Aurelio
Alessia is in a foul mood the entire next week, but I don’t blame her; any reminder of her sister must be painful right now. Besides, she’s busy from sunrise to sunset planning the tournament that the royal advisors tried to pass off on other officials of the city. I simply give her the space she needs, assist her in everything I can, and treat her in whatever small ways I can manage without pissing her off.
When the first day of the tournament arrives, Alessia kills it in the opening round, per usual. She also knocks out her second round in a record thirty seconds flat, followed by her third round wipeout of her opponent, which automatically qualifies her for the finals. While she waits for the final round to occur at the end of the week, she buries herself in books, not even bothering to greet Mina whenever she passes her. My existence is ignored entirely, too.
So, instead of dwelling on it, I decide to go out. There’s nothing better for me to do, anyway.
I head out of the palace and make my way through the city, this time not bothering to don a cloak; with East by my side, there’s already a reason for people to stare and flock to me. East, per usual, is terrified of all the attention and clings to my side for dear life. Lief sits on my shoulder, keeping an eye on the people behind me as I make my way through the city streets.
“Must they flock to you like a celebrity?” Lief huffs. “I’m not a people person.”
“You’re not a person. You’re a fairy. And I am a celebrity, Lief.”
“Why does that have to be my problem, though?”
“Just deal with it.”
I make my way past the Holy Church and to the Meadow Hills training arena, which is remarkably busier than it used to be. Although the tournament has already finished its rounds for the day, tournament participants and fans are flocking to the building and the entrance hall to view their standings and the upcoming matches. Some are even pre-buying their tickets for the finals already.
Of course, as soon as they see me coming—or rather, see East headed their way—they quickly backpedal to make space for me. I glance at Lief, and he simply shrugs.
“I can’t fix this. You’re the one that adopted a griffin chick, not me.”
“I wasn’t asking for you to fix it! And this isn’t my fault!”
I stride right through the front entrance, pass through the entrance hall, and make my way up into the stadium. Sure enough, the person I’m looking for is sweating his butt off in the arena below, sparring with the only person strong enough to force his improvement. The pair of them look up at me and give friendly waves when they notice me.
Then, their jaws drop to the floor.
“Aurelio, what on earth is that?” Kharu exclaims.
“It’s my son, apparently,” I chuckle.
Emilia brandishes her sword. “Shall I kill it?”
“What? No! Why would I bring it here if I wanted you to kill it? I’d have already done that by now if that was my intention!”
“Oh. Right.”
Emilia sheathes her sword as I make my way down to the arena. All other trainees stop what they’re doing to stare. East glances to his left and his right, then practically climbs onto me to avoid being looked at, clinging tightly enough to my leg to cut off circulation.
“East, relax, buddy!” I hiss. “That hurts!”
“East?” Kharu questions.
“That’s his name,” I explain.
“I heard you returned with a pet monster from your quest, but I imagined something more like a fairy or a friendly phoenix, not a whole griffin,” Kharu remarks.
“Well, they say when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”
“That’s some strong lemonade,” Emilia snorts. “I take it the rest of your quests went well, though?”
“Oh, pieces of cake. Alessia took out an entire goblin nest herself in twenty minutes for our first quest. I managed to kill an Oni, although Alessia had to jump in and save my ass with some emergency medical treatment. The griffin incident was the icing on the cake, because after we got this little guy, we had a third fighter in our adventuring party.”
I pat East’s head, and he finally relaxes. He detaches from me long enough to allow me to sit on the ground, and the moment I do, he tackles me in his favorite griffin hug, as I call it, which is just a wings-out, full-body hug that threatens to crush me under his weight. I lay on the ground and laugh as East nuzzles against my neck.
“I didn’t know you were capable of keeping something alive,” Kharu remarks. “Last I checked, you killed every plant your mother gave you.”
