Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Huh…" Alize was sitting against a tree and reading a book when Griar came up to her with a question, surprisingly, there was no swarm of admirers today.

"...Did you try to give her gifts?" she asked.

"Of course" he replied, Griar had been showering Flor in gifts like it was second instinct to him, in fact, he was mostly offering her freshly picked fruit, which were always perfect thanks to assistance from the twins, as well as things that he baked himself, actually, he realised that he was giving her food all the time, perhaps he still unconsciously saw her as the unhealthily skinny girl?

"And she accepts them, right?"

"Yes"

"Well, is she happy about it? Like, visibly?"

"Yes" he said again.

"That's a good sign! If she didn't like you, receiving gifts would probably make her feel a bit awkward, or she would seem a bit uncomfortable at the attention, if neither of those things happen, then she probably likes you" spoke Alize, sneakily raising her book up to shield her face.

"Alize?"

"...Listen Griar… I really do not know anything about romance!"

"But, you are an expert in charm magic, to cast such spells so well, surely you have an understanding of the concept of charm" he replied, in his case, better understanding how wind works naturally had certainly helped him improve greatly.

And considering just how proficient Alize was, capable of charming something and have it stop its own heart out of love, he had even seen her charm a tree, or use her magic on a bee hive to cause them to rapidly multiply, allowing for triple the amount of pollinators compared to normal, greatly enhancing harvests, especially when coupled with the nature magic of the twins.

Clearly, she should be knowledgeable, even if on a purely theoretical level.

"Mmh… I am afraid that my expertise isn't of much use here… My magic doesn't exactly function by using the typical means, if, for example, I casted a spell on someone to make them fall in love with me, what I would be doing is affecting their body, their hormones and mind into manifesting the symptoms of intense love, whether I am using a more permanent spell or just a temporary one doesn't matter, the charm occurs by basically tricking them into provoking a strong reaction to me, at least, that's how I usually cast my spells… I could also stay purely on the magical level of things and not affect their bodily functions, but the result is basically the same, one is just less intrusive…"

She faked a cough.

"Like… I wanted some peace and quiet to read my book today, so I made my admirers get charmed with something else so that they would leave"

"Ah, so that explains that…"

Alize's mana trait caused her to constantly emit charm mana, a sort of natural, constantly active spell that made anyone that looked or was physically close to her be enamoured, Griar was fine because he knew to maintain a mana resistance at all times, technically, he didn't need to do that all the time, but he was far too afraid of even a singular second of being affected, the simple thought of that made him want to puke, so he had learned to maintain that resistance even while asleep, just in case.

That effect was also a bit more random, unless she focused on controlling it more precisely, it would cause different reactions in people, some would feel like Alize was their fated one, whilst others would instead feel nothing but unbridled lust.

Moreover, because she was attractive normally, many of the boys her age were even more susceptible to the effects of her charm mana as they were already infatuated with Alize.

"What I mean… Is that my expertise is clinical, I don't have a clue how people 'flirt' or whatever- I could cast a spell on Flor though, I can definitely do that!"

"Huh… Please don't"

"Ah… Not a charming spell! I wouldn't suggest that, ahah… But I am a spell to check if someone has feelings for someone else, you know? We could just check directly if she likes you already, and if she does, we can check how strong those feelings are as well! That would save some time… If she doesn't like you there is always a spell I can use to change that-"

"Let's calm down!" Griar was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with his sisters, if he went and asked Lizi or Louizon for advice, he felt that they would tell him something even worse.

"No need to cast any spell, I would rather do things organically, you know? Regular romance?"

"Huh… Well, I can't help with that, when a someone approaches me that is trying to hit on me, and has good enough magic to resist the charm mana, I run away"

Griar looked at his older sister with an unreadable expression.

"Why do you run away?"

"Relationships are scary…"

Griar rubbed the bridge of his nose, why did it feel like none of his sisters would ever do as much as hold a man's hand? Were the older siblings her admired all unfit as members of a collective? Would he ever have any niece or nephew? Was he his mother's only hope toward having grandchildren?

"Also, sometimes their mana resistance is a bit flawed, one tried to strike up a conversation, but mid-sentence got affected by my mana and tried to grope me"

"...Who?"

"I mean, it wasn't his fault, energy manipulation is not so easy, and he didn't realise that the spell would be eroded when meeting my mana, so he didn't focus on maintaining and repairing it-"

"Who?"

"He tried to, but didn't succeed, so it's alright, it's not like it was his intention anyways-"

"Who?"

"Mmh…"

"Somebody is dying tonight, who is he?"

"I think you should calm down…"

"I am perfectly calm"

"Are you sure? I can feel you preparing a wind blade spell…"

"Yes, I am calmly preparing a wind blade spell, now, would you mind telling me who it was?"

"You have to promise not to hit or hurt him in any way, he is innocent!"

"Oh, I'll be very gentle as I break all of his teeth"

"That doesn't sound very gentle at all…"

"Just tell me his name, I am just going to talk to him"

___

After a civil discussion, Griar resumed his quest of asking for love advice, but since none of his sisters seemed to have a clue, he had to broaden his horizons, and thus, went to ask Antieeld.

The commandant was a woman about as old as his mother, surely, she had at least had one romance in her life…