"What kind of farce is this?"

A woman's voice echoed throughout the darkness, resounding within Iliya's head.

"No past, no present, no future. Have you gone mad?"

"Is being so blissfully ignorant satisfying?"

"You chose to side against me... You chose this yourself! After all this time, what was I even worth to you?!"

ANSWER ME, ##########-

With a jolt, Iliya's eyes shot open. Crawling off the sofa she had slept on, she wiped off a bit of the cold sweat on her hands.

'What was that about...? I don't...recognize that voice. Maybe I need to take a moment to calm down.'

After the carriage ride had left her nauseous and feeling all-around horrible, Iliya keeled over and rested on the sofa. Apparently, the nausea was strong enough to make her black out, which led to the strange dream she had just had. If it could even be called a dream, that is. The pastries that the maids had left on her table had already gotten crusty, and dust had already begun to settle on the fresh set of clothes on the bed. The maids had left Iliya a frilly, pink dress, which didn't really fit with the mage's tastes. Although she felt bad about ignoring others' hard work, Iliya had no need for any of the services provided. With a sigh, she exited her room into the hallway.

The moonlight shone through the glass windows, illuminating the empty hallway. Judging from the moon's placement, it should have been somewhere around midnight. Iliya's hair reflected the moonlight, creating the visage of a ghost wandering the halls. With nowhere to go, Iliya headed downstairs, hoping to get a breath of fresh air outside.

The garden was large, around the same size as the mansion, only split into two sections on either side of the main road. Iliya, however, went past the edge of the garden into a small patch of forest behind the mansion. Once she found a relatively safe yet remote spot, Iliya held up her hand, forming five different-colored streams of light.

Water. Fire. Earth. Light. Dark. One stream for each main magical element. From what little memory Iliya retained, general information was aplenty. The only true things missing were memories of her personal life and experiences. And so, Iliya also knew that there shouldn't have been any way for her to control all five elements.

When divine energy manifested outside of the corporeal bodies of living creatures, it was called magic. Normal humans usually had magic that fell into one or two elements, with the exception of the hero that could use all of them. As for demons, they had a stronger affinity for dark element magic, but consuming other types of divine energy could affect their affinities. But not even demons could master all five basic elements. At least, not to the point Iliya had. Despite her body rejecting any and all divine energy, she was able to control magic at her every beck and call. She didn't even know how her powers came to be, much less her past. It begs the question,

"Who are you?! Cease your magic!" Interrupting Iliya's thoughts was a giant, grey fox that fell from the sky. Its eyes glowed bright purple, and the imprint of an "X" could be seen on the fur on its chest.  Without warning, the fox pounced, prompting Iliya to defend with a wall of magic. Startled, Iliya tried to reason with the fox.

"Ah- Hold on! I was the girl with the priestess today! I was only taking a stroll, and wanted to momentarily practice my magic. Please calm down?" 

"Oh, you are...!" The moonlight quickly bathed the fox in a bright light, and when Iliya once again opened her eyes, a maid stood where the fox was before. From her grey hair and eyes, Iliya instantly recognized the maid as X, who had served her earlier.

"Um, that form..."

"My apologies for startling you." X bowed towards Iliya, revealing two fox ears that still had yet to disappear. " I saw magic being used while I was on patrol, and thought it was a threat."

The maid stood up straight again, her face illuminated by a shimmer of moonlight that permeated the canopy.

"As you saw, I am... A demon. Actually, most of the workers here are. After all, the only slaves left are demons. But as the priestess is yet to know, please keep it a secret for now."

"But if you are all demons, surely you wouldn't work under renowned adventurers known for killing your kind?" Iliya asked.

"Master Ennendare was the one who saved us, and his level was achieved fairly. As for Sir Shan... His past is regrettable, but I can vouch that he would never hurt us. I'm sorry, I cannot say more in respect of privacy." X turned back towards the forest. "In any case, I must continue my patrol now. The forest can be dangerous at night, so please exercise caution."

"Ah, thank you." Almost as quickly as she had arrived, X melted back into the shadows. 

With that interruption, Iliya no longer felt in the mood to ponder her magic. As such, she went to the garden, opting to take a rest by the fountain instead.

'Juno wants to go home, Lei is a renowned slayer, and Alfred is the son of the Ennendare family. The only one without a past...'

A gust of wind passed by, causing the reflection in the water to waver.

'Who, no, what are you?'

Unable to get her mind off of the dream she had before, Iliya spent a few minutes watching the sky. The moon was bright, the same as the moon in the temple she had woken up in. Countless stars shone alongside the moon, a sight Iliya had no recollection of ever seeing before.

After a depressingly empty excursion, Iliya returned to the inside of the mansion. While going up the stairs, she caught a glimpse of a figure make its way into Juno's room.

'Was that person... holding a knife?' 

Iliya quickly ran up the stairs into the hallway. It was better to confirm before anything bad happened. 

"Juno!" Iliya burst open the door, ignoring what clamor she could have caused. 

"Ah!" Shocked by the sudden intruder, the figure from before dropped something from their hands. When Iliya got closer, she realized it was the knife she had seen before.

"What are you doing?!" Before she could get an answer, Iliya held the person against the wall, pinning their hands behind their back.

"W-Wait... It's... a misunderstanding..."

"Ahh... What happened...? Iliya...?" The noise from Iliya entering had woken Juno up from her slumber. "Hm? Ah, Seven?!"

"Huh?" In shock, Iliya let go of Seven, who then sprinted towards the other side of the room and hid behind a dresser. "Juno, do you know this person?"

"Yes, she's the maid that served me!" Upon second glance, Iliya could see that Seven was wearing a uniform similar to X's. In the darkness, she had somehow managed to miss it.

"Oh, my bad... But why did you enter Juno's room with a weapon?"

"I...didn't bring a weapon..." Seven pointed at the item she had dropped on the ground. 

"Is that... a bread knife...?" 

Seven silently pointed at the table, which had a tray placed on the middle. On the tray was a castella surrounded by small cookies. 

"I forgot...cut..." Without even finishing her sentence, Seven darted out the room.

"Ah... she brought you food."

"Breakfast in the middle of the night?" Juno was confused, but got up and started eating anyways. 

"Um... sorry about that." Iliya's face flushed a little, before she exited the room and went towards her own.

Once she was inside her own room again, Iliya threw herself face flat onto her bed.

'That was... a mistake.'

Iliya tried her hardest to fall asleep before the sun rose, her face still buried into the pillow.

NuomiFan

Today we have some Iliya fluff (?)! Sorry for the shorter updates, work popped up so the next few updates might be a bit slower and shorter, lol. As always, thank you for reading IAHB!