Beginnings II
Returning to Blaze, Scarlet enters an unassuming looking office building, walks straight past the waiting room and walks to a brick wall where she pushes in some of the bricks in a specific order and a secret entrance opens. Walking through, she comes to a hallway, where at its end, a busy office with dozens of workers awaits her.
“Does someone have the reclassifications for the chimera section!?”
“Guys, where the hell did you put the B-132 forms!?”
“Right next to the C-112 like always, idiot.”
“I looked there first but someone stocked them with E-112’s instead.”
“That’s Georgio’s job, ask him, not me.”
“I haven’t worked on B-132’s for forty years now! Forty years!”
“Nice, looks like it isn’t a busy day.”
Walking past several workers, skipping long lines of people waiting to enter, Scarlet enters the head office where she finds her aunt.
“I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, wait your turn or I’ll cut your tail off and fe- Oh, hi love. How are you doing?”
“Not great. I saw you weren’t that busy today so I thought I’d drop by.”
“Sure, sit down, love. I wasn’t aware you had returned already, is everything alright?”
“No…Papa took Rose against her will to get her to imprint on mama and him. And I’m not even allowed to see Rose or Mama now because Rose is so sick she might kill herself if she sees me…”
Giving Scarlet a hug, her aunt answers in a soothing voice, “That sounds horrible. Do you need your auntie to spoil you a little?”
“No…Auntie Carmilla, please train me!”
“Train you? What do you mean?”
“It’s like even though I’m the big sister I can’t do anything to protect her! I wasn’t able to do anything against the demons.”
“Demons!? You were attacked by demons!?”
“Yeah, they’re targeting Rose because she is a saintess candidate…”
“Who is ‘they’?”
“A bunch of demons and someone who calls herself an ‘ascendant’.”
“An ascendant!? I see…”
“Do you know something about them, auntie?”
“I do. But this is not something you should know about yet. At least not until I have your parent’s permission.”
“Fine. But at least train me to be strong enough to fight them even if I’m not allowed to know about it!”
“Scarlet…You have barely any formal combat training. You only know some self defense techniques. You are also the next queen, if I teach you to fight you’ll want to use that knowledge and get yourself in trouble.”
“I won’t use it to get into a fight just to make sure that I can protect Rose! Please auntie, I want to protect my little sis…”
Sighing loudly, her aunt scratches her head and asks, “Did your mom tell you to say that?”
“No?”
“So, this is really just spoken from the heart, right?”
“Of course!”
“...”
“Shoot…Fine, I’ll teach you defense techniques but only defense techniques. You hear that? I won’t teach you how to get into fights only to survive and get out of them.”
Hugging her tightly, Scarlet answers overjoyed, “Thank you auntie!”
“Don’t thank me yet. I’m not a kind teacher. If you want to do this you’ll have to do it earnestly.”
“Understood, Maam!”
“You don’t have to call me that…”
“Yes, Sir!”
“Alright now you’re just mocking me…Do you want to get training or not?”
“Yes I do, sorry auntie…”
“Sigh You take after your idiot father way too much…Come on let’s get going.”