“Hey, hey, hey!! Give it!! Give it baaack!!! It’s mine!!” Lycoris says, jumping as she tries to grab the little hydra that is hers, but Azazel’s mother holds her hydra away with a mischievous smile.

“You four are going to the academy today. You can’t take a hydra to a normal school environment; you’d need special permission. And until you get such permission, this hydra will stay at the castle,” she says, shaking the hydra which wriggles, trying to bite her. I walk over, standing close to the two of them, glaring at this wicked woman.

“Delphina’s daughter… Little Aqua is going to try and take the hydra from me? Go ahead, try, here, here,” she asks me, dangling the hydra with that disgusting smile, but I can see it’s dangerous. This woman is dangerous and will hurt me if I try to grab it.

“Come on, Lycoris, leave that old witch be. We’ll get your hydra with Elena’s help later,” I say, hugging Lycoris and starting to drag her away.

“B-But…”

“…Tsk… okay, sister Aqua…” She hugs me back, pouting, as we head to the front of the castle, where sister Eclipsya and sister Azazel are talking. Beside them are servants holding some of our materials.

“…” Eclipsya looks at me carrying sister Lycoris and gives a small, mocking smile, as if I wouldn’t see it. It makes me growl a little at her as I see Elena arguing with the carriage driver.

Elena notices we’re all here and approaches. I see that our mommies are almost all here, except for Lycoris’s mommy, and when Lycoris realizes this, she sheds a tear, squeezing me tight.

She seems sad, so I carefully pat her back. After all, there’s nothing more I can do if her own mother doesn’t want to come say goodbye.

Grimm goes up to Azazel and gives her cheek a weak pinch while glaring at Eclipsya. Tsukuyomi goes to give Eclipsya a goodbye hug, and mommy Delphina comes to me.

“Daughter, I hope you’ll be the best there,” she says seriously, stopping in front of me, but I can sense a slight tone of worry in her voice.

“Yes! I will absolutely be the best, Mommy!” I confirm this with immense confidence in myself. I will surpass sister Eclipsya and become the best of all. I will most certainly rub her face in the mud.

“…” Mommy Delphina pats my head. I give her a big smile and she lets me pass to the carriage. In the end, I know I’m the best. It’s natural that I’ll take first place, and I won’t let Eclipsya take that from me.

“A-Aqua, why does Mommy hate me…?” Lycoris asks as I sit down in the carriage, with her still clinging to me. She curls up against me, seeking comfort, while her tail thumps against the seat.

“…I don’t know.” I won’t lie. She clearly hates Lycoris. It’s not that she doesn’t hate her; she literally hates Lycoris, and anyone can tell just by looking at the way she looks at her.

Besides, I’ve seen Lycoris try to get a hug or some affection from her, and either she’d ignore her, or if Lycoris got too close, she’d push her away.

“But you don’t need her love, Lycoris. Soon we’ll grow up, and I can give you lots of love in place of your mother.” She looks at me with hopeful little eyes, but you can tell she won’t get over this easily.

“Really?”

“Yes! I also reached the child stage two days ago!!! So now all of us are considered children!! But soon we’ll reach the adolescent stage!!! Then we’ll be able to do things children don’t do.” I’m confident in what I’m saying.

I’ve read many books with Mommy Delphina, and by myself, and I discovered lots of interesting things. I also found something even more fun when I broke into Mommy Pandora’s room. Inside, she had a growth chart for all of us.

Mommy Pandora analyzes many things to ‘predict the future.’ Basically, she predicts when we’ll hit a life stage, and the average is 1 to 5 years, but it’s very volatile. Mommy Pandora actually defines it based on each of our mental growth.

In other words, it’s not necessarily about time, but just mental evolution that counts toward helping us move to the next life stage. And it’s true, since sister Lycoris reached the child stage soon after learning to talk.

“O-Ohh! When will we grow up again?” she asks curiously, while I think about Mommy’s charts.

“Probably in 3 to 5 months.” I’ll probably grow faster, because I reached the child stage very quickly, showing that my maturity curve is the most accelerated, with the only one close being Eclipsya.

“Unfortunately, it seems sisters Azazel and Eclipsya will grow up first… according to my calculations, Azazel has about 1 month left, and Eclipsya at most 2 months, with a low time variance…” The two will soon be adolescents, meaning they’ll be old enough to do what they want, since adolescence for us, according to our mother, is equivalent to 18 to 21 years old. It’s the most unique growth period among the three we can have.

“I see, I see… Sister Aqua, are you going to kidnap me?” she asks, confused, and I’m the one who gets confused by this nonsensical question. Why the hell would I kidnap Lycoris? That doesn’t even make sense!

“W-What? No! Why would I do that?” I ask, totally confused. It doesn’t make any sense for me to kidnap the sister I’m trying to tame to stay by my side!!

“Hmmm… Sister Eclipsya plans to kidnap sister Azazel when they’re both adolescents. She has plans, and spells, and even poisons and drugs, plus a secret little spot. She’s very committed to taking her for herself the day they both become adolescents.”

“Because Mommy Pandora made a deal, that when sister Eclipsya was an adult, she could do things she can’t as a child.”

“Oh? Is that so? And why does she think she can do that?” I ask, interested in this information. I could ruin her plans just to annoy her.

“Mommy Pandora is letting her kidnap sister Azazel. I overheard conversations.”

“Ah…” I give up on ruining her plans. If Mommy Pandora is allowing it, then there’s no point in trying to stop her from doing it. It would be like going against what Mommy Pandora has given us freedom to do, which isn’t fair.

Before I can say anything else, sister Azazel and sister Eclipsya enter the carriage, as we’re now going to head to the academy. It will be our first day there. Of course, classes start tomorrow, and today we’ll just get adjusted to the school and its students.

“Hey Azazel, want to sit on my lap?” Eclipsya asks, while Azazel stupidly accepts with a smile. I hug Lycoris tightly, competitively, while Eclipsya ignores me.

“Eclipsya, I see that– HUAA?! What the hell!!” I see Grimm’s face at the window, staring so obsessively at Eclipsya that I’m caught completely off guard.

“…” Eclipsya seems used to it and just ignores it. Soon, Elena opens the door on the other side and we all look at her, ignoring Grimm’s dangerous stare.

“As you all should know, you are going to the academy. There, you’ll already have everything you need, and you’ll also have meals personalized for your needs. However, you will also need to follow rules or be punished.”

“I hope you understand that this academy was Pandora’s idea, and you as her daughters must respect her and the Academy’s rules. Everyone expects you to be at the top of the academy, and it’s what’s anticipated, so please do your best… especially you, Azazel, who likes to break rules,” she says, staring at Azazel.

“I’ll behave!! Don’t just look at me or I’ll seem like the bad guy in this story!”

“…You may go now. I hope you enjoy school life…” She closes the door, and I can feel the carriage beginning to move.

“What do you think? I’m so excited!! It’s going to be fun,” Azazel says, smiling, while Eclipsya hugs her waist, keeping her fixed on her lap.

“I think it will be… interesting,” Eclipsya murmurs, not too loudly, while I think of what to say.

“I think it will be good. It will show who really is the top of the top among us, and I will win for sure!!” My confidence is stamped all over my words, while Lycoris says nothing.

As we sit in brief silence, I think about my sisters’ special abilities. I don’t know what ability I have, but I know Azazel has some kind of super blood manipulation.

She can manipulate the shape of blood, control the bodies of other living beings through blood, and even use that solidified blood to create forms. It can be her own blood or the blood of other beings still inside their bodies.

Eclipsya can control things with her mind, moving them with some kind of mental force. It’s pretty simple, but it doesn’t seem like common magic, so it’s powerful and unpredictable.

And sister Lycoris can heal others, with her mouth? I didn’t quite get it, but she healed my wounds with a lick, so maybe it’s linked to her fluids rather than the lick itself.

But I don’t know what ability I have. I haven’t awakened it yet, or if I have, I haven’t noticed. But it doesn’t matter! Soon I’ll learn magic at this academy, so even if I don’t have any special ability, it won’t make a difference.

Because I have an immense amount of magic, second only to Lycoris’s current amount of magic. For some reason, Lycoris has a lot of magic! It’s really incredible.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep