Curse the Mainframe! 292 Elysia's Reflections

Elysia snuck a look at Alec. He had been in a strangely bad mood the past couple of days.

Even though he was still wearing his normal smile, it wasn't normal normal, if that made sense. Elyisa's brows furrowed. She didn't know how to describe it just using words.

Anyway, it wasn't normal!

The four of them – with the sudden inclusion of Dominique – were moving at a normal pace, which was rather fast for a normal person. For the group of four, however, it was normal.

She almost thought that they were escaping from the watch of the Meister previously, but Alec's raised eyebrow when she asked about it previously dispelled any of those thoughts.

Elysia took the time to reflect about everything she knew about Alec.

Alecris Neil, unbeknownst to the rest of the sect, was the leader of the Spectres.

It had been both humbling and exciting at the same time to realize that she was in an exclusive group within the sect upon her admittance. She hadn't even needed to specifically join the admittance exam normally, the Sect Master making an exception to test her himself.

Alec had an absurdly ridiculous fan base in the Sins, which he himself didn't even seem to realize. Elysia thought about that with quite a lot of fondness, thinking that it made him cute. It was adorable how oblivious he was to their admiration.

He had the trust from the Sect Master, the trust from his subordinates, and the trust from his master.

It made her marvel. He was around her age, but he seemed so much more accomplished than her.

In the time that she'd been in the sect with the Spectres, he wasn't there at all, but the Sins all stuck to their training routine like they were possessed, even adding on more and more things by the day.

She could admire that. The dedication to improvement.

It had baffled her at first, but then she eventually ended up accepting everything as they came, treating it like a core characteristic of the group.

In particular, Dominique Falren took his admiration of Alec rather far, but who was she to judge?

Actually, she thought that it was kind of cute as well. If she could call a grown-man cute, that was.

To be honest, Elysia couldn't say that she was particularly close with Alec, but something in her just screamed out at her. She didn't know much about him, but she could instinctively feel that he wouldn't hurt her.

She felt like she was closer to him than she had been with anyone else.

Was that weird?

That she followed her instincts like that?

She realized that people didn't really follow their instincts solely like she did, and it confused her greatly. Was this just some sort of dragon thing? Or was it part of her Magitype or Societype?

There were still things she didn't know about herself, but she was quite content to slowly explore herself without any outside influence.

Alec was a rather private person, and it was hard to read him since his thoughts didn't show on his face. However, the more time she spent studying him, the more she managed to get a read on him.

It was only the faintest tells, but they were tells, nonetheless. His body-expressions were so honest that it was adorable.

He liked to pretend that he was cold, but he really was very nice.

There was just something deep in his eyes that couldn't hide his feelings completely, despite what he believed.

He was adorable.

Not that, of course, she would tell him that. She had no desire for him to snap at her like he did with Sekai. But honestly, even when he did, she couldn't see it as anything but cute.

Elysia paused.

What was wrong with her? Her thoughts were kind of strange, weren't they?

She didn't think that she'd ever paid that much attention to one person before, and she'd enjoyed making friends greatly.

Yet, she always felt her attention unintentionally being drawn back to her boss.

She paused. Right. It was probably because Alec was her boss too, which was why she was behaving like this.

Like the rest of the Spectres, Elysia admired him greatly.

Even though he was only in the intermediate stage, he had been able to face off against a Meister together with her. He'd kept up in every way when she'd been fighting the Meister head-on, protecting Sekai.

So, it had to be the same admiration that the rest of the Spectres felt.

That made sense!

Now a little more settled, Elysia's mind drifted a little. She was still worried about her dad, and where he had undoubtedly gone without her. He had definitely sent her out earlier than she wanted to leave because he was going to do something dangerous, but she trusted him.

She trusted that he was strong enough to take care of himself.

Otherwise, Elysia would definitely be the first to take revenge for him.

She was interrupted from her thoughts by Dominique's cool voice. "Boss, here's some water."

There was a pause as Alec took the cup. "Thank you," he said politely.

Dominique beamed.

Elysia grinned.

She still couldn't get over Dominique acting like a very affectionate cat bringing its master various trinkets and hunting trophies as goodwill.

It was hilarious.

The barest hints of strain in the smile on Alec's face previously had honestly made her laugh when Dominique presented him with the various heads of the rank five monster that had been chasing them, much to the rest of their group's confusion.

None of them had any idea why she was laughing, and Dominique had even bristled like a cat, wrongfully presuming that she was laughing at his offering to Alec. It just made her laugh harder at that time.

It still brought a grin to her face whenever she thought about it.

Though she had a bit of a crash course regarding human interaction in these couple of months, she liked to think that she caught on rather quickly.

She didn't know if it was because they were Sins, but most of them reacted remarkably similarly to creatures and monsters.

She wondered if it was because they were more in-tune with their more animalistic instincts, unlike the rest of the Societypes.

It rather endeared them to her, the sense of familiarity.

Sekai and Dominique, she could read perfectly well.

Alec, on the other hand, was an Every, but every so often, she found herself confused by his reactions, as if they reminded her of the rest of the Spectres.

As she was thinking this, Alec, who was across her, tucked a stray hair behind his ear.

Ah, it looked like his bad mood was returning. Time to run some damage control!

Elysia gestured at Dominique, who had been hovering too close in Alec's space.

"Dominique, want to spar?"

Dominique paused and turned his head towards her, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Elysia had to fight down the widening of her grin at his unfounded suspicion. She likened him to a cat more and more every day.

"Fine," Dominique said shortly.

Elysia and Dominique split off from Sekai and Alec, both of whom had started to work on Sekai's brand.

Sekai shot them longing looks, like he wanted to go as well.

They ignored him. This was for the best, really.

They moved to a clearing far enough away that they wouldn't disturb the other two.

Elysia dropped into a stance, and Dominique did the same, but not before he narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously.

"What are you trying to do?"

Elysia raised an eyebrow, tilting her head. "Whatever do you mean?"

Playing dumb was the best way to deal with a suspicious Sinister, of course.

Dominique glowered at her. He seemed to realize that he wouldn't be getting an answer today.

The two flew forward as they clashed.

Chapter end

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