Chapter 224: Always have a backup plan

I slept pretty well. 

For once Marg was still asleep. 

She looked way too cute in her sleep. 

I kind of wanted to poke her around and squeeze certain things, sniff certain parts and kiss her, and stuff. Lately, my fantasies were kind of getting overboard. 

But- I didn't do any of that, just settled for a light kiss on the forehead, and slowly got out of bed without waking her. 

I tiptoed out of my room.

Mom and the bunny were in the kitchen. I caught a glimpse of Auntie helping them. No one else was up yet. 

I went outside and though it wasn't freezing, it was cold. 13 degrees was never fun. 

***

"Wow!"

And we now had a garden in front of our house. Our whole yard was filled with trees, flowers, small animals like squirrels, and all kinds of stuff. 

And grandma was planting more and more trees. I actually didn't know what kind of powers she had, after all, I never got to know her that well. 

Well, I certainly knew now. 

"Morning!"

"Good morning Helio, how're you feeling?"

I thought grandma would just return the gesture and move on to what she was doing. But instead, she just got up, stopped and came my way with a blank face.

"I'm fine. What about you? And I see you've decorated our yard."

It actually looked pretty good too.

"I'm fine too. I took the liberty of making your yard beautiful. However, if you should disagree with me, feel free to point out any flaws-"

"No, no, it's fine. Feel free to decorate it however you please."

One, I didn't care. And two, I did not want to argue with this woman, no sir! 

Actually, now that I kept on talking to her, she was more or less just like mom: maybe just a bit more expressionless. She looked roughly forty-five, but she was much older than that. Mom herself was in her late thirties but if these two put on enough makeup they could have easily convinced anyone that they were sisters. 

Okay, maybe not but they'd be very close.

Seriously, something was wrong with the women of this family or I was just going crazy. 

"I'll go run for a bit."

"Right. You should always exercise. I've been saying that to your uncle for ages but that moron never listens. He'd rather spend a day in a forest fighting monsters than exercise."

I smiled awkwardly. How the hell was I supposed to respond to that. And why was she suddenly being so talkative? What happened to her?

'Is it possible that I was just assuming things without verifying?'

Well, it certainly was possible. I had a knack for complicating things.

Grandma went back to her work and I started my jog. 

***

It was pretty early and some middle-aged guys were starting to get out of their houses and jog too. 

I'd have to go the Battlesuin mansion today: the evening tea party. We were roughly an hour and forty minutes ahead of them. So, I guess if we took the plane around noon, we should have been fine. 

Marg couldn't teleport more than two people at a time, so teleportation was out of the question. 

Running alone felt nice. There weren't many running towards the edge of the city, so it was even nicer.

Huff! Puff!

I stopped for a second. I was almost at the end of the town. I'd run pretty far as I was too concerned with all this. 

I tried catching my breath as I stared at the blinding white landscape of the snowy plains. There weren't any houses nearby and the fields were empty.

I had no plans to drag my family into this. And I wasn't going to either but- but after last night, I didn't have a choice. After all, I couldn't say no to them. 

I wanted to grow up and I wanted to become independent. But I couldn't deny my love for my family and I couldn't deny their love for me. 

'So, let's make sure I don't regret this.'

"Enira!"

"Yes?"

"Why do you show up behind me?"

She had a knack for teleporting behind me and wrapping her arms around my neck. And whenever she did that, stuff got pressed. 

She was definitely doing that on purpose. 

"Oh, you want to take me from the front?" She giggled.  And she actually did stand in front of me, arms wrapped around my neck.

And this time stuff pressed against my chest. 

"And you want me to kick your butt?"

"Sure, I'd love to!"

Sigh. I just threw her off of me.

"Anyway, let me hear your thoughts."

"About what?"

"Let's just say I have a feeling you already know her. Since you know grandma and the eye contact you kept on making with the headmaster kind of made it clear that you also know Hyora too."

It was just a guess on my part but this dragon-snake thingy was old and anything with enough time had a definite probability of happening. 

Enira laughed for a minute. "Well, you're not too far off. However, I'm not comfortable with saying anything about that. But you want to know about your chances, right?"

"Well, I certainly can't deny that."

Enira stood to my left. "You've got a fair shot. And if your family tags along, you're guaranteed to win, assuming nothing goes wrong."

"But it's stupid to assume that."

"Correct." She stood shoulder to shoulder: actually, our shoulders were slightly touching. "Nothing ever goes according to plan. That's why you should always have backup plans in case something goes wrong."

I guess she spoke from experience. 

"I do have one and that's-"

"Making a deal with the shadow?"

I chuckled. "I've been thinking. All of them are part of me, right?"

"They are."

"So, they should love my family as much as I do, right?"

"I don't know. Two siblings born in the same family, in different atmospheres, might have different perspectives and different ideals. Even if they were raised exactly the same, they'd still have different opinions."

I let out a sigh. A rough cloud of mist evaporated in front of me. Boy was the cold catching up. "But- I think if something really goes wrong and I'm out of options, I could work something out with him. I could-" I took a deep breath. "You could make much stronger barriers than me. Would you protect them in case something happens?"

Enira's usual glee was gone and she looked at me, utterly serious. "But of course. But try to make sure, nothing goes wrong. They already know you possess seals and powers hidden in you, meaning they'll have ways to counter that. And as your uncle said, they also have a stone that could potentially counter your very powers."

"I want to say we'll figure out something once we get there but, I'm kind of lost." I chuckled. 

"But that's only natural." She grinned. "I could absorb most powers they have and I got some special ones from those fancy stones you kept on feeding me. So, you can expect big things from me." She puffed up her chest. And boy were they bouncy!

I stretched and yawned. "Let's go." And as I turned around. "Thanks…" I whispered.

I ran without looking back.