Just like how she had dismissed her own ‘ability’ before it was strengthened by Emilia’s blood as something ‘normal’, Crystal’s oversight wasn’t actually that strange.
After all, this world had thousands of years of well-recorded history that was publicly available, and there had been no mention of any ‘special’ abilities manifesting in people with irrefutable evidence.
The blonde girl’s already adorable button nose looked even more adorable when she scrunched her face up in confusion, and Emilia couldn’t help but ‘boop’ it playfully. “Well, you get it now?”
Crystal bit her lip in thought before she shook her head in denial. “N-No, wait, isn’t it possible that both Dixie and I received their abilities from you? After all, we’ve both—”
The heroine blushed deeply, too embarrassed to say it out loud, and Emilia couldn’t help but giggle. “You weren’t so shy last night~”
Crystal’s face turned deep red from shame. “E-Emilia!”
The crimson-haired girl coughed as she hid her smile behind her hand. “Well, okay, we can later discuss with the others to see if they’ve found something too, how about it?”
Once it was mentioned by Crystal, Emilia was also curious to see if Sam and Noelle had awakened some strange abilities of their own.
Unfortunately, her ‘enthusiasm’ was completely doused by her partner before she could think about it too much.
”This is why I told you not to do these things! See what happened now?!”
Emilia could only sigh. ‘Hi, Cynthia… Good morning.’
”Good—! Fuck, don’t think you can distract me so easily?! Anyway, see, now the heroine has awakened some strange ability after consuming our—”
Emilia coughed. ‘Calm down, Cynthia. You came a little late, so you might have missed Crystal telling me she already had that ability before, just weaker, so—’
The raven-haired girl frowned momentarily before shaking her head in denial. “So what?! It would never have awakened without our energy! Not unless she managed to get rid of the hero on her own, but with how stupid this girl is—!”
The crimson-haired girl couldn’t help but frown. ‘Cynthia! First of all, don’t blame Crystal for my decisions. If you really want to, you can come out and bully me. Second… why, exactly, is this a bad thing for us?’
The raven-haired girl was momentarily dumbfounded, but when she really thought about it, Emilia’s argument wasn’t just complete nonsense, after all.
These monkey-brains that her partner seemed to be gathering around herself seemed to be far too obsessed with her to try anything detrimental for them, so any boost in their ability could only be good for them, not bad.
However, Cynthia still believed that the whole thing was stupid. They didn’t need such help to succeed, and Emilia alone was enough. A little bit more energy was worth more than hundreds of these mortals.
Of course, if she said this out loud, Cynthia knew she would have no good results, and she didn’t want to get bullied by her partner again.
In the end, she could only sigh in defeat. “…Okay, fine. Whatever, I won’t care about it.”
Emilia couldn’t help but smile. ‘Do you know anything more about this? You mentioned that she only awakened the ability because of me?’
Cynthia shrugged. “… Not much. But I think what likely happened was that our energy stimulated and strengthened the bloodline of these mortals. Obviously, this kind of stupid thing never happened before, so I can only guess.”
The crimson-haired girl hummed in thought. ‘So technically, these abilities should exist in their bloodline first for them to be awakened, right?’
Cynthia had already lost interest in the topic once she realized that getting angry wouldn’t make Emilia change her mind anyway, so she just agreed and moved on. “Yeah… By the way, I’m really surprised that for once you aren’t doing something shameless when I come to check! Is this the sign of a productive day ahead?!”
Emilia grinned. ‘It’s never too late to start, we’re already naked, after all.’
She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the angry ‘click’ of her partner returning to isolation. ‘Just you wait, baby, I’ll teach you a good lesson soon. Let’s see where else you can run off to, then.’
As for Cynthia’s statement about bloodlines, Emilia was a little disappointed, but not too much.
After all, Noelle was already from a somewhat distinct bloodline, and Dixie had already shown herself to be getting stronger by the day.
So the only person whose status remained unknown was her dearest big sister. But whether Sam had any special abilities or not, Emilia’s only worry was whether the girl would feel insecure about it.
If she did, Emilia would have to figure out some way to assure her that she had her own capabilities, and didn’t really need to be ‘special’ to prove her capability. Of course, if she did awaken something, that was always good.
Unaware of their internal ‘discussion’, the blonde girl nodded with excitement. “Okay, then let’s—!”
Emilia shook her head with a smile. “No rush, angel. In case they do discover something new about themselves due to our discussion, it wouldn’t be good if it disturbed Noelle or big sister’s day. Unlike the three of us, they’re already dealing with enough.”
Crystal also realized that she had been too enthusiastic, and hadn’t considered this point, so she nodded thoughtfully. “Then… I’ll talk to Dixie, and you talk to Sam when you visit her after school? Or should we wait till the evening for your sister to be free and we can all discuss it over dinner?”
The crimson-haired girl hummed in thought for a while before nodding her head in agreement. “Let’s discuss it over tonight’s dinner?”
Crystal couldn’t help but frown. “Okay, b-but Emilia, if it really is like this, how come no one else noticed it?”
With how many people there were in the world, how could it be possible for no one to be able to notice something like this? In fact, Crystal believed that, given a few more years, she would surely have realized it on her own!
Emilia shrugged. “I’m not sure. It’s possible that many dismissed it just like you did, and it’s also possible that some people wanted it to remain a secret as long as possible. After all, the fewer people know about it, the greater their advantage.”
The blonde girl blinked in thought. ‘R-Right… Just taking Dixie’s family as an example, it’s one thing to have ‘exceptional fighting talent’, but if it became known that her bloodline is special, it won’t necessarily be a good thing for them.’
Moreover, even for those who weren’t directly involved, knowing a few more secrets would always have its advantages. Unless things reached a particular tipping point in terms of how difficult it was to hide these things, this was likely to remain the same.
For example, the Gray Wolfe and the government of the Carmen country were able to take the maximum advantage of the Nightingale clan’s abilities only when they were completely in the dark.
Had they been exposed and become well known, their effectiveness would have also been greatly reduced. Realizing this, the heroine was quickly able to settle the matter down in her heart with ease.
But once the matter of abilities was put aside, Crystal couldn’t help but recall how Emilia had nonchalantly mentioned Noelle before.
The blonde smirked mischievously. “By the way… Noelle, huh? You’re really efficient.”
Of course, they already knew their princess was going after the silver-haired woman for a long time, and it was only a matter of time before things became as they were. Emilia’s pursuit was impossible to resist for most, after all.
Emilia blushed. “Oh… well… you know I went on a date with her, and…”
The blonde girl could only roll her eyes in exasperation. “I know your charm, and Noelle is good, but does she know about us?”
The crimson-haired girl coughed. “More or less. I’ve… told her about everyone. But… she doesn’t seem to understand it fully. Maybe I should sit her down and explain it thoroughly.”
Crystal could only sigh. “And… is she happy?”
Emilia couldn’t help but pout. “Crystal~ She bullies me all the time!”
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The heroine didn’t take Emilia’s ‘grievances’ too seriously. After all, even without her ability, the mischievous smile on Emilia’s lips was far too obvious of a giveaway, and so were her wandering hands.
But because of the time restraints, the two of them could only cuddle and kiss for a while before they had to get up and prepare for school.
Maybe it was because of what they discussed in bed, but after knowing about it, Crystal couldn’t help but take a few more glances at Dixie.
It was only natural to pay more attention to something she was curious about.
Of course, Emilia didn’t care about it too much, and Dixie’s nervous clutching at her thigh wasn’t too bothersome either since the girl had learned to control her strength well.
But to Dixie, Crystal’s ‘curious’ staring was the same as being glared at threateningly for the whole way to school.
She couldn’t help but gulp nervously. ‘W-What’s going on, d-did I do something wrong?’
Had this been at the start of the school year, the dark-haired girl would still have understood something like this as Crystal being jealous of her relationship with Emilia. With the complexity of their relationship, such a thing wouldn’t have been surprising at all. If anything, it would be expected, and Dixie had been fully prepared to ‘school’ anyone who dared to point fingers at her princess.
But now, after all that they had been through, Dixie couldn’t make sense of Crystal’s ‘glare’ at all.
The dark-haired girl even thought that the two of them got along pretty well, and could be considered friends! How could Crystal suddenly turn hostile?
Dixie bit her lip nervously. ‘It can’t be that she suddenly turned dissatisfied with how things are now, Crystal isn’t like that! But then… d-don’t tell me… has she peered deep into my heart and discovered some dark secret that even I know nothing about?!’
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