Elizabeth had decided to leave that for later, she would only take in the Lust Gem when she was eighteen anyway, might as well think about that for later. No, the problem were the other ones, when should she take in Greed.

  At least for now Elizabeth could be happy with the fact that Terra Nexus seemed to feel more…stable, she hadn't noticed it before, but it was as if she was finally settling some kind of knot on her back, as if she was finally stretching a muscle.

  "Okay, you three be good and if you see the Valkyries…Be nice, I need to speak with Rossie about what we will do with them." Elizabeth said closing her eyes and allowing herself to surface back into Zaanam.

  Or return back to Zaanam? She wasn't that sure about how it was anymore. Was it her physical body or her projection? Did it matter? She had made this body using [Shift] after all, so she was half sure that even if it was a mere projection she could probably turn it into a body if she tried.

  Actually, she needed to check on Mordred; that was one of her bodies, too, so would the girl even be able to modify its appearance?

  Aura had managed, but that had been with a more…basic body, one mostly made of shadows. But the one Mordred was using was more, wasn't it? It was more of [Mana] than shadows.

  Either way, she would check on that later!

  Looking at the clock she had spent barely one hour there, she could feel Rossie sleeping on her parent's bedroom…or former bedroom, there wasn't any clothes of either of them there anymore. Had this also been part of an arrangement by them? Or had her girlfriends dealt with it so that Elizabeth didn't deal with it?

  She hoped it was the first, the idea of her girlfriends going through her parent's things…Papa was probably fine, but Mother… Elizabeth was not ready for her girlfriends finding her Mother's…toys.

  She had been scarred for life when barely a few days before her fifteenth birthday, her Mother had offered her to buy a 'Toy' for her time on her campus life, Elizabeth was a happier girl when she didn't know of those 'Toys'. She could see their use now, though, since Rossie had a few of them. One of the problems of having her senses expand to anything that was covered in shadows, she had learned fast how to control those aspects of her skills after she found that.

  She did not want (Okay, she did want) to know about how Rossie used those 'Toys'. And since Rossie was sleeping, Elizabeth turned her attention towards Rena, who she found sitting in the living room meditating.

  She had her cute forehead in a frown and there was some fire dancing around her, Elizabeth could almost see the image of a salamander there. Was Tiffany bothering Rena?

  A quick peek at her Soulscape and Elizabeth found Tiffany sleeping in magma with her beady eyes closed, the fire surrounding her seemed to be forming into the shape of eggs. Elizabeth didn't know what to expect when Tiffany said about making eggs, but this was not what she thought would happen.

  "So Rossie is sleeping, Rena is meditating and I just returned from the soulscape, so going back is out…might as well get a look at the house then." Elizabeth sighed while standing; she first perused the folders in the study. Since she was already there.

  Some files about laws on inheritance, a few books on laws about the use of force, and a list of countries with no laws about extradition, right. Papa had suggested to Elizabeth to become a Villain, of course he would leave her this type of books…

  Elizabeth summoned a few Shadow Dragons and sent them with the books back to the spire, she would check on them later, or maybe while her physical body was sleeping? That was a thought.

  Besides that there were a few old photos from the war, but weirdly enough, most of those only had her Papa and Mother, sometimes there were a random soldier at the back, but they always were out of focus.

  Elizabeth wondered if there was any reason for that, she knew that while Papa didn't really care about [The Twelve], he still spent time with some of them. Case in point, Jenna.

  But surely they were close with more members, Mother did ran around chasing Magical Girls from time to time, and there was the Council of Magical Girls. She was one of the leads of that since she advocated for the rights of Magical Girls as independent figures after they woke their Magic.

  Not much of a problem if your family was already on the works, but most civilians had a harder time making their family understand the change of dynamics. There were some parents that couldn't really understand the fact that their daughter made more money than them and was able to take care of the family. While others just saw means to milk their daughter for all that she was worth.

  The Council was there to protect them, another thing was of course the side for the Heroes. Or the side that her Papa was in charge, not much change there, he just punched people to make them understand. So not many people had the guts to do anything to the Powered community, or not before. She doubted that many people would keep those qualms nowadays.

  At least she would be an adult soon enough, but if not… she could imagine the long lines of people wanting to adopt her just because she had S-Tier Might.

  The same could be said about Rena and Rossie, no, Rena had it worse since she was actually an orphan already, there would be some people searching for her, more so if the people remembered her debut on the tournament at the end of the year…At least the public records would say they were working with some [Nine Stars] members.

  And that was another thing, would Rena even want to work with one of them? After they had suspected they could be enemies? She was half sure already that the Galaxidae were affecting the [World]. There was no way the [Nine Stars] didn't know of this.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  At least if they were somewhat decent at their work, Jenna seemed decent at it, but she was no longer a member of the [Nine Stars], and so was [Shadow Pact]...Granted that one hadn't been that good at his work….

  But [The Elementalist] had seemed promising; he was quite good at making mandalas and talismans, and Jenna trusted both the [Tinkerer] and the [Sniper]. Besides, the [Prophet] should be quite good too, since she had been in contact with gods, and if any of them could speak with Mother, then that was the one.

  So she would be safe, too? Elizabeth didn't knew, she needed more evidence, she knew too little about them. The fact that she never interacted too much with the top heroes was a problem.

  After her fifth birthday the only one she ever saw was Jenna, and even that wasn't for long.

  She would need to do a more thorough interrogation to Jenna when she returned. Surely she knew where she lived, most of her birthday parties had been here.

  After going throught some extra search and finding a few extra couple body armors made to her size( HOW DID PAPA KNEW HER THREE SIZES THIS WELL WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!?!?!?)

  She ended up with more things stuck in her [Inventory]. Going to the library that Mother made she had high hopes(To find at least one useful book), the room had a very complex mandala on the door. One that she had never managed to pierce.

  Her Instincts told her that opening her Dragon Eyes would be enough to pierce the ward.

  But she wanted to do it the legit way, the correct way. "I am the Inheritor of this library. The one that will Safeguard the legacy of Magic. Open the way and grant me passage."

  Elizabeth felt the Magic react, and words started weaving themselves in front of her.

  "[The way is barred to the unworthy. Show you are worthy of the sacred texts.]"

  Elizabeth then spent the next four hours speaking to a wall, showing all she knew about Magic and Mana. Showcasing all her knowledge and might.

  She even had half a mind of just shoving all her Mana into the thing. But nothing seems to work.

  "...." Elizabeth glared at the thing. There had been a message on the ward that showed two hints when Elizabeth did her name as a test.

  Two hints.

  “[Holy Books.]”

  “[Who am I to you?]”

  Both were things she didn't want to answer. This was her Mother, the one asking.

  She knew what she wanted for answers. She didn't want to fall that low… or she wouldn't most of the time.

  But the second one… it hurt her, she had never said these words after passing eight years old. She had grown too embarrassed about the antics her Mother did.

  About how she behaved around cute girls.

  "Mom is the best and most beautiful young woman of all…." Elizabeth said, turning beet red, "...And I love you…"

  The ward fizzled out as her voice sounded, followed by a sob.

  Elizabeth hadn't noticed how much she missed the weird shenanigans of that woman.

  As she opened the door. What she found made her laugh.

  "Hahahahahahahaha," It was ridiculous, she had read theories about what was hidden on this place. The secret sanctum of the Mother of Magic and Magical Girls.

  The place where Catherine Starlight, [The Stardust Explorer] spent the most time when in private.

  "It's all lewds…." Magazines after magazines, books filled with newspaper cutouts and photographs, both taken from hidden spots and a few that seemed to be taken from up close.

  The place was full of books, journals, and a few notebooks. None was about magic research or development, all about a woman who loved gushing out about cute girls and Magical Girls.

  At the middle of it was a journal that didn't seem to have photos, so Elizabeth took a seat and opened it.

  "Dear Diary… I am scared… Elizabeth just left to the MPI, she will use the crystal we designed and find out what form her Mana took. Be it Powered or Magic…" The journal was a diary, it started on the day she left for school.

  It had redacted everything that she went through her first year, the grievances that Elizabeth suffered, a short list of teachers that she was planning to make 'Disappear,' and some grumbles about Agatha.

  Elizabeth found it kind of funny how Mother continued grumbling about how there wasn't a single 'Cute' girl on Elizabeth's year, since that was a lie.

  "No cute girls this year, can you imagine dear Diary? How can they be cute if they bully Eli-Eli?!?!? I ought to rip their Mana Core and throw it into one of the seven hells ( ? ?`?′? ?)!" It made Elizabeth smile, she had always thought that her Mother had stopped Papa from helping her while people mistreated at school.

  It was a fear at the back. The fact that so many people acted like that while she was a new student, the fact that so many teachers either bullied, ignored her or straight up antagonized her. It made her think that she had done something wrong, that she was bad somehow.

  The fact that it was all because of the Taint didn't help, and yet... Mother had been paying attention? She had been worrying? Then why didn't she help?

  "...Jack was right, as soon as she left her Mana started stabilizing, and after using the crystal we made her Mana further stabilize further. She is indeed old and strong enough to start channeling her powers...And us being nearby only makes it harder for her. We sent Max to test if she could withstand an Average High B-Tier. Or was he an A-Tier? The man is too weak to gauge, also sending her crush might soothe her... Either way, she withstood it like a big girl...My baby girl...Please grow strong while Mama prepares the Mana Dampers so you can enjoy vacations at home..." The Diary continued speaking about what she had done during the first year, how she was doing in her classes, and the friend that she was supposed to have who never arrived. How annoyed Mother was at the fact that she couldn't go and deal with it...

  How she suspected [The Italians] for messing with the plans that she pretended to ignore they had done...And how she had started living with Rossie, who she referred to as 'The Cute Stalker.'

  At least Mother hadn't discriminated against her before meeting Rossie, "Really, Eli-Eli should thank me, I even fixed her friend's Soul taking out the parasitic aspect she had towards the [Hero] type of Soul. I haven't checked if Eli-Eli has that type of Soul or not, since it doesn't matter. But maybe I should leave that alone?" Yeah, Elizabeth knew about this.

  The other pages mostly spoke about Mother's plans for the time without Elizabeth around the house, how many teachers would get replaced when Elizabeth was on her vacation...that kind of thing.

  And then...the fated date arrived.

  "Eli-Eli is about to go on her first-year practicals, I tried to nudge it towards home, but Jack insisted on letting her go to Dina-Dina's home turf, Eli-Eli did wake up Shadow-type powers as we feared, so she is indeed the best for this...But if she calls her Mama, I'm sinking that continent, and there is no power on Zaanam capable of stopping me ?? ? ? ? ??." ...Elizabeth was not sure why Mother thought she would ever call [Echidna] Mother, but she was nontheless happy to not have done so.

  She liked Zaanam with all its continents in one piece.

  "...If you are reading this before I can edit it. I'm sorry for everything Elizabeth...Know that we love you and that everything we did was the best thing we could do at the moment." There were blurred words and the paper on the page was crumbling at the ends; Elizabeth missed those times her mind was that of a full-blown bimbo; she could have thought that this was her Mother being silly again and spilling her drink, not that her Mother had been crying while writing this in a rush, "Elizabeth... There are multiple wards tied to your psyche and some to your Soul, not the Soulscape, mind you, but your very Soul... And it is starting to unravel, what we feared is happening so we are rushing right now, if...something happened to us...If it is indeed something left behind by that man, chances are that he prepared it in such a way that we would not survive the encounter. Please forgive us for leaving you with no warning...Beware of the Italians, beware of the Saintsworths and most importantly, beware of The World."

  The Diary ended there, Elizabeth closed her eyes and tried to not overthink this; it was impossible, of course, she couldn't help but feel saddened, so...they had known? That this could end in their deaths? How?

  They stood at the apex of power, how could they even believe that was an option?

  What did this mean for Elizabeth? With her measly power and getting high on pride.

  "Hubris is really a dangerous thing, isn't it? Mom." Elizabeth whispered.

  She was about to close the Diary when she noticed a small scribble at the bottom, "PS: DO NOT GO TO THE BACK OF THE ROOM, BURN IT ALL!"

  ..."Yeah, I'm going there now, I guess." Elizabeth sighed, walking by the bookshelves filled with magazines and photobooks, Elizabeth walked to the very back. She found a big wall covered in fabric.

  It had engraved in gold the words [The most cute of them all], Elizabeth...wasn't sure if she wanted to rip that one open, one thing was knowing her Mother had a kink for cute girls, and another was seeing it after all.

  But the fact that there wasn't anything to sit or lay down calmed her, at least she knew that if she was pleasuring herself she needed that much...unless she was floating...

  "God damned Horny Mother...Why do I need to clean your mess..." Elizabeth sighed and with the flick of her hand she summoned the most basic mage hand spell and removed the cloth. "...you set me up, didn't you?"

  Elizabeth laughed as tears flooded her eyes. It was...a collage, pictures of her growing up, their birthdays, all the pictures she hadn't seen again of her childhood and a few pictures of herself on the MPI and even as far as one day before the Advent.

  All of them on this single wall.

  "And you even put the corny words...Goddamned Silly Mother..." Elizabeth shook her head.

  The words [Do it for the cutest of all] engraved in gold and encased in Divine Mana, as if to preserve the words forever.

  Her Mother did the silliest thing of them all.