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Today, Ervas and Veronica had planned in registering into the Adventurer Guild and the Tamer Guild.
?
However, for now, they were having breakfast.
In front of them, there was a beautiful young lady, with pale white skin and a white dress, with gleaming dark blue eyes and long silver hair.
"My lords, do you desire anything else?" she asked politely.
She did not have any legs and was floating in midair.
Her body was translucent and phantasmagoric and seemed like a ghost of some kind.
"Well, make sure to maintain the house clean, we don't want to have dust everywhere like before we came in here, Selene," said Veronica.
"I apologize for such things, my lady… Such things happened because I was not yet born as an individual, and my body was being made of many wailing phantoms," said Selene, she was the avatar of the Haunted Mansion, the representation of its personality and ego, which had been born when Veronica used her Death Attribute Magic and Mana to fuse the phantoms composing Selene into a single entity, which she named Selene.
"Ah no, it's fine, you do a lot of work already by maintaining the mansion, and well, also controlling the Undead," said Veronica.
"I am honored to be praised by my lady…" said Selene, she seemed to have a very serviceable personality when talking to Veronica, but she was the agglomeration of many souls fused together, and in fact had many personalities and minds, which she divided into clones through her Phantom Clone Skill.
She could be considered to be the second being in all Kritias to acquire the Phantom Clone Skill after Ervas.
Although her way to use it was different, and could not move her Phantom Clones out of the Mansion, unlike Ervas who could leave them anywhere.
"This is pretty crazy… So she's…the personification of this haunted mansion?" asked Jose.
"W-Well… we have already seen much Undead in this place… and they all seem… mildly friendly? So you shouldn't get surprised anymore…" said Bartholomew.
"That's right, human scum, I am the personification of this mansion," said Selene.
"I see- Why human scum?!" asked Jose.
"Sorry, Selene has one or two minds belonging to the souls of demi-humans that hated humans… those people were the souls of slaves being held captive in the underground of this place that was actively tortured and raped," said Veronica nonchalantly.
"E-Eh? I-I see… I-I guess it is… fine to call me that if she can appease herself," sighed Jose.
"Such animalistic people… were the aristocrats living in this place like that?" asked Bartholomew.
"Indeed, a few of my components are such aristocrats' minds, which were killed by the ghosts of the slaves they tortured and raped," said Selene.
"O-Oh… S-Serves them right… I guess?" said Bartholomew.
"Anyways… How's the black wolf?" asked Kireina.
"Oh right! We caught that guy and his thugs… How're the interrogations going?" asked Ditoyle.
"They are doing quite fine, Radugro seems to be quite complacent and speaks almost anything we ask him to answer… I am beginning to believe that I broke his spirit a bit…" said Ervas.
"Nah, don't even think that! You did a good job beating the crap out of him," said Veronica.
"That's right, you have really grown up, Ervas," said Ismene.
"Well… Yes, I suppose… Talking about growing up, Ervas should be reaching 3 years of age next week!" said Jason.
"Oooh! Nice, let's make sure to celebrate a big party!" said Veronica.
"Well you don't have to make it so flashy," said Ervas.
"No, no, no, we are making the biggest party in the Kingdom!" said Veronica.
"Indeed! The birthday of a family member must be celebrated with a great feast, music, and dance!" said Kireina.
"We'll make sure to prepare something we often do on birthdays inside of our tribe," said Anna.
"Oh yeah, dances and songs, and we might even bless you," said Ismene.
"Bless… me?" asked Ervas.
"It is something we do when someone's birthday happens," said Ditoyle.
"We bless them so the next year they can grow even stronger, healthier, and braver," said Ismene.
"I see… That would be nice, thanks a lot," said Ervas.
"Oh, we could do a ritual as well! Like in the Ghoul Tribe! A ritual by fighting! You'll fight all those that are of your same age to show them what you got!" said Leonidas.
"…Leonidas, I don't think Ervas should do that. Especially, because the three-year-old Ghouls are very small," said Alesia.
"Oh… R-Right…" said Leonidas.
"In our tribe, we often did the same thing!" laughed Ragdaz, the father of Gaius and Azra who has come to visit, joining everyone in the 'outside world' as he was getting quite bored living a peaceful life inside of Veronica's soul.
"Really? Fighting? That's pretty animalistic… In our tribe, we do dances and prepare special dishes, those that are on their birthday receive a beautiful dress made of our feathers imitating Ocypete-sama's appearance. Then, they are made to fly around the village," said Desephise with a confident nod.
"Ooh, that's quite beautiful. In the Rabbit-kin tribe, we celebrated by creating a large bonfire in the middle of the village, where all the elders danced while painting our bodies with several colors we extracted from plants or blood. The one having a birthday would then be given a special crown made of our fur and would have to drink the blood of Horned Rabbits so they can grow stronger like the monsters," said Pekoran, who had decided to come to the Haunted Mansion as well, he had learned how to shapeshift his own body now, and had managed to resemble more his previous self, although he still wore dark armor and was kind of pale and translucent. Due to this, he was hoping to meddle with this society and register as a citizen, and well, be at the side of Ervas and Veronica.
"Damn you guys really do a lot of stuff… In our tribe, we simply prepare a good cake and some delicious food, often bread, butter, and cheese if we have available. Eggs as well… It is a little feast made by the family only, but the children love the food. Often, we also gift clothes or a weapon if they are old enough," said Rian, the chief of one of the Raccoon-kin Tribes, who had also come to accompany Ervas and Veronica.
"Eeh? Is that so? So boring~ In the BETTER Raccoon Tribe, we do a large ritual to make the child having a birthday enhance their magic power. We also gift special materials to craft concoctions, and if they reach 12 years of age, we gift a large cauldron so they can make their own easily!" said Mysticia, who similarly to Rian, had decided to check things out. She was also from a Raccoon Tribe, but one that separated from the original one and was originally led by a witch, so their custom differed a lot.
"Ah well! In the Gazer Tribe we… Well, I just invented them as we are finally becoming something of a tribe, but yeah, we do a ritual where we bath the Gazer on our oozy liquids secreted by our tentacles, then, we dance with our tentacles and caress their bodies with them, hugging them and showing that we love them. After that, we feast on freshly harvested brains from monsters," said Krakenusa, who was barely fitting inside the manor first floor.
"I see… All of your tribes and cultures are remarkably interesting… But don't you think it would be… a bit too much to do them all?" asked Ervas, he was getting honestly overwhelmed by the amount of different and rich cultures, and the traditions of each one.
Although Ghouls and Bear-kin were rather similar, as both races were battle-oriented warriors that grew to hunt prey, forcing the children to grow strong and brave was a must so they would not doubt killing their first prey when the time came.
In other more peaceful tribes such as the Harpies, Rabbit-kin, and Raccoon-kin, they did rituals of dance often making they're young wear a special dress or crown made of parts of their body such as fur or feathers. Although the raccoon seemed more materialistic, preferring to gift useful items or good food.
And well… The Gazers were… very affectionate.
"I guess we could just mix it all, peko!" said Pekorina, who had finally come to Seashore today in the morning, and was sitting at Ervas side.
"Yeah! Yeah! Let's make it all mixed, it would be cool!" said Acathea, sitting at the other side of Ervas.
"Yeah, Ervas, let's do it like that! We can feast and then we can make you wear feather dress and fur crown!" said Amelia adorably, she was sitting over Ervas legs, Ervas had grown enough that Amelia was now smaller than him, to the point that she could sit on his lap rather comfortably.
"W-Well… I guess that would be… the best we can do. But let's make it in order, mixing it up would be confusing," said Ervas, accepting all the cultures openly, and wanting to embrace what they did for their celebrations of birthdays.
"Instead of kids you can fight us instead, so it's made more fairly!" said Ragdaz.
"Oh yeah! Go easy on us though…" said Leonidas, who had been beaten by Ervas in the past and could not get over the trauma yet.
"Well, if that's what you want… sure thing," said Ervas as he smiled.
"Nice! So we can begin making the feather dress right away! Oh my, Ervas will look so lovely on it!" said Desephise, beginning to take out her feathers fervently.
"D-Don't be so rough with your wings…" said Ervas.
"Hm, we should gather some materials then! And maybe a big cauldron!" said Mysticia.
"I and my family will make the cake!" said Rian.
Indeed, it seems that a large celebration was coming for Ervas birthday.
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