"W-Wait," Marice said as the left strap of her camisole slid off her shoulder, "you guys were waiting for me?"

"Yup! This will be our first proper breakfast together since we arrived here!"

"Y-You didn't have to."

Mariella rested her chin on her daughter's shoulder. "Aww, are you blushing?"

"Shut up. Go take a seat already."

As the pair took the remaining empty seats, Mariella clapped her hands to start off their breakfast. "Sorry for the wait, everyone! Dig in!"

Richelle took the initiative as she made a stack of garlic rice with the large wooden spoon. Once satisfied, she handed the spoon to the spider familiar and started decorating the rest of her plate mountain with oven-cooked longganisa, sunny-side up eggs, and tocino.

"You sure eat a lot for your size," Katherine said, passing a bottle of sauerkraut to her.

She nodded, plopping some sauerkraut on her plate. "Adrian said it's the side effect of the resurrection spell. It really sucks since I feel hungry all the time."

Marice received a bowl of mushroom soup from her mother. "Side effect? Are you referring to your body's demonic energy?"

"Yep. I got it when he revived me the first time."

"So resurrecting a person with the spell will imbue them with demonic ether? That's not written in the grimoire at all..."

"Oh, that's right." She shook a bottle of banana ketchup before pouring its contents all over her garlic rice. "Big Sis Katkat told me you're trying to learn how to cast Resurrection."

"Katkat?"

Richelle and Katherine exchanged smiles. "I think it's cute," the latter said.

"Anyway, it's only natural for your body's magic reserves to demand their fair share of calories. You'll have to undergo ether control training to mitigate its effects."

"We're working on it, but I'm having a hard time keeping up with Cristina's lessons." She looked at Katherine, who gave her a nod. "So, um, I was wondering if you could teach me how to do it instead."

"Sorry, but I'll pass."

"You didn't even hesitate!" Katherine said.

Marice received the wooden spoon from her mother and started scooping up some of the fried rice. "We're already busy enough as it is. And besides, teaching magic fundamentals to someone will take weeks for us to see any appreciable results."

"That's why you should mentor her to speed up the process!"

"So you really think this whole archdemon business of ours is going to last until next year, huh?"

Before Katherine could reply, Richelle spoke. "It's okay, Big Sis Katkat. It was a really selfish request anyway."

"But don't you wanna learn magic?"

She garnished a longganisa with sauerkraut and took a bite out of it. "Of course, but you guys have already done so much for us. I haven't even attempted to repay everyone, but I'm already asking for more."

"This is a rare sight," her grandma said. "So my cheeky granddaughter does have a limit to her shamelessness."

"G-Grandma!"

"But that shamelessness also happens to be the reason why we're still together." Taking a spoonful of mushroom soup, she looked at Marice and smiled. "If there's anything I can do to make you change your mind, then please tell. I may look frail, but I have worked as a housekeeper for three decades already."

"That won't be necessary, Grandma Florencia," Cocoa said, perching on Marice's head. "Cassava's the resident butler here! He's so good at it that he can do all the chores in his sleep!"

"Then what about alchemy? I know a couple of recipes that might interest you."

"You know alchemy?" Marice said, filling up her glass with orange juice.

"One of my previous employers owned a store of alchemy items, and she had me help out with her lineup of potions and magical charms." As Marice's expression didn't change in the slightest, Florencia placed a hand on her cheek and chuckled. "But I bet they won't be any more impressive than your own creations. You've studied abroad after all."

"Ah!" Richelle uttered, looking at Marice who just ate a spoonful of fried rice. "Maybe you're just being modest. You want to get paid for it, right?"

Marice's eyes widened as she swallowed the food in her mouth. "Get paid? No, I don't—"

"Just name your price so I can start saving up for it. I'm only a balut vendor, but if you can hook me up with a few side gigs, the sooner I can hand you my deposit!"

She looked at her in disbelief, but Richelle's smile didn't falter. "Well, you certainly got spunk, but don't act like I'm the only one who can teach you magic." She pointed her spoon at Katherine. "Liza leads an independent paranormal unit, right? So she should have a mage or two we can borrow for her."

Katherine quickly swallowed what she was chewing. "I guess we can do that."

"Right? They aren't paying us the premium rates anyway." Richelle's expression soured a bit, causing Marice to raise an eyebrow. "What?"

"Grandma made a good point: you studied abroad. That means you know a lot of stuff you won't usually see here."

"No, the difference isn't that big. We've adopted a lot of European sorcery since we were colonized by the Spanish Empire."

"But that doesn't change the fact that I'll learn more about magic from someone like you."

"Wait, I thought you only wanted to learn about the fundamentals. Even an amateur spellcaster can teach everything you need to know."

"But I want you to teach me!"

"You're sounding more and more like my mother."

Mariella almost choked on her food. "Wh-What?!" she replied. "Why can't you just start teaching her? She's already living with us anyway!"

"How about you teach her then?!"

She paused, glancing to the side. "Well... she specifically asked for you. Don't pass it off to me."

Realizing that there was no end in sight to the hole she just fell into, Marice thought she might as well take a page out of Richelle's playbook. "Okay, how about this then? If you can convince Adrian to teach me Resurrection, then I'll mentor you through the basics of magic."

Richelle's eyes widened, almost slamming the glass of orange juice on the table. "What?! Really?! That's easy!"

"Well, I hope so. I'd like to learn the spell before something happens to him."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'm sure you already know. Speaking of which," she looked at her mother, "you noticed something in him last night, didn't you? What did you see exactly?"

Mariella froze as she was about to take another spoonful of rice. "Hmm... I definitely saw something alright, but I'm not sure what it is myself..."

"What's with that answer? Your Stellar Glare is more refined than mine!"

"How should I explain it?" She paused, swallowing her food. "You know that one supermarket raffle game where you have to guess an item inside the box just by touching them? It's kinda like that."

Marice narrowed her eyes. "You might want to elaborate a bit more..."

"See, even if you figure out that the item in the box is an apple, you still won't know what kind of apple it is until they show it to you. And that's assuming that you are familiar enough with the variety of apples available in that supermarket."

"So did you figure anything out at all?"

"He actually has two demons latched onto his spirit."

"Wait. Two?"

"Yup. In this case, Cristina serves as the box to hide the other demon from prying eyes like ours."

"And thanks to her, you weren't able to find out what kind of demon she's hiding?"

"Exactly. And even if I did see it, I'm not really an expert on demons to figure out its exact classification."

Marice nodded to herself. "So what I saw back there was actually that demon's ether signature. And it's really strong. At least on par with that wraith in terms of raw magic potential."

"I do wonder why she's hiding that other demon though. We'll just have to ask him later about it, huh?"

"Oh, lemme come with!" Richelle said. "You guys won't let me leave the condo, so I'll just hang out with you!"

"Great! Granny and I will hold the fort while you girls are gone. Just make sure to bring Adrian here for dinner, okay?"

"Why?" Marice asked.

"To get on his good side, duh! Didn't you want to learn the spell from him?"

"What, are you going to impress him with the takeout food from the square?"

"I'm going to cook our dinner, obviously!"

Marice blinked. "Oh? Now that's something to look forward to."

Mariella put on a determined face. "I've practiced so long to screw up now! Just you wait!"