The next morning, Lily got up early, even earlier than Asta. She headed over to where she first met Asta after weeks of traveling upon running away from her now former home. She was almost to the demon skull when she heard familiar snickers coming from behind her. Instantly, both rage and fear washed over Lily like a tidal wave. She turned around to see her older brother and sister approaching with their grimoires open and ready.
"Well, well, well. It looks like the rumors we heard from yesterday were true after all. Our little sister was hiding among the lowest of the low, in a peasant village." Solana, Lily's older sister, scoffed.
"This is the Clover Kingdom's territory. Why the hell are you even here?" Lily asked her older siblings with aggression in her voice.
"Isn't it obvious? We heard from the ambassador representing our kingdom in the Clover Kingdom that our dear Lilith was at the Grimoire Tower near Hage Village yesterday. After no contact from you for nearly five long years, we just had to investigate it for ourselves. You see, it's been quite lonely back home without you. So we traveled all this way to say hi and see how you've been doing. That's all, I promise." Solana cooed in a sarcastic way. Lily knew she was full of shit. She actually thought Lily was stupid enough to believe her ambassador lie. She should've known better. Back in the day, she spent a lot of time in the castle library. She read up on all sorts of things, including the military and government systems of her homeland. The Spade Kingdom didn't have ambassadors. This meant there was at least one spy here in the Clover Kingdom and possibly other territories too. Lily just scoffed at her older sister.
"Ooh, looks like someone's got a bit of an attitude. Seems like you've gotten a little sassy since we last saw you, huh Lilith. Perhaps the filth of this scrubby area has infiltrated and poisoned your brain." Solana responded with a sassy tone of her own.
"Solana, don't be an idiot. But you do have a point. A royal that nests with the scum living in a poor village will eventually fall from grace and become a slave to their customs and lowly way of life." Lily's older brother, Zephyr, said firmly.
"I left home because of your abusiveness towards me! And I don't care if this is a poor village. The people here that I stay with are more like family to me than you ever were or ever will be! Why do you even care if I associate with what you call scum? You always treated me as such anyways!" Lily yelled back in anger and hurt. She didn't have as much of an attitude when dealing with Zephyr as she did with Solana. Both of them tormented her equally in the past but they had their own way of doing so. Solana's style of bullying consisted mostly of snarky comments and verbal teasing loaded with conceited sarcasm rather than physical abuse. She also used spells to mess with her in a teasing manner. Zephyr, on the other hand, was very blunt and cruel with his words as well as physically abusive towards her through both direct contact and magic spells.
"Silence Lilith! Because you were born without any magic power in a world where magic is everything, you are worth nothing. Even so, you are still royalty! It is an absolute disgrace for a member of a royal household to leave home and go live with peasants even if said royal was born without magic and is worthless. And for this, you must be punished." Zephyr raised his voice as he flipped through his grimoire.
"Do you even hear yourself right now?! That made absolutely no sense! It's too contradictory. You sound like a crazy stuck-up moron!" Lily yelled at her older brother who just ignored her.
"Wind Creation Magic: White Gavel of Punishment!" Zephyr cited as air began to swirl and form into an opaque white large courtroom hammer which swung sideways in Lily's direction and nailed her right in the stomach. The impact of the blow sent her to flying backwards into a huge tree, briefly knocking the wind out of her. As she regained her breath, Zephyr cast another spell.
"Wind Creation Magic: Binding Ropes of Imprisonment!" Zephyr said as tendrils of air currents formed around Lily's torso and the trunk, holding her steadfast to the tree. The air ropes tightened around her which made it hard to breathe. Even though her physical strength far surpassed the average girl and even some guys, she couldn't break free of her brother's wind magic restraints. She was beginning to feel light headed and her vision began to blur on and off. Then she heard a voice that gave her hope and lifted her spirits.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing to Lil?!" Asta yelled at her older siblings Zephyr and Solana. She saw Asta running onto the scene and he was pissed. He glared at her older siblings as he stood there defensively.
"Oh? So you know our little sister, huh? You must be pretty close to Lilith here. You've even given her a nickname. Hmm, you're pretty cute. Say, how about you forget all about Lilith and date a real royal. If you come with me, I'll introduce you to the lavish lifestyle of royalty. You could live the life of luxury." Solana flirted, tempting Asta whose expression darkened. Lily couldn't tell if she was flirting with him just for show to mess with her or if she actually meant it and planned to steal him away to devastate her. But the fact that her sister was trying to flirt with her best friend/crush at all enraged her. Fortunately, Asta wasn't having any of it. He opened his mouth, about to demolish Solana's pride by harshly declining her offer. But her older brother spoke before he had a chance to. What a bummer. Lily really wanted to see Solana's reaction to being rejected by a commoner.
"Solana, don't flirt with the boy. Firstly, he's too young for you. And secondly, as royalty, you shouldn't stoop so low as to elope with some lowly peasant scum just because you think he's cute. But that aside, there's yet another huge deal breaker with this one: I don't sense any mana residing within this boy at all. I guess that explains why he and Lilith are friends. It seems the only type of person our younger sister can be friends with is a magic-less peasant. How pathetic!" Zephyr scoffed mockingly and Solana snickered. This made Asta really, really mad. He rebuked Lily's older sister first.
"Listen lady, there are many reasons why I'd never date you. Reason one: you're not my type. Yeah you're okay in looks, but your rotten personality overlooks everything and makes you ugly. Second: you're disrepectful. You can't even respect your sister's name preference. Her name is Lily, she doesn't like being called Lilith. Thirdly: talking trash about her and people you don't even know is appalling. And the fourth reason: joining forces with your brother to gang up on your little sister like this to cause her emotional and physical pain is unacceptable. What the hell makes you think it's okay to treat people like that?! I don't care if you're royalty! That doesn't make you worth more than anyone else in this world! Yeah it's true that I'm just a commoner with no magic, but I can still beat the crap outta you!" Asta raised his voice as he glared at Solana. He pulled out his grimoire from the pouch at his side and it floated up from his hand, surrounded by its dark blood red aura. He drew his sword from the pages and readied himself to attack. This took Lily's older brother and sister by surprise. Asta also managed to catch Lily off guard too, but for a different reason: he used her full preferred name instead of her nickname for the first time.
"How can you own a grimoire?! You just said you have no magic power! This is preposterous! It shouldn't be possible." Zephyr said in disbelief. Both him and Solana were in a state of shock upon seeing that someone with no magic power had a grimoire. Asta didn't answer Zephyr's question regarding his grimoire and continued his reprimanding. He turned to Zephyr.
"Heh, you know, for being Lil's older brother, you really don't know her at all. You have an amazing little sister, but you wouldn't know that because your arrogance and pride blinded you and drove her away. Lil is the sweetest, kindest and most considerate girl I know. It's a miracle she's even like that despite the hell she's been through with you guys. And this may be a shock to you, but it's no surprise to me: Lil has many friends! One of them has exceptional magic power and his name is Yuno! Being royalty doesn't determine who you can or cannot be friends with. You need to learn to treat people with respect regardless of social status, who they choose to hang out with or how much magic power they have, especially if they're your own family members!" Asta raised his voice, his moving speech brought tears to Lily's eyes. He instantly charged at Zephyr who cast his crescent sickle spell at him. But he just cut through the wind blades with his sword and continued towards Lily's older brother at full speed. When Asta got to Zephyr, he whacked him with the flat of the blade, sending him flying against a tree which knocked the wind out of him. Asta then turned his attention to Solana and charged at her. Out of reflex, she cast a wind barrier spell around herself which he just sliced through and whacked her on the head with the hilt of his sword, knocking her out cold. He then ran over to Lily and sliced through the wind ropes that were holding her steadfast to the tree trunk, allowing her to fill her oxygen deprived lungs as she coughed and gasped for air.
"Are you okay Lil?" Asta asked Lily as he helped her to her feet. He rubbed her back in a comforting manner, concerned for her well being.
"I'll be okay thanks to you Asta." Lily thanked him with a smile then kissed him on the cheek, making him blush slightly. Suddenly, wind tendrils wrapped around Asta's wrists and ankles so he couldn't escape nor use his sword and hoisted him high up into the air. He struggled to break free but to no avail. She just stared in horror as Zephyr, who had regained his breath, commanded the ropes of air currents to slowly pull at Asta's arms and legs. The fact that he had the nerve to torture her best friend right in front of her without remorse both enraged and sickened her.
"Zephyr! Release Asta! Release him now!" Lily shouted aggressively at her older brother in a threatening tone. She was just about to charge full speed at Zephyr and attack him unarmed. Due to a lot of intense training, her physical strength most likely exceeded her older brother's. And her above average speed and agility would probably allow her to dodge most of his attacks and only receive minor damage from the ones that would manage to hit her. But unfortunately, he noticed the position she were taking and took action.
"Do NOT move any closer Lilith! If you so much as take a single step forward, I will tear the limbs off this peasant boy in an instant!" Zephyr threatened as he continued to slowly torture Asta. Time seemed to slow down as Lily just sank down to her knees. She watched helplessly as her best friend scream in agony, tears welling up in her eyes. Asta was now in trouble because of her and she couldn't do anything to save him. She dug her nails into her knees out of frustration then brought her hands to her face as she began to sob, worried she was going to lose the one she loved most. Suddenly, a bright blue light manifested before her above her head and a royal blue grimoire with a elegant black border and an embossed black six leaf clover on the front and back of the cover appeared from the light. Lily removed her hands from her tear stained face.
"Is this... mine?" Lily asked as her sullen form sparked to life and she wiped away her tears, reaching out with her hands open. The grimoire descended into her hands. Then it glowed brightly again and flipped open. A giant scythe taller than her, emerged from the pages and floated before her. She got a huge boost in confidence accompanied by a sensation of invincibility. Grabbing the handle of the large weapon, an intense zealous energy began coursing through her veins in the form of adrenaline. Lily wielded the scythe with one hand. Normally, it would have been considered too heavy to be used as a one handed weapon, but her training with Asta allowed her to wield it as such. She raised her voice at her brother to get his attention.
"Heh, you should know something Zephyr. When I say release my friend, I mean it. So I'm going to tell you again one last time. Release Asta at once, RIGHT NOW!" Lily said loudly, pointing the scythe blade at her older brother. He just laughed without looking in her direction. Asta stared at Lily, his mouth agape with awe and shock.
"And I told you another step would render your little friend here instantly limbless. You didn't even receive a grimoire from what I heard. So unless you want this peasant boy to die by your hands right now, there is nothing you can do." Zephyr said as he turned his head in Lily's direction to face her. But he froze when he saw her standing there with a giant scythe in hand and a grimoire floating by her side. She gave him a dark sinister death glare, her storm blue eyes blazing with vengeful rage and fury. Zephyr's face instantly paled as ice cold chills rattled his spine. Back in the day, Lily had no way of countering his attacks which he took full advantage of and tormented her relentlessly. But now, the tables had turned and she could fight back. While Zephyr was temporarily paralyzed out of fear and shock, she ran over to Asta and freed him by cutting the tendrils of air with her scythe. Her blade sliced right through them just like Asta's sword did with Zephyr's wind blade and Solana's wind barrier. Asta was screaming in terror instead of agony now as he plummeted from a terrifying height after the wind ropes that had bound him there dissipated. He landed right in Lily's arms safe and sound. Thank goodness she had decided to train with Asta all those years back! Otherwise, one or both of them would've been hurt by the impact of Asta's fall.
"Phew! Thanks for that, Lil. I thought my limbs were gonna get ripped off, then I was gonna die due to falling from way high up!" Asta thanked Lily as she set him down on his feet.
"You're welcome Asta. Now let me handle him. I have a looong score to settle with this guy." Lily said as Asta nodded his head in understanding. Her gaze then immediately shifted from gentle and kind to dark and sinister the moment she fixated her attention to Zephyr. The instant drastic change in her expression and vibe actually terrified Asta, sending chilling shivers down his spine. Boy, was he ever glad she was on his side. He almost felt sorry for her older brother.
"B-but how? I thought you didn't get a grimoire at the ceremony!" He raised his voice out of both disbelief and shock. He was also absolutely terrified. Lily's scythe appeared to work just like Asta's sword. After witnessing you catch a guy with a muscular build falling from one story high with ease, he knew her physical strength far surpassed his own. His only hope was that her speed and reflexes were slow and her weapon handling skills were unpolished and clunky. But unfortunately for him, Lily and Asta physically trained their bodies together frequently. Not to mention they often sparred with each other in close-quarter combat. They went up against one another either unarmed in hand-to-hand combat or used branches and other objects of various shapes and sizes to simulate different types of melee weapons. So yeah, Lily was strong and knew the basics of weapon handling. Zephyr was totally fucked.
"You're right, I didn't receive a grimoire at the ceremony. I literally just got it right now. I can finally get you back for all you've done to me and my best friend! You have some real nerve harming Asta right in front of me. Especially when you don't know my strength. Now atone for your sins!" Lily said then instantly charged at her older brother, scythe ready. She swung the scythe blade at his neck. Zephyr managed to duck out of the way in time, but she had cut off a good chunk of his long black hair. She knew he had decent reflexes so she wasn't worried about decapitating him, but she wouldn't have complained if she actually did. After all the physical and emotional pain he caused her during the first decade of her life, he pretty much deserved it anyways. She pointed at him and laughed mockingly at his amusing new haircut. Zephyr picked up the hair she cut off and mourned over it.
"You know, you should be thanking me. First of all, in a real battle to the death, there's no time for mourning. If I wasn't so gracious in letting you have a final moment with your precious locks, you would have died by my hands already. And secondly, all that hair must have been a hassle to deal with everyday. Look at it this way: I just made self care easier for you." Lily said in a sassy way. That really pissed Zephyr off, which is exactly what she was going for: him to attack her by his own choice. Even though Lily harbored deep hatred towards him, she still didn't want to fight him while he was distracted. It just didn't seem right. Besides if she attacked him now, it could be seen as her acting out of cold blooded vengeance. But if he attacked her out of rage, it'd be seen as her acting out of self defense. Zephyr looked Lily dead in the eyes with his which were the same color as hers: storm blue. He gave her a death glare which wasn't nearly as potent and sinister as her death glare since she had more emotion behind hers. Even Asta, who was often oblivious to the air of the environment most of the time, could feel the vast difference in intensity.
"Why you...! How dare you desecrate the hair of a royal! You may also be a royal, but you're a damn sad excuse of one! You need to learn to respect your elders you little brat!" Zephyr practically screamed out of anger, letting your provocations get to him.
"Alright, alright! I get it! You're my elder. But seriously, you gotta chill out old man! You should either learn to control your temper or pick on someone at your own level!" Lily scoffed sarcastically in a disrespectful manner. There was no way she was going to respect someone who never showed her any respect. Zephyr's face grew bright red with rage. She could have sworn there would've steam blasting out of his ears if it was possible.
"As royalty, my magic is practically unrivaled. Our parents are the King and Queen of the Spade Kingdom! What you're asking is impossible. I literally can't pick on someone at my magic level!" Zephyr arrogantly stated his argument. Lily sighed with disappointment.
"You clearly weren't listening, you deaf bastard. I never said anything about magic level. Which means I was referring to magic prowess, physical strength, speed, agility, and reflexes contributing to level as a whole. Before I ran away, I was not at your level. Now you face me again five years later and we're still not at the same level." Lily said as a smirk crept onto Zephyr's face, despite her calling him a deaf bastard which normally would have enraged him. But he was currently blinded by his pride and ego.
"Ha! So you're finally admitting that you're below me!" Zephyr sprung back to life, but only for a brief moment. Lily laughed at how ridiculously blind his pride and ego had made him. Her laughter stopped so abruptly, it was disturbing. The moment she did, her facial expression darkened and turned dead serious.
"I wasn't lying when I said I'm still not at your level. But not in the way you're thinking. Your pride and ego has your mind working backwards. No, you've got it aaall wrong Zephy." Lily told her older brother, calling him a nickname she hadn't called him since she was a toddler because he hit her after the first time she used it. Calling him that triggered Zephyr's rage.
"Lilith, you worthless wretch! You really are a she-demon just like your name implies!" Zephyr screamed as he cast multiple crescent sickle spells at Lily. Out of reflex, she swiftly dodged out of the way and ran full speed in a wide circle around her brother, swinging her scythe at the wind blades as they got close. Despite its size and weight, she had enough strength to wield the scythe as a one-handed weapon. As she sliced through the wind blades, she noticed something peculiar. There was a slight difference in what happened to the spells after they were destroyed by her weapon. When Asta's sword cut through the wind-based spells, they split before dissipating into microscopic mana particles which dispersed into the atmosphere. But when her scythe cut through them, the mana particles were visibly absorbed into the blade. This gave Lily an idea that was probably crazy, but she tried it anyways.
"Wind Creation Magic: Crescent Sickles!" Lily shouted and sure enough, several curve-shaped wind blades formed at her command. A devilish smirk crept upon her face as she glared at Zephyr who stepped back in fear. She then willed the blades to dart at her older brother who desperately tried to counter her attacks with wind blades of his own as they hurled towards him. He was so focused on defending himself from the blades of wind, he didn't notice Lily run around behind him. She swung her scythe at his feet, using the handle to knock them out from under him. He landed flat on his back, groaning in pain. Asta had been watching the entire fight and he couldn't believe what he was seeing: Lily was using magic!
"Wind Creation Magic: Binding Ropes of Imprisonment!" Lily said as ropes of wind tightly wrapped around Zephyr's body in a cocoon-like fashion, leaving only his head free. She pressed the sharp tip of her scythe blade into his forehead. He screamed in agony as the scythe drew blood that trickled down the side of his face.
"Never come near this village again! Do you hear me?!" Lily warned her brother who just frantically nodded his head in fear. She then used the blade of her scythe to carve the word "scum" deep into his forehead so that it'd leave a permanent scar. She then went over to her sister who was still unconscious and carved the same word into her forehead before going over to Asta who just sat there astonished.
"That was incredible, Lil! And you finally got your grimoire too! I knew you would get one!" Asta said, beaming at Lily excitedly as he placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Yeah, you and Yuno were right. I never should have doubted you guys or myself. Anyways, let's go home and tell everyone I finally got my grimoire." Lily smiled as she started heading back to the church with Asta right by her side. On their way home, they ran into Yuno.
"I've been looking for you two." Yuno said as Lily suddenly hugged him which took him by surprise.
"Hey Yuno, guess what? I finally received my grimoire!" Lily said excitedly, pulling away from the embrace and held her grimoire up for Yuno to see. A soft smile appeared on his face.
"I knew you'd get your grimoire Lily. By the way, what happened to you guys? You're both a mess. We were waiting for you at the table for breakfast, but then you guys didn't show up. Father and Sister Lily sent me to go look for you." Yuno said as Lily and Asta looked at each other before looking back at Yuno and explained everything that had just happened.
"Well I'm glad that you two are okay. I was getting worried when you guys didn't show up for breakfast. My older siblings seem like terrible people." Yuno said as the three of them headed back to the church to eat. When they arrived, both Lily and Asta took turns telling everyone else what happened.
"Congratulations Lily! I'm so happy for you." Sister Lily congratulated Lily on receiving her grimoire, grabbing her hands in hers. She smiled and thanked the nun.
"That's wonderful! We shall prepare another feast tonight to celebrate!" Father said enthusiastically.
"I really appreciate it, but don't we need to spare our food rations? We just had a feast last night to celebrate Yuno receiving his grimoire. And I wouldn't want to be the cause of a food shortage." Lily mentioned as Father put his hand up to his chin as he thought about it some more.
"You're right. We shouldn't be going through our food so recklessly. You're so polite and thoughtful Lily!" Father said as he started to tear up, touched by her decision to forgo the feast for the well being of everyone at the church. That night, they just had a normal dinner. After all of them finished cleaning up, Lily showed everyone her new grimoire.
~Time Skip~
The next day, Lily and Asta ran all the way to the local Grimoire Tower together to see Master Drouot and showed him their grimoires.
"Hey check it out! Me and Lil received our grimoires!" Asta said excitedly as both of them held up their grimoires for the Tower Master to see.
"Good for you two. Mind if I have a closer look?" The Tower Master asked, holding out his hands. Lily and Asta handed him their grimoires. His eyes widened when he studied them.
'Hmm, the rare five leaf clover grimoire and the even rarer six leaf clover grimoire. Legend has it that within the 5th leaf lives a devil. But what does the 6th leaf represent? It's so rare that I'm having trouble recalling it. Hmm, oh now I remember! Within the 6th leaf resides the Angel of Death, that's it! I never thought I'd ever see the four leaf, five leaf, and six leaf clover grimoires during my lifetime, much less in the same year. The rarest of the rare all in one year.' Master Drouot thought to himself as he handed the grimoires back with a smile.
"Good luck with your grimoires. Use them wisely." Master Drouot said to the two of them.
"We will, bye!" Lily said as she and Asta both headed for the exit, waving goodbye to the Tower Master.
"Yes! This is the key to my journey! I'm going to become the Wizard King! Just you wait and see, Yuno!" Asta said enthusiastically as he followed Lily out, holding up his grimoire high in the air.
"Take care children." Master Drouot said, waving goodbye. As they both became small figures in the distance, he chuckled.
"Looks like we have some promising young ones this year." The elderly Tower Master said to himself, heading back inside the tower and closed the door behind him.