Chapitre 17: Chapter 16: The Week before Classes

Looking around again, I noticed we were back in the main room. My mother was standing in the same spot, waiting patiently. Seeing us return, she tried to bow but the Marquess walked over and pulled her back on the couch. Placing her on her lap, the Marquess started nuzzling into my mother, a smile on her face. The Countess sighed before placing Jahi and I on a separate couch. Walking over to the tomato and blueberry, the Countess sat calmly next to them, waiting for the Marquess to finally stop.

Looking over at Jahi, I asked "What happened? How did that man become a Banshee?"

Jahi shrugged, before looking over at the Marquess. Coughing slightly, the Marquess smiled before speaking.

"Well, that voice you heard in the dark? That was Ka'Hondi, an Arch Fiend of Wrath. Fiends are beings born from a strong enough emotion. His was a bloody war fought a few centuries ago. The first Asmodia, Durukti Asmodia, made a pact with Ka'Hondi. She would offer him 'food', and he would provide the House with servants. Durukti carved her way into the Empire, killing those who opposed her. She took the leaders of each family and offered them to Ka'Hondi, who replaced their flesh, blood, and bone with metal. He created a living armor, a container for a soul. Ever since that pact two centuries ago, he has been bound to our House, and any enemy that we deem as deserving of eternal torment we feed to him, gaining a servant. Of course, we can't just continuously summon him; the more you come into contact with him, the more likely he is to creep into your mind. Thankfully, I beat the ever loving shit out of his previous host, so he and I don't do that dance."

I nodded, realizing that I had witnessed a man be subjected to an eternity of servitude to a House he hates. Jahi grabbed my hand, and I saw her smirking at the Marquess. Seems like the little blue demon next to me could care less about that fact.

The Countess pinched the Marquess' waist when she saw her hand slowly roaming on my mother's body. Turning towards us, she said "You two should enjoy this last week; after all, the tutors should be here soon. You won't have much free time."

Jahi nodded, before dragging me outside. Going back to the small yard under the bedroom's windows, Jahi pulled out the ball, tossing it to me. Throwing it back and forth a few times, Jahi asked "Are you excited for the classes?"

Thinking for a second, I nodded. "Learning all these things will be fun! I can't wait to learn about magic too!"

Jahi chuckled "Yes, magic will certainly be fun. Are you looking forward to the other classes though? History, culture, dance, these are all so boring."

"They might be boring, but they are important! You will need to know them; though I guess it's fine as long as I know them. After all, I will always be with you..."

Trailing off at that last part, Jahi smiled widely at me. "Yeah, always."

We continued to play, discussing the classes. Jahi complained about the dance and etiquette classes; if I had to guess, the Marquess was the same way as a kid. She changed her opinion on history, albeit slightly, when I mentioned what the Marquess had said about the founding of House Asmodia, guessing that quite a few of the major houses, countries, and other events would be started or ended with a battle. She was giddy at that, seemingly liking the idea of learning about bloodshed.

And so, each day slowly passed, falling into routine. I'd wake up, wash Jahi and I, before continuing to learn runes. Later, usually when the Marquess wanted some 'relief', we'd go outside and play; either running or tossing the ball. Afterwards, we would eat, take a bath, then simply enjoy a book together, taking turns reading.

I noticed in that week that Jahi and I were both quiet; Jahi because she preferred to communicate through physical action, and me preferring to just stay quiet and observe everyone else. The fact that we had access to a large amount of books didn't help, as I had always loved reading over talking to others; books are less complicated than people.

Of course, I also received a large amount of experience, getting 150xp everyday from the repeatable quests, totaling 1050xp from seven days of quests. I leveled up a bit, and now my level looked like:

[Level 4 - (1312.5/337.5)]

[Level 4 -> Level 5 (975/506)]

[Level 5 -> Level 6 (469/759)]

[Katherine Zara - Dogkin

Age - 4

Level - 6 (469/759)

Stats:

STR - 5 (10)

CON - 6 (12) -> 7 (14)

AGI - 5 (10)

DEX - 7 (14)

CHA - 8 (16)

WIS - 6 (12)

INT - 7 (14)]

Looking over my stats, I thought they were pretty good. After all, if it's this easy getting level ups, I might just have to raise everything to 10 (20) and wait until I reach a growth spurt, placing the points in then. Or could I manage to hide a higher strength? A higher charm could be... bad. After all, in almost every story, the older classmates/sect members lusted after people way younger than them. I really don't feel like having to deal with that. Though, increasing wisdom and intelligence would be interesting. After all, I could be a 'natural' at controlling magic.

I continued to mull over this predicament, snuggling closer to Jahi as I tried to determine the better course of action. Feeling Jahi bury her face into my hai while pulling me closer, I smiled. Well... it might be better to just have the stats and act like I don't; after all, that would mean I could protect her better.

Slowly I fell asleep, weighing the pros and cons of assigning the points or not assigning them.

~~~

When I woke up, I realized Jahi wasn't in bed with me. Shooting up, I looked around the room, before finally sighing in relief when I saw her digging through the dresser, pulling out clothes. Dragging myself out of bed, I moved forward, helping her find the spare set of clothes.

A few days ago the Countess and Marquess went to Angels Threads, coming back with large grins on their faces. After handing me my new dress and nightwear, as well as Jahi's, the two went into their room, where I could hear low moans.

When I tried on the dress, it had fit me perfectly. When I stood in front of my mirror, I smiled widely at it, twirling a few times. It reached down to my ankles, and poofed out a bit, creating a bell shape from my waist down. Thankfully it wasn't terribly wide, to the point it looked like my bottom half was triple the size of my upper body. The apron was a deep red with a 'KZ' embroidered on the top left. The apron itself was just red, no patterns. The rest of the dress was a silky black, with red highlights on the sleeves and collar.

When Jahi had seen it, she was speechless for a few moments before wrapping me in a hug. After that, I handed her the set of clothes the Countess had ordered for her.

When Jahi walked out, I was stunned slightly. Seeing her in something other then the simple dress she usually wore was interesting. She was wearing black pants, a deep royal purple shirt with a black cloak over that. The whole outfit made her light blue skin stand out, and the purple shirt combined with her amethyst eyes...

Seeing her grab that set of clothes after handing me my dress, we made our way towards the bathroom. Sadly, our set of rooms weren't ready yet, so we had to take the chance of walking in on the Marquess, Countess, and my mother 'fighting' each other. After the third day we learned to tune it out, finding the quickest path to the bathroom.

Quickly stripping, I washed Jahi before she washed me. Walking over towards the bath, we sat down, me leaning into her like always.

"Well... today is the start of our classes. I really hope that the tutors aren't idiots."

I nodded at that, but didn't get my hopes up. After all, the first class was Noble stuff, what with dance and etiquette. After that was history and culture, which could go either way. The one I was looking forward to the most was magic theory. We hadn't seen the tutors, as Jahi could care less about meeting them early, and I was with her constantly. So, I couldn't judge them based on appearance, even though that would probably matter very little.

Sighing, I leaned closer to her, before saying "Well, either way, you have to give it your all. The Marquess and Countess seemed quite scary when they told us about this last week."

Jahi stroked my hair, humming in agreement. For a few more minutes we sat there, before I decided we should be early, if only for our first day.