Once school was over, I was once again greeted at the gates by my uncle and Leo, waiting alongside the new bodyguards.
There was another group of maids to help me get home, but I decided to ignore them.
They're probably there to help Elena get home.
I thought as I waved my hands at Leo to get his and his father's attention. The cat-like maid was walking by my side, slowly nudging me in the opposite direction, but quickly stopped when Leo came running towards us.
"Luca! Finally school is finished. How do you feel? How tired are you?" He came straight for a hug, jumping on me and almost making us both fall to the ground.
"Don't worry, I still have plenty of energy left. By the way, I heard from some friends that a new island is about to be added to the large collection of the floating city. Do you know anything about that?" I asked in return.
"Ah, that freak show, don't bother with that; we have plenty more important things going on!" He quickly got behind me and began pushing me towards the uncle's car.
He stared far into the distance looking for someone, and when I turned around to see who it was, I saw Elena at the end of it. She seemed a little sad.
My immediate reaction was to quickly ramp up my pace and get to my uncle's car.
The uncle affectionately stroked my head as I passed by him.
"Dad! What are you waiting for? Let's go! We don't have much time left!" Leo shouted from the car.
I internally thanked him for that. I didn't want to interact with that girl, not today at the very least. I could tell she still hated me for that, and I didn't want to pick a fight with her for no reason.
"So, Lucy, how did you find the upper city? Did you make new friends? What are your new classes like?" The uncle asked me once he got in the car.
Today the uncle was more chatty than usual; he asked things like the names of the friends I made and asked me if there were any other bullies and whatnot. Once we reached their house, before he could even say goodbye, Leo dragged me towards the empty room used for the maid we saved.
She was no longer tied to the chair; she had a special anklet that kept her chained to the room.
"I noticed something I probably wouldn't even believe today when I was observing her: she lost her clumsiness! Not only that, but she can even properly feel and react to killing intent!" He explained.
So I told him about the effects the bullet had on me, and his attitude rapidly changed.
"Don't ever use it ever again, especially on yourself. It's concerning that you aren't immune to your power; it's no laughing matter." He warned me suddenly.
It makes sense; if he who can wield flame could be affected by it, that would be a very weak power to have… Wait, is he now immune to fire? I thought those flames were special since when he used them on me, he didn't hurt me.
"The ability changes you; I think that's what it does. I don't know how, in what it changes you, or how much of it does, so until we figure it out, don't use it on yourself. If it changes the state of whatever it hits, it explains why it's able to dispel illusions; it could explain the enhancements of demons, the colors, and the headaches." He said while showing his notebook to me.
So, no matter how much I shoot at this maid, she most likely won't die. This is a lot more pleasant to hear than I thought it'd be.
I took a deep breath of relief while looking at the maid standing in the corner of the room.
"Hehehe, do you finally feel like doing some tests?" A cheeky smile appeared on Leonhart's face.
One of the bodyguards immediately chained her down to the bed, and so we began testing.
Initially we interrogated the maid, made her solve a bunch of riddles, and tried seeing what she knew and what she could remember about her life; then we shot a bullet at her and began testing what had changed.
Initially a few details changed: she had forgotten she had once had a brother, her eyes changed color, and some details of her story had changed. After the third bullet, the gaps in her memories became larger.
She claimed to have alien memories in her head; that's when headaches began manifesting. She became feverish as her body was changing more and more. We stopped there, as that seemed to be the limit that the maid could handle.
"Isn't it fascinating? My guess was right! I feel like my comprehension of how demonic power has been growing further; I can finally start guessing the 'truth' behind those powers." He was overjoyed by the results.
His intelligence really shined in those moments; he barely even acted his age, but now he has returned to his usual self. It always brings me in awe seeing him act so intelligently; it makes it difficult to believe he is as old as me.
Now that I think about it? I did use a couple of bullets on myself. I wonder how much of me is still part of the original me… No, no, no, no! That's too scary to think about, and thinking about it, I still haven't experienced any…
I could barely remember the memories of the incident, but more importantly, how could I possibly tell the truth from a fake memory? They would both feel real, and so long as they don't stray away from my usual life, I wouldn't even be able to tell they weren't real.
I was lucky. I remembered struggling so much during those tests, otherwise…
"This has so much potential use! We could use it to brainwash our enemies, create spies, and keep changing them until they turn into our allies! We just need to see the limits. With three bullets, they already begin to feel the changes, but what if at a certain point the changes are so drastic they can't feel them anymore once more?" He was happily trying to explain to me how to improve my mood.
Or perhaps he was just that obsessed with any demon-related ability.
He was happily making up scenarios in his mind, then he rushed outside the room to go meet with Ilay.
He had just returned home and seemed visibly tired; he had visible bags underneath his tired and depressed eyes, he smelled of booze, and he had the marks of many lipsticks all over his neck.
"Hey, Illa, Illa, check this out. Look what I was able to do. Following your suggestion, I documented everything, and this is the conclusion I was able to get!" He said proudly, plastering his notebook all over Ilay's face.
Ehm, Leo, he doesn't seem in the mood to…
I expected a violent or angry outburst; instead, he patiently took the notebook and scrolled through the notes he had made.
"Oh, so this is what the aunt gave to our little Lucy… I think you obsessed a little too much over what she said and noted too little about her habits, accent, speech patterns, and overall body language. You rushed too much and now have tainted your sample." He pointed it out within just a couple seconds of skimming through the notes.
"She could've been lying about a bunch of these things, and you will never know… The sample size is way too small to tell; you would probably need some serious machines to accurately tell what changed and what didn't." He added, while pointing out certain questions he deemed pointless, like favorite color, food, saying, book, most precious memory, and what was her latest dream/nightmare.
"Overall, you seem to be on the right track; you already figured out a part of how the ability works; you simply lack the sample pool and data to realize the rest. Next time, instead of jumping the gun, try to spell out loud your intentions; that way you'll be able to tell what you're missing." After ending his speech, he returned the notebook and tried to head away.
"Thanks a lot, Illa! You're the best!" Leo didn't seem to pick up the hint that he wasn't in the mood to speak, so I decided to finally intervene.
"Hey, Leo, why don't we go and see if we can also try the hunting thing I mentioned before?" With a small nod I tried telling Ilay to leave before Leo could bother him any further.
This put a frown on his face; whatever color he had on his eyes quickly faded away, leaving an even more depressed look on his face.
What the hell happened here? Why is Ilay this sad? I never saw him in this state. Wait, his favorite maid. Fuck, if the only one who survived this mess was the one we captured, this means…
"But I don't like hunting." Leo's sudden response quickly burst my own imaginary bubble.
Really? Can't you see that your brother is suffering? You should give him some space right about now! Look at him!
"How could you know without trying at least once?" I answered.
"And how are we going to do it? We don't have the implants to use a capsule; we don't have gaming capsules here. If you want to use a VR set, where are you going to find one?"
You… Why are you so witty now of all times? Just read the room. Now, how do I deal with this? Ah! Right!
"I've got a couple of friends that could help with that, just not today."
"Then why did you even mention it?" Leo sulked, pouting his small and incredibly soft cheeks. He looked so adorable I immediately began pinching him.
"Ah! No! Stop!" He yelled as he tried to stop me; as soon as he freed himself, he began to run away.
"Come here!" I yelled as I chased him around the house.