The sun was shining brightly, and Cedric was spending his rare free time carefully polishing the communication ball he had been given.
Today was a perfect day to call his prince. He hadn't brought the ball with him on the expedition, afraid that it would be lost. Dominic had only recently replenished the royal treasury and there were a lot of expenses in the foreseeable future, so he had to take good care of the expensive communication ball, or it would cost a lot to make a new one. Although they had exchanged letters through Ignis, they hadn't seen each other's faces for a longer time than usual, so he should find a nicely lit clearing, full of flowers Dominic wouldn't usually see—
"Cedric! My dear friend!"
His thought process was broken by a cheerful shout. Two black shadows zoomed out, one stopping by his right side, the other halting at his left.
On his left, the blindfolded boy bent his waist, looking up at Cedric with his hands behind his back and a bright smile on his face, asking.
"Cedric, do you have any plans today?"
He looked harmless, but Cedric instinctively clutched his ball tighter.
"Today? Uh, I was planning to call my highness."
"Dominic? Great! Brother, did you hear that?"
Ciel looked at his brother. Erin nodded and grabbed Cedric's arm.
"Got it."
Ciel joined in, locking Cedric's arms with his. Although he was small, he had been well-fed over the past few months, and with a bit of mana strengthening his muscles, he and Erin easily lifted Cedric a few inches above the ground.
Cedric dangled helplessly, clutching his ball—feeling like a bewildered squirrel holding onto its acorn.
What is this? What's happening?
"Then you can come with us."
"Eh? Where are you taking me?"
"We know a great place to call our prince! :D"
***
The ball flashed red, and Dominic's face instantly appeared in it. Judging by how surroundings turned her into a disco ball, she was in her court room. Seeing her, Cedric instantly beamed.
"Dominic!"
"Cedric!"
"Dominic!"
"Cedric!"
"Dominic!"
Although Ciel was more than happy to watch the two share one brain cell, seeing Erin's eyebrows furrow from the noise, he quickly blocked the ball.
"If you guys want to loudly act out a comedy skit, do that later."
Dominic coughed.
"Alright, my apologies. By the way, where are you?"
Cedric grinned.
"Oh yeah, we're in Evanair territory! Look at the view!"
Lifting up the ball high above his head, Cedric spun around, showcasing the vast meadows of grass, flowers, and clumps of trees.
He had been really surprised to be suddenly dragged away like that, but the brothers indeed knew a lovely place to show Dominic.
Ciel puffed out his chest. Although there was no black market here, he could find plenty of ways to entertain himself—finding beautiful places was one of them. Theresa was also thrilled to observe the healthy new environment and had zoomed off into the woods as soon as they arrived.
"I also found some natural growing canna lilies!"
Seeing the ball tilt precariously as Cedric bent down, Ciel grabbed it, placing it on a small patch of grass.
"Keep it here, you can see us clearly right?"
The crystal ball magnified his features perfectly, and as he stepped aside, Cedric could be seen in the background, digging into the dirt with his hands.
Dominic nodded happily.
Cedric successfully dug up a patch of dirt underneath the clump of canna lilies he had been showing to Dominic earlier.
"Look! They're a beautiful shade of bright red! Just like your hair! Of course, your hair is prettiest, but canna lilies this vibrant are hard to come by in the central city!"
After dealing with state affairs all day, seeing his sunny smile was soothing to the eyes.
Dominic laughed happily.
"Your flattery is getting better."
Ciel, also a fan of red, also glanced at the flowers with their roots still poking out of Cedric's hands. Through his mana senses, it was a shade of grey that sort of resembled Dominic's grey sparkly hair, however, both were still a bit lighter then Erin's eye shade.
Hmph.
A sense of competition suddenly welled up.
As Cedric turned away happily humming to pot the flowers into a bowl, he pushed Erin's head in front of the ball.
"My princess, don't you think my brother's eyes are also a beautiful shade of red?"
Dominic looked at Erin's wide eyes. His raven black eyelashes were quite long, unexpected for a reptile, instead of curling up, they drooped slightly, giving him a naturally cold look. His pupils were slightly pointy, like a diamond, and his irises were almost exactly like a pair of pigeon blood rubies she had seen the Acyuta empress wear on her ears back when she had visited her kingdom.
"Hmm, they are indeed very bea—?"
Eh? Why was she suddenly looking at a black screen?
A gust of wind blew, knocking the ball into the ground. Erin's head suddenly disappeared, a flash of black pushing him aside before rising rapidly above the clouds.
"Ah—!"
Ciel stretched out his hand.
His brother!
Got snatched away!
The hell!?
"Ha."
In disbelief, he gave a short bark of laughter, raising his fingers to his mouth.
Underneath his blindfold, Ciel's eyes glowed a bright furious blue, his mana senses roaming across the four legged thing with wings in the sky.
Not even a human, and it dared…?
The mana around him twisted, and blood quickly pooled his left hand. With a flick of his fingers, five long, thin threads of blood extended from his wounds.
His mana and the blood intertwined with each other, making the threads twirl around each other, forming a thin but sturdy rope with a hook at the edge.
Whoosh!
The blood rope shot up into the sky.
With years of tacit understanding, Erin neatly dodged the hook, and grabbed it with his hands.
Ciel instantly started retracting his blood, the pull lifting his small body in the air.
Feeling like a kite in the air, Ciel gritted his teeth as he shot upwards into the sky. The shapes of the forest trees receded as the ground vanished from the range of his mana senses.
In the air, and moving fast, the mana around him moved chaotically, rendering him blind. The only thing he could see was the dark red color of the mana in his blood extending upwards from his hand.
But he could feel himself being pulled closer and closer to a solid mass of dirty mana.
Biting his free hand, he formed a large claw around it, sinking it deeply into a cold, feathery side.
"Screeeeeeech!"
The demon writhed in pain, but the claw only sunk deeper into its stomach. Its flight path swerved, wings flapping in panic.
Ciel's vision was filled with his own red mana and the dark, murky mana in front of him. He couldn't hear anything but the roaring wind and the pained cries of the demon. His blood rope twisted, liquefying into droplets and forming into another blood claw that plunged itself into the demon's chest.
Die.
To snatch the family he had thought he would never see again.
It must die.
Immediately.
His grip tightened.
Until another hand, cold, but slightly warmer than his own, grasped his wrist.
"Retract your blood, you damn anemic!"
His vision cleared, a clean black mana cloud flickered at the edge of his vision.
In his haze, Erin had loosened the hold around him, not enough to fully escape, but just enough to grab the idiot hanging in front of him. In Ciel's eyes, Erin's black mana shook violently.
Uh oh, his mild tempered brother was angry.
The blood claws broke up and obediently seeped back into his fingers, warming them up despite the cold wind. Before he could fall, Erin grabbed his armpits, securely holding him up.
Erin's voice continued loudly, in a place Ciel couldn't see, his scarlet eyes were thick with worry. He had thought reincarnating had made Ciel better—he didn't even act up back in the duel. How come he was relapsing again?
First things first, Ciel must be distracted immediately.
"Ciel, what were you thinking? You know I have wings right? I could've cut myself loose and flown back! What are you going to do with all that blood if your mana runs out? Become a zombie?"
Ciel lowered his eyes, dark with killing intent.
He was actually still quite close to the heart. If he moved suddenly, maybe Erin wouldn't have enough time to stop him..?
After all, threats had to be eliminated.
Thoroughly.
Not seeing a response, Erin shook his brother out of his daze. Ciel blinked, his blindfold almost coming off, the haze in his mind disappearing.
He needed to reply.
"Ah, you want me to apologize for the next time I do it again?"
The wind blew his words away, but Erin could clearly see his mouth form the words.
He sighed, tapping his brother's shoulder twice.
It was a sign to talk later and get out of the situation first.
The demon was swerving unsteadily in the sky, but its speed hadn't slowed, even with its blood squirting profusely out of its chest.
Two yellow claws around his shoulders, brown feathers, and a white bird head. The demon resembled an eagle, minus the fact that its body resembled a lion.
A griffin?
"Ciel! Did the novel tell you anything about griffins?"
The wind blew stronger as the griffin, wobbling in the air, flapped its wings harder.
"What!?"
Erin yelled louder:
"GRI-FFIN!"
"Ah? Muffin??"
He couldn't hear Erin's voice clearly enough through the wind, however, at this time, a clear scream echoed in both boys' heads.
\What the f*ck! I step away for one second and you two start flying! You didn't even tell me!\
It was their ghostly sister, who had been happily looking at the scenery, before being suddenly dragged upward by the range of her doll, and had to float as fast as she could to return to her doll.
"Never mind that! I'll explain later! What's he saying?"
"GRIFFIN!"
Theresa, unaffected by the wind, heard both her brothers shouting into her ears at the same time.
\He's saying the demon holding you two captive right now is a griffin. I don't know about their habits but if this thing is any similar to the birds in our world, it'll drop you two soon to kill—and there you go.\
The boys, suddenly freefalling, blinked. Theresa hurriedly floated to their side:
\Big brother! Wings!\
"Oh!"
Large black wings unfurled, the feathers gleaming with a steely glint.
The griffin looked down, doubling back.
The heck, it knew food could occasionally fight back, but why could this food fly?
"Screeeeeech!"
Ciel couldn't hear Erin, but he could hear the angry griffin just fine.
"Brother! Hurry up!"
Erin gritted his teeth, closing his wings into a cocoon and diving downward into the thickest part of the forest.
Mini theater:
Back in the capital.
Dominic, still staring at the black screen: …I'm going to ask the court mages to develop a sturdier communication ball.
…
Back in the meadow.
Cedric, who had finished potting his flowers, turned around to see an empty forest clearing: Eh? Where did everybody go? (O - O?)
…
Back in the mansion.
Verdalite, watching Azar pour sugar into his teacup: Azar, after our clean up, there shouldn't be any demons nearby now right?
Azar: Of course not, my river's blocking them out.
Author: (Not those that can fly though.) :D
*A large shadow flies over them.*
Verdalite: Hm? What was that?
Azar sipped his tea: Probably the arrogant nobles from Acyuta. Where that emperor is, there's bound to be those obnoxiously luxurious flying carriages.
It wasn't until much later that the grandparents realized that the obnoxiously luxurious flying carriage was actually, in fact, their grandchildren dangling from the claws of a demon.