#bby milla is adorable y'all

[yume-x-hanabi]

The Birth of Milla “Maxwell” #1

Chapter One

In a remote corner of Auj Oule, the country that covered the northern side of Rieze Maxia, lied a village where the Maxwell faith still remained strong: Nia Khera. This village was built by fervent believers of the spirit Maxwell, facing the Nia Khera Hallowmont, characterized by its stable spirit clime. A spirit clime was a special phenomenon in Rieze Maxia where spirits influenced the environment.

At the foot of the Hallowmont, at about a one-hour walk from the village, there was a shrine erected in honor of Maxwell. An old man entered the shrine, followed by a little boy with unsteady steps. The man walked to the center of the shrine, prostrated himself toward the altar, and spoke without raising his head.

“Lord Maxwell, I have come today with good news. Please take a look at this boy. At the tender age of two, he was seen conversing with monsters.”

The little boy was looking around the shrine restlessly. The old man put his hand on the boy’s head and made him kneel and bow his head toward the altar.

Facing the two was a young girl. She listened to the elder with a bored look and only replied “I see.”

“I was thinking that this boy, Ivar, would make a good handmaid for you, Lord Maxwell. He will serve and protect you.”

“No thanks.”

In contrast to the girl’s stiff and formal reply, her voice was cute like you would expect a six years old’s voice to be.

“...I beg your pardon?”

“I have the Four. So no thanks.”

“Yes, but... There are things that even the honorable four great spirits cannot help you with. Please reconsider.”

The girl—Milla—picked a book from the pile that was at her side and started reading it, showing the elder she was not interested in continuing the conversation.

Suddenly, the four shadows hovering around her materialized. They were the great spirit of fire Efreet, the great spirit of water Undine, the great spirit of wind Sylph and the great spirit of earth Gnome. Milla, whom the inhabitants of Nia Khera revered, was protected and raised by these four spirits.

Undine crouched down in front of Milla. “Milla, the elder is right. There are things that we spirits cannot provide you as a human. You will need a handmaid.”

Gnome rolled to Milla’s side. “What will you become if we cannot be there for you?”

“I’ll be fine with just you four.”

Sylph stretched out in the air and spoke impatiently, “But what about when we’re away? It’s time you got it into your head that you are Maxwell.”

“I know I’m Maxwell, but...” Milla trailed off. To tell the truth, she was intrigued by this handmaid business. But she knew that if she showed genuine interest, the ‘Maxwell awareness’ lecture would start without fault. Milla puffed her cheeks. She loved the Four, but she didn’t like it when they were harping on the same subject all the time.

She turned her back to them and straightened her posture, pretending to be reading more intently than before. Efreet, who had until then stayed out of the discussion, folded his arms and commented, “She’s a stubborn child.”

For as far as Milla remembered, the Four had always raised her with talks of her ‘awareness as Maxwell’, so she did not doubt that she was Maxwell, and knew that she was going to be the boss of all spirits when she grew up. But she did not truly understand what this ‘Maxwell awareness’ was. However often they taught her about it, no matter how many books she read, she could not find the answer in her shrine.

This is why one day, when the Four were away, she sneaked out of the shrine and went to Nia Khera. There were many humans in the village, and her curiosity was piqued by children around her age playing games she did not know. She felt the urge to play with them, but she did not know how to approach them.

By observing them, she noticed that a kid they called “it” had to find the other children while they were hiding. She wanted to ask them to let her join them, but for some reason she hesitated. Maybe she was not sure she had correctly guessed the rules, maybe she was afraid to talk to humans she met for the first time, or maybe she felt that such an act would go against the so-called ‘Maxwell awareness’… Milla herself was not sure why she held back. When she was debating whether to walk up to them, an old woman saw her and called out “Lord Maxwell!” Startled, Milla ran away, back to her shrine.

When she reached the shrine, she brushed the dust off her clothes so that the Four would not suspect anything. However, upon their return, they noticed that she was not her usual self and interrogated her about it. For the first time in her life, Milla ‘lied’. She read in a book that lying was part of human nature. When she thought about that, she could barely keep her excitement contained. In a way, her interest in humans was born that day.

Remembering that event, Milla slowly shifted her gaze from her book to sneak a peek behind her. When she did, she saw that the elder and Ivar were already gone. The Four’s lecture was over as well. The next moment, she heard a terrible scream, one that she could still hear when she covered her ears with her hands. She felt a piercing pain in her ears. Looking at the Four, she saw that they could hear it too.

“Undine! What’s happening? It hurts!”

“You can hear it too?” Undine asked, not bothering to hide her surprise.

“It not surprising, given how many lesser spirits just died in one go. It’s the first time it’s so intense,” Sylph explained.

“This spyrix is really powerful,” Gnome added.

“Spyrix? What’s that?”

Undine tried to reassure her. “Milla, you should not worry about this yet.”

“Wait, Undine. It might a good time to tell her about it.”

Undine and the other two understood why Efreet said that. It must mean that the time when she would realize what being Maxwell meant was coming closer. The three spirits nodded to Efreet, who then faced Milla and started talking in an uncharacteristically calm and soft voice.

“Milla, you came to the human world chasing after a specific group of people. But because you had to create a human body for yourself, you lost your memories of before...”

For some reason, there was some hesitation in Efreet’s voice.