Unnnn.... How could I be so blind...

Well, at least I get to have some cool demonic wings, so that's all right. But still...

"Haa..."

"Kyuu. Kyuu."

"The little fox is right, my dear. Cheer up. You can get the other Racial Skill later."

"How much... later?"

"Depends on how much you kill after you leave this place. That's the only way to get points after all."

So that means I'm going to have to kill a lot more monsters just to get one skill!? Argh. I'm not sure if the effort's worth it or not, considering how many wolves and monkeys I'd killed to get over 60,000 points before I spent 50,000 of it on the skill.

No. Be optimistic, me! You have gotten that much points before, you can get them again.

"Fufufu~ Looks like someone's cheered up now on her own."

"Kyuu~"

While Kyuki and Eliza-san are talking in the background, I decided to test out my newly acquired skill and see the wings myself.

Demonic Wings, activate!

In that moment, two large wings grew out from my back. With jet black coloured feathers and a majestic looking appearance, all I could say about it was...

"Cool..."

"Kyuuuuu..."

"My my~ What a mavelous set of wings, my dear. They sure are different from the ones I've seen before."

"Umm, pardon?"

"I'm talking about people of the Demon race. The ones I have killed in the past at least. Theirs are more crudely shaped. Whereas yours look really pretty. I prefer this one if I do say so myself."

"O-oh... Thank you."

The wings look really amazing. But there's this strange feeling whenever I move them. It's like having another set of arms to control in addition to the ones I have already.

It might take some time to get used to controlling them. So let's try flying now!

Annnddd... take off!

"Kyuu!?"

"Oh wow."

Woohohoho! I'm flying, I'm flying!

Look at me, Kyuki! I'm flying!

Kyuu!

This feels amazing. I can't believe I'm actually flying right now!

Yippeeee~!

"Hey, my dear. It's good that you're having fun and all. But be careful not to hit the—"

"Bwah!"

"—Ceiling... Haa. Too late."

Ouch.... I probably shouldn't fly so freely indoors. Even if the space is quite large...

********

Three more days have passed. Now that I have my Demonic Wings skill, I was told to train it as well to what I was already training.

After evolving my Magic Control skill to Magic Operation, Eliza-san went ahead and upped my training. Thus, making me do four things at once.

The first was improving my Magic Operation skill with the same method as before, but slightly different as I am blindfolded now.

The reason for that is to improve my Magic Perception skill in addition to my Magic Operation skill. Meaning I have to direct my small ball of magic through Eliza-san's tiny maze without seeing the maze at all. What a big jump in difficulty!

What's more, I am doing this while airbourne to train my Demonic Wings skill. So the difficulty just keeps on getting higher!

As for the fourth skill that I'm training...

"Head's up!"

That would be my Evasion skill.

What had just zoomed past my ear just now was a bullet seed shot by Eliza-san. It moves really fast and hits really strong, so Eliza-san always has to give me a warning before she shoots one at me to dodge.

This is really hard... Like super duper hard.

If I focus too much on trying to navigate through the maze, I may end up forgetting to make myself stay in the air and fall.

If I focus too much on my wings, then I won't be able to do the maze properly.

If I focus too much on either of them, I will also have a hard time trying to avoid getting hit by Eliza-san's bullet seed.

And if I focus too much on evasion instead, my difficulty with focusing on the other two tasks will drastically increase.

Multitasking this was harder than I thought.

What's with the spike in difficulty!? Come on!

"Kyuuuuu....."

Oh. And Kyuki is still working on its Magic Control skill. But once that's done, Eliza-san will have a more difficult training in store for it.

"Kyuuuuuuuu...."

Ah. So cute... I can't see it. But I can feel the cute energy radiating from it.

Ouch!

"Pay attention, my dear. Or you might get multiple bumps on your head."

Right... Got distracted by the kyuus. Focus, me! Focus!

It was a tough and arduous time as the day went on. But, the result of Eliza-san's training proved that it was somewhat worth it.

Magic Operation is now level 3; Magic Perception is now level 4; Demonic Wings is now level 3; and Evasion is now level 8. Yeah... Evasion got the most improvement out of the four, mainly because I was too dead set on evading Eliza-san's seeds. Also, the other three skills are harder to level up since two are on the second tier of their evolution, while one is a Racial Skill.

All in all, I think I did pretty well, despite the numerous bumps on my head. Ow.

As for Kyuki, it looks like its Magic Control skill has evolved into Magic Operation now. Yippee!

And its Magic Sense skill has almost evolved into Magic Perception. Hooray!

Now you get to suffer with me in your next step of training.

Kyuu!?

Now that our training for today was over, it was time to eat. So I took out some wolf meat from my Dark Domain storage while Kyuki starts a fire. Eliza-san seemed to be doing something behind the big maple tree as we were eating. But once she was done, she popped out and called Kyuki over, needing a favour from it.

I wonder what she needs Kyuki for...?

I was curious to check. But I'm in the middle of eating right now. Kyuki on the other hand, finished its meal quickly before going to help Eliza-san with whatever help she needs the fox for.

"KYUUUUUUUUUUU~!!"

What the!?

"That's right, little fox. Keep it up! Make it nice and hot!"

"KYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!"

Is Kyuki going super saiyan or something!? Just what are they doing behind the tree?

I quickly devoured the cooked wolf meat in my hand and approach the tree. Keeping the rest of the cooked meat into Dark Domain for now as I am really curious about what was going on behind the tree.

"Kyuki... Eliza-san... What are you— Huh!?"

When I peeked around the corner of the tree, what came into my view was a small open hot spring bath, being heated by Kyuki's flames while Eliza-san watched, cheering the fox on.

"Oh. Looks like you're here. What do you think, my dear?"

What do I think!? "I, uh..."

The water is well heated up now. Kyuki, who was responsible for providing the heat, is now exhausted as I held it in my arms. Meanwhile, Eliza-san threw in some flowers into the water to give some flora scent to the bath.

In response to her question, I told her.

"Please... don't use Kyuki... for something like this... again."

"Kyuu..."

"Aw. It's all right, my dear. The little fox really wanted to do this since it's for you."

Is that so, Kyuki?

Kyuu! Kyuu!

"Haah..." I sighed.

Thank you. But don't push yourself too hard, all right?

Kyuu!

I pat Kyuki's head as a reward and then turned to Eliza-san.

"So... what's with the bath...?" I asked her.

"Fufufu~ How should I put this, my dear..." Eliza-san paused for a moment, as I wonder what she was planning to say.

"You kind of stink. So strip and go take a bath."

Urk!

Those words of hers stabbed straight into my heart.

I mean, yeah... ever since reincarnating into this body, I have not taken a single bath. Solely because there was not body of water for me to take bath in! So I had no choice but to stink! Don't blame me!

Also, why did you have to put it that way!? It hurts.

But then again, I'm grateful that she went out of her way to make a bath for me. Even if it's small.

Besides, it'd be good for Kyuki too, now that it is exhausted after heating the water up for me.

So, I took off my clothes, placed it aside and entered the bath with Kyuki in my arms.

The temperature is nice and hot. Enough for the both of us to just sink in it and relax our mind and body.

"Are you... going to join...?" I asked Eliza-san who was just standing next to us, resting on one of her petals.

"No. Hot water ain't really that good for me, my dear."

"Oh... right..."

She is a flower-type monster after all.

"More importantly, my dear. Let's have a chat, shall we?"

"O...kay? What do we... talk about though?"

"Hmm... That is a good question." Eliza-san ponders for a moment. "Ah! I know." she then exclaimed and bent forward, close to my ear.

"Why don't you tell me more about yourself, my dear?"

"W-What?"

"In return, I'll tell you about myself. It's only fair that I do that, right? I only know that you were once a human from another world and was born in a rich family. But other than that, I know nothing else about you. So tell me, my dear, what kind of person were you in your previous life?"

"I-I..."

I was stunned. I didn't know what to say. I thought I was done when I told her a bit about my past. But of course, there was no way she would be content with just that.

Even so, should I tell her?

We have only known each other for almost two weeks now. Despite that, the level of trust I have for her was of the same as the level of trust I had for my homeroom teacher from my previous life, whom I have known for two years.

So maybe... just maybe... it's all right to tell her?

I bit on my lips, wondering what I should say to her. Wondering where I should begin telling her about my past life.

With a long awkward silence as the two of us stared at each other. I finally relented and spoke about my past.

"I was... never loved by my parents."