「 Altrouge's POV. 」
Staring into dull purple eyes, I refused to blink, nor look away, as the little girl continued to stare right back into my own eyes.
"Altrouge…" came the disappointed voice of Alistair, but I refused to budge.
"Yuuuu…" {I can't breathe…} whimpered Cath, causing me to slightly loosen my crushing hug on the drama queen. After all, he didn't need to breathe, so why did he complain so much?
The girl hadn't said a word when Alistair had brought her here to officially introduce her to me, having instead chosen to engage me in a staring contest.
Childish as it may be, I refused to lose, especially when my opponent was a child, though I'd still retaliate a smidge for the disrespect. Meaning I'll do the same as I did to Alistair when I met him, and I'll scare her a bit for fun.
"I've eaten children for showing less respect—" "You're pretty."
…
This was a good child.
Breaking eye-contact, I gave Alistair an approving nod. "You can learn a thing or two from her," I said sagely, before returning my attention to the girl.
Stepping closer to her, I patted her on the shoulder. "Keep up the compliments, and we'll get along swimmingly," I said while appreciatively bobbing my head.
Cocking her head to the side, a hint of confusion could be seen on her face. "But it's the truth, not a compliment," she stated with some befuddlement.
She's good.
I think I might have a thing for traumatized children. She doesn't seem to be scared of me, and she's a natural good flatterer. This is the ideal human archetype.
Smiling, I let go of Cath, allowing the slob to fall to the floor, before patting the girl on the head. "Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Altrouge. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Sakura," I greeted with a hint of approval.
"A–cqu—ain-tance?" she asked with a hint of confusion, causing me to stop the head pat, before waving my hand dismissively. "A fancy, big word for getting to know someone," I explained haphazardly, causing her to nod slowly. "Nice to make your acquain-tance," she said hesitantly.
Huh, guess she isn't incompetent, just very meek… good on her.
"Um… Ms. Altrouge," she said, causing me to focus on her once more. "Yes?" I asked patiently, which prompted her to point at Cath. "What is that?"
Looking at Sakura once more, I noticed that she hadn't been looking at the floor out of meekness, but due to her staring at Cath.
"That's Cath," I stated, before shrugging. "I think he's some sort of inbred dog."
Blinking slightly, Sakura stopped looking at the sprawled 'dog' to look up at me. "In-bred?"
And like clockwork, Alistair quickly stepped in, ending my fun. "Okay, Amelia is expecting us, it is best to not keep her waiting," he said before all but shoving us away from Cath, and guiding us towards his office.
"But the doggy…" murmured Sakura, which Alistair promptly ignored. Patting the girl on the shoulder, I moved beside her. "He'll be fine, who knows, maybe he'll…"
Knowing Cath, he was just acting it up to get some sympathy points, and therefore get some cuddles or treats from Alistair. Damn mutt was getting really good at the art of begging, especially after Alistair discovered that Cath actually liked some of the more meat-based dog treats.
Like clockwork, trotting up next to us as expected, Cath walked up next to the girl and started sniffing her as he walked. Seemingly finding something he liked, he started wagging his tail, before turning to look at me.
"Kyu?" {Can I eat her?} Cath asked in a cute tone while angling his head at Sakura, causing me to sweatdrop.
Alistair would be sad if I let him do that, and the girl might give me another avenue to tackle to get Alistair to fall head over heels for me, so I wouldn't allow him to eat her.
Moving my hand in front of my neck in a 'cut it out' gesture, I watched as Cath jumped for joy, before rapidly growing up. Purple horns sprouted out from the side of his head, and his body started to resemble more and more of a large wolf.
Seeing that Cath had misinterpreted my meaning, I quickly stomped on his tail. "Kiii!" screeched the stupid beast, before shrinking back to his juvenile state, and fixing Alistair with the cutest puppy dog eyes it could muster, while twitching his tail, as if it was in pain.
"Altrouge!" yelled Alistair with a clear undertone of admonishment while glancing at Cath, causing me to feel a bit peeved. I mean, I stopped Cath from eating the girl, but instead I'm being yelled at… not that I couldn't have avoided this whole song and dance by vocally telling Cath 'No', rather than performing a gesture he could misinterpret, but I still felt a bit indignant.
Both Cath and I knew that my little love-tap didn't hurt him at all, but the little bastard still dared to play the victim after noticing that Alistair hadn't seen his murder attempt.
Seeing his attempt at garnering pity, I slowly raised my foot, while openly aiming my stiletto at his rear.
Seeing where my foot was aiming, Cath's ears flattened against his skull, and he moved his tail to cover his butt.
"Apologize," I demanded, causing the little critter to flatten himself against the floor, while using his paws to cover his eyes. "Fouuuu…." {Sorry…} he whimpered out pitifully, causing me to smile.
Before I could smugly accept his groveling, Alistair bent down and scooped Cath up, then letting him rest in the nook of his arm. "What's wrong with you?" Alistair asked heatedly, causing my lip to twitch.
"He was trying to suck up to us, and gain pity points after he tried to…" Glancing at Sakura, who was looking at Cath with some wonder, I decided to not mention Cath's attempted murder on her person, as to not give the girl another thing to get traumatized by. "… do something stupid."
Alistair was clearly just as much in the dark as Sakura, as he gave me a flat look. "If your former words are to be believed, he's dumb as a brick, and has the cognitive ability comparable to a mentally challenged koala. So he isn't smart enough to do that."
At his words, Cath poked his head up and gave a cute huff.
It would seem that I have shot myself in the foot.
It would seem that logical arguments wouldn't work anymore, luckily I am a woman, which means I can still pull this off…
Batting my eyes at Alistair, I gave him my best impression of a doe-eyed expression, before softening my overall impression. "Do you really think this face would lie to you?" I said, accentuating my words with a light flutter of my lashes.
…
The utter silence following my statement, along with the unimpressed deadpan I was receiving from Alistair, caused something inside of me to crack.
"Fu!" {Smelly!} he huffed, while snootily pointing his snout up in the air, causing me to almost glare at him.
Not you too, you annoying little shit… Luckily for Cath, he's super cute… and really fucking strong, so I'll find it in my heart to forgive the little critter.
Twitching my lip slightly, I yanked the pest out of Alistair's grasp, before shoving it into Sakura's arms. "There!" I said gleefully, and I could see the enthusiasm drain out of Cath.
Dusting my hands, I gave the girl a little smile. "Here, you can bathe him," I said kindly, and I could see the little bastard's eyes shrank into pinpricks. "It will be a bonding exercise, I am sure he'll appreciate it, and he wouldn't dare hurt you because he is a good little boy~," I said with a sweet lilt at the end, which Cath quickly understood to be a warning.
Not that I expected Sakura to actually bathe the little shit, as Amelia has far too good a sense of self-preservation to let the girl go through with it.
The girl almost instinctively tightened her hold on the beast, not that it caused him any more discomfort, nor lessened his ability to escape from the girl's arms. "Really?" she said hopefully, while looking up at me.
"Yuuup," I said while patting her head. "All yours."
Sakura looked down at the depressed Cath in her embrace, before looking up at me, and giving me a small smile.
Awww… she looked so cute now that she smiled, she'd grow up to be a beautiful woman when she gets older… Wait a minute… no…
Scrutinizing her features, I felt my 'competition radar' start to blare some alarms.
Damn you Sigmund Freud! If his Oedipus complex held any water, then it should apply to girls as well… and if Alistair, a very, extremely, incredibly handsome man became her 'step-father', then the odds of her catching any feelings would skyrocket…
And knowing my luck, which is obviously extremely shitty, as somehow Alistair summoned an evil witch from the dead, only for her to fall head over heels for him and gain a proper body. I can only expect that he'll somehow, and likely accidentally, groom Sakura, and for reasons unknowable, the two would click together like two peas in a pod…
Which will probably work all the better, due to my attempts at turning him into a semi-pedophile, in an attempt at him accepting my semi-permanent early teens body… only for Sakura to reap all the rewards of my labor!
This was unacceptable!
Looking at the girl, I started to go through some scenarios where she just so happened to die by some 'happy coincidence', and see how that would pan out… Unfortunately, it only took one scenario to imagine how devastated Alistair would be, after failing to keep Sakura safe, and adopt her, which was likely one of Rosalind's final wishes.
Clicking my tongue, I gave the girl an appraising look.
She'd get to live another day.
Feeling my smile cramp up, I patted her shoulder. "Right… let's hurry, I believe Amelia has an appointment with you before you can go and bathe Cath…"
Before either Sakura could ask another of her useless questions, or Alistair asked the logical question of when this imaginary appointment had been made, I quickly ushered the two towards Alistair's office before they could speak.
Forcefully swinging Alistair's office door open, I was greeted by a startled Amelia sitting on the work couch, apparently having been looking over documents.
"Amelia," I greeted sweetly, causing the woman's expression to twitch. "I believe Sakura would love to learn about modern western ethics so as to fit in better with Europeans." I don't know whatever garbage 'ethics' most humans learn in school, but hopefully Amelia would perhaps teach her some good morals, like not fucking your parents, or whatever useless shit you learn in ethics class.
Blinking slowly, she glanced between myself, Alistair and Sakura, before correctly reading the room, and slowly placing her documents on the table. "I see… I'll get onto that," she said hesitantly.
Nodding graciously, I gave her a thumbs up. "Good," I said pleasantly, before gesturing for her to get a move on.
Alistair released a small sigh, and turned to look at Sakura. "I'll see you at dinner, if you need anything, don't hesitate to swing by the office," he said patiently, earning a hum of understanding from the girl, before Amelia moved up next to her.
"Alright then, come along…" Her words trailed off as she spotted Cath in Sakura's arms, before giving an audible gulp. "We'll go over some fun stories that teach a moral by the end of them," she said, before gently guiding the girl out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Huh, guess she finally grew some balls after seeing a kid carry Primate Murder. Or her ego took such a hit after seeing a child do something she didn't dare doing, that she slightly overcame her fear of the mutt.
Walking over to Alistair's desk, I plopped myself on top of it and gestured for Alistair to get seated.
Rolling his eyes slightly, he walked up to the desk, and bonelessly fell into the seat. "Now, what was so important that you needed to pull me out of Parliament?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
Mirroring his expression, I gave him a dubious look. "Can you tell me why I detected heightened levels of Divinity in the garden this morning?"
Alistair managed to keep his expression straight for a whole three seconds, before it crumbled. "Morning exercise got a bit more exciting out of the blue," he said, causing me to raise a brow. "Really?"
Nodding, he extended a hand, and I watched as it glowed, before Rhongomyniad appeared in it. "Yup, I fiddled with this thing a bit, and it suddenly did this," he said, and suddenly it morphed into a long and thin rapier.
Extending a hand, I flicked the flat of the blade, causing a ringing sound to emit from it. Whistling slightly, I gave an appreciative nod. "Neat trick, but I think you're skimming over a thing or two," I said while giving him a pointed look.
"With all that divinity I felt in the garden, along with…" I gave an audible sniffing sound, while waving some of the air close to him towards me. "This slightly more potent aura of divinity in you… I feel like there is a thing or two missing from your story…"
Dispelling the blade, Alistair gave a tired sigh. "You got me," he said begrudgingly. "I may or may not have done something very stupid," he admitted before raising a finger. "But I had no idea about the increased Divinity."
Humming slightly, I leaned backwards, and sprawled my back on the desk, before poking Alistair's chest.
"You need to take better care of yourself, Mr." I huffed before leaning my head on the back of the desk, ignoring the indignant grunts from Alistair.
He really needed to calm the fuck down… maybe I could trauma bond with him on our date? I mean, I wasn't exactly traumatized by anything, but I had enough of a shitty past to bond over…
Yes, I can totally see it!
Alistair would feel bad for me, as we'd totally bond over our shitty past, and then since I would have opened up about my past, he'd feel closer, and the night would end up with the two of us booking one of those dingy hotels meant for couples!
God, I am so fucking smart!
Craning my head sideways, my eyes locked onto some of the documents on the desk, I felt a lot of irritation bubble up in me at the document that was poking out of the binder.
It was the marriage certificate between Morgan and Alistair, which I wished to hell and back to just shred to pieces.
After all, Alistair and I were engaged, as he accepted the ring I gave him. Now, if anyone comments about the conversation we had afterwards, where he had a small lapse in judgment and said 'no' accidentally, then going onto where he proceeded to barter for the ring for some dates, and dare imply that we weren't an item, I'd graciously let them meet with Cath and watch as their doubts would vanish as fast as their cranium.
Truly, I am the fairest of them all.
Plus, Morgan was like, extremely damaged goods.
I mean, even when it comes to marriage, Morgan is sloppy seconds, as she is Lot's widow. I don't care about whatever nonsense she says about it being 'political' and 'only on paper', the only thing I care about is the fact that her current sham marriage with Alistair was just as much on paper, as she so vehemently claims her marriage to Lot was.
While taking all of that into account, I was clearly the superior partner, so Morgan should keep her filthy damaged little mitts off my fucking man.
It was such a fucking pity that Alistair practically needed to be married, as if any of the Clock Tower Lords brought up the fact that he didn't have a partner, or say that it looked like whatever bullshit powerful Mystery would likely die with him. Meaning that they'd try to smack him with a Sealing Designation to use him as a breeding bull, or some shit like that to preserve the Mystery by passing it down to his child in a crest. So Morgan being his wife would at the very least close that avenue of attack.
Not that they'd be able to do shit, but they'd be able to kick up a fuss, and pull a lot of shit in the name of preserving a God-Slaying level Mystery, which would get annoying over a long period of time.
Fucking human politics.
Him not letting me throw Cath into the middle of the damn Clock Tower still baffles me, as I feel it would make his life a whole lot easier, and no one likes any of the stupid magi that work there.
Whatever.
Looking at him, I pursed my lips, before poking his cheek, causing him to give me a deadpan look.
"What?"
"Let's have sex," I said casually, causing Alistair to blink. "… Pardon?"
Nodding, I totally decided to repeat myself, and didn't do another Freudian slip. "Let's go on a date."
---
A/N
Welcome back, my reader Overlords, please add this to your library and give me some comments, stones and reviews, as it would be much appreciated.
Well, I hope that was a little illuminating on Altrouge's mindset, or way of thinking. As a True Ancestor, or even a Dead Apostle, her mind is wired in a very peculiar way, in many ways that is simply not seen as logical for normal humans like the rest of us.
As you can see if you look at her behavior pattern, she is prone to impulsive thinking, often not caring about the outcome, as she can usually just bulldoze through it with ease, so repercussions are still a rather foreign concept to her. The only real reason she doesn't impulsively perform a lot of her thoughts, can be attributed to her actually taking Alistair's feelings (or the ones she can compute) into account. But even then, she is not perfect in her logic.
Like for example, with the whole killing Sakura thing, she doesn't fully compute the fact that her dying by itself would sadden Alistair, as she instead concludes that Alistair not being able to fulfill a last wish of his mother is the thing to upset him, which stays her hand. The same can be said to her 'care' for Sakura, as she knows that Alistair would be sad if Sakura got even worse, so keeping her in good health would effectively help Alistair. So, in essence using the wrong formula, but coming to the right conclusion.
Writing the inner thoughts of her is a bit difficult, as I imagine True Ancestors to be rather scatterbrained, hopping from one thing to another with some minor interest or random thoughts, and only truly focusing, or 'locking in', when they get either infatuated with something (or someone), or resonate with something (or someone). For Altrouge it is a mix of both when it comes to Alistair, something which is only exacerbated now that Morgan is in his life, and vying for his love and attention, causing Altrouge to become slightly more extreme in hopes that she can one-up, or overshadow Morgan, though you'll get more of her thoughts on the matter when she drags Alistair on her impromptu date.
Now… any questions? I'd love to hear them! If not, have a great summer, and for those poor losers still stuck with upcoming exams, I wish you all the best!
Hop onto my Discord Server, I'd love to have a chat https://discord.gg/HAPhryp5M2
Now, hand over those Power Stones, can't you see they are lonely when not used? Give them to me, and allow them to socialize, it's for their best... I swear...