(Non-canon)Epta 23, 8103
08:43
Kanna: "Hey, Steven, wake up!"
I wake up to Kanna"s soft voice tapping me. Madelyn was with her, sitting besides her. We were spending the summer in Toku Village with her family. We"ve only been here a week and it"s been too eventful for me to keep up. It"s like Kanna and Madelyn suddenly have an unlimited amount of stamina.
Steven: "Ahh~ good morning, master."
Madelyn: "You know, wouldn"t it be proper to call her mistress?"
Steven: "Mistress? Oh, I don"t like it; it has a negative… I don"t know, feel to it."
Kanna: "How?"
Steven: "Where I"m from, I was used to the mistress being the illegitimate lover to a married man."
Kanna: "Oh, I guess that makes sense."
Kanna kneels down next to my futon and I sit up. She was happy, as her erect ears and wavering tail gave her away.
Madelyn: "Nevermind all this; let"s go to the beach!"
Kanna: "Yeah! Yasuhiro is waiting!"
I get into the bare minimum of my clothes before Kanna grabs my wrist and dragged me out of the longhouse. The dirt roads were lively, and a caravan filled with bricks had pulled up, preparing to pave the road to the entrance of the village.
They have pretty big ambitions for a village.
We walk down to the beach where everyone was waiting. The Elder and Esmond had already set up their large parasols and chairs, enjoying the bracing breeze. The beach hasn"t changed since the last time I was here.
Yasuhiro was with them, and he didn"t hesitate to try and climb me when he spotted us. It"s been so long since I"ve seen him that he grew quite a lot!
Yasuhiro: "Steven!"
Steven: "Oh-ho! Yasuhiro, you"ve grown!"
I grab him and lift him up in the air. It managed to catch off guard and he tenses up and has his nails dig into my arm.
Yasuhiro: "Ahh! Put me down!"
Kanna: "Ahaha~!"
I knew Nekomatas are like cats but do they need sharp nails!?
I had to put him down out of fear of him drawing blood. He fortunately didn"t and we walked over to the Elder who was chatting with Esmond, pointing over to wood neatly stacked and s.p.a.ced out. It looked like the fishery that they"ve been planning.
Steven: "Ohh, I see you started on that fishery."
Elder: "We have indeed; still need to begin construction."
If I had brought Jacob, Jesse, Nathan, and Michael, with us. We could"ve knocked it out before the end of the week. We"re just that proficient together.
Steven: "It"s always those times I need the boys is when they"re not around."
Kanna: "This is a family vacation, Steven."
Steven: "Madelyn and I are family?"
Kanna slaps my arm and embraces me.
Kanna: "Of course, don"t be like that."
Madelyn: "Yeah, doofus."
Madelyn joins and makes it a group hug.
Steven: "You"re the doofus here, Madelyn."
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Madelyn: "Oh yeah?"
She aims to the pressure point on my neck and pinches me. She gets me really well, and I nearly fall to the floor because of her.
Steven: "Ow!"
Madelyn: "Ahaha~!"
I"ll do it back!
Steven: "Come here!"
Madelyn: "Ahh~!"
She evades me and I give chase. Yasuhiro was nearby, and I saw a good opportunity to utilize my ally. Madelyn already isn"t athletic so it"ll be easy to grab her.
Steven: "Yasuhiro, get her!"
Madelyn: "No!"
Kanna: "Everyone tackle Steven!"
The tables have turned against me. I was now on the defensive as everyone was aiming for me. Yasuhiro had virtually infinite energy and nothing less than a battle of attrition. It was only a matter of time for Yasuhiro nabs me, and I"m caught off guard by Madelyn.
She came and blindsides me!
Madelyn: "We got you!"
Yasuhiro: "Rrahh~!"
Steven: "Ow… not bad, Madelyn."
Madelyn and Kanna both lift Yasuhiro up and playfully praise him for saving them from me. The Elder, who had been watching, walks towards me.
Elder: "We broke you out of that "survive or die" mentality, haven"t we, Mister Omeo?"
Steven: "Whatever could you be talking about, Elder?"
I walked him back to the Captain as he was relaxing in his beach chair while reading a book.
Steven: "Captain… where"s Yuuna?"
Esmond: "Lady Yuuna is coming."
Steven: "It"s odd seeing you out of your armor."
Esmond: "Well, I don"t live in the thing. I"m just a village guard."
The girls were trying to set up their umbrella and I go and help them. It wasn"t hard, but the sand had gotten into my tunic from being tackled. It was scratchy and annoying, so I go ahead and remove it in front of the girls.
Kanna: "You"re not as overweight anymore."
Steven: "What? I never was!"
Kanna: "Yes you were, you had a belly when I met you and now it"s gone."
I don"t even remember…
I guess I"ve lost it over the year I"ve been here. I did indulge a bit when I worked in the restaurant.
As I relaxed on one of the chairs, Madelyn removes her top in front of me and reveals her black bikini top. Kanna did the same, wearing an almost identical bikini.
Steven: "You wore your bikinis under?"
Madelyn: "Yeah, there wasn"t a changing room nearby."
Steven: "Your clothes will get wet when you have to change back."
Madelyn: "We"re not too far from the village. Did you want to see us get undressed or something?"
Kanna: "Per-vert."
Steven: "No, I—"
Yuuna: "I"m here everyone!"
Yuuna appears through the foliage and we a.s.sist her with her items.
Steven: "Yuuna, your perfume. Aren"t you going to swim?"
Yuuna: "Is it too strong?"
Steven: "I"m not saying your perfume is too strong. I"m just saying the canary was alive before you got here."
Yuuna: "Excuse me?"
Kanna: "Hey, don"t be mean to mom! Apologize!"
Steven: "Sorry, Yuuna."
I had to swallow my pride. If Kanna found it offensive, then Yuuna probably did too. She didn"t pay any attention to me and set herself up next to the Elder, further solidifying that fact.
I sat down next to Madelyn and Kanna, who were both enjoying the calm.
Madelyn: "What are you cooking for tonight?"
Steven: "Cooking? Uh, I was thinking grilled chicken and steamed broccoli."
Kanna: "Ehh? But you said you"ll make fish!"
Steven: "Alright, alright, I"ll make lemon pepper fish."
Kanna: "With broccoli?"
Steven: "Steamed rice and broccoli."
Her ears stand tall, content. She"s such a foodie!
Kanna: "The best dinner!"
Steven: "Only the best for my master."
Her ears then dip slightly and shyly looks away.
Steven: "This is nothing like Hei"an."
Madelyn: "Nothing…"
Sure, Hei"an has beaches, forests, and a village. But, it doesn"t have that familiar feeling to it. I can wake up in the morning and I"ll know I"m home kind of feeling.
Kanna: "Was Hei"an a bad place?"
Steven: "No, it"s beautiful. The Demons were kind, some were bad, yet they were still no match for me, master."
Kanna: "It"s fine to just call me Kanna once in a while."
Steven: "Oh? You"re not going to demand it?"
Kanna: "That"s only in Everhand."
Madelyn sighs and looks up to the sky.
Madelyn: "Can I have a master that loves me?"
Steven: "You"re family, Madelyn. I think that"s the biggest love there is."
Madelyn: "Yeah, but… it"s not like the Moreau series."
Steven: "You read?"
I actually wonder if Livia is starting to rub off on Madelyn. Well, it"s too be expected, they"ve been hanging out almost daily now. I just didn"t know it would happened so fast.
Kanna: "I know, Cynthia has friends if you want romance."
Steven: "Pfft, ahahaha~ I can already see it! Cynthia and Kanna the Matchmaking duo!"
Kanna: "It"s not a duo, I"m just helping my servant."
Madelyn: "It"s not the romance, but the companionship I want. Kind of what you 2 have."
Steven: "Oh…"
Companionship…
I want to be even more than a servant to Kanna. I didn"t fight across Hei"an and die only to be reborn as a Wight just to continue being her servant. Crossing that line seems scary, but I"m sure I"ll be able to do it when I find those perfect words.
Steven: "Don"t worry, Madelyn. I know you"ll find the perfect one."
Madelyn: "There"s a few I"ve been thinking of."
I"ll be d.a.m.ned if she"s talking about the boys…
Madelyn: "Did you know that a Nekomata city was in the north? From Everhand."
Steven: "I"ve heard of it."
Kanna: "You"re talking about Ikeda?"
Steven: "Ikea?"
Kanna: "No, Ikeda."
Madelyn chortles, the only one to have understood what I meant.
Madelyn: "We should visit there sometime."
Ikeda…
There really is a city outside of Feles Isle that"s packed with Nekomatas?
Speaking of Nekomatas, Yuuna seemed to be struggling with her umbrella. The Elder and Esmond had gone fishing on the beach away from us. I didn"t need much motivation to help her, so I went over there alone and gave her a hand.
Steven: "Yuuna?"
Yuuna: "Yes?"
Steven: "Let me help you."
Yuuna: "Why thank you."
After helping Yuuna settle her umbrella just right, I used the opportunity to try and apologize.
Steven: "Sorry if I offended you about the perfume. I think it smells beautiful."
Yuuna: "That? I"ve forgotten about it."
Steven: "Are you sure?"
Yuuna: "Of course I am… You should go play with my nephew, he looks like he could use some help."
Yasuhiro was a short distance away, digging a small hole in the sand. He seemed to be focused, like he was searching for something.
Steven: "What are you doing, Yasuhiro?"
Yasuhiro: "Looking for seash.e.l.ls!"
Steven: "That"s cool, do you want help?"
Yasuhiro: "Yeah! Dig another hole and help me find a really big one!"
Steven: "Alright, I"ll cover the other side."
Seash.e.l.ls couldn"t be difficult to find, we are on a beach.
Covering a good portion of the beach, I had a football sized area to go through. It would be faster if I use Earth magic, but it would still take some time. I could also get into hot water if the magic touches the plants.
With some careful use of Earth magic, I ended up raking through a lot of sand, making a good portion of the beach look like a Zen garden. I"d be proud of my work, but no sizable seash.e.l.ls had popped up. Did I mess up by using magic? Yasuhiro was digging a hole! So why can"t I find any?
I looked around and catch Kanna actually trying to get Yasuhiro to play in the water with her.
Steven: "…oh…"
I sit down on the sand and take in the beauty of Kanna playing in the ocean. Really, the ocean is one h.e.l.l of a thing to look at. I could forget all my problems and live through the happy moments of my life.
Kanna really is beautiful when she smiles…
If I had a canvas right now…
Madelyn: "Steven? What did you do over here? Why is the beach suddenly raked?"
She breaks me out of my trance. I remembered my task to find seash.e.l.ls and stand back up.
Steven: "Yes?"
Madelyn: "Did you do this?"
She was talking about the beach being raked.
Steven: "Yes."
Madelyn: "Oh, well, you worked fast. Let"s go into the water."
That"s right! I should be apart of the canvas! We headed towards Kanna and Yasuhiro as they splashed each other with water.
Steven: "Are you liking the water, master?"
Kanna: "I might be a cat, but I love the water!"
They aimed for us and started splashing Madelyn and I with water! It quickly turned into a free for all for a good 10 minutes until we all managed to calm down.
We walked into the ocean until the water was up to our upper thighs. We were having fun fighting with the waves, having them crash into us. They were small, but still big enough to push us back an inch or so.
I was having fun catching Kanna, being a barrier she could fall on. It was cut short when Yuuna was shouting from the sh.o.r.e, telling us not to be so deep in the water. We fell back to where Yasuhiro was playing, where the water was close to a foot deep.
I wanted to try something out, so I started trailing back into the water a bit. I laid out on my back and tried floating on the water. My body flowed with the waves and relaxed. It really isn"t too hard to float if my body doesn"t tense up. I closed my eyes and became one with the water.
After resting for some time, I woke up and realized I had drifted away, a good 500 meters. I didn"t like it at all and nearly had a panic attack.
Steven: "Hey!"
I shouted.
Using Water magic, I sped my way back to sh.o.r.e in less than a minute. A sizable wave was created when I washed up, soaking the girls who were unaware because they were busy burying Yasuhiro in the sand.
Yuuna: "Kya~!"
Elder and Esmond had their fishing session interrupted by me and pick up their rods to check on the commotion. The Elder somehow thinks I had an ulterior motive behind it and proceeded to praise me while the girls yelled at me.
Elder: "Very bold, indeed, Sir Omeo."
Madelyn: "Steven, you a.s.s! The water is cold!"
Yasuhiro: "Brr~"
He shivered.
Kanna: "Steven!"
Everyone continued to scold me while the Elder and Esmond were snickering. They went back to fishing; Madelyn and Kanna continued playing with Yasuhiro; and I went with Yuuna to relax under the umbrellas. Although, I was just trying to recuperate my magic.
Yuuna: "You"re tired already?"
Steven: "I"ve done a lot of swimming."
Yuuna: "Really? A little swim would tire you so easily? My, how did you ever survive Hei"an?"
Steven: "My body just hurts a bit, Yuuna."
For a Wight, I really used a little too much of my magic. I"m so out of it I"d probably struggle just with using those toys where babies put shaped blocks into the correct hole.
If using magic makes me this tired, why haven"t I used it before on the nights where I struggle to sleep?
Yuuna: "You"ve been distant lately."
Steven: "Have I?"
Yuuna: "Yes, when was the last time we shared a drink?"
I"m trying to quit! Everytime liquor gets involved, I"m trying to get myself out of trouble with either bandits or the guard.
Steven: "Oh… I had a few bad run ins with liquor."
Yuuna: "So you want to quit?"
Steven: "Ye-yeah."
Yuuna: "Well, that"s laudable. At least tell me next time? I won"t get mad at you for it."
Steven: "I will, sorry."
I was really hyped up to come to the beach but it turns out that I"d just spend the rest of my day resting. We didn"t leave until the sun started setting and returned to the longhouse after picking up.
It couldn"t be helped, but it was still disappointing. I made some of it up with dinner. As promised, I made lemon peppered fish for Kanna. She loves eating anything as long as I prepare and cook it.
After dinner, we went straight to our room and laid out our respective futons before sitting.
Madelyn: "Hey, you"re a psychic for now. Can you read our future?"
I was suddenly given the gift to see into the future. It wasn"t the exact future, just possibilities that stretched on for years. I saw it as a tree that branched out into possible events. The roads of our futures.
Steven: "Yes, I see a lot of different roads. A likeliest road has you become a servant, Madelyn."
Madelyn: "I already am, aren"t I?"
For the time being…
Steven: "Another road has me going to the Esnia Mage"s Academy."
Kanna: "What"s in Esnia?"
Steven: "It"s foggy, can"t tell."
It was like something was keeping me from seeing deep into the future. I tried it with other roads and I wasn"t even able to see any of them at all!
Steven: "Our third road, I adopt a stray cat."
Madelyn: "What does a cat have to do with anything?"
Kanna: "Maybe it"s an important cat?"
Steven: "Fourth road… we get to visit the slums in Everhand."
Kanna: "That"s a bad area, it must be important to be going out there."
Steven: "Fifth road, I see Fang and Lian. I see a hooded figure walk in and Fang draws her sword as she motions for Lian to run away."
Kanna: "That last one is scary, what happened?"
I pried into it heavily, yet the fog didn"t relent. There was nothing I could do and I had to take comfort knowing it was just a possible future event.
Steven: "It becomes foggy again, master."
Madelyn: "What else? Is that all the roads?"
Steven: "Alright, the sixth road, Kanna visits Sefre and our group moves into a castle. Aktas?"
Kanna: "I love castles!"
I"m not sure what it was, but something important had to have happened for us to be living in a castle. Twilight just doesn"t hand them out on silver platters.
Steven: "Final road, Madelyn… you discover a new element?"
Madelyn: "But I can"t use magic?"
Steven: "No…"
It"s really interesting! I wish I could see more and probably understand what exactly it is she was doing. What I do know is that it isn"t related to any of the elements that I know of.
Steven: "I don"t know what it is…"
All I know is Madelyn discovers it somehow.
I finally used up the spell. The tree that allowed me to see has disappeared into the mist and I had used almost all of my energy. My mind now feels like I pulled an all-nighter without preparing.
Steven: "It"s over… I"m going to bed."
I yawned.
Kanna: "Snuggle?"
Steven: "Snuggle, snuggle."
Her ears bent to the line of the forehead with her tips pointing up. It meant that she was possibly submissive and I let her into my futon.
Madelyn: "Ha, you understand each other?"
She jumps into her futon, turning in for the night.
Madelyn: "Ahh~ well, goodnight, you 2."
Kanna: "Goodnight, Madelyn."
Steven: "Goodnight."
A minute pa.s.ses and I"m ready to sleep. Though, it was difficult because Kanna"s tail was tapping my ankle.
Steven: "Master, what"s wrong?"
Kanna: "Nothing… I"m just curious, how did you come across Madelyn?"
Steven: "We were in a dungeon and broke out."
Kanna: "That"s amazing…"
Steven: "Well, your mom always says: "You attract what you are…"
Kanna: "Then keep being amazing…"
I tried hinting that Kanna herself was amazing. Though, I"m not sure if she picked it up; though she sure did have me feeling good! Who would"ve guessed a compliment from someone you like would have you beaming with happiness?
Some more time pa.s.ses by.
Steven: "Kanna?"
She fell asleep…
I must be the luckiest man in the world just to be so close to her; to have her in my arms.
I love her…
Steven: "Goodnight, master."