BXBX NOVEL Chapter 267 267 Some Explaining To Do
"Care to explain what is going on?" The woman named Gertrude asked.
"I\'m not sure what you mean, Auntie. Didn\'t Mom and the others fill you in on all that is going on lately? It\'s been pretty shocking." The blue-haired girl responded politely.
"Maira Sofia Mariel Nyx, you know very well that was not what I was referring to." Gertrude nearly shouted.
"Oh, you\'re in trouble now. They never pull out the full name until you\'re in real trouble. Wolfe whispered to the newly awakened witch.
"You understand that I am throwing you straight under the bus, right?" The girl muttered in response, making Wolfe and the Cook laugh.
"It\'s not my fault Auntie. You see, the Demon was in need of a pretty dress, and he just happened to need the size that I had just finished making, but there wasn\'t really anything else that I needed in return, so here we are." She offered.
"Right, the big powerful Demon just awakened an underage witch\'s aura for the price of an amateur seamstress\'s dress." The older woman snapped back.
Wolfe raised his hand to intervene like he wanted to ask a question in school. "No, I actually did that part. It would probably seem more believable if they\'d gotten to that part of the story already, though. Just ask the cookie monster, and you will know that the story is true."
Gertrude looked thoroughly confused, and Maira looked quite relieved that the attention was now on Wolfe, even if it was clear that she wasn\'t going to be able to escape without questions anymore.
"The Cookie Monster? There are Monsters loose in the town?" Gertrude asked, unable to make sense of Wolfe\'s statement, but assuming that like a reincarnated Demon, he did not lie, only bent the truth with omissions and vague wording.
"We were just getting to that part. Alissa, one of our younger girls, showed potential, and Wolfe, the Demon in the kitchen, helped us to awaken her aura early. Supposedly it\'s a service he can provide to all underage witches who were born with the potential. For the right price, of course.
He does it by cleansing the Bloodline Curse from their bodies, so once they are cleansed, their children shouldn\'t suffer as badly from the curse. It would be like starting all over again from the first generation." The matriarch explained.
The room went from startled gasps to full silence as everyone took in the news and realized why she had saved that part of the story for last.
Nobody here cared about the increased mana level at the moment. The fact that a young teen witch could be awakened was much more important.
"But why did he call her the cookie monster?" One of the women finally asked, trying to make sense of the timeline.
Wolfe spoke up with a smile for the memory of what had happened. "The very first thing she did once she awakened, and I gifted her a spell inscription as an awakening gift, was to use her newfound magic to steal a tray of cookies and escape to the roof to eat them where nobody could stop her."
"What did you gift her?" The woman asked with a smirk. She was definitely going to need details about this one.
The Captain laughed. "He gave her a piece of paper with a [Levitation] Spell on it. Witches can\'t use Gravity magic on their own, they need a Demon to activate it, and then they can use the talisman, so we never considered the possibility. She just floated right up to the roof of the house like it was nothing and refused to come back down until the Demon took her cookies away."
Wolfe held up a cookie from the tray and took a bite. "I can see her point, though. These are really good cookies."
"Can we see her? Maira has an aura, but not much of one. I don\'t think that she could pull off the same stunt, so that means Alissa is stronger than her, right? Could she actually be stronger than some of the adults who have come back from the Academy already?" Gertrude asked in a tone that was more of a demand.
A pair of boys escorted the young witch in question out into the main room with a sour look on her face, making it clear that she had every intention of staying out of this conversation if she wasn\'t forced. But it wasn\'t her reluctance that everyone noticed. It was the strength of her aura.
Sure, it wasn\'t much, and Cassie had been just as strong when she first arrived at the Academy if Wolfe\'s memory was right, but she was clearly an awakened and competent witch who would already be qualified for the advanced classes of the first year.
"Maira, come over here so we can see you two side by side. It\'s incredible, but there has to be some sort of reason for the difference. Wolfe, did you do anything differently the second time?" Gertrude demanded.
"Not at all. The difference is just their innate talent. Some are born with more capability than others, and some have to work hard for everything that they get. It\'s just how things are." Wolfe explained.
"Is there a way around that?" One of the younger witches, likely fresh from failing out of her attempt at the second year of the Academy, with an aura not much stronger than Alissa\'s, asked.
"As a matter of fact, there is. It can push a Witch well beyond the level that she would ever attain naturally, but the price isn\'t low." Wolfe agreed readily.
"What is the price? Some of us would be willing to pay quite a bit." The witch responded.
"If you\'re really willing to pay, the price is simple. Agree to a Servant Bond, and I will give you a lovely collar, a new outfit, and a very real chance of reaching the Second Rank within the next two years." Wolfe shrugged.
That stopped her curiosity in a hurry. Of course, bonding herself to a Demon would increase her power, and they could all sense that Wolfe was not someone to be trifled with, but that price was one that was both paid in advance and never fully paid. The Servant Bond couldn\'t be broken from the Witch\'s end, as far as they knew.
There was only one exception to the universal rejection of that price. One of the witches in the back had flushed suspiciously dark red and began to fidget the moment Wolfe had mentioned a collar and a new outfit.