A Nascent Kaleidoscope.

Chapter 408: Chapter 370

"You know, that isn\'t the first time someone on this planet asked me that..." I chuckled awkwardly. "And by the strictest definition.....technically? But...it\'s a little more complicated."

"This is not the conversation I expected to have." She looked unconfident, a stark contradiction to merely a moment ago. "Come." she said, leading me towards her own private quarters.

She pushed the door open, one I have never been through without any fanfare, practically pulling me inside. If it was any other time, I would be excited that she was leading me to what was essentially her bedroom, but her reaction made me a little bit nervous.

I only took a moment to look around. It was as one would expect the \'master bedroom\' to look like in a castle. It was divided into the bedroom portion – a massive bed and other amenities, and then a small study, complete with shelves full of books.

She took a seat over in the study portion. "Sit." She stated, gesturing to a chair next to hers.

I slid into it, waiting for her as it looked like she wanted to say something. I could imagine this was already a lot for her to take in, assuming she was believing what I initially said in the first place.

"Have you ever lied to me?" She decided on what to ask first, looking at me intently.

"Never." I said without hesitation. "I was always upfront when It was clear I wasn\'t telling everything or being vague."

"Explain it to me properly."

"Alright." I licked my lips, thinking about the best method to go about this. "I think you would understand better if I explained from a Magical perspective." I pushed my hands together. "I told you about Magecraft, right?"

"You described it as something replicable by non-magical means." She nodded.

"Right, then I never did say anything about the opposite, did I?" She raised an eyebrow and gestured for me to continue. "The opposite of Magecraft falls under the domain of True Magic. To give the barest summary, it\'s something beyond mundane means – more akin to miracles than anything else. There are only a handful of True Magics left for humans and with time, they\'ll also be regulated down to mere Magecraft. Such as the True Resurrection of the Soul to give a broad example." I paused, letting her digest that bit. "My... Grandfather discovered one of them known as the Kaleidoscope – the Operation and Manipulation of Parallel Worlds."

She opened her mouth and closed it again, her brow furrowed in deep thought. "So when you say you\'re not from Remnant, you mean..."

"This dimension, basically. I could go into more details about how it works, but I don\'t think that\'s what you would want to talk about right now."

"As much as I enjoy talking about the workings of Magic with someone that can keep up, you are correct." She frowned slightly. "Where you come from, Magic is common there?"

"No." I shook my head. "Magic and things....supernatural are basically hidden in the world I was born in and the world I consider my home."

"Why would you hide such a thing?" She frowned deeper.

"It\'s complicated." I smiled wryly. "To get into it it\'d take hours to just explain the basics of the social aspect."

"And you\'re not just saying that to get out of telling me?"

"No, I told you before that I would tell you everything, I didn\'t lie. If you ask me to tell you my most embarrassing secrets, I would do so without a second thought."

"You are being very trusting with me." She said softly.

"Because I do trust you."

"That Spirit of yours was right, you are a fool" She snorted.

"Pardon?" I blinked in confusion.

"It does not matter." She added with a slight huff. "And what is the world you come from?"

"It\'s called Earth – "

"You named your planet after dirt?" She looked at me incredulously.

"Earth." I corrected. "But Gaia is a more proper name for those in the know."

She nodded, but I don\'t think she really...cared, for lack of a better word. No, she was clearly still trying to handle this new information even if she wasn\'t showing it outwardly. I\'m fairly sure she didn\'t quite know how to respond or what questions to ask as this was certainly not the conversation she thought she would be having.

"Do you have any other large pieces of information to drop on me?" She breathed out.

"....yes"

"Very well, you may as well give it to me now."

"I\'m not entirely human."

She looked at me in confusion. "I suppose I did not question the idea that humans are prevalent in another world as I am assuming that the Brother Gods are not behind this based on the book you gave me previously referencing other Deities. Which seemingly answers many questions I once had." She said dryly, letting out a small sigh. "Speak plainly."

"You seem to have the concept here, but only in some literature. My mom was human, but my biological father is a Devil. I\'m a half-Devil."

I\'ve read through various things on Remnant, and it\'s obvious they have the idea of \'devils\' and \'demons\' and such, rather close to the ones I\'m familiar with, but as far as I\'m aware, they don\'t actually exist in this world.

"A.....Half-Devil." She repeated the almost foreign word.

"I know you\'re not a fan of the people on Remnant because they\'re not Humans like you remember. I...I\'m only Half Human." I hoped that it wasn\'t something she was against, but It was something she needed to know.

"This is....a lot to suddenly take in." She replied softly.

The way she said that made me wince slightly. "I\'m sorry."

"Do not apologize for doing what I asked." She let out another of her cute little huffs in annoyance. "I am thankful that you are sharing intimate secrets with me."

She looked like she wanted to say something else. "Would....you like some time?"

I could tell I hit the nail on the head. "I would like some time to gather my thoughts as I am unsure about the emotions I am feeling right now."

"Yeah...that\'s probably for the best." I forced a smile. "Why don\'t I head out and come back in...a few days or something?"

I was turning, about to leave, but she grabbed on my sleeve. "Stop." She demanded, making my steps come to an abrupt halt. She pulled herself up from her seat and moved rather quickly. The next thing I knew, her lips were touching mine, our noses brushing against one another.

"Usually, I\'m the one doing that." I said rather absentmindedly at her suddenness once we parted.

"Hmph." She crossed her arms, pulling away, that adorable little huff of hers returning. "It is inexcusable for someone of your stature to mope in my presence. I simply took pity on you, and you seem to enjoy such an inane gesture."

"Cute."

"Stop looking at me like that." She scowled, turning away. "Leave, get out of my sight."

"Alright, I\'m going." I put my hands up in surrender.

"....I will send you a message on the small device when I wish to resume our talk." She whispered, just enough for me to hear.

"I\'ll wait as long as you need me to."

[***]

Despite the talks not going as planned – or rather, did I even have a plan gong into it? I suppose it didn\'t go bad, her standpoint was completely understandable. I could imagine how her worldview was turned upside down with a few words and she needed time to process. I didn\'t want to lean on our \'relationship\' while she was trying to understand the idea that I\'m from an entirely different world. The concepts and ideas shouldn\'t be something beyond her, and even if they were \'new\', she\'s a very intelligent woman who should get the gist of what I was talking about.

Well, I was worried about the Half-Devil thing.....but the kiss at the end made me feel better.

Sometimes, people just need some space, there is nothing wrong with that.

I played around with my scroll, catching up on the latest news.

Apparently, I was no longer a criminal in Vale, woo.

Couldn\'t say the same for Atlas or Mistral, but there wouldn\'t be anyone trying to arrest me in Vale.....hopefully.

There was apparently a huge public backlash about it and that was a little less than a week ago. Cries about corruption and some other nonsense that\'s actually true, but I digress. I didn\'t feel like reading through the hundreds of posts about it anymore.

I\'m a free man!

And I didn\'t even bother with the stares I was getting as I walked to Junior\'s club after jumping over to Vale.

I could imagine that my face was more predominant right now because of how controversial the withdrawal for my arrests was. My face was plastered all over the Remnant Internet even more.

I took out my scroll, looking at the missed messages I\'ve gotten, nearly all of them from Pyrrha. She sent them knowing I wouldn\'t be receiving them until I got here again, so I glanced over them a bit before sending her one of my own.

()

Wilhelm: \'In Vale, doing anything?\'

Pyrrha: \'Finally, I thought you were going to miss it!\'

Pyrrha: \'I\'m at beacon right now, the second half of the entrance test starts tomorrow morning.\'

Wilhelm: Right on time then. And, second half?

Pyrrha: \'We took a written test, doing a physical one tomorrow. Real Grimm I heard.\'

Wilhelm: \'Need help?\'

Pyrrha: \'It\'s a test, you can\'t help me.\'

Wilhelm: \'Yeah, it\'s called cheating.\'

Pyrrha: \'Lol, how would that even work?\'

Wilhelm: Let me borrow your clothes, they\'d never know. We\'re basically twins if you think about it.\'

Pyrrha: \'You realize that I wear a skirt, right?\'

Wilhelm: \'First, why do you even wear a skirt? Besides showing off those awesome legs of yours. And Second, I would absolutely rock a skirt.\'

Pyrrha: \'Didn\'t we already have this discussion? It\'s easy to move around in, and it\'s not like I\'m flashing everyone when I move. I do have tights hidden underneath.\'

Wilhelm: \'I noticed you didn\'t deny what I said about your legs\'

Pyrrha: \'What am I supposed to say to that!?\'

Wilhelm: \'something like Thanks Wilhelm, I know my legs are fabulous, thanks for pointing it out. You know, gratitude.\'

Pyrrha: \'Brothers, you\'re horrible. Thanks though, I was feeling a little nervous.\'

Wilhelm: \'No Problem, red. I\'m here if you need me. And seriously, I do have some stuff I could sneak you. I know you\'ll not accept, but I wanted to offer.\'

Pyrrha: \'Thank you, Wilhelm, I really do mean it.\'

Wilhelm: \'No problem. Tell me when you\'ve passed and have some time off. You can come to the city and we can celebrate. You for making it into beacon, and me for becoming a free man.\'

Pyrrha: \'People are freaking out over that! How did you even get that to happen!?\'

Wilhelm: \'I don\'t think you want an answer to that question. Your delicate sensibilities might be damaged.\'

Pyrrha: \'I\'m going to pretend that you did nothing illegal.\'

Wilhelm: \'Technically, it was Roman who did all the illegal stuff.\'

Pyrrha: \'Yes, that makes it so much better.\'

Wilhelm: \'Yeah, I thought so too. Glad we\'re on the same page.\'

Pyrrha: \'It was sarcasm!\'

Pyrrha: \'Grr! You better not get into more trouble, or I\'m going to be upset.\'

Wilhelm: \'Come @ me.\'

Pyrrha: \'Don\'t think I won\'t. I got a lot better since the last time we met.\'

Wilhelm: \'So did I.\'

Pyrrha: !!

Pyrrha: \'Doesn\'t matter, I\'ll stop you from doing anything illegal. And this weekend I should be able to head over to Vale. Tomorrow is the test day, then Friday they have like an orientation or something where we do our first classes. Then the weekend is free.\'

Wilhelm: \'Sounds good, my GF is here too, so you can meet her. And someone who\'s basically like my sister.\'

Pyrrha: \'I\'d love to meet them!\'

Pyrrha: \'I have to go, the teacher is gathering everyone for something.\'

Wilhelm \'Alright, give me a heads up. I heard you do teams and stuff there, so bring them too if you want, my treat!\'

()

She didn\'t respond after a few moments, so I put my scroll away. It was always fun teasing her.

But it was fine, I was already at Junior\'s place. The guy at the door looked surprised to see me, but I\'m sure he knew me well enough at this point and didn\'t even stop me when I pushed the door open with a bit of fanfare, letting it loudly smack against the side, announcing my presence.

It was early evening still, so not many people would be coming to a nightClub, so I didn\'t really give it much thought.

However, my steps came to an abrupt stop after stepping inside.

Artoria and Rin were sitting at the bar, Miltia and her sister, Melanie, were sitting there as well. Junior was behind it, serving everyone. But most notably, Roman was leaning against the bar with a wide grin on his face as he eyed me enter.

"Well well, if it isn\'t my wayward son, Watermelon Torchwick." He flicked his hat up, taking out the cigar in his mouth. "How nice of you to bring your girlfriend to meet dear old Daddy."

What fresh hell did I walk into?

[***]

A/N

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