——— Minho ———
"So listen, Human"
Mira stood tall (or short) with her arms crossed, chin raised a little high, and her eyes locked onto mine.
"I need you to perform at your best. There's no getting around that. That's the first thing. Got it?"
"I'll do my best."
"That won't cut it! You are to defeat every monster that crosses your path!"
"Well, don't worry. The least I'll do is get a draw. I have no interest in dying in this world."
"Tsk. You are a modest one for a Human demon."
"Thanks."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. So here is the thing."
I gave her my full attention.
"Summon something from your world. Like a knife."
"That's dangerous. I might cut my lips."
"WHAT KIND OF A DEMON ARE YOU?!!!!"
"Er… can we try with a stick? I might summon a REAL knife if I REALLY have to at the REAL contest, but not now."
"Hmph. I'll let you off this one time. We got no time to argue."
"OK. Good. I'll summon a small stick. A conductor's baton."
"What the heck is that?"
"It's something you use to orchestrate music. You swinging around to direct the musicians to play music."
"Ooooooh, that gives me an idea. Go ahead."
Easy peasy. This one won't hurt.
I pulled out the baton and held it in my hand.
"Now, I'm going to make multiples of you."
"Huh?"
I stood and stared at Mira, dumbfounded.
"Aw, come on, do something! Put on some act! Like you are casting something."
"Anything?"
"Yeah, whatever. I will make it look good."
I swirled the conductor baton around and to my shock, flame shot out from the tip of the baton and shot in three directions ahead of me. As they hit the ground…
What in the fuck?!
There was - or were - I(s). Where the flame hit, and burnt, my head emerged from the ground, they rose and stood tall. They looked exactly like me, just as the image of Mira that she created for herself the other day.
"Ha… ha… great, right?"
I turned to Mira and gave her a thumbs-up.
"Now, direct them."
Ah, now I understood why Mira liked the idea of a conductor's baton. I lifted my hands and theatrically moved them around like I saw the conductors do on TV. My 'Multiples' moved around as I directed, moving left to right, forward and back, making threatening gestures.
Man, this is fun-
:Thump:
I turned around and Mira was kneeling on the ground, panting hard.
"Are you alright?!"
I dropped the baton and quickly ran to her. From the corner of my eye, I saw that my cool Multiples disappeared into thin air.
"Heh… heh… awesome, right?"
"Erm… yeah, but what's wrong with you?"
"I… realized making multiple of OTHER people takes a LOT more energy than it does for me…"
"Wha… what can I do for you?"
"I… just… need… I'm so hungry…"
That's right.
Mira hadn't had lunch today because she was sulking.
And in general, we have been eating that pretty rank bread for quite some time now. Before, every now and then we'd treat ourselves to some pieces of meat, but just because she wanted to show off she's been eating that bread at school every day.
"What do you want to eat? I'll go get it for you."
"I… want… chocolate…"
Then Mira passed out.
Shit.
What do I do…
My immediate thought was piggybacking her to a shop but there were three problems.
I had no frigging clue where I could buy chocolates, we didn't have money to buy said chocolates, and I was strictly forbidden from giving her a piggyback ride.
Then I got an idea.
We were not so far from the farmland and I remembered seeing a farmer use a cart before to move some hay. I quickly ran over and found it, brought it back and dumped Mira in the cart.
Now there was only one place in this world where I knew we could get chocolates - hopefully free as well, Celestine.
Her mansion was quite a long way from our home so I had to push the cart across the whole city receiving all sorts of weird looks as a helpless young girl lay on the cart, but now wasn't time to worry or stop to explain what was happening to random people I didn't know anyway.
Once I reached the gate of Celestine's Mansion, I shouted.
"CELESTINE!!"
I could see the door open from far away, and it looked like one of her maids was making her way to the gate.
Come on… hurry up already!
"How may I help you?"
The maid finally arrived at the gate and asked me, looking at my cart and Mira in it with suspicious eyes.
"We are classmates of Celestine. Please let us in."
"I haven't been told that Ms. Celestine was expecting anyone."
"Because she isn't! Go tell her that we are here, and she will let us in!"
"She is currently having dinner. You will need to wait."
"Damn it! Tell her it's Minho, the HUMAN DEMON! And…. Er… Minakong."
I wasn't sure if the poor maid knew what Human Demon was - was that a common knowledge in this world or just among the educated ones at the Academy? - or she just got scared by my roar, but without answer, she quickly turned and ran back to the Mansion.
Not so long after, Celestine hurried out of the door and ran - but gracefully - to the gate to open it herself.
"What brings you here so urgently? Are you in any danger?"
"Er… I have a bit of a problem."
I pointed at Mira in the cart, who was still completely passed out.
"Oh, no! What happened to Minakong?"
"She's used too much magic I think. We were training."
"I see, I see. Because of the announcement today, I presume?"
"Yes."
"Well, this is not an uncommon occurrence for Mages. Please come in."
With that, Celestine kindly led us in through the gate, through the garden, and I asked her unashamedly as we wheeled Mira in the cart.
"Er… this is a bit… shameful to ask."
"No problem! Go ahead!"
"Do you have some chocolates?"
Celestine stopped, looked confused, and then giggled.
"For you and Minakong, I will always have chocolates."
What a lovely girl.