Chapter 81

Surprise and Surprise!

“...Why did things turn this way?” Ein’s dissatisfied voice could be heard.

“Hehe, sorry, but it seems that luck is at our side!” I happily smiled. I could see our team’s victory flag so close!

Luca, Kiri, and I were thinking of the same thing at this moment—that was, to focus our attacks to Ein!

Alt-nii seemed to notice this as he tried to raise a [Void] barrier to protect Ein. If that was how he was going to play it, then we should probably go and take him out first before easily taking out Ein.

“.........”

Surprisingly, Ein seemed to be looking over the current situation while calmly thinking.

“Oh well, time to try that out...,” he muttered before he shifted his gaze towards Alt-nii.

“Big Bro Alt, it’s time to end this!”

...Eh?

I was surprised. Did he want to admit defeat this instant?

I thought he was one persistent kid. Was he actually more of a realist?

“What, Ein, I want to fight until the end, not surrendering!” Alt-nii protested.

“I didn’t mean that!” Ein objected back.

“Then, what are you trying to propose?”

“I mean, let’s end this in our victory!”

“...How are you going to do that?” I was taken aback by Ein’s overwhelming confidence.

“Big Bro Alt, try to recite what I’m about to say!” Ein suddenly said.

“Huh? Why?”

“Just do it, okay?!”

“...Sure, then...,” Alt-nii might think that Ein’s idea might be worth it to try, as he could see that victory wasn’t leaning on his team currently.

“Eine, dear, you couldn’t be...,” Nicole gasped, she seemed to have an idea what Ein was about to do. Well, Ein is her son after all!

“Okay, listen carefully and recite it well!” Ein took a deep breath before reciting something akin to a spell slowly as Alt-nii recited them after Ein...

[Meol, ôs orgilde spêd, [Bahamuth], :/sYAlE yor/:,--]

Ein began to recite something weird.

“Ru?!” Rurune let out a surprised voice.

“Huh, [Bahamuth]-sama’s name was recited there?!” Even Carbuncle was surprised.

...I wonder what was that for?

“Eine, you can’t be serious!” Nicole sounded a bit agitated.

No matter what it might be, no matter if I was so curious, I couldn’t let the enemy win, not in this close situation!

I looked at Luca and Kiri. It seemed like we could communicate via eye contact well in this situation, as we nodded at one another. We then rushed to Alt-nii to hinder him from doing what Ein instructed him.

Alt-nii was a sharp person who noticed our intention right away. He quickly dodged our attacks and raised a [Void] barrier on himself.

...Not only that, he then proceeded on creating illusions of himself!!

He really went full power...?

“Ein, repeat that again! There’s nothing to lose, I guess, so let’s bet on your idea!” Alt-nii and his shadows shouted...

Which one is the real Alt-nii? I gotta figure it out before he finishes doing the reciting or whatever!

“Eine, drop the idea, won’t you?” Nicole’s warning voice resounded, but Ein didn’t seem to obey his mother, as he quickly recited everything—followed by Alt-nii.

[Meol, ôs orgilde spêd, [Bahamuth], :/sYAlE yor/:, yfel besêcan êow, yeerh zacta tyy maarr itt sss, sûcan ðone as drýlic ellencræft ð¯ærût mîn hettend lîc êac sweðrian sîn hrêaw earm! Yfel fordêman blôtung mîn cyneðrymm ufan bewrixl−an, forglendr−an mîn misboren I!]

Sadly, both Ein and Alt-nii quickly recited them all in a hurry...

And the moment after Alt-nii finished reciting it (although he stuttered at some parts)...

I suddenly felt my body was depleted of mana, and I felt that my strength escaped from my body!

As I looked at my teammates’ expressions, I could tell that they were also feeling the same sensation.

We were powerless.

At the same time, I saw Alt-nii’s shadows or his illusion was also called off.

Did he call his illusion off because he was done reciting whatever it was?

“Now, go and destroy Big Sister Iris’ crystal pendant!” Ein cheered as he saw that whatever he was thinking of doing actually succeeded.

“...Ein... there is another problem...,” Alt-nii’s voice was unexpectedly weak.

“Nn?” Ein tilted his head.

“...I felt very fatigued as well...,” Alt-nii said in a weak voice.

“Eeh?! The effect was that extreme?!” Ein was surprised.

After he scratched his head for a bit, he suddenly said, “It can’t be helped. Then, I’ll be the one to end the match~!”

...Thereafter, Ein grabbed Kiri’s sword that was lying there and leisurely stabbed it to our crystal brooches, and lastly, Iris’ crystal pendant...

We tried to move our bodies to prevent that from happening, but since there was no strength at all in our bodies, our struggles ended up meaningless...

And so, the match had a complete turnabout and ended up in a very unexpected way...

Nicole was gasping and she looked a bit troubled at the sudden turn of events...

***

“I’m sorry!”

Nicole clapped her hands together as she bowed in front of us. She then forced Ein to bow down in apology as well.

After the match was over, Mom healed all of us.

“It’s fine, Nicole-san. I’m sure Ein didn’t mean anything bad,” Mom calmly answered.

“W-what’s with that, anyway?” I couldn’t contain my curiosity.

“Hey, little Ein, you even mentioned our god—Bahamuth. What’s with that spell?” Carbuncle raised her eyebrows.

“That is... well...,” Nicole was trying to explain things on her son’s behalf.

“So... you know that there are some classified books safeguarded by the Loera clan, right? ...So, Eine here read some of the ancient books out of curiosity and seemed to take an interest on a certain spell... Plus the fact that there’s a living [Void] user... So he kinda went off with it and tried to put the ancient spell in action...”

“Mum knows me so well!” Ein smiled without any trace of guilt.

Nicole lightly flicked Ein’s forehead.

“Ouch, Mum! Come on, it’s nothing dangerous, right?”

“...You’ll have another special lecture time, okay, dear Eine?”

“....Ye~s....,” Ein reluctantly bowed.

On the other side...

“...Wait, what?!” I was surprised by Nicole’s information.

Sure, I already got the gist that the Loera clan—a clan of scholars had an access to classified knowledge or ancient knowledge, but I didn’t expect it to be like this.

And to think that Ein could remember something like that...?!

“Yes... Ophelia-san might have known it already, but there are books that contain ancient spells and so on, stored in the Loera’s classified library... What Eine asked Altaire to recite was one of them—a spell depicted in an ancient book to be used by [Void] magic user. It’s the type of spell used to offer your [Void] power in exchange to deplete the enemy of their power, especially of their magical power," Nicole elaborated further.

“But I didn’t expect it to deplete Big Brother Alt’s power as well!” Ein bitterly said.

“Well, it offers the [Void] user’s power, and I guess the power taken was tremendous enough to make Altaire feel fatigued,” Nicole lightly hit Ein’s head.

“And did I hear it wrong or was our god, the dragon god, Bahamuth-sama, mentioned?” Carbuncle asked.

“Yes... you’re right. Bahamuth—the dragon god—is well-known as the god of power. The [Void] magic user is offering their power to Bahamuth in exchange for the spell’s effect,” Nicole answered again.

“...That’s interesting,” Carbuncle said.

“Nicole-san, Nicole-san! How did Ein memorize that complicated spell?” I asked. He couldn’t be memorizing the spell so hardly in order to wait for this chance to ask Alt-nii to try it out, right?

“Well... Okay, I guess it’s fine to tell you guys this... It’s not a top secret after all. It’s actually the [Oracle] bestowed to some members of the [Loera] clan. We like to call this blessing as [Hypermind]. To put it simply, let’s just say for now that Eine and I here have perfect memory,” Nicole dropped a bomb to us.

No wonder Ein could remember and recite the whole spell flawlessly!

No wonder Nicole could remember the things from the olden days so perfectly, without any doubt!

...and no wonder that members of Loera clan excel so much in academics!

That’s basically a very great cheat!!!

“Ehehe,” Ein smiled happily. His face seemed to say, “Am I amazing?”

Really, [intelligence runs in blood] applies for the Loera clan, then.

“It’s nice to be a member of the Loera clan, then!” Iris said in amazement.

“I won’t deny that! However, not all possess this [Oracle], and the power varies as well,” Nicole explained even further.

In Ein and Nicole’s case, I’d say that their [Hypermind]’s power can be said as quite high?

I think so...

And is that all there is to [Hypermind]? Or just like the royal family’s [Oracle] and Hartmann family’s [Oracle], there are still some secrets that can only be told within the family?

...For now, their explanation of Loera family’s [Oracle] sufficed, though...

After a moment of silent, Mom suddenly clapped once.

“Okay, now that it’s clear, I have something I need to talk about, especially with Altaire!”

Alt-nii snapped out of his daze after processing the information regarding the Loera clan.

“What is it, Mom?”

“Hmm... okay, Lyra, Altaire, and... Rurune. All of you follow me,” Mom said as she led us away from the rest of people who were still talking about what just happened, and the revelation before. Dad wanted to follow us as well, but Mom signaled that he should stay there with the guests.

“Altaire, what happened back then? You seemed to be surprised as you emitted [Void] magic power to Rurune?”

“That... right! Mom, something weird happened! My body just moved by itself at that time! Even though I was about to put my power to something else...!” Alt-nii described the whole confusing event.

“And... and! I was worried that the [Void] magic might do Rurune harm, but she was surprisingly fine after that!” Alt-nii continued his report.

“...We can conclude that Rurune is a magical beast that is capable of [Void] magic, then. Remember when she dispelled Lyra’s freezing magic from Harvey?”

“Ah... yes, I remember!” I chimed in as well.

“Okay, now that it’s solved... Let’s focus on the matter of Altaire’s body moving on its own,” Mom said as she shifted her serious gaze at Rurune, who was floating leisurely beside Alt-nii.

“Yes, Mom! Do you have an idea what’s going on?” Alt-nii asked.

Mom nodded. Her expression was so serious that I was taken aback for a while...

Then, her next words surprised me.

“It seems that the Familiar contract you made with Rurune... is a [Master-Servant Contract]. I think Rurune was the one who commanded Altaire to do so, to free her from the situation that irritated her... In other words,” Mom sighed.

“Congratulations, son, Rurune is your Familiar-Master, and you’re her underling...,” Mom put her hand on her forehead, as if she was feeling dizzy. Nah, I’m sure she is feeling dizzy!!

“....WHAT?!” Alt-nii exclaimed in surprise.

“Eeeeh? No way!!” I quickly shifted my gaze towards Rurune.

In response to all of us looking at her with dreadful expressions and disbelief, Rurune stared back at us with her ever-innocent face, before she finally growled cheerfully, “Ruru~!♫”

Thus, my thought of Rurune as the “cute little beast” collapsed. With this very unexpected revelation, I began to question my whole view of the world.

***

After that, we leisurely spent our time by chatting and enjoying the tea (plus cakes!). Everyone then began to pack up to go back before the sun set, before it got too dark...

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay the night?” I asked Iris and Carbuncle.

“Well, we’re having school again tomorrow, so why bother? Our permissions were only to go outside today,” Carbuncle clarified.

“T-thanks for the offer, Lyra!” Iris blushed a little.

“...Sigh... I was the first one to get ousted...,” Harvey was still a bit dejected... Reality began to hit him after the whole shocking revelation happened.

“Don’t mind it, Harvey! We’ve still got a long way to go!” Alt-nii slapped Harvey’s back as if to give him his optimism.

“I must be very uncool... And the opponents were younger than me... Haaah...,” Harvey sighed.

“Uhm... I don’t think so! I think you’re cool, Harvey!” Iris tried her best to cheer Harvey up.

“Yup, yup, even if our opponents are younger, they’re still abnormal kids!” Clavis tried to cheer Harvey as well as he circled his arm at Harvey’s shoulders.

“Really?” Harvey seemed to be a little bit more cheerful than before.

“...Who are you calling abnormal?” I realized Clavis’ words and questioned it, staring at Clavis. (¬_¬)

“...Errr, no, Lyra, you get it all wrong...,” Clavis must be feeling guilty, with his tail curling between his legs...

“Okay, shall we get back now?” Carbuncle asked Iris and Harvey.

“Why the hurry?” Harvey asked, surprised that Carbuncle seemed to want to rush back at the dorm.

“I want to nap,” Carbuncle shortly answered, as if it was natural.

“...”

“To return faster, shall I carry you on my back?” Carbuncle suddenly asked.

“Huh? How...?” Harvey was confused at first, but he then recalled that Carbuncle was a dragon and... his face turned pale.

Carbuncle smirked.

“K-Kuu... It’s not good to scare people with your dragon form, right?” Iris tried to stop Carbuncle from executing her plan.

“Hee... It’s way faster and more convenient,” Carbuncle pouted.

She then locked eyes with me and asked for my opinion, “Right, Lyr?”

“Eh? Ah, I want to see your dragon form, indeed...,” I reflexively expressed my honest thought—regretting it later.

“See?” Carbuncle smirked.

“Wow, we’re going to see a real dragon?!” Ein’s eyes turned all sparkly again.

“D-dragon?” Leticia tilted her head.

“No. Let’s not do that. It will cause an uproar.”

Luckily, Dad rejected the whole notion before Carbuncle could do anything.

“Eeeh...,” Carbuncle’s face turned -`д´-

“Why don’t you all come along with me and Eine? I can escort you to the nearby teleportation service. We’re also going back using it, after all,” Nicole suddenly proposed.

“E-eh? Teleportation service, b-but...,” Iris timidly tried to reject.

“My treat,” Nicole insisted.

“W-would that be okay?” Harvey hesitated as well.

“Thanks, then!” The shameless dragon readily accepted her proposal.

“No problem, I want to treat Eine’s friends sometimes. Come to our house next time, okay? You all can stay the night,” Nicole said, while looking over at all of us, indicating that she was inviting us all.

Thus, it was decided that Carbuncle, Iris, and Harvey would be coming along with Ein and Nicole to the teleportation service.

“It’s also time for us to go back,” Luca said.

“Eeeh? Already?” Leti protested.

“Ah, right, I have to go back with Father as well,” Kiri said. He was now used to calling his stepfather/former uncle with ‘Father’. He stuttered a lot at first, not used to the sudden change at all.

“Lyra-neeeee,” Leti behaved like a spoiled child she was, as she extended her arms to hug me.

Of course, I extended my arms as well to hug her and spoil her!!

“See you next time, Leti!!” I nudged my cheek to Leti’s cheek.

“Not fair, me too, Big Sis!” The little brother figure demanded attention as well.

“There, there,” So I patted this troublesome little brother figure.

“Eeeh, not fair! Why are you treating me differently from Leti?!” Ein pouted, as he looked at Leti with a competitive stare.

“...”

I was speechless.

There’s no way I can hug you like how I hug Leti, okay? Dad’s here beside me, he will surely be triggered!! I mean, even if I’ve clarified how I saw you as my little brother and how you saw me as a big sister figure, he was still... on his guard...

After that, we sent everyone off.

The house became silent in an instant.

As we were leisurely spending time in wait for dinner time...

“Rurune... How could you...”

My big brother, who was acting all cheerful back when he cheered his friend up, peeled his acting and showed his true heart.

Yep, he was still heartbroken after knowing that Rurune forced the [Master-Servant Contract] on him. To put it harshly, Rurune was the [Master], and Alt-nii was the [Servant].

That was how Rurune could one-sidedly draw Alt-nii’s [Void] power to her own convenience.

“Rururu~,” Rurune didn’t show the slightest bit of guilt or remorse, adding to Alt-nii’s depression.

“T-there, there, Alt-nii...,” I patted Alt-nii’s back in hope to cheer him up a bit.

“Well, Altaire, don’t be so sad. You can always train yourself to get stronger and reverse the contract, or at least turn it into the equal partner contract,” Mom gave Alt-nii a solution I didn’t know of.

“Eh, we can do that?” Alt-nii asked, hope returned to his eyes.

“Yes, definitely. You just have to become stronger than the other party and try to reverse the contract,” Mom said.

“T-then, I’ll try now!” Alt-nii closed his eyes and focused on feeling something... feeling the contract?

But after a while, Alt-nii sighed, “Nothing happened. I couldn’t seem to change anything.”

“...That means Rurune possesses power stronger than you...,” Mom muttered while still contemplating.

She then moved closer to Rurune and patted her head, “Now, you’re one mysterious fellow.”

“Ruru~,” Rurune happily enjoyed Mom’s pat.

“Just what are you?” Mom asked.

“Ruru~!”

“Could you really be the same magical beast who accompanied Her Highness Remillia-sama back then?” Mom pondered.

“Ru, ru, ruuu?” Rurune only nibbed her claws.

“But there are still differences... and you had only just been born...,” Mom continued to ponder.

“Mom, can’t you check her again?” Alt-nii asked in his frustration.

“Well, I’ll try then. You should come along as well,” Mom patted Alt-nii’s head.

“Mn!” Alt-nii nodded. He seemed to want to change his current condition no matter what.

...Well, that’s understandable.

“Now, that’s really surprising,” Dad finally opened his mouth.

“Dad, you can’t believe it too, can you?” Alt-nii nagged to Dad this time.

“Yeah, it’s totally unexpected.”

“I’m also curious about Rurune,” Mom said.

“It’s fine to be curious. You have always been like that, right? But don’t get the usual tunnel vision,” Dad said as he gently caressed Mom’s cheek.

Whoaa--! I still couldn’t really get used to Dad and Mom’s showing affection at times.

“Anyway, Lyra,” Dad suddenly shifted his gaze at me before he turned to Alt-nii as well, “And Alt.”

“”Yes?”” Alt-nii and I replied at the same time.

“Especially Lyra... Do you like having both Leti and Ein looking up to you like that?”

“Eh? Well, they’re cute, and I don’t mind!”

“Then... would you want a little brother or a little sister?”

“...!!”

I was surprised at Dad’s sudden questioning!

“Y-yes, I don’t mind, Dad!” I quickly said, before shifting my gaze at Mom.

Mom only smiled awkwardly.

“Then I want a little brother this time, Dad!” Alt-nii requested.

“Well, that’s...,” Dad seemed a little troubled.

“I don’t mind either!” I stated my opinion.

“Alright, alright, let’s not think too far ahead now. It should be dinner time soon, let’s go,” Mom interrupted as she began to walk to the dining room, followed by Dad and Alt-nii.

I silently clenched my fist and raised it up.

Good luck, Mom, Dad!!

In any case, I wasn’t your ordinary child. I wouldn’t feel jealous of my new sibling and act all childish...

Oh, well, I admit I feel a little bit uneasy, thinking about how I might receive less affection or attention from my family...

I guess, my bad experience as Reinst when I had a little brother was still ingrained deep inside.

But... I’m now a member of the warm Hartmann family.

Surely things wouldn’t be as bad as that... Right?

I tried imagining a little sibling that was like the cute Leticia or Ein who was so attached to me.

Hmm, perhaps I might receive more love from them instead?

Anyway, just... good luck, Dad, Mom!

I’ll be looking forward to the good news~!

Well, people often say that children are blessings from god, so I guess it’s also up to the god’s decision?

......I’m still unsure if the spectre of light I encountered back then is really a god, though... Despite ‘they’ really reincarnated me like this.