While Adam was busy talking about his experiences with Yui, Theresa approached Makarov with light steps,
"Hello, Master Forger. I have to say, seeing you here is really a surprise."
"What do you want? I already told you long ago that acting like this would only make me feel repulsed. So, out with it, lass…"
Theresa could only flash a bitter smile in response before speaking, "The way you treat me and my sister is so different…"
Makarov shrugged his shoulders, "I have nothing against you lass. Cecilia is just special to me, that's all. I treat everyone else in the same exact way. No hard feelings."
As he spoke, he gazed deeply into Theresa's eyes and then spoke after a few moments…
"Though I must comment, if there is one thing I do respect about you then it's the fact that you do not seem to be jealous of your sister."
"Oh! You are pretty wrong about that. I am jealous, absurdly so."
This time it was her turn to shrug her shoulders and comment, "I mean, even when we were kids, she was the favorite child. Cecilia was the one who always got loved and appreciated, and got to make friends for herself due to her charming and easygoing personality. Meanwhile, I was the introverted gloomy bookworm little sister who nobody wanted to talk to or hang out with."
She then smiled all of a sudden as she continued, "Then things happened, we joined the Kaminari clan and once again my sister showed the great chasm that exists between the two of us. Even now, as I stand here, I am not even as strong as she had been twenty years ago. Isn't it just outright funny?"
There was one saying that was thrown around quite easily in the world.
"Hard work never betrays you… They really should not generalize something like that…"
This was true only when you compared yourself to the past and were happy with your own growth. It didn't refer to being compared to others.
Because… the moment you compared yourself to someone else, things started to become a lot more complicated, and the moment you compared yourself to a true genius of the world… You would then realize how futile hard work could be in front of true talent and god given gifts.
"Then I have to say this… For saying that you are envious of your sister, you sound surprisingly carefree."
"Well… How can you feel negative feelings when witnessing history in the making?"
She laughed.
Theresa did not think she was a saint. If she had simply been lagging one or two steps behind Cecilia, she might have really developed negative feelings for her sister in the long run. This was how humans were.
But thankfully or perhaps sadly? She didn't lag just one or two steps behind her.
What she had witnessed went beyond the realms of a mere genius or some flimsy talent.
Two monsters of their ages.
Be it, Cecilia or Mei, they were at such absurd levels of talent that using modern standards was impossible for them, and even the heroes of legends who could actually match them all had the blood of a god or something innately special about them that distinguished them from the others.
This was why, even though she felt both envy and jealousy, those sentiments never came to develop into something negative.
It was simply impossible for her to do that.
Could a human look at a mountain and feel bad because he wasn't as tall? All they could feel in that situation would be awe at its majesty.
Makarov looked at Theresa, almost as if seeing her for the first time. He was surprised by her open-mindedness and then realized that she was indeed Cecilia's sister. Despite the difference in their natures, at their cores, the two were extremely similar to each other. Blood runs thick after all.
"Very well. Let's talk."
———
Meanwhile, Shuri looked on as Adam and Yui walked into the house, her eyes narrowing for an instant, deep in thought.
'Adam did have a period during which he was a delinquent, right?'
She was deep in thought when,
"Hi, my dear friend. Care to share a drink with me?"
She was taken out of her musings when Cecilia appeared in front of her with a bright smile on her face.
"Cecilia."
"Follow me. I want to pray a little to Mei's altar."
Shuri gave a stiff smile at first but once she heard Cecilia's words, she nodded seriously.
.
.
.
A small trail of smoke was going up as the incense sticks were slowly burning away into dust and ashes. Sitting in a seiza position, with their hands clasped together, they both prayed to Mei.
The photo of a beautiful black-haired woman smiling at them was fitted inside of a frame of a small shrine.
Opening her eyes, Shuri gazed deeply at the photo. She had never met Adam's blood mother in the past. She believed that Mei was in fact Cecilia's lover of old who had died along the way. It was only later that she understood that they were only friends.
"Don't let her appearance fool you. Mei was a stubborn woman. Not even a bull was more stubborn than her once she took a decision."
"Do you miss her?"
Shuri knew she asked a stupid question the very moment it left her lips.
Cecilia chuckled as she poured some Sake into her small bowl before drinking it in one shot. "Won't lie. In moments like this, I really miss her. She was a difficult woman to understand. Always acted like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, but she would sometime crack her cold expression and make a bad pun out of the blue. Never failed to crack me up that woman."
"She sounds fun."
"Heh. That… she was."
Silence settled once again, as she poured a drink in her and Shuri's glass.
"Well. We didn't really have much time to spend together during this month. How things are going for you?"
"It's going pretty well all things considered…
'I am still about to divorce, I made a contract with a criminal and my family is trying to kill me. So, pretty great, yeah…'
"Things could be better. But it's still pretty good."
"Hmm… You are pretty bad at lying for someone who is supposed to be a lawyer."
Shuri took out a mirror and looked at her face, "Did my expression betray me or what?"
It would be pretty bad if she were unable to lie well while in court after all. While Lawyers didn't technically lie at all. They were good at adjusting their words to fit the circumstances. They were the best white liars in the world, in a sense.
"Nah. I just knew you were lying… I could sniff it."
"You are like a dog, you know?"
"Please, at least say that I am a hound."
She laughed, never imagining that Shuri, of all people, would use one of her old nicknames without knowing about it.
"Well, enough with the chit-chat. Do you know why I brought here, just in front of Mei's altar?"
"No, and I am quite curious."
"Well…" She grinned and gazed at her deeply, not wishing to miss even one instant as she enunciated her words.
"Then… Tell me… Dear Miss Shuri Nakiri. Hehe… What intentions do you have toward my dear son?"
Looking at her expression, Cecilia wished she had brought her cell phone for this very moment.
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