章 103: Thirty-Five vol.2

". . .she really fell asleep," Rose sighed breathlessly.

Elsa laid on the couch, eyes closed, snoozing as her pad blinked off after a few minutes of inactivity. Naturally, Rose had kept to her promise of tutoring the poor girl in mathematics. At least, in those that were of high school level. Yet, rather than studying, the slum-born girl laid on the couch, sleeping with a peaceful face.

"I looked away for one moment. . ." Rose muttered.

She had taken just a moment to check the girl's work that had been sent to her. She checked her problem-solving, her solutions, and her work. She had taken only a few tens of seconds to type and provide feedback within the document, pointing out areas of common error she saw. And, yet, when she glanced back, Elsa had already collapsed into sleep.

Rose stared at the girl's laid out form, clothed in shorts and a shirt. Her sleeping posture was unsightly as the couch was a bit too small for her full body. She laid there, stomach unintentionally showing as her head teetered on the edge of the furniture.

The homunculus shook her head and stood up.

"You're cute asleep, but," She wrapped her arms under the girl and effortlessly, gingerly, picked her up, "You can't sleep here. You're human. You could catch a cold."

Though she spoke to the sleeping girl, she did not expect a reply from her.

'You should have simply gone to sleep like I said instead of trying to tough things out,' She thought.

It was already nighttime due to the fact that Elsa had insisted they study late into the night. It was no problem for Rose, seeing as she didn't need sleep, but the girl's mind had been surprisingly difficult to change. 'You could take it, you said,' Rose smiled, finding the girl's words now silly.

She carried Elsa past the kitchen, walked through the single hall of the apartment, and stopped before the room opposite the bathroom, which was surprisingly already open. Naturally, she trekked in and found Elsa's bed opposite to that of the dragonian, who was already asleep.

She placed Elsa down on her mattress, rolled her blanket over her, and tucked her in.

'She would probably call me mom if she saw this. . .' Rose thought with a mild chuckle.

She heard rustling behind her and she swerved around to spot a tail grasping for twin swords.

"Oh. . .it's just you," Lilias yawned, blanket falling from her figure, tail unwrapping from the weapons sheathed and strapped to the foot of her bed. "I suppose she couldn't last, after all?"

Rose nodded, eyes meeting the girl's. Unconsciously, she trailed her vision down, and realized the fact that the dragonian's chests, though covered in a loose shirt, were fuller than they usually were.

"Surprised?" Lilias commented as she yawned once more, steadying herself to sit as she placed her back against the wall and stared at the homunculus. "I usually wrap my chests with bandages during the day. It makes fighting and moving around easier."

"That wasn't what interested me," Rose muttered. Her gaze raised, and she watched as the hand Lilias had yawned into strategically lowered, wiping stains of tears from her face. "You hide so much, don't you? Even to the point of hiding your tears?"

"Hmm?"

"Back within the Dungeon's Association, you didn't have to twist Victor with your words, but you did. You did it for Elsa, didn't you?" Rose asked, changing her angle, "But you won't admit that, will you?"

Lilias smiled. "I strive to be as deadly with my tongue as I am with my swords."

Like she thought, the dragonian would rarely ever admit something. Though, Rose had to admit herself that the girl truly was dangerous with or without her weapons. Perhaps, her crimson eyes could see into the hearts of people.

'Yet she can't look inside herself,' Rose thought as she watched Lilias's figure, her black hair, and her placid crimson eyes. She thought the dragonian objectively beautiful. Strong. Intelligent. Someone able to pick into the minds of others and twist them just at the right spot to play them as fools. There was nothing the girl couldn't do. 'Nothing except be true with herself.'

"As deadly with your tongue as you are with your weapons. . ." Rose muttered, reeling herself back from her split-second thoughts. "Maybe I can learn more from you than just magic."

She could understand people relatively well, but she had never tried to twist them with her words.

Lilias chuckled. "Perhaps you can."

The dragonian had reason enough to be confident in that particular skill of hers, able to understand others with such ease. Even when no one else had, she had seen through Samuel Gardner and his desire to ruin and kill Paul Walker at the climax of the slum war—clipping the fangs of a tiger just as it grew wings. As she didn't care for the slumlord, whichever team won hadn't mattered to her, so long as it was the team she was on. So, naturally, she had switched sides.

Born and raised in a city where women were not allowed to fight for fear they would die—clipping the low dragonian birth rate further—Lilias had been deadly with her mind far before her brother taught her to wield a sword.

The dragonian stared at the homunculus in front of her, then at the human who laid on the bed across, sleeping soundly without a care in the world. Then, she thought about her brother, the subject of her recent nightmare.

"Do you think love crosses barriers?" She asked as her hands fell, resting on the mattress she sat upon, as if moving to prop herself up.

Rose raised a brow.

"I wouldn't know how to answer that," She replied.

Lilias chuckled.

"Answer me this then," She said, "Are you female? Or are you male? Or, perhaps, do you have no gender?"

Rose frowned. "That's an odd question. Can't you see my body?"

"Does your body matter?" The dragonian replied. "Putting it lightly, your body isn't you. What you are, what is you, is the core embedded in your heart. That blue, spherical, spiral of coded mana. Does that have a gender?"

Rose thought about it for a moment, then smiled.

"Right," She said, "But you're forgetting that I wield a Gear, and thus I have a soul beyond simply the consciousness my core grants me."

Lilias shook her head. "Then you have to determine whether a soul makes a person a person, or if the individual's consciousness does. If it's the former, then neither homunculi nor robots can be called people. If it's the latter, then they might as well be."

"Hmm."

Rose thought about the words of the girl, and she decided it wasn't something she could answer. At the very least, not yet. Though she would like to think she was a person due to having a conscious mind, not simply an artificial human, choosing herself as the study subject seemed ridiculous. After all, she did have a soul, so there was no way she could base an answer off of herself to answer such a generalized thought.

'I wouldn't say Maria and Mare aren't people, though,' She thought. Yet, answering that wouldn't exactly prove either thoughts right. After all, it wasn't false for someone to believe that those two were simply coded to be the way they were, conscious or not.

In the end, she had her own question.

"Why did you ask about my gender in the first place?" She asked.

Lilias stared at the girl, her eyes jumped to Elsa momentarily, then back at Rose.

"I wasn't entirely truthful about my brother and my situation," She muttered.

Rose frowned. "You lied to us?"

Lilias shook her head.

"Far from it," She said.

She paused momentarily, staring into the eyes of the homunculus.

"Yes, he was punished for destroying my family's heirloom, but that wasn't the only reason," She said, then paused. ". . .perhaps I should explain something else first. . .you don't know, do you?"

"Know what?" Rose asked.

"The birth rate of dragonians," Lilias said, "As strong as we are, and as long as we live, our population is far from plentiful. As to be expected of a race created from the bonding of a human and a dragon. . .we are only about two thousand strong. That's to say, it is exceedingly difficult for our race to repopulate itself."

"And?" Rose asked, "Is that why you were punished for learning to wield weapons? Because the women of your race are expected to put survival and having a child above all? "

Lilias smiled thinly.

"Astute as always," She said, "But that's simply my situation, my brother's is different. What do you think our birth rate has to do with him, the lies I might have told, and the questions I asked you?"

Rose folded her arms and held her chin momentarily. Naturally, whatever thoughts she had, she could take as long as she wanted to answer. Not simply due to her brain power, but due to Lilias's patience, watching her silently and anticipating, she felt no rush.

"Is. . ." Rose paused, tilting her head. "Is the 'princess' he fell for. . .male?"

Lilias smiled.

"Astute once more." She nodded. "In my city, it is a crime to marry someone of the same gender. After all, that is directly putting our race at risk."

She sighed as she tilted her head back slowly until she stared at the ceiling.

"I don't think my father was wrong for punishing him," She muttered, "My brother carries that much weight on his back. He is, quite literally, a prince of a clan. He should choose a bride, not a husband, not only for our race, but also for the continuation of our clan. Furthermore. . .it would be political chaos if my father allowed him and him alone to do as he wished. . .not that he would allow that, mind you."

Rose stood silent as she watched the girl's tail wrap around herself. Even when the dragonian sat, pondering the troubles of her life, she still felt as if the girl was hiding another thing.

"Perhaps there wouldn't have been such a large fallout if my brother hadn't challenged the city's laws and lost so efficiently to the Audrius clan head, bringing calamity on both himself and the prince of that very clan. . ." She thought aloud, "But it's wishful thinking. A 'perhaps' that only exists in fairy tales, don't you think?"

"Why don't the two simply elope together?" She asked.

Lilias chuckled, eyes trailing back down to match Rose's gaze.

"It's not a simple thing to give up your home and livelihood and go somewhere else," She replied, "And, as I said, my brother is the foolish, rebellious and direct type. He wants to change the city from its roots."

Rose nodded.

"Is that why you're interested in me and Elsa, then?" She asked. "You believe we 'love' each other? Yet, it is one of the things you don't understand? And you want to, to know why your brother acts so 'foolish', rebelling against your city's natural state for the sake of that emotion? To see love blossom between two people of the same gender? Am I right?"

Lilias was silent, as if contemplating Rose's questions, before she eyed Elsa's sleeping form.

"You know. . .she reminds me of him. . ." She said.

"Oh?" Rose raised a brow.

Lilias nodded.

"Ever since I saw her punch Nicholas in the heat of the moment due to sheer annoyance and then saw her protect and save you without a moment's doubt when you collapsed due to lack of mana. . ." She explained, "I thought she reminded me of my brother. And that thought was proven stronger when she lent me—someone who had antagonized her before—her gauntlets to pass the assessment test."

"Oh?"

"In a way. . ." The dragonian muttered, "Like my brother, she's the type of individual who would be the hardest for me to seriously fight. Not due to her strength, but her character."

"She's a good girl," Rose said, unable to imagine herself fighting Elsa either.

"She is," Lilias agreed.

"Yet, why are you telling me all of this?" Rose asked, "Usually, you would keep it all in. I don't mean any offense, but it did take quite a bit of knocking to get you to say anything previously."

"To ease the burden of some unsavory dreams," Lilias replied. "Selfish, isn't it?"

Rose shook her head.

"No, I think that's alright."

Lilias chuckled. "I see. . .you're a good girl too."

That caught Rose off guard. Hearing those words coming out of the girl's lips didn't exactly sound right when directed at her. At the very least, Rose did not think of herself as a particularly 'good' person. As she saw it, perhaps, she was selfish, dragging Elsa into her problems.

"You should go back to sleep," She said.

Lilias shook her head. A yawn escaped her lips only moments later.

". . ."

"Goodnight, Rose."

The homunculus nodded.

"Goodnight, Lilias."

The dragonian's eyes closed and she fell back onto her bed, asleep moments later.

Rose looked at her uncovered form, shook her head, and walked to exit the room.

". . ."

Rose paused at the door, debated against herself, then turned around to cover Lilias with her blanket, gently tucking her in as well.

"Thank you," The dragonian muttered sluggishly.

"You're sly," Rose replied.

She heard a last chuckle from the girl before Lilias drifted back to sleep. Watching her sleeping figure, covered in a blanket with the bump of her tail showing, Rose had only a single thought.

'So much hiding, tucking things in. . .' She reached out and caressed the girl's black hair around her horns as she smiled, 'Yet you're fully vulnerable and soft asleep in front of me.'

As her eyes softened, Rose thought, if Lilias simply wanted to be tucked in like Elsa, she could have just said so. It wasn't as though she would refuse. At some indistinct point, the girl had already become somewhat important to her as well, in a manner she couldn't exactly pinpoint.

She stood within the room, staring at the two beds momentarily. One companion laid there, similar to herself, yet different in so many hidden ways, and surprisingly vulnerable. The other slept, a golden beacon of light and hope that kept her tethered when she needed it most. One made her understand the workings of the world and herself more aptly, and the other made her strive to live and feel. Yet, they both drove her forward, teaching her the minute details of life she wouldn't understand on her own.

'Friendship? Love? Both, perhaps? Or simply companionship?' Rose's thoughts ran. She knew the meaning of each word, but the lines between the emotions were faint and blurred, and she never felt as if she stood within one distinct feeling for long. At the very least, however, she realized she had reached a stage where if anyone harmed either Lilias or Elsa, she would burn that individual to ashes. If her flames manifested and raged to protect or keep something hers, that was how she judged that thing important to her—no matter how little.

'. . .I'm not a good person.' She thought about the definition of the words themselves because that was all she could truly do. Though she knew she was a living being, perhaps more so than other homunculi, she hadn't yet lived long. She was, so to speak, tantamount to a baby when it came to floundering around with things that were not innately intellectual, analytical, or logical. 'I'm far too selfish in my own ways for that.'

In the end, she left the room, ahead of her a night for thinking and learning.