“Well, explain yourself.” Mom smiled.

I looked around, fiercely. There was no one around. Elsa was probably in her room. And mom didn’t have anything to hit me with either. But this only raised my heartbeat even more.

My mother had a special power. And I certainly didn’t want a taste of it.

“You see-” I began by sitting down on the chair first. I didn’t want to say a word but I had to. “He- kind of hurt Elsa last night and my roommate today.” I just went through the honesty route.

Mom massaged her temples and let out a sigh. “And you won’t back down from the duel because of that?” She was being awfully calm about this. So much so that, it was worrying me.

Moreover, just how much did she know?

“We-we kind of entered a bet.”

Besides, the guy knew about my father. I couldn’t say that to mom but, but I had to do this.

“Do you think you can win? And be uninjured?” She eyeballed my shoulder. Just how the hell did she know? My wound wasn’t even visible and yet she already knew.

I just smiled, but my sweats were saying something else. “I do have a plan. And I have a saber too.”

‘Although I’m pretty sure, it’ll just get broken first thing.’

Mom’s expression grew more and more serious. “Can you win?”

If she was being this straight, then I had to too. “Not with my current sword, no. I won’t be able to use my powers with this. And just using a saber, won’t be enough to win.” I was serious and I already knew how strong Blaze was.

Mom closed her eyes, I could almost hear her breaths. It was quiet, too quiet. From the moment Marg brought me here, she was quiet and she stood by the chair, just standing still. And Elsa was probably sleeping in her room, so there wasn’t even a speck of sound.

I gulped in anticipation. “But as I said, I do have a plan.”

“Let’s hear it.” She glared.

I wanted to run away. I really wanted to run away, yesterday. “I’ll use my sword as a portable bomb and throw it at him, blinding him for a second and then beating him with my bare hands.” I actually didn’t have a plan and just made this one up on spot. It did sound like a good plan though.

Mom looked at me for a second, burst out laughing, stopped, and a second later, glared. “What are you, an idiot?”

Now that my sure kill plan was rejected, I was utterly out of ideas. I was also utterly out of optimism too.

‘Maybe I should have just taken Eve’s sword.’ The thought felt very tempting right about now.

“Take the sword from the attic.” Mom didn’t look at me and stood up. “Before that, did you eat?” Yet again she was eyeballing my whole body.

“Wait, we have a sword in the attic?”

“It was your grandfather’s.” Mom smiled faintly and looked at the floor. “His memento.”

Now even I felt bad.

And yet, a second later mom’s expression grew rather unpleasant as she glared at me again. “DID YOU eat?”

‘Do I tell her that I’m surviving on bread and juice for three days? No hell no!’

If I did, she’d probably chew me out. “You see, I- well, kind off-” I couldn’t think of any excuses, no sir!

Not to mention I was already guilty of skipping a few meals too.

“Dinner table, now,” Mom hissed. She looked awfully condescending.

“Yes, Mam.” I couldn’t even look at her eyes anymore.

‘Wasn’t I supposed to be free after middle school?’

This sure didn’t look like freedom. And Marg’s almost silent giggling didn’t really help.

***

Strangely some of my favorite dishes were here today too. Did mom cook them just for me?

I did doubt that but I guess it was plausible since she asked Marg to bring me over.

After living on bread and juice for three days, real food tasted even better than I ever hoped. I ate greedily: more like I devoured everything in sight. “Delicious.” I could almost cry.

Mom watched me eat from the other side. I didn’t like being watched like this but I didn’t necessarily have a choice. The smile on her face kind of felt genuine though.

I kept eating and before I knew it, I was stuffed. It felt heavenly, though it did hurt just a little.

“Wait, here.” Mom stood up and left, utterly satisfied.

“What about you? Did you eat?” I’d actually forgotten about Marg altogether.

“Yes, I ate at exactly 8 pm. “She thought for a second. “It was the tradition of our house.”

“Tradition? You guys are nobles, right? I’d take it you have loads of siblings? Isn’t it hard?”

Just the idea of having one sibling was torture for me, I couldn’t even think of how she could cope with life.

“I don’t let it bother me.”

“Really. Come to think of it, Eve’s your sister, isn’t she? How come you two don’t look alike?” I wasn’t curious. I just didn’t have anything else to talk about.

“I was born to a mistress.” Her voice was flaccid.

“Excuse me?”

“A mistress. Not the official wife. Hence when I was declared as an official heir, everyone from the official family started to despise me.” Words flowed out of her mind. She didn’t even mind in the slightest? “And no, I don’t have any sisters.”

“I-I see.” And now there was nothing more to talk about. Things just got awkward. On second thought, things were awkward, to begin with. They just got more awkward. Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut.

After roughly five or so minutes mother came back with a stick covered in cloth. But I guess, it wasn’t a stick. “This was your grandfather’s.” She handed it over to me with a stern look.

I lifted the sword up and it was heavy alright: it was half the length of me. But definitely, my type. It was also double-edged. I fell in love the moment I got it in my hands.

“But is normal swords even allowed?” I wondered. After all, wasn’t this supposed to be a duel of lightsabers?

“It should be alright. After all, he wanted a duel, not a lightsaber duel,” Marg said.

“Wait, you were there?”

“No, someone was recording and I watched the feed through my Holo.”

Now I hated the audience even more. But I guess they did have their own merits if nothing else.

This sword was good but there was a question. What about my skills? I could very well use this sword better than a saber but what if it breaks down in front of a high end lightsaber? And what about my powers?

As if mom noticing my thoughts, she smiled. “It was your grandfather’s. So of course, it’s reinforced. And your aunt Susan coated this sword with one of her top-end barriers. So I’m pretty sure it should hold up. But maybe go a little easy with the radiation, okay?” It was almost cute how she spoke.

‘Don’t let her fool you!’ I shook my head.

“Well, now I just have to get a scabbard for this,” I spoke to no one in particular. I couldn’t just carry around a naked sword in the middle of the school anyway.

“You can just ask the club for one. They’ll probably give you one for free.” Marg was fooling around with her Holo.

“How much do you know, anyway?” I looked at Marg with blunt eyes.

She didn’t feel the necessity to answer.

But I guess, the club members would at least give me a scabbard, if nothing else. It couldn’t hurt to try asking.

It was past ten and the curfew started a while ago. This was getting late. “I think we should go now.”

“Come back once in a while. Eating dinner every once in a while with your family isn’t that bad, is it?” Mom said.

“I suppose.”

Marg came close and I guess this was it. “What happened to Elsa?”

“She’s probably sleeping.” I guess, even mom didn’t know.

The moment mom came close and redid my collar, memories came flooding back.

‘What about the uniform?’

Students at school weren’t wearing uniforms even now. I guess being free meant they were really free. But I clearly read that uniform was mandatory. So maybe I had to get new ones. And yet, there wasn’t any way I could say that to mom.

Mom took a step back. “Oh yes. What about your clothes. Do you need new ones?” The question caught me off-guard.

“I think I need a uniform.” The words slipped out of my mouth: one of the greatest blunders of my life.

Mom smiled, mom smiled hard. Uniforms were ten times pricier than normal clothes. “You didn’t fight in your uniform knowing that it’d tear right?” Her words were pretty playful, but they weren’t.

“Marg. I think it’s time to go.” I tried to chuckle and tapped on Marg’s shoulder. She just looked at me with pity and just stood there.

The veins on mom’s forehead were a bit visible but she was still smiling. Some of the lights and glass shook a little.

“Marg.” I shook her hard.

“Alright.” She whined and space warped.

I was back in my room. My sweet old room. I could just hug the pillows: strike that, I could kiss them.

Marg rolled her eyes sighed. “Night.” She disappeared the next second.

***

All the lights of the house fused in a split second, creating a sound like hundreds of mini bombs blowing up all at once. Even the glass shattered.

“What happened?” Elsa came running down the stairs to the kitchen. “What happened, mom!”

“Oh, nothing dear.” Her mom smiled. “Just a cockroach.” Her smile stayed and she just lifted her fingers. About a hundred cockroaches floated in the air, crushed into a small ball, and fell in the recycle bin. “I guess we should clean that up tomorrow.”

“Since when were you scared of cockroaches?” To Elsa’s knowledge, her mother was always pretty cool and calm. She never saw her scared. ‘Maybe something spooked her?’

“Oh I’m not scared.” Her mother flashed yet another brilliant smile. “Oh yes, we did need to talk about your trip to Demigrace.”

Elsa’s face paled and she tried to hide behind a chuckle. ‘Save, me helio.’

Unfortunately for her, her beloved brother, was very far away at the moment, kissing his pillow without a doubt.