Nidi saw how serious Roy looked and immediately knew it was about something important.
"Should I maybe step out for a bit?"
Jennifer shook her head. "No need. Nidi already knows everything about me."
Looks like Jennifer had spilled the beans to Nidi over the past month, including her relationship with Roy and the other soul inside her, Lilith.
With that out in the open, Roy didn't hold back around Nidi. "How's Emma been doing lately?"
As soon as Jennifer heard it was about Emma, her expression turned strange. "You know what? Lilith should probably tell you about Emma."
With that, Jennifer closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her whole vibe had changed. She was suddenly all flirty and seductive.
"Oh, well hello there, Master Roy. What can I do for you?"
Nidi stared at Roy and Lilith in shock, totally surprised by their dynamic.
Being a homebody who spends a lot of time online, Nidi pretty much knew the score. Her theoretical knowledge was solid – she probably knew more than Jennifer in some ways – but she just didn't have any real-world experience. That's why she immediately understood what Lilith was implying.
Feeling Nidi's weird stare, Roy's face darkened. "Didn't I tell you not to call me master?"
Lilith put on a deliberately surprised look. "Did you? But I remember you seemed pretty thrilled when I called you master before!"
This is getting way too complicated!
This whole back-and-forth was happening right in front of Nidi, making her regret ever staying.
"I, uh, I think I'll just head out. You guys have a good chat!" Nidi said, her face bright red. She stood up to make a run for it, but Roy quickly grabbed her arm, otherwise things would get really awkward.
"Hold up! Let's not talk about that anymore! Lilith, I just wanted to ask you about Emma."
Lilith finally stopped joking around and got down to business. "If nothing goes wrong, Emma should be awakening her witch abilities pretty soon."
"That soon?" Roy was surprised.
He'd looked into witches a bit and knew that they seem normal at birth. It's not until puberty, usually during a period of intense emotional upheaval, that their witch talents awaken.
Jennifer, for example, had awakened after the Halloween incident last year, though she hadn't realized it at the time.
Nidi looked at Roy and Lilith with a bit of confusion. "Isn't a witch awakening a good thing?"
Lilith explained, as she and Nidi got along pretty well. "It's not that simple. When a witch awakens, it creates noticeable supernatural phenomena, especially the stronger the witch is. The waves produced during this awakening can attract the attention of the Witch Coven!"
Lilith had mentioned the Witch Coven more than once. Roy had even asked Saltana about them when he was in Los Angeles.
The Witch Coven was founded in the late 17th century because of the famous Salem Witch Trials.
Back in 1692, in Salem Town, Massachusetts, a pastor's daughter suddenly fell ill with a strange sickness. The church believed it was witchcraft, so they started a witch hunt. Innocent people were constantly persecuted, and eventually, 19 people were hanged, and one was crushed to death with stones.
That was Roy's understanding of the Salem Witch Trials from his past life. The event had a huge impact, so it was often adapted or mentioned in various American cultural products.
In this world, the Salem Witch Trials were a bit different. There actually was a witch who awakened her powers and lost control, leading to a series of tragedies.
So, some of the witches at the time decided to band together. Partly to fight against the church's persecution, and partly to ensure that when new witches awakened, they wouldn't cause similar horrific events.
In modern times, with the church's power weakened, the Witch Coven's life was much easier.
Now, the Witch Coven has a working relationship with the FEA, but their main area of operation is on the East Coast. They're not as common out west.
"The Witch Coven possesses some kind of artifact that can monitor the waves produced when a witch awakens. As soon as a witch awakens, they'll be discovered and taken away."
Lilith definitely didn't want Emma to be taken by the Witch Coven. After all, the little girl had considerable talent, and if she were taken by the Coven, it would just strengthen her daughter's power.
Hearing this, Nidi was curious again. "Then why didn't the Witch Coven show up when Jennifer awakened?"
"That's because I also woke up at the same time as Jennifer. I used witchcraft to mask the waves produced when Jennifer awakened, so we weren't discovered by the Witch Coven."
That explanation made sense to Nidi.
Then Roy had another question. "Why is Emma awakening so early? That doesn't seem normal, does it?"
There's a reason why witches awaken their powers during puberty. Their bodies and minds reach the necessary conditions for awakening at that time.
But Emma was only eight years old. Physically, she shouldn't meet the criteria for awakening yet.
Lilith pursed her lips. "My guess is that Emma has some kind of special bloodline. This makes her mind stronger than that of a typical witch, which is why she can awaken early. But this also means she's more dangerous."
Back in ancient times, angels, demons, humans, and all sorts of other monsters could roam freely in the human world, which is why so many weird bloodlines came into being.
But one day, good old Grandpa God apparently felt like things were getting out of hand, so he caused a great flood and wiped out the whole world.
Most creatures with special bloodlines were wiped out in that flood, but a small number of these unique bloodlines still survived.
Jennifer, for example, was someone who carried the bloodline of the original witch, Lilith.
"So, do you know what kind of special blood Emma has?" Roy asked.
Lilith shook her head. "Not sure. Emma hasn't shown any signs of regressing to an ancestor, but I'm pretty sure it's not some kind of higher-realm bloodline. It's likely related to Hell, which is probably why that little kid has such a strange and extreme personality."
Emma's personality was indeed very gloomy, not like a normal child at all.
Roy had interacted with several kids around Emma's age in the past few days, like Ceci and Mike.
Mike was even the same age as Emma and might go to the same elementary school later on, but even though Mike was introverted, he wasn't as odd as Emma.
Roy looked thoughtful, then remembered another question. "I've noticed Emma seems a little afraid of you. What's up with that?"
"Well, I was trying to help Emma mask the waves from her witch awakening, but for some reason, that kid was always really resistant to me. So, I used a little trick, and then she started being afraid of me."
Looks like Lilith had scared Emma, giving the little kid some kind of trauma.
But Emma was very polite and kept her distance from everyone. It just seemed like she had a particular dislike for Lilith, or maybe Jennifer, and nobody knew why.
"Alright, well, I'll talk to Emma and try to reason with her after I take her home tonight."
Lilith scoffed. "I don't think you need to bother. Even though that little brat isn't very old, she's got a lot on her mind. I don't know what kind of family could raise a kid like that."
Yeah, Emma's situation was definitely unusual.
After chatting about Emma, Roy continued talking with Nidi and Lilith for a while longer. It wasn't until Nidi's mother, Rebecca, knocked on the door that they realized it was almost midnight.
Even though Rebecca and Arthur had accepted Roy as their son-in-law, there was no way they were going to let Roy stay overnight in their daughter's room.
So, Roy said goodbye to Nidi's family and took Emma back to his own place.
Emma sat in the back seat with a blank expression, seemingly lost in thought.
Remembering Elizabeth's earlier warning, Roy decided to talk to Emma. "Hey Emma, have you been doing okay at my place for the past month or so?"
A flawless, perfect smile spread across Emma's face, brighter than any toothpaste commercial. "It's been good. I really like Waterfall Town!"
"Don't you miss your old home and your dad?"
Roy caught a barely perceptible change in Emma's eyes.
"Of course, I miss my old home and my dad. I wonder when we'll be able to go back."
Emma's mood started to seem down. Every movement, every expression was incredibly precise, like it had been perfectly rehearsed.
This made Roy frown slightly.
Everything was perfect, but it felt way too fake!
People aren't robots; they can't be that perfect. And even robots can have bugs.
The more Emma acted this way, the more Roy felt like something was seriously wrong with her. But her current attitude was completely uncooperative. It looked like he would still need to talk to her parents about a solution.
After all, Roy didn't have any kids of his own and didn't have any experience in this area.
Back home, Emma went to her bedroom to rest on her own, while Roy went back to his room to make a phone call.
"Hey Dad, it's Roy."
"Roy? What's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you about Emma."
"Emma? Are you home?"
"Yeah, I wanted to know what Emma's original family situation was like."
Hearing this, Phillip Black on the other end of the phone couldn't help but sigh. "Emma's family situation is pretty complicated. Her mother passed away from an illness a long time ago, and her father raised her all by himself. A few months ago, Emma's father, who is your uncle, suddenly had a psychotic break and tried to kill Emma. Emma was very lucky. A neighbor happened to see it and shot Emma's father, severing his spine. Now her father is in a vegetative state. Maybe that's what traumatized Emma, being harmed by her own father like that."
Wow, Emma really had such a messed-up past.
But Roy didn't get the feeling that Emma was acting like someone who had been traumatized.
"So, what should we do?"
"Roy, I've already made an appointment for Emma with a well-known child psychologist in Austin. We won't be able to get back for a few days, so I'd like you to take Emma to see the doctor."
So Phillip had already taken care of it. There wasn't much more to say then.
"Okay, when is it?"
"It's this weekend at ten o'clock in the morning. I'll send you the contact information and the address."
Roy hung up the phone, hoping this psychologist could help Emma get back to normal.
He went to Emma's bedroom and glanced at her sleeping.
Sleeping Emma was actually pretty cute, way cuter than when she was awake.
Roy pulled the blanket that had slipped off back over the little girl and went back to his own room to rest.
The next day, Roy went back to his school routine. First, he dropped Emma off at her school, then he picked up Jennifer and Nidi to take them to school.
Having been absent from campus for a month, many students were really surprised to see Roy.
"Roy, I thought you dropped out!" Nancy exclaimed, looking pretty excited to see him.
Roy was confused. "Huh?"
"How could such a ridiculous rumor get started? I just took some time off!"
Then, Carly came over. "I think I heard that rumor too."
Roy was pretty annoyed. "Who started that?"
Carly thought for a moment, then shook her head, indicating she didn't know.
Then, Peggy, who had been secretly listening the whole time, raised her hand. "I know, I know! Those kinds of rumors at school are usually spread by Wade!"
Roy looked over at Wade and saw him shrinking in the corner, looking like he was terrified of being seen.
"Wade..." Roy said, drawing out the name.
Wade looked at Roy awkwardly. "Boss, I just said you might have gone to play professionally. I don't know how it turned into the rumor that you dropped out."
Wade was really scared of Roy now, terrified that Roy was going to beat him up.
Roy decided to give him some "face" and gave the guy a suplex right there in front of everyone.
"Don't let me hear you spreading rumors about me again!" Roy warned.
"I messed up, Boss!" Wade yelped.
Just then, Mr. Mills walked into the classroom. He looked at Wade lying on the floor with a confused expression. "Mr. Wade, what exactly are you doing?"
Wade quickly scrambled to his feet. "Mr. Mills, I was just feeling a little hot, so I lay down on the floor to cool off."
"Mr. Wade, if you're really that hot, I suggest you go jump into the Great Falls. That would probably work a little better," Mr. Mills said dryly, then announced the official start of class.
Roy's class was nearing graduation for senior year, so the learning pace was inevitably a bit rushed.
But none of this mattered to Roy. He had already received his acceptance letter from UCLA. Even if he didn't attend another class for the rest of the year, he could still get into UCLA.
But there were other students in the class who wanted to go to college, and Roy wouldn't do anything to interfere with them.
After class, Wade suddenly approached Roy. "Boss, it's time to split the earnings."
"Let's talk somewhere a little more private," Roy suggested.
They went to a corner where no other students could see them. Wade took out a plastic bag and handed it to Roy. It was full of cash.
A quick glance told Roy there was probably around $100,000 in there.
But Roy had made a lot of big money in Los Angeles and wasn't really interested in this small amount anymore.
He casually took the money. Roy noticed that Wade had a hesitant expression, like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure how.
"Wade, is there anything else you wanted to say?" Roy asked.
Seeming to have made up his mind, Wade tentatively asked Roy, "Boss, I've found some weird stuff lately. Could you maybe take a look?"
The Bad Seed
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