Chapter 243: Chocolate- chocolate? Chocolate!

The girl was done crying but she sure was still ordering me around. Little girls with golden hair always reminded me of Elsa. And I more or less liked to take care of that brat- though I hated to admit it. So, I naturally came along with this kid. But I sure hell wasn't going to go around searching for chocolate- chocolate? Chocolate!

"And where might I find the chocolate?"

"What are you, new or something?" She sniffed. "In the closet."

It was funny how she didn't even bother to comment on why the hell I was wearing a bathrobe. I guess she didn't care. It was warm so I didn't care either. 

Poor kid must have been hit pretty hard. Her left cheek had three distinct finger marks. Just what kind of monster hit a kid like that? Then again, the kid was kind of arguing about succession and all that, I guess she was more mature than she looked. 

'But wait, doesn't that mean she actually hates me without knowing me?' I let that thought not bother me at all. Chocolate mattered more anyway.

I opened the closet and well, there were chocolate, coco powder, cream, powdered milk, and even espresso powder. In the corner, there were sugar and salt.

I grinned, got a nice big cup, dropped some chocolate, some coco powder, some milk powder, cream, some sugar, and the rest of the stuff appropriately, and turned on the heat- aka, microwave. I located some milk in the fridge and butter. I also used those- obviously to very nice proportions. With a little bit of salt and espresso powder, the coco let out a very rich aroma which exhilarated me. 

This was a bit too thick so I thinned it out with some milk.

I poured the hot stuff into three cups, added some marshmallows, and handed one to Marg and one to the kid.

We all took a sip.

Bliss!

"This is amazing!" The kid sure was amazed. "But why are you drinking it?"

"Because I made it. And she's my future wife, so I let her experience the magic too." 

She was maybe ten? Eleven? My little sister was rather cute at that age and kind of an idiot, so I went out of my way to explain things to this kid in Elsa's image. 

My sister nowadays was a pain though. Why couldn't she be cute forever? Sigh.

Wait… I thought about it… I thought about things… I thought about how I acted around Elsa and how I acted around other people when Elsa was around… I thought hard. 

And this is when I came to the realization… 'Holy shit, I have a siscom!'

I was very much silenced by my own premonition. 

The kid took another sip. "Servants aren't allowed to drink but I'll allow this just this one time since this is so good. You may now leave. And come back in an hour!"

"Sure- sure." 

I was definitely not coming back no. I was kind of being treated like a butler, but it was my fault for wearing this and not saying anything in the first place, so I didn't care. Besides, I got to drink free chocolate.

"What was she saying?" Marg whispered.

Oh yeah. She couldn't understand Russian. "Nothing, really."

Since I got my hot chocolate first thing in the morning, I didn't really care about anything else.

Though I guess I had to treat Elsa a bit more carefully- at least not overly clingy from now on. Though I doubted, I was that clingy.

Once we came out, again cold! I guess the rooms were warm but the halls weren't moderated. But at least there was chocolate!

***

After about half an hour of mindless exploring, mom caught up and dragged me by the ear to a rather warm room.

My ears stung; they really did.

But she wasn't done!

I groaned as she let me go. "It hurts you know."

We were still in the mansion: I had no idea where though.

"And it should! Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

"No?"

She hissed and I took a step back by instinct. 

She sighed. "Your stuff's in here. Go change and get your things. We'll leave before the afternoon."

"Wait, we're leaving already?"

I didn't even get to explore! Not that there was much to explore but I never even got to steal- ahem, take their treasures and all that for financial purposes. 

"Stop acting like your uncle. And do you wanna be stuck in this freezing hell forever? Besides, you've got classes and we still have to earn our living."

Huh? What?

"Why can't we use this money? I mean-" I mean, a very motivational factor of my fight was the money, so I could live easily with my family.

"And let you laze around? You'll work and earn, mister!" Mom was serious. "Besides, I'll have to find a job too…" She mumbled.

"But I did work. How do you think we won?" My argument wasn't very strong though.

"Shut it! You'll study and get a job! Didn't you want to become an explorer or something!?"

Oh yeah, that was a thing too. With all the recent developments, I most certainly had forgotten all about it though. 

Sigh. "Fine, but I'll at least take their supply of chocolates. They have amazing chocolates here." Just thinking about 'em made my mouth water.

"Oh? So, you've had chocolate? And now that I look carefully, you're wearing a butler's uniform under that robe…hmmm… care to explain?" Mom smiled, one of her veins bulging slightly. She must have lost a bit of weight. 

I gulped.

Why the hell did I have to open my big mouth?

***

We had lunch in the same room. Everyone joined us. Everyone except Eve, Leilis, and Selene. Since they'd come here alone, they went back on their own too. I never got to properly thank them. Though two of them almost did attack me. 

This room didn't have a dining table but grandma formed one anyway.

We talked over lunch and for once, it was actually not that bad. 

Though- 

"Since you did most of the work, I'll let you have half. We'll split the rest." Uncle proudly declared as he grinned at me.

Uh-huh.

But I couldn't say anything as mom grinned back just as nicely. 

"F-fine." Uncle stuttered slightly. "60 but that's all you'll get, you know."

I got a feeling the guy didn't understand what mom was implying but oh well. More money for me- or not, as I won't get that money anyway. 

Moving on, another topic was that now what would happen to the Battlesuins. 

I had my saber and it worked flawlessly but Enira wasn't coming out. I had a feeling she used too much power last time. So, we had no idea how long father had. 

He was only supposed to have about a day or two. But it's already been like four days, so Enira probably had done something. How effective that something was, I still didn't know. 

"I think I'll be able to live for about a month or two," Father admitted. Okay so, he knew, I guess. He sighed. "Would it be okay with you guys if I were to stay with you for this last month?" He looked at mom and me. This was a bombshell of a question and he just had to casually drop it.

And then mom looked at me and the rest of her family: no one said a word. This was apparently, a tough decision for her. "I'll need to think about it."

Though she wanted to think about it, judging by her tone of voice, there was only one answer. "It's fine by me. But are you sure everything will be okay here?" I asked. 

It did bother me slightly. I knew he did a lot for me and I knew me harboring hate was illogical and unjust… But hate never disappeared immediately- it was impossible. That's why I made it sound like I didn't care about him moving in with us- in reality though, I wanted to spend the last of his days together with mom- with us. 

Elsa was sitting next to me and eating slowly. She didn't say a word so far. Normally she'd be really chatty- I guess this was kind of hard on her too. 'And then there's that too.'

"It should be fine for now. With Hyora gone, I'm technically the strongest in the family- though you are probably the strongest now, so they won't try to do anything funny, at least not in the immediate future." Father chuckled. 

We didn't talk past that. Uncle and auntie were quiet. Usual for auntie but unusual for uncle. As for Grandma, she was just eating lunch without a word. Marg, mom, and Elsa were also quiet- but this wasn't the awkward kind of quiet. They actually had this- smile. It was really hard to tell, but I knew they were glad. 

Or maybe I was just full of myself. 

All in all, this actually didn't feel that bad. We'd accomplished what we were here to do but- I did feel slightly empty. 

Maybe it was just me but- it was almost as though the seal Hyora had done to me had a lot of weight and now that it was gone, I felt light. Too light.