"Papa, I'm back!"

Upon opening the door to her house, Mipsy ran towards her father and gave him a quick hug. "It's good to see you, ma petite fille. How was your class today?"

"Instructor Bertram taught us how to properly cast a safety wall and showed us how to use it in different situations. He told us it was a good strategy to use it whenever we need to buy more time to cast our magic and protect ourselves from monster attacks all at the same time. We were given at least two hours to practise casting it fluently."

"That's good. Did he happen to teach you anything else?"

"No, Instructor Bertram did not teach us anything new, but he had us practise casting the three elemental bolt spells over and over again on one target until we could summon ten bolts after five seconds of casting time. I was only able to summon up to eight fire bolts instead," Mipsy sighed. "As for the other two spells, I didn't make it past six bolts of ice, let alone five bolts of lightning. I wonder what Instructor Bertram thought of my progress..."

"Don't worry about it, daughter. Magic takes repeated practise to master fluently and you will surely get the hang of it someday. Instructor Bertram has also taught some of the most exceptionally gifted students before, so that is why he had exceptionally high expectations for every one of his students, no matter who it is."

"I'm happy to hear that," she smiled. "Speaking of today, I wanted to ask you and stepmother something."

"Oh? Is it about the formal dance event that will be happening in three month's time?"

"Yes, Papa. Could we ask my stepmother to join us first?"

"By all means," he answered. "I'll go and get your stepmother to join us. In the meantime, go to your room, change into your house dress, and wait for us here."

"Okay."

It didn't take long for Mipsy to change out of her mage outfit and into her house dress. By the time she finished and returned back to the living room where she first hugged her father, she found her stepmother Brigette Bishop waiting for her as well.

"Well Mipsy, what was what you wanted?" Brigette crossed her arms. "I'm quite busy with my research so do make it quick."

"Would it be possible to attend the formal dance event with my friend Lyra? After all, it's her last chance to attend the event this year. It would be fun if we could go together."

Both Davis and Brigette exchanged looks.

"It so happens that your stepmother and I talked about this right before you came home, dear. We'd like to you accompany your older brother to the formal dance event instead. We both need you to keep an eye on him, okay? I'm sure you understand our reasons for doing so, and once you arrive at the castle, you can join up with your friend later. " Davis explained.

"Yes, I understand. I will go with him the the dance event," Mipsy assured her father. "I don't want to see him go back to the way he used to be..."

Mipsy thought back to the time where she found herself inside the girls' washroom of the academy, hiding from the girls who had bullied her for what she thought were petty reasons. That was the moment when she found sixteen year old Irene sitting with her head between her knees, sobbing heavily. Out of concern for Irene's well-being, she had asked the older scholar what had hurt her so much that she had hidden herself away in the girls' washroom instead of confiding in one of the instructors or the principal. Irene had initially refused to reveal what had reduced her to tears, but soon broke down afterwards and confessed everything to the younger mage. Mipsy did not understand everything that Irene spoke about, but one thing to her was crystal clear: her own half-brother was the sole cause of Irene's suffering.

She confronted him about it as soon as she could after she had told her family about it. He first denied doing anything wrong, but later admitted that he was the one who caused things to happen the way they did. Their family was horrified at the discovery, realizing the implications of his selfish actions could cost their father his career at the academy. It was the first time Mipsy had yelled angrily at her brother and called him out for disregarding the feelings of an innocent person and ruining her life just so he could have what he wanted.

What had stopped her from hating him forever was the fact that her awareness of her growing hatred for him was eating her up from the inside and making her bitter towards her own brother, so much so that she had indirectly sought the advice of Archbishop Adelia Brooklander through a female acolyte who was passing through Geffen on her way to Al De Baran. Her own family had a complicated past with the Brooklanders, as they were previously her guardians who took care of her when she was just eight years old until the age of eleven when her mother died. After a particular incident she chose not to recall, her father and her stepmother had travelled all the way to Prontera to take her back home with them, ending the Brooklander family's guardianship of her.

Soon afterwards, she was forbidden by her parents to have any contact whatsoever with the Brooklander family, especially when it came to both Adelia and the younger of her two sons, Rohane. Despite it all, Mipsy still thought of Adelia as her 'Auntie', as she was the first woman in her life that had shown her love after the death of Shurna Lavoisier. Her relationship with her stepmother Brigette was rather rocky, to put it lightly. Brigette Bishop was a more pragmatic person and at times unempathetic to her needs, which forced her father to walk on eggshells whenever he was forced to side with one of them over the other.

During her time spent with the Brooklanders, Mipsy was treated more or less like a guest in their home and helped out with the family chores along with Adelia's two sons, Hazelin and Rohane. Through observing how the Brooklanders treated each other, she was able to see for herself what a wholesome family was like. Additionally, her guardians were sworn to serve the Church of Odin as a royal guard and an archbishop, which allowed her to come in contact with those who had a deeper faith in the gods beyond just merely acknowledging their existence. She had come to a point in her life where she prayed to Odin every night for her family members to show love each other the way the Brooklanders did.

Upon her Auntie's advice, Mipsy had taken upon herself to tell her brother about how she felt about him as a person and how she asked the gods for forgiveness for wishing him dead. She had pleaded with him to understand her position, and had asked him to forgive her of harbouring such dark thoughts. To her surprise, he had understood where she was coming from, but had found to hard to comprehend why she asked him to forgive her when he was the one who burnt his own life to the ground, almost dragging his own family down with him. Thayril had admitted that what she said to him in anger had resonated with him, which had led him to make a promise with his family that he would then choose to change for both his and their sakes. In turn, Mipsy had promised to support him as his younger sister and help bring the family closer together.

She stopped recalling any further memories no sooner than her stepmother spoke.

"If everything is settled, I will be taking my leave now. Be sure not to interrupt-"

The door to the Lavoisiers' home swung open to reveal a sixteen year old boy with short, chestnut brown coloured hair and cadmium orange eyes, carrying a paper bag full of groceries.

"Hey mother, I got the groceries you wanted today." Thayril placed the bag down on the ground before he noticed his father and his sister looking straight at him. "What? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Welcome back, son. You don't happen to have plans on June 21st, do you?"

"No, I don't- Father, what exactly are you getting at?"

"Well, your mother and I figured it would be nice if you accompanied your sister to the dance event. As you know, she's too young to travel all the way back from Prontera to Geffen on her own so late at night. Besides, it's your job as her older brother to ensure that she arrives there and back again safely."

"Papa?" Mipsy's face was visibly confused. "I thought-"

"Can't she go to the dance with somebody else? Honestly, the thought of having to accompany my sister to the formal dance event is rather embarrassing." For me, that is.

Was this some sort of punishment for almost ruining his entire family? Thayril would not have minded if his father had asked him to accompany his sister to the clothing shops near the heart of Geffen or even the stores in Prontera. At the very least, the chances of him being spotted by other guys at the academy who might recognise him were relatively low, unlike accompanying her to the formal dance event.

"Thayril, making sure that your sister arrives at the castle safely isn't going to kill you. You have all the time in the world to enjoy yourself after you arrive there. Your sister will accompany you to make sure that you continue to keep your promise to us. Is that clear?"

"...Yes, father. I'll take her with me to the event this year."

Thayril misunderstood his parents' motives. Accompanying his sister to the event had nothing to do with his parents' conscious attempts to embarrass him. Instead, it was way worse than he realized. They didn't completely trust him to make good on his promise to become a better person, even though he had begged his parents to forgive him for causing that incident two years ago. When he finally came to his senses after that time, he saw that his family was suffering from the results of his selfish actions. Thanks to him, his sister had both met and lost her first friend in the academy, while Irene's family had moved southeast to Alberta, ensuring she would most likely never run into him again.

Nonetheless, it was nothing short of a miracle that none of the other students nor teaching staff knew what had transpired at that time, and for that Thayril was grateful. Having been given a second chance he did not deserve, he was determined to prove to his family once and for all that he was no longer the selfish, manipulative, and vindictive asshole he had once been. While he was still lost in these thoughts, his parents had noticed how their son had fallen completely silent and continued carrying on the conversation.

"In that case, we expect the two of you to pay for transportation, since you're already an adult now, and your sister will be fifteen in July. I would personally recommend purchasing a large nine tails, due to their naturally high tolerance to elemental magic, should both of you find yourselves in danger." Davis advised them.

"As a bonus, both of you can learn how to care for it like you would for a smaller pet, such as lunatic or a poring. You can take turns feeding and grooming it. As for where it will stay, we do have a garden in our backyard, after all."

"You mean we get to keep it like a pet? That sounds wonderful, Papa!" Mipsy exclaimed.

She was about to say something else before Thayril blurted out, "Just how much zeny are you talking about here, father?"

"4,500,000 zeny should be enough these days, I reckon."

"Are you insane!? How in the world will we even get that much zeny!?"

"...But father, why would it cost so much?" Mipsy chimed in. "Mr. Gauthier told Lyra and I earlier today that it would only cost about 3,500,000 to around 4,000,000 zeny to own a mount. Wouldn't a large nine tails be considered a mount?"

"I'm not sure if Mr. Gauthier has been keeping an eye on the market lately. Those prices would have been accurate a year ago, but now that the cost of living has dramatically gone up-"

"Alright, I get it already, which brings me to what I've said before: Just how do you expect us to pay for it?"

"I expect you and your sister to pay in the same way that your mother and I had to pay for our property." Davis folded his arms. "In other words, the two of you will go monster hunting and earn zeny from whatever items you can sell that way. You can both decide to team up or split on your own. It doesn't matter how you go about doing it as long as long as no robbing is involved whatsoever." He looked his son straight in the eye.

"I didn't think about robbing, I swear!" the young scholar protested. "Why do you always assume the worst in me just because I used to do that in the past!?"

"Just because you no longer act like a criminal doesn't that you've completely stopped thinking like one. To be fair, it seems that you have become more honest with us over these two years, which is reassuring to see."

Thayril breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to come up with a response when Mipsy, who stayed silent during all that time, mustered up the courage to speak her mind.

"Papa, I think that Brother is telling us the truth, so we can trust him to do the right thing, but... I'm worried about the dance event itself," the young mage averted her eyes from her father. "I don't even know how to dance, let alone dance with anyone." she confessed.

"...Papa, I know that work keeps you busy and all, but..."

"But?" her father encouraged her to continue.

"Is it possible for you to teach me how to dance? I'd love to dance with you at the formal dance event!"

In response to her request, Thayril's jaw dropped wide open from shock.

"Are you serious, Mipsy!? You dancing with Father!? Not only are you're going to attract everyone's attention that way, the guys will never live it down!"

"Let them think what they like, Brother. Weren't you the one that told me a year ago that there was no point of me going to the formal dance event since none of the boys in their right mind would ever dance with me? If that's true, then I'll be more than happy to dance with Papa. I...I just wanted to know how it's like to dance. That's all."

"Well, I...uhh... Yeah, that was me," Thayril murmured.

"Of course I'd love to-"

"Not so fast, darling. Your daughter has yet to prove her competence as a mage of this family. Then you can think about teaching her about dancing." Brigrette interjected.

"Mipsy, were you able to accomplish what Instructor Bertram taught you to do today?"

"Umm, I..." the young mage looked down at the floor. She already knew what her stepmother's reaction would be if she told her that she failed to meet her instructor's instructions.

"As I thought. You are a disgrace to the family, Mipsy Marianne. You should be grateful to your father and I for allowing you to stay with us-"

"Brigette, that's far enough! Just because my daughter cannot learn and cast magic as effortlessly as our son does does not mean she's a failure like you think she is!"

"It's because that woman wasn't even a mage to begin with! How many times must I tell you that marrying her was the biggest mistake your life!? You threw everything away for the sake of duty, and yet you wonder why your daughter is struggling to keep up with everyone else at her level!"

Mipsy shut her ears instantly. "Stepmother, how could you still think of my mama like that when she's already gone and you're still here!?" Tears began to well up in her eyes. "You can say whatever you want about me, but you have no right to disrespect my mama like that! What did she ever do to you to deserve this!? I-"

Unable to hold her tears, the young girl bolted out of the living room towards the door of the garden at the same time her father called her.

"Mipsy!"

Without turning around to look at his common-law wife and son, Davis rushed towards the garden entrance, opened the door, and slammed it shut behind him, leaving Brigette and Thayril in an awkward silence.

Brigette let out a huge sigh of frustration. The auburn haired sorceress had not forgotten about the other woman in her darling's life, Davis' late wife Shurna Lavoisier. While Davis was still together with Shurna, he was constantly tormented and torn between his love towards her and his sense of duty towards his late wife, even after he no longer loved her after the birth of his daughter and snuck out of the house on several occasions to spend time with her and their son.

If only things turned out differently, we could have been happy living together as a family. If only his daughter didn't bear such a strong resemblance to her mother, or better yet-

Brigette stopped herself from continuing further. She knew in her heart that she was treating Mipsy unfairly by lashing out her due to her hatred of Shurna Lavoisier. At the end of the day, she was the one who was unable to move from the past, while her rival had already passed into the afterlife. Upon seeing the bag of groceries her son had left on the ground, she immediately snapped back into reality.

"Thayril, I need you to put the groceries away before you do anything else. Oh, and once your sister has calmed down, go and tell her to prepare dinner for us tonight."

"Got it."

"Good. I'll be in my study if you need me." With that said, Brigette promptly left without another word, leaving her son alone in the living room.

The chestnut brown haired boy shot a quick glance in the direction of the garden before turning aside to pick up the paper bag where he had left it and headed to the kitchen. This wasn't the first time his mother had berated Mipsy in front of their family, as she had openly voiced her criticism on several occasions in the past. He absentmindedly began to sort out the groceries all the while he turned his thoughts towards his sister.

She's probably crying her eyes out right now while I'm stuck here inside with the groceries. Father will comfort her, I'm sure, but should I be getting involved?

After mulling over the situation, the Thayril headed towards the entrance to the garden, opened the door and entered through it. His eyes fell onto his father embracing his sister while she wept into his chest.

"What have I done to deserve all of this? I've...I've tried so hard to live up to stepmother's expectations, but everything I do is never enough. ...It will never be enough because she hates me. She hates me as much as she hates Mama, and I..."

Mipsy looked up at her father with tears in her eyes, pleading with her father for an answer.

"Mipsy, as hard as it sounds, you'll have to forgive your stepmother. She hasn't been willing to let go of the past, but what's more important is how we move on as a family from now on. No matter what happens, I will always be there you as your father. Have you forgotten how your own brother bullied you relentlessly for a year as soon as you came home to live with us from Prontera, how he used to disappear from the house for who knows how long and lied to us about where he had been and what he was doing, not to mention what happened to Irene Rivington? And yet, you've forgiven him and never brought his past up on purpose to spite him. Your stepmother does not see how hard you are trying, but I do. I can see how much this means to you, and I will do everything I can to help you get through this, ma petite chérie."

"But Papa, I have already been studying for three hours every night after dinner, and all I could do was to improve my Fire Bolt spell from four bolts to eight bolts after five seconds of casting time. I still have trouble casting Fire Ball and I haven't been able to conjure up a wall of flames, unlike the other mages. And fire is already my strongest element... What else can I do?"

At that moment Thayril, who was watching them from the garden entrance, spoke up.

"Mipsy, do you remember what Father said earlier about the monster hunts? If you like, I can mentor you, as long as it's alright with you and Father. Trust me, you'll definitely see a huge improvement if you're willing to go through with it. However, I expect you to listen to everything I say and do everything I tell you to do. So how about it?"

Mipsy, who had stopped crying, looked up at her father and asked, "Papa, would it be alright if Brother mentors me then?"

"Of course. It will be alright with me, as long as both of you don't travel too far from the city." her father replied. "Do we have a deal?"

"It's a deal." Thayril replied.

Mipsy, touched by her brother's offer, ran towards him and hugged him. "Thank you so much brother! This really means a lot to me!"

"Don't mention it. Besides, I get to boss you around again like I used to. This'll definitely be fun."

"Papa, I feel like I've been tricked by Brother."

Davis couldn't help but chuckle at his son and daughter. "It sounds like I'll be able to teach you how to dance after all." The sorcerer stole a glance at his pocket watch. "Would you look at the time? Daughter, you go ahead and start making dinner. Son, come with me to the library room to organise the shelves. We've got work to do."

The rest of the evening went by in a blur for Mipsy Marianne, who was happy that her father and brother had stepped in to support her when she needed it the most. After she prepared dinner for her family, did laundry, and studied the spells she learnt that day, she fell asleep on her bed after a prayer of thanks to Odin, with a smile on her face.