Dimensional Descent

Aina sat within a luxurious room upon a well cushioned stool. Before her, a mirror lay, reflecting her image back to her. In her palm, there was a pair of scissors. She held them open and up to her hair, thinking about how short she should cut it. But, for some reason, she was hesitating.

'Hm, it's a bit amusing.' She thought to herself. 'If I really was a vampire, I wouldn't have a reflection at all, now would I?'

It was a completely random and almost painfully childish thought.

Ever since she woke from her sleep, Aina had found her long hair very annoying. She couldn't use it to attack like some other people with weird abilities and she always had to compensate for it in battle so that her opponent couldn't take advantage. She couldn't for the life of her understand why she had allowed it to get so long.

What was especially frustrating was that every time she entered her peak battle state, her vitality would be stimulated and it would grow even longer. By then, she would have to trim the ends just to make sure she wasn't sweeping the ground with her every step.

'My facial structure is pretty good, I could probably pull off going completely bald… Hm…'

As Aina was lost in thought, she heard the sound of footsteps and her door clicking open. She lowered the scissors in her hand, forgetting her original purpose as she met the gaze of the person who had entered through the mirror.

The current Yuri was red and puffy eyed. She didn't look like she had gotten an ounce of sleep, but for someone as powerful as her, missing out on a single night's rest shouldn't have been enough to put her in such a state.

As though she had to sneak around, she carefully closed the door behind her and locked it soon afterward. Her chest beat so wildly that it seemed that her heart might fly from her chest.

"Aina…"

a pleading tone. Looking at her friend… no, her sister of so long, she felt as though someone was stabbing her through the heart

angel. The custom of white wedding dresses of Earth wasn't shared here, but

down her hips and legs. Her delicate shoulders were adorned by a silk shawl embroidered with patterns of purple blooming flowers and her forehead wore a

shared similarly high status. This job was to fall into Yuri's

"Hm?" Aina blinked.

up and down, seemingly trying to analyze

go through with

tilted. "Didn't we already have this conversation yesterday? Why are we having it

banging her head against a wall. She knew that she shouldn't be doing this, she should be allowing Aina to stumble and fall on her own, just like one would in real life. Only this way

couldn't accept this. Aina was her treasure, the one person she respected to the depths of her soul, maybe even more than her own adoptive father. She had watched Aina go through so much as nothing more than a little girl.

hands off approach trying to expedite Aina's growth by allowing her to maneuver through situations alone. But then hadn't he been forced to step in

what they

said with

sort of escape plan was meaningless. If the person in question

Joel again only to learn that Leonel had refused, and now there was no one but her and Savahn. In fact, if it wasn't for Savahn stalling the other maids, she wouldn't even