Yuuki knocked on the door.
“May I come in?”
There was a silence before Rose answered. “Come in.”
Yuuki opened the door and was about to enter, but Igraine grabbed her shoulder. “If neither of you mind, I think this conversation would be better if we were all present for it.” Before waiting for a response, she motioned Alice and Cassandra to follow, before entering.
Everyone was now in the small room, sitting on the soft, padded floor.
“Right… sorry about killing all those people, I may have gotten carried away.” Yuuki said after looking straight at Rose.
The shopkeeper shifted uncomfortably. “I mean… you did kill a lot of people.”
“And why do you think that is bad?” Igraine cut in.
“Eh?”
“I’m not asking to dismiss anything. It’s simply clear you’ve never really had to solidify your opinions about this subject before. I want you to say why you think murder is bad.” Igraine stared into Rose’s eyes, with no hint of the carelessness that was there yesterday.
“Because… because it’s irreversible. And I wouldn’t want to die, and I can’t imagine they wanted to die either. And also, what about their families? They are missing their family members now.”
“What about soldiers? If a soldier kills another on a battlefield, is it the same?”
“Well, no. They knew they could die when they signed up.” Rose’s voice was filled with uncertainty.
“What about the soldiers who were sent on the battlefields against their will? Is killing them any less bad than killing thugs who operate outside the law and chose the life that could get them killed. They chose a life where they would hurt or threaten or kill others. And what if they were brought before the law and executed? Would that be bad, or would that be justice?”
Rose grabbed her head and was trying to think of a reply. Half a minute passed in silence before Igraine continued.
“That’s the thing about murder and morality in general. It’s almost never simple. You both need to remember that. While there isn’t anything objective, you could generally say that murder is bad regardless of context, it’s how bad it is that’s really up for debate. Someone is always hurt from it, be it the victim, their loved ones, and even the murderer.” She looked at both Yuuki and Rose. Yuuki, who would be building her morals from the ground up and Rose, who needed this reality check for her overly simplistic ones. “Also, about the irreversibility. Could you revive them, Yuuki?”
“Not in this state. If I tried magic of that scale and complexity, it might go haywire. If it did, the planet would become uninhabitable for thousands of years without divine intervention.” She answered with a straight face.
The responses were mixed. Rose’s jaw dropped to the floor, while Alice acted as if it were the most obvious thing ever. Cassandra’s eyes opened wide while Igraine’s dropped as if she were about to fall asleep.
“Right, at least our most basic understanding that death is permanent won’t be questioned right now.”
“It isn’t. Their souls will simply-”
“Don’t! Don’t tell us about the afterlife, or at least don’t tell me! Of course you know about the afterlife, why wouldn’t you know about the afterlife.” Igraine muttered the later part of her sentence before falling on her back onto the bed that was the floor.
“You know what happens after death? How?” Rose asked, completely forgetting the conversation that had happened moments ago.
“I died.” Came the incredibly simple reply.
“Oh… I’m sorry.”
Yuuki tilted her head in confusion. “Why? You didn’t cause it, you didn’t even know me then.”
“Because, each individual is something unique and magnificent, and death is the loss of that which may never be again. The loss of value and the tragedy of fate.” Alice said poetically. Everyone in the room looked at her with curious looks. “What? It’s from a book. Yuuki wasn’t teaching me philosophy, so dad recommended some reading material.”
There was an awkward silence in the room that followed.
“What now?” Asked Cassandra, who stayed quiet until now.
“Now we go and get wasted and let our minds relax from all the hard thoughts.” Igraine said as she jumped up onto her feet. “Can you two even get drunk?”
“Nope.”
"Unlikely.”
“Damn shame. Well, come on then.”
“I believe I have something else that could work for relaxation. Something less self-destructive.” Yuuki said as she reached into a tear in front of her. It was pitch black and looked as if space was a glass that had just been broken through, smaller cracks around the main hole. She pulled out a large container that looked very similar to a bucket. Conjuring a metal bowl and spoon for everyone, she opened the container, as it let out a sweet smell.
Alice, familiar with it already, sunk her spoon into the container, putting her portion in her bowl and starting to eat already. Yuuki did much the same, although, at a slower rate.
“What is this? It’s cold?” Rose asked.
“Ice cream. I’ll tell you how to make it if you want.”
In the end, the five of them had eaten three containers of the ice cream, one chocolate, one lime and one strawberry flavored.
They were looking at the ceiling as they lied in a circle, their heads on the inside.
“I have a strange feeling.” Yuuki said.
“Describe it.” Alice answered.
“It’s like something… like a small animal is walking back and forth inside the back of my head.”
“You forgot something. Which is unlikely… oh.”
““We forgot about Helen and Amanda.”” The two said in unison.
“Who and who?” Igraine asked, confused.
“Do you want to get them, or should I?”
“You can teleport better, so you should probably be the one.”
“Alright.” With that, Yuuki disappeared from the room.
“Amanda is our personal maid. She seems very proper until she is enticed with touching Yuuki’s tail, which she does a lot. Helen is her former teacher… she’s a bit childish and has a cute sleeping face.”
--
Yuuki appeared in the garden and began to look for Helen and Amanda. From what she sensed, they were in her father’s office currently, so she headed there.
Well, I don't blame Amanda and Helen for having those behaviors and faces. They're faced with a fluffy, cute tail of course.