D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 1539 Meghera and her Answers Part 2

--- Lily ---

”… a secret! Try asking for something else!” finished Meg after drawing out the silence as long as she possibly could.

*Really! All that build up just to say itʼs a secret*! Lily cursed mentally. It really was annoying, and she had the inexplicable urge to claw at Megʼs smug face for the injustice. Of course Lily was much too scared of Meg for that so she just grit her teeth and tried to come up with another question.

Lily wanted to ask about quite a few things… but in the end she decided to ask about something she vaguely remembered Hunter mentioning in the past. Lily wanted to confirm with Kat it existed, but that might take too long for Kat to double check.

Deciding not to risk it, Lily just went ahead and asked ”Um… so I think I remember Hunter mentioning that your free to leave the clan if you want, and she was… not all that complimentary about the people who stick around but still complain. So… if you donʼt like the clan why not just leave?”

Meg clicked her tongue… or at least Lily assumed so. Meg seemed to make the motions for it but no sound was produced, perhaps because Megʼs tongue was made of the same stuff as her skin? Regardless Meg did answer. ”Thatʼs a bit of an annoying question… but I love it. Donʼt be quite so scared! I want interesting questions you know.

Gotta make sure theyʼre at least a bit personal. Make me tempted not to answer! Of course if itʼs too much and I choose not to answer youʼve failed… so be a bit careful.

”Anyway… yeah thatʼs a thing. Sort of. Itʼs a lot like Hunter to just state itʼs a thing you can do without knowing what it entails. I bet she didnʼt look into it properly because she has no desire to leave. Well after… a certain issue with my parents I considered it pretty strongly. Hereʼs the rub though.

”If you leave the clan before getting your name? Itʼs a massive pain in the ass. First, they make you sign a massive number of forms and go through a rather extensive review process lasting up to a year. Once thatʼs complete, the clan will, in cases like myself where weʼre actually competent, conduct an interview which is more or less an attempt to browbeat you into staying.

”If that doesnʼt work, and youʼre still set on leaving? Well they hit you up with a choice. They provide an itemised list of everything the clan has ever provided you and youʼre given two options. Pay it off, and then choose which Hub you wish to join upon exiting the clan, or, you can go into debt and be shipped off to a new Hub, but of the clanʼs choosing.

Usually one with another branch of the clan so they can ensure you pay them back.”

Meg pulled out what looked like a candy bar from her storage and Lily wisely remained silent as Meg bit into it. The cracking sound it made when she did so made Lily suspect it might not be normal candy, but Meg seemed to be enjoying it so Lily just held her silence. Meg kept this up for a while, chewing through the entire thing and then bringing out a canteen and drinking from it.

During this process Hunter was slowly trying to bite her way through some of the blankets that had bound her… but she was having a hard time bending down to grab them. She was flexible yes, but fundamentally she could only bend so far before her chin impact her chest. To combat this, Hunter was trying to dig herself deeper into the bundle but it wasnʼt really working out.

Hunter didnʼt make any progress before Meg finished her snack and then patted Hunter on the head to show sheʼd noticed what was happening. ”Now, donʼt get me wrong. The clan isnʼt heartless. If youʼve got no talent at all they wonʼt charge you for EVERYTHING mostly just food and stuff. Theyʼll also let you pay it back really slowly across your natural life if you really need to.

”Itʼs the people like me they try to keep a hold on. The ones that are powerful or have a bunch of useful abilities. Iʼd be hit up with the cost of all my advanced classes, and theyʼd use the highest prices they could justify. Then theyʼd probably try to ensure I didnʼt make it to the transport out of the hub on time. It would be a massive mess, and just… a lot of effort to go through.

”But frankly? Iʼd miss a few people in the clan like my Lil Sis here. Thatʼs a big part of why they do it. Sure some people still take them up on the offer, especially if theyʼre really not suited for the life… but thatʼs the thing. If they arenʼt suited for the clan, the clan doesnʼt want to keep them around all that much either. For people like that leaving is quite easy.

They can skip a bunch of extra forms, and the review process likely wonʼt take the full year,”

Meg blew out a long breath as Hunter said. ”I did not realise it was such a difficult process for someone like you 23HX502”

”And I didnʼt know tying you up would drop your IQ to such a significant extent,” retorted Meg. ”More questions Lily? Iʼll give you… two points for that last one,”

Lily didnʼt know what that meant but she was feeling more confident ”So… whatʼs the deal with your parents? Youʼve sort of vaguely mentioned things but never the specifics,”

”Oooh, yeah that one is a doozy. Itʼs… complex and simple. Going over everything in regards to my relationship with them would take too long… so Iʼll just stick to the highlights. Hmm… guess weʼll start at the beginning. I was born and pretty quickly forgotten. My parents would hire someone to ensure I was fed, but didnʼt seem to care enough to ensure it was even the same one.

”That was not a great start to life, or at least I vaguely remember hating it but I have no proper memories of that time. As I grew up I started to hate hunting because I blamed it for my parents being away. So when I was sent into classes, primarily aimed at learning to hunt, I was not happy. I begged my parents not to go… but they just ignored me.

Thinking it was because I didnʼt want to go to school at all. At least, thatʼs my charitable impression of the situation. They could be much worse… but meh theyʼre bad enough.

”Anyway, from there I started to have fun sometimes. The clan may be massive cunts but they know how to train people and stoke interest. I just so happen to get top marks in a couple classes on semester, and my parents rewarded me for that. I got to spend a whole weekend celebrating! That was… I think that was the happiest weekend of my childhood.

”They then proceeded to sign me up for a bunch of advanced classes and they were terrible. Just… a lot of boring things that reminded me I didnʼt want hunting to be my life. So I said as much to my parents and they ignored me. Still, I tried my little hear out because I wanted to spend time with them again.

”Once it was done, I was told there were a number of advanced classes I qualified for and I asked not to be signed up for them… and I didnʼt get a celebration. My parents spent no extra time with me and the best I got was a ”weʼll deal with it” from my parents. Now I thought that meant I could go to a different school or something… but nope. They just picked my specialisations for me,”

Meg picked up the ball of Hunter and gave it a squeeze for a few moments before settling Hunter down again. ”Now, that wasnʼt great and really signalled the start of my disdain for my parents. It was a slow, creepy thing that really broke out when I got into my later teenage years.

I felt like I was being treated like a child, not allowed to choose my own path in life, and it was horribly grating… but that wasnʼt the worst part.

”No it was after I left school and started to earn money. See, my parents are both Rank 2 now. They were one for a long, long time and only somewhat recently Rank 2. I shot up from Rank 1 to 2 and then quickly to 3 not long after that. Took me less then a decade to get there. At that point they started asking for money… and we had a huge fight about it.

I disowned them and our relationship has been on the rocks since. Though keep in mind, thatʼs just the basics and… hmm, it was a decent question but sort of an obvious one so… half a point,”