My Servant System

Chapter 678 677: Family Ties (3)

"Alright, alright! Stop antagonizing my Mom please, Belian, and please stop letting his words get to you! Are you a child?!"

I glared at the two older Demons, both of whom let out a huff as they looked away from one another, focusing instead on me.

"I shall certainly try, Jahi, but it is just so~ easy to rile her up, y'know? It makes it even more sweet when I know she can't do anything about it~!"

"Belian... don't make me snap you in half, you red twig..!"

"Oh you can certainly try, you blue imbecile! Gotta catch me first though~!"

"STOP! Oh my..! For the love of all that is holy, just..! Belian, the Cimeriesa's! What about 'em?!"

Mom let out another huff as she turned away, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared off to the side, while Belian twirled his blade before gesturing for me to begin the next spar, the man still treating this training session the way I would prefer.

"The Cimeriesa's... well, I guess the best place to start would be their prowess, no? If the Asmodia's are raw strength, and the Beliali's are sharp of wit and expert assassins, then the Cimeriesa's are insane when it comes to arcane prowess. Their Cores rival some of the strongest Elves on average, with the lucky few inside the Clan having Cores so large that they could cast Domain's over cities with incredible ease. Imagine that... a Domain spell spanning miles, with every single inch just as strong as the last."

This bout, Belian was going on the offensive, his blade crashing against mine as he forced me into a defensive stance, all while he chatted with me relaxedly, which was slightly grating to hear...

"Their minds are completely and utterly geared towards unraveling the secrets of the arcane, be it spells, monsters, alchemy, enchanting... if it has some mystery relating to magic, they want to learn it. Sometimes it becomes an obsession, and an extremely unhealthy one at that. They just can't help themselves; they NEED to know what makes things work, even if that ruins relationships or causes damage to themselves or others. If they weren't Demons - who are naturally resilient as a race - they would likely be dead after a few years, but thankfully for them, they aren't that weak."

"Think cockroach, but larger and more annoying. And... well, if you dig crazy, they are rather... never mind."

Taking a step back, I raised a brow as I glanced at Mom, who was still looking away from us, watching some of the others inside the training grounds.

"What she means to say is that the Cimeriesa's are downright gorgeous. Thanks to the larger Cores, they have more mana inside their bodies and as such, they tend to have fewer impurities inside their bodies. Yellow - sometimes green - skin makes them rather exotic, since only Djinn or Orcs have green skin, while yellow is another Djinn or Elf exclusive; pair those colors with a lithe physique and the sharp features of a Demon, and you have some of the most beautiful men and women in the Empire. But, like most things in life, that beauty is balanced by them being downright crazy."

I raised a brow at that, which made the red skinned Demon cough before he lunged forwards, likely trying to distract me from what was just said - and how both he and Mom agreed that these members of the Cimeriesa Clan were just that good looking.

Blocking the thrust from Belian, I glanced at Mom once more before looking back at Belian, who began speaking again.

"Ahem... Besides being magically inclined, the Cimeriesa's are really smart and reclusive; they don't like speaking or communicating with anyone, and if you're in the same room as them, you'll be lucky to hear one sentence from them, even if you ask them a question. Socially awkward and damn near silent, they aren't the easiest to work with, but again, that magical prowess makes that quirk bearable; who wouldn't want a silent magician capable of razing entire cities with their tornadoes or lightning storms?"

"Not only are they great magicians, but their enchantments are top notch. Like turn a basic steel knife into something capable of slicing through Drake scale like it was butter. Or make a chest piece that could deflect arrows like they were made from paper. Then there's their potions that could do wonders; healing potions that can regrow limbs, strengthening potions that can make your flesh harder than iron, acids that can chew through metal, poisons that are completely scentless and tasteless and strong enough to put down Orcs or Bearkin like they were toddlers."

Sliding Belian's blade to the side, I slammed my shoulder into the man's chest, knocking him back before trying to bring my sword around, only to let out a sigh as he slid away from it and pressed his sword against my chest, a smirk on his lips.

"So... the Cimeriesa's are a really strong magical Clan of good looking Demons... is what I managed to garner from all of this."

Belian twirled his blade again, chuckling wryly as he nodded, saying "More or less, that is a correct generalization. All you're missing is that they're just as crazy as they are good looking. Again, your Mom told you that the one who wanted to get with her asked if she could conduct experiments on their child while it was still in her womb, remember? No sane woman would agree to that, let alone do it themselves; only the insane would."

"Then as a recap; the Asmodia's are strong but stubborn, the Beliali's are cunning but manipulative, and the Cimeriesa's are really smart but also really crazy."

""Yup...""

The two Demons both nodded in agreement, before they glanced at one another and sighed.

"What makes it worse is that amongst the Beliali's, I am rather... tame. I can't help but embellish things, exaggerate or poke fun of, to use my wits to piss people off and find secrets, and yet compared to the others, I'm just some normal guy. For instance, that bond between you and the once maid Katherine Zara? Some rudimentary digging revealed quite a bit about her, and I have to say she's quite the catch, young Jahi, but there's so many things surrounding her that are... intriguing. I can restrain myself because I know if I go sniffing around, I'll get a broken nose, but the members of my family wouldn't be able to hold back. Curious to a fault."

"Yes, I would slice your nose off for getting too close to Kat or to Julie. Meanwhile, the Cimeriesa's would be more interested in nabbing Leone to bring back to their Citadel to question her about her Fire Magic, Moon Magic, Blood Magic, Vampiric Blood, that Ash Magic, her knowledge about the Empress, about the Empress' wives... yeah, they would do whatever it took to learn what they could from her, even if it meant drugging her and hauling her back. Thankfully some of them are sane enough to not do that, and their Clan Head keeps the rest in line... That's another thing that you should have noticed; the Clan Heads are more so decided on who can control the Clan, not who is the best at what the Clan does. That's for the better too..."

Belian nodded, before sighing again as he looked up towards the sky, his brown eyes filled with a complicated light as he muttered "And it's quite the burden as well... having to manage a bunch of pathological liars and cutthroats... Sometimes I fear that Tabitha is going to be corrupted and stab me in the back..."

"Would do the world a lot of good..."

"Chordeva, don't make me cut you."

"You can try."

"Oh for the love of..."