I looked through a few more memories where Freja was involved, but nothing came of it. A lot of them were just me getting teased and not worth taking note of. However, I still got to learn and experience what it was like to be with my mother.
Even though I didn't grow up in this world, I really felt like I lived through these moments. They felt extremely nostalgic, bringing me close to tears at some points. Even my father, whom I hadn't seen too much, felt dear to me after exploring some of our shared past.
Initially, he was the one personally training me how to fight and use mana. However, he seemed to get busier with running the Fox realm, leaving me to be tutored by others. I also learned that my mother was actually the face of the country, while my father did a lot of the behind-the-scenes work.
It explained why Mother was much more present in my life than he was, and I commend him for it. It would have been nice if I spent more time with him, but I was grateful he wasn't completely absent and still tried to hang out.
Exploring all these memories, I expected it to be the middle of the night by now. Still, as I opened my eyes, Elysia was still there, wide awake.
"Huh?" Sitting up from my lap, it looked like no time had passed at all.
"Oh, you're awake, that was quick." Elysia jumped at my sudden rise, not expecting to see me awake so soon.
"It's only been 30 minutes, I expected you to be out for the rest of the evening." Clara was still scrolling through the system, but instead of a blue screen, it was now black with a purple outline.
"Really? I looked through so many memories this time." I wondered if I lost my sense of time, or did it have anything to do with the memories this time being far less intense?
"Well, hey, more time to spend with us." Elysia smirked and gave me a couple of nudges.
"Not wrong, but first I should tell you that yes, Freja is 100% involved. On the day that I was teleported away from the Fox Realm, Freja was there setting up the barrier." Thinking back to that memory caused my anger to resurface. I would love to pay a visit back to the Freya forest, but that would be suicide.
"That's annoying, good thing we are going through training then." Clara saw the benefit of having Freja as an ally, but now that it looks like she is a traitor, it just means more people that we might have to fight.
Elysia, on the other hand, smiled without saying a word. While I'm sure I hurt her impression of Freja, the latter had helped Elysia a lot, so I expected more of a shocked reaction.
"Indeed, and that's what we need to focus on. Speaking of which, how has your guys' training been going so far?" I hadn't seen any obvious changes, so I wondered what they had done for the last two days.
"Ah, I think I will let Elysia go first, as she actually has something to say about it." Clara's face suddenly turned slightly pale, which was concerning. My first thoughts were that Elysia killed her mentor, but then again I doubted she would still be here in that case.
"..." I stared at Elysia, waiting for her to speak up, but judging by how her face turned dark, it wasn't good news.
"My mentor knows where the rest of my extended family are, and for my training, she wants me to kill them all." Elysia dropped such a bombshell that I didn't even know how to process it. I thought Elysia would be happy to take on such a task, but it seemed to be the opposite.
"Yeah? Isn't that great?" I hoped my question wasn't insensitive, as it looked like she wasn't happy.
"Shaman, don't misinterpret her face, look at her hands." Clara, without my noticing, was all of a sudden standing at the other end of the room. I heard her words and looked down at Elysia's hands to see them shaking like crazy.
"Oh, I se-"
"IT'S FUCKING AMAZING! I FINALLY GET TO AVENGE MY PARENTS AND PAY THEM BACK 10 TIMES OVER!" Elysia burst out into excitement with a manic smile. Her heightened emotions set her flames blazing uncontrollably, which explained why Clara moved away in advance.
I didn't want me or the room to get burned, so I quickly conjured up some water and doused the flames that were manifesting.
"Elysia, calm down!" Clara saw that I was able to keep the flames at bay, so she quickly ran up behind Elysia and smacked the back of her head.
"Ow!... Sorry, got a little too excited." Elysia came back to her senses and got her flames under control.
"It's fine, but save it for when you actually face them." There was a part of me that knew Elysia's crazy side was still there, but it really showed itself then and there.
"Y-yes." Elysia looked away, clearly embarrassed to put on such a display. It was honestly expected at this point, but it had been a while since she lost herself.
"Ahem, now isn't there something else you need to say?" Clara gave Elysia a nudge, indicating there was more than just revenge at play.
"Ah yes, you see, I will actually be leaving soon with Vania, my mentor, to go visit my family. Despite wanting revenge, in order to learn more about my flames, I am going to have to pretend to join them." Elysia elaborated on what her actual training is all about, and it made me raise an eyebrow. I wondered if Elysia was even capable of containing herself long enough.
"Interesting, but what about your weapon training? I thought that would be a major focus." I was also worried that Elysia would miss out on some key training from Vania.
"Don't worry, Vania won't let me leave until she is happy with my skill, but the reason I say soon is because she already thinks I'm ready to go." Elysia pushed the tips of her fingers together, nervous at the kind of reaction she would get.
"Why did I expect anything less?" I rubbed my forehead, wondering why I even questioned that Elysia might not be ready. She was an exceptional student with skills that made it even easier for her to improve, so I really shouldn't be surprised.
"Haha, it's okay, I get surprised by myself too. Anyways, what I was getting at is that I will probably be gone for a while. Vania said about a year or two, which should line up with your guys training as well." Elysia's face saddened, as she wouldn't be able to see any of us, and that alone is a challenge.
"I'm sure you will be fine. Plus, we have full control over the messaging system now, so we can still chat. I might be able to figure out a calling function, but I haven't found that yet. There are like 100 pages of settings, so it might take a while." Clara gave her reassurance while walking back to the bed and giving Elysia a hug from behind.
"I think it's a great opportunity that you shouldn't miss. I would love to be there and help you enact your revenge, but it's for you to complete. If you need help, by all means, call out to us, we do have lovers calls, so worst case scenario, you teleport to us or we teleport to you." There was always the assurance of our shared skill, so hopefully that put Elysia at ease.
"Mhm, you are right, it will suck not seeing you all, but it isn't like we'll be completely cut off." Elysia affirmed in her head the things she still could do, making the decision to leave a bit easier.
"One last thing, though: how the hell does Vania know the location? Are they not some kind of hidden clan?" One detail stuck out to me, and that was how? Vania was a demon elf, so what is her connection to the vampiric Kitsune?
"It's actually rather simple, she escaped from them when she was young, which led her into the Demon lands. Believe it or not, they are located on the border of the Fox Realm, using the fact that no one comes near there to hide."
"That makes some sense, but to even escape the wilderness and make it out alive goes to show how strong Vania must be." Clara's eyes widened when she heard about Vania running into the Demon Lands, as the place had plenty of monsters to go around, not to mention the extreme weather conditions making it almost impossible to survive.
"I don't know her enough to really comment about her strength, but enough about that... I think I deserve some attention before I have to leave." Elysia became much more assertive and crawled towards me until she was inches away from my face.
"Of course, we have to make up for the few years we won't be seeing each other." It was the least I could do for Elysia, and it helped me too, as I will also be suffering from not seeing her.
"Hehe~, thank you." Elysia gestured for Clara to come onto the bed, signifying the start of our last night together for the time being.n0VElUsB.c0m