The Sword and The Shadow

Leguna scratched his head in frustration.

"She's been in a bad mood lately."

Innilis had noticed in her recent visits that Eirinn was dejected. Naturally, she wouldn't show it so directly and always smiled like usual. But Innilis realized that her smiles weren't bright and shining like before.

"Has she… found out about it after all?" Leguna asked.

These days, he didn't go to Second Magic Academy often because he was afraid of bumping into her. He was the one who had killed her own mother. He was a murderer. While he could be quite cruel and merciless when need be, he wasn't someone who would bring himself ot harm the ones he cared about.

"That's right…" While he didn't mention what the matter was about, she knew what he was referring to. She sighed and said, "Big Bro, I don't know what happened between you and Sis Eirinn. I've tried to console her about it, but it doesn't seem to be working. I believe that only you, someone related to the matter, can come out to solve this."

He kept silent for a moment. He knew that this was something he would have to face sooner or later, but he had been trying to escape it the whole time. Now that Innilis made it all clear, was he still going to run away?

He gave it some thought and decided he would face it all. Even if he wouldn't be able to earn her forgiveness, he wouldn't regret it as he was doing what he had to protect her.

He gave Innilis a hug.

"Thank you, Innie."

"Don't say that, Big Bro…" she said in a hoarse voice, eyes red, "I'm not as useful as the other two… This is all I can do."

"Who said so?" He let her go and flicked her nose. "How could my Innie be useless? Weren't you the one who saved Eirinn's life? You're actually pretty amazing!"

She bit her lip. She really wanted to spend time alone with him, as much time as possible. But she knew she couldn't, not now. Eirinn was in the room, and she was just a side character today. So, she pushed him away with a smile.

"I asked Sasha to go shopping with me this afternoon. It's almost time. I'll have to go."

"Ummm… Alright. Have fun!"

"I will!--" She smiled and stretched out a hand. "--For the sake of my fun, 200 gold coins!"

Is this a robbery?"

He grabbed hold of his dimensional pocket. His spending had left him poorer than he'd been in years.

"Waaah… You won't even give me 200 coins… You don't love me!"

"Fine…"

He was going to give it to her from the start. He just wanted to see what kind of antics she would come up with. Having achieved his goal, he paid up without complaint. He took out a 500-gold-coin note and asked, "Do you have change? I…"

The little devil swiped the note before he could finish and vanished.

"Thanks, Big Bro! Love you!"

The words dangled in the air for a couple seconds in her wake.

"Annie… No, I shouldn't. Best I don't get anywhere near her for a couple years. Xeno… won't do. He's my subordinate and I'll be suspected of corruption if I borrow money from him. As for Alaine… No way. Asking her will only get me laughed at. I'm a proud man who won't let anyone humiliate me, after all. Sigh… I think I'll have to dress up badly and beg for food…"

After deciding on how to feed himself for the next couple days, he regretted throwing away the tattered clothes he wore when Annelotte chased him down. If he still had them, his disguise would be flawless!

He was simply trying to procrastinate and find something else to do. But eventually, what had to come had to come.

He took a deep breath to regulate his feelings and knocked lightly on the door to the resting room.

"Eirinn, are you asleep?"

"Ah? Big Brother Leguna?" She sounded a little panicked.

"If you're not asleep, I'm coming in!" He knew he couldn't ask her whether he should come in, as he would definitely be refused entry. While she had locked the door, how could that stop Leguna the Agile of Melindor?

Even though he was now Dark Requiem, two things hadn't changed. Like before, his moniker was always accompanied by curses and complaints. And he still kept the habit of carrying around an iron wire. His lockpicking skills hadn't gotten rusty.

With a click, the door opened.

He pushed the door out of the way and had an epiphany: his luck was getting much better!

During his visit to the Dusk Zone, he had managed to see every inch of two great dark elven beauties' bodies. When he returned to Melindor, he almost got to do Annelotte, though he was almost done in by her for good in return.

His last summer had been so titillating. He'd never thought he'd go from a virgin in every sense of the word to an ex-virgin in almost every sense of the word.

And now he was on the brink with yet another woman!

She had intended to take a rest for real. She had locked the door and closed the blinds. She had the habit of sleeping in the nude when she wanted to rid herself of negative emotions, and she had plenty of which to rid herself today. Too much for sleep, in fact. Instead, she'd ended up hugging her pillow, which was by now soaked with her tears.

She had just jumped up from the knock when the door suddenly burst open.

Had she been Annelotte, a dozen spells would already be flying, but, alas, she wasn't. She was Eirinn, the perennial pushover. No spells, nor miracles, flew. Instead the tears on her red-hot cheeks just boiled away as she yanked the sheets up over her.

"Big Brother… Can you please close the door?"

Leguna stared at the umpteenth sensual scene he'd seen today for several seconds before mumbling an 'okay' and closing the door, behind him.

He knew all too clearly what her response meant. She could just as easily have screeched at him to get out, or asked him to in her polite manner to do the same, but she'd asked him to close the door instead. As dense and stupid as he was, even he couldn't misunderstand what that meant.

That said, he was both dense and stupid enough to be comparing her and Annelotte rather than taking action.

The two were about the same in fairness. Annie had slightly larger… buns… however. Annie's were, however, slightly on the deflated end, well, not quite deflated, but not firm. The skin strained to cover Eirinn's… buns… even though they were of a more modest proportion.

[Enough! Keep your thoughts to yourself! Don't bother me! Why did I have to get a rotten disciple?! My inheritance is lost! It'll vanish under an ocean of shame and disgrace with you!]

[…Sorry…]

Leguna was so dumbstruck he unconsciously sent his thoughts through the mental link. He wasn't trying to have a discussion with her, he just lost control of his mind.

He snapped back to reality and cleared his throat.

"Ahem! Um… Eirinn…"

"You… can do it…" the girl whispered with a vanishing voice.