I'm not the type of person who handles bad news well, and this was no exception. Knowing that, once again, my brother would be returning to the mansion, and that I would have to endure his constant harassment, kept me in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

  Aelira and Maeka noticed my bad mood quickly, and I'm sure they figured out why. On the way to Kila's office, they tried to cheer me up, but honestly, there was nothing they could do or say in that short time to lift my spirits.

  With the three of us walking with long faces, the walk seemed like criminals on their way to receive their sentence.

  Felia was at the door, greeting us with her usual serious face. However, the moment she saw us there was a small wrinkle on her forehead, a clear clue of how bad we looked in her eyes.

  Luckily, she didn't ask any questions and opened the door for us. A slight nod was all she did before closing it when we entered.

  “Dame Fiana.” They said both bowing and waiting in front of Kila's desk. I moved to my usual chair and just stood there without saying anything. I couldn't bring myself to curl up on my second mother's lap.

  Kila who seemed to notice my actions, was silent for a while until, perhaps seeing that she couldn't do much, she decided to go on about her business. Something I thanked her for mentally. I didn't want to talk at that point.

  “There are a couple of things I need to ask you both.” Kila changed to a serious expression that showed the situation could be something quite serious.

  They both nodded with a “Yes master” and braced themselves for whatever she was going to ask them. Some twitching of Maeka's tail showed how nervous she was not knowing what Makila's sudden attitude was about.

  “According to Felia, Ameli has been acting... odd. Have you noticed anything in the days you've been alone with her?”

  They both looked at each other confused by the strange question, and for a moment they didn't know what to say.

  Then the question arose. “Lady Fiana, what do you mean by acting odd?”

  “Hmm, according to Felia, Ameli has been talking to herself on several occasions, she is quite easily distracted, she has dark bags under her eyes as if she hasn't slept in days, and strangest of all, she has been, how shall I put it, watching Felia very intently.”

  “Watching, ma'am?”

  “Another way to put it is that she is stalking her. Felia has told me that she has been 'coincidentally' running into her more times than she thinks possible. She said it was like she was always in the right place at the right time.”

  Aelira held her chin, deep in thought. Her face was a show of concern and dismay. Maeka, on the other hand, looked uncomfortable.

  “There's... something I've noticed for a while now.” The reptilian girl broke the silence that had formed, speaking in a hesitant tone, as if she thought she shouldn't say what was on her mind. Kila nodded, urging her to continue. “Ameli usually does her job well, and many times I don't have to do much more than support or help her when she has her hands full, but...” Maeka hesitated for a moment whether she should continue or not. She looked over to Makila who raised an eyebrow and nodded again for her to continue. Maeka then sighed and continued her words. “There are times when she starts mumbling things that I fail to understand.”

  “What kind of things?”

  The reptilian maid looked even more uncomfortable than before, and in a way, she seemed embarrassed. Different from before when she was “flirting” with Aelira. Kila seemed to notice the girl's attitude and gestured for her to approach her.

  “...”

  “I see. Go back to your place.” Kila pinched the bridge of her nose, irritated by what she had just heard. “This is going to be another headache.” She muttered as Maeka retook her previous position.

  Kila sighed somewhat exasperated, then gave me a sidelong glance and returned her attention to the two maids in front of her. This time, turning to Aelira.

  “Being a Valven just like her, what's your take on it, do you think it could be that she's... frustrated?” she asked.

  Aelira tilted her head in confusion, then, as if she had just realized something she opened her eyes quite wide and began to think deeply.

  “It's unlikely, though I wouldn't rule it out completely. I've talked to her a bit about... those things, but there doesn't seem to be anything we need to worry about. Or so I thought. I think she's just a little shaken and confused by the normal changes of her age.”

  Makila clasped her hands together, looking very interested in the subject. “What kind of changes? I know this is a difficult age for the Valven, but I don't know all the details.”

  “Well,” Aelira began, brought a hand to her chin and, like a teacher teaching a class, began to explain slowly and concisely. “Since she has just reached her Nymph stage, if her Maternate has already performed her transition ritual, then right now she should be going through the normal mood swings.”

  “Mood swings?”

  “Yes, ma'am. Normally, after going through the rite of passage, newly initiated Nymphs usually go through 3 mood phases. Beginning right after the ritual, the first phase leaves them in an almost constant state of joy, and usually lasts a couple of days to a few weeks.”

  Aelira's explanation reminded me that shortly after Ameli reached 20, she was cheerful, smiling, and in a constant state of endless positivity. Though it certainly only lasted a month. After that she became...

  My thought was interrupted by the continuation of Aelira's explanation. “At the beginning of the second phase, they tend to be a bit irritable. It is not usually a problem, so they are usually left to their own devices. Very few are advised to give themselves a break from their jobs at this stage.” Aelira moved closer to Kila and continued speaking in a lower tone. “Also, their bodies begin to change more noticeably. They experience some growing pains. Usually limited to their breasts, hips, and thighs. But the most pronounced are mostly in their tails and...” Aelira looked at me for a moment, hesitating a bit to continue, but quickly decided to finish her words. “On their phalluses.”

  “Aelira...” growled Kila under her breath. I could see her eyebrows draw together as her ears contracted in a clear expression of annoyance, reproaching her for mentioning that sort of thing in my presence, something I wasn't able to understand, given that other topics that seemed “stronger” she didn't forbid me.

  “I'm sorry, Dame Fiana,” Aelira said hastily, giving her an immediate bow. “It's hard to find another way to put it. Besides, it's not something I should omit if we're trying to find some sort of answer to what might be happening to Ameli.”

  “...You're right.” Kila conceded, inhaling deeply and returning to her previous serious expression. “I guess I got a little sensitive about it. So, do you think it might be because of that?”

  Aelira shook her head. “It's hard to tell. What I'm worried about is the third phase.”

  “Explain.”

  “The problem with this phase is that it depends entirely on personality and can become very... random.” Aelira's expression as she said that turned dark, even her tone of voice became sterner, a clear indication of how worried she was about the situation. “As they reach the Nymph stage and overcome the initial phases, in the latter, they can have a complete change in their personality. Those who in their childhood were cheerful and giggly may turn into sex-hungry monsters-”

  “Aelira!”

  “S-sorry master! W-what I meant to say is that they become too difficult to handle.” Startled, the older Valven corrected herself, waving her hands frantically in front of her face, which had turned pale as she realized what she had just said. The poor girl looked like she wanted to escape out the window from the panic Makila had caused her. She coughed once trying to resume her words a little more calmly. “The p-point is that, although it is quite rare, some Valven can come to have a personality change in the third phase of their transition to adult Nymphs. Some Maternates have a belief that this is because their previous personalities are not the right ones to find compatible mates, therefore, their bodies force them to change.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “And because it is forced and sudden, they are not able to deal with it properly,” Kila concluded, leaning back in her chair looking a bit exhausted and overwhelmed, perhaps from the many thoughts that were swirling around in her head from the new information.

  “Correct, ma'am.” Kila nodded in understanding, then gestured for Aelira to return to Maeka, who didn't know how to take the current situation.

  Meanwhile, Kila entered a state of deep reflection, closing her eyes and breathing slowly. Her long ears twitched a bit and her eyebrows sometimes moved up and down, making her, in a way, look quite funny despite how seriously she must have been thinking at the moment.

  After a relatively short time, she opened her eyes and calmly looked towards the two maids waiting in front of her. “For the moment I want you both to keep an eye on her for a bit. If you notice anything strange or worrisome it's fine if you talk to her, but, be sure to let me know what's going on. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, ma'am!” both maids responded with a bow and a loud voice.

  Kila nodded and sighed, allowing herself to relax for a brief moment. “Then how about taking the rest of the day off?” she said suddenly, taking both maidservants by surprise.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You've been working a lot lately, so I think you deserve a little break.” Maeka's eyes began to sparkle with excitement, just as her tail began to wag, giving little thumps to the ground. Aelira just smiled in relief and was a little amused at how much her friend was showing her true feelings.

  Kila smiled wryly at the reaction of both of them, she turned to me, but before she could say anything else...

  “No,” I said, annoyed. They all stopped to look at me, confused. I immediately repeated after seeing Kila's questioning expression, this time, I looked her in the eyes and said “NO” sternly.

  “Nita, what do you mean by “no”?”

  “Don't rest today.” I clarified, pointing at both maids. I was not going to allow such a thing.

  “L-lady?” Maeka looked at me incredulously. Her eyes begged for an explanation, but she also told me that she hoped my refusal was a joke or the innocence of a child who didn't know what was going on. But it wasn't, I was fully aware of what I was saying.

  I looked away from them and focused on Kila, who seemed curious about my strange behavior. She got up from her chair and crouched down right where I was sitting, then stroked my head and spoke to me in her soft, motherly voice. “Can you explain, Nita, don't you want them to rest?”

  “I don't want to. Lira and Eka deserve more.” I replied. I felt a little annoyed that Kila only offered them the rest of the day, especially since the day was almost over. I mean, we were in the middle of the afternoon, they weren't going to be able to get any rest with so little time off, and they've been working and training diligently (plus it seems like they need some time alone if all that flirting means anything), so I thought I'd stop Kila and, taking advantage of the fact that it was only the second day of the week, Alemis, switch it to giving them the rest of the week.

  I did my best to explain that to Kila. She listened attentively, and nodded with a smile. When I finished speaking, she sighed with a smile and mumbled something I didn't understand as she returned to her chair.

  “Since my little daughter objected so fervently to my decision, I'm going to reconsider. Therefore, I will not be letting you have the rest of the day.” Both maids looked disappointed by the change in her decision, especially Maeka who looked sad. But, Kila was not finished speaking. “Instead, you will take the rest of the week.”

  The reaction of both of them was to be framed in a photo. Aelira looked very confused, I could almost see the question marks in her head. But in Maeka's case it looked like she was being swallowed by the vacuum of space, floating in the vastness of the stars, as she tried to process Kila's words.

  The first to finally understand what was going on was Aelira, who quickly offered a bow towards both of us, thanking us for the sudden vacation. I told Kila to also offer the same to Ameli so she wouldn't feel left out, so the small reward would be for all of them.

  After that, and dragging a struggling Maeka with trouble restarting her processor (?) Aelira took her leave, leaving me alone with my second mother.

  “So, Nita, what do you want to do?” she asked as she sorted through some papers and envelopes, stacking them aside and separating them in some way only she knew.

  I didn't have to give it much thought. There was something I really wanted to do that had somehow been suggested to me. “I want to see Mom.” I said.

  Kila stopped her hands and stood thoughtfully. “Well, Lana's workload has slowed down quite a bit since last time.” She mumbled, going back to her work of sorting papers. “Are you sure you don't want to play with me? We hardly ever get a chance to do that my little Mishka.”

  While that was true, and a rather tempting proposition, there were a couple of things that bothered me about it. One of them, and I hope she wouldn't take it the wrong way if I ever let her know, is that Kila isn't exactly the most fun person to play with. Needless to remind you, she's terrible at telling stories, at least not the kind that helps you sleep, and for any other kind of activity that can even minimally be called “games” she is, for lack of a better word, exhausting. No, not the kind that can tire me out because she has too much energy, she's the kind you can't argue with because she's somehow completely oblivious that we're supposed to play for fun.

  A clear example was with the game of eldoria. A simple sleight of hand game, there are not many rules and you depend only on your speed to make the right shapes to win. Easy, right? Not really. When I've gotten to play with Kila, partly my mistake since I knew she was that way, it was impossible to argue with her. And no, it wasn't because she was a bad loser or a bad winner, it was because she was extremely perfectionist and annoying.

  Look, the game consists of doing a hand position, as I said once, similar to a jutsu, that correlates with the previous one. In a way you can compare it to the Japanese game of Shiritori, basically stringing words together, only in this game you string together “shapes” made with your hands. If you make a sword, the next one must chain with a spear, then the next one with a bow, and so on until someone makes a mistake or fails in the form. And therein lies the problem. If I start with the shield, Kila tells me it's done wrong, and asks me to do it 100 times until she thinks it's right. And that happens every damn time. Yes, forgive me if I don't want to play with that kind of person.

  But I'm spreading myself too thin on this.

  The other reason is the most important one, and that is that I am simply a bit tired of spending so much time with Kila. Yes, I know that sounds a bit bad, but considering that most of the time I've spent with her is studying, receiving an unhealthy amount of homework and extensive lectures that would bore even the most erudite of scholars, I think I deserve at least a little leniency here.

  With all that in mind, I decided to be at least a little honest with her. “Kila, I miss mom. I'm always with Kila, but never with Mom.” My words must have had a greater impact on her than I intended, since Kila immediately stood up and lifted me up hugging me tightly.

  Technically I had spent several days visiting Mom since she collapsed, but it wasn't what I wanted. While I spent a fair amount of time with her, it didn't take away from the fact that she was in bed convalescing and we had to be careful what we did so she didn't have a relapse. What I wanted was to watch her work like when I was with her and Aunt Karla, to walk with her in the garden or just follow her wherever she went.

  Kila released the hug and kissed me on the cheek, then set me down and stroked my head. “I understand. Lana should be with Hal right now, so, give me a moment to finish tidying up my things and I'll take you to her, okay?” Kila gave me a sweet smile and I nodded in response.

  Immediately Kila got to work on her things while I started to explore her office a bit, waiting for her to finish.

  On one of the shelves to one side of the office, some books had always caught my eye. They were quite large and, from how well cared for they looked, it was obvious that they would be extremely important. And that was just what caught my attention. I felt like asking Kila about them, but for some reason I never did.

  Before I could delve any deeper into that thought, I was lifted off the floor and snuggled into the softness of Kila's chest, who gave me a nice smile and a “Are you ready?” to which I nodded immediately.

  We left her office and soon arrived at our destination. Seria, one of the maids who always accompanied Mom, was standing by the door. Before Kila could approach her, and before Seria herself could say anything, the door suddenly opened, taking us all by surprise.

  “Remember, as soon as that girl arrives tomorrow send her with me, there's some-” Without having seen us, Mom almost bumped into us, causing her to jump, fortunately, Seria got behind her immediately, preventing her from falling to the ground and getting hurt. “Wow, Fia? You scared me, what are you doing here?”

  “Sorry, I was just coming to bring Nita to you, she said she wanted to see you. Did something happen?” thanking her maid for her quick action and rejoining me, Mom took me from Kila's arms and greeted me with a kiss on my forehead, then settled me on her chest and started walking next to Kila, with Seria in front of us.

  Mom sighed exasperated, as if she had just been through a situation too stressful to bear. “I just received a letter from one of the companies we let manage the mana stones. A member of a certain count family threw a tantrum and very petulantly demanded to sell some of those stones to them.”

  “Don't they know that sales are only made under contract and in specified quantities? How many were they asking for?” she expressed in a stern and annoyed manner.

  “A small batch of 20 unrefined stones and another 10 refined ones," Mom replied shaking her head. She rubbed her forehead as if a headache was beginning to surface. I decided to hug her a little tighter, hoping to comfort her a little.

  Kila exhaled, sharing the feeling with my mother. Her long ears folded back, a clear sign of pent-up anger. “I could understand if it had been a batch of at least 500, but only 30? What kind of spoiled child does something like that?”

  “That's just the problem. It wasn't just any spoiled child. It was a particularly annoying one.”

  “Please tell me it wasn't someone from the Krandel household. If I have to see one of those kids again, I'm going to-”

  “Easy, honey, it wasn't them...fortunately.” Seria stopped when we reached the guest room where my mother usually entertains her business associates. The maid opened the door and stood there as the 3 of us entered and sat on the couch inside. “Seria, go get Tina. Oh, and can you bring some tea and nutbread? I really need to eat something.”

  “Right away, my duchess.”

  “So.” Kila began after Seria closed the door. She held Mom's hand trying to calm her, and herself, from the stress that seemed to be overwhelming both. “If it's not one of Krandel's offspring, who was so ignorant as to make such a scene?”

  My mother sighed and brought Kila's hand up to her face, where she began to gently stroke her cheek, helping her to relax a little. On the other side, there was me, resting my head on her chest and holding her other hand, trying to soothe her as well. Mom smiled at the affection we were both giving her, but just as easily as that smile came to her lips, it disappeared, replaced by a somewhat bitter expression.

  “Teral. Teral Burmont. Our dear daughter-in-law's big sister.”

  Here!) everyone is welcome!