The sun was setting when we returned to the Flugel residence, which meant we were pretty late from our intended schedule.
Our respective guardian should be arriving soon. Which meant, we gotta hurry up.
Dmitria and Valerie went to put the monsters we took care of in their respective place, while the rest of us returned back to the main residence to tidy up our belongings and prepare to go home.
During all this, Fenrir was looking to the left and to the right amusingly. Fenrirâs original size was quite big, but it turns out that he could shrink his body size so he could walk easily in the house. He noted that this was an ability that he learned after he became a Familiar. It was quite difficult to master, so he said. When I asked if he could shrink again into puppy-size, he looked at me with this weird look in his eyes, so I quickly dropped the subject.
âRuru!â Rurune greeted him.
âHoo. You little one is Lyraâs elder brotherâs Familiar?â
âRuru!â Rurune smiled as she floated around the sitting Fenrir.
âThen I guess thatâd make you my senior,â Fenrir said.
âRu~!â Ruru seemed so happy as she sat on top of Fenrir and started hugging him.
Fenrir didnât seem like he minded it, so I left the two Familiars with a giggle.
âWhatâs this⦠I know Ruruâs strong and all, but Fenrir looks much stronger, appearance-wise. People might think that Ruru is yours while Fenrir is mine if they know nothing,â Alt-nii mumbled amusingly as he packed up his things.
âWell, now that you mention itâ¦,â I said as I imagined the four of us standing next to one another.
Ruruneâs image better suited me, while Fenrirâs better suited Alt-niiâs.
â¦A mistaken Familiar match?
But Iâm pretty sure Alt-nii and I wouldnât want to change our partners no matter what.
â¦â¦Well, I couldnât really sound convincing because I literally just made a contract with Fenrir, but he already knew my deepest secret and that fact alone made me feel like I already had a special bond with him.
In this world, only Fenrir knew.
From now on, I am no longer aloneâ¦About this secret, I mean.
I gently smiled as I packed my stuff.
After Alt-nii and I were done, we helped Freyr and Freyja and made sure they didnât leave anything behind.
When all of us were done, we didnât hear or see any of the parents, so I thought they were late, but turns out they were already here, justâ¦talking to one another in another room.
Dmitria and Valerie were the ones who told us as Ristea-san asked them to come and lead all of us to the living room.
Sure enough, when we arrived in the living room, the parents were talking to one another while sipping tea.
Mom was the one who came here to fetch all of us plus Clavis. Nicole was there to fetch Ein. Kiri, Luca, and Leticia were fetched byâ¦ah, Kiriâs stepmom. Iâve seen her several times before. As for Briarâ¦Nope, I saw no one.
âAh, here they are,â Nicole was one of the people who were facing us, and from her angle, it was no wonder she noticed us first. The others quickly turned to look at us, so we moved and separated to our own guardian.
âMommyyy!â Freyja was the fastest one, she ran and jumped to Momâs embrace. Freyr followed suit, while Alt-nii and I walked at normal pace to Mom. Rurune and Fenrir were right behind us.
While walking to Mom, I couldnât take my eyes off her. In that dream world I saw, Mom was not my mother. We were just strangers with official relationship of a ruler and her subordinate. We were distant. But nowâ¦
Perhaps I was staring at her for too long as she suddenly turned to look at me, after she was focused on Freyja and Freyr.
She seemed like she was about to ask me something when her gaze shifted to behind me.
Yes, she was looking at none other than Fenrir who was closely following me.
ââ¦Lyra, we donât keep pets at home, you know that, right?â
With such words, the whole room fell into silent. I was too surprised to even react, so I stood frozen on the spot. I could feel Fenrir stopped behind me as well.
Thinking about how a bad blood would arise between Mom and Fenrir, I quickly tried to utter any words of explanation, âMom no, wait, he isâ¦â
Mom then broke out into a laughter. The others seemed to finally figure out what was happening, as they followed suit in laughing. But I was too tense to react with laughter, so I awkwardly tilted my head. Mom couldnât beâ¦
âI know, I know, Iâm just kidding,â Mom said after laughing.
âI know at a first glance that he is a magical beastâand I presume that he has become yourâ¦â
âFamiliar. Fenrirâs the name,â Fenrir walked past by me and said with pride as he then stood in front of Mom.
I prayed in my heart to Fenrir,
To my surprise, I heard Fenrirâs voice echoing in my mind after I said that to Fenrir in my heart.
â
I looked at Fenrir in surprise, but he just signaled using his eyes that this was a normal thing. Soâ¦Familiars could communicate like this too, huh?
â
Now I know where Alt-niiâs mischievousness came from. Mom!!!!!
âWell, Iâm very surprised. You left alone, then returned with a Familiar. Butâ¦Iâm proud of you,â Mom said as she patted my head.
Momâ¦Her gentle and warm handâ¦
â
Fenrirâs voice resounded.
â
I said in my heart as I closed my eyes and enjoyed her headpat.
âThatâs awesome, Lyra-chan! Congratulations! Eine, if you want to get a Familiar, Iâll try to find it for you. Or if you want a petâ¦,â Nicole said.
âNah, Iâm good, Mum!â Ein answered.
Whoa, Nicole. Way to go, youâre a pampering Mum. Pretty sure that Familiar couldnât be found easily just like that. Plus, oneâs magic played an important role to it, I guess.
Nicole also patted me in the head. At this time, I remembered about what happened during the dream trial. About how Nicole was so understanding to my absurdity, about how Nicole wanted to be close to Reinst all this timeâ¦
Then, Nicoleâor the dream worldâs Nicoleâs words rang in my mind.
My eyes started to sting as I recalled her words. Her gaze at me. And how weâReinst and Nicoleâwerenât able to be good friends in the end.
I was so moved by these thoughts that Iâfor the first timeâinitiated a hug with Nicole. A tight one at that. And I buried my face to Nicoleâs body so nobody could tell what expression I was making.
I knew that my feelings wonât get across her like this, I knew that itâd be a bit weird for me to act like this, but justâ¦let me be.
âOh dear me, Lyra-chan is hugging me! What happened? Iâm flattered though! Iâve always wanted a daughter like you!â Nicole happily tapped my back.
I just went silent as I was still emotional. How nice would it be if I could answer to her feelings to meâ¦to Reinstâ¦
I was too stupid for not realizing what a true friend Nicole was.
ââ¦Before we formed a contract, Lyra suffered a fright. In that ânightmareâ, she lost everyone. Thatâs why sheâs like that. I apologize for scaring her,â Fenrir backed me up quickly.
âAh, no wonder. Now that I think about it, Big Sis Lyra hugged everyone the moment we reunited,â Ein nodded in understanding.
âAww, you mustâve suffered quite a fright, huh?â Nicole said as she consoled me.
ââ¦,â I remained silent in this position for a while before I let go of my hug and returned to my mom. After hearing Fenrirâs explanation, Mom couldnât help but let me sit on her lap and hug me from behind. But thankfully, she seemed to understand a lot about Familiars, contracts, and the trials that she didnât seem to blame Fenrir a bit.
I felt a little bit embarrassed as I was no longer that young and I was in front of my friends, but for this onceâ¦Iâll just let it be. I couldnât deny the fact that I missed this warmth so, so much.
All of us talked a bit, with the other guardians congratulating me and how they commented that the trip here was really fruitful especially for me. To be frank, I never expected any of this to happen, but I guess fate works in a strange way.
We couldnât talk for too long as it would be pretty late already, so we finally said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
At that timeâ¦
âWonât you just stay here and go to school together with my girls?â Ristea-san asked Carbuncle, Iris, and Harvey.
âNo, thank you. I need to tidy the room and prepare for school,â Iris politely declined.
âYeah, we canât let the holiday vibe stays for too long,â Harvey added.
âYou heard them,â Carbuncle shrugged.
âWell, alright then. And Briarâ¦,â Ristea-san turned to Briar.
âNo, Iâll get in a trouble if I donât return before school starts. After how I left, tooâ¦,â Briar shook her head.
âAlright, then Iâll be accompanying you to return to your house,â Ristea-san said.
âThank you, Ristea-san,â Briar bowed politely.
âAh, then Iâll accompany you first,â Carbuncle suddenly suggested.
âHuh, what?â Iris was surprised.
âYeah, I can scare your family so they wonât have any energy left to scold you, hahaha!â Carbuncle laughed very energetically.
Though her suggestion was quite wild, but for the first time, I agreed on her suggestion.
Thus, it was decided that Briar would be escorted back to her home by Ristea-san, Dmitria, and Valerieâ¦and Carbuncle (plus Iris and Harvey) would be stopping there to give a âmoral boostâ to Briar.
I was a bit curious of how her family would react, but I know I couldnât come with them. I bet Carbuncle would be bragging about it soon, so that should do it.
Since it was all settled, we finally separated and went on our journey home. The journey home didnât take much time thanks to the development of magic and transportation technology, and it wasnât like we could enjoy the night scenery leisurely anyway. But maybe Iâd like to suggest having a night âdriveâ just to enjoy the nature during the night.
When we returned home, Dad wasnât there yet. Mom said that Dad had a business to attend to, and he would be returning soon.
Meanwhileâ¦
âClavis, youâre back! You didnât cause any trouble there, right?â Niina greeted Clavis.
âOf course not!â Clavis said in protest.
âHaha, thatâs my boyâ¦Eh wait, why are you bringing a friend home?â Niina turned to look at Fenrir.
âIâm not a wolf friend of his. I am Fenrir, Lyraâs Familiar,â Fenrir was quick to correct the misunderstanding.
âAaaa, the wolf spoke!â Niina probably thought of Fenrir as a wolf monster, so she didnât expect Fenrir to be able to speak. Thus, she couldnât hide her surprise.
Sure, when Fenrir was at this size, he didnât look like a mythical magical beast. Hope Fenrir wasnât offended by herâ¦
I thought that Fenrir would be a prideful and aloof wolf by the way we first met, but turns out that Fenrir liked teasing people and found their reactions amusing. Perhaps he had been away from others for way too long that interactions like this amused him a lot.
I muttered in my head, addressing it to Fenrir.
Fenrir answered.
I sighed. I wasnât used to this gap yet, but I was really glad Fenrir could get along well with me, my family, and friends.
When we were done putting our things, the twins quickly wanted to play with Fenrir. Surprisingly, Fenrir let them do that along with Rurune.
â
he told me via telepathy. This form of telepathy was only possible between us as we formed a contract. Mom said that she and Fenix could do a similar thing, while Dad and Phylloâsince Phyllo couldnât talk, it was a bit different.
Not long after that, while waiting for dinner, Dad finally returned home.
âIâm home, where are my beloved children? Come here, Daddy misses you all--,â He said as he extended his handsâthen he stopped when his gaze met Fenrirâs.
Again, Fenrir was so professional as he quickly stood upâthe twins luckily let him goâand walked to Dad before introducing himself as my Familiar.
âLyra has a Familiar too now? Not to mention that you look strong, Fenrir. Please take good care of my daughter,â Dad said as he shook hands with Fenrir.
âHmm? Iâm amused. No one seems to be afraid that Iâm evil or dangerous to your daughter?â Fenrir amusingly asked.
âHeh, if any, Iâve learned that beasts are more trustworthy than humans. Plus, my daughterâs clever, she will definitely know if youâre harmful to her,â Dad said.
âHoo? Beasts are more trustworthyâ¦Human, you are amusing. I think we can get along well,â Fenrir chuckled.
With that, Fenrir bonded just fine with the rest of the family. No problem arose, and I was glad. Perhaps I shouldâve expected this outcome as Mom and Dad both have Familiars, and so does Alt-nii. They know how a bond with Familiars is like, so my initial worry was proven to be a waste of emotional stress.
Dad then proceeded to hug all of us one by one. And when it was my turn, I returned a very tight hug back to him, much to his delight.
The things I saw during my dream trial still affected me, so I couldnât help but want to hug my dad so tightly. I almost lost him if that dream trial were a reality. That thought was so frightening. Plus, my familyâs condition was a lot worse than now, soâ¦
Still, we couldnât escape from my familyâs questioning during dinner. I briefly told them about our accidental encounter and how I was able to overcome Fenrirâs trial, prompting him to form a contract with me.
As to what kind of trial it was specifically aboutâ¦Of course I omitted that detail and kept it vague. Fenrir helped me to tell our story together. I could tell that he was really a pro at it, as expected of a Familiar whoâs lived for a long time, and whoâs had several partners before!
[Achievement unlocked: Getting a Familiar~â°]
Plus, from now on I have someone I can safely talk to about my past life as Reinstâ¦I wonder what the future will hold for me after my chance encounter with Fenrir?
Thanks for reading and I'll try to get back to the comments when I have more free time, but I read every one of them and will be very happy to see any comment ^^
Feel free to join my Discord server and mingle with the other readers too~
To support this series and gain access to advanced chapter(s), just click the button below :3
Thanking all the patrons...and you for reading this series~!