Chapter 49: Chapter 48: Not to be Left Behind

“This is a lot easier than I thought it would be.” Caesia hummed in fascination as she fiddled with the threads, arranging and rearranging them the way she had been instructed to.

“Well, making a braided cord using a stencil is about as easy as it gets. But you can knit almost anything, so long as you know the pattern.” Scarlet said as she tried to do the same using nothing but her mana, manipulating the threads the way her mother could with her Class Skill.

Despite a braided cord being basically as simple as braiding hair, it wasn’t going well, but that was to be expected. 

That wasn’t to say it was impossible. [Evocation Magic] was a crazy thing, and if she could get her mana just right, she could create ‘thread-type’ mana, which synchronized with the threads. Problem was, manipulating thread-type mana without changing its nature to the point where it was no longer thread-type mana wasn’t easy. It was painfully slow work.

[Spell Weaving], her mother’s unique way of using magic by forming magic rituals with mana charged threads, would probably remain next to impossible for Scarlet, but the attempt was still fun.

“Scarlet’s first-time weaving was a cotton sock.” Maria giggled into her hand. “I still remember finding you working on it in the middle of the night after you snuck out of your crib again.”

“Snuck out of her crib? How old was she when she started knitting?” Raphaela asked as she sat to the side with her bright pink otter Bond, having given up on learning to knit, as it hadn’t really caught her interest. 

“She had just turned a year old when she started being my little assistant.” Maria said proudly. “It was right after I found her making her very first little sock in the middle of the night. I even still have that sock right here.”

Scarlet was more than a little surprised as her mother brought out the tiny dark blue baby sock from her pocket. “Mom, why are you carrying that around with you?” Scarlet asked in embarrassment.

“Sweety, it was the first thing you ever made. Of course I would keep it.” Maria said, holding it gingerly.

“Alright but… on you?” Scarlet said incredulously.

Maria giggled in response, but her eyes looked softly at the sock. Over the years, it had become something of a good luck charm for her. Something she kept on her at all times to help her feel strong. A reminder that the world was not such a horrible place. 

“She made that when she was a year old? By herself?” Caesia asked in disbelief. 

“Well, mostly. Mama helped me finish the last bit of it.” Scarlet admitted.

“But you did most of it yourself? You taught yourself how to knit?”

“Of course not. There were instructions in one of my mom’s books.” Scarlet said, dismissing the idea of her being self taught when it came to knitting.

Actually, she had knitted before in her previous life, but that was irrelevant. 

“You could read when you were only a year old?” Caesia said flatly.

“Now THAT was self-taught.” Maria chuckled.

“...Huh… If it was anyone but Scarlet, I would think that you were lying.” Caesia laughed weakly. “But why did you let her do it at all? It’s dangerous for children to level up to high without a magic tool or the [Mana Control] skill.”

“...We didn’t know.” Maria admitted sadly. Even if everything turned out for the best, they had no idea about the possible health risks involved in children having too large of a mana pool. “It was only Judith and I out there with Scarlet. She was born and raised a slave and I was taken away from my family when I was a little younger than you are now. Neither of us knew anything about raising a child. We had never heard of ‘Mana Intoxication’ before. We are just lucky that Scarlet somehow learned to control mana by herself at some point.”

Caesia figited uncomfortably at the mention of Mana Intoxication, the phantoms of wounds long gone causing her very bones to itch. Even years after the scars were healed away, the memory of being suspended at the edge of death’s door still clung to her.

“So, why is it that you want to learn how to make a cord all of the sudden?” Scarlet asked Caesia, trying to change the subject.

She might not be the most astute person when it came to understanding people’s motives and feelings, but Scarlet knew trauma, and could immediately see it in Caesia’s body language. 

“Ah… One of the maids mentioned how commoner girls often use braided cords they made themselves as gifts to convey their feeling to the people who are closest to them.” Caesia admitted, turning a little pink with embarrassment.

“...Do you mean like a friendship bracelet… or something more serious?” Scarlet asked tentatively. 

“L...Let’s just s...say it is for a friendship bracelet.” Caesia stammered, going from pink to bright red.

“Caesia, you're never going to get anywhere if you can’t even be honest here.” Raphaela said flatly.

“Sh...Shut up!” Caesia snapped back, causing her pink haired junior to giggle at her, while Scarlet swallowed and hoped she was just misinterpreting things.

“Well, whatever it is, I am sure that your feelings will reach them.” Maria said with a giggle. “If you want a more complex pattern, I would be glad to help.”

“T...Thank you. But it really is nothing. Really.” Caesia said with a small bow of the head.

Scarlet looked at Caesia from the corner of her eyes, trying to figure the girl out.

She knew she was bad at reading people. While the net games had been great for having some level of social interaction for someone who was terrified of being within ten feet of another breathing human being, there were things that you couldn’t learn there. Body language and facial expressions were a big one, and ‘women’ was another.

Besides herself, Scarlet only met three other girls online, and two of them were dating each other.

She didn’t like to think of herself as a homophobe, but she tended to stay away from them, as their flirtatious behavior made her feel uncomfortable.

Even during Scarlet’s break, Caesia had continued to be nice to her, and had also kept up her exposure therapy training. And while Scarlet was pretty sure that Caesia was just doing it as a friend, she still wasn’t positive about what Caesia thought about her… or what she thought about Caesia.

...Just thinking that the silver haired girl was pretty and had awfully soft hands wasn’t gay, right?

“Hm?” Scarlet came out of her self-reflection when she noticed a very unusual magical signature. One that she had sensed a handful of times in the past. “Seems like they are here.”

“Looks like it.” Caesia nodded in agreement.

“Huh? Who’s here?” Rapheala asked, right before the door to the living room burst open.

“So this is where you have all been hiding!” A young girl said as she stood in the doorway with a massive grin. A girl who could have been Rapheala’s twin, with the same wavy pink hair, pulled back into a ponytail. The two were the same 4 feet 8 inches and had very similar faces. Anyone who saw them together would immediately assume they were sisters.

...Only they weren’t.

“Mom!” Rapheala squealed in delight as she ran up to hug her mother. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“I missed you too sweetie.” Aqura said softly as she hugged her daughter back. “I’m sorry your father and I missed your choosing ceremony. The northern seas were a mess and we…”

“I know. I know. You don’t have to apologize for anything.” Raphaela replied with a shake of her head, putting her cheek against her mother’s shoulder. “You’re here now, and that’s what matters.”

“...I really do have to give everyone my thanks. You’ve grown up to be such a big strong girl.” Aqura said with a soft smile… but then that smile faded, and she placed her hands on Raphaela’s shoulders and started to push down with considerable strength, causing her daughter to wobble. “But did you have to grow so tall!?”

“M... Mom!” Rapheala shouted back.

“No! It’s not fair! It’s too early for you to be taller than your mother!” Aqura whined, continuing to press down on her daughter’s shoulders, as if trying to make her shrink back down. “I hate it! I don’t want to be the scrawny one!”

A deep, bellowing laugh came from behind the woman, and she was scooped up off the ground by the massive individual who came in after her. “Don’t be like that my little Angel Fish, you’d be perfect in every way.” The gruft man said, planting dozens of kisses along Aqura’s neck, tickling her scales.

“J...Jack, stop it, not while the kids are watching.” Aqura squeaked in embarrassment. Trying to push her husband’s face away, though not putting that much effort into the attempt. 

If it was physically possible for her, she would have been blushing like a tomato, as her webbed and scaled hands pressed against the man’s face.

Did Scarlet mention she was Aqura was a mermaid?

When she had first seen her, Scarlet had assumed that the woman was just a very short human, but as it turned out, Raphaela’s mother had been a Merfolk, one of the dwarves of the sea.

Merfolk were thought of as such, because both merfolk and dwarves were very different from any other living creature, in that they didn’t have lungs or gills of any kind, and their blood carried no oxygen. Instead they drew mana out of their surroundings through a special organ and used that energy to fuel the processes the body needed to go through in order to be considered alive.

This made them the most passive and docile of races, as their method of survival was to simply live in locations that no large monster could ever survive in, in deep undersea caverns, or narrow mountain tunnels, where there just wasn’t enough oxygen to support even a middle sized creature. Humans venturing into such places and meeting dwarves or merfolk was so rare, that many didn’t even believe that they really existed. And neither race tended to venture out of their natural homes, despite being able to.

Scarlet sometimes wondered what had caused Aqura to leave her underwater society. Or how it was even possible for her to have a child with a human man.

While elves and humans were similar enough to each other to be considered just different breeds of the same species, the Merfolk weren’t even mammals. Cross breeding between them shouldn’t have even been possible.

She supposed that ‘love found a way’, and the two really did love each other, even if they looked completely bizarre together. To the point where you wondered if you should call for the police.

While Aqura looked for all the world like a beautiful and tiny, nine or ten-year-old girl, Jack was her complete opposite. The man was nearly seven feet tall, had a wild beard and mane of hair, each black as coal, with only a few strains of gray to show his age. He looked exactly like the stereo-type of a pirate, with his pirate hat and eyepatch. One of his hands, which had been lost to a curse that prevented it from ever being properly healed, had been replaced by a magic tool, which while not a hook, still gave a piratey sort of vibe, and his octopus bond clinging to the shoulder of his admiral’s coat completed the look.

His body was leen and his hair gray. He looked like the 70 years old that he was, but his and Aqura’s ages were as far apart as one might think, as the mermaid had recently turned 55. Not an unusual age gap in this world.

Still, Scarlet felt a little uncomfortable as she watched the affections between the pair, not helped when Jack lifted up Raphaela up as well, holding the two small girls, with one on each arm, and giving his daughter a kiss to the forehead.

But as they had their reunion, a voice came from the still open door. “You know, you are supposed to wait for the master of the house to greet you at the main hall before venturing into his house?” Duke Bryce said with a grin from the doorway.

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“Hahaha! So we are! Sorry about that Bry. You know we are no good at these complicated rules.” Jack bellowed, his voice loud enough to get Raphaela to cover her ears.

“Honestly Jack, someday your disrespectful nature is going to get you onto someone's bad side. You’ve been a Viscount for 30 years now. When are you going to learn to act like it?” Bryce said with a shake of the head at his old friend.

“That’s funny talk coming from you.” Jake snorted. “I never asked Eddy to give me a title, and I will always be a priviter at heart.”

“We’ll it is good to see you two in good health. Feel free to use your usual rooms to freshen up and get comfortable. I’ll tell the kitchens to prepare enough food for an extra company of 20, just for you.” Bryce said, earning another loud laugh from the pirate lord.

“Ye, you’d best. I don’t plan on losing to the young lass thrice.” Jack said, his grin turning to Scarlet. “I might not be able to beat my Angel Fish, but this time, I’ll be eating you under the table.”

---

 

“Ugh…” 

Maria couldn’t help but to giggle as she saw the Dread Captain Jack, one of the Big 10 and Admiral of Kingdom’s strongest naval fleet, holding his stomach and moaning in pain, while Scarlet and Aqura continued to eat as if nothing had happened.

“Same as always.” Duke Bryce said with a grin as he drank from a glass of grape juice. His years of forcing himself to drink terrible tasting alcoholic mana potions put him off any sort of liquor, now that he had stopped. 

“First Aqura, and now this. My pride as a man is wounded.” Jack wheeped as he slumped to the floor. “How is it that they can eat so much?”

“It’s [Body Enhancement Magic]. Using it properly, you can increase the rate of digestion a hundred fold.” Scarlet explained simply before taking another bite. “The [Big Eater] skill helps, but it by itself can only get you so far.”

“That was good.” Aqura said, putting her seventh plate to the side and patting her bare stomach. “I wonder what’s for dessert.”

Iris’s face twitched ever so slightly at the tiny woman’s display. If interacting with Maria and Scarlet, who were more than a little eccentric, was a culture shock for the noble woman, Jack and Aqura could be described as culture horror.

Duke Bryce always told Jack and Aqura to make themselves comfortable whenever they visited, and to not worry about any sort of human customs or cultural boundaries. 

This was why Aqura was sitting at the dinner table in nothing but a pair of scandalously short shorts and a light tank top, the rose colored scales that covered all but her head and midriff on proud display. 

While out and about, she would wear a military uniform, but this was Aqura’s preferred way of dressing herself. This had come as a shock to Maria, but after a little thought, it started to make sense.

The Merfolk lived at the bottom of the ocean, and you needed dry places in order to prepare fibers or usable leathers. And even if you did somehow manage to make clothes, what good did they do you when the water would move straight through it? Armor and accessories that would take a forge to make were also a no go. Not to mention the fact that the Merfolk were cold blooded.

To them, clothes were useless things. Even the little that Aqura was wearing was only meant as an acknowledgement of the culture of the surface dwellers. 

Even armor was mostly useless to the merfolk, as their natural aptitude for channeling mana through their bodies meant that they could easily reinforce their scales to the point where they were harder than any diamond, growing stronger and stronger as they level up, until they equal to even tier 8 magic armor.

Being a Tier 6 Tyrant Spearwoman, and level 185, Aqura’s defenses would not lose out anyone, even monsters like Bryce.

But just like with every race, the merfolk had their strengths and their weaknesses. 

While they absorbed mana into their body without any fear of poisoning from it, they didn’t have magic stones like the Beastkin in order to store mana, and they burned through it quickly with their natural [Body Enhancement Magic]. This left them with almost no mana to spare on either other forms of magic or their Class skills. So ranking up their Class was even harder for them than for the other races, and they found it just as difficult to learn most forms of magic as the Beastkin did.

Merfolk, with their hard scales, were naturally tough, and could survive almost anything, but they lacked the reserves in order to use their skills for any measure of time.

Beastkin had magic stones, which stopped them from learning magic, but also gave them a massive pool of mana with which to use their Class Skills with, giving them the ability to fight for long periods of time.

Elves had an aptitude for [Conjuration Magic], but lacked talent in [Evocation Magic] and [Body Enhancement Magic]. They could cast strong magic, but were relatively ill suited to close quarters compared to Beastkin and Merfolk.

As for humans, they were ‘burst’ fighters. By using their Bonds, they could achieve power output and versatility beyond the other three, but quickly drained themselves because of it.

Each of them had their strengths and weaknesses, and each had their only culture, but still…

“It seems so wasteful.” Maria could help but to say. “I get that you don’t really feel comfortable in clothes, but are you sure you don’t want me to make you something?”

“Nah. Clothes are just so uncomfortable and itchy.” Aqura said, waving the weaver off. “And no offense, I just don’t feel the same kind of body shame that y'all do. I’ve got nothing I care to hide.” 

“You don’t, huh?” Raphaela snorted and everted her eyes when her mother gave her a glare.

“It isn’t about hiding your body. It is about having clothes that complement your form and bring out more of what was there all along. Like with makeup and accessories.” Maria said, hoping to convert the woman. While very similar to her daughter, Aqura’s body didn’t have the baby fat which Raphaela had, having a more feminine form, despite her short high and none existent breasts. “There are so many outfits that would fit your cute little body perfectly.”

“I… Um…” Aqura mumbled, unsure of how to respond to that, so she simply changed the subject. “Anyways. Jake and I will be taking Raphaela hunting down at the Crescent Reef for the rest of the Winter Season. There is a colony of Titan Shrimp down there that has started to raise a Coral Queen.”

“Oh, a Coral Queen?” Caesia humbled.

Much like the monstrosity that had appeared in the ruins of the old capital, there were often times in colonies of monsters when one individual would start to leech off of the others, growing stronger at an accelerated rate. 

This would be because either one individual would be recognized by the colony as a Queen and fed by the rest, or because it would resort to cannibalism, and would eat its own brethren in order to grow.

A Coral Queen was an example of the former.

“I can’t wait! I will show you just how much I have grown!” Raphaela said, pumping her arm as if to show off her muscles. 

“The Queen would be a bit out of ye weight class and best left to us, but the Titan Shrimp will have multiplied and will be good sport.” Jake said with a chuckle as he saw his daughter’s excitement. 

“And make sure to listen to us while we are out there!” Aqura added.

“Aye aye!” Raphaela replied with a solute. 

“Excuse me.” Caesia said, raising her hand as if she was in some kind of class. “Would you mind if I joined you as well?”

“You want to go too?” Scarlet asked, surprised by the girl’s volunteering.

“Well, there isn’t much for me to do around here, with everyone else gone. And who knows, maybe I’ll be able to reach Tier 7 one day, with a bit of training.” Caesia said with a smile. “I can’t let myself fall too far behind you so soon.”

“If that’s the case, we’d be more than happy to have you.” Aqura replied with a nod.

“…If you don’t mind, I would like to join you as well.” Maria said, shocking everyone.

“Mama, you want to go with them?” Scarlet asked her.

“Yes. In these last four years, I’ve gotten pretty close to maxing out all of my Class Skills. With just a few more levels, I should be able to reach the next Tier by the end of the Winter Season.” Maria said with a smile. “I can’t just sit around anymore while you pass me by. A mother has her pride.”

Maria had spent enough time mopping about while Scarlet was trying her best. If she wanted to be there for her daughter in the future, she had to continue to grow as well.

“A Tier 6 weaver huh… well just make sure you follow orders.” Aqura huffed slightly.

“Aye aye.” Maria chuckled, copying Raphaela’s solute… which looked a lot different when the one doing it had a more womanly figure. Something that made Aqura’s hands go to her own scales covered chest, completely absent of any sexual characteristic, with a bitter look on her face. 

“Stupid mammals and their chest balloons.” 

---

 

“Stubborn ass.”

“Isaka still isn’t listening then?” Nico asked a little gravely as Charles returned from yet another attempt to talk to the prince.

“No. No he isn't.” Charles replied with a sigh. “He is not open to any sort of negotiations at all. Not unless we let Lloyd go. The fact that we are looking to recruit a replacement didn’t exactly help matters.”

“I see.” Nico said. “Time is starting to run out. Soon, Scarlet will be back, and then we are going to have to explain this whole mess to her.”

“What whole mess?” Scarlet asked, causing the two boys to jump, as they hadn’t noticed her entering the room.

“You… You’re back? I mean, welcome back.” Charles said before quickly attempting to regain his noble demeanor. “We weren’t expecting you so soon.”

“Mom and the other girls decided to go on a trip with Raphaela’s parents, so I came back early.” Scarlet replied. “So, what is this mess that happened when I was gone?”

“...Uh…” Charles said, looking to Nico for support.

The older boy looked at his young master’s pleading eyes and swallowed. “You see, while you were gone…”

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