I was thankful for Suguha choice of time to appear, I might have gotten smacked again, if she hadn't come to my aid all of a sudden .
Where are the girls ? .
They already have taken a seat on the dining table looking to be quite exhausted from all the chores that they ended up in helping me with .
I could be imagining it, but I actually sensed that Suguha smiled faintly as she said this, but it wasn't a warm smile, but a scary one, I couldn't help but wish that those guys were still okay, a whole half an hour passed, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this .
Just as I was thinking of this, I saw that Suguha suddenly turned to look at my mom and gazed at her intently, she wasn't looking at her before as she answered her question, but now she looked at her and was so confused that she even looked at me and seemed to be quite wondering about who was the woman in front of her .
But she didn't need to even ask about this, my mother stood up and put a hand on her waist and asked her about how she looked, the girl recognizing the voice, even though it was a bit more softer and joyful than before had here eyes widened in shock after realizing what was going on .
She took a few seconds to organize her thoughts about this then she said :
Madame looked more prettier than before .
Thank you Suguha, but I already asked you to stop call me Madame, you make me feel like I'm an old lady .
I will be sure to take this into consideration in the future, but we really should ne joining them soon, otherwise I'm afraid that the food might get cold .
As she said this both me and my mother didn't argue with her since she was indeed right about her concerns, not to mention that we had guests in here, even though we too are technically guests in this house .
We began following Suguha towards the dining room, I was once again feeling sorry for making her responsible for taking care of such a big place alone, so I moved a bit hurriedly forward and asked her if she would like to have anyone else here to help her out, but her reply was quite baffling :
Can Ryuu-sama be sure that those guys that you will appoint, will not pose a threat to you or the madame while I'm away, you won't be using that spell on them I believe, right ? .
She was indeed right, I hadn't think this through, it was indeed as she said, I really can't trust anyone else to stay here with my Mom currently other than Suguha, I nodded at her words and discarded that thought from my mind for now .
But I won't deny, it was good to have some company around here .
I understood this clearly as well so I nodded my head and thought about making those guys visit more often, but thinking about them being tired out from all the chores she made them do, I doubted that they would agree to come over ever again .
We finally reached the the dining room, as she opened the door, I saw that she really made quite the extravagant meal for us with the help of the girls as well, speaking of those girls, those guys were currently putting their heads on the table and seemed to be sleeping with their eyes open, that was how tired they were, I not wasting any time directly healed them back to their peak state .
It was shocking enough to see that Haruka and Tokiko were tired, but to think that even Sophia who had a monstrous stamina and durability looking to be so worn out was a a shocking thing to me, I couldn't help myself, taking a few pictures of this with my cellphone and in my mind, the scene looked quite amusing .
Once the girls were healed back to their peak state, I saw that they were giving Suguha a few fearful look as if they were seeing something else that I was failing to see, I guessed that the tasks she assigned them really had taken some toll on their mind and body, I should have held part of the responsibility, but it seemed that I was worried for nothing .
Just after Suguha gave them a look, those guys seemed to be walking up from their weird state, they stopped glaring and instead got up from their seats greeted my mother and asked her about her health, my mother arrived a bit after us, once she entered the room and saw that those guys were politely greeting her, she couldn't help but smile in response to this .
It was those guys that seemed to be shocked at seeing how she currently looked like, they had seen here before but she wasn't dazzling like this, they all took a few seconds to wake up from their shocked state, then they all happily smiled over at me, even without them saying anything, I understood that they were aware of my involvement in this, that's why they were looking at me like as if I was their prey .
I shifted awkwardly on my seat witnessing all of this and thought that it was better not to do these sorts of things in the future, at least not so openly, I had already witnessed how much those guys cared about their appearance before, now that they might have begining to think that I was some sort of a makeup artist, they really might not be willing to give me a minute to rest .
" I heard good news about your hard work from Suguha-san, I would like to praise all of you for the good work you had put in helping with the chores, but shouldn't we dig in already, the food might be getting cold .
I said this trying to shift their attention towards something else, the three guys weren't willing to let go of the matter at first, but after my mom cluelessly intervened and asked them the same thing, they listened to her words and all directly took their seats and we began to eat .
The scene was silent at first, but soon my Mom began to ask about how was their past lives were and what weird things or stories they have to share, even though I understood her intentions in asking this, I didn't say anything to stop here from doing that, I wasn't crazy after all .
The girls were surprised at the question, but soon the whole table was bustling with conversations going around it, the only people who seemed to be excluded, or more accurate to say were excluding themselves from fully indulging in these sorts of conversations was me, Haruka and Suguha .
They would only reply if a question was directed at them, otherwise they will continue to remain silent until they would be asked a question again, but I did notice that the two of them seemed were aware of the similarities they shared with one another, I saw them looking at each other with confusion, bewilderment and even nodding at each other answer .
So I now believe more that they indeed might get along more greatly than I had first imagined them to, me on the other hand wasn't doing anything other than trying to see what my mother was trying to gain from this,
There conversation continued for some time and I seeing that my mother was just curious, detached myself from their conversation and focused more on the great problem that I'm facing tomorrow, how to convince Regina to attend tomorrow .
What will my mother reaction after finding out about this, even though Regina was closer to my age, the gap could make her frown at this and I will take a lot of effort to calm her down again, but the main problem was still on how to bring Regina to agree in doing this .
Just as I was thinking like that, I came back to my senses as a few words appeared to land in my ears, those were the words of my mother inviting all the three girls in front me to have dinner with us tomorrow, I almost bit a big chunk of the wooden table at her saying this, I hurriedly tried to interfere in hope of preventing another more reason that will make matters more difficult to me, but it was already too late .
The ship had already set sailed and those guys readily agreed to accept the invitation and said that they will be sure to attend, seeing that I was looking at them, my mother winked at me playfully and gave me a look that seemed to be saying ' don't worry I got this ' .
I really wanted to lash out after seeing her look, but had to remind myself that this was still my mom whether I liked the problem she was creating for me or not, she was still my mom who I love and hold dear .
Even though I kept repeating this in my mind, I still felt like I wanted to go and hit something or maybe Stop Time until I'm able to regain my composure, but I understood that both of these solutions were currently not available, so all I can do was to squeeze the my hands until I feel that I had finally calmed down again, which wasn't working by the way .
After seeing that there was no point in even saying anything, I was already mentally exhausted, something that I had been suffering from quite often these days, at least in the the last two days, my mind and body would suddenly lose their energy, my body was easy to deal with, but my mind was the real problem that I hadn't been able to find a solution to, since that first day I used those cursed spells, I had become like this, I finished eating and it seemed that I was the last one to do so .
Everyone had gotten their plates away back to the kitchen, all of them seemed to becoming good acquainted with each other, too much that they didn't even remember to wake me up and was instead watching TV and again chatting non-stop with each other, I finished cleaning after myself and didn't go to join them .
I picked another room that was somewhere close to them, close for them to see me and I do the same, but not close enough to hear what were they going on and on about, so in my opinion that was quite good .
Seeing them like this, made me quite happy, I was able to let go of my worries and focused more on thinking about what should I be doing tomorrow and whether or not to tell my mom about Shizuno now, but in the end I decided against it and instead thought that it would be better for that to be postponed for some other time .
As I was engrossed in my own thoughts, I heard the timid yet familiar voice of Haruka saying :
Why aren't you joining them, Ryuu-san ? .
I was once again surprised by her lack of presence and how scary will she be after refining that skill even more, I found myself involuntarily looking forward to seeing it, answering her question, I said :
" Well, I wanted to give you all the room to yourself, my head is a bit aching, so instead of bothering you, I preferred to leave you to whatever you guys were doing, were you bored or something, Haruka ? .
The girl shook her head at me and said :
No, I came here to keep your company, you see, I too was a bit tired of all of this, so if it wasn't much of a bother, could I join you .
" Sure thing, I was beginning to feel lonely staring at ceiling here all by myself, go ahead and take a seat whereever you like to .
She nodded at me and out of all empty seats around, she still decided that she wanted to sit next to me, I didn't say anything to stop here, but I was a little bit weirded out by her doing this, but still decided to continue staring at the ceilings in silent, wondering on whether had I roamed the world outside this planet back in my past life or not .
Can I ask you about something ? .
The girl suddenly asked this forcing me to look at her and my look made her a bit tensed, so I removed my gaze and nodded at her, telling her that she can go ahead .
Was Suguha-san the person that you mentioned before, was she the one you wanted to introduce to me ? .
I was a bit surprised that she was able to tell and thought to myself that those guys seemed to have understood each other quite well, I nodded my head confirming that this was indeed the case, I saw that she fell into silent and her breath disappeared, I couldn't help but turn my head and look at her, the girl had an expression of loss on her face, sensing my gaze she absent-mindly turned her head and met my gaze and unconsciously blurted a few words, saying :
Does that mean you will stop training with me from now on ? .
Hearing her words, I wasn't able to clearly understand the hidden meaning behind them, if there was any in them, I stood there looking at her, unable to understand what exactly she wanted me to say, but in the end I shook my head and said :
" Well, it isn't like we would be stopping our sparring or anything, but I believed that Suguha-san fighting style was similar to yours and she also had more experience than me, so I believed that she should be able to help you more than me .
Can I still get you to give me an advice from time to time .
" Of course you can, it isn't like we will stop being friends or anything .
Friends, so we are friends ? .
That question wasn't directed at me, she was more or less contemplating on it herself, she clearly had something on her mind regarding this .
" Oh Suguha, I hope you had already gotten acquainted with Momochi-senpai ? .
I noticed the presence of someone standing beside us, it seemed that it have been standing there for some time and only now was I have a clear enough mind to notice her standing there .
She appeared from the shadows and seemed to have a weird expression on her face as well, but she seemed more composed than the girl sitting beside me as she nodded her head at my words and seemed to have understood her next task, but her next words took me by surprise, she said :
Can I refuse ? .