The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 156 - Flaws Might Be Something To Hide, But They Are Also Something To Love

Chapter 156: Chapter 156 - Flaws Might Be Something To Hide, But They Are Also Something To Love

This time the requirement for a response was clearer... as was her excitement. The lecturer had been a little happy in her tone that her other idea might be useful. But now there was something more to it - something a little personal to the girl - that made the teenager smile infectiously at the recording.

"Yes. Please teach me."

/ Obviously, you understand by now that essence is spread throughout a field around our form. Manipulating it anywhere far past that means our spirit has to be able to direct it. The thing is, this works with Adhesion as well! You can just bind lighter things around you with raw essence to follow you around. /

A tiny brush, chisel, and hammer appeared and followed the tiny figure around as she spun in place and took a lap.

/ I’m making it seem a little too simple, but you can’t even understand how *useful* it is as an artisan or similar profession. Taking a moment to just stick and lock a tool floating up in the air right near you and trails at that same distance with minimal concentration once you master the technique is just so, so lovely. /

The swordswoman understood why the ’hobbyist’ leatherworker and sigilist was speaking with more emotion. While recording this part long ago, Elua really wanted to run away right then for a few weeks, get ’lost’ in a cave, and increase all of her cultivation realms!

Of course, the realization that she couldn’t use the technique out in public dampened her desire... which sounded in her tone in the next part of the illusion.

/ But I haven’t heard of anyone that knows how to do it, so we probably shouldn’t use it where people can see it. /

The almost sullen version of the heiress was quickly replaced with one that looked like she was plotting something. She couldn’t feel the ’mischief’ like she could when standing right next to the brunette in reality, but the little expressions were there.

/ Well, *you* could because you could just call it an application of your Gravity if ever pressed for answers. Which could be the same excuse you use for the next type of essence energy application - Levitation. /

"Wait for a moment."

Qatrand tilted her head at the frozen illusion staring at her. The way her El presented these techniques... it was as if she was already planning how to explain away their use in public by Qat herself. Part of her wanted to stick that into a category of ’confidence’ that the Goltbred had in her ability to both grow that strong and learn the techniques.

The other part...

’She looks at everything with the idea of what is acceptable to show and what is best to hide. Her strength, her personality, her knowledge - she hides it all because she always felt she had to.’

A moment of helplessness struck the cultivator. She felt insecure in her strength and intelligence, unable to make things like that better for her wife. After all, there were absolutely good reasons for the girl’s choices.

She trusted that... and had been exposed to the logic of the potential dangers enough to understand and agree with elements of it. That people would use her or expect more of her than she was willing to give. Even Qat would prefer they just hide the fact that she had been reborn with her ancient memories from *most* people.

But that sensation of not being good enough passed.

Her El didn’t just stay hidden because she needed to. The girl had chosen her ’new’ self deliberately. That sweet behavior wasn’t just a mask to prevent people from seeing into her depths - it was the person she claimed to want to become... even if she struggled sometimes to fully embody it.

It was that struggle, more than anything, that calmed the Yecine down. Her complex wife was also imperfect, but Elua was smart enough to change her tactics if she felt they were failing or needed improvement. Like with accepting the recent Guild position.

’I shouldn’t be upset or think I can’t do anything for her. She’s always known exactly who she wanted to be. Not just for me, but for herself. And these lessons... they’re not just reminding me about how she is hiding her power, but about ways of using it wisely.’

Her fingers idly began resuming their gentle kneading, only to find that the ball of dough had grown a little hard and cold as she sat too long in thought. She placed it on the large plate containing the ’waste’ of her self-imposed training and decided she would continue with the practice later.

Her pigeon-blue gaze shifted to the miniature version of that sometimes wise, sometimes restrained, often flawed, always cute, and too rarely kind to herself... reincarnated cultivator that she was firmly proud to call her wife.

"You were talking about Levitation?"

/ There are things different about how it is done, but the concept is kind of similar to Adhesion. You essentially roll and push lots of nearby raw essence into the lower half of your field, without absorbing it, in order to float your person into the air. /

The illusion demonstrated this by having a circular glow appear below her feet. The tiny brunette lifted up into the air with her hands behind her back.

/ Of course, as you might expect, this requires a *lot* of essence. Around the quantity of a Third-Echelon Breacher. But I bring it up for what I hope is an obvious reason. Your Gravity element is quite specialized. /

The image flickered and the representation was on the ground once more. This time, a much smaller and different colored glow formed under her feet - the one the illusory training tool used to show Gravity manipulations - which quickly dragged the plain ’essence’ that the visual had shown before underneath.

/ Pulling things together is part and parcel for your abilities. While I have no proof, I imagine that you can much more easily draw things to a certain area of- /

The recorded lesson continued, but Qat’s attention had drifted. She glanced at her window and tried to gauge the time by the light coming through. While the Yecine didn’t know all of the details, she knew the branch office would be ready by now.

Her wife would be settling into her new role... and probably terrorizing that liaison in the ’sweetest’ possible ways. The swordswoman’s hand flexed and she could almost feel the ’emptiness’ between her fingers. An Elua er Goltbred out there up to mischief somewhere, without her around to reprimand the cute girl appropriately - when she started to go too far - felt... almost lonely.

"Stop. We’ll end it here"

Qat stood as she spoke and began brushing flour from her clothes. She caught her blonde reflection in the mirror and paused. Black hair for official business... she eventually decided. The branch might be her El’s domain - and she might be visiting for an entirely personal reason - but it was still a Guild facility.

The illusion of her wife flickered and faded away slowly as Qat readied herself to leave. As usual, she caught that familiar sheen of affection in those recorded mint eyes. As if El had known that ending a lesson would be related to a desire to see the real thing.

’Or maybe she just wanted another way for me to see that she loved me... even when I hadn’t told her that yet myself. Maybe I should say it more?’

"I guess we both had things we wanted to tell each other back when she made this. It all came out eventually."

The Yecine smoothed her black hair, blazer, and tested her sword harness. Visiting her wife would show she cared - and she might even get the opportunity to directly reject that liaison. The temperature of the girl’s ears and face rose.

"Kissing my wife in front of that cute-blind woman feels like something El would approve of. But I’m afraid she’ll ask me to keep doing it every time I visit... for the wrong reason."

She paused with her hand on her door handle. The heat increased when she understood that the only ’right’ reason to her was because the cute girl wanted it. She vowed that wording it *that* simple way was now forbidden, even if everything about it was true.

"I really need to be more careful about what sets her ’hunger’ off..."

---

On the ground floor of the new Coiled Serpent Guild branch, three people sat in the luxurious looking chairs - but only one of them was at the table. Two of the furniture pieces had been moved further away from the set, closer to a window, to give the former liaison ’privacy’ as she worked.

’How childish. Freezing me out... as if I-’

"Could you remind me what your name means again, Manager Dima? In the old tongue?"

The Goltbred heiress’s personal servant had a voice that carried clearly across the space. Both women had to admit that the acoustics really *were* quite good. The sigilist glanced up from the table and responded evenly. She was sure it was some attempt to belittle her.

’Probably instigated by that little witch.’

"...’Inner Beauty’. My parents claimed they chose it for how it sounded and didn’t learn its meaning."

The woman was used to people scoffing and insinuating her parents were vain liars. Especially other females... and especially ones that had seen or heard about her flirting with a man. But the servant only nodded at her thoughtfully before turning to her employer.

"Would you mind if I read for a while? Things seem quiet enough."

The sound of her voice still carried even though she wasn’t projecting it in the new manager’s direction. As did the ’sweet’ response from the small teenager that tensed her back. The woman had been particularly *jumpy* since their discussion about ’proper workplace conduct’ and ’professional boundaries’.

"If you don’t mind others knowing your hobbies, I don’t mind you spending your free time however you like."

From her peripheral vision - that was trying hard *not* to look toward the girl - Dima noticed the servant pull out a book. Judging by the size and style of the spine, it looked like a romance novel. She almost wanted to comment about the double standard of ’professionalism’...

But a sudden change in the atmosphere of the giant room drew her attention. The woman’s Astralism was meant to be Clarity and gave her very good spiritual instincts. The young girl who had already seemed to be lazing by the window had gone completely still over something that just happened inside her.

Her mint eyes became unfocused and a little dull. A hint of red touched the girl’s ears cheeks as some sort of spiritual effect seemed to pulse through her again - and then her facade cracked entirely.

Dima’s blood ran cold at the lifeless doll the Goltbred physically became. The way the Goltbred turned her head to look at her had an eerily smooth motion to it. Her eyes held no light, but the pressure of ’threat’ behind them had multiplied drastically.

It was enough to realize that the ’little girl’ had a much stronger spirit than her. One that had been capable of hiding much of the truth from her. She’d thought the train tracks would haunt her dreams again that night, but *that* face and realization...

’This is definitely going to be my newest nightmare.’