(Chpt. 35) Misunderstanding.

Alice.

Regarding the release schedule—I will try to keep it the same as before. HOWEVER, and this is a big 'however'. If I don't make it in time, I won't try to upload an extra chapter, or just make up for the chapter. Too stressful, if I make it in time good, if I don't⁠—unfortunate. I just want to make this clear. Worst case scenario if I don't abide by the schedule I would post once a week, and that would be zombie apocalypse levels of worst case. If something unexpected happens in which for whatever reason I cannot keep writing, then I shall just announce it.

Wait what happened? Cecil suddenly called out for the butler, I think his name was Gerard. Gerard was surrounded by guards for whatever reason, I can only assume it was because Cecil was a noble. However, why are they pointing their weapons at us now?! We haven’t really done anything… The butler’s shoulders suddenly tensed up when hearing Cecil and then he hurriedly put her away… I don’t understand what is happening. 

“Emm, what did we do?” I decided to ask having no other option. I noticed the butler narrowed his eyes behind the guards and frowned. 

“Why are you pretending like you did not do anything?! You psychopath!” What is with his sudden behaviour? Psycho?! What did I do? The guards kept their weapons up⁠—unflinching. 

“I really don’t understand what you are talking about…” I quietly informed him.

“Teaching milady to learn mana manipulation and perception through those methods?! Are you insane?!” he snapped. However, what did he mean? I understand Aizen did something weird to her, but how does that make us psychopaths? Besides, it’s not like she is suffering from side-effects- 

“While I don’t understand what you mean. she is fine, isn’t she?” While the butler quietly nodded, he did so while clenching his fist and with a now red face. 

“Enough with the excuses! Guards!” I started to feel their bloodlust cover the air making me somewhat tense. I had no real reason to be in this situation other than some kind of misunderstanding. The guards started closing in; pointing their spears like an unpenetrable wall. I noticed Cecil was petrified and then her eyes widened. 

“Wait!” The guards froze on her high-pitched shout. 

“What’s wrong, milady?!” The butler was flustered as he struggled to keep Cecil under his embrace. She kept swinging her hands around trying to escape him, while he tried to calm her down. The guards also lost their composure seeing her altered state. After a few more seconds of her⁠—struggling she finally broke free and ran in front of the guards. Then she looked at the butler right in the eye. 

“Why are you doing this?” The butler stayed silent as he grit his teeth from her questioning. It looked rather painful for him, well at least that’s what it looked like to me. His face was turning red again and looked at us with a death-glare. However, he still had to answer her question. 

“Isn’t it obvious!? Torturing someone like that is--” Along his sentence, it became apparent that Cecil did not understand until the butler had to stop. 

“Eh?” she let out a confused voice. “What do you mean by torture? Nothing like that happened… Gerard, they are the adventurers that saved me! If it weren't for them I wouldn't be here...” Cecil while flustered⁠—awkwardly cleared the misunderstanding. At this point, everyone in the plaza was looking at the huge drama that was happening. Our group received glares of questioning and pity⁠—the guards received reproachful ones… The butler was frozen, not knowing what to say while hanging his mouth open. After blinking a few times, he straightened herself. 

“James, step back…” he quietly commanded someone. One of the knights gave a signal and all of them moved aside, including him. The butler approached us with cold feet and a pale face. He had just done something quite extreme. Although I was happy about it not getting even more out of hand. I cannot fathom the idea of needing Aizen to freeze the situation because it got too extreme. I quickly took a glance at her; she was quietly looking. I looked back at the butler who was slowly approaching us until he was standing in front of Cecil. 

He gulped and scanned our group once again. He took a deep breath and looked at us again, and again… He kept doing so for a few seconds while opening his mouth every so often but having to close it. Until he finally decided to say something. 

“I-I… I am deeply sorry… about all of this… I don’t think I can make up for this misunderstanding,” he informed us with a raspy yet quiet and weak voice. He had finally calmed down but looked incredibly upset as a shadow cast over his face. 

“Why don’t we take them home?” Cecil suddenly asked⁠—making the butler look at her with a wide-open mouth before quickly closing it and pausing for a second. 

“T-that… well… I suppose...” the butler hesitantly said. I noticed the guards were walking away and returning to wherever they came from, seeing the whole thing had been cleared up. The butler seemed to have remembered something and quietly approached us; kneeling with one knee on the ground. 

“I-I am truly sorry about everything... “ he said as he lowered his head. 

“N-No need.” I was not used to being treated so respectfully. I think it was the first time it has ever happened… Making me feel important is rather awkward. After saying my words the butler raised his head and looked at the three of us in general. 

“M-My name is Gerard, I will be at your service,” he faithfully said and then stood up. He went close to Cecil which made her retract and offered his hand to her. However, she quietly shook her head and walked over to us. The butler looked with cast-down eyes and began walking in a certain direction. It seemed to be northeast of the plaza. Cecil slightly pushed me, prompting me to follow along with everyone. 

“I am sorry,” Cecil quietly apologized to me as we were walking. I just gave her a wry smile and told her to not mind it. I don’t blame her, I could only assume her household was in a turmoil.

“Cecil, how long have you been gone for?” She went into thinking for a second from my question. 

“One week…” she dejectedly informed me. I guess that explained the butler being so shaken in general and the heartwarming reunion that had happened. She basically got kidnapped and was missing for one week so it was no surprise seeing the butler overreact, for the most part… I still don’t understand the psychopath part… 

I really want to know why he would call me that… I feel like that’s the first time I have been called something along those lines… He did say torture. I wonder. 

“Cecil, why was Gerard like that?” I asked while tilting my head. 

“Well… I don’t know, I kind of just told him about Aizen's teaching method and then he became tense,” she said while looking at the ground with dead eyes. 

He did say torture… Yep, this makes no sense at all. I mean Aizen did do something weird. I could only assume she used some of her mana to prompt a change, but I don’t understand how it could be considered torture… I think I should ask him if I get the chance. It would certainly allow me to know what the reasoning was… 

We kept following behind Gerard. I noticed how the cobblestone floor started looking cleaner and newer as we continued.  Eventually, the houses started looking fancier, and instead of being made out of wood⁠—they started being made out of some type of concrete⁠—rock. I stopped. 

“Yami?” Cecil called for me, but I was too busy looking at that⁠— two marble buildings with a snow-like surface, probably the tallest buildings I had seen since I had gotten here. I would say about three to four floors. They were full of windows and had a huge banner with the same crest as the coins. And also a center fountain with three layers for the water to go through. It was too white… Way too white, my eyes started to hurt… I started feeling my body get swayed. I also happened to notice that Ari and Gerard were looking at me awkwardly. Aizen was too busy looking at the white buildings. 

“Yami?” Cecil called out for me again, making me blink a few times. I had been looking at those buildings unmoving for a few seconds… 

“Ah, sorry. We can continue now…” I awkwardly apologized. The butler sighed and so did Cecil, Aizen finally realized what was going on around her. We resumed our walk but it was the first time I had seen those buildings. I did not see people around so I had no idea what they were. 

“That was the magic academy,” she silently informed me. 

“Those two buildings?” I had to ask to make sure. She just nodded in response. Hmm… Well, I can see it being a school. But why so white?! Now thinking about it… The entire capital was like made out of white marble or something… It was unrealistically white… 

After some more walking, I noticed the houses changed suddenly and it became more like a private area. Most houses had a guard or two in front of them, and the houses themselves had at least two floors and were made out of some type of fancy stone. They looked way better than most of the other buildings we had seen previously. I could only assume the houses were expensive. I noticed a guard waving at us in the distance as we kept walking. Then we arrived in front of a house that was probably three times bigger than all the previous ones; made out of some gray stone that looked incredibly durable. It also had two porches below the second floor. that were being supported by three pillars each. They were divided by the entrance itself. I think it was a mansion. Needless to say. The building was quite daunting. I gulped.

“Oh, Gerard, who might these girls be?” the entrance guard curiously asked while looking at all of the unfamiliar faces. Gerard paused and then quickly recovered. 

“They are honored guests…” Well… I certainly don’t mind the idea of being an honored guest, and we did return Cecil. But I don’t understand what is about to come. I noticed the guard looked at Fenri numerous times, however, it kind of just looked like a docile tamed wolf to him so he ended up shrugging and giving a nod of approval. We crossed the black metal gates. 

I did not expect Fenri to get approval. But then again, he is mostly harmless. For the most part… I am pretty sure Fenri is domesticated anyways. He is a pretty smart wolf… Now thinking about it… He did behave in a similar matter in the game, albeit he required commands instead of acting on its own in the midst of battle. So he is technically domesticated? 

We walked inside the mansion with Fenri. Somehow they did not seem bothered despite the floor being mostly covered in a red carpet. I wonder how long it took to clean? Is the carpet even cleaned? All of the walls were white, while I was looking around, I saw a painting of a middle-aged man⁠—brown hair and eyes, with a small mustache. He had slight wrinkles on his forehead and to the edges of his mouth. I looked at the painting for a second or two. 

“Please follow me,” Gerard requested. We followed Gerard to a side room next to the entrance. It had three couches and a brick fireplace in the middle of the wall. Sunlight was brightly lighting the white-walled room from the windows across the fireplace. A pleasant wood coffee table in the center of all the couches. It was within reach from any couch. 

A maid came into the room and prompted all of us to sit. Leaving Cecil and Gerard standing. 

“We need to go report to my lord,” Gerard firmly said as he held Cecil’s hand and took her away. She had some grim face and seemed to be slightly shaking. But nothing that I could do about it. Family is family. A maid brought tea and elegantly served it to us without saying anything and then stood by the doorway. She did look at my eyes for one or two seconds before returning to being a statue. 

“What are we even doing here?” Aizen spontaneously asked.

“Good question…” I did not think this through… it kind of just happened. 

“I am fine with this,” Ari said as she took a sip from her tea. 

I looked at my tea and noticed sugar cubes on a small ceramic plate. I put a lot of sugar⁠—four cubes. It was black tea, and I don’t particularly love the bitterness. After diluting the cubes inside the tea I took a sip. 

“Perfect,” I muttered in satisfaction. I did notice the maid gave me a weird look, but well… It didn’t really matter.