Somehow, I managed to actually finish that entire platter. Although I did need about half an hour of rest afterwards. Either way, after I was rested enough to at least get out of my seat, we went on our way out, while also waving off to Layra who was watching us on our way.
"So? Was the food adequate for our sleepy prince's palate?"
Maia asked as we both started stretching our arms.
"Definitely. Although that portion was more of a king sized one…"
"Haha, you did still finish it though. Were you scared that Layra would get offended if you didn't ?"
"I can't deny that, but it's also just because I enjoyed it."
Both of us had stopped stretching at the same time, as we kept chit chatting, until Luna spoke up.
"You two sure are siblings, huh?"
""Huh?""
"I mean, you started stretching at the same exact time, doing the same exact stretching and also stopped at the same exact time, haha."
"Did we?"
We looked at each other with curiosity for a moment. I did notice that she was also stretching, but didn't really think anything else of it. I guess maybe our Synchrony as siblings is better than I expected?
"Cael… Why are you copying me?"
"Huh?!"
"I understand that you can't help wanting to do what me, your strong, beautiful and amazing sister does. But have some originality, will ya?"
"As if I'd copy you! To begin with, I'm the one who started stretching first, you overpowered gorilla!"
"Who the hell are you calling an overpowered gorilla?! I'll burn you to a crisp, you stupid brat!"
"That's fine by me, bring it on! Then we'll all know that the Gorilla of the Ashford couldn't handle copying her little brother so she burned him to a crisp when she was caught!"
We were pretty much at each other's throat by that point, but then just as we started growling at each other, Luna stepped in the middle and distanced us.
"Alright, alright. We get it, you two love each other. Wow, such amazing siblinghood. But I'll remind you that we're outside now."
""Ah…""
"Your reputation is already bad as it is. cause a scene in public now and you're going to have a tough time redeeming your dignity, you know?"
We looked at each other again, this time both of us slightly embarrassed as we noticed a few people actually glaring towards us from a distance, and we quickly quieted down.
"Sorry, Maia…"
"No, I'm the one who's sorry, Cael. I didn't mean what I said either."
"I also didn't mean it when I called you a gorilla…"
Luna then lightly smacked both of us in the head, sighing before smiling once again as usual.
"Seriously, you two. What am I going to do with you?"
""Sorry…""
All 3 of us had a good laugh afterwards. To be fair, me and Maia didn't really banter with each other often. I guess you could say we didn't have the classic "the younger one gets bullied by the older" sibling dynamic. We obviously fought sometimes, like the time she ate my ice cream even though I had told her not to, or when I stole her last few strawberries. Anyway, the point is that we did argue every now and then, but our relationship was mostly as casual and friendly as it gets.
"Alright then, I'll go on my way. See y'all later."
"Hm? Where are you going, Maia?"
She started walking away on her own, stopping and turning around to answer my question first.
"I have some things to do. For today, forget about the training. Just hang out with Luna until it's time for us to go back home."
"Huh?! You can't be serious, right?!"
"Why wouldn't I?"
I took turns glancing towards both her and Luna, who was now by my side, confused by the situation. It's not like I didn't trust her. And that's exactly the problem. I've only met her today, but I already felt like I trusted her as much as Maia- no. Even more than Maia. No matter how you looked at it, this was weird. Not to mention, she herself hasn't known Luna for long either, yet she was trusting her with her little brother? This was weird. Too weird. But the weirdest part of it all… was that deep inside, I was actually excited when she said that I'll be spending the day with Luna.
"Cael… do you not want to stay with me today?"
"No, I- uhm… I do…"
Seriously… There's gotta be something wrong with me.
There's no way I could say no when you're looking at me with those eyes. I hated this. I hated not knowing what was going on with my own emotions. I was creeped out by it. Why am I suddenly trusting this stranger so much? I was scared by it. What if it's some sort of trick? Maybe I'm under a spell of some kind, and she's actually going to hurt- no. …I can't even bring myself to finish that thought. Because above all, I was genuinely excited, and happy about it. Every single fiber of my body wanted to go with her. It was simply impossible to deny, or ignore.
"Then it's settled. Don't cause Luna any trouble while you're with her, alright?"
"…Alright."
She then walked away, not turning around or stopping until she was eventually out of sight.
"Alright then, let's go as well, shall we?"
"Ah, y-yeah…"
At this point, who even cares anymore? She started walking first, and I quickly managed to catch up just enough so we'd be walking side by side, and I definitely noticed her pace slowing to match mine. It was as if she gave me the push I needed to get moving, then once I was on my feet and steadily walking, she simply stood by my side. It was strange. But I felt a weird sense of reassurance. And alongside that. My nervousness faded away almost instantly in the process.
"By the way, are we going somewhere specifically?"
"Yeah, I have to check something out. It's around 15 minutes from her at this pace, do you think you can do it? You know, with your clothes."
"So you know about them too, huh?"
"She did tell me haha yeah, but also earlier when you fell asleep while I was holding you, it was as if I was holding a pail of steel."
She said while lifting a finger, but had a serene smile on her face, which made me chuckle at the sight, but also a short wave of embarrassment came over me as I recalled the event.
"Ah, yeah, uhm… sorry about that."
"It's fine, it's fine. I'm just glad that you got enough rest. Even on our way to the restaurant, you were dead asleep. Even while Maia was carrying you on her back. It was a pretty interesting sight, that's for sure."
Interesting, huh? I don't really think Maia struggled with carrying me, since she is Maia After all. But I guess that's not the case?
"Well, I'm at least glad you found it interesting…"
My reply was definitely not the most enthusiastic one, but it wasn't because of my doubts about Maia's feat. As we walked on the streets of the now busy town, the more I glanced in any direction where there were any other people, the worse the gazes got. Of course, I wasn't surprised by it, however, I was bothered by the fact that they weren't only directed towards me, just like earlier today.
"Let them be, Cael."
"… I don't understand how you can just take it. Aren't you also from an important lineage as well? Is this really alright for you?"
She sighed, looking at me with an understanding smile for a second before moving her gaze in front of her.
"Being looked at as if I'm trash isn't really enjoyable, obviously. But it's not bothering me either. I know you're a good person, and that's all that matters. Even if I just met you today, from what Maia has told me, and from what I've seen so far, I can tell. Oh and, I guess you could say that my family is important? But we don't have any public exposure. For that matter, no one knows our name, even though we are the biggest investors in most businesses and projects around the kingdom. So you don't have to worry about that either. To them, I must look like a damsel that is getting deceived by a devil, or something along those lines."
I didn't know how to rebuke any of it. For that matter, I doubt it was even possible. Obviously, it didn't magically get rid of my annoyance towards the matter, but it did easen it up, ever so slightly.
"Alright. I'll try to not think about it too much."
"I'm glad."
We kept walking, mostly silently afterwards. The surroundings didn't really differ much from each other, it seemed like a fairly average town you'd see in the countryside even in my previous world, but it did clearly have some more modernized parts like the interior of that restaurant we were at earlier, and the general look to it as well honestly. Eventually, I figured we arrived at our destination, as I saw something at a distance. It was a large section of almost empty land, and inside it there was a half built foundation of a building.
"Is this what you wanted to check on?"
She walked closer to it, and inspected it with her eyes.
"Yeah, this is the biggest project we're currently working on. Cael, do you know your history?"
"Huh? What's history gotta do with this?"
"Haha, I'll take that as a no."
"… you got me. That's right, I have almost no clue about any history other than the gist of how the sentinels have formed. If history is relevant in the explanation of this mysterious building, then please, enlighten me."
I intentionally overdramatized it, and added a small bow at the end.
"Very well. I shall honor your request. Fear not, as thy won't remain in the dark no more."
For some reason, I'm not surprised she can match the humor me and Maia usually use…
The weirdness in that aside, she turned towards me, with her hands intertwined behind her back as she explained her explanation, while circling around me, and doing all sorts of hand gestures to help her.
"The previous commander, who was a beast humanoid, or also known as a Demi human, or half human, didn't respect humans."
"Meaning?"
"He thought that even though we were the best at magic, and the largest in numbers, we were effectively useless. Or rather, he thought there was no need for any of us in any of the 3 human kingdoms to have magic academies. One of the first things he did was abolish them."
"I see… was that really it though? I understand not thinking we're needed to learn it, but isn't that going too far? Demi humans are the strongest in the continent physically, and that much we all know. But getting rid of our right to having proper education in magic?"
"Weird, right? No matter how you look at it, it doesn't add up. Why go to such an extent if we're so insignificant in your eyes? There is a simple answer though. Which no one could've guessed until the arrival of our current commander."
A simple answer that we can get thanks to Mio… as surprising as it is, she did in fact kill and replace him, but what does that- wait… could it be?!
"Cutting off the national budgets for the academies, and handing them over to a third party…"
She gave me a proud smirk as she heard my answer, but didn't stop circling around me yet.
"Correct. By cutting off completely the budget of all magic institutions in all 3 of the human kingdoms, he was able to recover a significant amount of money. He didn't prohibit learning magic as a whole either. He simply told whoever was frustrated about his decision to quote on quote "if you really feel the need to showcase your insignificance that badly, go ahead and write guidebooks for the younger generations yourselves. I won't be wasting any more money for children to play around, when we have a larger need for it." And simply dismissed any further meetings with the purpose of negotiating the redressal of his decision."
"This is a lot to take in…"
"I'm aware. But that is exactly why I asked you if you knew about history."
The realization then finally kicked in, as I looked at the massive yet to be fully built building, and she definitely noticed it in my eyes as she let out a proud humming noise, before proceeding to finally announce the conclusion of her lesson.
"Word is already slowly starting to spread, but I'll tell you before it's completely public knowledge. Under the orders of the new Commander, Mio. Every single town and city will have their own Magic Academy from now on. Leaving the history of human undervaluing behind us, and walking towards a new era."
I sighed in acceptance at that point. There was no denying it. Any time I heard anything about her, Mio just kept gathering more and more feats to her name. Looking at it from a different point of view as well, the previous commander called humans that genuinely wanted to learn magic "children", and ended up being killed by an actual human child. How can I say this, fate really is both ironic, and cruel. That being said though, there was still a question lingering in my mind.
"But where are the funds coming from? Considering that he was most likely giving the money to someone from the other continents for Some reason, there shouldn't be any funds for this project."
My brows frowned as I kept thinking about it more and more, and then finally reached my conclusion. I looked around to make sure there was still no one close enough to hear us, and approached Luna, giving her my conclusion in a low tone.
"Yeah… let's say hypothetically, what if stopping giving them that sum of money results in an all out war? I doubt the current commander would risk that even if she thinks she could win it."
She gave me an observant look, and kept her calm behavior before asking a simple question.
"Do you really think she cares about the people of this continent that much?"
"I can't say for sure obviously, since I don't personally know her. But at the very least, I think she cares about humans enough to find a way to give us our magic education that a lot have wished for. Isn't that enough proof? I'm not saying she doesn't care about semi humans, elves or amphibians either. But from what we've seen so far, I think it's pretty safe to say that The Commander of The Sentinels, Mio. She loves humans. And won't risk getting us all in an all out war with the other continents and the dragon king, not yet at least. Of course, take this with a grain of salt as it could be extremely wrong, but I doubt she'd risk that especially now when humans are effectively at their lowest."
"Hmm… Well, it's not like I know her personally so I couldn't tell you if any of that is true."
Ah, that's right…
We both let out a few chuckles, quickly recomposing ourselves afterwards.
"Your weirdly passionate analysis of her character aside, there was a solution that she went with. The Sentinel funds came individually from each kingdom, but that's not the case anymore. They were always an independent organization, but now more than ever. The sentinels paychecks come directly from Mio's pockets."
"Haha, she really is nic- wait what?! Did you just say, the pay of all the sentinels…"
"Of course that also includes Lieutenants, and recruits. All of them come from her own pockets. That's how she's funding the academies while also not giving up on the fee that the previous commander was dependent on."
"But how is that possible…"
She simply nodded her head while shrugging her shoulders before replying.
"Beats me. I'm telling you all I know after all. We do have a lot of influence but not even we know everything ."
That makes sense. But they still clearly know a lot, huh? I guess rich people really do live in a different world than commoners. Albeit I'm technically far from a commoner myself.
Now that I think about it though, isn't Luna an Insanely valuable individual?! I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I guess in the end Maia really is the Eldest child of the Ashford lineage, huh? That's one insane connection to have.
"Alright then. I've seen how it's proceeding, so we can just go around the town for a while now. It's not like we have anything else to do until you two are going home anyway."
"Yeah, that sounds good."
We started walking around the town aimlessly afterwards, but there was still something lingering on my mind, even though I decided to not give it too much thought earlier. She might've lied about every single thing she just said. It's not like I hadn't considered that option. But for some reason, the same way I'm so comfortable around this stranger I've met today, who's only a friend of my sister, I'm unable to doubt any of it. I can say it's weird all I want, but I cannot distrust or interrupt any of it. Either way, even just walking around with her felt so painfully refreshing that I couldn't care less at that point about how weird it was. Eventually, after a good hour of mindless wandering, we took a seat on the ground, in a small alley in between 2 buildings, which had a few more openings and conducts but we didn't go too deep inside.
"Wonder what Maia is up to…"
"My, that's the first thing you mention after sitting down? Are you already missing your sister?"
"It's not that, I'm just curious honestly. She didn't tell me anything after all."
"I don't know what she's up to either honestly, she just told me that she'd be doing something after we eat while you were asleep, so I should hang out with you for the day. What, do you not enjoy spending time with me?"
Her teasing tone was painfully obvious, to the point where it was straight up taunting. But I found it strangely cute as I answered with a chuckle.
"Of course not. If anything I just find it weird. You're practically a stranger to me, but I don't feel any discomfort or awkwardness around you. The weirdness of it all has been on my mind the whole day."
She looked dumbfounded for a second, clearly not expecting my answer to be that, but her expression melted into a smile shortly after. At that moment, she got up, and stood in front of me while kneeled, before speaking.
"I see… ████ █████ ██ ███████… ██'██ ███ ████ █████ █████████, █████ ███."
H-huh… w-what is going on-…
My head felt dizzy. I felt like throwing up. My heart rate rises through the roof and straight into the sky. What is this? What is this? What is this? What's going on? I don't know. What's happening? I can't hear anything. I want to throw up. I was holding my hands to my mouth to hold back the vomit, but none came out.
"Ael?"
What's that? I can't hear it. I don't know. I'm scared. I want to go home.
"C-el…"
Shut up.
"Ca—l"
Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Don't you see that I'm sick, for fucks sake?! Let me be!
"Cael."
"…?"
It was then that I finally snapped back into reality. I was still sitting, but my head was resting on something. And when I finally glanced towards my left which was the direction my head was resting on, I realized it. It was Luna's shoulder.
"You've been asleep for a while already, you know? It's been half an hour since you suddenly dozed off."
I lifted my head, scratching my eyes as I was trying to figure out what just happened. Wasn't she standing in front of me a moment ago… or I guess it was a dream? Yeah. Must've been a dream. Or I guess a nightmare at this point.
"Ah… my bad. I guess I hadn't rested enough at the restaurant…"
I yawned as I got up, stretching my arms in the meanwhile.
"What time is it?"
"It should be close to 6 by now. Me and Maia already agreed on meeting back at the restaurant, so we should probably go back soon."
She also got up, and quickly after I had also finished my stretching. Honestly, at this point I really just wanted to go home and rest. Today has been just way too weird. But of course, fate wouldn't even allow me something as simple as that. Right as we were about to leave the alley, it was then that we both heard some faint screams.