The last maid went out of the basement door while weeping, her eyes stained in tears and her body shivering.
"You better not try to run away from this place," Ethan languidly muttered and the girl nodded in fear before running away. He closed the basement door.
He was back above the stairs now, in the dimly lit place with the green rails going down to the depths. Irritatedly looking at the new Wine, he asked, "As you said, I let the maids free first... now you can speak, right?"
Wine nodded, already having accepted her defeat, "I hope you don't do something against the contract in some devious way."
Ethan chuckled, nodded, and then sat on the metal step, looking down at the girl three or four steps away, "So Wine, what is your true name?"
'Wine' raised an eyebrow, "Why do you want me to tell that?"
"No, just curious about some things about you that feels a bit wrong to me, so tell me, it's not like it is a big secret, right?"
'Wine' grinned, her blue and golden eyes shining in the dim light, "I thought you were all-knowing, you even know things from two worlds. Why don't you tell me how you know that first?"
"No, I am just familiar with the Basics of Wuma and this world's culture a bit, I don't know these details too in-depth either." Ethan shook his hands.
"In fact," he honestly said, "If you compare me to someone who had a true teacher on the path of Wuma, I will fall out a lot in comparison, even the previous Ethan probably knew more than me."
Wine squinted her little eyes, glaring at him as she asked, "Even that is a big deal foreigner, how did you get all those details, how did you come to this world?"
Ethan glared back with a smile, and pointed: "I asked the question first, little lady."
Wine closed her eyes and calmed down, then said: "My name is Apathie, Apathie Snow, one of the three heirs of the great Snow Lineage."
"I see...Well, that's something, but, then how did you end up on this lowly island as a mere servant?"
Silent for a second, she didn't want to answer him but deep inside, she did not know why, she also wanted to speak: "There is a test inside my family, when you want to break through to the next stage after creating the last World bead inside your body, you remove your memories and go through a ceremony called Totem Dance."
"Totem Dance?" Ethan frowned, that was a new name.
"Totem Dance is a method we use to get more than our three possible abilities before breaking through to become a Totem Warrior."
She pointed at her golden left eye, "You see this right?"
Ethan nodded while a smile started to form inside his mind, her mind was being corrupted faster, and she did not even notice it.
"My first 3 totem beads," she pointed at her right blue eyes, "This was the first one, The Eye Of Snow, my lineage's special eye ability (Wu)."
She then lifted her left leg and showed him what lay beneath it, a white snow tattoo, "This was my second ability (Wu) and it makes my body light like snow, I am very fast when I turn it on."
Then she pointed at her forehead, standing firmly on the stairs again, "This green circle mark, it is my third bead's ability. And it is also the most unique." She paused.
"What does it do?" intrigued, Ethan asked.
Smiling at him, she said, "It can help me fly, it makes me capable of not only flight but it even aids me in controlling myself while on flight."
"I see, but how is that related to why you are here though?"
"Wait Teacher, let me explain," she paused again, feeling as if she was forgetting something important, but then continued, "For a normal Wuma, 3 is the maximum limit of abilities, after that, they can only combine all of their beads and transform into a Totem Warrior."
Ethan listened to her and nodded, "Then?"
Apathy pointed at her left, golden eye again, "Look at this Eye ability, this is the [Everhart Eye], not [Snow Eye], and this is also my fourth Wu."
"I see..." Ethan mumbled, somewhat fascinated, and then asked, "So do you have 4 beads now?"
Apathy shook her head, "I am not a true Foreigner like teacher, only you guys can have more beads, we can only have more abilities through the unorthodox method of Totem Dance."
"That's fine, I have no use for that knowledge now, for now, tell me...Why did you actually end up here?" Ethan asked with a smile, she had already fallen past the edge, he had no proof but he was quite sure.
"Hehe," Apathy cutely chuckled, the dim light cast Ethan's gentle shadow on her face, "Teacher, I got sidetracked."
"No problem, you can say it at your pace, we have all the time in the world."
she nodded and went up the stairs, her footsteps were gentle, the metal handles held her up and she slowly reached Ethan's step.
Then she gently sat on his lap, and then rested her head on his chest, "Teacher," she muttered.
He gently caressed her head, a smile adorning his face, "Don't worry, answer me first."
He had to be aware of possible issues after all.
"Yes teacher," Wine nodded, hugged him, and said, "The Snow Family ceremony states that no one can break through to become a 'Totem Warrior' without a minimum of 5 abilities, and for the three heirs, we need to have the maximum amount of 6 before we fuse all our beads.
We either have 6 or we lose the position of Heir."
Ethan nodded, patted her back, and asked, "So what do you do to achieve that?"
"To attain the six abilities, what I did was after I reached three bead level, I made an elder with a memory type Wu seal my memories, I made myself into a new person."
"What is the use of doing that?" Ethan asked, curious.
"I become somewhat like a foreigner, as my body and soul lose their true resonance, my new self who doesn't have any memories lose connection to the beads inside her. Just like teacher can't sense your beads now."
Ethan's eyes widened, "I see, so when you practice Wuma again as an original person, you can create new beads?"
"No, I can get more abilities into my already active beads, but that way... 5 is the limit."
"So how do you guys get 6?"
"We just use a unique method to extract part of our souls and transform it into Glue."
"The person who came up with this plan is a genius!" Ethan exclaimed, honestly impressed, "so, your lineage's people help the people from the seven divisions cross to this world. Implant their souls with illusions called blue systems, those hologram-like things, and then make them stronger to feed to you guys in the end?"
"In a sense," Wine said lazily.
Tapping her head, he said, finding it funny, "And you acted like such a righteous thing infront of me."
"I am righteous teacher," Wine exclaimed, then she paused, "no, I WAS righteous, teacher. I only kill the people who killed me once, in the end, if I play the glue card after all."
"Was?" he smiled, "What about now?"
"Now?" Wine smiled, "Aren't I teacher's little slave?"
Ethan quietly licked his molars...
plan 1, success.
"So teacher, what are you going to do with this slave?" the cute bubbly voice of Wine asked, curious.
Ethan emotionlessly looked down at the darkness beside the stairs, and said, "It's not like you can't guess," he chuckled, and continued: "I'm going to turn you into my clone."
Hesitant, she asked him, "But isn't that dangerous for you teacher? What if I come out on top? I'm about 60 years old now… not to mention I was called a genius and I have a lot of experience. You might lose, even though you have already enslaved my mind."
"We will see," Ethan said and then focused on himself inwardly, he couldn't use any of 'his' abilities and he had not used the glue to help him do that, apathy's glue was used elsewhere after all. So he was as of now, just an ordinary human.
And to change everything, he needed the clone.
Closing his eyes, hugging the young girl's waist, he muttered, "Close your eyes."
Apathy/Wine did so.
"Think of the contract we signed."
She joyfully did.
A quiet connection started to get established between them…
They started to feel sleepy.
"I hope you defeat me… Teacher." Wine muttered and their world's darkened.
Their heavy eyelids fell.
Their minds drifted to sleep, bodies in each other's embrace.