The sun shined high above the midday sky, as rays of light illuminated the blossoming town of Era. The streets were full and its citizens were roaming about without a care in the world, or so it seemed. An underlay of fear was hidden deep in their eyes, a fear of constant attack. In this world of mage's they never knew when someone with dark evil thoughts would dare to unleash said evil upon the world, and when they did would their quaint town be a target of such evil? It had already been targeted once before many, months ago many battles had taken place, lives had been lost. As for the outcome, the citizens knew not, but they would not let it deter them no they continued their lives showing strength.

Amongst them, showing not a shred of fear was a young girl of perhaps twelve maybe thirteen years, it was not clear, but she was very young, only four foot ten in height. She was young, petite and a beauty of other worldly proportions with skin as white as snow, one could simply describe her as a snow white beauty. Her long black locks cascaded down her back, glistening in the light as a black and red ribbon headpiece in the shape ears rested atop her head. The front of her hair was cut in a hime style and the ribbon kept the bangs out of her eyes, a brilliant shade of ruby red they were luminescent like radiant diamonds. A cute button nose twitched at the air, as rosy pink lips stretched across her heart shaped face in a brilliant smile. Her petite frame decorated by a black and red gothic lolita style of dress, cut short exposing her thighs, long black stockings and garter belts accompanying it paired with black high heel boots. The strangest feature about the little lolita, however, was the giant axe on her back that was a big as she was, if not bigger.

The little lolita hummed happily as she skipped through the streets, as if not weighed down by the massive axe. IN her hands was a giant pink ball of cotton candy. A piece of cotton candy hangs at the right of her lip as she nibbled cheerfully on the sweet treat.

The streets were almost silent when Eva fluttered down the road. Long platinum blonde hair flew behind the lissome stature in the warm summer winds and burning amber pools glowed, fixed at the path straight ahead. Her almost imposing and assertive gait forced other people off the street, scrambling to make way for the beauty that seemed to be on a mission. Only, in truth, Eva had none. This pace was all too normal for her although she was quite annoyed with something that happened in the morning. It was two days ago that Eva was found unconscious at the attic of the old Vanderbilt manor, two days since Eva realized her truth, at least some of it, and two days since she was forced to adjust to this new power that flowed within her. It was powerful, she knew that much. She had felt and looked radiant ever since then. Of course the day’s events left her in a ditch of sorts with new questions to be answered but for the most part, Eva had mixed feelings about all of it.

“Is that an axe!?” Eva’s head turned to where she heard the sound. She found people in disquiet silence, all staring at one singular, smaller existence that was skipping through them, a stick of cotton candy in hand and an axe on the back. Even Eva was taken aback. That was a horribly contradicting yet strangely fascinating picture right there. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was probably scaring others off, Eva would see no problem with it.

“Hello there,” she greeted, walking over to her. “Would you have time to talk?” she asked, her gaze moving over to the giant hammer on top of the short, very cute, little girl. “I don’t want to sound nosy but would you like to tell me why you are carrying that axe around?’

Yumi parted her rosy red lips as her teeth curled around the sweet treat. Her teeth bit into the delicious sweet allowing her to sample and taste the delicate texture of the candy, the sweet aroma wafting in the air. She licked her lips as she chewed cutely on the piece in her mouth and swallowed. Her tongue reached out tasting the piece of candy on her right lip, licking it away leaving not a shred left on soft snow features. The little lolita came to a pause though when she heard someone address her, from the sound of their voice it was a woman, young too.

Yumi craned her neck as someone approached her, a young woman probably in her early twenties with long flowing blonde hair. Almost like gold with the way it shimmered and shined. She was taller than Yumi by almost a complete foot with soft amber eyes that accentuated her hair and features, especially her fair skin a shade of pale pink. Yumi blinked cutely as she tilted her head to the right, having been in mid bite of her cotton candy, allowing a piece of hang from the left side of her lips making her seem cuter. The woman wanted to know why Yumi was caring an axe on her back, "To protect my virtue" answered Yumi without missing a beat as she answered the woman like she was talking about the weather.

Eva’s eyes wanted to twitch, desperately, at the scene in front of her. It was cute, yes, but Eva was never a sucker for those. And, the words that did come out of the sweet, cotton candy munching mouth was something so overly absurd that if it would not have appeared uncharacteristic and she didn’t have a reputation to keep, Eva would have laughed out loud. Of course, the deed was already done inside the dark recesses of her mind and she had just a pleasant smile and an innocent blink of her eyes to show the child. This girl was definitely cute -long raven black hair, dazzling set of eyes, and a cute button nose- but someone carrying an axe over their shoulder, no matter what the reason was, was still suspicious.

“I see,” she made it sound as if she was completely convinced. With an expertized curve of her lips, Eva placed a finger on her chin and made a thoughtful face. “I get that you can never be too careful in such a scary world,” she nodded, letting her finger slide away for her hands to cross leisurely over her chest. “But maybe we should go somewhere else? We don’t want to scare anyone off, now right?” Eva winked, gesturing over to the path that would lead them to the city park. It had been rebuilt for reasons Eva was still not too sure of but they have done a very good job at it from what she had seen. Maybe some cotton candy munching girl and a pleasant breeze was what she needed.

Yumi's eyes blinked cutely, like an owl as she eyed the much taller woman as she donned a thoughtful expression. The little lolita was somewhat curious as to why this golden blonde haired woman would be talking to her, surely it wasn't just because she was frightening people because of the massive axe she was carrying on her back, was it? What concern was it of this woman if Yumi seemed to be frightening people? It wasn't as if she was the only person they saw carrying a weapon around surely, after all, they lived in the era of mage's and adventures, whether it was weapons or giant magical beasts something fearsome or strange accompanied them.

The woman showed she was sympathetic towards Yumi's desire to be careful, having liesurely crossed her hands over her chest at the same time, and asked if yumi did not want to go somewhere else with her so not to scare anyone else off. Yumi was not feeling a little suss, this woman didn't even know her and was inviting her along to a park just the two of them. Did this woman have some nefarious thoughts in mind and saw Yumi as perhaps easy prey? Or was she generally someone good, or did she had alternative motives, the demon couldn't be too sure? But surely whatever the woman wanted, Yumi could handle, for now, she would play a little.

Yumi raised her left hand, pressing her index finger to the corner of her lips tilting her head to the left, "But I don't know you, why should I go with you? You're a stranger to me, and my momma always said not to go anywhere with strangers." rebuked Yumi as she continued looking up at the golden blonde woman with a suspect eye.

Eva was as curious about the girl as she was, probably, curious about her. Indeed, in the magical world that they lived in, axes, swords, spears, rods, knives, guns, and whatnots were all too common. In fact, it was not so difficult to spot someone just around the corner carrying one such thing. However, as a Rune Knight, Eva still had her reasons to be careful. Especially since some incident, Era’s security has gone high and mages as well as weapon wielding adventurers were all subjects of fear in the eyes of common, non-magical folks.  That said, if Eva was to display her own magic out in the open, she would be just as feared. It was a strange time to be in the city.

Just as she was about to walk off, expecting the girl to follow her, Eva heard the sweet voice saying something absurd again. Did she look like a kidnapper? Eva wondered, instinctively looking down at her own self.

She wore a white off shoulder top that was just slightly puffed at the waist where it met the white band of her blue skirt, the skirt's length reaching an inch below her knees. Both the top and skirt had been expensive, the newest summer fashion, and if that wasn’t enough, Eva even wore a chain sling purse, white, and of top quality. Did she really look like someone who lived off of kidnapping children?

Eva bit back the sarcastic words that threatened to come out, and crouched down, not a dent on her perfect smile. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you came with your momma. Maybe I can take you to her. Where is she?” she asked but paused for a moment as another thought crossed her mind. “Or maybe, you are just alone here,” she mused out loud. "In any case, I'll help you."

Yumi shook her head at the remark about her mother, the lolita was here all on her lonesome. Besides Yumi didn't even know who her mother was. The lolita had been born seventy-five years ago abandoned in the forest only to be found by demon cultists and raised by her adoptive father, who she later killed as part of a ritual to of passage to her own God to be properly inducted into the religion. Not that the woman needed to know that. People tended to frown at killing, let along demonic cults, especially her's. The Cult of Malum a heretical cult that was viewed as evil by the Illum, who had attempted to destroy the cult many years ago only to fail as a few survivors had remained to continue with their practices and now she existed as the sole heir to a vast knowledge and history that dated back centuries.

"I am here on my own. Travelling" replied the little lolita as she parted her soft little lips and took a bite of her cotton, making an adorable little sound as she did. As she chewed on the treat one could possibly only think she resembled some cute little animal with the way she nibbled. Once she finished chewing she paused seeming to ponder something. Her eyes twinkled as those ruby red hues locked with topaz amber.

"How can you help me Onee-chan?" asked the little lolita, affectionately referring to the golden haired woman had 'big sister'. Yumi had been tempted to call the woman auntie, but seeing as she wasn't that much older than Yumi, it may annoy the woman at being addressed in such a manner. "I don't need any help. I'm not in any distress or being harmed. At least I don't think I am." The little demon then looked over her own body to see if she had been hurt in any way. She then turned her focus back to the woman, "And besides, how can I trust you? You could be an evil mage for all I know trying to trick me!" said Yumi as she lay an accusation on the blonde woman. How ironic though that it was the other way around, Yumi was, in fact, the evil mage doing the tricking.

Eva sighed inwardly. This conversation wasn’t going anywhere. The kid was definitely adorable but again, Eva never cared for those. She didn’t measure someone with their looks nor did she ever receive those warm and fuzzy feelings from anything. On the other hand, the kid was also very cautious. Eva wasn’t sure if the kid was naturally so or if she was just being cheeky, but Eva stood up straight after that. “You’re right. You look alright. There is no danger in this world of black magic and destruction that could possibly hurt you…” she trailed off, a hint of sarcasm present in her voice. Eva wasn’t even ready to deal with these kinds of things that morning.

“However darling, if you walk around with that thing in your back all day, you are going to scare people off, you know? So why don’t you hurry to wherever you have to go or let onee-chan here accompany you? I’m definitely not a bad person. Do you see villains dressed like this?” Eva gestured to her own clothes for a bit but mentally slapped herself for asking it out loud. “Surely, villains would have some tricks up their sleeves?” Eva asked but put on a thoughtful expression as she looked around. Why was she even doing this when it was her day off from Rune Knights work? “But if you insist that you don’t need onee-chan’s help, I suppose onee-chan will just go”.

Yumi cared not for the hint of sarcasm in the woman's voice. But perhaps it was time to stop messing around with the golden haired woman if Yumi continued there was a chance she could perhaps snap under Lolita's constant barrage of suspicion and suspect Yumi to be more than she appeared. There was no need for Yumi to appear to continue to be so suspicious of the golden haired woman, but that did not mean the demon would allow her guard to drop. There was something about the golden woman, it drove Yumi's demonic instincts wild calling her a threat but the demon could not pick it up, perhaps if she continued to hang around this good samaritan Yumi could find out what it was.

Yumi focused back on the task at hand shaking her head, "No Onee-chan is right, I don't think villain's do" said the little lolita bowing her head in apology after having 'sized' the woman's clothing up. With the way, the woman was dressed Yumi couldn't even tell if she was an adventurer or a Mage or just an ordinary person. "I was just looking around town. It's my first time in Era! Everything here is so amazing! I've never been to such a big place!" Explained the youth as she turned her sights to the streets of Era, her eyes widening with joy.

"Nee nee Onee-chan, do you live in Era? What's fun! Can you show me!" asked the little lolita as she began to bounce on her heels, turning her focus back to the blonde haired woman, looking up at her with big round puppy dog eyes, still clutching tightly onto her cotton candy.

Eva hid a smirk behind her lips as she looked down at the child. Reverse psychology almost always worked but Eva wasn’t going to let the sweet taste of victory get to her composure.

She looked just as genuine as she had appeared from the beginning as she let the girl jump around in her heels. It was very nice that the girl finally listened but Eva had not been lying when she did think she wasn’t in the mood to take care of a child. The events of two days ago still gave her enough questions to worry about as opposed to a girl with an axe, and cotton candy.

“I do live in Era. But let’s see, fun places…” Eva trailed off again, her eyes wandering all over the place. It was true that she lived in Era for as long as she could remember but Eva’s world had always been limited to the four walls of the Vanderbilt manor.

Did she know enough about her own city to take someone along to a trip? Eva wondered. What did Era even have for fun, anyway? The only couple of places she surely knew of was the Magic Council itself as well as the prison, two places she frequented on almost a daily basis.

“Maybe we can move towards the park Onee-chan told about. I heard they remodeled it after some incident. By the way, where are you from, sweetie?” she asked the girl, simultaneously turning to walk towards the park. She also heard about some kind of fun fair going on at the place. Maybe that could distract the ten, or maybe 12, year old?

Yumi returned to nibbling away on her cotton candy having already chewed her way through three-quarters of the delicious pink treat. At the rate she was eating it, it would not be long before the little girl had finished off her treat and would be without, the thought saddened the demonic lolita. She would have to stock up on new sweets after this, or if she spotted a vendor while walking she would make a beeline for it and but whatever passed her fancy. yumi had a massive sweet tooth and indulged at every opportunity. Even when she was an old woman she had a massive sweet tooth.

Again the golden haired woman propositions that they moved to the park she had brought up earlier. Apparently, it had been remodelled after an incident that happened. At the same time, she would inquire into where Yumi was from, addressing her as sweetie along the way. Yumi then titled her head to the right sticking her tongue out and bonking the side of her head lightly with her right hand, "Ah, how rude, I'm Yu nice to meet you! I'm from Hargeon!' introduced Yumi in her little act making it appear as if she had a sudden realisation she never introduced herself. Yumi smiled brightly as her eyes twinkled with excitement, "if onee-chan says the park is fun then I wanna go to the park!' exclaimed the little lolita, she was like one big ball of energy. On the inside Yumi was groaning, after this meeting when she returned back to her apartment she was going to be exhausted from having acted in such a bubbly manner.

“Ah, I’m Evangeline,” she replied, genuinely just remembering that she hadn’t introduced herself either. Smiling sweetly at the apparent ball of energy, despite wanting nothing more than for her to stay still and quiet, Eva’s thoughts turned to what they could do. “I’m sure the park will be fun. I have been hearing really good things about this fair, after all,” she said thoughtfully before starting down the road.

It took them no more than five minutes to reach the wide arch of Era’s park entrance. As if to indicate that a fair really was in progress, the gates were painted in vibrant colors, balloons and cut outs decorating it along with small twinkling lights of various colors. They appeared dull against the bright light of the sun but there was no doubt they would light up brilliantly once the darkness of night came along. To their immediate right was a small booth with a pony tailed girl in frills handing out the tickets. She bought a couple of them, politely ignoring the overly cheerful girl.

“Here you go,” Eva handed one to Yu and kept the other in her bag. As they walked in, their either side was filled with stalls, neatly arranged in an order and they varied in purpose, striking a somewhat equal balance between food stalls and games. To the back were the rides, magically enchanted for both fun and safety. And, scattered around the area were people dressed in strange costumes imitating the various characters and creatures popular to the young ones.

“So, what do you want to do first?” she asked, subconscious steering them to an area where there weren’t many people around. Eva didn’t care for whatever the kid wanted to do, but crowds weren’t her most favorite thing in the world. However she did admit, almost reluctantly, that the whole setup seemed quite fun.

Yumi happily walked alongside Evangeline who had introduced herself not long after Yumi had. At least now she had a name to go with the new face she had claimed. Yumi kept a smirk back showing only a beaming smile on her soft facial features as she nibbled on her cotton candy. She was slowly but surely devouring the sweet pink treat. Yumi walked through the entrance of a park after Eva bought a couple of tickets, handing one over to Yumi. The little lolita tucked it into the right pocket on her gothic lolita dress making sure it was in tight before looking around at all the stores trying to decide what she wanted to try.

Yumi's eyes looked around ignoring the shooting gallery before she saw the game she wanted. In the distance, her eyes locked onto a line of prizes in the middle bagged up was a giant ball of cotton candy. The ball was six times the size of Yumi's own head and instead of one colour was seven, the colour of the rainbow. Yumi's eyes twinkled with mirth as she eyed the massive cotton candy, her tongue licked across those lips as she looked to Eva than the candy then back and forth rapidly before looking at the machine needed to play, it was a strength test.

"I'm going to get that cotton candy!" declared Yumi with a determined expression as she finished off what she had, binned it and charged over. The vendor chuckled as he looked at the little Lolita having spotted her a mile away, "Well little lady i see you've spotted the legendary Rainbow Fairy Floss. Larger than any Fairy Floss with seven types of candy said to be so sweet you'll be hyped on sugar for weeks on end." The man grabbed a mallet and held it out to Yumi, "All you gotta do is ring the bell and get one hundred. Three goes one hundred jewels."

Yumi plucked out the required jewels and handed them over grabbing the mallet. Yumi lifted the mallet discovering it was almost as heavy as she was. Gripping it Yumi raised the mallet and swung it down with a fraction of her might, wanting to test it out. The mallet struck the end and sent the metal weight flying up where it reached the 60 point mark. Yumi frowned and this time used all her strength before she had only used 60%. The full force of Yumi's strength struck the machine sending the weight shooting up, where it struck the 70 mark and went no further. Yumi frowned, that wasn't right her strength should have been more than enough to reach the top, it seemed the vendor was cheating her.

Yumi lowered the mallet, the carni smirked thinking she was giving up. The little lolita clenched both hands and a burst of magical energy erupted from her tiny body in the shape of black flames. The magical energy flooded her system boosting her physical strength. Yumi grabbed the mallet and swung it down with everything she had. The mallet struck the end as the weight shot up with three times the amount of force needed. It struck the 70 mark where a magical barrier appeared. The barrier cracked before breaking and the weight continued on striking the bell and the 100 point mark.

Yumi deactivated her spell and turned to the vendor who was dumbfounded. The lolita placed her hands on her hips and lectured him, "It's not nice to cheat people uncle!" Barked out the little lolita with a cute glare. The vendor chuckled awkwardly and grabbed the fairy floss handing it over to Yumi. The lolita grabbed it and skipped off returning to Eva showing off her massive sugary treat. "Want some?" asked the lolita, whether Eva accepted or not yumi would then take a bite of it herself enjoying the sweet taste.

At that moment Yumi felt her guild mark hidden under her clothes warm up alerting her to a summoning. Yumi pouted cutely as she stepped back, "Ah sorry Onee-chan, Yu has to leave. My guild-master is calling. I hope we can meet again sometime in the future." Yumi gave a bright smile as she tore half of the fairy floss placing that half in a bag and handed it to Evangeline before skipping heading off to who knows where.

[EXIT]

Spoiler:

Eva wanted to get the whole day over with as soon as possible. In fact, she didn’t know if she even wanted to be in a carnival accompanying some axe wielding child. But she stayed close to the kid as she wandered off eventually to the strength testing game. It was a classic game where one would slam a hammer down on a button hard enough to send a metal bar up. The game, however, Eva’s eyes narrowed on it, didn’t seem all too right and the man standing there had a snicker plastered on his face.

When Yu decided to try the game out, definitely for the giant ball of cotton candy, Eva looked suspiciously at the kid. Normally, Eva would expect the girl to lose based on her size and posture but somehow, this time Eva had a feeling she would be wrong and true enough, it proved to be right when the machine burst and went above what it was rigged to do. As the man stared at the machine in despair and shock, Eva’s eyes fixed on the so called child whom didn’t seem so innocent or naïve anymore. When the girl offered some cotton candy, Eva would politely decline, pushing her suspicion back in her mind but not erasing it entirely. “Yu, huh,” she watched the girl run off after mentioning a guild master. “Interesting”

-Exit-