Michelle

  The group of five—previously only a group of four, just a week ago—looked up at the massive walls before them. They were finally, at long last, at Efrinteu, the capital city of Nibuolos.

  Remembering where I was in life only a year ago is so incredibly strange. Everything still feels unreal.

  It was also difficult to fathom the sheer amount of time she had spent just driving. Nearly seven whole months of constantly driving, always moving, only stopping to give themselves an occasional break.

  Torneltha is a massive world in comparison to the size of Earth. Michelle knew from experience that it was possible to drive across the US in about a week, and that was with much more downtime. On top of that, she didn’t have any road laws she had to follow here, so her top speed had been well beyond what would’ve been legal back home.

  I guess this is going to be our new home now.

  The sheer scale of Efrinteu’s walls before them could not be understated. Their color was a nice, brick red, and people could be seen patrolling along the top. There were also aerial patrols being carried out by avian-kin, flight-capable Awakened, and people with flight-capable tamed beasts.

  Walls this monolithic were actually normal for cities of this size. The more people there were in one place, the more monsters would attack it. And this was the capital as well, so it warranted such defensive measures.

  It seemed counterintuitive for Michelle to want to bring her daughters to a place with even more monsters, but this city had good people and could offer them a good education. The other cities they'd visited in the country of Nibuolos so far had already confirmed this.

  I wonder if part of the reason we chose a large city is because we each lived in one before? I doubt it will be quite the same, though, but that’s fine.

  Another reason for choosing a large city was that she was still working as a slayer. Having more monsters in one place meant she wouldn’t have to travel as far. There would be plenty of work here.

  They passed through the gateway to see the bustling streets hidden by the walls. Michelle smiled as everyone looked around, and Diamond especially was quite happy to properly experience a city for the first time, though she was also slightly overwhelmed. Michelle rubbed her second daughter’s head, making her tail wag.

  Their first stop was, as usual, to find an inn to sleep in. They got a room with two beds just like they had been doing so far, but the sleeping arrangement would be different this time. Michelle and Amber would take one, and Luna, Diamond, and Sarah would take the other. They had confirmed that the wolf could still change her size at will, so she wouldn’t take up too much space in the bed.

  Though now Sarah will have to deal with the girls’ bizarre and sometimes painful sleeping habits.

  Michelle chuckled at the thought. She wouldn’t be woken up in the middle of the night by a headbutt to the stomach or a foot to her face for a while. And Diamond wandered in her sleep just as much as Luna did, so that would only add to the bruises. She never scratched anyone in her sleep, though, which was good.

  The buildings they passed were mostly made of red and white bricks with wood framing, looking similar to Mexican architecture, though with more curves, and a very slight resemblance to buildings of the late middle ages. Many of the buildings had gardens on the roofs.

  Nearly every door they could see was made of magically reinforced stained glass, heavily decorated in geometric patterns with symbols representing what was within. Due to the proximity to the gate, most of the buildings in this area were inns.

  The group stepped into a nice-looking inn and got a room for the five of them. Thankfully, cheap but decent inns were abundant, as accommodating slayers could be a matter of life and death for a city.

  I wonder if anyone else from Earth made it so far away yet? There were a couple thousand who left the base before us, and I know I wasn’t the only one with some kind of travel-related Gift.

  ———

  The five of them explored some of the city over the next week, but mostly looked at schools. They all seemed to be about the same in terms of quality of education, so it then became a matter of if they could accept the girls. Both of them were pretty much fine with any of them.

  They weren’t limited by proximity to a house, as they didn’t have a home yet. They did look at what houses here were like, but would worry about getting one after deciding on a school.

  Generally, kids would be accepted into a school without issue after talking with the parents for a bit. That’s what the three adults of the group did after taking a quick tour.

  While the girls were busy taking placement tests, Michelle, Amber, and Sarah went to talk with the head of the school. They entered the office, where a fuzzy, gnome woman was waiting for them.

  “…H-Hi, I am School Head Escilla. Michelle, Amber, and Sarah, correct? You are their parents?”

  Why does she seem a little nervous?

  It wasn’t unusual of Escilla to ask that, as parentage in Torneltha could involve several people of different species all being biological parents to the same child. The parents could even be of the same sex. The process involved a kind of specially-prepared magic receptacle. Any mixed-species children would usually have the appearance of one species, but with some traits of all the involved parents.

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  “That’s us,” Michelle replied. Even though she hadn't been dating Amber for very long and had only met Sarah a year ago, they had both become irreplaceable to her. She had already known Amber for several years, anyway.

  “I-I see…”

  Why is she nervous? And why is Amber amused?

  “Are you okay?” Michelle asked, getting worried.

  Amber snorted and stifled a laugh.

  “Ah, yes! I’m perfectly fine!”

  Her girlfriend placated the school head, “My love here just looks evil, but I assure you, she’s perfectly nice.”

  Michelle gaped at her in confusion.

  What the hell is she talking about? Since when do I look evil?

  Amber whispered to her, “You don’t seem to be aware of it, so I’ll tell you after we’re done here.”

  Escilla looked slightly relieved by Amber’s words. “Do either Luna or Diamond need any special accommodations?”

  “No, they should be fine,” Michelle replied.

  They continued talking for a while longer, and one thing that Michelle took note of was that while the school did have some food for the students, parents were expected to provide their meals for the most part.

  So I’ll be making school lunches again. It actually feels nostalgic. Good thing our current inn has a public kitchen we can use.

  They would also need to go shopping for school supplies in addition to more clothes for Luna.

  By the end of the meeting, Escilla seemed to have finally relaxed.

  “I see no issues with your girls going to this school,” the woman said.

  “Thank you. And sorry for scaring you,” she apologized.

  Escilla gave a slight, awkward laugh. “Yes, you seemed… angry.”

  After leaving the room, the turned to her girlfriend. “Okay, Amber, what the hell was that all about? I look evil? What?”

  Amber laughed and shook her head, which Sarah also did. “Let’s go to a bathroom first. I’ll tell you there.”

  “Okay…?”

  After finding one, Amber made her stand in front of a mirror.

  “Now tell me, what do you see?” her girlfriend demanded.

  Yep. Still an elf woman with pale blue hair.

  “Myself?”

  “And what expression are you making?”

  She looked again.

  “My normal expression? What are you getting at?”

  Amber sighed exasperatedly and cupped Michelle’s cheeks. “Michelle, love, you have resting bitch face. Like, really intense resting bitch face.”

  “W-Wait, are you serious?”

  “She is,” Sarah confirmed. “And when you were being friendly with Escilla, your smile looked really sinister.”

  Michelle stared at her reflection again and really paid attention this time.

  …Wait, it’s real!? I look like I’m furiously scheming to kill someone!

  “Really, how did you not know?” Amber wondered incredulously. “It’s been an entire year!”

  “I didn’t interact with people very much this past year because we never stayed in one place very long, and we didn’t really try to make any friends after leaving the base. But what about when we were at the base? No one said anything then!”

  She shrugged. “Everyone there was miserable and angry? You fit right in.”

  She could only hang her head at the incredible revelation that she could terrify people with only a glance, and had possibly been doing it all this time.

  Amber added, “Not sure if this will comfort you, but I think it’s super hot? You look like a villainess.”

  Michelle could only laugh helplessly at her own obliviousness. “I even remember you saying before that evil women are really hot…”

  “That’s because it’s true!”

  “Yeah, I can agree with that. But honestly, how did I never realize?”

  Sarah chimed in, “Well, to be fair, you were avoiding your reflection for a long time, and it’s only recently that you fully accepted yourself. And as you mentioned, we haven’t had much interaction with people this past year.”

  “Is Luna going to turn out like this?” she wondered.

  Amber replied, “Maybe a little bit? But from what I can tell, the changes she made to her avatar way back when pretty much got rid of all of that. Oh, now that I think about it, maybe Luna was trying to make a mean-looking character at first? If so, she completely nailed it.”

  She sighed. “It doesn’t matter, and I’m not going to ask her about it. I don’t want to give her the impression that my horrible RBF is her fault. At least both of you and the girls can tell what expression I’m actually making.”

  After coming to terms with her face situation, she gave Amber a kiss. “Well, let’s go wait for them.”

  Before, my face stood out because I had a massive nose. Now, it stands out because I look like I’m intensely contemplating violent revenge. I’m not sure which situation is better. I didn’t hate my old face and I don’t hate my new one, but man, life sure did get weird for me.

  There was a small area with benches that they sat on while waiting. After several minutes, Luna and Diamond come running down the hallway.

  ““Mom!”” they yelled in unison.

  Michelle hugged them both. “Hey, girls. How’d you do?”

  They both handed her a sheet of paper with their test results on them.

  Luna Meadows:

  Geography — 3

  History — 2

  Language — 5

  Magic — 5

  Mathematics — 3

  Diamond Meadows:

  Geography — 2

  History — 2

  Language — 6

  Magic — 3

  Mathematics — 2

  Grades here went up to 10, and Michelle was pleasantly surprised to see that their grades weren't below average for 7-year-old kids. They were both exceptional in Language because of the weird magic things that had happened, and Luna’s Magic grade was at 5 because of using her Gift so much. While she did have a lot of mana for her age, her control was still lacking, at least in comparison to an adult.

  Just because they knew several languages as a result of the ritual, which seemed to have carried over into Diamond, that didn’t mean they knew how to actually use those languages. There was a difference between knowing what a word means when you hear it and being able to use it in conversation.

  I think their Language grades will probably reach the top in no time, though. And I’m relieved that Diamond was learning alongside Luna all this time, otherwise, she would’ve had to catch up.

  The school did also have other classes that weren’t based purely on information or utility, but those would come later.

  Diamond’s ears went back, “Teacher Pronil said we won’t have the same schedules. Our classes won’t all be together…”

  “It’ll be alright,” Michelle comforted her. “Other kids aren’t so bad.”

  “Okay…”

  Luna rubbed Diamond’s back. “School is really fun! You’ll see. Mom, when do we start?”

  “A week from now,” Michelle said. “We have to get some school supplies for both of you, and we can finally get you some more clothes, too.”

  Suddenly standing with her head held high, Diamond announced, “I don’t need clothes! I can just be naked!”

  Why is she so smug about that?

  They had been saving up money all this time for today. Anything the girls might need, they should be able to afford with no problems. Though the addition of a second child was completely unexpected, they should still have enough.

  We won’t be taking so many slaying jobs together after this week. To think that killing monsters would become a family bonding activity…

  With the presence of monsters in the vicinity of the city, they should be able to complete any jobs they take before school gets out. Michelle also confirmed that some students stay at school for a while after classes end because their parents are working, meaning they have a little leeway in when they get back.