HNSW - Chapter 3 - The Adults (Patreon)

After the attempt on her life, there was a shakeup in the adults watching over the young Lilussees. Well, the girl herself didn’t really pay enough attention to their faces to really notice, but she found it out just a few days later.

Her Rest came to an end in the middle of the night as it had every night, and she stirred up her mana. She called out to her familiar and the spider began to crawl across the roof. Since she had accepted the familiar bond, it became far easier to control the spider. The two now shared mana, with a small loop flowing between them that reminded her of her old subordinates. She could, like, pass simple orders along that flow without additional expenditures of mana, so she was no longer limited in how many commands she could give, or something. It still required mana for her to share senses, or for particularly long and complex commands, but she had, like, far more flexibility than when two orders would exhaust her.

And that was especially reassuring since she had confirmed her spider was deadly enough, with her mana supporting, to kill an adult human.  Oh, and, like, the fact that there were humans that wanted to kill her, or something. That would have been, like, pretty concerning if she didn’t have a subordinate to protect her now.

But she did. And so she figured she should, like, keep up the commands and the bond and stuff. So, she stirred up her mana and began exchanging senses once again…

Immediately there was a dark flash of movement in the dimly lit room. Lilussees didn’t even have to process it when something suddenly filled up her spider’s vision and stopped just in front of its eyes. A moment later, Lilussees’s thoughts and the spider’s senses were able to catch up and identify the object as a knife. A sharp, gleaming knife less than an inch from her familiar’s head.

That could be, like, a problem, or something.

“Huh?”

The knife was connected to an arm, which was in turn connected to a body. Apparently, the woman on the night shift tonight had gotten up from her chair in the corner of the room and immediately moved across it, faster than either Lilussees or her familiar could perceive. That woman now tilted her head and frowned.

“I thought it was a monster spider but this mana…that should be impossible but could it be…?”

The woman slowly backed away, keeping an eye on the spider all the while. Lilussees, like, was still processing the situation, or something, and so didn’t have the spider do anything in particular. The woman slowly back towards the crib and reached her free hand behind her, gently brushing against Lilussees’s head. Her eyes widened slightly.

“It’s…the same. I would say it’s a familiar but…at thisage? That shouldn’t be possible. She shouldn’t even have access to the divine tablets, not to mention the ability to read them…”

The woman turned her head, still holding her knife in front of her and keeping the spider in the corner of her eye. She turned as much attention to Lilussees as she could and made a small gasp.

“How does she have this much mana?”

She slowly turned back to glance at the spider and frowned. She narrowed her eyes.

“If…if you are not hostile to the young lady, please lift a leg and wave it about.”

Lilussees, for her part, had sort of figured out what was going on. Her parents, like, clearly had people working for them. So, it, like, made sense they would have access to guards. She guessed they, like, assigned one to her room, as they probably didn’t want her dead, or something. That was, like, nice to know, but it was a bit inconvenient at the present moment.

But, like, she would rather not find another spider after all the work she had put into this one, or something, she went ahead and told her familiar to do as the woman asked. The woman’s eyes went wide. She nodded and motioned to the corner of the room. There was the chair, a small table, and a very faint light.

“Please move to the table and remain there for the night. I will not kill you yet, but I cannot permit you to move out of my sight until I speak with the lord and lady.”

That was, like, kind of annoying. But, like, Lilussees wasn’t going to have her familiar argue with a clearly capable guard, who presumably was trying to protect her, so she had the familiar do as asked. She also hesitated to practice her mana now, given that the guard seemed capable of, like, sensing hers, or something. Which meant she now had, like, nothing she could do. So began a long night, where Lilussees had to just lie there and wait for her body to grow tired enough to sleep on its own…

***

The next morning, the woman gathered the spider into an enchanted cage, and took it to report to the lord and lady of the house. The lady crossed her arms and frowned.

“This is…quite the tale. If it were anyone other than Alina, I would have dismissed it out of hand. But if it is true…”

The lord grunted softly.

“What precisely does this mean for our daughter?”

The woman kept her head bowed.

“Permission to speak, my lord?”

“Granted.”

She began speaking with her head still bowed.

“The young lady must have an incredible instinct for magic to have done this before she could even be conscious of her actions. And the amount of mana I felt within her is unheard of for an infant. She may even have a special blessing.”

The lady raised an eyebrow while covering her face with a fan.

“That is quite the opinion.”

The lord furrowed his brow.

“And the spider? Is it dangerous?”

The woman nodded.

“The autopsy indicated the assassin was killed via a toxin of some sort. A monster spider may have been capable of such a thing.”

The lady glanced at the spider.

“And…your opinion?”

“Dangerous, but not to the young lady. A familiar will not harm the one it is bonded with. It is more a danger to those around her, as she is certainly not old enough to control it. It does appear to be intelligent to a degree.”

The lord rubbed his chin.

“And if we get rid of it?”

The woman made a small frown.

“I would not recommend that, my lord. From what I understand the loss of a familiar can be trying, depending on the character of the mage. I would not expect a young infant to respond well to such a loss so early in her life.”

The lord continued rubbing his chin and hummed faintly.

“If your speculations are correct…then this creature may have ended a threat to our house and could prove a potent asset. It shall be contained for as such time as my daughter is capable of utilizing it properly. See to it that it is safely secured.”

The woman bowed her head low.

“As you wish, my lord.”

The woman left to deal with the spider, while the lord soon returned to his work. The lady, meanwhile, turned to look out the window as she fanned her face.

“Interesting. Most interesting. At first, I thought it a shame to have a daughter first, but if she shows this much promise already…I could work with this. No, a daughter might even prove better…I must adjust the arrangements for her education. My dear Lilussees, I look forward to seeing you grow…”

She allowed herself a small grin and a quiet laugh under her fan…

***

Lilussees awoke to find her familiar in, like, a bit of a situation. The spider was now placed within a glass container that appeared to be, like, enchanted, based on the mana flowing through it, or something. Well, it was, like, good that it was still alive but it certainly wasn’t going to help defend her anymore.

She, like, decided to be a bit more careful with her mana practice. She may have killed one attacker, but her body was still, like, incredibly weak, and she couldn’t imagine her mana compared to the adults around her. Her defenses only worked if, like, nobody knew about them, or something. So, from then on, Lilussees mostly just circulated and manipulated her mana within her body, refining her control and improving her reserves. She would just have to, like, hope the new guards were up to standard.

Fortunately, it appeared they were, for no further assailants arrived in her room. And so, Lilussees carried on with her life undisturbed. Though, since she was now, like, reliant on them for her survival, or something, she started paying a bit more attention to the humans around her. She slept, she ate, she slept, she practiced with her mana, she slept, she occasionally entertained the adults’ attempts to communicate with her, and she slept some more.

And so, time passed, and Lilussees’s body continued to grow. She regained some mobility, and her babbles began to resemble words. Her mana continued to grow, and, most importantly…

The skill Rest I has become Rest II!

She made progress on her dream. Soon she was, like, used to her new life.

Or so she thought…

Author’s Note:

Oh look, another one. I was, like, going to time skip, or something, but it turned out there was a bit more to cover here. Next time, I guess!

Well, everything seems to be going well for Lilussees! Sleep, food, and protection all without any e-word at all! Being a human is kind of nice, right?

…right?

Anyways!

Will the humans adequately protect Lilussees? Can she find more ways to protect her current life? What does the future have in store for her? Tune in next time, to find out!