I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

It was the dawn of a new day and Elizabeth couldn't help but feel stifled. She had managed to sleep most of the night even if she couldn't go and sleep outside of her [Soulscape]. How do you ask? She spent the night sleeping in a corner of the [Library] near one of the windows in her [Soulscape].

 

She didn't feel [The Madness] but could still somewhat feel the [Shadow Essence] leaking into her [Soulscape], so that was good enough. Even if it wasn't the same.

 

So while stretching she stood and walked towards the common room in the apartment. "Morning Eli-Eli, breakfast will be ready soon!" Only to be met with a boisterous greeting from her pink-haired friend. She was already dressed up in some casual clothing she had brought from school.

 

Rossie greeted her with a sleeveless black blouse with a white coat at the top in case the climate turned worse for wear, she was wearing a cute skirt with some flower motifs here and there and a twin-tail hairstyle.

 

"Morning Rossie" Answered Elizabeth while walking towards the table, at the side the little maid was already serving her breakfast. "[I can finish work Mother, you eat with Mistress.]" Said the little maid.

 

Rossie for her part just smiled and walked to her spot "Thanks dear." Thanked the little girl and smiled at Elizabeth, it seemed as if both had arrived at some kind of agreement and so they seemed amicable to each other.

 

She was happy for that, since it seemed that the little girl had a soft spot for Rossie...She did call her [Mother]...And that girl hadn't a name...Or she hadn't named herself at least...

 

"Hmm....[Identify]" said the blonde while focusing on the little maid.

"Found anything interesting?" Asked Rossie while looking with interest at the general area the blue screen was. It seemed that she couldn't see it unlike her.

 

"We need to name your Daughter." Answered back Elizabeth, two interesting occurred, in the first place. Rossaline Singh dropped her spoon with her mouth open.

 

And in the second place, the little maid tripped and faceplanted in the kitchen, she didn't break anything as she quickly shoved the dishes in her hand into the shadows saving them. 'So she has an [Inventory] too?' Thought the blonde girl while opening her [Inventory], but instead she found the dishes the little girl had been carrying with her before falling.

 

'So she has access to my [Inventory] huh...' That was...Convenient.

 

"I mean, she calls you Mother...So you get to decide the name of your Daughter. Aren't you happy Rossie?" Teased the blonde girl, the pink-haired girl was still in the middle of a hard reboot.

 

In the end, it was the little girl the one that came to restart Rossie "[Mistress, that would be enough teasing. Mother might not be able to leave the residence at this pace. Also, you are half of my progenitor too. So you have a responsibility too in this.]" It seemed that the little girl was angry on behalf of Rossie.

 

"Wait...Then I'm your father? But I'm a girl... Two girls can't have babies last time I checked." Asked the blonde girl "Also if I'm your progenitor why do you call me Mistress instead of Mama? Or Papa for that case." Added to her case the blonde girl.

 

For that, the little girl just answered "[Not relevant. I was born from your mana so you are my progenitor. Mama just helped make the process easier, but at the end of the day my allegiance is to you Mistress, and to Lord Nyxfyre.]" And after that, the little girl sank into her shadow.

 

'She ran away.' Thought the blonde girl.

 

"W-w-what should we do for the w-w-wedding Eli-Eli?!?!?" Started rambling her friend "I don't even have a wedding dress!" And she went into a full-blown panic attack... "I mean, she did tell me that I would get my wish...BUT THIS IS TOO SOON!" And so she started raving on and on.

 

She looked quite adorable going into a panic attack for such a silly joke "Okay Rossie, while you look cute and it's nice to be the one doing the teasing that is about enough." Said the blonde girl while shoving a spoonful of pudding into the pink-haired girl's mouth.

 

She seemed to relax and calm down when she tasted the sweet flavor of vanilla pudding. "We can't even marry since we aren't eighteen-year-olds anyway." Added the blonde girl while looking at the calendar. She had her birthday sometime before coming to school...

 

But if the files that Selen had shown her were to be believed, Rossie was around 9 to 10 months older than her. So she would turn into an adult almost a year ahead of her.

 

Not that she would end up marrying Rossie...How would that work anyway? She hadn't thought of having kids, but marrying Rossie would nip that in the bud quite early wouldn't it? But then again they could adopt...

 

"Oh right...Age...Is a thing...That we need to take care before thinking about Marriage..." Deflated her friend, that was silly of her. It almost seemed that she had got very invested in the joke.

 

But then again, here she was thinking about the ramifications of marrying her girl friend. So maybe they were the same? That was good. Rossie was kind of smart since she had pointed out quite good ideas for her [Skills] and if Rossie was smart, and she was like Rossie. Then it meant that she was also smart!

 

Take that people who said she was a scatterbrain!

 

"Exactly, and that is beside the point. We need to think of a good name for the little maid...And the butler..." Said Elizabeth while turning to look for that butler, he was...Stealthy.

 

She hadn't seen him around that much, but she found him near the door, standing straight as a pole, she waved at him and he just returned a small bow. Before turning its attention to...Whatever he was doing.

 

"...The butler...He will be called Reginald. You think of a name for the maid." Said Elizabeth while declaring the name for the butler. He had the face of a Reginald and acted like one. So he would be Reginald...Maybe if he evolved when she achieved her next threshold he could be called Sir Reginald...

 

The blonde girl couldn't help but smirk at that idea. She felt that name could be of either a king or a knight, so at least the butler should had a nice boost in power from the name...

 

"...Beatrice...She will be called [Beatrice]." Said her friend bringing her away from her musings. That was a nice name "Hmm...She has the vibe of a more happy go-girl...But I will not stand between a Mother and the name she decided for her child."

 

The blonde girl brought forth her phone and put the name in the search engine, she immediately felt bad for the last joke. "[Beatrice]...Meaning [She who brings happiness.]" That was...one fully loaded name her friend had picked for the little girl.

 

"She can have that name so her presence brings happiness to you..."Said the pink-haired girl while looking at her plate and dodging the eyes of the blonde girl. "...and to me." Finished the last part in a whisper.

 

'That's right...She didn't have much of that while growing did she...' The blonde girl was remembering the tragic past of the pink-haired girl.

 

Of her orphanage... And she hoped the [Soulscape] she had was at least as comfortable for her as her own... She wondered if the [Link] could allow Rossie to travel to her so she could marvel at the wonders her [Soulscape] offered...But then thought better of that. She would try to do that when she had dealt with [The Madness] that was sieging her [Soul] and not one day before.

---

After ending the breakfast in that awkward tone Elizabeth went to her room to search for clothes, only to remember that most of her clothing was in her [Wardrobe] and as such, that was a pointless waste of time. So she pretended to search for it and then returned to the common area.

 

She found the pink-haired girl still quiet in a corner of the sofa, just staring at one of the shadows. "I will take a shower and then we can go to see what they expect of us as magic girls..." Said to Elizabeth the pink-haired girl. She only nodded and kept staring at that shadow.

 

It seemed that the prospects she had for the little girl...No...The prospects she had for [Beatrice] were quite heavy...If the girl didn't get some nice [Power-Up] in her next threshold she would need to spend some of her own power to make sure the [Evolution] was good.

 

Once inside she made sure to close the door behind her and stared at her own reflection, she wasn't sure what she was hoping to see, but her blonde hair and blue eyes looked back at her.

 

It was...Ominous, it was the same face, the same body she was used to seeing, it was [Her]. But after dealing with the black-haired [Shift] that was her [Alice] persona...She couldn't help but think that the other one was more...[Fitting].

 

Even so, she wouldn't think too much about that, and instead used the option in her [Wardrobe] to [Unload], and sure enough, her clothes all but disappeared...She was still wearing her slippers...But mostly because the skill didn't seem to register them and her [Pajama Loadout] didn't include them.

 

"It's good that I didn't test this on the outside..." Said the blonde girl for herself while she chose in her inventory the pajama shirt she was wearing just a moment ago and materialized into her hand. "Time for the second test...Not a fan of this..." And after a couple of calming breaths...

 

She put the shirt into her face and breathed in.

 

"...Yep, this is dirty...Both figuratively and otherwise." While the shirt didn't stink, she could smell her own sweat in it. That proved the point that the clothing was indeed used and the skill wasn't summoning fresh and clean things...

 

So she went ahead to the customizing HUD and added an extra setting, the skill would store the dirty clothes in a separate area...And she would ditch that into the laundry while changing.

 

Case in point, she ditched all the dirty clothes into the laundry basket before walking into the shower. At least she didn't need to worry about having to spend extra time dressing herself, so she could indulge for a few minutes under the water.

 

She needed the time to think. "What would be a good gift to bring Rossie's mood up..." She had screwd the morning interaction with her joke, especially after Rossie had used such a loaded name in something that was supposed to be a silly joke to bring the mood up.

 

And so the blonde girl spent almost half an hour under the water thinking and musing what to do. She wasn't good at this. And ended up surrendering witouth much to her name in the planning aspect, she would bring her to the mall and hope that shopping brought her mood up.

 

So after drying herself the blonde girl selected one of the casual clothing she had bought from her wardrobe and dressed herself, she dooned the obsidian bracelet in her hand while hiding the red one with a chain under her blouse. She would need to use high-collar blouses for the time being. At least till she found whatever [The Hydra's Fang] had for her in the night.

 

Right...She also needed to account for that, she might not have enough time to return with Rossie in the afternoon to their home...At least she didn't need to worry about changing with her new [Skill].

 

"Ready for today's adventure Rossie?" Asked the blonde in the brightest tone she could do. Trying to imitate the ones her girl friend always used in the mornings when she saluted her.

 

"Sorry for ruining the mood...." Said the pink-haired girl, not standing up from her spot on the sofa. At some point, she had gone all the way to the other side of the sofa and was trying to dig herself into the furniture.

 

The blonde girl for her part just looked at her friend, she looked...So fragile. Unlike how she usually presented herself as a bright and happy girl, this was a side of her so...Fragile.

 

She stood like nothing to the rude attitude of the custom officer, she stood with her against the outright malice that Selen irradiated...She was never fazed by anything.

 

She even survived against her mother and father!

 

Granted she probably didn't know they were big shots... But still, her parents still radiated that aura of important people in their non [Hero] and [Magical Girl] persona.

 

And she even managed to impress her father enough that he seemed to like her!

 

He didn't like anyone! That was his whole thing!

 

But here? Here she looked so...Small.

 

"...I should be the one giving apologies." Said Elizabeth while sitting beside Rossie. "Sorry for speaking without thinking." Started saying the blonde girl. She looked up to the ceiling and then continued after a few seconds "I never had friends before, not true friends. Most of my classmates always kept a distance from me."

 

The pink-haired girl stopped looking at her hands and turned to the blonde girl who started speaking about her past.

 

"You see...If I tried to play with them, they would comply. But they wouldn't go out of their way to invite me. If they had a birthday party I would always get invitations...But they never complained to me if I missed a party...They would however never miss one where I invited them...Nor would complain if I didn't invite them." Recounted Elizabeth "...It took me more time than I would like to admit to notice that you know...I thought that they were my friends...But once I got really mad at this girl...So I stopped talking to her for like a year...You know what she did when I spoke again to her?" Said with a smirk on her face the blonde girl.

 

Rossie for her part just shook her head.

 

"She acted as if nothing had happened. She carried on as if we had spoken like best friends the day before..." Started laughing at the blonde girl, it was a self-deprecating laugh. "...When I complained to my mother about that she told me that the more probable thing was that the parents of that girl told her that I was an important VIP so she wanted to fish for favors from me." Finished saying the blonde girl.

 

She could see her girl friend seething at her side, so she hugged her and continued saying "See, this is the reaction no one ever had before for me. No one before could be qualified as my [Friend]. No one got mad for me...No one got happy with me...They just...Stood there. If I said I wanted a drink someone would get it...If I said I wanted a snack there would be one...My parents are kinda important in [Avalon] so my schoolmate's parents made sure their kids would know to be good to me." Ended saying the blonde girl. "...But you were different, you actually looked at me. The first time during the speech no one knew my [Identity]. No one at school does...I doubt the teachers do since a few seem to straight out have something against me, if they knew they wouldn't even dare to glare my way." Smirked Elizabeth. " I don't really mind that you know, it's nice. To not be treated as someone [Special]."

 

"Let's both promise to take care of each other okay?" Ended her speech the blonde. The pink-haired girl just nodded, she could see that her temper was still high.

 

"...Okay. I don't care what your parents do, my adopted ones are nobles or something too. But since I got into the family through adoption no one expected me to inherit anything, so maybe that was why they never bothered me." Said the pink-haired girl.

 

They stood there a few more minutes in silence till one of her phones started vibrating, it seemed that the pink-haired girl had put an alarm to remind herself about their need to leave the apartment. Elizabeth couldn't help but laugh at that since the alarm Rossie had put was her own voice shrieking.

 

"Well, enough mopping!" Said the blonde girl while standing and fixing the wrinkles in her clothes and extending her hand to the pink-haired girl. Who took it soon enough and smiled back at Elizabeth.

 

"Let's go then Eli-Eli, we have plenty to do today" and on that note, both girls left the apartment. Too much to do and half of it would be done in their magical girl personas.