing that one day that she may use the same insect prank with her.
Sky on the other hand simply followed the two without much thought.
He already calls Kali by her first name anyway, so he didn't need to go through the trouble of getting dragged around and pranked by Kali.
For the past few days, Kali, Sky and Helena have been playing and understanding one another for the past few days.
From what Selene and Theo heard, they were getting along just fine, though every time a single family member of theirs leaves the servants in charge of the children, an unmistakable disaster occurs.
Kali would drag her two companions to whatever mischief that they were about to carry out.
One time they destroyed the royal kitchen by trying to make a cake without instructions, relying solely on intuition and thought.
There was one time when they went to the stables of the palace, releasing them from the abode, causing great chaos to ensue and headaches for the servants to desperately run to get the horses.
And one other time where Kali, while playing with the others, stumbled on the family treasure room and almost got Sky and Helena killed, because only the Aventus family was the only people allowed in such a place.
Kali was the leader of all of their mischief, Sky just followed, because he thought it was interesting and Helena, despite outwardly trying to stop Kali, was a pushover and was happy that a person like Kali was treating her like a genuine friend, though she's still insisting on calling Kali formally, but Theo and Selene believed that it was a matter of time before Helena decides to treat Kali casually.
"Even though Kali's is causing extreme amounts of mischief nowadays, I'm happy that she finally has friends around her age. She used to be so cold to other children, I guess she also has the same sense as me" Selene mentioned as she drank from her teacup with a solemn expression
Theo nodded to Selene's comment.
She was right, Kali usually avoided children of her age, because most of them after discovering her as a saint, mostly came to her with two faced intentions.
It was sadly, just recently when Sky and Helena were introduced to her that she finally opened up to someone, so most of her mischief was essentially forgiven, because the whole family was happy for the youngest child of the family.
It was a happy sight for the family, so all the parents of the children approved having all of them get acquainted with each other and the results speak for themselves.
"I'm still surprised that they didn't question us about anything again. What's up with that?"
What Selene was puzzled about was that no one questioned their suspicious actions during the events of the auction.
The only one that did was Violet but Theo's family or Selene's didn't even ask any kind of questions that were related to the incident.
After they presented the Crown of Wrath to the Dark Emperor, Renwick Aventus, they were simply dismissed and praised for their actions without any other additional questioning as if they expected that Theo and Selene doing suspicious actions were to be expected.
They were also quick to resolve the issue whenever we do anything that was unusual for us to do, knowing our past personalities.
Theo thought with contemplation written on his face.
"I think Father and His Majesty, Renwick, definitely knows something about us and their letting us do what we want without question." Theo muttered with a complicated expression on his face
Selene weakly nodded her head to Theo's conjecture.
She also felt that his overprotective father was less careful on how she was treated whenever she was outside or when she asked to train alone.
Before, she was usually guarded with dozens of Master tier Dark knights and Dark mages, whenever she wanted to go outside of the citadel or the first sector.
But now? Only Elsa and a couple of experts were guarding her nowadays.
This behavior started, Selene and Theo assumed, after the first time they received their memories back from their past life.
"I don't know what's going on in the background, but their definitely letting us do what we want"
"Why do you think that this is the case, Theo? Why would my father change so drastically when
he worries about me twenty-four seven?"
Theo thought for another minute before replying to Selene.
"Remember in the game? Selene and Theo also didn't have a lot of guards beside them whenever they were outside venturing somewhere. It was usually just Bennet, Elsa or their party members." Theo said, asking for confirmation from Selene
"Yes, there was also one time in the game where Selene was on her way to the Academy, where she barely had any knights accompanying her on the way, which was unusual when Father treasures us daughters greatly." Selene nodded with suspicion in her voice.
"Yeah and there was a scene in the game where your brother complained greatly about the lack of guards accompanying you to the academy, but was shut down harshly by your father." Theo agreed, almost mimicking Selene's tone of suspicion
"The guards accompanying you as well were fewer than usual as well, when I played as Theo" Selene quipped, noticing a point in Theo's explanation.
"Exactly, so the matter of fact is that, this setting was also in the game and their behavior of getting less protective and unquestioning behavior was meant to happen."
"I see.... That makes more sense, but for what reason are they doing this then, Theo?" Selene asked with great confusion.
Theo took a deep breath and spoke with a nonchalant tone.
"Maybe they're trying to purposefully place us into a difficult position?"
"And why would they purposefully place us in a difficult position?"
Theo stared at the falling leaf that gently landed on the pal of his hand.
"To make us grow" Theo softly said as he blew the leaf away.
Selene hearing Theo's reply had her head down and nodded.
".... I see, you think that someone told them to let us have the freedom to do whatever we want?"
Theo nodded to Selene's question.
"Yeah, it already felt weird when my Father willingly sent me to the mountains with only Bennet guarding me or to the Eden region with only a handful of Master tier Holy knights in tow."
"You're right, that is wei-! Is the garden burning!?"
Selene saw smoke deep within the gardens, slowly spreading wider throughout the area
A small figure came out of the maze like garden running towards the duo with great
"Big Brother Theo! Kali and Sky accidentally burnt the garden, trying to wake up the guardian bird!"
"WHAT!?"