Once Victoria is gone, Sincir releases the breath he had been holding.

  In retrospect, challenging her like this might not have been the wisest idea… But seeing her so close to Ena put him on edge, and he acted without thinking.

  Well, now he just has to hope they’ll be willing to have a civilized talk with him still, and that they won’t turn out to be senseless monsters, who kill for fun…

  Revealing Esme’s name to Victoria was also a gamble. Once he realized Inquiry is their nest, and that Noah is one of them, he thought it wouldn’t take much for the vampire to connect the dots, and had he done so on his own, it’d have been very likely for them to use Esme as a hostage.

  But now, with him having come out and said it himself, they’ll at least hesitate to do so, since they don’t know his identity, or how dangerous he is.

  Furthermore, he already knows where their home is located; It’d be simple to have the information revealed, either on his own, or by telling a third party to do it, in case he doesn’t return from their meeting…

  Of course, all of this assumes they aren’t stupid, in which case they might do the most obvious thing without considering the consequences… But if what Victoria said is true, and they’ve been living in Elderspire undetected for centuries, then Sincir doubts they’re stupid, or mere bloodthirsty killers.

  Furthermore, the library is well cared for; Certainly, a people who love books so much can be reasoned with…?

  Sincir chuckles. If the elves have taught the universe something, it is that intelligence isn’t always a synonym for tolerance, or niceness.

  Sorry, Esme… If he had realized Inquiry was their nest earlier…

  “Sincir!”

  Sincir jumps. Then, looking away from the door, he realizes Ena is heading toward him through the tavern, with murder in her eyes.

  “What did you do?!” she murmurs through clenched teeth, once she is close enough to, “Why did Victoria look so upset after talking to you?! She didn’t even accept her payment before leaving!”

  Oh…

  Sincir smiles awkwardly. “S-sorry, I guess she wasn’t interested… I didn’t mean to upset her.”

  Ena’s eyes widen. “You were hitting on her?! Do you know many losers she must have to refuse, every day!?”

  Sincir cringes; This time, Ena doesn’t bother keeping her voice low, and it rises high enough that he is sure the entire tavern heard her.

  This fucking kid…

  “It takes months to schedule a show with her, did you know that?! I’ve been looking forward to this since we managed to, and now I couldn’t get a single word with her, because of you!”

  “H-hey, rex, you’re making a scene-”

  “Don’t tell me to fucking rex-!”

  Ena’s voice is abruptly cut off as Eleanor grabs her arm from behind and pushes her back a step, meeting her gaze coldly.

  “…Sincir doesn’t do things without reason,” she murmurs after a moment, staring into Ena’s widened gaze as she does so, “And I bet he’s the sweetest talker in this whole tavern, if not in the whole of Elderspire… Do you really think he’d be treated just like another loser by Victoria, if he was actually trying to win her over?”

  Shocked looking, Ena blinks. Then, after a moment, Eleanor releases her arm, and she gnces around, noticing the attention their scene has attracted.

  “I… You’re right. I’m sorry, I w-wasn’t thinking.”

  They aren’t kids anymore, so this much isn’t enough to make her cry, but Sincir can tell she’s upset, and not just a little, as usual.

  He clears his throat. “Okay, listen; I’ve got some things to say to the both of you, so we’ll talk through everything at home, including Victoria. Ena, are you free to go now?”

  Gaze now lowered and expression closed off, Ena nods... Sincir can’t help but notice she has stepped away from Eleanor.

  After the whole fiasco Ena caused (though, admittedly, he had a good part of the fault for it) they don’t dwell for much longer before leaving the Smiling Horse, basically only stopping to say their goodbyes to a worried-looking Hanna.

  The walk home is, to put it lightly, tense and awkward.

  Eleanor soon leaves the two of them behind, her steps determined and her back straight; Basically, her ‘I-know-I-was-too-harsh-but-I’d-rather-die-than-apologize-walk’, while Ena still hasn’t raised her gaze from the ground since they’ve left, all but dragging her feet with every step.

  Given the difference in walking speed, Sincir ends up walking in between the two of them the whole way, while doing his best to inspect their surroundings in order to make sure Victoria hasn’t decided to grab some friends and come back for a more intimate talk with him.

  However small the chances might be, he would rather be too careful, than the alternative… And besides, he hasn’t forgotten about his noble friend from House Barnett.

  All things considered, by the time they arrive home, Sincir is convinced he’s the one who has the most reasons to be annoyed, out of the three of them.

  “All right, you two of you head in first. I’ll go in a minute,” he tells the girls.

  Since he taught them how to deactivate the runes on their own years ago, Eleanor has no problem going in first, though she throws him an inquisitive gnce before doing so, her expression making it clear he better expin himself ter, both for this and for what happened at the tavern.

  The fact Ena simply heads in after Eleanor without asking or saying anything says a lot about her current state of mind.

  Sincir sighs. Well, they’re in for a long talk today, but first…

  Taking a deep breath, he casts the mind spell which expands his mind senses to cover the immediate neighborhood of their house.

  Compared to five years ago, he’s able to do at least this much without getting a headache (also, he’s able to sustain three spells at the same time now, but that’s beside the point).

  Vampires are strange creatures, but they do still possess a mind. And since they’re magical creatures, of a sort, for his senses, they should show up simirly to mage’s Mind Shield in that he’d need to bypass some sort of protection before being able to read their thoughts.

  That being the case, it is easy for Sincir to confirm that they haven’t been followed to their house; At least, not by something magical.

  As for searching through the surface thoughts of the magicless people around, he does so very briefly, and only for the people still outside, which aren’t very many.

  Once he finishes his search, having found nothing out of the ordinary, Sincir also heads inside, closing the door after himself.

  He finds Eleanor in the living room, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. Other than having removed her sandals, she didn’t bother to change out of her party clothes.

  Seeing Ena is nowhere to be found, Sincir grimaces. Didn’t he tell her that they were going to talk?

  “Where is she?” he asks Eleanor, who shrugs.

  “She went in… Hasn’t come back.”

  Sincir is about to go search for her, but then he hesitates. “You,” he says while staring Eleanor in the eyes, “Have come a long way since our time at the orphanage. And I know you did what you did to defend me… But it still hurt her, and I know by now you’ve realized that yourself. You’re not a kid anymore, so I won’t tell you how you should or shouldn’t live your life… But I want you to understand that you won’t become less of a person by admitting a mistake, Eleanor.”

  Eleanor tightens her jaw, saying nothing.

  Sincir sighs. “Anyway, thanks for sticking up for me; Even if the execution could’ve use some work.”

  For a moment, it seems as though she’ll continue being grumpy, but then Eleanor averts her gaze, rolling her eyes. “Whatever,” she murmurs, “I just thought she was blowing things out of proportion… And I admit I could’ve handled things better, myself.”

  Sincir smiles. “Careful now; That almost sounded like an apology…”

  Eleanor snorts.

  “Anyway, don’t go anywhere while I go find our second drama queen.”

  Having said as much, Sincir heads further into the house to search for Ena… Well, it doesn’t take much to find her, since she’s in the first pce he looks, their shared room.

  She didn’t even bother to close the door, and he finds her lying face down on their bed still in her barmaid uniform.

  “…How are you doing?” he asks after staring at her for a moment, knowing she heard him coming up in virtue of her enhanced half-elf hearing.

  “How do you think? I wish that demon had killed me back then; It’d have been a mercy for the world at rge, and for myself.”

  Sincir grimaces, entering the room as he sits on the bed by her side. “Are you stupid? It hurts to hear you say shit like that, you know?”

  “That’s kinda the point,” she murmurs, turning her head to throw him a sidelong gre that reveals red eyes, making it obvious she was crying, “Since it’s your fault for being a shitty older brother.”

  Sincir blinks.

  …Since when did he become her brother?

  Well, at least she didn’t call him her dad or something, and he supposes they have been more or a less somewhat of a family during these past years.

  Sincir sighs. “C’mon... I thought you were going to be excited to find out what’s up with Victoria.”

  Ena buries the face against the bed once more. “What’s the point? I’m just a barmaid. Even if she is a dragon in disguise, or the stupid fairy queen, it has nothing to do with me.”

  Sincir chuckles. “Is that so? Then I guess you won’t mind if I leave you here and go down to talk to Eleanor about it?”

  “…I think I might actually murder you in your sleep, if you did that.”

  He chuckles again. “Yeah, I thought as much.”

  Ena sighs, then shakes her head as she meets his gaze once more. “No matter where I go, I’m the odd kid, the weird one. I try so hard, and at the end of the day, I’m just not enough… Not enough of a human, and not enough of an elf.”

  Seeing the bare pain and frustration in her eyes causes Sincir to sigh. He can’t deny she tries hard to make friends and to fit in, often with little to no success, even in Krador. She has always been a nice, lively girl, but the life she lived thus far has been harsh, and it is no wonder she might be reaching her limit.

  “Hey, listen, I know things aren’t perfect, and maybe that’s my fault, but Hanna is your friend, right? She wouldn’t like to hear you saying these things, either… Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to bottle up your feelings, and it’s okay to cry if you need to, but don’t say you wish you weren’t born, or that you don’t belong anywhere… You were the one who convinced us to get the house, remember? So there’s at least one pce in the world where you most definitely belong, Ena.”

  Ena’s face crunches up, though she stops just short of actually starting to cry again. “Why do you gotta be so damn nice all the time? Sin, you’re such a failure as a demon...”

  Sincir ughs. “Yes, I’ve been told as much before, a couple of times... But then again, the first step to stabbing someone in the back is to earn their trust. Maybe I’ve been just waiting for the right moment to strike this whole time, as the master maniputor I am,” he says with a small wink which manages to bring a begrudging smile out of her.

  Then, after a moment of locked stares, Ena sniffs, finally wiping away her tears, as she shakes her head at him. “Dumbass… Can’t you tell I’m trying my best to stay miserable, over here? What does a girl need to do to be allowed to hate herself in peace?”

  “She’s got to not have met me,” Sincir retorts, “Now get up and come down; We have some things to talk about.”

  Ena bites her lower lip. “She… She still hates me, doesn’t she? I thought we might’ve more in common now, but… For her, it’s no different. She was already alone at the orphanage; I just didn’t realize as much back then, because I was a stupid kid, and she was surrounded by groupies.”

  There is no need to ask who Ena is talking about, of course. However…

  “First off, you’re still a stupid kid, so don’t be so harsh on yourself. And second off… Eleanor told me the clothes she was wearing today were a gift from you. Would you wear clothes gifted by somebody you hate?”

  Ena’s eyes widen. “I… Creator, you’re right! With Victoria there, I didn’t even pay attention to what she was wearing… And this girl! I gave them to her a year ago, and I’m pretty sure this is the first time she ever wore them! No wonder I forgot about it… Maybe she forgot I was the one who gave them to her…?”

  Sincir smiles; Now, this is the Ena she knows, and he supposes, has come to love.

  “Didn’t I just tell you she is the one who told me they were a gift from you? Considering that happened before we left, I seriously doubt she forgot about it while putting them on, only to them remember, right before going out.”

  Ena grimaces. “Fine, then maybe she doesn’t hate me anymore… But would it kill her to show some affection? To treat me differently than the air around her, every now and then?!”

  Sincir chuckles. “You know, maybe she just doesn’t know how… You saw how she acted with Victoria. Ena, you have surprisingly good social skills, but you shouldn’t assume everybody else is the same. Many people struggle with expressing their emotions, and their actions come out differently than intended.”

  “Then, how the fuck am I supposed to tell what she is thinking?” Ena retorts, cocking her head thoughtfully for a moment, before meeting his eyes once more as she continues, “…Sin, teach me that mind magic you talk so much about. Something other than the shield, obviously.”

  Sincir snorts. “Sorry kid, still a couple of decades too soon for you.”

  He has taught her how to build and maintain a Mind Shield already, of course. But other than that, she has learned a grand total of five wind spells thus far, including a basic healing one which should at least be able to stanch the blood of a wound in the case of an emergency.

  Five spells might seem little for a whole five years of practice, but casting a spell isn’t as simple as it seems. Other than learning its formu, one must be able to invoke said formu in their minds without making a single mistake, even while under pressure, and fast enough for it to matter… At least, these are Sincir’s standards for considering a spell as ‘learned’.

  Ena’s first spell took her two whole years, but her second one only a year and a half, and the remaining three she has yet to master, being recent additions she is training with daily, under his instructions.

  Needless to say, she has been very frustrated with her progress so far, in spite of his constantly reassuring in that she is progressing faster than most people would.

  “…Okay, fine, then tell me how you usually do it… I know you can read people much better than me,” Ena says, to which Sincir hums.

  Social skills and how to pick up on social cues are hard to teach. If he could do so easily, he’d have already helped Esme with her issues... Also, he can’t tell what Eleanor is thinking most of the time, either, because the nephilim has a damn good poker face.

  “...Look, if you want to know what Eleanor thinks of you so bad, you should just ask her. No offense, but I doubt you’ll figure it out through any other means.”

  Ena groans. “Have you ever tried asking her anything? It’s like trying to milk water from a stone.”

  Sincir shrugs. “Just make sure you do it while I’m around; I want to see her expression after the words ‘Eleanor, do you love me?’ come out of your mouth.”

  “As if I’d ask it like that, you idiot!” Ena screams exasperatedly, throwing a pillow at him which Sincir easily catches while ughing out loud.

  “Really? Shame, because I’d have paid good money for that… Feeling any better, now?”

  Ena frowns, making one st attempt at retaining her bitter feelings… But then a small smile cracks her lips, and she sighs.

  “Have I said how much I hate you tely?”

  Sincir messes up her hair, causing her to yelp, then rises and nods toward the door. “Come, Eleanor has been waiting for us.”

  Ena sighs again, but she does raise, heading down the stairs with him.

  Arriving at the living room, Sincir finds that Eleanor has not moved from her pce, though she now has her eyes closed, and her head leaning against the wall behind her… She must be exhausted.

  Sincir clears his throat, attracting the attention of both of them, then gestures toward the ground.

  “C’mon; You won’t escape training tonight, just because of a small setback... Though, as promised, we have some things to talk about before we start.”

  Since today is his turn to stay on the side, this is perfect… Otherwise, he might’ve switched with however was supposed to have it instead,so he could be ready to protect the house in the case of an emergency...

  Ena grimaces as she sits cross-legged on the ground, followed by Eleanor, who does so expressionless.

  Standing in front of the two of them, Sincir cps his hands. “You’ve both come a long way these past five years, and I know it was hard,” he starts, “I’m not perfect… Ena, I’m sorry.”

  “I’m grateful you allowed me to eat with a fork, every now and then,” she retorts bitterly, “No, really; I thought you might have me switch to only using a spoon at some point or another, so I was scared…”

  Though his eye twitches, Sincir ignores her. “I realize training you to fight, then not allowing you to do as much is stupid, and that’s why, tomorrow, when I go register myself at the guild, you’re coming with me.”

  Ena freezes, her mouth hanging slightly open from what was most likely about to be some snark reply.

  “…Congrats,” Eleanor murmurs, “On not having to serve tables anymore.”

  Sincir rolls his eyes. “You too, Eleanor. I know you’ve been frustrated with the restrictions I forced on you, but since me and Ena will be coming with from now on… It’ll be dangerous, but I can’t shelter the both of you forever.”

  “You mean… You mean I’ll actually be able to fight something?” Ena murmurs, “You won’t make me carry the luggage, or stay in the back, with a bow?”

  “Don’t give me ideas,” Sincir retorts, grimacing at her as he does so, then shaking his head, “Now, I’ll make something clear from the beginning: I don’t mind if you’re stubborn brats out here, where it is safe, retively speaking, but out in the field, I will not tolerate snap comments or disobedience; If I tell you to retreat, you retreat, even if you have to leave me behind to do it. Do I make myself clear?”

  First, Sincir stares at Ena, his gaze serious enough to have her fidgeting underneath it.

  “…Yes, I got it. I understand fighting monsters is something serious… I almost died st time, remember?”

  “That wasn’t a monster, but sure. And what about you, Eleanor? I know you’re used to having your independence, and I haven’t meddled much, up to now, but I need you to follow my orders during combat, from now on. You think you can manage that?”

  Eleanor stares at him unblinkingly, clear blue eyes showcasing nothing. “As long as they make sense, yes,” she says.

  Sincir grabs at the bridge of his nose and sighs, but he knows he won’t get more of a commitment from her than his.

  Fine, it’ll have to do. They’re strong, and from now on, they’ll grow even more so… He has to believe it’ll be enough to keep them safe, since the second option is to keep them working as barmaids forever… Not that either of them would accept that, of course.

  So, no option, really.

  “Anyway, we’ll head for the guild, first thing tomorrow. I have some things to take care of ter, so we won’t be accepting any contracts yet, but we’ll take our tests and enroll, so make sure you’re ready, Ena.”

  She smiles, her excitement pin for all to see. “C’mon, it’ll be easy. If Eleanor got in, then so can I.”

  Sincir returns her smile. “Is that so? Well, the guild’s cooldown period for taking a second test is a year, so if you fail, you’ll be working as a barmaid for another year still… I could say I’ll be rooting for you, but we both know that’d be a lie. Good luck.”

  Ena pales. “…You’re such an asshole, Sin.”

  “Thank you. That being said, I suppose I should expin the whole deal with Victoria now.”

  “Yeah, what was up with that?! I wanted to talk to her, and then, when I came back, I saw her staring at you as if you had killed her puppy!”

  Sincir smiles, though there is little humor in it. “No point in dancing around it, so I’ll just tell you; Victory is a vampire, and after talking to her I found out there is a nest of them in the city… Maybe confronting her directly as soon as I realized what she was wasn’t the smartest choice, but I acted without thinking, and now one of my friends might be in danger because of it.”

  Eleanor blinks, then frowns, while Ena simply stares at him with her mouth hanging open.

  “…You should have told us sooner. We could have followed her, or held her prisoner, for a hostage exchange,” Eleanor says, expression now having grown colder than ice.

  Ena gnces at her, as though seeing a complete stranger. “W-what? That’s a bit harsh, no? I mean, just because she is a vampire doesn’t mean she is a bad person… Right?”

  Before the two of them can begin arguing, Sincir shakes his head. “You’re both half-right. I could’ve taken harsher measures, yes; And that might’ve prevented my friend from being hurt, but it also might’ve escated things needlessly. Ultimately, I’m hoping things won’t come down to a fight… Everybody has a lot to lose in case that happens, us included. However, all going according to pn, I’ll talk with their leader tomorrow to sort things out… And no, you’re not coming with.”

  Eleanor presses her lips together. “…You’re worried we’ll be taken as hostages as well?”

  Sincir nods, not bothering to deny it. “Vampires are strong, and I’ll be walking into their home. Without knowing how many of them there are, or how old, I can’t really guarantee you’d be safe, so it’s best if I go in alone.”

  “Wait, doesn’t that mean it’ll be really dangerous?!” Ena shouts.

  “Of course it will,” Sincir tells her, “But I’m a big boy, so don’t worry... Figuratively speaking.”

  “What should we do if you die?” Eleanor asks.

  Ena gres at her. “He won’t! What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

  Sincir sighs. “No, she is right, my death is a real possibility, in this case. And that’s why, Eleanor, if I don’t return home by sunrise, I want you to take Ena and use our savings to leave town… What you’ll do from there is up to the both of you, but do not wait for the next sundown before leaving. Victoria has seen you with me, so it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for them to target you, if negotiations break down.”

  Eleanor nods firmly, but Ena still looks as though she has disagreed with every single part of this conversation so far., except for being allowed to join the guild.

  Sincir sighs again… This is going to be a long talk, isn’t it?