"What is your decision?"
So, this woman is asking me if she can adopt me as her daughter. She wants to have a magic user in her family to raise her status. She is the fifth wife of the general who steals resources from the mountains near the beggar cities. The general had spent a lot of fortune to a sorcerer from the higher realm to create a gate from that cave to her place. Though she is the richest woman of the capital, her status is weak. The general has six wives and nine mistresses. She has no hope.
If she adopts a magic user, she can become richer and more powerful.
The benefits of becoming her adopted child include free food, free training in magic, free home, free clothes, and free travel. All I have to do is to be adopted and show off my magic.
Basically, she wants to use me to become more powerful in society.
If I didn't agree, we will be killed immediately. Even if we escape, she will use all of her fortunes on the assassins to hunt me down and Kyo.
"Don't agree, Master." Mogrok scrunches his face. "I don't like that woman. I can just eat her now."
"I don't like her either," Kyo mumbles to himself.
"I have conditions." I smile at her. "First of all, let us out of the cages."
She gives a nod to the servant. The cages are unlocked. With Mogrok's help, I could get out of the cage anytime. However, it's important to give some face to the owner of the house.
"My second condition is that my brother will be adopted with me. He will get the same treatment as me. He is a magic user too." I am sure that he is a magic-user. He is God. He eats spirits. He should be able to do some magic.
"Is he? That's even better." The woman looks like she has won a lottery. "You can have anything you want. All I want is that you become my children. I will be treated like royalty in this country. Then, I don't need the general to survive."
She's quite simple. "That's all you want?"
"After you are adopted, you have to attend the academy and learn magic. If you do well in the competition and rank high in the magic, you will be chosen to go to the higher realm." She bites her nails in excitement. "I don't have high expectations from you. But, if you can win the competition and get selected, then I will become one of the most powerful women in the lower realm. I want you to learn magic diligently and treat me like a mother in public."
Pretty simple.
"Deal." I give her an OK sign. "I am Kresi and he is Kyo."
"Kresi and Kyo?" She eyes us both. "That won't do. You need new names."
"Master, don't let her name you and him." Mogrok pleads to me. "It's bad for you."
I give him a nod. I don't have such intention either.
"We don't want to change the names. You can give us your last names."
"Alright." She sighs. "I need to divorce the general first."
She doesn't look like she loves that man. Then, that man has too many women. He is also corrupt. If he loses one, it won't be that bad for him. The woman asks us to follow the servants to get cleaned up. We leave with the servants who keep their faces expressionless to us. There are respect and fear.
"Young Miss," The servants stop in front of the bathhouse. "Your master has to take the bath separately."
Kyo clutches my hand tightly. "I won't go alone."
"Master, I don't want to take bath alone either."
"Who is asking you?" I glare at Mogrok. "Kyo, there are some things that a man has to do alone."
"But, Sister...I want to take a bath with you." He wraps his arm around my waist. "I don't like these people."
So cute.
"Master, I don't like these people either."
"Okay. I will give you a bath." I pinch Kyo's cheek. He is chubbier after eating all those resources. It's good that the boy has more flesh after eating someone's treasures. From now on, I will find him more treasures like those.
"Young miss, this is not..." The maid closes her mouth when I put my palm up.
"It's fine. I will take a bath after I give him a bath."
"As you wish, Young miss." The maid bows her head. Her cheeks are red. I wonder what she is imagining. I am physically thirteen, but my mental age is twenty-six. This ageless God looks physically eleven, but his mental age is five or six at most. This is a bit crazy, I guess.
"Let's do this." This is like giving a bath to a pet cat. There is nothing strange about it. "Kyo, I will do this today. But, you have to clean yourself in the future. Okay?"
"Yes." He gives me a nod. Mogrok jumps in the pool and splashes the water on us. The water is warm and feels nice. I push Kyo into the pool. He jumps up with his wet long hair and pulls me inside.
"Master, this is fun." Mogrok swims around in a circle.
"Sister, this feels nice," Kyo yells with glee. He is not my pet cat after all. My pet cat disliked bathing.