The Chair and the Echido

Our battle petered out after an hour. I was surprised she lasted so long: a whole five-minute improvement over our previous bout. She was slowly getting stronger, but her other skills still needed improvement.

“Okay, let’s call it for today. You’ve pretty much exhausted your mana and stamina at this point.”

She collapsed to the ground, frustrated by her performance.

“Don’t be like that. You did better than last time. Plus, even if you didn’t use any other skills, your disintegration magic has gotten better. You should be proud.”

She snorted with a ‘hmph’, butI could tell she was smiling. The wounds on her body easily disappeared with a bit of healing magic.

I looked around the chamber and instantly winced at the carnage. “Let’s get this place cleaned up.”

Slamming my chair into the ground, I pushed my mana into every portion of the cave. The ground raised back to the entrance as dirt and rocks flew to their original position, like a tornado or sandstorm playing out in reverse. Of course, I made sure to keep my visibility unobstructed. After all, it was a bit difficult to control millions of pieces of dirt without being able to see them. I also cast a bit of light magic to be absorbed by the crystals, brightening the chamber. Once everything had settled into place, I added a bit more earth magic to solidify the walls.

The barrier around the party was no longer necessary, so I dispelled it. Emma and Rufus seemed flabbergasted by the whole affair, though Rufus’s eyes had a scary glint in them. Aster and Ai, on the other hand, were simply nodding along, as if this were expected. Weirdly, Aster was a lot more expressive than before.

However, their attention soon turned to the woman behind me. They took up fighting stances even knowing that they couldn’t defeat her. She also narrowed her eyes, looking ready for another fight.

“Clack!”

I banged my chair into her head, adding a bit of pressure to make her listen. “Stop that. I didn’t heal you so you could begin fighting again. You already performed your role well. No encore is required.” She rolled her eyes at me before giving everyone a lazy look. Good, she listened.

I swiveled the chair around and pointed at the party. “And you guys, you can stop trying to think up ways to fight or escape. She’s not going to hurt you, although she does occasionally throw tantrums.” She swiped her tail, but I took a step forward towards the party to avoid being hit. I was only telling the truth; she didn’t need to be so annoyed. The party, meanwhile, took a step back at my sudden movement, making me want to sigh.

“Are all parties like this? I need to do a better job with my hospitality. Can’t have parties with them fearing their proctor.”

She snorted, but it was obvious she was calling me an idiot.

“What do you mean?! I’m not that bad… I…think…”

She rolled her eyes, pitying me. Oof, that hurt. I slumped down into my chair and looked at my hands. I thought I was pretty reasonable. Nothing I did would kill anyone, just put them in immediate danger. That was my job as a proctor, right!?

“U-um,” Emma grabbed my attention.

“Yes?”

“Why are you talking to the beast like it's a person?” Huh? Wasn’t it obvious? And why was that her first question?

“What are you talking about? She’s a person.” Emma and the others seemed completely flabbergasted. What? Did they think I had tamed a beast? Leave that to the beast tamers. However, explaining how she could look like a beast was difficult…

“Haah…there’s no point in explaining. It’s easier to just show you. Would you mind turning yourself back to normal?” She sighed but complied nonetheless.

A mist enveloped her massive form, creating a mini-cyclone, blowing around the debris I just cleaned up. I put up a barrier to stop the dust from getting on me – no need for one around the others. The next second, the mist disappeared, revealing a little girl no older than ten. She wore an elegant black dress that could bewitch anyone who saw it – a bit too bewitching in my opinion. Her silver-black hair tied back into pigtails glittered under the crystals. Although she looked like a child, her movements were graceful and majestic. Her entire aura had changed, replaced with an unknown pressure.

Her flourishes made me want to sigh. “Did you really have to do that? You could've transformed normally. The theatrics were over the top. Also, I just cleaned this place!”

“Says the guy who poses with a chair.” I rolled my eyes in ignorance.

“So–” I said, redirecting the conversation, “–this is Keya. She’s, I guess, technically an adopted family member.”

“‘Technically’? How rude!”

“Well, how else would you describe our relationship?”

“Easy! You were someone who wandered in here, beat me up, then continued training me over and over! You feed me good food and play around when I want…actually, yeah. ‘Technically an adopted family member’ is the best way to put it.”

“Told ya. And quit trying to make me out to be the bad guy. You’re the one who attacked me first.”

“Who just wanders into someone’s home and asks if you can sleep there? You’re the weird one.”

“You know, I can refute that, but I’ll be the bigger person and abstain.”

“Okay, wait a minute,” Aster said, stepping forward. “This doesn’t make any sense. First, I don’t understand how your relationship could be summed up as an adopted family member. Also, how in the world can you transform into your race’s form?!? People who look like humans can’t transform back into their race’s form! Maybe dragons, but those are always the exception!”

“Well, to answer your first question, she’s old enough to be a mother, but I’m the one who takes care of her. Siblings is a weird way to describe our behavior. And there’s no way she could be my daughter.”

“What about the transformation?”

“Have you heard of a psyture before?”

“No?”

“Then it makes no sense to explain it.”

“What…but…” Aster tried to protest, but a quick glare made her clam up.

Rufus was the next one to ask a question. “How old are you, o wise one?” An insensitive, fanatical question. Seriously, they didn’t have anything more important to ask?

“I’ll be eight in a few days.”

“So young yet so strong! I’m in awe!” Keya puffed up her chest with pride.

I rubbed my temples. “Okay, although she says eight, in human years, that’s more like eight thousand. Probably more since she’s been training recently.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“I’m not sure why that would be anyone’s fault.”

“Eight…thousand…” And… Rufus was in a daze again. Well, eight thousand was longer than almost all other races could live. The closest I could think of was a dragon, which was five hundred human years for every one dragon year. Keya easily doubled that, and I expected she would live for at least a million.

“Wow, she really is a monster.” And there went Ai with the unnecessary comment. I guess this party would always be strange.

“Excuse you, I’m not a monster!” Keya said with a smile, but her eyes were anything but. The unknown pressure emanated even stronger, making Ai’s muscles go stiff. Her body convulsed, if only slightly. If her strength and mana capacity were any lower, froth would have poured from her mouth.

I raised my chair and bopped Keya in the head again. “What did I just say? No antagonizing our guests. Also, stop acting like that. It didn’t even hurt you, much less cause you any sort of discomfort.”

Of course, Keya continued her ‘act’, ignoring my protests of her obviously fake performance. “But what about the emotional damage? That could’ve left me with some lingering trauma. I may be too scared to do anything if something else was aimed for my head!”

“Says the woman who leveled a mountain on a whim. Seriously, why did you even do that? Did you hate the mountain or something?”

“Nope! Just wanted to see if I could do it. It happened to be the largest target at the time.” Sometimes this girl said the most ridiculous things with a straight face. I did too but to a much more reasonable degree.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” Keya quickly circled behind and gave me a hug.

“Welcome back.”

“...thanks,” I said with a smile. I tried to give her a pat on the head, but Keya quickly swatted it away before slipping out of my reach, like always.