The sister took it upon herself to check the sauce; she dipped the very tip of her fork in the sauce dish and then hesitantly put it in her mouth.
It was hilarious; she was acting as if she were trying to ingest poison.
"Mhh, I see, I see… it's quite…" It was clear she could barely taste it.
She then dipped her fork a second time in the sauce dish, for a second attempt, and later dipped a teaspoon to get a proper taste.
Her face quickly turned red from the heat, but she tried to act nonchalant about it.
"Oof! I can see it now; it's quite strong, but nowhere near as strong as what I expected." The sister then took a long sip of tea to cleanse her palate.
"I can't believe you made such a wuss for such a mild sauce; you're pathetic." She yelled at him as she slapped him on the back.
"But it's my first time trying something like this." He complained with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and his arms raised to block his sister's hands.
"For a moment I thought they were trying to kill you!" She kept hammering him down.
"We can give you something to add to the sauce to make it more mild." I proposed as I finally managed to recover my composure.
"Ah, no thank you, this is fine." She responded with a chill glare, a sharp gaze that was so malicious it made me gulp.
Oi, oi, what's wrong with you? I only wanted to be helpful here; you wanted to taste something new, so why are you being this hostile when I'm doing you a favor?
In my ideal scenario I would confront her head-on and put her back in her place. For starters, I would slam my fist on the table to get their attention.
I would then say something along the lines of, "Oi, could you at least care enough to hide your hostility? You're starting to get on my nerves. Who do you think you are to come here and treat me like this?"
Obviously I would mimic the tone I saw the Scarlet Devil use in most of her appearances on screen, an uncaring and somewhat vulgar way of speaking that went in sharp contrast with her noble upbringings.
I would put my feet on the table, slamming them even, to try and intimidate, or I could use the deck of cards to trap them in a terrifying illusion.
All I needed was a little courage, but no matter how many deep breaths I took, I couldn't get those words off my tongue.
"Are you okay?" The boy asked me concernedly, his hand on my forehead, checking my temperature.
Startled, I tried to take a step back but tripped on the chair and almost fell had he not caught me in time.
"Careful, you might hurt yourself at this rate." He said as he pulled me closer.
Upon closer look, I realize how beautiful that boy was, with clear eyes, luscious long hair, and an aquiline nose. I found myself lost in his glowing eyes.
Then I quickly woke up when he placed his right hand over mine. The strange wet sensation quickly brought me down to my senses.
"Ah, no, sorry… well…" Flustered, I averted my gaze and caught his sister rolling her eyes back as the servants were pouring some soda in a comically small cup.
"Ah, sorry, my hand was still a mess. Here, let me just… ah… am I making it worse? Sorry, I really didn't mean to…" The boy was apologizing as he was trying to use a small handkerchief to wipe away a stain he made with his hands still dirty with that sauce.
"Don't worry about it; the maids will take care of that later. You can return to your seat. I feel fine now." I said as I gently pushed him back.
I was still a bit flustered, but now I really need to get some space.
What were their names? I'm sure the butler told me… probably… Walter? No… that can't be it… Argh! My memories are so foggy. What did I even study this morning?
"I think it's time we start to prepare for school, don't you think?" I commented to change the topic and buy myself some time.
"School? Do we really need that? It's not like we can't learn everything at home; I'm sure skipping won't harm us; after all, it's there just for us to form connections with other families, and we're doing it right now." The boy responded as he smiled at me, shaking his head as he casually dismissed the argument.
"Huh? What are you talking about? School is a place to study! Otherwise…" I stopped myself as I saw the two of them solemnly shake their heads in disappointment.
I could hear it; even though she was trying to suppress her own voice, the sister was chuckling, with a look of superiority in her face.
Ah, she is really pissing me off now. What did I say that was wrong now?
"Well, let's sit down; we still have a lot to talk about. I'm curious about the life down in the fracture. I'm sure you've got lots of interesting tales to share." He said, trying to quickly get my attention away from his sister as he tried to guide me into a corner away from her.
"I don't." I replied with a straight face.
I don't want to share my life with you guys; who knows who you're going to share it with? I'm already seen as a stranger since I was adopted into this family; I won't give you a reason to call me a peasant or something along those lines.
His expression looked appalled; he had quite the funny posture. His shoulders were hanging low with both of his arms hanging down, freely swinging as he looked at me, mouth wide open with incredulous eyes.
"There's no way." He exclaimed after a while.
"I don't know what you expect from me; I lived a typical life in the fracture. If a movie came out that I liked, I watched it with my father; he would also buy me some games. Every day I went to school, and sometimes for the holidays I traveled somewhere." I explained.
"B-but, it's the fracture we're talking about, where the mystical beasts roam rampant, the birthing place of the demons, where they roam freely preying on humans…" He was about to list a few more things, but I raised my hand to stop him.
I could slowly see it, the image he had of the fracture, slowly but surely breaking, piece by piece.
"Yeah, those exist, but you're not going to find them in the city." I pointed it out, but he simply couldn't believe it.
It reminded me of Lucifer; he too at first believed crazy stuff about life in the fracture.
"But… adventurers!"
"Explorers? What about them?" I corrected him.
"Wouldn't they belong to a guild?" He was grasping at straws at this point; by then he had placed both hands on my shoulder, shaking me with all he got, as if to beg me to tell him it was all a big joke.
"What's that?" I had to muster every ounce of strength I got to not laugh at his face when I asked this question.
"Huh?" It was as if a part of him just died; his arms lost all strength, and he lost all motivation to argue.
"No, I'm joking, I know what a guild is, but we don't have those—"
"Then how?" He immediately asked me.
It's nice to see that you've got your vigor back, but you should really control your strength; you're starting to hurt me.
"They work for many different companies; there isn't a guild that just randomly dispatches explorers, executioners, and cleaners. Who in their right mind would make an organization like that in a city?"
"Why wouldn't you?" He shouted.
"Because those people are dangerous, so they can't easily stay in the city." I tried to explain before he could interrupt me.
The boy was about to say something else but quickly stopped.
"I don't know everything about how they work, but for example, let's take Lucifer's uncle here; his company doesn't deal with explorers, he sells weapons, and the explorers are just a means to an end." I tried to explain by making an example easy to understand.
"But I thought…" As his impression of the fracture was crumbling down, I helped him sit back on his seat while gently patting his back.
"How would you even make money if you made a guild of explorers?"
"Well, you could lend adventurers to other companies and further explore the Fracture, you know. …"
I think he may have watched or read too much fiction.
"Well, I can't exactly guarantee that there isn't a guild of sorts somewhere; the fracture is a really big place, but I know most companies hire their own soldiers to handle security stuff," I explained.
"So there could be a guild." His eyes began to sparkle again.
This time I realized the sparkles I was seeing weren't just in my head; they were physically manifesting around him in response to his mood.
"Yeah, by that logic I'm sure you'll be able to find a demon in the shape of a winged pig out there if you search for long enough." To test out my theory, I tried to shut down his arguments and watched as many of those sparks faded away.
"Well, it would probably go down as one hell of an adventure." He said as he sat down properly.
"Eh, I don't know about that; camping outside is something that not many can enjoy, I think."
The sister then cleared her throat loudly, killing the mood of her brother as he realized he was oversharing.