Gifts are always welcome. But I’d suggest you save up some money. I can take you up for dates with my money alternatively. And about the final step, let’s think about that when you grow up a little!”
Eren smiled mirthlessly at Nina’s last reply and nodded. Nina had compartmentalized her aunt-persona and her more-than-aunt-persona to make a sense of things happening between them.
Eren guessed the near future. From now on, their days would be filled with the usual stuff they were used to doing all these years. And the dates in the evenings would lead to some form of action like yesterday, but they won’t pave the way for the final act. It was now Eren’s job to see that they did.
Eren served Nina her lunch and proceeded to take some for himself. He asked the latter while having his first bite:
“Aunt Nina, when are you going to visit the city of Laurel?”
“Let’s see. We should first expedite our deliveries to settle our weekly order from the association. That will take up to three days. Two, if we grind it.
So I can go three days from now on. I’ll take a week to settle my business there and return. And then, it’d be business back to usual. Do you want to come with me to the city of Laurel?”
Eren wanted to say yes. But he had so many things to do here in this city. The fake Dom was waiting on him to get framed. Therefore he could only reply with:
“I want to, but I’ll pass. I need to take a look at a few books that are mentioned in the academy’s syllabus. Don’t know if I’ll get time to do this afterwards. So I’ll do that while you are gone.”
“Alright. The curfew has been lifted. But there’s still some strain on public law and order in the city due to Isaac’s death. Make sure you don’t roam around after the sun sets while I’m gone.”
“Yes.”
Eren couldn’t wait for Nina to leave the city. Only with her absence could he execute his plans. The more he waited, the more would be the chances of his identity getting revealed.
Killing Dom was one thing. But now that he had killed Isaac and his friends as well, who were the students of the previous LA academy; Eren was sure he could get hunted by the entire kingdom.
*********************
Three days later!
Nina was going to leave for the city of Laurel today. The last two days had been a bit busy for both of them.
“Erni, remember, be at home after the sunset. And have your meals on time. Don’t skip on them thinking that it is a bother. Do you have anything to ask before I leave?”
“Yes. I have one crucial question to ask before you leave.” Eren asked while creating suspense.
Nina got tense.
“Yes?” Her Voice also got lower as a result.
“It is related to what we had discussed the other day.”
“What is it?”
Nina was on edge now.
“What’s your colour today?”
Eren asked and winked at her.
“What’s my colour today!?”
Nina didn’t get it at first. She had to think for a while and associate it with Eren’s smirk to understand what he was asking.
Eren was asking about the colour of her panties today.
“Little rat, you are always up to no good these days! You have changed completely after your ‘awakening’!”
Nina pulled up Eren’s cheeks while having a fake pout. But she was laughing internally at his shenanigans.
“Bye now. I’m leaving.”
Nina finally got to the door and walked outside. Eren waved her goodbye and was about to close the door on her before he saw her making her way towards him again.
‘She must have forgotten something.’
Eren thought before opening the door wide, allowing her easy access.
But Nina didn’t go in. She stopped at Eren and got close to his ears. Then she whispered something that led his blood rush to his nether region:
“Erni dear, today’s colour is magenta!”
Eren opened his eyes wide in surprise. His aunt Nina was flirting back. Then he smiled and gave a thumbs up to her. She softly kissed him on his lips before heading out for real.
Eren went to his room and woke Reen up. She immediately plopped onto his shoulder. She thought Eren had woken her up because he must have thought she was hungry. She cleared that up with him, saying her hunger has not returned yet.
Reen almost always thought about having food. Eren had a mini headache before he told her to shapeshift into Dom.
Eren had been talking with Reen ever since he hatched the plan of framing Dom. He had realized that the mental channel he had with Reen wasn’t something Nina could discover.
Therefore Eren kept that channel always open, letting her read his thoughts. He was also correcting her mistakes in vocabulary and pronunciation.
Reen was a smart girl. Probably smarter than a demon beast her age could get. She kept on learning new things from Eren and started making sense out of them in her head while she remained as a coffee mug. She also kept on asking Eren questions all the time.
And Eren would answer those questions patiently. To him, Reen’s vocabulary and her oratory skills was a long-haul project. Sure, it would have some use during his current framing job. But that would not be the end of use for her shapeshifting skills.
Eren would achieve great results only if he starts training Reen now. And he wanted Reen ready for his plans in the academy.
Eren told Reen to show him her progress in bipedal walking. And she did. She had improved a lot.
Now nobody would be able to think that it wasn’t a human when Reen walked in Dom’s form. At most, the eyewitness would regard it as Dom having some injuries related to his legs or just being drunk as a reason behind his weird walk.
“Er en. How deeed aai do?”
Reen asked in Dom’s voice. Her speech was improving.
“You’ve made huge progress, Reen. I’m proud of you. I see that the division of words is working for you. I can at least understand what you want to say even if I were to only hear your voice.
Keep on practising these things when you become an inorganic object. Use your idle time thinking about the words and speeches. You can always ask me something you don’t understand. Is there anything you want to ask now?”
“Er en. Whaat deed yu eat three days byaak after the evening? Deed yu hyaav good food?”
“Hmm? Which evening are you talking about?
Wait a minute… don’t tell me!
The channel was open at that time?
Reen was keeping track of my thoughts when I spent time with aunt Nina?”
==============
Author’s Note: Wasn’t planning on working on VEH today after yesterday’s mass release. But then I realized WPC 218 is going to end tonight. So here go my last-ditch efforts, trying to at least make it to the Top 3. ?