The dishwasher turned on with a slight rumble as Ryan put away the pans he cleaned by hand. After wiping down the countertop, Ryan quickly stepped back into the adjacent livingroom and jumped over the back of the couch.

  "Did you enjoy lunch?" he asked, looking at his little cousin next to him. With an excited smile, Liam quickly looked up and nodded his head.

  "Yes! The new flavours are super tasty!"

  "Glad you think so," Ryan leaned back and ruffled Liam's hair a bit. He looked at him for a few more moments, trying to think of the best way to bring up that. Though, he knew that there wasn't really a good way to begin that conversation, and since Liam was in a good mood, now might be the best time to get him to talk about something difficult, "So... do you want to talk about what happened at school?"

  Silvia and Modak were gone right now, doing their own thing for a while, but even so Liam nervously looked around.

  "Wh-What? Did Runar tell you about that?"

  "Mhm. Though not a lot, he just said that you got kicked out for biting a kid."

  Liam slowly pulled his feet up onto the couch, "I... I didn't mean to, I promise..! It was just..."

  "What, did you take it too far while playing?"

  "No, we weren't playing! Not together, at least..."

  Ryan leaned forward slightly, "What do you mean? You weren't playing together, and then you got up and bit him on accident?" Clearly not sure how to respond, Liam just looked away for a moment. But Ryan just carefully rubbed his back, "Don't worry. I'm not mad, just tell me what happened, yeah? Everything's fine."

  "... He called me a monster..."

  Ryan raised a brow, "Excuse me?"

  That... that was one of the common misconceptions that Runar had told Ryan about. Historically, beings such as Vampires, Succubi, Ghouls, and many other of the hidden folk were seen as nothing but monsters. There was a combination of factors to this. For one, due to their nature, many of these species lived in opposition to other species. Either because they had to 'feed' on them, and this did not often happen voluntarily, or because they simply had too much of an appearance that was connected with classical monsters in myth, legend, and history. Most myths and legends were simply an exaggeration of facts, of course.

  Most species that counted amongst the 'hidden' were almost vanishingly rare on a statistical level, so there were never enough of them around for certain events to be verified or double-checked. Cannibalism was an obvious taboo for most species, so even if a vampire managed to feed on someone willing, it would need to be kept a secret. Just one of those instances had to be accidentally witnessed, and the entire situation could spiral out of control. There's actually a pretty famous story - the Vampire of the Hidden Road.

  It was an old novel written about a vampire that lured people into a back alley using some weird mind control ability, forcibly pushed them down, and sucked all the blood out of them until the last drop. A ridiculous story, knowing that even an adult vampire was barely stronger than a human kid starting out their puberty. According to Runar, the truth behind this story was extremely different.

  The true 'Vampire of the Hidden Road' was nothing but a prostitute that would give free service in return for being allowed to feed on her customers. Those that were discovered by their spouses to have visited her would then spin a story of some weird mind control and being forced into it, just to save face, and things very quickly got out of control. Though, it was also possible that some stories and rumours of a vampire and succubus mixed together in there, just making things reach even higher levels of ridiculousness.

  Then, there were some incidents in the past when dungeons expanded to dangerous stages and started taking over their surroundings. The places that were most likely to end up being turned into this were old historical ruins or places in poor slums or villages.

  The stories that people spun about these places somehow mixed in with the true events of that place, and suddenly, you had a village overrun by ghoul-like undead, slums haunted by 'temptresses', also most likely just prostitutes once again, which were simply exaggerated to have succubus-like tendencies or abilities, or old castles ruled by reclusive, vampiric monsters just because the nobleman that once lived there was a tyrant that never showed his face to his people and was thought to exploit them and forcibly turn his subjects into servants whenever he had the chance.

  Not only did all of these instances leave bad rumours about hidden folk behind, as hidden folk were more likely to have certain special 'traits' due to their often magical nature, but it also exaggerated those traits or invented new ones. People thought that vampires turned to dust when they went into the sun, but no, they would just get blisters and incredibly bad burns when they went out too long. They also couldn't turn people into slaves by biting them, and they couldn't turn into bats, though Ryan had no idea where that rumour came from. Maybe just a vampire that awakened to a class where he could do something like that.

  Weirdly enough, it was easier for people to accept the hidden folk that were far more different to them than those that were mostly the same. A ghoul walking down the road side by side with you? Unthinkable. But arachnids that mostly just appeared like dog-sized spiders were somehow fine. Maybe because arachnids were so different, it was easier to notice the similarities, and that's what people focused on.

  But well, while this topic interested Ryan, he wasn't an anthropologist, so he couldn't speak on any details. He just knew that this was how it was. And the way it was made Ryan furious.

  "So... he called you a monster... and then what, did you get mad?"

  "Of course I got mad, but..." Liam pulled his knees closer to his chest, "... a king always has to be level-headed, so I just tried to ignore them."

  Ryan frowned. So then how did Liam end up biting them?

  "That's good, you should always try to ignore people like that," Ryan said, though he thought, 'do as I say, not as I do, please.'

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Liam slowly continued, "And then... they started throwing things at me..."

  "Excuse me?"

  "Just stand and sticks and stuff. I tried to stand up and walk away, or get the teacher, and then they... they pulled off my hat and shoved me into the sun. Zigg and Mogh tried to help, but there were more of them, so Zigg and Mogh were going to get hurt, and..." Liam looked away, "... and they were fighting, and I tried to do something, but they wouldn't stop, and one of them was hitting Mogh really hard, and wasn't letting go of him so I just... bit him."

  Ryan slowly exhaled through his nose, trying to be quiet for a moment. Even though he had gotten into much worse fights at Liam's age, and though the kid was just trying to stop his friends from getting hurt... a vampire's teeth were sharp enough to draw blood even with little to no force, so that probably ended up pretty serious.

  "First of all... I want to say that I'm proud of you for trying to stand up for your friends. That's great, and you should definitely never stop yourself from doing the right thing," Ryan started, "But... you can't bite people. And in general, I don't think you should get into fights in the first place, it can turn out really, really bad if you're not careful."

  "They were... they were also biting..."

  Ryan stood up and knelt down on the ground in front of Liam, "I know it's unfair, but your bite isn't the same as others'. It's way, way easier for you to hurt someone a lot more than you intend with your teeth. And I know for a fact you don't like hurting other people."

  "Then what am I supposed to do?"

  "... I don't know. Sometimes there's not a very clear thing what you're supposed to do. I also don't want you to just get beaten up by others. But you're clever, and I know for a fact that you'll be able to do great things if you don't let assholes like that drag you down," Ryan smiled, "And I know that you will, but do your best to not end up in a fight, okay?"

  Liam carefully nodded, "Okay."

  "So. Do you want to hang out? Play some games?" though Ryan had other plans for today, since Liam was here now, he figured he should spend as much time with him as he could. Since this meant that Liam wouldn't be coming here next week, he could just push his plans back a little anyway.

  However, the boy hesitated and shook his head, "There's this book that I wanted to read... can I?"

  "Uh, yeah, of course, if you want to. You can stay in here and read if you want, but there's this really nice spot in the corner of the garden," though Ryan was a bit surprised, it made sense. Apparently, where Liam grew up, he really lived like it was still medieval times. Barely any technology beyond the bare necessities, so his main method of entertainment were books. And though both Ryan and Runar was trying to let him catch up to all the things he missed out on, it seemed like Liam still felt most comfortable when he was just reading quietly on his own.

  "But... isn't it really sunny?"

  "It is, but it's that spot with the pond, there's tons of trees around and it's quiet there. Violette is there right now, too, so you can just let me know through her if anything's up. We put a new bench there the other week too, it's pretty comfy."

  A broad smile appeared on Liam's face. He really did take a liking to the spirits as well, maybe because they were such old beings that they fit into the themes of what he was used to. Particularly Maximus and Violette, a knight and a fencer, were spirits that he felt comfortable around.

  "Do you remember the way?"

  "Mhm!" Liam quickly nodded, and Ryan quickly got up and walked to the front door.

  There, he grabbed Liam's shoes for him as well as one of the parasols that he got specifically for him. While the sunscreen that Liam put on every day was strong enough to protect him, that was mostly meant for short moments of direct exposure. On a day like this where the sun was glaring down unwaveringly, a parasol was still a safer bet.

  And so, Liam quickly got going, with his backpack in hand, and Ryan was able to get back to his plans after all.

  Without further ado, he made his way to his bedroom and climbed up the ladder onto that elevated layer above his door and the hallway. At the end of this space, which was currently used to store physical objects, like tools, blankets, or even outfits, for the spirits that they couldn't bring into their domains, was a small door which led to the 'main' attic.

  You could also pull down a stairway from the hallway to get in there, but none of them ever did so after they moved in. For one, it was because of who had now turned this place into her own.

  Morgana was a very greedy spirit. She usually did whatever she wanted, she took what she needed without asking, and didn't think twice about others. Of course, that didn't mean she was a bad person. She was actually quite kind. When someone asked her for something, she did so without hesitation, and clearly did so with a ton of joy in her heart. But when left on her own, without anyone stopping her, she didn't waste a thought on what others might need.

  Now, there was one main reason why Ryan was up here right now. For one, to take back a few things that Morgana might have nicked without anyone noticing again, and two, to learn from her. She was a Witch Spirit - while her and Jester were both magic users, the latter's seemed to be more innate. As if magic just so happened to occur when he did what he wanted to do. Morgana was different.

  Her magic was intentional. Studied. Ryan could tell that there was deep, vast knowledge hidden in her mind, beyond the memories that were lost when her core was shattered. He couldn't even imagine what was locked away there.

  For her first ten levels, the magic that Morgana used was quite simple. She was mostly restricted to her other two skills, allowing her to brew potions and to communicate with critters. There were some spells here and there she could use, but it was mostly something in the range of the simplest spells of each school.

  For example, telekinetic spells that allowed her to move cups or plates around. A small spark of flame to light candles, or gusts of wind to snuff them back out. Frankly, they were simple entry-level spells that are generally used by new magic users to practice. That didn't mean they weren't useful, quite the opposite. One of them actually helped keep the pool clean, after all. And since things had been peaceful lately, Morgana didn't need anything more powerful anyway, but it didn't feel quite fitting for her to be restricted like this.

  So Ryan had a thought - her skill's name was 'Witch's Grimoire', and her domain was filled with books. Ryan had looked around in there, and while they were written in a language he didn't know, they were mostly field journals of some kind, not a magic tome like he thought. But he already knew that the spirits often needed additional objects to show the true extents of their power.

  Jester's masks or Maximus' weapons and armour pieces, for example. And his guess was correct. Soon, Morgana reached level ten, and at least one of the types of items she got were revealed - a grimoire. A tome filled with numerous magics.

  Ryan actually took a look at it inside of Morgana's domain, and there were such complex magical patterns written in there, once again in a language he couldn't read, that it seemed like even the Magic Tower would go wild over this book.

  Specifically, it belonged to the school of frost magic, and with it, Morgana was able to use a vast new range of spells belonging to said school. Spears or walls of ice, freezing the entire pool in one go, and even turning one of the sheds into a freezer for half a day.

  And after that, Ryan had made a decision. Morgana was a magic user like none other he had seen before. Frankly, in her prime, she would probably put someone like Alicia, the current head of the magic tower, to utter shame. That was the moment Ryan decided to learn as much as he can from the Spirits. He was learning martial arts from both Maximus and Violette, the proper ways to use his hands most efficiently from Gregor, how to move his body in ways he could never have thought of from Jester, and how to most effectively use the Spirit Link skill from Gaia... And Morgana was slowly but surely trying to teach him magic.

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