748 How you doin?
[Eon's POV: ]
The gate shined with the same blue that all of us were familiar with and the ancient magical words that were drawn all around it shined with special shade of blue as a spiral appeared inside of the gate and... as we all saw, two people walked out first.
"Oho. Who do we have here~."
Jenet and our poet Ginger were the first ones to walk out of the gate, and right after them, President and vice president Cradle walked out of the gate.
The four of them were part of our circle, and someone Anna had always wanted to meet herself for a while now... but they weren't the guests she had been waiting for.
"Hello~. Hello~. You must be the vice president Cradle, right~. Hello and welcome to our house~.
Where's Mirror?
And you are mister president, correct~? Where's the one you call SanSan~?"
For this little sister of ours, the two of their familiars were the true guests that she had been looking forward to meet for a while now. Actually, ever since she first heard the stories about a cute colourful snake from Rein, she had been wanting to meet this special snake that understood everything one said and could use special magic.
'Mirror was a special bloodline, a unique creature that Anna knew nothing about until Zoe spent a few hours explaining her all about them.'
And after learning of the unique way of communication that Mirror uses, Anna was begging us to bring them with us.
'She wanted to meet the two of them, as well as their masters, certainly, but the attraction this little sister of mine had for the energy beast was second only to the love she had for me and the others.' Follow current novels on novelb((in).(com)
She loved being around them... and it was perhaps her destiny to be with them as well.
But who knows about the uncertain destinies.
"Ohhhh! President Zodiac! Vice president~. Even Jen and Ginger are here~! Hello~."
Zoe went ahead and greeted them first after picking up Anna and handing her to me.
The way she shamelessly asked them about their familiars was no good thing. And it wasn't right either.
"As a host, you must greet the guests first, Anna. That was not the proper behaviour."
"But... Mirror and-"
"Shhhh. Do you want your big sister to scold you or something? Can't you tell she is angry?" The little one shook her head with a worried expression hurriedly, and hugged me back.
Her dress was a mess, her hair looks greasy, and she was exhausted from all the things she had been doing since dawn.
Even right now, she asked about the familiars first without even a proper greeting.
'Zoe wanted to scold her right here and right now, but since this little sister of mine had asked them to postpone all the scolding and punishments, she was controlling herself.'
She is the only one among us that could openly scold her and be harsh with her. But today belonged to Anna. So, she did not want to ler her emotions get the best of her and make Anna sad.
Not today, at least.
"Alright. Go stand back for a minute. I will bring them to you, alright?" I whispered in her ears and put her down.
"Alright..." and she nodded with that slow answer and ran to the back, and joined her group of creatures.
She was just like a fantastical princess with many animal friends... and some slime fiends, some Povpoi, a lizardman, and a few other creatures.
She was amazing to have that kind of influence on so many of the creatures at the same time. Perhaps, she really will become the light this world will need in the near future.
'We don't know the future...'
I walked forward and stood before 'our' president and vice president.
"How're you two doing?" With a warm look and low voice, I asked while hugging both of them together.
"A little better," answered President Zodiac, but as if an arrow had already left the bow, Cradle spoke up against those words.
"He's lying. He was all sad and mopey till last night."
She said it slowly so only a few of them heard her, but President didn't like her quick protest.
"You are the one to talk. Should I tell him what you did last-"
"Shut the hell up, Zod. We have already talked about this."
"Yes we have, but you did that thing-"
Jenet lifted their ring hands, and their ring fingers that used to be empty until the last time we saw them, now contained a... "Wait. Are those...?"
There should have been rings on those fingers, but no. There were no rings but instead... small chain like bands.
"He wanted to be more poetic but didn't know what to do... so this little dummy made these chains. Pretty, right?"
They were pretty... normal, I would say. The craftsmanship wasn't anything too attractive.
It was obvious a novice made them. But that was beside the point.
"Ginger? You know about the eastern tradition?"
"What... eastern traditions?"
They were pretty... normal, I would say. The craftsmanship wasn't anything too attractive.
It was obvious a novice made them. But that was beside the point.
"Ginger? You know about the eastern tradition?"
"What... eastern traditions?"
"You don't know? The ancient ChoiYe kingdom's national tradition?"
"What are you talking about, Lord Axion?"
Giving the chain like rings as wedding rings was a infamous traditional ritual performed by a couple who are expecting deaths.
It was a rare transitional ritual where the chain like rings that they put on their partner's finger signified their will to stay together even after they pass away.
'It was mostly performed by the couple who knew they were about to die, or by the couple who were ready to end their own life after one of them passes away so that they could stay with their love even after the death.'
It sounded romantic, but in truth, it was not.
Since they were bound with one another, they were bound with this world and their souls never went to the afterlife.
'Both souls wandered the world as souls, some even becoming monsters or evil spirits that later haunted the physical world and the normal people.'
It was considered a dark ritual... so as soon as I saw those chain like rings, I remembered an old story grandma told me a long time ago.
But it was inapplicable in this context.
"Ahem, it's nothing to worry about. This way of proposal just reminded me of an old tribal tradition from a small part of the eastern continent.
We can talk about that later, so... congratulations! When did all this happened~?"
They didn't even know what I was talking about much less this ritual.
The rings were only a coincidence, a bad coincidence.
"Haha, it was last night... it's only been a few hours so you all are the first ones to know~."
"Oh my? Even count and countess doesn't know yet?"
"Unfortunately, no. They have gone out because of some urgent business so they would be returning by tomorrow.
We are planning to tell them then."
"Oh~. A surprise is always better with these kind of things~."
She was talking with us until now, but mom, my aunts and other ladies came out of nowhere and pushed me away... I had expected something like this.
This was an engagement we were talking about. And the fiancée was none other than the harsh critique of compositions, one of the prodigies that the world knew about.
'It was unbelievable how the proposal came form Ginger though. I personally thought it would be her that proposed first.'
They were a couple for a few years now, many of us alredy know that. Especially everyone from the academy.
But... now that their 'relationship status' had upgraded from just lovers to soon to be wedded lovers, I know for a fact these ladies aren't going to leave them alone.
Anna's tea party is even the perfect place to talk about this kind of things, and other kind of things so, they were going to chat now.
And their chat is most probably going to go on till night as well, which mean I should tell the kitchen staff to start preparing for the dinner as well.
We should all have a candlelight dinner tonight...