Playdate. [II]

I have called this castle a palace in the past. Because back in my era, palaces were places of the dwelling of higher classes, whereas castles were fortified constructions that were primarily for military safekeeping and work.

This doubled as both.

It was a single building that housed two families- mine and Yuu-chan's while also having the place of order- the throne room. Of course, the whole palace was designed by a brilliant architect, so every theme just fit together marvellously.

The entire structure was fortified by a physical barrier that seemed somewhat durable. Durable enough to at the very least withstand half of my sort of serious blow. But it wasn't a moat filled with deadly mythical beings. In my opinion, a good moat is a staple of a real castle.

This castle was just pretending to be a castle. A wonderful imitation but an imitation nonetheless.

But then again that's my personal opinion. (psst.. always go for the moats.)

Anyhow, amidst the wonderful imitation, Luha and I were currently on the gargantuan lawn to meet with the third party member.

"Yuuno-sann!!" Luha ran to the wooden sword-wielding battle maniac.

Calling her a battle maniac might seem like an overstatement. But she was practising in winter, with snow falling around, wearing a tank top, and visible steam coming off her body.

For context, this is not even a wuxia or xianxia novel.

{a/n: I don't know the difference between them.}

"Luha-chan!" Yuu-chan dropped her sword and shook both of Luha's hands with her raw strength yet rather gentle touch.

Over the past year, they grew closer and became friends. I mean, it was pretty hard to ignore Luha's innocent charm, and evidently, Yuu-chan fell prey to the 'self-proclaimed elder sibling syndrome'. That meant that against her volition, she started hanging out with me at school as well.

By the way, the 'perfect' image of her's didn't falter. But that was probably because we were surrounded by a bunch of kids who thought rerun episodes meant that the show was currently airing. So you couldn't exactly blame them.

"Oi! Why didn't you tell me that she was coming?" She finally noticed that I was there too.

"Why do I have to tell you about it?" She was my guest after all!

"Becauuuseee the only reason she would come here is to see me." The nerve on this woman!

"Aren't you getting too full of yourself?"

Yuu-chan kicked the sword back up into her hands and pointed it at me.

"Oh, now you're resorting to violence just because you couldn't argue back. That too against a powerless boy? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?"

"You're the one who'll be waking up on the wrong si-"

"Can you two please stop fighting?!" Luha drew her hands in inwards and screamed. Cutely. "Please?"

Who wouldn't throw away their anger after looking at that face?

Both of us went in for a head pat. It was blissful.

Why were the both of us at each other's throats you ask? The day before yesterday she broke my favourite Mai figurine while practising her magic and didn't even apologize properly. So I made Clintarou rip apart her favourite Sung Jin-Woo dakimakura.

We had some bad blood between us, to say the least.

But that melted away rather quickly under the Luha sedative.

"What were you up to right now?" Yuu-chan asked.

"Showing her around the castle. That's what she came here for." I answered.

"Mind if I join in?"

"Are you going to take no as an answer?"

"Nope." Thought as much. That was why we went to her in the first place.

Yuu-chan joined the party as planned.

Our first stop was the garden. One that surrounded the lawn. So technically the first stop was the lawn. Rare flowers, herbs, and fruits. Bright and fragrant. Or none of the above. It was winter and every plant was dead. Yuu-chan heated our bodies up with magic, but you wouldn't see her going around doing that for all the plants.

Everything in sight with the exception of the grass was dead. And covered in white.

{a/n: that's what she said.}

She frolicked around the entire garden like a little kid. Well, it made sense since she was a kid. Even when there was nothing to do or watch, she still had fun.

Oh, the childhood innocence.

After the walk, we went to the little rope jungle gym towards the back of the castle. The place that was built when Hime-chan finally grew old enough to play around. Her parents thought that it was sad how the most privileged kids in the nation had the least free childhood. Pretty stupid in my opinion.

Anyhow, they built the jungle gym then and it is getting used now.

After encountering it, Yuu-chan held her hand over the ropes and heated them up. The snow piling slowly melted away making the gym a safety hazard. So she used wind magic to rid the moistness from the ropes.

"It's safe to climb now." And climb we did.

The jungle gym was like a tower and the top wasn't very far off. Being used to this endeavour we got up pretty quickly and Yuu-chan helped Luha up too.

What awaited us was the white palace, made even whiter by the snow. Tall trees on either side. It really did feel like December.

Luha looked around with awe in her eyes.

Needless to say, the castle was quite the sight for her. Her trip was hopefully worth it.

"Luha-chan, who do you like more? Me or Mao-kun?" Yuu-chan blubbered.

[Way to go with that terrific ice breaker, dumbass. How do you think a 5-year-old will answer it?] I touched Yuu-chan's hard tricep from behind.

[What do you mean how she'll answer it? Obviously, she'll pick m-]

"Uhhh… I like Mao-kun more." Yuu-chan's jaw dropped on the floor.

'Lol.. serves her right.'

"But-" Yuu-chan protested.

"He reminds me of my brother." Is her brother an ex-demon lord too?

[Wow, her brother must be absolutely incapable to resemble you.] Yuuno quipped.

[Shut up! I'm incapable by choice not circumstance.] I retaliated.

Our mental warfare immediately came to an end-

"He passed away two years ago." Luha spoke.

Well, that turned dark real quick.

"I'm sorry." Yuu-chan said, apologetically.

"Unn.. It's fine. He's probably happier up there." Luha patted her back.

A few moments passed.

"Can you tell me about your brother?" I asked her, not knowing what else to say. Words that help a person are hard to find. But the reason she was projecting her brother onto me was that she must've had some unresolved feelings towards him. The least I could do is help her get over that before it becomes a scar as she ages.

So I had to find the right words.

"My brother was kind… he was smart… and he always took care of me."

"And that's how I resemble him?"

"No… Mao-kun, you try hard for everyone around you."

"Huh?"

"You started the year off being distant but now everyone feels happy talking to you." I couldn't believe a 5-year-old girl was saying this. "He was like that too, until Mom and Dad stopped supporting him. Then he gave up." She was way too mature. Sure she had her innocence but she got robbed of something.

How did her brother die? Was it suicide? Exertion? She wouldn't know. But that didn't matter.

"Your brother, you know." I started talking. "Isn't that far away."

She looked at me with questions in her eyes.

"This world is forgiving. When people pass away they immediately come back as someone else. Your brother could be that bird flying in the sky, or that tree in the orchard. He could be anywhere around you." I pointed at those beings respectively. "So until you find him, you can just rely on me. I'm not going away ever."

I put my arm around her and she came in for a hug. From the other side, Yuu-chan embraced her too.

[Your speeches are pretty smooth, huh? I was at a loss for words there. I'm sorry that I couldn't help, but thanks. Even though it does seem like you reuse the same theme for relief.] Yuu-chan said.

[My literal job was to aid the entire citizenship of my previous life. I better be eloquent.]

[Just take the compliment and say thank you. I don't need a stark remark.]

.

.

.

And with that, we headed back for lunch. As we approached the front, the entire lawn was cleared and the snow melted into the ground. The ground with permeated water looked like dew on midday.

"Welcome back!" Dad shouted while working the grill. "We thought we should break our new daughter in with a barbeque party!"

Talk about over-the-top!

We had a hearty meal. And the food was- every bit as good as you would expect.

By the time the meal ended, it was already approaching sunset.

The sky was rather clear and pink... it really was winter.

The day and the playdate had come to end.

"Bye Mao-kun, bye Yuu-chan, bye M-mommy and d-daddy."

'What are they making this poor girl say?'

"Bye Luha! See you on Monday!" Yuu-chan waved at the black limousine.

"Nhh. Good night! Byeee!"

"BYYYEE!!"

We all waved until she got driven off into the farthest point our eyes could see.