“So… would anybody be so kind to explain to me what happened? Pretty please?”

Although she was visibly and audibly bothered by the situation, her clear voice was still pleasant to hear. It was understandable she was not very keen on having to deal with Lily’s tantrum, considering how it furtherly aggravated the load of work she had to deal with.

“Lily, do not bother Faye. Now come, this spar is not finished yet,” I tried to sway her once again, with little success.

“No! Help me, Faye! He’s being mean!” Lily cried out, while vainly trying to conceal her robust body behind Faye’s much leaner constitution. Lily’s usual fiery temper had completely disappeared, but it was understandable: she liked to fight, not being punished.

Due to her numerous commitments, we couldn’t spend much time together, so it was enjoyable to see her outside of work hours, even in this kind of situation.

Several years had passed since the re-foundation of the Gamma Perimeter, and Faye had grown up and bloomed into a beautiful young woman, a little shy of twenty-five years of age. She had let her hair grow out during the years and now used to wear them in a practical but still elegant chignon.

During the years she had discovered she had a taste for floral motives, as could be inferred from the bun chopstick which kept her hair together and the elegant blue dress adorned with graceful representations of hyacinths. Although she had never admitted it clearly, I knew the reason behind her new tastes in clothing was that those kinds of attires reminded her of the old days at the Gamma.

Her figure, although slim, was certainly not scrawny, as she always made sure to dedicate part of her day to cultivating her physical fitness. Had it not been for her chronic lack of sleep she would have looked like the epitome of health. Fortunately enough her naturally good skin went a good way in compensating for it.

“... I can roughly see that,” Faye commented with a sigh, looking at Lily’s left cheek, severely reddened and swollen due to the few slaps which had reached her face in retaliation to the crime she had perpetrated early in the morning. It was not the first time I saw this kind of reaction, as it was not the first time we had found ourselves in this kind of situation.

No matter how much time had passed, it was always curious to see how the relationship between the two had developed during the time they had spent together here at the Gamma.

It had been roughly three years since Lily’s father Tobias had approached me, requesting me to host her here in my home. Although I had found it to be quite a strange request, as it was under the justification of keeping her in a safer place, I nevertheless complied, as I owed him one.

He was the one who had directly stepped up when things had taken a turn for the worst. Sabotages aimed to damage the restoration efforts of the Gamma had slowly grown in number and severity, even after the recruitment of personnel from the Alpha. Skirmishes broke out along the supply routes. In the end, men directly under Tobias’ command had to intervene to stabilize the situation, as forces of the Epsilon had refused to intervene, even if theoretically it fell under their jurisdiction. I would have taken matters into my own hands, had it not been for Tobias dissuading me, as it would have furtherly exacerbated our relationship with the Sloans.

Anyway, things quieted down after the Alpha intervention, and even if some disturbances continued to pop up every now and then, the restoration and repopulation plans could be carried on according to the plans, especially thanks to Faye’s managerial work and Jonah's finding the necessary manpower.

The only real change was the arrival of Lily as a new permanent resident of the Gamma. After a brief period of homesickness, she quickly got accustomed to her new way of living, which perfectly suited her. Her daily life consisted in eating and sleeping plenty while spending most of her waking hours “training”, which mostly consisted in trying to inflict as much damage as possible to my body. It was a way of living which perfectly befitted her fiery fighting character.

The only troubling matter which arose was Faye’s not looking so keenly on her arrival, because of the amount of time Lily and I ended up spending in each other's company. The tension between the two brewed for some time, although only from Faye’s point of view, as Lily wasn’t one to pay much attention to this kind of thing. Fortunately, it rapidly dissipated once Faye realised what kind of person Lily was and what she actually devoted her attention to.

After that, she opened herself to Lily and the two became as close as sisters, an impression which was reinforced from an outsider’s point of view by the similarity in their looks. Curiously enough, while in the beginning the two could have been mistaken as twins, in only three years Lily’s figure had mutated significantly, both in body constitution, with her growing taller and more robust, and facial features, which had become more defined. She had grown to better resemble how I had originally envisioned her physique.

Their sisterly bond could be clearly detected in Lily’s behaviour, which recalled a younger sister asking her older sibling to protect her from a bully.

“Now, what happened John?” Faye’s words recalled my attention.

“I already told you! He struck me, you need to tell him he should be nicer!”

“Lily, please, you’ve been shouting the same thing for ten minutes, let me hear out John. Moreover, it’s not like I can tell him what he should or shouldn’t do”

“Oh come on, you know that’s not true! You are the only one he actually listens to!”

I couldn’t do anything but agree with her as she actually had a point.

“Lily needed to be taught once and again that she really needs to learn how to reel herself in,” I finally intruded into the conversation.

Faye looked at me and rolled her eyes.

“Didn’t we already talk about this, John? About how your ‘teaching’ methods tend to be a bit rough?”

“Yes, tell her!” Lily intervened, emerging from behind Lily with a victorious shout.

She flinched once I laid my eyes on her, and she sheltered behind Faye once again.

I returned my gaze to Faye and opened my mouth.

“She broke the book,” I simply stated.

Faye’s brow furrowed.

“The book?” she repeated inquisitively, before opening her eyes wide.

“The book about frogs?” she asked in a high pitch.

I responded with a nod. She turned her head to look at Lily with an angered frown.

“Lily! It was a birthday gift! Do you know how long it took me to make it?! It was entirely made by hand, even the paper! I cannot believe it, I had to find old paper production methods…”

The body of the shuddering Lily seemed to grow smaller and smaller under Faye’s furious tirade. Although she feared my “teaching sessions” quite a bit, she dreaded even more Faye’s scoldings, and she instinctively knew I would have not appreciated much her arguing back.

I decided to leave the two to their own devices. Faye’s barrage would take quite a while, as she had lots of pent-up stress to let out. I considered it punishment enough for Lily, although I was still quite displeased by having lost Faye’s gift.

Moreover, there was something that had seemingly come up that I needed to take care of.

“Sire, forgive me for troubling you, but there is a guest here hoping to meet you. I thought it might interest you,” the captain of the guards told me while emerging from behind the bushes.

“Show the way, Hector,” I responded, following in his trail.