"We're not undocumented anymore! We're registered citizens of Anatol! Nobles, too!"
Ciel laughed with glee.
"Dominic, you're really generous!"
"Ciel! Stop moving around! You want to overexert your body again?! If you continue like this, your knees will become a chronic problem!"
Lilian, with a vein protruding on his head, finally roared out.
"Ah."
Oops. His doctor uncle was triggered.
In Fatalite's clinical bed, both Ciel and Erin were laying down on their backs, their hands folded neatly across their stomachs as if they were lying in a coffin.
Lilian stood beside them with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"After such a bloody fight, one doesn't seek medical help until he faints, and one helps the other pretend to be conscious to watch the oath ceremony; both are quite capable, huh?"
Two very capable people laid down silently, playing as corpses.
Beside them, Dominic started laughing his head off, unperturbed by Lilian's cold gaze.
Erin finally spoke up in protest.
"Why am I also lying down? I'm not that injured."
"Don't lie, I saw how you fought. Using your body to directly block magic? You think you're in Acyuta's suicide squad during war? Or do you think your human skin is as tough as your snakeskin? Either way, those marks on your body won't be fading anytime soon, so save your excuses for after you gain a faster regeneration time."
Seeing Lilian's face get darker, Erin quickly shut up. Ciel, a frequent patient in Lilian's clinic who knew that the more you talked back, the more you got scolded, quietly smiled with schadenfreude.
"And what're you smiling for?! You fool! You didn't gain any injuries from fighting others, you gave yourself your injuries! Didn't I tell you to limit blood usage! Your knees haven't even healed completely! This is why you never seem to grow or get healthier! And don't think I haven't noticed your habit of late night excursions to provoke the people in the black market!"
His critical points poked, Ciel's fighting spirit was aroused.
"No, I'm not provoking them, I'm making money!"
"And taking Erin with you to fight? Do you know it's already common knowledge in the black market to avoid the two battle junkies with black hair and white masks?"
Ciel was stunned, his fighting spirit floating away.
"Wait, how do you know that?"
"Where do you think I'm getting all my ingredients for potions?"
Lilian took a deep breath.
"Anyway, both of you are banned from going outside until you two are fully healed! Grounded, you hear?!"
He stormed towards the door as if he was leaving, but stopped at the doorway.
"Ciel, Erin, I know you both aren't normal children. We're also not normal guardians, and we won't ever behave like a normal family. We don't know how you guys lived before this, and we won't question anything. However, now that we've taken you brothers in, cherish your bodies more, and remember that there are people who will be worried if you guys get hurt!"
Bang! Thump!
He opened the door to leave, but instead of going out, several people fell in and onto the floor.
Thump thump thump!
Lilian was speechless.
"If you have the skills to hide behind the door without me noticing, why not use those skills to escape before I open the door?"
From the bottom of the pile, Mason raised a trembling hand.
"Doc, I do indeed have the skills to escape, but not with several people pressing me down on the door from all sides."
From behind the doorway, Jadiel also raised his hand, the other had gently caught Lanae before she fell.
"And that's why we're not in the pile of idiots down there."
"Captain, are you bragging right now or insulting them?"
Lanae picked up Kierra, who had been shocked back into her eagle form, off Ivan's back.
Jadiel smiled.
"Shouldn't you be thanking me for preventing you from becoming an idiot?"
Ciel stared at the brown eagle.
"How come Kierra's mask shrunk to fit her bird head, but her clothes disappeared?"
The room was silenced. But the previous atmosphere created by Lilian's words had completely disappeared.
Mason laughed, "Well, that's because her clothes are formed from her feathers, which also means that she's usually streaking—ow! Ivan, isn't crushing me under your body weight enough? Why hit me too?! Also, why haven't you gotten up yet? The lady has already gotten off! No one's on top of you—mmph!"
Just as Mason raised up his middle finger, Ivan pressed the rat eve's head into the ground.
"Stop speaking nonsense and I'll let you up."
Unable to speak, Mason's arms flailed around for a while before his middle finger became a double peace sign, tapping frantically on Ivan's hands.
Ivan let go and got off of Mason's back.
The irritated eve rolled lifelessly onto his back, panting breathlessly.
"Why do this to me? I'm just a damn logistics!"
Ivan gave a calm reply. "I'm also in logistics."
Mason regained his energy through sheer irritation and lunged out.
"You damn bear!"
"Is damning things all you can do?"
As the two logistics mutually assaulted each other in the back, their captain, Jadiel, had no intention of separating them. Instead, he chose to stand to the side, handing a brush for birds to Lanae, who laughed as she tried to tidy up the puffed up Kierra.
"Brother, I didn't know you could say things like that! Don't worry!"
As Lilian raised his eyebrows, Lanae quickly threw Kierra down and retreated around Lilian, hiding herself between Ciel and Erin.
"I completely agree with your words and I don't think they're embarrassing at all."
Ciel rolled his eyes.
But as Lilian swept his gaze over to Jadiel, Ciel quickly closed his eyes, pretending to have fallen asleep.
Theresa, who had seen his earlier eye roll at Jadiel, scoffed. Ciel ignored her.
Sitting behind Erin's bed, Dominic smiled bitterly.
'These guys, did they forget I exist?'
Fortunately, it was already hard to ignore a head full of ruby strands of hair, and it was even harder to ignore the shining halo behind it given by the sun. Soon, the ruckus stopped, and Dominic was able to speak.
"Your duel pushed Fatalite in the spotlight sooner than expected. That's fine, using the current wave of attention you've garnered, I was able to give you a higher rank than I'd originally intended. The nobles are subdued for now, but it won't take long for them to make small movements again. Jadiel, I trust you to do what you need to do with your new station—or should I call you Duke Evanair now?"
Jadiel grinned.
"You're the crown prince here, feel welcome to call me whatever you want."
His countenance was visibly happier.
"But duke. With an official title, Fatalite's members won't stay in this semi-organized but chaotic group, right?"
Lanae tilted her head.
"I think we're a perfectly organized family?"
Dominic's smile twitched.
"Then let me ask you. On the family register I just gave you guys, who are Ciel and Erin's parents?"
"..."
This question effectively silenced the entire group.
Dominic shook his head, getting up to leave.
"I'll give you three days. You better properly organize the family register when I come back to record it in the list of noble families. It'll be best if you can come in tomorrow though, we still have a lot to prepare for."
Just as he left, Ciel felt the space next to his head sink.
Mason's sneaky voice sounded above him.
"Ciel~ How about you call me dad?"
Ciel: …
Dad my *ss! In my previous world, you would be the one calling me uncle!
Ciel turned around, poking Erin grumpily.
Erin patted his head, his thoughts calm.
"Jadiel will be our dad. The rest can be decided among yourselves."
Jadiel's single eye widened, his lips involuntarily splitting into a grin.
"Really?!"
Hearing no objections from Ciel, Jadiel felt like he was dreaming.
When he first noticed Ciel in the tree, the first thing he had thought of wasn't 'spy' or 'assassin' , in fact, it was 'stray cat.'
A stray cat that had nowhere to go, and would run if you tried to pet it or take it in.
Though, that was exactly what he had done.
Later on, Jadiel found out that his first impression of Ciel had been pretty accurate.
Wearing a smile like a mask, that boy had bounced around without care, with an attitude of being ready to leave at the first sign of any dissatisfaction or exclusion from Fatalite.
Although his change could be seen from when he accepted Erin as an elder brother, Jadiel could still feel him keeping a steady distance from himself and the rest of Fatalite.
But today, even if it was under Erin's initiative, that stray cat had closed the distance himself!
"Really?"
Seeing Jadiel's shock, Ciel frowned. Although Erin had already decided, he did agree that out of all the eves here, Jadiel would make the best father figure. And since he had already made up his mind, he wouldn't let anyone have any doubts about it.
"Dad, can't you—"
—Poof!
Before he could finish his sentence, Jadiel disappeared, leaving a large cheetah with an eyepatch in his place.
Ciel: …
Erin: Pfft.
"Is it really that shocking?"
Ciel turned around, only to see that all the humans in the room had disappeared, leaving a brown bear with a gray rat on its head, a glasses wearing ram, and an ewe with an eagle on its back.
…So Lilian was a ram eve.
Erin burst out laughing, which was quite uncanny as he still hadn't managed to control his facial muscles into a smile yet.
Ciel threw on a stiff smile, before rolling into his sheets, playing dead.
Behind him, he could hear Jadiel's joy in his voice.
"Lanae, you hear that? He called me dad! Erin, it's your turn now!"
"This greedy guy, you already have Ciel, can't I be Erin's dad—ow! You damn bear, what did I do again!"
"If I have to be the uncle, you also have to be an uncle!"
"Kierra, you hear that? We're aunts now."
"No, Lanae, you're going to be the mother."
The chaos stopped.
Realizing what he just said, Jadiel quickly shut his mouth, his ears turning red.
Ciel quietly rolled back, his blue eyes gleaming with anticipation.
'It's been a long time since I've watched some drama from the sidelines!'