'Good for your skin and beauty, she said…' Helen thought about what her best friend said.

Steamy vapours rose around Helen as she heaved a sigh of satisfaction. Although she insisted on just getting a simple [Cleanse] before they went to bed after a few hours of playing, Catherine still managed to persuade her to take a bath. And so here she was, in a gorgeous "bathroom" that was even bigger than her own house.

The bath house consisted of a large warm water pool in the middle and shower compartments on one side, which combined the use of [Drizzle] and [Heat] runes. One just needed to put a hand on any activation rune on the wall and warm rain would pour down immediately from above the head.

On the opposite side was a row of racks consisted of various choices of expensive soaps.

Previously, the maid named Nina nudged her to choose any two soaps she likes. Not knowing about anything in front of her, Helen just picked them up randomly. But before she got to unscrew the cap, the maid had snatched the bottles from her hand. Soon after that, the maid guided her to the shower compartment, upon which she began to wash her body and hair.

Thinking back, Helen was mortified in the shower, but she could not reject further after the maid insisted so many times with sparkling eyes.

Now, Helen was relaxing in the warm pool. Nina had left the bath house after telling her to enjoy and spent some time in the pool. Somehow, she began to like the fuzziness. She immersed her body until the water reached just below her nose, then blew some bubbles through her mouth.

"Huhuhu~" Helen chucked.

A while later, Nina came in again to tell her that it was time to leave, else she would begin feeling faint.

Helen followed her out to the changing room that consist of a single wardrobe and a couple of wooden benches.

After a short spell chant by Nina, all the remaining water on Helen's body surface evaporated. Most importantly, the citrus scents exuded out from her skin and the mild rose scents lingered on her hair, made Helen smile unconsciously.

At this moment, the maid picked up a rattan basket from the top of a bench and offered it to Helen.

Thinking that it was her dress, Helen took the content of the basket out and unfurled it. However, a pastel pink nightgown revealed itself instead.

"Um…"

"You wouldn't sleep on your dress wouldn't you?" Nina said as if reading her mind, then smiled. "I will wash your dress and return it tomorrow when you leave."

"Uuu, okay then…" Helen put on the nightgown over her head. The silky and slightly elastic material made it easily slipped onto her body. Immediately, Helen fell in love with the nightgown. She rubbed her hand across its surface, still half-believing on how smooth it was.

"Now, if you please, miss Helen," Nina beckoned. "Let me guide you back."

"Un!" Helen nodded.

The bath house itself was a separate compartment than the manor. It was connected to the stairs "hall" which lead to the bedroom compartment.

After arriving at the bedroom, Catherine already sat await on her bed. When she saw Helen returned, she jumped off of the bed and hugged Helen, who still emitted some humidity.

"Uweh~" A strange sound escaped Catherine's mouth. "You are so warm…" She then sniffed at Helen's hair. "And smells so nice too… huehuehue."

Goosebumps crawled over Helen's neck and arms. "Stop it, you are creeping me out!"

"Ugh!" Catherine jerked her body back in an instant, then… dramatically fell onto the bed and sulked.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Helen yelled as she approached the bed.

Suddenly, Catherine's eyes gleamed as she turned quickly and pounced. "Got you again!"

"Nope!" Helen had anticipated Catherine's move and took a step back.

"Uwa-" Catching air, Catherine lost her balance as she continued to fall forward. Fortunately, Helen was there to catch her.

"Got you~" Helen said complacently with Catherine's head between her arms and chest. "There, my revenge for earlier!"

"It hurts..." Catherine muttered. Unlike when Helen's face landed on her chest, Catherine's voice did not seem to dampen when her face was on Helen' chest…

"Hm? Did you say something?"

"Your chest is hard, you are too flat!"

"S- shut up!" It was Helen's turn to flinched. Catherine made use of the chance to escape from her clutch.

"I'm still growing!" Helen pointed her index finger at Catherine. "You are pretty much flat too!"

"Hmph!" Catherine swerve a hand on her long hair. "Still not as flat as yours!"

"Why you!"

"What? You wanna go?"

"Rawr!"

The two girls began to "brawl" on the large bed. But, after a few rounds of bickering and wrestling, both of them got exhausted and fall flat on their back.

For a moment, only the sounds of rapid breathing could be heard in the vicinity.

Sometimes later, they regained their breath and suddenly tilted their neck at the same time to look at each other's eyes.

"Hey!" Both of them exclaimed at the same time.

"Ah…"

"Err…"

"You can go first," Catherine said.

"Please," Helen said.

"No you."

"Just say it!"

"Fine!" Catherine retorted as she sat up, though she still felt hesitant on telling her thoughts. "It's about when you passed out this morning…"

Catherine saw that Helen had sat up as well and was all ears on her. She continued, "You know, this will be the first time you hear this, but from birth, I've been gifted with an ability. [Clairvoyance]."

Helen gasped at the sudden revelation. "So, you are able to predict the future?!"

Catherine nodded. "It's not as powerful as you think though. Usually, I'm only able to get a vague gist of a near-future event."

"But, that's not all," Catherine added. "This ability also endowed me a special perception, such as seeing through illusions, unaffected by mind-controlling anomalies, and sensing other's innate magic talent."

She took a peek at Helen, who nodded as if signalling her to go on.

Catherine took another deep breath. "When you passed out previously, I used my ability to see if there was a problem when you passed out so suddenly."

She stared at Helen resolutely. "My perception was a bit different than what teacher Alison said! I could sense that there was a massive fluctuation of multiple strange Mana in your body. I couldn't figure out what happened, but if you-"

Before Catherine get to finish her ramble, Helen put her hands on her mouth.

"I think you should listen to what I want to say first," Helen said, a warm smile on her face. "I'm sure that it will answer your concern."

Then, Helen told her friend all about what happened at that time. About her mother, about the demon, and about her origin…

"...and that's how it is." Helen took a breath and exhaled.

Catherine stayed frozen in her position. Such occurrence was a thing of legends, not to mention that this best friend of hers turned out originated from the mythical Mistis Hamlet itself!

"You… are you telling me the truth?"

"Hmph!" Helen crossed her arms and pouted. "I'm not a liar like you!"

Catherine felt like an arrow just pierced her heart, but she got over it and said, "Okay, I believe in you…"

She crawled forward to hug Helen. "But promise me to never tell this to anyone else, okay? And I will promise you that I will never to tell anyone either. I'm afraid that you will be in danger if you do."

Though Helen did not exactly understand what danger will it lead to, she trusted her friend's judgement. "Un!" she nodded.

"Good girl..." Catherine patted Helen's back one more time before darting her eyes around as if to find someone else in the room.

Unbeknownst to Helen, Yohan revealed himself for a split second and gave Catherine a wink. Only then did Catherine felt relieved.

Both of them continued to chat for awhile about the little secrets they just revealed, until they fell asleep unknowingly while facing each other.

The nearby Yohan undone his stealth and proceeded to cover both of the young misses with the quilt. He turned off the surrounding [Light] runes with a snap of his finger, then disappeared into the darkness once again.

…

Several hours into the night, Catherine woke up unwillingly after she felt a strong tug from the quilt. She opened her eyes to see that Helen was no longer on the bed and one of the balcony door was opened wide.

Catherine rubbed her eyes drowsily, walked to the opened door, then saw Helen standing by the guard railing of the balcony.

"Helen?"

Catherine thought that her friend could not fall asleep, but what Helen did next was outside her wildest expectations…

Before she could react, Helen grabbed the railing and jumped down from the balcony.

"Helen!!!"