Chapter 393 – Progress and understanding
Chloe decided to have a chat with Mira because she wanted to find out more about the person who had turned out to be her mother to see if she should give her a real chance to make up for the lost time and to get some much-needed answers. The pink fox had already learned how her parents met each other and why they decided to let her reincarnate through them. Chloe was very thankful for that, but she still had yet to determine whether she could forgive the overseer for not having been part of her life until now.
“Alright, enough of a break!” Sounding highly motivated, Chloe faced her mother again. “Let’s continue!”
“Of course.” Mira smiled at her. “What should I tell you next?”
"I want a coherent and in-depth explanation of why you two decided to mess up so catastrophically after I was born." She was not smiling.
"A-Ah...” The teal fox’s expression turned quite complicated. “L-Let me correct my earlier statement a little... There’s also a lot of Fey’s personality in you, as well. Let's see... Where to even start? There were so many mistakes when looking back at it."
“No kidding!” Chloe actually sounded quite annoyed.
“Once again, I am deeply sorry and regretful...” Mira had nothing else to add. "At the beginning, we did rather well. We lived inside my domain during the pregnancy and the first seven or eight months of your life. In fact, it was in the same cottage you and Steph visited me the other day. We wanted to have this special time just for us.”
"And afterward, it was okay to ditch me?!" She got properly angry.
“No! It was never okay! It never will be, either!” The overseer raised her voice. “P-Please let me finish trying to explain it before you judge our actions... You have every right to be angry, but this definitely was not my intention!”
“Mhmn...” She started grumbling before letting her continue.
“Right after you were born, basically every overseer in charge came to visit us multiple times. It was the first time an overseer had a child with someone normal, and it wasn’t something supposed to be possible, so everyone was extremely curious about you. Not that normal is a word that could be used to describe Fey. In all the best ways, of course. Especially the overseer of life had been extremely fascinated. Well, I couldn’t really blame her. It’s kinda her thing, after all.”
“I was that popular of a baby?”
“That’s a fascinating way of wording it, but that was more or less the case, yes.” She lightly rolled her eyes. “Because of them, Fey and I started thinking about how it would turn out if the general public found out about you when all those overseers got this excited already. We feared that people would’ve started swarming you. Of course, Fey and I would’ve put an end to it immediately, but it's hard to blame them, too. I mean, many people like the overseer of magic quite a lot, and I'm really happy about that, too. Also, no matter how cool you think it is now, being the child of someone, uhh... important, as a baby, I doubt you would've enjoyed it overly much being surrounded by a literal swarm of people.”
"Well..." Chloe scratched her cheek. "Baby me probably wouldn't have understood their intention and got scared. Baby Chloe was an idiot, after all.”
“That was the point. The getting scared part, I mean. Babies are unable to understand things like that. Canir was the main reason we began to doubt the idea, though.”
“What does he have to do with any of that?”
“Once he heard about our plan of raising you down here, he got really excited and kept saying that we should definitely do that.” Mira paused for a moment. “If that guy, a lover of chaos and in constant want of the best entertainment possible, is in love with your idea, you know that something is up...”
“Ahh... Sophia often describes Canir in a similar manner whenever he comes up...”
“She knows him quite well.” The overseer reacted with a wry smile. “All of this made us think about the situation a lot. In the end, we decided that it would be best for Fey to, officially at least, raise you on her own. Even after you two left my domain, I was still constantly with you. It was mostly during your sleep later on because we, mostly I, thought it would be beneficial for you not to be aware of my existence.”
“And that was a massive, MASSIVE mistake!”
“L-Look...” Mira’s voice got more emotional. “I know it’s hard to believe, but I love you above everything. The time the three of us spent together in my domain means more to me than everything I’ve accomplished in my role as the overseer of magic. It was insanely rough for me to see you grow up without knowing me, as well. We only wanted the best for you in order to have an easy and worry-free childhood. The entire world knows and relies on me, though. That’s an insane burden for a child to deal with. Our only goal was your well-being by staying out of the spotlight. I never liked that decision. I hated it. I loathed every second of it, but... but look at how you turned out to be.”
“Well, now I imagine how amazing I would’ve ended up being with both parents.” Chloe forced a smile. “Not that one isn’t enough, Feyfey was the best! Still... but you know what I mean.”
“D-Don’t you dare and start crying now!” She started panicking. “I can’t deal with stuff like that!”
“Then stop being such a good girl...”
“There’s no reason to complain about that!” The pink fox started pouting. “Also, that’s Feyfey’s fault.”
“I think she’ll gladly take the blame for that. She did a way too good job.”
“Ehehe~.” The complaint was complimenting her, too, after all. “Oh, how about I get a little selfish to make you feel better?”
“I’m not entirely sure how I like that.” In the end, Mira was still her mother. “I am listening, though.”
"I'm pretty sure I'll like you much faster if you tell me some good secrets about magic!”
“Is that so...?” Her voice turned complicated. “I’m not sure if I like that...”
“That isn’t going to work at all!” Chloe smiled at her. "I was just testing! I'm not that cheap!"
“There’s just no way I was going to imply that, either!”
"I know~." Her mood had significantly improved throughout their conversation.
“G-Good.”
“Hehe~.” Smiling a good bit, the pink fox stood up and walked over to Mira before wrapping her arms around her while giving her a good hug. “This is a good start, though!”
“I... I really am happy to hear that.” Mira sounded incredibly moved again. She immediately returned her daughter's hug, as well, and the two stayed like that for a moment.
“That being said,” Without letting go of the overseer, Chloe’s voice turned a little mischievous. “You did miss a lot of my birthdays, you know? There are a lot of outstanding presents there. Don't forget the interest rate, either! So, about those good secrets about magic...”
“You’re serious this time, are you not?”
"I always am!" A certain blonde tiger had already rubbed off on her. "Well, mostly..."
“L-Let me think about something first, okay...?” Mira couldn’t say no to her.
“Okay!” She liked the sound of that. “By the way, it’s one secret per missed birthday!”
"A-Ah.”
"And another one each for every other important event in my life you weren't with me!"
"..."
As the tense mood from their conversation was now fully gone, once they were done with their hug, the two returned to their previous positions and continued to chat in a more relaxing manner. After all, they still had to get to know each other better.