Daily Life With A Lilim Chapter 28

~Forget Something?~

The next day Natalie woke up surprisingly early. She thought she would have slept in given the hour she went to sleep but nope. Something else she noticed was the lack of grogginess that usually accompanied her waking up. Not to say there wasn’t any disorientation, but that sluggishness went away by the time she sat up and got the blood flowing.

‘Or mana, I guess.’

Stretching her body Natalie let loose a yawn that was more a force of habit than for anything biological.

‘How does that even work?’ She thought before shrugging, ‘whatever, I’m not questioning the quirks of my body…although I probably should but in this case I don’t really need to.’

So she didn’t need to breathe but she could yawn.

So what?

Ezraphel told her that despite having the body of a corpse the mana and magic within her would allow her to simulate certain bodily functions making her appear more human. This is a roundabout way of saying that her body acts according to how she thought it should. Natalie still didn’t know how deep that ‘simulation’ went but what she could say was that it did a pretty good job.

Despite the physical changes to her body there wasn’t much of a difference in how it functioned. Certainly not enough to warrant a disruption in her routine and that’s a good thing.

“That’s enough of that” Natalie muttered as she shook her head and went to start her routine.

Admittedly she might have spent a bit more than needed in the bathroom bathhouse but come on, when is she going to get the chance to luxuriate in a magic bathhouse after this?

‘Note to self: learn how to make that.’ Natalie thought.

After getting out of the bath and choosing a wardrobe, which she managed to not sneer at, Natalie headed downstairs. She could already smell something cooking so she wasn’t at all surprised to find Ezraphel in the kitchen preparing what she’s sure to be a breakfast feast.

“Morning,” Natalie muttered, taking out her phone and heading to the living room.

“Good morning,” Ezraphel greeted then waited for Natalie to sit down on the couch before continuing “so you managed to cast the fireball spell last night.”

Natalie abruptly froze, aborting her plan to kick her feet up on the living room couch to glance at Lilim.

“Yeah…” she answered hesitantly.

For her part Ezraphel didn’t turn away from her work even as she replied “I should be angry about you doing unsupervised spell casting.”

“Unsupervised? Yeah, sure,” the Wight scoffed “we both know you’ve got this entire house on lock. Probably nothing happens in this place without you noticing.”

This time Lilim did glance at her over her shoulder with a frown.

“That is not the point Natalie. Something could have gone wrong.”

“The worst that could happen is that I set myself or the room on fire.”

“Exactly.”

“But both points are moot because I’m basically immortal and you probably put an anti-fire enchantment or something on the house.”

“First of all you are not immortal, not truly. Second, I am rather concerned with how flippant you are with the prospect of being set on fire.”

The Wight shrugged “well I’m technically already dead and I know how to heal myself now. Getting set on fire wouldn’t be fun and maybe I’d get just a little traumatized but I’d get over it. Plus it would be a valuable lesson for me.”

“Nice rebuttal,” the Lilim remarked dryly before turning back to her work “did you think of that before or after you decided to cast the spell?”

“Does it matter?”

“It does if I am to trust you with any more spells.”

“I reserve the right to remain silent.”

“You are not under arrest.”

“I don’t feel that way with how you’re interrogating me.”

It was at this point that Ezraphel realized she wasn’t going to be getting through Natalie’s bout of recklessness through the usual methods, so she switched up.

Turning fully to the Wight with a deep frown of disapproval she spoke “perhaps I should inform Stanley of this.”

That elicited a reaction from the other woman who grimaced.

“You don’t need to do that.”

‘Knowing Stan he’s going to be a pain in the ass about it,’ the Wight thought.

That’s the thing about her brother. He acts like he doesn’t care and in most cases he doesn’t, especially when it comes to other people’s business, but when he does actually care he can be surprisingly overbearing.

“I feel compelled to ask if there is going to be a repeat of this recklessness. I would rather not go through the theater of the fallout for when your recklessness eventually blows up in your face if it can be nipped in the bud early on.”

“Okay rude” she frowned then sighed “okay you’ve made your point. I promise not to do any more potentially dangerous spells without your permission and/or supervision.”

In hindsight it really was stupid of her to do it but she just couldn’t resist. Hopefully such recklessness will be gone by the time she leaves.

Ezraphel held the Wight’s gaze for a while before she also sighed, rubbing her forehead.

“I understand that I also bear some fault for this since I gave you the means of casting the spell in the first place, incidental as it may be. Regardless I will endeavor not to do so anymore.”

Natalie wasn’t really taking the conversation seriously. To her this was more like banter than a serious discussion…until now because she could see that Ezraphel wasn’t faking being bothered by her unsupervised spell casting.

But just to be sure…

“Which part won’t you do? Giving out instructions or spells?”

“The latter of course.”

“Does that mean you won’t teach me anymore cool spells?”

“I never taught you any spells Natalie” the Lilim clarified with a frown “and if by ‘cool’ you mean unnecessary then yes.”

“Unnecessary?”

“The whole point of teaching you magic was to make you able to function in society without my constant oversight. I believe I went a bit too far in my enthusiasm yesterday. I mean when will you ever have need to use a fireball spell for?”

“Well-”

“And don’t say something foolish like cooking. That spell can hardly simulate a proper stovetop, at least not without years of mastery. The same goes for self defense. As you are now there isn’t much that can pose a threat to your well being that can be afforded by individuals or groups outside your military.”

Natalie paused as she fought not to grimace as the statement showed Ezraphel’s ignorance but Natalie wasn’t about to bring up that conversation right now.

“Okay, then what if I go camping and need to make a fire?”

“You don’t go camping,” was the Lilim’s deadpan answer.

“I was planning to cross that off my bucket list actually.”

She wasn’t even kidding either not that it mattered to Ezraphel who continued to give her an unimpressed stare.

“Come on girl you can’t keep just the cool shit away from me.”

“Can’t I?”

“You really can’t. See, you opened Pandora’s Box and I’m afraid it can’t be locked now.”

“Oh really?”

“Yep.”

“And pray tell what will you do if I don’t teach you anymore spells?”

Natalie opened her mouth only for common sense to prevail in her gray matter, causing her rebuttal to die as her mouth clicked shut.

‘What the fuck am I thinking?’

She was thinking that she would try to coerce Ezraphel into teaching her spells by hinting at her being able to ‘experiment’ with her magic on her own if she wasn’t taught. Natalie was essentially demanding magic lessons like an entitled brat of a woman and she silently cursed herself for it.

One does not demand things from a powerful magical princess demi-goddess, especially when she really didn’t need to go through all the trouble.

‘I already fucked up once by not taking this as seriously as I should; I am not about to burn this bridge.’

Outwardly, Natalie took a needless breath to calm her nerves.

“Okay, I don’t think we’ve been on the same wavelength during this entire conversation. I want to say I’m sorry for disregarding your implied order by casting spells without supervision. And I’m sorry for not taking it as seriously as I should.”

“You know I could seal your use of mana to make it so that it could only support an illusion spell to make you seem human.”

And that right there was the reminder that everything Ezraphel’s done for Natalie was basically just to accommodate her.

Natalie winced “yeah, you don’t need to remind me that you essentially have my un-life in the palm of your hands.”

At that Ezraphel calmed down a little “that is not how I wanted it to be perceived.”

“But it’s not a lie though.”

“I do not want you to fear me.”

“Eh, in this case I think a little fear is warranted,” Natalie admitted “being reminded that I’m not the biggest fish in the magical sea would help reign in any unfortunate tendencies I might develop.”

Ezraphel still didn’t like it and Natalie felt a little scummy for putting her in that position in the first place so after thinking about it for a minute she found a way to cheer her up.

“Look, I can see you’re still upset about it so how about I make it up to you?” and before Ezraphel could say anymore, she quickly continued, “I’ll help you pick out something for Stan’s birthday next week.”

“…”

As the word left her mouth Natalie saw the Lilim freeze in place. She did not move, she did not speak, and it looked as if she stopped breathing.

The whole thing creeped Natalie the fuck out.

“Uh, Ezraphel?” She called out even waving a hand in front of her face with no reaction.

That’s when the Lilim spoke a single whispered sentence.

“Next week is Stanley’s birthday?”

Startled at first Natalie took a moment to register Lilim’s words before she too adopted the impromptu statue fad, complete with glassy eyes and looking more like a corpse than she ever did since her transformation.

They stood like this for a while until the sound of footsteps reached their ears and Stanley entered the kitchen having obviously just woken up given the state of his messy hair, crumpled clothes and generally half awake appearance.

“Morning,” he muttered without sparing either woman a glance as he made his way to the refrigerator.

Taking out a pitcher of milk and retrieving a glass, he filled the latter generously before storing the former back from where he took it. After taking a long sip from the glass, he smacked his lips, perking up. The milk seemed to act as the equivalent of coffee. Stanley lost the last semblance of sleep and with that he finally seemed to notice something was amiss.

Turning towards the two women silently staring at him with blank expressions Stanley’s heckles rose.

“What?”

They said nothing and the two continued to stare.

“WHAT!?” He asked again but louder.

Ezraphel opened her mouth only to be beaten to the punch by Natalie “nothing.”

“Then why are you two looking at me like that?”

“No reason,” Natalie continued feigning ignorance.

Scowling at his sister he redirected his attention to Ezraphel “Ez, mind telling me what’s going on?”

Ezraphel gazed at Natalie, and upon seeing the meaningful look the Wight gave her, she made her decision.

“It is as Natalie said Stanley. There is nothing to worry about.”

Contrary to her words his gaze narrowed in obvious suspicion “uh-huh.”

He continued his glare, but neither of the two women budged. This is the point where Stanley would decide that pressing the issue was a lost cause, roll his eyes, and retreat to his office with maybe a few grumbles tossed in. Either way that would be the end of that as he chalked it up to a ‘woman thing’ and would forget about the encounter itself within a few hours.

Both women knew this series of events to be true with varying degrees of certainty based on their familiarity with the man. So imagine their surprise when, instead of retreating with his half-empty glass of milk, he instead gained a complicated expression as he regarded them and after a moment downed the rest of his drink before moving over to place it in the sink. The movement brought him close to the two and when finished he turned towards them with folded arms.

“Alright, what is it?”

The two once again shared a look with each other before looking back at him silently, urging him to continue.

In response Stanley rolled his eyes. “I feel like this is a situation where you guys are angry at me because of something I did or didn’t do but you won’t tell me what it is so I’m left to figure it out on my own while stewing in the uncertainty. After a while you decide to tell me what that thing is and I feel stupid and/or remorseful that I didn’t figure out something so ‘obvious’ and you get to have one more thing to hang over my head for the foreseeable future.”

He said all of this with a deadpan glare that caused both two women to blink.

“Wow, how many times has something like this happened with you two?” Natalie couldn’t help but ask.

It has to be a lot if he’s self-aware enough to point it out the way he did.

“Oh, this doesn’t happen with me and Ez,” Stanley informed.

“Huh?”

“Ez knows the kind of person I am so she doesn’t jerk me around like that…often. This is clearly your brand of bullshit,” he finished with a pointed glare at his sister.

“Excuse you?” Natalie frowned.

“Clearly Ez wanted to tell me what was up before you shut her down.” His eyes narrowed. “I don’t appreciate you trying to teach my girlfriend your fucked-up feminine mind games, Natalie.”

“I am doing no such thing.”

“Alright then” he turned to his girlfriend “Ez, why were you giving me the Stanley, you idiot look?”

Once again Ezraphel opened her mouth and once again Natalie cut her off “don’t answer that.”

“You just proved my point.”

“Yeah sure,” she said, rolling her eyes “out of curiosity do you have any idea what next week is?”

Stanley blinked “next week?”

“Yes.”

Stanley frowned and scrunched his nose up for a moment as he contemplated the question. The two women looked at him in anticipation, waiting for that spark of realization to hit, only to be rendered shocked as he once again went against expectations.

“I don’t know. What’s happening next week?”

“You’re kidding me.” Natalie said incredulously, “you seriously don’t know what next week is.”

Once again he thought about it for a moment before shrugging “should I?”

Natalie sputtered for a moment before composing herself, “are you fucki-okay, think Stan think? There is an important event that is happening on a particular day next week.”

“Important to who?”

“To you!” she exclaimed pointing at the man.

In response Stanley huffed “if it was important to me then I’d remember. Since I don’t it’s not really important.”

That seemed to floor his sister whose expression of incredulity turned rather somber.

“Wow…” was all the Wight could say to that.

“What?”

“Oh Stanley,” even Ezraphel said, looking saddened by his answer.

“What is it now?”

“That was significantly sadder than I expected it to be,” his sister admitted. “I don’t know how to react to that.”

Stanley looked like he was about to blow his top, yet he merely looked between the two women. Seeing that neither women were willing to be forthcoming with any answers he decided to drop it…for now.

‘Whatever, I’ll figure it out myself.’

Without a word he left the two women.

Once he was gone Ezraphel looked curiously at Natalie and asked “why did you not tell him?”

“I think the better question is, why doesn’t he remember his own damn birthday?” Natalie shot back with a grumble.

“Stanley does not seem to be aware of special occasions such as holidays to begin with. I assume this to be a regular occurrence.”

“What? It is most certainly not a regular occurrence” Natalie air quoted before hesitating. “At least it wasn’t as far as I knew, but… I don’t know the current Stan as well as you do. Is this really a thing with him?”

“So far Stanley has only ever recognized a single holiday without prompting from an outside source and was actually enthusiastic about it.”

“Halloween?”

“Halloween.”

“Yeah, that’d do it.” Natalie sighed, looking back to where her brother disappeared. “It’s either that or Mother’s Day.”

At that Ezraphel perked up. She opened her mouth to ask feeling a tinge of desperation to know. However she hesitated and by the time Natalie turned back around she had recomposed herself and stayed silent.

“I’d say better that he not know about it for now since then you could give him a pleasant surprise but…”

“It will not be long before Stanley realizes.”

“Right so…” she trailed off scratching her head “I mean, I’ll still help with getting a gift.”

She was interrupted by Ezraphel shaking her head “thank you but that will not be necessary. Just informing me of his coming birth date is enough.”

“Does that mean you’ll teach me all the cool magic stuff?”

“We’ll see,” Ezraphel said before turning back to preparing breakfast.

“Is that a yes or a no?”

“If after I teach you all the prerequisite spells for maintaining a human façade and you’ve managed to exceed my expectations before Stanley’s birth date, then I will consider teaching you those ‘cool spells’ you desire.”

Her answer caused Natalie to slump.

“That’s not fair.”

Ezraphel ignored her and moved away to continue making breakfast.

“That’s not fair.”

*Snap*

And just like that Natalie was teleported out of the kitchen and into the living room yet Ezraphel could still hear her as plain as day.

“THAT’S. NOT. FAAAIIIRRR!”

~No Parties For Old Stanley~

It didn’t take a particularly long time to figure out what the big deal was. The first thing he did was check next week’s date to jog his memory.

As for his reaction…

‘Huh, my birthday’s next week.’

…was underwhelming to say the least.

If it wasn’t obvious, Stanley didn’t really celebrate his birthday. He used to back when he lived with his family but the notion gradually lost meaning over the years, especially when he became a recluse. His sister initially tried to make a day out of it but as their lives diverged he merely received a call or text. Conversely Stanley did set a reminder for himself on his phone when it came to her birthday so he could text back.

If the hospital didn’t give him a call, then that same reminder would have been what ultimately led him down the rabbit hole of introducing her to Ezraphel and the probable (absolute) shitshow that would have turned out to be.

As for him and his birthday…

As stated before, celebrating it lost its meaning at this point in his life. To him, it’s just another day. He’d need to put in the effort to drum up some excitement, and he saw no merit in making a big deal out of making it another year in this world. At most he would treat himself to some cake or some special kind of takeout combination.

Now with Ezraphel here he cannot expect another quiet birthday which is something he could accept. Knowing her she’d want to throw him a party.

“Have to nip that in the bud pronto.”

It’s best that he set the terms for whatever she had planned for him. That is why when breakfast was ready and he made his way to the dining room table to partake in the early morning feast the first sentence out of his mouth upon sitting down was…

“I don’t want a party.”

His sudden words caused a similar set of reactions from the two women, with Natalie raising a delicate brow while Ezraphel tilted her head questioningly.

“What do you mean Stanley?” asked his girlfriend.

He almost rolled his eyes “next week is my birthday. I’m assuming that’s the big secret you didn’t want to tell me.”

“Oh, you actually managed to figure it out,” Natalie quipped sarcastically.

Ignoring her words, his gaze focused on Ezraphel as he reiterated, “I do not want a birthday party.”

Ezraphel’s frown became pronounced though rather than being upset, she seemed curious.

“Why? Do you not wish to celebrate your birthday?”

“I don’t have a problem with celebrating. I just don’t want a party. It’s cringe and unnecessary.”

He’d originally wanted to say he didn’t want her to make a big deal out of it but he recognized a futile battle when he saw one. She would always make a big deal out of things when it came to him. It’s gotten to the point where he almost found it charming and endearing to know how much she cared. Other times it can be annoying and exhausting to deal with as the extent she’d sometimes go to seemed as if she wanted to prove her love for him to the entire damn world.

It was endearing but quite annoying at times.

Ezraphel did not seem satisfied with the answer but unfortunately Natalie chose to interpose herself in the conversation with unhelpful words.

“Translation: I don’t want you to make a big deal out of it because then I’d feel embarrassed, self-conscious, and super awkward about the whole thing.”

This earned her a scathing glare from him.

‘This fucking bitch’

She hit the nail right on the head, dammit!

His glare slid off her like water as she ignored him to enjoy her meal while watching the show.

“Is that so Stanley?” Ezraphel questioned lightly.

‘As if you didn’t already know.’

“Yeah.”

“Hmm,” Ezraphel hummed for a long moment before shrugging, “okay.”

“Okay?”

‘That’s it?’

“In truth I wasn’t actually planning a party for you Stanley.”

“You weren’t?”

“As you say it seemed unnecessary…and unkind.”

“What?”

‘Why would it be unkind?’

He wanted to ask but his sister went and answered the unasked question.

“You don’t have a lot of friends Stan.”

The only thing stopping Stanley from snapping at her was the tone she spoke those words with. She was only stating a fact and he could not begrudge her for it.

“Plus you hate going to social events anyway.”

“Okay,” he began hesitantly wanting to continue speaking but instead chose to dig into his breakfast.

The action didn’t go unnoticed by either woman though it was Ezraphel who called him out on it.

“Was there anything else Stanley?”

Stanley swallowed “no.”

“I bet you didn’t expect to get this far without some pushback, huh?”

Stanley chose to exercise his right to remain silent which was an answer in itself.

“I don’t know why you’d think that.” Natalie blandly commented, digging into her breakfast.

“Stanley is very confrontational,” Ezraphel supplied, “or rather he expects a confrontation in most of his interactions.”

“That sets a bad precedence for social interactions, methinks.”

“Agreed, it makes me rethink not organizing a party. Mother knows he could use the exposure if nothing else.”

“Can you two stop talking about me like I’m not here?”

“Nope,” Natalie answered.

“These words are meant for your ears, Stanley.”

Obviously he ignored that “and can you drop the party thing already?”

“No,” Ezraphel answered without missing a beat, “we should be able to plan your birthday as we see fit.”

Natalie all but nodded until she ran that sentence back and her gaze snapped to the Lilim.

“Uh…we?”

Ezraphel gave her a look “of course. You did offer to help me find a gift. I assumed you already had something in mind.”

“Yeah for a gift, not planning a party.”

“What is wrong with a party?”

“Natalie doesn’t do birthday parties either,” Stanley answered casually with a pointed glare.

That made Ezraphel mildly confused “she doesn’t?” Her gaze went to the Wight “you don’t?”

Natalie cringed at the look Lilim gave her.

Before she could answer Stanley interrupted “she doesn’t, the hypocrite.”

“Shut up Stan,” Natalie scowled at him before turning to Ezraphel “I don’t do birthday parties all the time but unlike Mr. Schizoid here it’s not because I don’t like going out with people. Circumstances just don’t allow for it.”

While keeping his attention to his breakfast Stanley added, “parties are overrated nowadays anyway.” Stanley clarified then shrugged, “it’s not a big deal.”

‘Shut the fuck up Stan.’

Oh sure the insensitive man child can say that with a breezy air and get away with it, however, as the ‘responsible’ older sibling Natalie was currently being pinned by a stare of mild disbelief.

“You mean to tell me that neither of you celebrate your birthdays properly?”

Natalie went to speak but was interrupted by Stanley, who shot his girlfriend a look “define ‘properly’ because it’s presumptuous of you to just decide we’re not celebrating our birthdays according to your arbitrary standards.”

“He has a point,” Natalie conceded.

“What a time to be alive” was the man’s dry response.

Ignoring his words, she continued, “It’s not like I don’t do anything special for my birthday when the mood strikes me, but unlike someone, I’m still on that daily work grind. Most times I don’t have the time or money to spare for anything extravagant.”

Sometimes she did go out of her way to make a day out of it to decompress or use it as the perfect excuse to take that extra step and splurge on herself. On rare occasions she might even be pleasantly surprised when her friends decide to get in on the fun and splurge on her.

Ezraphel looked between the two siblings who for once were presenting a united front. She was clearly consternated; however she really could not admonish them for doing what they liked.

She gave up with a huff not long after to pose another question, “do I even want to know what you both do for gifts?”

Stan merely shrugged “meh.”

A blank-faced Ezraphel turned to Natalie for salvation.

The Wight had a complicated expression “we do get each other gifts but uh, it kind of falls flat most of the time since it’s more of an obligation if you catch my drift.”

“I do not in fact ‘catch your drift’ Natalie. Please explain what you mean.”

The Wight clicked her tongue not really wanting to put her brother on blast but Natalie was pretty sure Ezraphel can discern lies. So for her it all boils down to her brother not caring one way or the other about his birthday. She used to put actual effort into the gifts even without a party or celebration to compliment it. The thing is, for all the effort she put in, it felt wasted on a man whose reaction to it is…underwhelming to be generous.

The lack of appreciation on Stanley’s part really did impact Natalie in that she herself began to care less about it herself. She still did go out of her way to call, text, or even visit him sometimes with a gift but it was clear that the celebratory atmosphere was almost completely sucked out after some point.

She explained all this with some regret tingeing her voice as she was essentially throwing him under the bus. To his credit he took her incidental criticism on the chin though looking mildly uncomfortable when Ezraphel tossed him a look.

Before any words can be exchanged, Natalie decided to interrupt, “before you go scolding him, you should know that he’s only an inconsiderate jerk when it comes to his birthday. He actually puts more effort in when my birthday comes around. Granted that’s not exactly a high bar to cross with him being the lazy bastard he is.”

“What does he do?” asked Ezraphel with a hopeful tone.

“He’s self-aware enough to recognize that his lack of effort as a faux pas and thought to make up for it in the most Stanley way possible.”

Ezraphel leans forward with anticipation

“He asks me to tell him what I want and he gets it for me” Natalie states bluntly.

Ezraphel’s expression immediately turns deadpan and both siblings could almost imagine hearing the “bruh” sound effect.

“In his defense” Natalie continued “he’s amenable to damn near all my requests. It could be ordering something online and having it delivered to me or just straight up wiring money to my account. He’ll do it with only minimal questions asked.”

Ezraphel hummed at that “for someone who is very particular about how he spends his money, especially on himself, Stanley seems to favor reckless spending when it comes to situations like this,” Ezraphel noted.

“I know right?” Natalie nodded.

“It’s not like I throw money at every problem” Stanley grumbled.

Natalie clearly heard him as she stated “I like how you describe getting me a gift as a problem.”

“You complaining?” He groused with a glare.

“Course not,” she said, though there was a part of her that resented the idea even if it was a complete net positive for her overall.

At the same time she did see a problem since he opted with this method for every occasion that necessitated a gift exchange. It’s to the point where there have been times when she was tempted to take advantage of him but ultimately decided against it because she wasn’t a scumbag. But there are times where Stanley’s methods rubbed her the wrong way. The biggest example being at the start of all this when she put forward the idea of paying off her student loan debt as “like the greatest gift ever.”

Clearly it was meant as a joke but then he went ahead and did it anyway. Imagine her surprise when the bastard wired her the full amount of her debt with some money leftover and told her to take care of the rest. It was the answer to the question of what the limit of his seeming generosity was and it kinda pissed her off as much as it made her grateful.

Why did he do such a thing?

He had three so-called reasons.

First, it was her birthday.

Second, she asked.

Third, in his own words, he owed her for putting up with his bullshit.

The first two were so ridiculous she almost bitch slapped him. The third reason she knew what he meant since once upon a time he crashed at her apartment for the better part of the year rent free while he got his future investments set up. With that in mind she appreciated the gesture but the way he went about it made her angry with him at the time.

Believe it or not Natalie does have some reservations with her younger lazy brother who dropped out of college and became rich off of what was essentially monetizing his hobby indulgence straight up flexing on her who did stick with college to earn a degree only to be working a stressful dead end job with pay only just above minimum wage.

Don’t get her wrong, she still took the money and paid off her debts because who the hell wanted that sword of Damocles hanging over their head. The victory however felt hollow and Natalie felt like she was somehow robbed of a future triumph. Why Natalie was so upset enough that she didn’t talk to Stan for a good chunk of time. Not that he seemed to notice…or maybe he did and just ignored it like he did a lot of his problems back then.

In any case, even though she’s obviously mellowed out about the whole ordeal it would be a stretch to say that she didn’t still hold onto some resentment towards him for that. Natalie explained this to Ezraphel (minus her personal grievances on the matter) and the Lilim gave an exasperated sigh.

“That sounds exactly like something he would do,” she said while looking at him with fondness.

“You know the most unbelievable part of this whole thing is that I kind of get it,” Natalie admitted “his reasoning for doing what he does the way he does it.”

“It’s not as unbelievable as you seem to believe. At the end of the day, Stanley is a rather simple man at heart. He doesn’t believe in altruism and equates such acts towards him as a series of debts he must repay.” Ezraphel summed it up very succinctly.

“Yeah, more or less.”

Then the two looked at the man in question, who met their gazes unapologetically.

“Is that a problem?” he questioned with an obvious edge.

Clearly being openly criticized and talked about was getting to him. Natalie, for one, wasn’t about to pile on him for this.

She did however scoff at him “of course not. Far be it for me to complain about my rich little brother handing out freebies out of some misguided notion that he owes me a debt for being a good sister to him.”

Okay, she didn’t pile on him too much.

Ezraphel nodded as well “agreed, though I would have preferred that you cared more for that sort of thing, but it is the spirit of the thought that counts.”

“You’re still going to do that fucking party, aren’t you?”

“Again I was not planning to throw a party though I must say just as you would not have me presume to judge your means of celebrations so should you not presume to judge how I choose to celebrate Stanley?” she replied in a rather political manner.

“It’s my birthday; you should do what I want.”

Ezraphel raised a brow “but if I did that all the time then we wouldn’t have made much progress in relationship now would we?”

“For better or worse?”

“Indeed.”

Stanley moved his jaw for a moment before asking yet again, “no party?”

“No party,” she reassured.

“Good” he went back to his meal which at this point was being kept warm solely due to magic.

Ezraphel then gave a sly smirk and added “this year.”

Stanley paused but he knew that any arguments he made would just be them talking circles, so he left it at that. The rest of the breakfast was finished in a kind of awkward silence. After finishing, Stanley wordlessly left the table to return back to his office.

“Well, that went better than I thought it would,” commented Natalie as she stood up and stretched. “Thanks for the food.”

“Help me with the dishes, won’t you?”

Ezraphel’s reply before she stood up

“Why is Stanley so vehemently against having a birthday party?”

“Didn’t we just talk about that?”

“We’ve outlined one of the reasons.”

“Why does there need to be another reason?”

“I can feel it.”

Natalie stared at her for a moment before remembering that Ezraphel can sense emotions and with them being married there was literally nothing her brother can hide from her if she wanted to find it.

Unfortunately for the Lilim, “I hate to say it but I really don’t know what other reasons he might have.” “I think that’s just a symptom of him not liking crowds in general. I’d say ask him, but…”

“It’s Stanley”/“It’s Stan,” they both finished.

“Hmm, quite the conundrum.”

“Does it really matter right now?”

“Of course it does. If I don’t get to the bottom of this then I will be unable to host parties with him.”

Natalie gave her a side-eyed glance of suspicion “this isn’t just some ploy for you to get a pass for throwing parties now, is it?”

“O-of course not.”

“You stuttered just now.”

“You’re imagining things.”

“Uh-huh” Natalie spoke plainly with a pointed look that screamed she didn’t believe her “so aside from your totally not selfish reasons for diving into what Stan may or may not be hiding, why is this important for you to know?”

“I am trying to get Stanley to be more social, Natalie,” the woman finally explained. “I cannot do that if he refuses to entertain a simple birthday party.”

“Good thing your lifespan is measured in centuries, huh?”

Ezraphel rolled her eyes “just because I have all the time in this world doesn’t mean I am so patient. Now do you have a reason for his reticent nature towards birthday parties?”

“As much as I would like to help you out here, I don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of his thoughts and history you know.”

“Well, when was the last time Stanley had a birthday party?”

“Ah, that would be…” she trailed off thinking about it until her eyes widened, “oh,” then she cringed, “oh~.”

“What?”

“I think I might know what Stan’s hang-ups about birthday parties are about.”

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense; tell me why.”

“Well, it might have to do with our mom.”

~Mommy (Ain’t An) Issue~

“Your mother?”

At Natalie’s words, Ezraphel’s expression underwent a strange metamorphosis, becoming unreadable.

Natalie continued “I’m guessing she never came up in conversations.”

“A few times though they were brief anecdotes and Stanley would shut down whenever I tried to broach the subject subtly.”

“Not surprising they didn’t exactly part on good terms from what I remember.”

“What happened?”

“Not my story to tell” Natalie answered, but upon seeing the frustrated look on Ezraphel’s face she continued “let’s just say mom disagreed on his lifestyle choices and they had an argument. He walked out and as far as I know he’s cut all ties with her.”

Ezraphel’s brows furrowed at the vagueness but she understood.

“What about your father?”

“Different fathers,” Natalie revealed.

Ezraphel looked taken aback by that “oh.”

“Yeah we’re really cousins. My parents, well mom adopted him into the family.”

“Oh, then what about his real parents?” 

Natalie winced a bit “that is definitely not my story to tell.

“Ugh” Ezraphel huffed.

“And I don’t think you should bring that up at all.” Her expression turned grave “like seriously, do not under circumstances even mention it to him and especially don’t tell him I told you about it” she added.

“Is it such a bad thing to do?”

“Yes” she said with the utmost seriousness “the last person who mentioned it he tried to fight.”

“He fought over it?” She asked with incredulity.

“Emphasis on try but the fact that he would even go that far speaks volumes. So this stays between us, okay?”

“I understand” she nodded.

“Good.”

There was a brief moment of awkward silence before Ezraphel forged on “t-then what of your father?”

“Oh, dear old dad?” Natalie asked

Ezraphel nodded.

“Fuck ‘em.”

The Lilim looked vaguely uncomfortable now, “um…”

“Oh! Pardon my language,” she said, though she did not seem overtly concerned about it.

“It’s…fine” Ezraphel brushed off or at least tried to, but in the ensuing silence, the awkwardness rose.

Not for very long though as it was broken by Natalie who very much wanted to move things along.

“Yeah, so anyway I think I can swing having mom pay a visit.”

Taking the out for what it was Ezraphel latched onto it “truly?”

“I actually keep in touch with mom and I don’t really want to keep my situation a secret from her” She added hesitantly.

“Is that wise? Informing her, I mean.”

“Probably not,” Natalie admitted, “but hey, that’s what memory spells are for, right?”

Ezraphel’s frown became more pronounced “Stanley frowns upon using magic to influence the mind.”

“How very noble of him” she conceded “but I’d rather keep my relationship with my mother than burn that bridge permanently.”

“Would it be alright though? If your mother doesn’t accept you—”

“We were talking about Stan’s issues with mom, not mine,” Natalie interrupted forcefully.

“Very well, though from what you’ve just said would she accept Stanley’s changes… or me?”

“Let’s uh, take it one step at a time huh? Stage an intervention to bridge their relationship before putting a torch to it.”

Ezraphel didn’t think this was something to be brushed off however she knew pressing the other woman now would be futile.

“Alright then moving on, do you think the relationship is salvageable?”

“I wasn’t there when the two of them fell out but I can definitely say that the relationship is definitely salvageable. If he stopped being a stubborn jackass and actually talk to her they’d be fine.”

“That is wonderful news,” Ezraphel smiled, though it had a strange quality to it.

“So is that going to be part of the birthday surprise?”

At this, Ezraphel’s joy-filled expression lessened “no, I already had something in mind and…” She trailed off.

“And what?”

“And I believe Stanley is making a genuine effort to change himself. I am certain thoughts of his strained relationship with his mother have occurred to him and I believe he is mature enough to recognize what needs to be done.”

Natalie blinked as she mentally chewed on Ezraphel’s words.

“You know on the one hand I’m happy you have so much faith in him, but on the other, are you sure about giving him the benefit of the doubt like this? It might take a while for him to commit unless he’s reminded.”

In response Ezraphel gave her a mysterious smile as her eyes seemed to almost literally twinkle “oh, I don’t think that should be a problem.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Ezraphel disregarded the question entirely “in the meantime I believe your aid in preparing Stanley’s gift will greatly benefit your training.”

“Hey now, wait just a damn minute-”

But before Natalie could finish Ezraphel grabbed her shoulder and the two disappeared in a flash of light.

.

.

.

Stanley entered the kitchen with a garbage bag in hand and a complicated expression on his face. Ezraphel had declined his demand for her to enchant his office mini fridge to automatically refill when empty and his garbage to empty itself when full. Her reasoning being that without it he would be forced to actually leave his office more often, which is always a good thing in her book.

It was a coincidence that he ended up eavesdropping on them. He’d like to say he wasn’t the kind of person to do such things normally but it’s more like he’s never been in a position to do it. He could totally see himself listening in on people’s conversations if the topic of discussion piqued his interest or was about him.

It’s safe to say that this particular topic most certainly ticked both boxes.

After dumping the garbage bag in the trash bin (that too wasn’t equipped with an auto dump feature but rather a stay clean feature because Ezraphel would take any chance to go outside), Stanley returned to his office. For the second time that morning he sat in his chair to ruminate in his thoughts.

‘So clearly Ezraphel knew I was there.’

Whether Natalie picked up on Ezraphel’s obvious (to him) cues was up in the air, but it didn’t really matter. What really mattered to him was…

“What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?”

‘This’ being the fact that Ezraphel expected him to make an honest attempt at mending his relationship with his mother.

“Ugh~”

Now to be clear it wasn’t so much the idea that made him groan as it was the effort he would have to put in and the drama that will definitely occur because of it. Natalie was only partly right when she assumed that it was just general stubbornness that prevented him from making the leap. Hindsight is 20/20, and Stanley has had a lot of time to ponder on the events that led to him cutting ties with his mother.

But before that, let’s set up the background:

It’s the late 2000s and Stanley was a bright well-adjusted young man in middle school when his parents got him his first computer for personal use. At the time, he was the type of kid whom his parents could trust with his own computer. They figured he would use it to study or help with his schoolwork. So not only did they give him his own PC but also unrestricted access to the internet.

The naïve fools.

Between YouTube, anime, the burgeoning social media platforms and forum sites, online gaming, and porn the real world became real boring real fast. It wasn’t long before he found himself being more reclusive as he stayed inside to indulge himself in the cyberspace. It didn’t help that a lot of his interests were part of that era’s nerd culture which had a stigma for being liked by weirdos and was generally seen as uncool. Once he foolishly outed himself as being into that stuff he gradually became ostracized from his friend group.

He had the choice to salvage his social standing but chose not to do that because it would mean giving up his newfound hobby. He suffered for that decision in the way only a teenager of the late 2000s and early 2010s could. Yes there was some bullying involved which combined with being an outcast made Stanley develop anti-social tendencies.

Natalie’s attempts at rekindling his social life had the opposite effect in high school and he ended up developing a particular disdain for large groups of people and parties in general. By the time he got to college he was a full-on anti-social outcast. Combined this with the mounting pressures of academia and his general disillusionment with the system and Stanley was 100% done.

By this point he was living on his own renting a cheap apartment (to avoid sharing a dorm room) which gave him the freedom to shirk his academic responsibilities and actively look for a way out of his situation. He saw his out through content creation after visiting various forums that held stories about how to maximize YouTube monetization.

Having observed the platform’s evolution, he could see the way the winds were blowing and wanted to get in on it before it became too popular and was subjected to gatekeeping. To that end, he dedicated time to setting up his moderately successful channel to take advantage of this monetization scheme.

He saw progress which made him devote more time to making content and less time on his studies. Fast forward a few months later and he was seeing some returns on his investment. Subscribers were up, views were way up, and he was being e-mailed by potential sponsors. He figured a few more months of this and he’d make enough to feel confident about making his case to his mother because he already made up his mind to quit school.

Unfortunately things didn’t go to plan because Stanley overlooked one detail. In his effort to find success on the internet, he neglected college, and as the progress continued to show positive results, he spent less and less time on his studies. It was to the point where he took any chance he got to miss classes and neglect course work. Such things become noticeable over time and without any changes, despite the warnings and concerned inquiries issued, the school administration ended up contacting his parents out of concern.

Now throughout this endeavor he’s had contact with his mother. He obviously didn’t tell her about what he was doing and worst-case scenario if she ever caught wind of it he expected her to bring it up over a phone call. What he didn’t expect was for her to make a surprise visit to his apartment.

And now we get to the confrontation.

He was standing at the doorway looking like a deer caught in headlights while his mother stood before him looking very displeased. She didn’t ask to come in and he was too shell shocked to bar her from entering the apartment. Right off the bat he did not impress her with how he maintained his apartment so before they could even talk she demanded that he clean up the mess.

Half an hour later, she confronts him about missing classes and failing grades. He, having no desire to anger her further with a half-baked lie, decides to tell the truth about his experiments. He failed the charisma check so he wasn’t convincing her through his own merits and his ‘speech’ was way down so a lot of his explanations ended up flying over her head giving her only a rudimentary understanding of the entire process.

What did succeed to get across were the results which he supplemented with proof via bank statements. Since his first bank account was being heavily monitored and managed by his parents he made another one at a different bank to receive his wired earnings. His mother looked genuinely surprised at the amount he earned. Sure, it wasn’t as much as a regular job given that it took months of setup to achieve but with his channel getting bigger and sponsorships on the table it would only get better.

The thing is Stanley was fighting an uphill battle.

His other saw the attempts as a doomed endeavor. To her content creation as a full-time job is a fad that will ultimately collapse at best and straight up scam that would land him big trouble at worse. This was likely due to a combination of a lack of true understanding, the untested nature of it all, and general mistrust due to its online nature.

Then there was the heavy skepticism of his own efforts because, while his mother was impressed with what he managed to achieve she was overall dismissive of said efforts. She assumed it amounted to him just indulging his hobbies. It didn’t count as ‘work’ which would translate into a ‘career’ to her which was why she gave an ultimatum.

She was willing to overlook everything and allow him to continue with his project so long as he started attending classes again, got his grades up (and maintained at a certain level) and graduate college. In hindsight this was a completely reasonable thing to ask of him as a parent worried about her child’s future and wanting for him to have something tangible to fall back on if this risky venture doesn’t pan out.

Unfortunately Stanley at that moment in time was not a reasonable person. He hated to use the term angsty teenager but he was tired of capitulating to public pressures and traditional conceptions of what he needed to do to succeed. At that point he already made up his mind that he wasn’t going to finish college or get a regular nine-to-five job.

He’d do his own thing and he’d succeed…or die trying.

He wanted his mother to see what he saw, but he couldn’t explain it to her in a way that was calm, succinct, and in a mature enough manner that would assuage her worries and make her believe in him. Instead he ranted his gripes about his own issues poorly, denounced the education system as useless and doubled down on the path of content creation.

With how unreasonable he was being and not being able to dissuade him his mother ended up calling in her husband to help convince him. That was a mistake as things kind of devolved afterwards because Stanley despised the man who was supposed to be his uncle and the feeling was mutual. By the end of it the bastard cut him off, froze him out of his old bank account and basically disowned him.

That was fine by him, Stanley decided he wasn’t going to have anything to do with either of them and went with his plan to drop out of college. Natalie helped him out during this time making arrangements to move his important belongings out of the family home and into temporary storage because he wasn’t going to give the bastard the satisfaction of showing his face to him.

Natalie also provided a place on her couch for him to crash at rent free until he got on his feet. Later he struck it big with some investments and moved out to rent his own apartment for a bit then bought his own house. Throughout it all he never got back in contact with his mother, stubbornly ignored her attempts to reach out and never looked back.

He thought he wouldn’t be dealing with her for a long time to come. He even expected the likeliest time they would ever meet again would be at a funeral. Who would be the one getting buried was up in the air but he was pretty sure that’s the only way he imagined they would see each other again in any capacity.

Then Natalie informed him that she was getting a divorce and the piece of shit wanted to take everything from her and bleed her dry through court proceedings. She needed help paying the lawyer fees and Stanley was happy to meet that demand, if only out of pure spite for the bastard as well as personal vindication. He agreed to help with the caveat that his name be kept out of it and Natalie would pretend that the money came from her.

Natalie completely ignored his request and even went so far as to give her his number. At least she didn’t give her his address so all Stanley got was a call he came very close to answering followed by a text message thanking him. She would send him messages from time to time that he recognized as her attempts to reach out but he couldn’t bring himself to reply to or acknowledge them beyond looking. Eventually she stopped trying, but she did send the occasional text, sending her love and regards.

She never stopped saying she loved him… and he couldn’t bring himself to block her.

And now, after ghosting her for years he was expected to reach out to rekindle their relationship?

“This is some fucked up shit.”

Yet regardless of what he thought a decision needed to be made though at this point he was just stalling. He knew deep down that he was always going to reach out to his mother; he just didn’t know when as basically procrastinating. Now that it was practically shoved in his face like this with the expectation that he would recognize what needed to be done, he found himself hesitating…again.

‘Sometimes I really hate this having to change myself so drastically thing I just needed to do for the sake of a healthy relationship.’

With a grumble he grabbed his wireless earbuds and phone. Finding and navigating his way through the contact list was a simple affair as there weren’t many numbers on there, so he found her number in mere moments.

“Hrm…”

His finger hovered over the call button until the screen turned black from inactivity.

“Fuck”

This was harder than he thought, and a part of him yearned for Ezraphel’s reassuring presence. Hell, he’d even take Natalie ripping into him for being such a coward but his pride wouldn’t allow such a thing on both counts. What kind of punk bitch would he be if he had to have his girlfriend or sister literally hold his hand just to talk to his mother over the phone?

Fuck. That.

The hesitation was strong in this one but it’s hard not to think of the repercussions of opening Pandora’s Box. He shared the same worries as Natalie, believing that their changes wouldn’t go over well with their mother. You don’t need to be a genius to figure out how it would go over telling a devout Christian woman how an interdimensional sex demon corrupted one of her children into a monster and was in a relationship with the other.

Obviously he wasn’t about to spring that on her off rip and would be keeping that nugget of information as a secret for however long he could, but that secret is going to come out later, and he dreaded her reaction to being lied to for however long it would be. Believe it or not, Stanley didn’t like lying to his mother. It left an especially sour taste in his mouth in this situation where it was a pretty shaky foundation for him to be reestablishing their relationship on.

Call it a side effect of being raised by the woman who did her best despite being married to an absolute bastard.

‘That’s a very convoluted excuse for trying to weasel your way out of this Stan.’

“…”

A swipe, several taps, and a press later, and the phone was ringing.

*Beep*

“Hello?”

“…hey mom.”

~Handling Business~

Stanley spent the entire morning sifting through several hours worth of captured gameplay footage to edit. It was the kind of necessary yet mind-numbing work he’d usually pawn off to Kendall but in this instance he needed the distraction. The reason for that made itself known through his phone’s alarm and upon reading the reminder the calm he accumulated began to melt away.

Taking a breath Stanley shut off the alarm, set the PC to sleep and pushed away from the desk. He got to his feet and yawned before stretching until he heard the satisfying pop of his joints. Leaving his room he made his way to the living room and found his sister lying on the couch with her forearm slung over her eyes.

‘Is she awake?’

Because she’s not breathing, so he couldn’t tell.

“Are you awake?”

“Ugh” came the response.

“You sound like how you look,” he paused before adding “dead.”

In response she moved her arm to glare at him with pale crimson eyes. The look on her face caused the dam of his self-restraint to break, and he ended up bursting in laughter at her expense. That lasted about as long as it took for a pillow to slam into his face, causing him to stumble from the force of impact.

“What do you want?”

Stanley scowled at being hit but calmed himself to answer her question.

“Just curious what you’re doing out here. I usually don’t see you until later.”

“Ez wants me to take an early break, so here I am,” she gestured to herself on the couch before plopping her arms back down.

“Uh-huh, and where is Ez?”

“She’s busy putting the finishing touches on your present. By the way she said your lunch is in the microwave. That’s all I’ve got for you, go away now.”

With her piece said Natalie went back to resting while ignoring his presence. Stanley decided to leave her alone but not before throwing the pillow on the resting bitch’s face eliciting a yelp and a growl from her.

“You dick!”

Stanley cackled to himself as he fled upstairs away from his sibling and any reprisals heading his way.

…

Natalie would have chased after him but she decided against it.

‘I’ll kill him later.’

Natalie kind of regretted pointing out Stan’s upcoming birthday to Ezraphel but in her defense this was something the Lilim should have already been privy to. How was she supposed to know her brother was dumb enough not to mention something so basic while in a relationship for nearly a year? And how the hell did Ezraphel not know about it? That was a major oversight for someone who is supposed to be obsessed with the man. She wouldn’t blame Ezraphel however, because at the end of the day it was all Stan’s fault.

Now Natalie was co-opted into helping her with preparing a gift for him.

‘But wasn’t that the point?’ She could hear an unknown voice chirp out from the corners of her mind.

‘Yes technically’ she would answer, ‘but I thought I would just be advising her on what to get him not that.’

Well her would-be advice was unneeded because the Lilim knew exactly what she wanted to gift Stan for his birthday. Initially Natalie was happy for her and a bit perplexed since apparently her help was still needed. The freshly turned Wight didn’t know what she could do to help since Ezraphel was magic and could theoretically conjure up anything with the literal snap of her fingers. Natalie imagined that even with only a few days Ezraphel had plenty of time to prepare a gift.

Unfortunately, Natalie underestimated Ezraphel’s Sigma Mamono Grindset.

“For what kind of wife would I be if my gift were so paltry as to be conjured in such a way?”

Ezraphel didn’t actually say that but Natalie could definitely imagine her saying it.

So what was this gift in question?

It was definitely something that could be called a grand undertaking as the Lilim herself described. Natalie didn’t see all of it, but as for what she was allowed to witness, all she could say was never underestimate the imagination of a woman who is very motivated and determined to give her husband in all but name a unique birthday experience he would not soon forget.

Now the good news was that Ezraphel was already working on this for several months already. It was one of several side projects she worked on in her spare time. Not something that could be created (even in part) by a simple snap of her fingers but rather requiring meticulous and continuous applications of magical enchantments.

This is where Natalie came in because while Ezraphel could certainly finish this on her own even in the time constraint it was a perfect opportunity to introduce the Wight to enchanting. Something she would have to learn and master in order to cast and maintain a human guise. It goes without saying that it doesn’t hurt to have an extra set of hands to help condense the workload.

Needless to say Natalie had her work cut out for her.

The situation was made even worse since the deal Ezraphel forced upon her to impress her in time for Stan’s birthday in order to get the privilege of learning ‘non-essential’ spells was still on. You’d think with the importance placed on this project Natalie would have plenty of opportunities to do that even if she was merely acting as an assistant, right?

Wrong!

Despite doing her due diligence of teaching her how to do enchantments Ezraphel placed the majority of her attention on completing the project itself. As for Natalie whenever she wasn’t memorizing the Lilim’s words of wisdom, she was applying what she learned under the apathetic gaze of G-A.

Who is ‘G-A’?”

‘G-A’, otherwise known as Golem-A, is a magical automaton Ezraphel created as part of an Easter celebration project for Stan. Apparently she accidentally gave it sentience and not wanting to kill a sentient entity kept her a secret from Stan.

The worst part of that sentence was Ezraphel giving an answer to Natalie’s first question of how one accidentally gives sentience to something in a way that actually made sense to her.

Anyway, despite not being able to utilize magic, G-A was familiar enough with it to guide Natalie through the process. Natalie was somewhat grateful to the fact that G-A was a mute because whatever she used to communicate without uttering a single word conversely made her easier to understand as she directly conveyed intent in a way for Natalie to understand. The fact that G-A ended up being a taskmaster and bane of her existence was something Natalie was not so grateful for.

Over the course of the past few days Natalie has had several questions about her new body answered for better or worse. For instance, it is possible for her to experience fatigue through the overuse of mana. Guess what she’s been doing for the couple of days? Not only was she doing the only activity that would successfully induce fatigue but G-A was seemingly exploiting that loophole for maximum effect.

She knew that wasn’t the point, but damn if it didn’t feel like that sometimes. Now Natalie can say without a shadow of a doubt that mana exhaustion was gunning for the top of the most awful feelings of her life. The worst part about it is that Natalie was very well aware that her contributions to the project amounted to grunt work whose failure to complete adequately can be easily fixed by Ezraphel or overlooked entirely.

‘Ugh, at least I’m getting something out of it.’

Even if she wasn’t making any major contributions to the project or impressing Ezraphel with her work, she was still learning enchantment and applying it practical. So in all despite the awful feeling of mana exhaustion she still progressed in her magical studies. She was now able to make herself look human. Not how she was when she was actually human but how she would look with the changes brought on by her transformation.

That wasn’t even the Wight vanity speaking either. Why would she ever go back to looking like a post-botched chemotherapy patient and struggling leukemia victim? Besides, it’s better and more efficient at her level to just slap on a human illusion guise over her Wight form. It amounted to making her skin less corpse-like and changing her eye color. The hardest part was dampening her natural Mamono allure effect.

Ezraphel found the disguise passable but needed more work since the point was to blend in with the average human and even a humanized version of her current (Wight) appearance without the supernatural allure was very much not ‘average’ by any metric. Stan echoed the sentiments in his own boorish way by stating her disguise looked as if she got the Kardashian treatment. That is, a decade worth of plastic surgeries, beauty product applications, and the real world application of someone running her old self through extensive editing software to achieve a false beauty standard.

… Natalie actually didn’t mind either of their critiques, backhanded as the latter one was. How could any woman be mad at someone saying that you looked too good to be true?

Amusing as the thought was she conceded the point for posterity’s sake since as Ezraphel pointed out she would receive unwanted attention if she went out like this. Although with how long she’s spent in the house Natalie was almost willing to take that chance just to go outside. As fun as hanging out in Ezraphel’s pocket dimension fiddling with magic is the novelty has worn off. With her only seeing the same faces for so long she wanted, she needed to go outside and touch earth-grown grass.

“Maybe tomorrow,” Natalie grumbled from her place on the couch.

The project was in its final stages right now and Ezraphel had no more excuse for Natalie’s paltry assistance so the Wight was given the rest of the day to relax.

And she did just that.

*Sniff* *Sniff*

That is until the familiar scent of expensive cologne caught her attention.

“…!”

Mild surprise and curiosity had Natalie sitting up in mild confusion before investigating. What she found was her brother coming from up the stairs dressed up with his hair combed and looking like he was about to go on a date. Except Ezraphel was still in her own realm working on his gift, so…

‘What the fuck?’

What she actually said, however, was “hey Stan.”

For his part Stanley froze at Natalie’s sudden intrusion looking surprised before catching himself and schooling his expression

“Thought you were resting?” he grunted resuming his way down the stairs.

“I smelled a disturbance” she quipped and she saw him grimace.

‘Looks like Ezraphel’s trained him well’ she thought

“You going out?”

“Obviously.”

“Where to?”

“None of your business.”

He made his way to the door connecting to the garage and Natalie almost scoffed at the action, as if she was going to just let him walk away.

“Whoa there,” she said, cutting off his path much to his annoyance “you have to give me something more than that. Unless you expect me to believe you usually go out for a stroll dressed like that?”

“I’m going to a meeting” he retorted shouldering past her.

“Must be some meeting” Natalie muttered following behind him into the garage “mind if I tag along?”

“Why?”

“Because I want to go outside and you’re providing the perfect excuse” she punctuated this by casting her illusion spell to appear human.

He gave her a once over “can you even hold that illusion spell?”

“You let me worry about that?”

“No I think I’ll worry about that. At least dress better if you’re going out.”

Natalie looked down at herself and cringed. Clearly she didn’t think this through because there was no way she was going to let her debut outside as a new woman be wearing an old t-shirt and cargo pants.

“Fuck, okay I’m going to change” she paused giving the shorter man look “will you wait for me?”

Stanley stared at her for a moment before the automatic garage door began opening to which he finally spoke.

“What do you think?”

Natalie scowled before making a swipe at his car keys to which Stanley easily leaned out of her reach.

With his expression bored he shook his head at her “you’re so predictable.”

“Tch” Natalie clicked her tongue in annoyance “whatever.”

Just then his phone started ringing causing him to fish it out and curse when he saw whoever it was.

Natalie raised a brow seeing him hastily enter the car but before the door closed she caught the words that came out of his mouth.

“Hey mom”

‘What!?’

Natalie was at the side of the door just as he turned the engine on engaging the automatic locks preventing her from opening the door.

“No I didn’t forget, something came up but I’m on my way right now” he continued speaking while ignoring Natalie who was pressed up against the window.

“What the fuck?” she mouthed.

“Okay” he answered before pausing taking an uncertain glance at Natalie before continuing “love you too.”

That got a grin out of the Wight which transitioned into full on laughter “hahahah-oh that is precious~”

“Shut up!”

She paused to see him glaring at her though the effect was rendered all but useless with his cheeks slightly flushed causing her to laugh even more.

Stanley growled but didn’t say another word as he began to drive out.

“Have fun with your meeting~” she called out as he drove away activating the automatic doors.

As she waved at him the last thing she saw before the garage doors closed was him flipping her off to which she chuckled.

~To Be Continued~

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