Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Endra smiled wryly. In a sense, his fruitless affection when he was a spirit was the pinnacle of love. He was literally the embodiment of unconditional love. After all, what could he expect from the people he loved? He was literally dead, so there was nothing they could for him.

'The purest form of love… huh? Who wouldn't want that?'

But even knowing that, Endra knew he wouldn't be able to love someone that way. He was painfully aware of how fickle human emotions were. He was definitely going to expect something from his lover. Their attention, their care, their thoughts… 

A part of him felt disturbed by the idea. Without him realizing it himself, his standard for love had become abnormally high. 

It sounded idiotic to say it out loud, but that was the truth. He felt like he wouldn't be able to be satisfied with a normal relationship.

A small part of him even wanted to become a spirit again and love someone the way familiar to him.

He shook his head. 'No, no, no. That's just idiotic.'

A person was free to think whatever, but some thoughts were deserving of a punch or a kick. 

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"It's fun watching you," Elise said. "It's entertaining to see the various expressions that appear on your face." 

Endra smiled. "I'm sure that old man you were talking about had similar thoughts to that."

Elise's eyes went wide for a moment. "That makes so much sense now."

"You also said you noticed how dumb teenagers were around you. I can almost see you smiling smugly while sitting with your classmates. Are you sure you weren't that old man?"

"Nah, couldn't have been me," Elise chuckled. "If I was, I was one heck of an old man. I even managed to get pregnant at some point."

"Hey, I've seen some weird stuff."

"Well, not me. So clearly, you're the more enlightened of us two."

Elise had no idea. But to be fair, Endra had no knowledge of the woman's past either. And from what he could tell, she wasn't so willing to share it either, with how she always started joking around the subject was mentioned. 

So, Endra decided to ask about something else.

"Are you finally taking a break from your work?"

"Ah, no. It's actually my work to get to know you. My adoptive father's really interested in you."

The Duke of the East, huh. To be honest, Endra hadn't heard much about him. In the capital especially, everyone shouted out the king's name only. Endra only heard about the duke because he was searching information on the Child of the Empress. 

"Does he want to adopt me as well?"

"Perhaps. But it's not necessary. He just likes competent people, so he's offering you a workplace."

"And what will I be doing?"

"Anything you can. He's good at using others, so I'm sure he'll find something that fits you. What do you think?"

Endra could tell that Elise respected her adoptive father, albeit reluctantly. Perhaps the man was the sleazy, but capable type. That could also explain the lack of fame he possessed. 

It suddenly reminded him of the Rothschild family from Earth. They were by far the most influential and powerful family on the planet, but few ever heard of their names. Sure, their information could be found if you searched, but those basically only confirmed that the family was rich. They never told the whole story.

Endra, of course, had ventured to seek the truth on the matter. And what he found shocked him to the core. He realized that the family had countries under their tabs. Governments had huge debts to the family's banks and were sometimes 'politely asked' for favors. 

In Endra's opinion, these people were the most dangerous. And the more he thought about it, the more he felt that the duke was someone similar. With his daughter knowing Soul Magic, and also being protected by someone like Sen… there was no way the Duke was as simple as he seemed.

"By the way," Endra asked. "How many other siblings do you have?"

"Hah, are you actually thinking about it?"

"No, just curious."

"Twenty-three so far," Elise shrugged. "Only three are the duke's legitimate children. The rest are talented kids he found from somewhere else."

"All mages?" 

"Except for one of his own and two others, yes. All mages. Most don't reach my level, but they're pretty good. As for the ones better than me, I'm sure I'll be ahead of them soon enough."

Endra supposed that most of these kids had people protecting them from the dark. If they were all at Sen's level, then the Duke was mighty powerful. Most mages weren't used for mere bodyguard duty. Especially not ones on Sen's level. 

'The duke's definitely more than he appears. I should be careful of what I say, then.'

"I'll think about it," he replied after a bit.

"Don't dally too much," Elise said with a serious tone. "If you want to mean something and not get killed for it, it's best to have someone powerful on your back. By some standards, you're almost reaching that level."

Endra took the warning to heart. 

"But don't worry too much," Elise smiled sweetly. "For the time being, you're under my protection."

Endra surprised himself by how much he was moved by those words.

"I'll keep that in mind."

The two's conversation headed steered towards more lighthearted topics from then on. Briefly, they talked about Elise's childhood, how awkward it was for her breastfeed for a long time, how hard it was to have her diapers changed and everything, how she struggled to not wet the bed so much.

They soon started talking about the students that were keeping an eye on the two of them. Elise was quite popular among the students, so Endra soon found himself at the center of attention. 

Elise taunted him, noticing Bella's eyes on them and Endra had to briefly talk about Evin's relation with the girl. It was awkward, but he had to do it. Elise would've found out about it some way or another and things would just get too awkward for him.

They then walked around the city for a while, before Elise had to go back to her duties. 

Before she left, she said that she found the time to participate in next event of the competition. 

"I'll show you some tricks of spellcasting you're definitely going to enjoy," she said smilingly before departing.

Endra sighed and soon went away to sleep.