The distance between the tower and the gate was deceptively long as it took more than 30 minutes of walking for them to finally reach it.

The kitten on the way explained that usually people are brought to the tower by carriage instead of having to walk like they did, but since it was night most of the people like chauffeurs were already gone home leaving only defensive staff like guards behind.

David personally didn’t mind and rather felt sorry that he had to be a pain in the ass and come at night when most people were at home resting, he apologized to George even, but the latter didn’t seem to mind as he simply said that it was fine.

Taking his word for it, David felt a bit less guilty, but while walking he thought about how magical and not magical all of this seemed, since if the gate could open itself somehow be it through magic, then why not have magical carriages too ?

He thought and as if George could read his mind he turned his head to him as they walked showing a mysterious glint in his feline eyes.

-You maybe be wondering why we don’t use magical carriages if we use magical gates, but let me tell you this young one, just because magic is convenient it doesn’t mean we have to use it on anything and everything, so many young people come to this academy to learn magic to solve all of their problems, but the truth is magic is not all powerful and neither will solving those problems with magic make them go away, furthermore there are far better methods other than magic in this world that aren’t inherently magical which are more useful then magic itself, in the far future I believe that those methods will be far more useful then magic in everyday life.

The kitten said, making David momentarily think as he couldn’t help but say.

-You mean, like the trains?

His words seemed to have been right in the bull-eye as George abruptly stopped and turned towards David, his eyes showing far more curiosity then it did before.

-How did you come to that... never mind.

Turning back forward George continued walking as David followed closely, as they walked he continued talking as if he just thought about something without turning towards David.

-Ha, I got to admit I didn’t really think much of you when the headmistress told me about you and even when I saw you from afar with the young lady from the Dragora household, other than thinking that you weren’t judging kind, I didn’t think you were anyone special, but now I think I may have been mistaken about you young man, you’re as an enigma as the headmistress had said you were, I look forward to seeing you in the future.

His words were spoken with a slightly distant voice, it disturbed David but he kept it in and held himself from questioning the cat things like how he knew about him and Syndra and what this headmistress was all about, thinking about it though, Syndra had also talked about the headmistress, from what he gathered it was because of her that Syndra came to pick him up in the first place, Midgale was her name if he remembered correctly, and since she was the headmistress David figured that he would be seeing her quite soon.

-Alright we arrived, from here you just need to go ahead and talk with the receptionist, she will guide you from the rest of the way.

-Yes! Thank you sir George, sorry for making you walk and escort me all the way here!

-As I said before its fine, study well and… this may be a bit rude but may I ask a favor of you?

-A favor?

Not sure where this was going David looked at George as he slightly looked down with his golden yellow eyes, it looked as if George was hesitant to say further but finally decided to continue as he raised his head and stared at David with his golden eyes.

-Yes, a favor, since you already met the young lady from the Dragora house, you must already know without me telling you how difficult it is for her to make meaningful relationships, and since you have proven that you aren’t the kind of person who cares too much about these things, I really ask of you to talk with that young lady more if it doesn’t trouble you, I assure you she is a good person at heart! A bit tough around the edges but very loyal and reliable so if you could…

Feeling that this conversation was going to a place David completely couldn’t foresee, he suddenly raised his arms in surrender as he started to get really confused what the kitten was going on about.

Of course David knew that there was some kind of problem that Syndra had seeing how everyone had treated her so far, but being expected to immediately understand something like this only after meeting her was too much, but at the same time maybe it wasn’t, David ever since back then slowly started to realize that there must be something about Syndra that is obvious to others but not to him that makes everyone act to cold towards her, he at first thought that maybe there was something that may have happened in the past that caused the people to act like that towards her, or maybe it was cultural stigma, but after observing them some more, he quickly started to realize that even that didn’t make complete sense with the way the people were acting, David out of all people knew what disdain and contempt was, but the things these people directing at Syndra was more Disgust then anything as if they were looking at something dirty, this is what really confused David the most, while walking with her he eventually realized that there is a significant gap between him and the people here that is missing, disregarding the fact that woman are the dominant gender of this world, David knew he needed to learn more, and maybe this kitten could help him.

Seeing him raise his hands so suddenly in a fluster, George momentarily stopped what he was about to say, he looked slightly worried as he stared at David as if he was about to get rejected, but that wasn’t why David raised his hands for.

Having his attention, David momentarily coughed to compose himself before trying to explain.

-Sir George, regarding Syndra, I am completely aware of the fact of how the people react to Syndra when I went around with her inside the city, up until now I have not asked her once why they are acting like that towards her and since she didn’t mention it either I felt I needed to be respectful and not ask if she didn’t want to say it herself, but from what I had gathered I can already tell that maybe there is something here that I am completely missing, and don’t be worried, I already think of miss Syndra as a friend, I don’t know what she thinks about me, but since she helped me ever since I came here I feel that she is a good person and someone worth talking to, originally I was going to wait until I got to school to ask around and see why Syndra is so disliked, but now that you are even asking me a favor, I think I can ask you directly sir George.

Hearing his words, the kitten looked momentarily confused as he stared at David not sure what he was getting at, David himself didn’t know what he was getting at either and instead was hoping that maybe George could answer his confusion and bring clarity, but looking at him that didn’t seem to be the case, but suddenly a lightbulb seemed to light up inside the kitten’s small head as his eyes shone with a magical light before looking as if he had just now realized something incredibly shocking.

-wait a second, before I answer you anything young lad, can you tell me what you think of the young lady of the Dragora household.

-You mean senior Syndra?

-Yes.

The kitten affirmed, intensely staring at David as he didn’t understand the point of the question, but he didn’t question it as he just thought about what he should say, and honestly he didn’t really need to think too much since he already knew what to say without thinking about it.

-Senior Syndra, my first impression of her was that she is very cold, by the book and confrontational, later when she helped me and saved from some not so pleasant folks I came to understand that her cold exterior was just a way for her to protect herself from all the people who acted in kind towards her, talking with her I understood that it was actually easy to talk to her and that she was just a normal girl like any other only with a few problems that weighed on her, overall she is a nice girl and I like her? Is what I think haha.

David laughed shyly as he couldn’t help but blush from saying something so embarrassing so easily, he regretted not thinking about his words, but George was different, he was glad that David spoke his mind without considering anything and even felt delighted as he didn’t expect David to hold such a high opinion of that girl, furthermore listening to David he quickly came to understand what this missing gap was that David referred to when he said he couldn’t understand why the people acted so cold towards Syndra.

He now knew what was going on, but at the same time he couldn’t believe someone like David actually existed in this world which made him feel suspicious as he started to doubt his judgement furrowing his little eyes as he stared at David.

-(There can be only 3 answers to explain his behavior and thinking, 1. he is acting and actually wants something from Syndra by deliberately getting close to her. 2. he really is a saint and doesn’t judge people easily by outer appearance no matter how hideous or 3 he doesn’t possess any beauty standards or possess weird tastes which is why he doesn’t realize why Syndra isn’t very well liked.)

Out of those 3 answers George immediately eliminated the first one as David was simply too young and George was simply too old for him to be able to deceive this old cat who had already experienced too much in his life to not notice when someone was lying, the second answer was still up for the debate while the third one George was hesitant about as he couldn’t really imagine someone as David existing since it would require for David to have lived under a rock his entire life without ever having communicated with the opposite sex, him having devious taste is more likely, but so far George couldn’t tell if that was true either which is why he would test his theory right here and now.

-lad, can you humor me for a second and tell me what you think of this?

The kitten said suddenly projecting yellow out of its eyes as smoke started to come out and form into a human shape before manifesting into an actual human.

David not sure what was going on stepped back as he didn’t know what kind of magic the cat was playing at; it was only after seeing the smoke had turned into a woman that he guessed that it may be some kind of illusion.

The woman in question was quite slender in fact like a chopstick, she had short hair and wore a tight fitting dress, her facial features were clean and elegant while her height was shorter than David’s by at least 10 cms making her somewhere between 170 to 175 cms tall, looking at this woman David thought that she was cute and pleasant which is what he said to George who didn’t look like he had a particular opinion about his answer before making the illusion disappear.

-Then how about this one.

Next he summoned another human illusion, again a woman, but this time the woman stood taller than the one before, close to or at least higher then David in fact, she also had longer hair that went all the way down her waist just like Syndra, and just like Syndra she also had completely filled out proportions that made her into a seductress, her attire didn’t reduce her sex appeal either as she wore something like a military uniform that was tight around her body, her breasts were big, her legs were long and her thighs in particular were the focal point putting David into a confusion as he wasn’t sure where to look at without turning red.

But on another more interesting note, the more the he looked at this hot mature woman, the more he started to notice how similar she was to Syndra, the skin color was the only major difference as Syndra had ashen skin while this woman had clear white complexion, their hair was also the same dark gray and their eye color were identical as well together with their lips with purple being the main motif.

If David wasn’t so close to this woman and observing her this closely he wouldn’t have doubted her to be Syndra from a distance, really she looked like Syndra’s older sister, she had a aura about her that spoke of experience, if Syndra was perpetually cold then this woman had already grown out of that phase and was instead just perpetually cool and a bit aloof really.

-Very well, what is your opinion?

Noticing that David had been taking a bit too much time in admiring his illusion, George started to get a bit impatient, hearing him David, snapped out of his thoughts and quickly tried to think of something to say, but this time it was tougher as there were simply too many things for David to say, all of which were slightly inappropriate and maybe could be taken as perverted.

He needed to really think this out through if he didn’t want to be seen as a pervert.

-Ehm…she is more womanly I guess?

-More womanly? What do you mean?

George raised his tiny eyebrows not sure what to take out of that answer asking him to elaborate, being asked to be more precise David was half convinced that the kitten was trying to make David say something inappropriate, but he kept that to himself and simply thought about a fitting word all the while his eyes were glued to this woman’s thighs that were exposed.

-How do I say this…her figure is extremely passion inducing, if the earlier woman was a lotus flower then this woman is a rose, is what I want to say.

-Hmm…a lotus and a rose huh…

Feeling as if the kitten had now gleamed something out of his answer with his emphasizing sigh David wasn’t sure if it was bad or good, but looking at it the entire point of this questioning seemed extremely pointless to David to the point he was about to forget how they even came to this questioning in the first place only to remember that they were talking about Syndra, he was about to ask what this questioning had to do with her, but couldn’t as the kitten had beat him to a question.

-On another note, between the lotus and the rose, which do you prefer? And don’t be shy, take this a conversation between men, nothing said here will find itself into the ear of others so be honest lad.

Suddenly being pressured by the kitten, David gave up entirely as he plainly admitted what his preference was as he spoke with his head down in shame.

-The rose, I like roses more.

-huh…

Again that sigh, he didn’t like it, but put up with it before the kitten once again gleamed with its eyes and made the illusion disappear, now looking far happier than before and staring at David with a expectant glint in its eyes.

-By the way, the rose that you had just seen was actually the young lady Dragora’s mother, she is the current head of house Dragora and her name is Vitra Dragora, she is 38 this year and single.

-Ehhh…I am not sure why you are telling me this but I appreciate the info !

David replied, now feeling even more ashamed as he realized that he was ogling Syndra’s mother the entire time, if he felt like a pervert before, now he felt like a total scumbag as well for ogling the mother of his benefactor, it didn’t help that the kitten had to add the last part which was totally unnecessary which made him feel uncomfortable.

Now sweat was started to build onto David as he was slowly starting to get tired, he had already spent the entire day talking with Syndra in that restaurant, now having to deal with this mysterious cat doing his highly questionable questionnaires put him in even more drained state than before.

David honestly wanted to leave, but at the same time Syndra’s problem was still not very well explained to him which was the entire reason why he hesitated to go, the cat obviously knew something and he also guessed that the questioning wasn’t as pointless as it seemed even if it looked like he was playing with him.

And David was right to think that, George had now fully understood what was up, or at least thought he knew since he assumed that it was likely that David simply didn’t discriminate against anyone which is why he didn’t feel repulsed by Syndra or her mother’s appearance, and the fact that he wasn’t aware of it only served to make him more confused as he couldn’t get how a kid like David could come to existence even though the invitation clearly stated the he lived in this kingdom his entire life which should have made him just the same as everyone else, could it be that David was simply so naturally pure of heart that no amount of external stimuli could convince him otherwise? George wondered.

And while all of this was a curious indeed, it didn’t actually matter in the end as George realized that the only thing that mattered now was whether or not he should explain this to David.

Not explaining him anything had its upside after all as that would make David not treat Syndra specially and just continue treating her like a normal girl just like she wished, but George knew that eventually with or without his explanation David would understand from context clues or even through the mouths of others what was up.

Telling him now would likely be in this case the most time saving and the best course of decision he could make which is what he immediately did as he started to explain the truth of the matter to David in a very unceremonious matter.

David’s expression at first was calm as he listened, but the more he heard the more he started to understand that his standard of beauty was completely out of whack in this world turning his expression into a black one mixed with small amounts of surprise beneath his lips.

At the end George finally decided to leave as he easily melded into the darkness leaving David all alone to ponder as he came out with the ultimate answer that he couldn’t quite believe.

All along…it had turned out, that they avoided Syndra because she was ugly.

And it wasn’t just ugly, in this world people like Syndra were considered hideous.

That day David considered for a moment how ugly a person had to be for everyone to avoid them and feel disgusted by them, and how difficult it was for that person.

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If you want to read more, over 10 chapters of this series is on my site https://kakemonoko.wordpress.com/ please check it out if you like.