esw C2 P11 12 13 (Patreon)

Part 11

Not long after Nia went upstairs, her miserable shriek rang out.

"What happened?"

Aker suddenly had a bad feeling. He dropped the tool in his hand and rushed up the stairwell. Gurley was also close behind.

There was only one suite on the second floor of the pub. So the entire second floor of the entire pub was Nia's room. But now Loulou and Lynn also lived in.

Nia was at the door of her room at the moment, kneeling on the floor with a crying expression, and it seemed that there were girls talking and laughing from the room.

"Well, nothing bad seems to have happened... They are clearly laughing and talking."

Gurley shrugged.

"You shut up!" They drank the wine I had kept for five years! It was meant to be used to celebrate my birthday..."

Nia knelt down on the floor weakly and covered her face while sobbing.

Aker looked into her room. The overall color of the room was pink, which was very girlish, but it didn't quite fit Nia's age.

The floor was covered with a fluffy square mat instead of a wooden floor, so people wouldn’t catch a cold even if they just slept on it.

And right in the middle of the room, Loulou and Lynn alone were holding a cup filled with some kind of liquid, and they seemed to be deliriously talking about irrelevant topics. Their cheeks were all red, obviously, they were drunk.

"These two girls... I obviously put the wine bottle on the top of the cabinet! How did they find out..."

Aker walked into the room, and the whole room was filled with a fruity fragrance. He picked up the empty bottle that had fallen on the ground and sniffed it. He was convinced that the sweetness that permeated the room was the smell of this wine.

"It's so sweet... is this really wine?"

"This is probably the bottle of the supreme fruit wine that the lady boss has been showing off to me. It is said that it was made from fruits harvested from the orchard. This bottle seems to be the one she values the most!"

Gurley spoke the truth in a tone of indifference.

"Hehehe..." Nia, who had been kneeling on the floor and sobbing, stood up swaying as if her soul had been taken away. With a burst of sullen laughter, she said, "fine then... now that  you are drunk, this debt, you can repay it with your bodies!"

Suddenly inexplicably cheered up, Nia rushed into the room, picked up Lynn with her left hand, and Loulou with her right hand, and turned happily and rushed down the stairs.

Aker stared at Nia who had a sudden emotional outburst dumbfounded.

"What will happen to them..."

"At most, the lady boss will let off steam with their bodies. There won't be any big problem anyway."

"It sounds like a big problem! But if I intervene, I will definitely be affected, right?"

"What do you think?"

"...I think I will wait until Elder Sister Nia calms down first."

After quietness returned downstairs, Aker and Gurley quietly returned to the first floor along the handrail of the stairs.

There was a vague sound from the bathroom behind the stairs that made Aker very worried.

"I hope Elder Sister Nia doesn't overdo it..." Aker sighed. But even if she overdid it, she who was also a woman wouldn't be able to do anything to them, right? "But, uncle, you are really obedient today. I thought you would definitely run to peep or something."

"I tried it a long time ago. But if the lady boss is there, it is better to give up. I don't want to lie down in the basement for three days."

"Even if the lady boss is not around, I will definitely send you to lie down in the basement for three days if you dare to do it."

Gurley sighed pretentiously, then sat back at the bar and started pouring wine into the glass.

He just took a sip, and then his gaze fell on Aker's right wrist.

"What is on your wrist?"

"You mean this?" Aker raised his right hand, and the silver-white wrist bracer was shining under the light of the bar. "This is a farewell gift from my dad. It should be a kind of magic equipment. Even if I don't have any magic talent, I can still use it easily. "

"Oh, You said before that you were born in the village at the foot of the Waren Mountains?"

"Mhm."

Gurley held up the wine glass in his hand silently, pressing the rim of the glass against his lips. But he seemed to be thinking about something in his heart, and he didn't drink the wine.

"By the way, Loulou also got a necklace that looks like a piece of magic equipment from home. But when she tried to infuse magic power into it, it didn't work. Maybe it is just ordinary decorations. "

"Can I have a look?"

"Wait until she comes out of the bathroom, she has always been wearing that necklace around her neck."

"Oh."

Gurley didn't continue drinking, but looked in the direction of the bathroom.

"You finally can't bear it and want to peep..."

"Sort of."

Although he said casually like a joke, Gurley didn't show much smile on his face.

Part 12

A cloud of water vapor poured out of the bathroom behind the stairs.

Nia hummed a tune, and walked out from the shadow of the stairwell with Loulou in her arms, with a satisfied smile on her face.

Loulou was already asleep in the lovely pajamas trimmed with lace, and the characteristic of taking a hot shower for too long was revealed from the slightly flushed cheeks.

That lovely pajamas full of girlish feeling may be the old clothes that Nia wore in the past.

"If you think that it is the clothes that the lady boss bought back for herself, you are wrong, it is actually... Pff!"

Before Gurley's revelation was finished, Nia lifted her foot and kicked him in the stomach without hesitation. He squatted on the ground holding his sunken stomach on the spot.

"Keep talking!" After dealing with Gurley, Nia passed Loulou, who had fainted in the bathroom, to Aker, "Come and hug her."

Aker hugged his younger sister, Loulou's lovely sleeping face turned to his side unconsciously.

At such a close distance, Aker could even feel Loulou's breath blowing on his neck.

The faint fragrance of shampoo or shower gel constantly sounded the alarm in Aker's mind.

He tried his best to look away and avoid looking directly at Loulou's fair, smooth skin.

While Aker was struggling in her heart, Nia hugged Lynn who had also passed out.

She was also wearing pajamas that seemed to be the same as Loulou. With slightly moist bangs attached to her reddish forehead, her moist lips exhaled lightly, revealing a mature charm different from Loulou.

Aker and Nia sent Loulou and Lynn back to the room on the second floor together, and the two of them probably wouldn't wake up tonight.

"Elder Sister Nia, where is the necklace Loulou wears on her neck? It's the one with a blue gem."

"You mean this." Nia took out the delicate necklace from the pocket of Loulou's pajamas. "It looks like a very precious thing. I was worried that it would be broken in the shower and I helped her take it off."

The tear-shaped blue gem shone like a star, as if water-blue liquid was flowing in it.

Aker took Loulou's necklace, returned to the first floor and gave it to Gurley, who had just said that he wanted to take a look at it.

Gurley took Loulou's necklace with both hands cautiously. He carefully and comprehensively examined it, and then placed the necklace on the bar. He put his finger on the surface of the aqua-blue gem and poured his magic power into it.

Suddenly, the sleeping gem burst into a dazzling aqua blue light. Gurley withdrew his finger immediately, and a trace of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Are you alright?!"

Aker hurriedly supported Gurley, who was staggering back. He did not expect Gurley's tentative action to cause such a big reaction. It was obvious that Loulou had tried it so many times before, but there weren't any reactions.

"Aker, what is your surname?"

Gurley called Aker's name directly for the first time, and raised the question sternly.

"Surname?"

Aker has never heard of the so-called "surname". It was a term he had never heard of in his hometown, a border village.

Gurley looked at Aker, no longer as amiable as before. Although it was not cold enough, Aker could clearly feel an invisible gap between him and Gurley.

"There is no special place in our family. We have lived in that village for a long time." Although Gurley became wary of himself, Aker still hoped to explain it clearly to him, "As for my bracer and Loulou's necklace, they are just farewell gifts from my parents. If you know something that we don't know, and if that makes you misunderstand us, then I think I have the right to know whether it is something that can be said or cannot be said."

Now that Nia was sleeping with Loulou and Lynn in the room on the second floor, Aker must learn from the serious-faced Gurley what made him have to put away his smile. At least, what he didn't know didn't seem to be something that he should ignore.

Gurley's deep gaze seemed to have seen Aker through. Soon, the tense atmosphere around him disappeared gradually.

He sat down in front of the bar, pushed Loulou's necklace to the position where Aker had sat before, and signaled him to sit down.

Aker swallowed and sat back next to Gurley. Gurley picked up the wine glass and drank the wine in the glass as usual, and the previous nervousness also disappeared with the wine in the glass.

"Do I look like a very scary and powerful person just now?"

"What……"

The originally tense nerves disappeared completely because of the question Gurley raised with a smile on his face.

"Actually, I just want to know what that your surname is. It is not that I have a hidden intention. But probably you may have not heard of this term in border villages like yours." Gurley explained to Aker with a casual tone, "The so-called Surname is simply the name given to some nobles by the emperor of the Bice Empire. Like the royal family of the imperial capital Augustus, their surname is Yelland, we call their family the Yelland family, the current third and fourth princesses are named Layla Yelland and Zelie Yelland. There are also some other families with given surnames in the nobility. This is the meaning of given surnames. It can be regarded as a part of the big families with special status among the nobles."

"It means that only nobles can have a surname, right? Then why did you ask me that kind of question just now? No matter how I look at it, my family still doesn't look like not a noble family. I might've believed it if you said that my family used to be a noble family hundred of years ago."

"There is such a possibility."

Gurley's tone didn't sound like he was joking.

"The reason I asked you that question was because your younger sister's necklace made me have to think in that direction. This necklace is not an ornament, nor is it a piece of ordinary magic equipment you know, but a magic weapon with greater symbolic significance. "

"This necklace... it is a weapon?"

Part 13

Part 13

Although Aker once imagined that Loulou's necklace might be the same magical tool as his own wrist bracer, he never thought it would be a weapon with lethal power.

"Weapons are just a general concept, but most of the things that are similar to this necklace are weapons that can hurt people. Because they appeared in this world in response to the wishes of the dead souls in the cross-border war. We call them ‘Magic Gears’." Gurley noticed the reaction in Aker's eyes, "It seems you know this term, right?"

Aker had indeed heard of the term "Magic Gear", but he still didn't know the meaning of this term until now.

"I heard Lynn mentioned it before. At that time, she asked me if my pupils of blazing flames were magic gear."

"Oh, you know it from her..." Gurley thought for a while, and then didn't talk about Lynn again. "In short, the magic gear in the Bice Empire is also a symbol that a family has a surname, and only the members of the family can use the magic gear. Just now I suffered backlash caused by the magic of that necklace, because I don't have the blood that it recognizes. "

"What about the pupils of the blazing flames?" Aker linked himself to the silver-white bracer, and the silver-white figure of two pistoles appeared in the magic circle shaped like a certain emblem. "The pupils of the blazing flames are also Magic Gear?"

Although Aker couldn't feel it, Gurley, who had just triggered the necklace, could feel the unique magical fluctuations of the magic gear.

"Yes, your wrist bracer and your sister's necklace are two different magic gears."

"Magic gears..."

The farewell gift given to them by their parents had such a meaning that Aker had a hard time accepting it for a while.

Having lived in that border village for more than ten years, Aker never knew what was special about his family.

Now he knew the meaning of the magic gear and a family that had a surname. But as far as Aker was concerned, even if he knew this, the life trajectory of him and Loulou would not change. Because they would neither become any nobles, nor would they use the power of magic gear outside of self-defense.

"Normally, it is impossible for a family to inherit two different magic gears..."

"Mhm>"

"Nothing, I'm just talking to myself. By the way, is Miss Loulou your biological sister? "

"Mhm."

There was no other answer to this question, only this question Aker could answer without thinking.

"In that case, your blood should be accepted by this necklace, you can..."

"No..." This time, Aker chose to escape, "This is something that belongs to her. I shouldn't touch it. About the true meaning of this necklace, I will tell her some time."

He did not dare to try it. Not worried about the backlash of magic, but afraid of revealing something scary.

He actually heard Gurley's self-talk clearly. On such a quiet night, no matter how small the sound was, one could clearly hear it.

It was impossible for a family to inherit two different magic gears. So, why did Aker and Loulou get the "Pupils of Blazing Flames" and "The Heart of Orchid" at the same time?

…………

The bathroom of the pub was an open-air bath, and one could see the sky full of stars and a bright moon when they looked up.

Aker and Gurley faced each other in the luxurious bath, and the warm water was slowly washing away today's fatigue.

"It seems that tomorrow will be good weather. There are no guests in the pub during the day, and if you want to go sightseeing in the town, the lady boss will agree."

Gurley randomly found topics to enliven the silence between the two.

"Let's see the situation tomorrow."

Aker responded absentmindedly. He had been in this absent state since the beginning.

Nia was probably asleep with Loulou and Lynn in the room on the second floor. Aker and Gurley came to use this bathroom last, and they had to wash it up by the way.

Gurley was not a person who can bear loneliness, he still has not given up talking to the absent-minded Aker.

"I shouldn't have told you so many things just now. Now it seems to be a psychological burden for you."

"No, I am grateful for you to tell me so much, but now my head is a bit messy..."

"Anyway, I have the responsibility. Let me take the responsibility of the big brother and soothe your broken heart!"

Gurley stood up from the bath unpretentiously, waded naked towards Aker without even covering his body.

"Wait no! Don't get near me! Don't face me directly!"

…………

In the pink-toned room on the second floor, Nia was trying various girlish style clothes on the sleepy Loulou and Lynn.

The closet in the corner of the room was filled with all kinds of gorgeous dresses and flamboyant skirts, and Loulou and Lynn had completely become her dress-up dolls.

The noise of Aker and Gurley was so loud that it could be heard from her room. She couldn't help it anymore and walked to the stairwell angrily and yelled at the downstairs.

"You two are too noisy! Your work will double tomorrow!"

The silence downstairs was restored instantly.

…………

Tara returned to her room, closed the curtains, and turned and sat on the edge of her bed.

A heavy book appeared in front of Tara. She stroked the smooth cover lightly, and the book opened automatically in front of her. There was no wind, but the pages of the book were turning. Tara closed her eyes lightly, and a layer of blue light enveloped her and the book.

After a few seconds, the blue light gradually dissipated, and the heavy book quietly closed, turning into magic particles and dissipating in the air.

"Troublesome, all the mess is bumped together. After going back, I must apply for compensation from the principal of the academy!"

Although Tara complained so, her expression was not annoying, but a smile appeared.

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