I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

She awoke with one of the worst migraines she had ever had before, she felt sticky all over as if she had sweat all night. While trying to get up she found that her body felt tired, extremely tired. A quick glance at her own [Status] showcased some...Dangerous information.

 

Somehow she had lost quite the amount of health, her stamina was incredibly low, granted she knew that without looking as she felt quite tired and lethargic. The surprise was more on the mana and stress front.

 

She wasn't sure why or how she had lost that much mana...As in...All her mana and her stress were once again on the rise. Hadn't she tried to sleep in the comfortable feeling of the shadow essence?

 

Why had her stress skyrocketed then?

 

She felt once again the spike of pain in her head and raised her left hand to massage her temples, only to stop short and look at her hand "What the hell?" Said the blonde girl seeing her hand covered in a slimy liquid. Looking closely at herself she found more of that transparent and slimy liquid all over her body, she threw the sheet away and sure enough, her whole body was covered in that mysterious liquid.

 

"Nyx, what the hell happened?" Asked the blonde girl while pointing with her left hand at one of the walls and making a shadow move there and create a circle. Sure enough, Nyx came flying from it and just looked her up and down.

 

Then he just growled, got annoyed at her, and flew back into the shadow portal, after a few minutes the little girl got thrown out of the same portal half asleep, and just looked everywhere before settling on Elizabeth.

 

"[What happened Mistress?]" Started saying the girl while rubbing her eyes, as if she had just awoken too. It was only after she took a closer look at Elizabeth that she started fussing "[WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU MISTRESS WHO DARED TO DESECRATE YOUR HOLY BODY LIKE THIS?!?!?]" She screamed in rage while jumping from one shadow to the next.

 

She spent a few minutes doing so, and in the end, she just shoved her head instead of her whole body searching for something. "[WHERE ARE THE SCOUTS?!? THE GUARDS?!? THE HOUNDS?!? WHAT DO WE HAVE THEM FOR THEN!?!?]" Said the little girl while fuming about this and that.

 

It seemed as if they all had been asleep, she noticed her mana was trickling up once again. Albeit slowly, but when the little girl brought another shadow dragon it trickled down once again. It never went to 0% though. She stopped the summoning when it came closer to 1%.

 

"I guess you all got knocked down when my mana got to 0%?" Said the blonde while pointing at her [Status]. The little girl stopped berating the summoned dragons and turned toward her status screen. So the little girl could see her status?

 

"[That was probably the reason...We have some degree of...[Freedom] thanks to Lord Nyxfyre but you are our [Nexus] Mistress...Whatever the reason your [Mana] went to 0% it probably followed said [Nexus] and siphoned the mana that made us and allows us to [Reside] in this plane...]" Mumbled the little girl. She still was berating the other dragons though.

 

Something about 'Not leaving any clue even though they felt someone was draining their mana' She didn't make any mention about herself also not leaving any clue...

 

Nor tried to berate Nyx...Smart girl.

 

For her part, the blonde started the day (Covered in this weird slimy liquid) by standing and encasing herself in shadows. She would not clean more than the necessary amount...So she wanted to contain whatever this liquid was to a minimum. Her bed sheets were a lost cause, so she used her new [Inventory] evolution to throw the dirty bed sheets and pillows inside and walked to the bathroom.

 

She opened the door without thinking much and found...That it was quite the nice bathroom, small and cozy...It could probably allow two to three persons to use it at the same time... Well, two using the bathtub and one the shower...But still, it was quite an interesting size...Probably wasn't built thinking of that...

 

Why was she thinking about that?

 

"It matters not...It seems Rossie is still asleep...Was she that tired?" Wondered aloud the blonde girl while sending her current slime-covered outfit to her [Inventory] pajamas, underwear, and slippers included, and first went to the shower.

 

The water was just at the right temperature, she wasn't sure if it was the refreshing feeling from the water or the fact that most of that weird slimy liquid was washing away but it felt quite nice. After almost 10 minutes under the water, she decided two things were obvious.

 

The first one, she was mostly clean and free from the dubious identity of that weird liquid... The second was that Rossie was a heavy sleeper, more so than herself. She wasn't quite sure why she felt let down by the fact that she hadn't come. Was it because she wanted to see if she would be flustered at finding her in the shower?

 

A childish revenge on her for flashing her like that when they first were living together? Maybe. But she still wasn't too sure why she had felt the need to pull her little prank. So while thinking about that drenched in water and looking at her reflection on the pristine walls of the bathroom.

 

She decided to give it another go, so she walked to the bathtub and sat inside while letting the water flow, it always felt relaxing to her to just sit in the bathtub with her eyes closed and just felt her whole body under the embrace of the water.

 

This one had smart temperature control, so the water wasn't even that hot or cold, just the right temperature. This made it easier for the girl to focus inward, she was now once again inside her soulscape, not fully immersed, but just enough to get a feeling of the space inside her [Soul].

 

Her [Soulscape] was as usual, but the feeling on the outside was...Different, she felt almost a repulsion when she wanted to travel to the outside of her [Soulscape] to see what was going on. And yet...She felt something stopping her.

 

A quick look around and she found the reason, on her left arm there was a shining red bracelet, it blinked as an alarm, the more she struggled to go to the outside the more it shined...

 

'Interesting' Was all the blonde girl could think.

 

Before leaving the [Soulscape] the girl noticed an announcement board that wasn't there before, and a single note.

She felt annoyed while returning to the real world "[Mistress, the breakfast is ready. Can you wake up Mother?]" said the little girl who had entered into the bathroom at some point and who was now offering her a bathrobe. Elizabeth didn't mind it that much while drying her air with a simple [Lifestyle Spell - Hair Dryer]. One of the most convenient spells she ever found. And simple enough that it didn't even need a space in her spell nodes or magic circles!

 

Whoever had studied the spell and simplified it to these levels was a genius.

 

So the blonde girl used a towel to dry herself off, put on the bathrobe, and used an extra dry towel to wrap her hair in, even if the spell was supposed to dry her hair, care was still needed...Besides it was a nice habit to keep for those times she couldn't cast spells. She left most of the skincare and dressing in other clothes for later.

 

Her stress was still high (Even if only at 50% now) her stamina and mana were better, but even so, she was feeling tired, so before waking Rossie up she went to the the laundry room in their apartment and got the slimy clothes into the washing machine using only her shadows.

 

She left a shadow dragon in charge of making sure the clothes were clean and delivering them to her room after they finished their washing and drying cycle...She would need to do the same with the bed sheets and pillow, but those were lower priority, since she had replacements for those in the apartment, but her favorite pajamas and underwear were a totally different problem!

 

And on that note, she moved from the laundry room to the dining one...And then an important decision was in front of her, the dishes were served...The food was ready and the little girl maid was nowhere to be seen, a quick scan with her shadow senses showed that most of the dragons were missing. Nyx was perched on one of the sofas in the living room true. But the others weren't around.

 

A scan into her shadow showed that they weren't there either, and a quick peek at her [Soulscape] found them mostly resting in a small mansion in a corner of the Laboratory half that was her powered side.

 

Most sleeping or sitting here or there, the little maid was among the sitting ones, even if she was sitting on a sofa trying to stay awake, not having much success.

 

She had noticed her skills were moving more slowly...But she thought it was a problem with the mana drain she was experiencing...Alas, she was getting distracted again.

 

"To change or not to change..." Said the blonde, for that, was the conundrum she was under.

 

On one side...Rossie never actually seemed to care about how she was dressed around her... And that must feel liberating, she had grown to mind how she looked, after all...Even if her father or mother never said anything. She was aware that as the daughter of top heroes...Some expectations needed to be met.

 

It was part of the reason she had crafted her public personas as overachievers...And why she just wanted to laze around if possible. So not having to really dress up in public...

 

Yeah...She would try it. "You can do it Elizabeth!" Said the blonde to herself trying to hype up. And like that, she walked towards the room where Rossie was still asleep.

 

The girl it seems was a heavy sleeper away from the pressure from School, that was almost cute...If not for the blonde wanting to also sleep like that till noon. Why was she even awake today?

 

She didn't even need to do something on Sunday, most of her work would be done tomorrow anyway when she met with [Echidna]. Her Magic work was in the air, so maybe she could do that today?

 

Still, she wanted to fix her powered side first.

 

FOCUS ELIZABETH!

 

She sharpened her will, focused it into her mana...Grabbed the resulting [Idea]...And...And..."[Open the door Elizabeth, you are only waking up your girlfr....your Female Friend!]" walked into the room of Rossie. It was...very simple.

 

She hadn't seen how she decored her room at the school...But at the very least the one she had here was...Bare. When she awoke in this room yesterday she didn't focus on the details, for she was too panicked to react. But the room was simple beyond measure.

 

No posters on the walls...A really simple... Her bed held no extra plushies like her own room that had her favorite shark plushy... No personal pillow...No extra cushion...No wait, she was using a hugging pillow...Who had a shirt on for some reason? But beyond that her bed was normal.

 

Her desk only had a single pink book and a pen, no pen case nor extra lamp, no stickers decorating the notebook, no posters on the walls...Granted they would not stay here long...But even so, she still couldn't imagine the reason why she wouldn't at least hang a poster.

 

The bookcase in the room, as well as the bookshelf, were bare, only the bookshelf had a couple of pictures on it, a family picture with a small girl that resembled Rossie and some adults that...Didn't resemble her at all. Her adoptive parents? On the other side was a picture of her and Rossie on the first day of classes.

 

It looked more like a selfie where she inadvertently photobombed the pink-haired girl, but Rossie was positioned in a way that it looked intentional, she couldn't help but smile at that, she would take a picture of that one or ask for a copy... And maybe take the pink-haired girl to take a couple of pictures in the city. She needed more decorations if nothing else!

 

Her wardrobe was closed so she didn't get any idea of what was inside, but if it was like hers...It was probably empty with only a pair of uniforms to change and the single set of civilian clothes they were allowed to bring. To the right of the wardrobe was what looked like her vanity...And that was a very broad way to refer to that piece of furniture.

 

For a while, it had a vanity mirror with lights...It held very little makeup, just enough to think that the owner cared about her appearance...But that was it, she hadn't noticed it before, but Rossie truly didn't use that much makeup... Granted she didn't need that much...

 

Not at the grade of herself that barely used any at all besides some eyeshadow and some lipstick here and there, but it was still somewhat...Sad.

 

She would pull out her knowledge about the mystic arts of makeup and teach her later!

 

It would be fun if anything else and a good way to spend time without having to leave the apartment, she didn't feel too much energy to do so today anyway.

 

So after finishing that plan, she walked towards the bed, the pink-haired girl was soundly sleeping, she could see her laying there head facing the ceiling and with her eyes closed. She knew that the girl was sleeping because her breathing was slow and steady, she could make up her chest going up and down very slowly. She wondered if she could snuggle on the girl while she was like this...

 

While the bed didn't look comfortable, the girl sleeping on it made it one enticing....' FOCUS ELIZABETH!' Admonished the blonde girl to her more devious side.

 

She was on a holy mission!

 

SHE WAS HERE TO WAKE UP ROSSIE AND FEED HER!

 

So very slowly she walked to the side of the bed and in a slow and methodical way, she lowered her body so that her face was near the ear of the pink-haired girl.

 

"Rossie, wake up~" Started saying the girl in the most soft tone she could achieve. "It's time for breakfast~" Added at the end letting the tone of her voice end in a wavy sound.

 

The pink-haired girl didn't seem to react, so she went ahead and with her right hand started very slowly and methodically gave a very slow shake on her arm. "Wakey wakey~~" Whispered the blonde girl with a smile on her face.

 

The pink-haired girl was getting annoyed if the frown on her face was something to go by, but the blonde girl couldn't get the smile out of her face, SHE JUST LOOKED TOO CUTE SLEEPING!

 

She wondered why she couldn't look like this while sleeping. If anything Rossie didn't have a problem waking her up in the mornings... Maybe she would need to wake half an hour early to come and just look at the pink-haired girl sleeping?

 

That would solve the problem of not being able to enjoy teasing the pink-haired girl...'No no no, that is stalker behavior and only pink-haired girls do that!' Admonished herself the blonde girl.

 

Only to think 'But...Rossie is pink-haired and she doesn't do that...Isn't this train of thought kinda...profiling?' But then again, all the evidence her mother had collected across the multiverse spoke of the same. Most stalkers that followed a [Hero] were pink-haired...

 

No wait!

 

An epiphany struck Elizabeth!

 

'Rossie might be Pink-haired but she isn't tied to a [Hero]! So she can't be a stalker!'

 

That made her relax, truly...Her friend was better with her instead of that little bast...better with her than with Akira. The thought that she had saved Rossie from going into a dark path even brought a smile to her face. And she couldn't stop herself from poking the sleeping beauty in her cheek.

The gall of the girl! Who told her she could look so adorable sleeping!

" Eliz..." Started mumbling the pink-haired girl while looking at her and blinking a few times as if she was making sure that she was seeing right. "Eli-Eli..." Said the pink-haired girl while looking at her quite weirdly.

She wasn't looking straight at her face, but instead just a few centimeters below her face...Why? She turned down to see what she was trying to see, she had to fight to stay in her position, for she was still leaning forward at an almost 90° angle... She suddenly became aware that everything that should be hidden was out in the open for the world to see...

Or for her friend to see... So she stoically raised her torso to stand straight "Breakfast is served...I just came to wake you up..." Said the blonde girl trying to not think too much about how she had flashed her Rossie first thing in the morning...

Not that the girl hadn't seen her like that before...So it shouldn't bother her. Nope, wasn't bothering her at all. She wasn't blushing or trying to escape from the situation at all. "You can take a shower first or come and eat with me, Rossie... I will be at the dining table waiting." And on that note, the blonde girl left the room.

She didn't pay any attention to the pink-haired girl, fearful for the reaction she would have, while the girl had comforted her the past night and she felt quite confident that their relationship was solid...She didn't want to strain her friendship with the girl more than needed...

And who would want to stay friends with someone that would come into your bedroom almost naked!

She would need to find a way to apologize to the pink-haired girl but for now...For now, she would try not to berate herself for coming almost naked and look at her friend's sleeping face while having fun...

IT SOUNDED SO WRONG RIGHT THAT ASDASDFASFASDF

"... It's probably the mana being so low and the stress being so high..." Mumbled the blonde girl while sitting at the table and taking small sips of her drink. She would do everything one step at a time. First, they would eat breakfast and then move to the next step. Whatever it was.