Although the energy contained within the crimson orb belonged to Emilia, Cynthia knew very well that chaos energy never had any real ‘owner’. After all, had it not been so… she would never be in the state she was in.
Like water, one could store it in different types of containers, make it change certain states, and even change its appearance, but fundamentally… it would always remain the same.
Of course, the plus side of it was that she, too, was able to play the same game, and snatch the chaos energy that had gone out of the world will’s control for ‘herself’.
Emilia may not know, but she was well aware that the so-called ‘personality’ was nothing but the base nature of the chaos energy itself, and it had no ability to actually ‘think’, no matter how it appeared to be the case.
This was why when Emilia told her that chaos energy was ‘like an obedient child’, Cynthia couldn’t help but scoff. At the same time, she also had the sudden urge to imitate her partner, and show it for herself.
”Okay, good, now think about what you need it to do, but don’t force it!”
Emilia guided her gently and patiently on how to manifest her emotions and soothe the ‘child’, conveying her meaning across instead of forcing her will onto it.
For her, it was the difference between trying to bend down to pick something up by the child’s feet. If it understood what she was doing and had goodwill, it would do what she needed to get done without her saying anything.
On the other hand, if she told the child ‘pick it up’, it was more likely to trigger a rebellious response.
Of course, Emilia had no need to do things in such a roundabout way, since she could directly forward her intent to the chaos energy. The child was already obedient to her. But that wouldn’t work for Cynthia, and she knew it very well.
The feeling she got from chaos energy was far too similar to her partner for it to be a coincidence.
Emilia would have to be a real airhead to not realize something wasn’t right when even the ‘unfiltered’ chaos energy that had poured in from the outer world had Cynthia’s aura.
It didn’t necessarily mean that the energy originally belonged to Cynthia, or was a part of her. There was no way Emilia could conclude that with certainty.
However, at the very least, the two of them must share a close common origin.
The more Emilia interacted with the chaos energy, the stronger this belief became.
The way Cynthia and the chaos energy ‘reacted’ was almost the same, and even if it couldn’t really ‘talk’ to her, Emilia had already learned how her partner’s mind worked, which made it much easier for her to realize her ‘approach’ to the chaos energy.
Naturally, it was also possible for her to follow Cynthia’s path and force the chaos energy to do her bidding, which was what she suspected was considered ‘normal’, but why would Emilia take that route when it was far less productive and required a lot more effort?
It was the same as putting numerous restrictions on a subordinate that was already an expert at the job. Aside from being counterproductive, it served little purpose.
Sometimes, however, even if the proof were put in someone’s face, they would still refuse to accept the facts.
Just like two people with highly dominant and stubborn personalities who wanted to lead the cause of the same goal, they would end up clashing heads no matter how hard they tried not to.
Both Cynthia and the chaos energy had a stubborn, prideful, and disobedient nature. Moreover, both of them had an extreme ‘superiority complex’ which, while somewhat adorable to Emilia, could not coexist with one another.
Like two extremely stubborn and rude sisters who always competed with each other for the most trivial nonsense, it would be stranger if they got along instead.
After all, how could two people who both loved to dish out insults but could never take any possibly get along? Even if one had a higher level of thinking while the other had only a base ‘nature’, this fact wouldn’t change.
But even if Emilia knew that it was impossible for her to be able to ‘teach’ Cynthia how to use chaos energy in the same way as she did, she still had to give it a try.
The raven-haired girl persisted in her efforts for longer than Emilia anticipated, which was just a few minutes, but in the end threw her hands up in exasperation just the same. “I’m done!”
Emilia chuckled as she patted her head in consolation. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get it eventually. It’s fine if it doesn’t work right away—”
Cynthia scoffed. “Nope. I’m really done with this thing. I don’t know how it seems to work for you, but I’ve already confirmed that the way chaos energy works hasn’t changed.”
After thinking about it some more, Cynthia realized that it was really impossible for Emilia to have been manipulated by someone else. She had been watching her for too long, after all.
Even if she was so powerless, how could it be possible for someone unknown to enter a small world right under her watch without her ever realizing it?
Not to mention, all her traces had been lost for so long, and even the worst of her ‘enemies’ should have long since forgotten that she existed.
As such, it wasn’t very likely for her ‘ability’ to be something that would bring them harm, especially since Emilia didn’t seem to have obtained the ‘method’ from dubious origins. It was just her strange mind at work.
Since the chaos energy itself wasn’t something that would work for or against anyone in particular, being a completely neutral force, and the method that Emilia used didn’t seem to have any malicious intent or a way to hurt either of them either, there was really no need for her to worry too much.
Of course, how it seemed to follow Emilia’s will was strange, and the raven-haired girl was curious about how and why this was so, but that could only be figured out slowly over time.
Emilia didn’t know how to convince her otherwise, and while she believed it would be a good thing on the off chance that Cynthia managed to ‘improve’, she already expected such an ending, and didn’t insist on it too much.
Cynthia floated back into her ‘nest’ lazily under Emilia’s defeated gaze, and the two of them quickly moved on from the matter of chaos energy to the ‘ability’ that Emilia had managed to craft.
The raven-haired girl wasn’t surprised that Emilia had tried to get rid of the restrictions on her abilities, though she had never expected her to actually be able to do so.
Of course, while she had managed to greatly improve on what Cynthia had previously created, it still wasn’t completely perfect. But when she finished listening to Emilia’s explanation on all the changes she had managed to make, she still couldn’t help but be shocked.
”Isn’t that the same as having ‘stacks’ on the skill?! No, wait, since the bead stores a ‘particular form’… couldn’t you just—?!”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Meanwhile, on the other side of the town, a group of old men were looking strangely at a ‘letter’ that had arrived just an hour ago.
Of course, normally they would already be in their own beds at this hour, but who would have expected them to receive a ‘distress message’ right when they were discussing how to deal with an emergency?
”What do you think, Lord Brown? Shall we… take care of it?”
”Nonsense! Even if we can get it done, is there any need to actually do such illegal things? You want to spend the last of your days in jail or what?!”
”There’s no need to get involved directly, but wouldn’t it be a done deal as long as Lord Brown mentions it to one of his ‘brats’?”
”Oh… makes sense!”
Of course, the old man who was being mentioned was Dixie’s grandfather, the short-statured old man with unfathomable strength.
The letter being mentioned wasn’t as much a ‘distress message’ as it was a request for a ‘hit’. Normally, it would already have been thrown into the trash without a second look… if not for the sender and the person it mentioned.
Tugging on his beard, grandpa brown couldn’t help but frown. “If that child is really being troubled… it wouldn’t be right to just sit idly by.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━