Reborn As Noble

After a while, as they chewed on the roasted meat, Javier's eyes flicked between Liana and Gloria. The two girls quietly tended the grill, calmly flipping sizzling pieces while nibbling on what was ready.

The smell of smoke and fat filled the clearing, but Javier's mind was elsewhere.

He swallowed, then leaned back against the log.

"Ari? Aria?" he called softly.

Liana and Gloria froze, both glancing at him.

"…Young master?" Liana asked cautiously.

Javier ignored her, staring at the fire.

"Ari? Aria?" he repeated, sharper this time.

For a moment, silence.

Then.

"Yawn~ what!?" a languid voice rang inside Gloria's body. Aria's tone was drawn out, irritated, like someone dragged from bed.

Javier nearly facepalmed.

"Ugh… you both should come out properly. Why respond like that from inside them?"

"Haaaa… too lazy to come out," Aria replied, her voice echoing faintly from within Gloria.

Javier clicked his tongue. "This one…"

He shook his head. "Just come out."

A long pause. Then a resigned groan.

"…Ugh, fine."

The air above Gloria shimmered faintly. The mana around her rippled, and a bright silhouette began to peel away from her body, like light being pulled out of glass. Slowly, the shape condensed into a feminine figure.

Her bare feet touched the ground with a soft glow, long hair crackling with sparks of light.

Aria appeared, scratching her head lazily, her expression half-bored, half-annoyed.

She gave Javier a narrowed look, voice dripping with complaint.

"What do you want now, young lord?"

"I want to ask you a question, Aria. Where is Ari?" Javier asked Aria.

Aria scratched lazily at her belly, tones flat.

"This young man keeps calling. Ari, you hear him?"

Beside Liana, a faint shimmer appeared as a timid figure slowly formed. Ari fidgeted with her hands, eyes darting nervously before she stammered,

"U-Umm… y-yes?"

Javier let out a long sigh. These two… ever since his father, Garius, harmoniously sealed them inside Liana and Gloria, their attitudes had shifted completely. When they first met on the hill behind the Armand estate, they were sharp, proud, and overwhelming. Now? One had become rough and lazy, the other meek and easily flustered.

Aria tilted her head, annoyance in her voice.

"So? What do you want, young lord?"

Javier folded his arms.

"I just want to ask you both a couple of things. If you don't mind."

Aria glanced at him, then scratched her head, looking bothered.

"…Fine. So what do you want to know?"

"You both are Celestial, right?" Javier asked bluntly.

"Huh? We're not," Aria said without hesitation.

Javier blinked, staring at her.

"…What? But aren't you both Celestial? Like the others?"

"Since when were we Celestial?" Aria scoffed. "People call us that, but the truth? We're not."

"Huh!?" Javier leaned forward, confusion flashing across his face.

"If you're not Celestial, then what are you?"

Aria's lips curved into a faint smirk as she leaned back casually.

"The people call us Celestial, and those so-called 'Celestials' themselves claim it proudly. But the truth? None of us are. Do you know what a true Celestial even is, young lord?"

Javier narrowed his eyes. "…An entity above mortals. Divine, spiritual, connected to something greater than the ground we walk on."

"Exactly," Aria said. "But what they are? What we are? That's something else entirely."

"Ehh!?" Liana and Gloria's voices overlapped in shock.

Aria spoke with her usual casual tone, lifting a piece of grilled meat and blowing gently to cool it before taking a bite.

"Your people in this world call us Celestial. We never claimed we were."

Ari shifted uncomfortably, but added in her soft, hesitant voice,

"U-umm… but because people believe we are Celestial, the other things that claim they are… also believe it themselves."

Javier furrowed his brow, watching the two with growing curiosity.

Aria continued, still chewing leisurely, her words coming between bites.

"We're just entities that carry a power. A power that can be used for good… or bad. That's all. But among all the seven that you call Celestial, including us, the way to claim that power differs. And your father knows it."

Javier's expression stiffened slightly at the mention of his father.

"That's why they split into two types," Aria went on, swallowing the last of her meat.

"Good and bad. With your father's way… we became harmony. We don't create filth like the others."

Her blunt words hung in the air, the firelight flickering across Liana and Gloria's faces. Both maids exchanged uneasy glances, realizing the weight of what was being revealed.

Javier leaned back, eyes narrowed. His mind spun. If what they were saying was true, then everything the world believed about the Celestials, about these so-called divine beings, was only half the story.

"But my father did call you Celestial before, remember? At the top of the hill, where you went, 'Ahn~ Garius~ you came and gave me a vessel~'…" He deliberately mimicked Aria's seducing tone, twirling his fingers as if teasing.

Aria blinked, then let out a low chuckle, shoulders shaking.

"Ahh, that time? Your father didn't know what to call us. We're in a category that isn't really 'Celestial'… but not mortal either. If you call us spirit, well, humans have spirits too. If you call us demon, this world already has demonkin. So… it's confusing."

She stretched her legs casually, still smiling as she spoke.

"So your father said Celestial in front of you all simply because there wasn't a better word. But Garius knows well… we are not Celestial. We're just beings that carry a tremendous amount of power. Power not many people can possess by nature."

Ari nodded timidly, adding in her soft voice,

"Not by claiming it, but by… talent. Like being born with it."

Aria turned her eyes toward the flames of the grill, her grin fading into something sharper.

"Well… except your father. He's scary. Very scary."

Javier leaned forward, eyes narrowing.

Aria casually waved her hand, still munching.

"We were just a thing… associated with elements or specific powers. Calling us Celestial is… weird." She smirked, tilting her head. "If you want to know what a Celestial really is, you know there's someone—"

Her voice cut off mid-sentence.

Because Ari's glare bore into her like daggers.

Aria blinked, lips twitching. "Ah… well… nothing. So, is that all you want to know, young lord?" She shifted, clearly trying to brush past the subject.

Javier's eyes sharpened. "What do you mean there's someone?"

Before Aria could respond, she suddenly gasped, her grin twisting. She jabbed her finger upward.

"Ah! Garius!!!"

With that, both Aria and Ari's forms shimmered, their presence folding like smoke sucked into a vessel. In an instant, they vanished back into the bodies that housed them.

( End Of Chapter )