Hearing about the potential war, Alice’s stomach twisted at the thought. It was still the middle of winter and such a thing will be a disaster.
“Wasn’t it just a bit too much for a distraction?” Sofia asked tilting her head. This village was small with no big obvious importance to Cain, it was pure luck that Lexi’s family happened to live here right?
“They probably aimed to distract the soldiers, making them start moving through the forest and then using that time to flank the city. They didn’t expect us to be the ones to show up.” Cain showed a bitter smile.
“It was my mistake deciding to come here, I thought it was just a bunch of ruffians trying to take Jack’s place.”
Selena’s tail was swinging from left to right, her ears dropped a bit as if she was the one to blame. Remembering how she fainted mid-fight. Cain quickly noticed her and patted her on the head.
“It all went good after all, we should cheer up.” He assured her, “Let’s head outside, I will build the tower where we could rest for the rest of the night.”
“Cain, can I have a moment of your time? Alice and Selena as well.” Sofia grabbed Cain’s hand, it was rare of her to talk like this.
“What is it?”
“It’s about Gracie…” Sofia stole a glance at the maid by her side, “I don’t mind.” Gracie said.
Hearing that she didn’t oppose, Sofia explained what she saw when that accursed succubus touched the link between her and Gracie. Finally reaching the conclusion that Gracie wasn’t able to move on after such an incident.
“She can’t throw what happened in the past, she is disgusted by what she has become to the point she has already given up.” Sofia said, “We need to give her more care, she needs to gain confident herself and stop thinking ‘it doesn’t matter what happens ‘ that is hurting her.”
“Are you saying she just lacks confident?” Alice crooked her head in disbelief.
“She is letting me talk about this without batting an eye if that wasn’t important. She isn’t as much not feeling the emotions, she had already counted them all at the same thing, she doesn’t care what happens to her”
“I can’t understand what you’re saying-nya, should we just give her a hug-nya?” Selena said as she wasn’t able to keep up with, “Precisely!” Sofia replied.
“Huh?” Selena looked at her. Her eyes were wide open and her tail standing in place. A drop of sweat formed on her forehead, “Am I that smart?” She said quickly turning toward Cain as if wanting confirmation.
Cain was deep in thought he had never dealt with a case like this the gentle way, he was just as confused as Selena was. He wished he had seen what she saw.
“You two come closer, I want to touch the link and see for myself. Is that OK?”
“Fine by me, what about you?” Sofia asked Gracie who was staying silent. She just nodded.
Cain touched the link, it was impossible for him to see anything without strong emotions. The link was like a channel to carry orders, when the mind is in turmoil some of those thoughts will spill out through the link. Luckily there was a clear way to get Gracie riled up.
“Would you mind stripping?” He didn’t intend to let her actually strip she only needed to start so he can take a peek at her head.
At that moment, an image of Sofia taking care of herself in her room passed in his head. Cain immediately turned toward Sofia, ‘This was a test why is she getting jealous? Wasn’t she the one who started all of this?’
“Let’s go to the tower, it’s going to be a hard night.”
After heading outside, Cain created his tower immediately. As they passed by the changing room in the bath Cain stopped. “Let’s change here, it might be for the best.”
“For what?” Asked Alice, they were about to talk about Gracie, and what do they need to strip. Cain just wanted to Avoid Sofia being jealous of that.
“Just to make sure everything goes slowly, we also might do some things,” Cain replied as he started helping Selena take her cloth off.
Gracie just stared at them worried about what was going to happen, she wasn’t feeling scared nor angry. It was just that couldn’t rest still. The idea of her stripping reminded her of the days she spent in the cave, in her mind it meant a long time of abuse was ahead.
Her body was still riddled by the scares of those times, she could imagine Cain throwing up the moment he saw how her body looked. The anxiety of being treated the same way in her past scared her, ‘Would he throw me out after seeing that, would I have to return to such a life?”
She only saw him either abusing her for how she looked under her clothes or throwing her out. She couldn’t see the middle ground of him accepting her as she is, her emotionless face was a defense mechanism. Showing them might get her abused again, that Cubas enjoyed her tears and laughs so she shunts them off.
She once again looked at the three girls in front of her, she couldn’t compare to any of them.
Sofia noticed her standing there like a mannequin and approached her with a smile. “To tell you the truth, I would prefer to keep Cain to myself. But after what I saw, I can’t just sit and watch you hate yourself, I will do my best to help you.”
They climbed to the bedroom and Cain enjoyed Alice climbing the ladder in front of him.
Alice and Selena sat on the bed while Sofia got to help Gracie, Cain was still touching her link. The moment Sofia started undoing Gracie’s buttons, a flood of horrid seances flowed into Cain’s mind. “Stop,” He immediately stopped her.
“Come sit here!” he asked Gracie to come and sit on his lap, Sofia looked at him worried.
“You three are okay with this?” He asked.
“I don’t mind-nya,” Selena said cheerfully. “You can do what you want,” Alice replied. “I guess I started to so go ahead.” Sofia seemed the less happy of them.
“And what about you?” He asked Gracie who was sitting on his lap like a doll.
“I…”