Chapter 34 - The Phoenix is Bigger

  I woke up startled and a bit sweaty, getting up in desperation, looking at my hands a while cheg my entire body.

  “It's still me… I'm still me…” I murmur to myself.

  I'm still Nathan Evenhart.

  Being ba that p my past life was not a good feeling; I had never felt as desperate as I did the moment my mind, for a sed, thought I had ceased to be Nathan Evenhart.

  “Are you scared, General? Hahaha, had a good dream?” said the beautiful blonde woman with an attractive body in a revealing white dress, but the most disgusting and malevolent person I had ever known.

  “Fuck you, Athena. Leave me alone,” I said, throwing a b over the apparition, but it passed through the woman.

  Many have skeletons in their closet, but I have a dead Goddess.

  “Ahhh! It's not my fault you dreamed of that pce. Do you think I would bother the only person who see me?”

  I look at the damn Goddess.

  “I think! I think you would do something like that.”

  Letting my heart rex, I look at my room where I've lived for the past three years since my mother and I moved to my family's castle, and I feel relieved. That's right, I’m now 8 years old and still living here.

  “ you give me some attention? I literally have nothing to do…” pihe Goddess.

  I empty my thoughts and ignore her presence.

  She disappeared… thankfully.

  I sighed in relief and tried to trate on falling asleep again.

  A lot has happeo me in the past three years, and I mean a lot. Now I even reach higher pces… I know you don't care about that, but to me, it's very important.

  What happened i times is that the fusion over my e to Chloe finally passed. I don't know what magic my aunt worked to resolve it, but it worked. The nobles had to calm down and tih their lives. As we were in the midst of an eic crisis due to the loss of a good part of es, everyone had to swallow their pride and make peace to help each other. In the years before I came to this castle, the nobles made a fuss and even refused to colborate because of the dispute over the Duchy, but when they saw their wealth rapidly diminishing due to the high cost of the crisis… they gdly accepted what my aunt did aually decided to work together.

  My aunt was happy to have mao resolve things diplomatically, and finally, the Evenhart territory rogressing aurning to the abunda had before the war. My aunt's solution was to i a good portion of our wealth in recruiting children. The children of these mages had the ce to beages, as did other children scattered throughout our territory. She offered to take care of the education of these young mages and guarantee employment for them. You might have a talent fic, but without someoo teach you, it was useless. Aunt Margie's solution was to help them develop and have them work on our nds.

  After putting down the small noble rebellion, Aunt Margie allowed the soldiers to work effectively, as we had to keep a good part of them camped around our fortress for security.

  Gradually, the new ges she implemented began to yield results. My aunt even ged the tax colle system, redug it and exemptions for those who produced more, and deployed her armies to be stationed in bases along the roads. We wao ehe safety of merts and farmers. It would be plicated to ence them to risk their eies produg in rge quantities if there was no oo protect them. If they ied all their savings in buying grains, seeds, cattle, and supplies to sustain it all, only for a bandit to appear and burn their crops or rob them, it would be for nothing. On the trary, it would create a bankruptcy process that would only worseuation.

  To ensure safety and assist the farmers, my aunt had to deploy our army to patrol the roads 24/7. The soldiers enjoyed having a bit of a, although not much happened. Here in our Duchy, we do not tolerate crime, especially against a farmer whose family has shared the nd with us feions and helps produce wealth for our territory.

  Nikous Wolves had to swallow his greed and colborate with the other nobles when he saw everyone else moving forward.

  Chloe and I are still forbidden to leave the fortress without authorization, but this rule would be in effect even without the previous fusion since we are heirs and ot freely wander alone and exposed. Occasionally, we go to the town and disguise ourselves with simple clothes to move around. Fortunately, here in the Evenhart Duchy, they keep the heirs hidden from the publitil they are older. This way, we go out ao know the region without causing a stir. This is a family , but in other pces, nobles are taught from a young age to show off and funt their status wherever they go.

  Sifu told us that our way is better because it prevents creating proud and spoiled children. If a child is treated like a 'king,' they will start to see others as inferior. So, to the public, when we are oreets, we are just oners, and they talk to us normally when they serve us in the shops. We walk alone, but there are always hidden guards disguised when we go to town, and I suspect they even send some Assassin Maids to watch over us.

  “Hey! Don’t hug me with your cws! Your talons hurt,” I pio my roommate.

  ‘Screech,’ said the sleepy Cyl, turning to the other side.

  “Screech to you too!” I turned irritated to the other dire.

  I liked it better when she was small…

  My roommate was full of habits and would pin if I didn’t follow them. We had made a bed for her on the floor, but Cyl always jumped into my bed at bedtime. I fought every time she did this and kicked her out to her bed, but the clever girl would wait until I fell asleep to jump bato bed.

  To avoid waking up startled, thinking someone was trying to kill me every time she jumped into bed, I ended up letting her sleep with me. Luckily, my bed was big… the problem was that my roommate was also getting bigger.

  Little by little, Cyl was ging not only in size but also in shape. That little bird I saved from the infernal s was now quite big. Cyl was a bit rger than me and must have been almost five feet tall. She had lost her bird-like appearand was now being something new.

  The sy phoenix I knew as a baby now had fs and a long body. Her bird-like form was ging into a bird hybrid that looked like a quadruped animal. She was still predominantly a red eagle, but now her body also had fur, and the feathers remained on her wings. In my world, she might be pared to a griffin, although those creatures were only stories told to children and were a mixture of various different animals.

  My phoenix roommate, who now had a furry, red quadruped body and wings, gave me trouble at night, especially when she used her paws to hug and trap me. Obviously, I didn’t have the strength to escape her grip, even though I had been a Sn in another life… here, I was just an 8-year-old kid.

  Little by little, Cyl became more sociable with others and roamed around the mansion or the castle, even being friends with my mother and aunt, occasionally responding to them. The acies were a bit apprehensive about the fact that she was really getting bigger. Before, it was just specution about what might happen, but now that they were actually seeing her grow in size, they were worried.

  My teacher Sifu sometimes appeared and tried to unicate with her; it seemed he had some kind of nostalgia reted to the stories his former masters told him. When he saw Cyl’s quadruped form, he better uood his knowledge about the a Phoenix Masters. We tinued feeding her meat, but Cyl begaing only once a week, so it became easier to feed her.

  She liked to stay mainly in the fountain area or iificial ndscape with grass and a pond that was downstairs in the mansion. There ond where my auesting her magic, trying to create special cold water for t prisoners. My aunt is a very special mage capable of using a fusion of elements. Aunt Margie had the Water and Air elements, allowio access the Ice element, which she used for torture… I know, my family is crazy.

  Cyl enjoyed bathing in the pond and didn’t mind the cold since she hoenix, so the room with the artificial ndscape became a sort of ‘ir’ for her. We had to deal with the that she was getting bigger and would soon need a new pce for the phoenix. Although Cyl still fit easily iificial room, the problem was that she wouldn’t fit through the door if she grew more. My aunt said she would hahe situation and try to vacate a warehouse in the fortress for her, but the problem was that the phoenix would have to stay outside where she could be seen, and the excuse of her being just an S-rank bird wouldn’t work anymore.

  My roommate couldn’t even be called a bird anymore due to her quadruped form, and we were thinking about what to do as she grew. Fortunately, my phoenix friend didn’t stray far from me, so she hadn’t flown around outside yet, but I knew I couldn’t prevent her from doing so at some point.

  “Nate! Nate! She’s here!”

  ‘Boom!’

  My door was violently opened by the little monster, my cousin.

  “e on! e on!” she shouted, jumping on my bed and shaking me.

  I tried to move but couldn’t do much since she was on top of me, shaking me wildly.

  “I’m awake!” As soon as I said that, a jet of water spshed in my face from Chloe’s hands.

  “e on, Nate! We have to go.”

  “You soaked me! I was already awake!” I pined.

  The little monster shrugged and ran off happily.

  “At this rate, I’ll keep beier than you,” she shouted, running down the corridors.

  I sighed.

  “That show-off girl…” I grumbled, wiping my wet fay shirt.