Leilan has succeeded. Leilan has managed to squeeze out what little time she had, and claimed first for the morning time with Master. Giggling to herself softly, the girl’s lips curving gradually upwards, but not too distinct to call it a smile. Of course, Leilan wasn’t anywhere close to Eva’s emotionless facade, which closely resembled what people of a portion of Liberun would call a “Kuudere”; Leilan was just a girl who was hard to please.

As Leilan had grown up looking at the back of Perun, he had became the only person that would ever tickle her emotions this much. Just like her five other sisters, Leilan had her own job assigned to her in the dark guild Kuromori, but that was merely the means to an end. They were working towards something even greater than what their Master would’ve ever imagined, and they were going at it earnestly each and every day. Since each one of them had also used this as a leverage to push back the other’s advances against him, there was barely any downtime each woman had over Perun. But sometimes if one of them would have their jobs finished faster than usual, they would have the rare chance to interact with Perun who would be usually sitting at the usual desk on the second floor at home, working on mountains of Kuromori’s administrative work.

And today was Leilan’s day, her work this time had been cut short due to some luck on her end. And with a lofty smile on her face, Leilan skipped her way up to the third floor, humming a tune with each step.

“Masu~ter (Master)~ Ma~su~ter~ La, la, la~

Sli-ding~ in the fu~ton with, my Masu~ter~”

And so she reached the third level where Perun’s room was located at. But she frowned, stopping before the doorstep.

The door… was coated with a layer of mana…?!

Leilan’s eyes turned cold immediately, her smile immediately lost on her porcelain white face.

“...Enemy?”

The girl raised her right hand up to chest level, fingers still loosely pointed down on the floor, as if she was drying her hand like that.

“ ...Mashu.”

Muttering a word under her breath, the underside of her hand turned translucent, revealing the inhuman purplish flesh and bones of her arm. That monster arm dislodged its skeletal frame and came out from under the skin, dropping to the floor with a puddle of sticky purple fluid. A faint scent of roses came from it.

That singular skeletal arm grew out even more explosively, turning into a complete skeleton body after 8 seconds.

“Search.”

The skeleton bent down and pressed its bony palms down onto the floor, its exposed pelvis made a cracking sound as it did so. Leilan closed her eyes and synced her mind with the summoned skeleton.

The unnamed ability which would be loosely called Summon Skeleton, from Leilan’s mutant body, and the skeleton’s Life Search, to detect signs of lifeform around her in a small fixed radius. Leilan could connect to her summoned skeletons, thus Life Search would allow her to ‘see’ what was inside.

...Master and… another woman… this heartbeat is… She… is awake!

“...Tch.” Leilan grit her teeth strongly, face filled with frustration. Pixie had a smug smile on her face, she had probably sensed Leilan’s use of mana behind the door. Dark emotions swirled within Leilan's chest, the ends of her fingers twitched as she was tempted to use even more in her arsenal to blow up the door.

Not able to reveal her emotions this strongly for extended periods of time, Leilan’s anger immediately cooled down.

...No, Master will be mad at me. I... cannot make him unhappy. A calm and logical thought came from herself, with that 180 turn on her state of emotions.

But she was no longer in a good mood. After having such a rare chance of being alone, it was stolen right before her eyes…! The girl could only lament about her own position as Perun’s daughter, and the difference that came with the title of being his legal wife. Leilan drooped her shoulders down lifelessly, and allowed the skeleton to carry her down to the first floor before dispelling it.

“...Sooooo… you needed something?”

“...”

An awkward silence, Leilan did not even bother giving a reply. His daughter was rather preoccupied with her smartphone. This wasn’t the first time Perun had tried to strike up a conversation, but he still always found himself stuck at this part.

The man was incredibly awkward with his daughters as of late. Sure, he had taken them in because he felt pity for them, and also because he liked children. But as time passed, each of his daughters had began to differentiate themselves from when they were younger, they had their own ambitions and thoughts that were not inherited by him.

Perun had an incomprehensible feeling of loss whenever he talked to the girls. The conversations never felt connected anymore like they used to. To quote the day before, just giving one of his daughters a compliment sparked a heated argument on the dinner table.

Just what was going wrong?

The man thought that he would never have a chance to understand again.

But still, Perun loved his daughters just as much as he did when he had tried his hardest raising them back when they were still little kids. Most of them were already over 30 (with the exception of Eva who was the youngest at 16 years old), yet their appearances retained that of when they were 18. As expected, the lifespan of mutants differed from normal humans. That was the only fact that Perun found solace in, since his own physical constitution had roughly stayed the same even after all these years, and he was able to see his children growing up healthily under his care.

Perun felt that he was best just being a guardian, watching over his lovable daughters from a distance. But interacting with them was a little… tricky. ...While Perun had received some confessions by her daughters when they were younger and more innocent, he was a little conscious that those feelings for him might have been more deeply-rooted into the girls’ minds than he had initially thought. As a father, Perun was a little on edge every time he conversed with them.

He wanted to distance himself away from them so that they would make new friends and find their own love... one that was not as misguided as their current one. So to Leilan who did not talk much at all even to him whom she’d only give one-word replies, Perun was genuinely concerned about his daughter’s social life.

Perun leaned against the side of the couch, and stared at her daughter up close.

“...What.”

A clear-cut voice echoing inside of his head all of a sudden. Leilan’s mouth remained unmoved, eyes still glued to her phone.

Telepathy? She really doesn’t want to talk to me huh. I’ve gotten my hopes up for nothing. Perun thought dejectedly.

..The ability to hold conversations in another’s mind, Telepathy. Or to be more precise, it was one of Leilan’s familiar abilities. And just like Life Search, she had to have the summon with that ability, activated somewhere. It didn’t matter where, the connection did not have a range. After all, five of her strongest summons were carrions of different sizes, located far away from each other. They are hidden deep underground where the dead accompanied them.

Of course, Leilan had kept her true abilities a secret from her father, who had the impression that she only knew how to talk to the dead.

..

“...What game are you playing? I love games too, maybe… can I get an invite? What game are you playing? I’m good, you know? Leilan? You’re playing aren’t you, come on let’s play together!”

Leilan stopped her fingers moving her phone screen.

A brief silence, it seemed that she was trembling a little but it stopped very quickly.

“...Dad, this is a social app, ...it... isn’t a game.”

“...Oh.”

“...”

“...Aha… ahahahahaha… I see I see…!”

“...You’re trying too hard, ...dad. Please stop or I’m going to feel embarrassed... for you...”

Cough, cough.

“...Right... Well... I'll just... sit at this corner then... haha...”

His poor attempts at trying to connect with her tech-savvy daughter had inevitably ended up in failure again.

...Self-reflecting.

Without anything else to do, Perun took out a holographic display screen that showed the daily news. He read them and waited patiently for Leilan to finish while breakfast was being prepared in the kitchen.

An article on flowers?

Flowers huh. Perun began to reminisce about the events leading up to meeting Leilan for the first time.

“A child... loved by the dead.”

I closed my eyes. That seemed to sum up Leilan’s entire life up till now.

Misfortune came whenever she went, as if she had a grim reaper on her shoulders. So this was why she could not make any friends. It was just discrimination, wasn’t it? But none of that was her fault! These fuckers…!!! Honestly, I’m pretty disturbed. That is Leilan, an 8-year old…?! Then why isn’t anyone acting!! Why isn’t anyone looking at her properly!!! Was this supposed to be what an 8-year old should go through?!

She was a bubble about to burst, that I could tell at a glance. She was one of them; a mutant.

Unable to bear it any more, I finally decided to voice out my displeasure. My original intentions of coming back to this place, I spoke them out.

“...Sister, I believe my funds were specified to prioritize the building of orphanages…?” My voice was trembling under that anger that I tried to control.

The nun seemed to have noticed something, and that ‘benevolent’ smile was lost on her face for just a moment. But misdirecting conversations, the old lady seemed like a veteran. Immediately putting on a business smile as soon as she broke character, the nun gave an excuse.

“...This… Mister Perun… it’s out of our control. The money is simply not enough as a long-term solution for these children.”

...What... is this woman saying?

“...Are you saying that orphanages… are short-term solutions…?”

Anger flared within my eyes. The mana in my body was boiling, emanating out of my normally black eyes, painting it bright blue from the mana inside of me. I could see a look of disgust hidden beneath her smile when I did so.

“...No, not at all, please do not misunderstand me, Mister Perun. I understand your worries, but picking her up would begin an unhealthy cycle!”

“...An unhealthy cycle you say?”

“Yes, that is exactly the case. Listen carefully… Not just her, but the remaining children left in the streets would automatically become our responsibility.

The citizens’ negative emotions are at an all time high right now because of the war. They are starving, and sleeping under broken rooftops, the pressure is going to rebound somewhere very soon.

And if we start to gather attention because of us picking up the children, then the citizens who because of poor business, unlawful conditions and their general misgivings of some new humans in the church, had nowhere to vent their frustrations on, what do you think will happen, Mister Perun? The people will turn on us! Not to mention some of these children who had no choice but to steal, would also become an eyesore in their eyes! The war had also involved the existence of mana, no? Then even you Mister Perun, would be targeted! I am saying all of this… for your own good!”

“...”

Taking my silence as agreement to her points, the nun continued to speak quickly with a slightly haughty tone.

“That’s right… you probably didn’t know it, did you? Erecting any number of orphanages would only fuel the cycle of hatred, and heavens, that goes against the teachings of Y’ghan! Do you understand now, o’ misguided one. The mana in your blood must have affected your emotions, but please be at ease. We will proceed with the Cleansing Ritual now if you may follow me to the Prayer Hall, it is a little early for this month but we will make an exception for our kind donor.”

The elderly nun hand patted my shoulder lightly.

I remained silent, eyes returned to the blue lilacs.

...Really? Is this your excuse?

I wanted to do something for her. But the people I’d entrusted children like her to… they’re adults. Ha...hahaha… really, what did I expect from those filthy adults. The money I’d donated was more than enough to build a whole district full of orphanages!!! An uprising from the commoners?! Then silence them with money, appease them with your words, isn’t that the only thing you lot are good for?!!! Haha… hahahahaha… it’s so stupid, it’s really so stupid.

....What should I do. I really… am…

“...Mister Perun?”

Ah ah… I had enough of this bitch. Her mouth is too foul, I don’t want her to talk anymore.

“...You know, sister. You sure run your mouth a lot when it comes to wiping your own ass.”

The nun frowned with displeasure.

“...Excuse me…? I am not sure what you are talking about.”

...Discarding responsibility down to the very last moment.

“What I’ve said, is the truth. If y-”

“-Did you think I didn’t notice?”

I grabbed the wrist of the nun who had her right hand on my shoulders. The old lady became wary of me.

“Huh? Wh-what are you doing?” She tried to struggle free from my grasp.

“...Yeah, bringing me through an area where you had not done much of your ‘renovation’, trying to approach me with humility again. You expected me to fall for that… again? What difference do you have from a hooker on the streets who put on makeup?”

“We’re not like those prostitutes who sell their bodies for money! How is it all comparable to us who are servants of God?! Your words are an act of heresy!!!” The old lady flared, continuing to move herself away from me. But my grip was firm so she could not escape.

“No no, to attract those attractive numbers from the ‘clients’ that you receive? Isn’t that what you’re doing right now?”

“...Mister Perun, I think you’ve misunderstood. It is a donati-”

My grip became stronger.

“A-ouch! Y-you’re hurting me, please let go!!! It’s starting to hurt!!!”

Using my other hand, I pointed at the other end of the passageway, where a large double leaf door was. Made of polished oak, intricate designs of their god could be seen carved at the corners of the entrance and adorned with silver.

“Let go! Let go or I’m going to call the guards!!”

Yet she did not even turn to look at where I was pointing at.

My voice. How cold was it right now, I had no way to tell.

I had already lost all of my patience.

“You leeches. I’ve given you plenty of chances. Four months. And what did you use the donations on.”

“P-please, let go and settle this peace- Guardssssssssahhhhhhhh!!! It hurtsss!!! IT HURTSSSS!!!”

“Peacefully? Do you think the world is at peace right now? Do you understand, the world isn’t as it used to be? This is supposed to be a time when humans should be learning to help one another?”

“Y-yes… so please-”

“No, no I don’t think you understand at all.”

I used a hand to remove her headpiece, and grabbed her weakly white hair, pulling it up forcefully.

“A-IEHHH!!! IT’S COMING OFF! IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTSSSSS!!!”

The nun grabbed my arm in an attempt to shake it off, but to no avail. Her legs were flailing and kicking about, as I raised her up from the ground. Strands of hair continued to fall off her head. There was blood dripping from her forehead.

“PLEASEEE!!! DON’T DO THIS!!! IT HURTS!!! IT HURTS SO MUCHHH!!!”

I accepted the frail beatings of her wildly swinging limbs. It did not hurt.

“Ever thought about the people on the streets? What kind of pain they experienced? What kind of senseless treatment they were used to from the results of the war? Why aren’t you helping, huh? Why? You’ve got all this money, so why don’t you help?!”

“THIS VIOL...ENCE IS U-UNJUSTIFIEDDD!!! YOU ARE MAD!!! SOMEONE… IS SOMEONE THERE?!!! HELP!!! THIS NEW HUMAN HAS REVEALED HIMSELFFF!!! HE’S A MONSTER!!!”

“Denial, proceeding with anger huh. I expected more from the integrity of this place, but it looks like the corruption ran deeper than I expected.”

My blue eyes were slowly turning red.

The effects of my rampaging mana had taken effect before I knew it.

Beastly Instincts.

It was a stage where my powers would emit bloodlust as a side effect. For a person who was not used to that kind of environment, that killing intent was enough to paralyze them in fear. As expected, the nun felt a chill amidst the pain along the skin of her head, and whimpered.

“W-wait!!! I-I will return it!!! I will return it sooo, don’t kill me!!! Don’t kill me pleaseee!!!”

Those eyes that once looked down on me in secret, now it had eyes of fear, knowing that her life might end in this place, moreso from a child who possessed the powers of a ‘devil’, a new human.

“...Bargaining? Fuck no. You’re going to die here.”

Her face paled.

“Return… huh. Not that I actually care about it anymore.”

“...HUH?” The nun had a look of confusion on her face.

“Shows a lot that you actually had a guilty conscience over it. You pocketed some of them didn’t you, well no matter. That was just a pretext. See, I’ve looked into you guys before coming here. I thought it was strange at first. The first few months of donation had done practically nothing to improve the environment of the poor, yet this place just keeps continuing to flourish. And then I searched you guys, guess what I found. A large amount of gold that was being processed in the market, those with mana attached onto them, mana which had traces of being bled out from someone’s body. ...

...This place is a fucking nest for organized crimes. I will omit the things that you had done so far, ...but I can most definitely not tolerate you doing trade of little children… To be exact, children with mana mixed in their bodies. Selling mediums with mana can only mean one thing you see. You know it, don’t you?”

“Hiiii!!!”

“God Y’ghan? No, what you pigs truly worship, is gold. ...You killed children to feed that ‘god’ of yours, locked deep underground the Prayer Hall. A nameless child, a mutant with the ability to turn human lives into expensive alloys. That is when you’ve entertained the idea of finding another child like him, all while feeding the lives that he needed to create the gold!”

“Nooo… nooo!!! Don’t kill meee!!! I swear I will give you the money!!! Don’t kill meee!!! Not here!!! Nooo!!!!”

I stopped talking, there was no use. This person only had eyes for herself the entire time. Everything that she did in her life, was only to satisfy herself. I pitied her environment where the old lady grew up from. As they say, a child at young is at the stage where they would be influenced the most. This nun was twisted with greed, a regret. I thought she was a good person when I met her at first. Surely even now, she would still have some good left in her. But I wasn’t interested in finding that out.

I twisted her head without hesitation. She died with her eyes widened unpleasantly.

Didn’t resort to torture if I had to, I did not have such a hobby. But I know some people who had turned into real ‘demons’ during this war, there was always something fucked up that happened to them whenever someone turned into a ‘demon’.

I just hope that Leilan would never have to experience murder to trigger it. That girl is unstable as it is.

..

Religion was booming with the advent of ability users due to mana, and also because of the war that was waged because of it. Some parts of what the nun had said was true, but she had twisted the truth to her own convenience. The citizens needed somewhere to find solace in, but not like this.

This church was a no-go.

These people only have eyes for themselves. I cannot entrust the future of millions of lives to this place, much less hiding such a dark secret from the eyes of the public. I would spend the day taking care of the rest of the people involved in this shitty mess, but they don’t seem to be present today.

For the time being...

“Clean.”

I worked my mana all over my body and removed the bloodstains on my clothes and my face. And I cleaned the nun as well, the blue essence moving towards her and wrapping tightly for a few seconds before it dispersed into the air. I had used up a stupid amount of mana for a worthless skill. I followed it up by injecting mana strings into the ‘object’ and had it walk like a puppet into the garden and laid it to rest there. Not much mana remaining now.

And then from the back of a pillar along the passageway where the murder would be unseen from the side of the graveyard, I bent my body forward and looked over a distance.

...Eh?

The girl Leilan was looking at me with a stunned face, her mouth was agape and even the toy on her hand had dropped onto the ground. But I took measures to hide it! How did she notice?

...In any case… I should go over and talk to her… ...There’s no choice to it… Ah… would Soma be happy to have a younger sister I wonder…

I picked up a blue lilac from its bush and walked towards her slowly.

At least she wasn’t scared and running away from me. The closer I got, the easier it was for me to read her facial expression.

She doesn’t look like she’s wary of me.

...Also... is that girl... smiling at me?

Today at the place where the others are, mama did not come out of here and talk to Leilan again. Why must it always be nighttime when Leilan could see them? Leilan is quite sad, the other children also don’t have papa’s and mama’s like me, but Leilan thinks they don't like her. Leilan is alone as usual, which is very very sad, but Leilan doesn’t worry about it. Leilan talks to her friends here too. They aren’t mama. Mama doesn’t talk at all… it’s really sad. Does mama not like her anymore? But still, Leilan loves mama. If only papa comes visit her sometime, Leilan thinks that would be nice.

Well anyway, this place is Leilan’s secret hideout. Leilan calls it a hideout because not many people come here. When someone comes, she hides in a corner. They are grown-ups, but they always cry here. Leilan doesn’t understand. There are many friends here, why are they crying? Grown-ups are strange. Sometimes they come together and dig up a space to put down a big black box, then they hug together while crying. Honestly, Leilan is a little jealous. Leilan wants a hug too, it looks nice. But it is all good, because most of the time, Leilan makes a new friend on the same day too.

There are also loooooots of flowers grown here, so Leilan likes to play here a lot. Leilan knows flowers have many meanings, one of her friends had taught her that. It's beautiful you know, this is Leilan’s favourite place. Mama says that Leilan should not tell her favourite things to anyone so easily. It must be with someone she 'likes’. Mama says that when she grow older, Leilan can be like papa and mama. If Leilan have someone like that, then she can tell share my favourite place with them. But there is no one else other than Leilan’s friends who would come visit her.

Leilan doesn’t play here the whole day though, Leilan only comes here from afternoon till evening. Until dusk when she has to return back to where the other children are or else Leilan would get scolded by a big sister that she doesn’t like. She says that if Leilan does not listen to her, Leilan would be sold off somewhere else. Leilan wants to see mama and friends, so she listen to her, but Leilan doesn’t like her at all.

She smells like money. Money smells dirty, Leilan friends say. Leilan sneaks out at night so she can see mama. And sometimes Leilan sees some sleeping children being carried away into a big white van at the back, and this sister from the church would come talk to that big sister. Yuck, that smell again. Leilan would run away from that place back to her hideout. Are they being sold away? Leilan feels sad for them. There is no food outside Big Sister’s place, she tells Leilan. It is hard to live alone.

That’s right, Leilan is alone so it is impossible to go outside other than her hideout.

...But today, ...Leilan met a very strange person.

This person looked at Leilan with warm eyes. It was a little surprising.

A boy?

He looks older than Leilan... Hmm, shall she call him her older brother?

Leilan's always wanted an older brother.

Brother is visiting the church, to that place? Brother is strange.

(Frown) Why would brother go to a place like that?

And then...

Ah, that is the sister that comes at night! Leilan never sees that sister come through here though, it is rare.

Flowers?

The two were discussing about flowers.

Leilan sees the smile on the boy’s face, and her chest tightens for some reason.

Why is it so, she wonders. This kind of feeling was a first!

Leilan looks intently at this elder brother, trying to find out the reason for the changes in her body. Leilan becomes a little impatient so she tells her friends to listen to them through the ground.

Many words were exchanged. Leilan understands a little bit, but not much. Still, it looks like elder brother is angry.

...Huh.

She doesn’t understand what just happened, but looks like the sister is sleeping.

And then Leilan sees it! She sees the blue stuff that is inside of her own body! Can elder brother talk to her friends too? Leilan is excited, elder brother can move them too! Leilan does it sometimes as well! Is elder brother the same as Leilan? Leilan’s chest thumped in excitement. Her cheeks felt a little hot.

Ah, it looks like elder brother noticed Leilan too. Leilan smiles back at him. He picks up a flower. A blue lilac?

Happiness and… tranquility. That was such a meaning for a blue lilac.

Jumping down from the seat of the tombstone, Leilan searches nearby and finds a flower in response when he came.

A black rose. One of death, or the beginning of new things, a journey into unexplored territory. That was Leilan’s current feeling in her chest right now.

Realizing the meaning of the flower that she had picked up, Leilan began to slowly understand what she wanted from that elder brother. As long as he too, became her friend, Leilan felt like she could entrust all of her problems, past present and future to him. Such a resolve was carried on the exchange of flowers on that day.