Amber and Jade

After repeatedly weighing the pros and cons, the Wujing family ultimately accepted Aoko's proposal and gladly accepted the check she offered.

From this day onward, the Wujing family officially became a subordinate family of the Aozaki family and would accept the Aozaki family's orders.

After some pleasantries, the head of the Wujing family had Kohaku and Hisui brought out.

The sisters, Wujing Kohaku and Wujing Hisui, were somewhat shy. They looked about the same age as Touko after she had regained her youth—very cute, with slightly pinkish red hair.

The woman who brought the sisters to meet Aoko was their mother. She did not appear to have lived well; her face was somewhat haggard.

The two girls wore small, plain-colored yukata and wooden clogs, led out to meet their visitor by their mother, who was dressed similarly.

Perhaps because she had long known that, having given birth to two extraordinarily gifted daughters, the head of the Wujing family would one day trade them away, she had suffered every day.

"Hello," Aoko Aozaki said with a friendly smile to the three of them. "I am the current head of the Aozaki family, Aoko Aozaki."

The sisters shyly hid behind their mother, but their mother understood the weight carried by the name Aozaki. She quickly led the girls in bowing to Aoko Aozaki.

"There's no need to be afraid," Aoko said. "I learned of your sisters' talents through certain channels, which is why I came here. I've decided to provide you with an education in magecraft."

Upon hearing this, the Wujing sisters' mother froze for a moment before being overcome with joy.

To become apprentices of the Aozaki family, one of Japan's foremost magecraft families—even if they were not personal disciples—they could escape the tragic fate that had clung to them!

Besides, this young and beautiful female head of the Aozaki family surely would not do anything vile to the sisters because of their unusual empathic abilities. This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to change their fate!

Overwhelmed with joy, their mother burst into tears. She crouched down and held the sisters as she sobbed, while Kohaku and Hisui, whose empathy was especially strong, also clung to their mother and began crying. The Wujing family's reception room was soon filled with sobbing, and the head of the Wujing family could only smile awkwardly at Aoko, unsure of what to say.

"All right, all right," Aoko comforted them. "If you keep crying like this, it'll make me seem like some utterly evil villain."

"I won't forbid you two from seeing your mother," Aoko said kindly to Kohaku, since she was the more mature and composed of the sisters. "And my home is in Misaki Town, not too far from Tokyo. The three of you can reunite whenever you have free time."

Hearing this, Kohaku lifted her head from her mother's shoulder in surprise and carefully studied the woman who was about to adopt her and her sister.

This young woman looked to be only seventeen or eighteen. Her waist-length red hair was very similar in color to the sisters', only more vivid, like flowing flames.

Her face was exquisitely beautiful. To Kohaku and Hisui, it was almost flawless. In the brief lives of the two little girls, Miss Aoko Aozaki was the most beautiful woman they had ever seen.

"However, I should make this clear beforehand," Aoko said. "My decision to adopt Kohaku and Hisui and teach them magecraft isn't charity. It is to cultivate talented people for the Aozaki family who will one day be capable of standing on their own."

"I understand," the sisters' mother said. "But for the head of the Aozaki family to think so highly of them is their good fortune. As their mother, I am deeply grateful for your appreciation."

After saying that, their mother performed an exceptionally formal dogeza before Aoko, giving the free-spirited girl quite a cultural shock.

Still, she did not stop the sisters' mother. Her gratitude toward Aoko came from the bottom of her heart, and stopping her would only have left her uneasy.

"There is one more thing I need to say," Aoko instructed the head of the Wujing family before taking the sisters away. "If Tohno Makihisa ever comes looking for them, tell him directly that they have been adopted by me, Aoko Aozaki. Tell him to give up on that idea."

The head of the Wujing family hurriedly agreed to Aoko's request, because that had been his plan all along. The Wujing family had fallen so far that they could not possibly withstand coercion from Tohno Makihisa's enormous mixed-blood family.

Moreover, Tohno Makihisa had had his eye on the twins for a long time. If possible, even the head of the Wujing family, who intended to sell his own children, naturally did not want to sell them to that demon's mixed-blood family.

Now that they had found a new patron, there was naturally no need to fear the local tyrant that was the Tohno family.

Aoko left the phone number of her home—the Kuonji Mansion—with the sisters' mother and told her she could visit Hisui and Kohaku on weekends.

The Wujing family's finances were stretched thin, and they had long intended to sell the sisters, so the girls did not have many personal belongings. They had always lived in poverty.

Before Aoko took them away, their mother gave each girl an amulet she had personally made and blessed. She embraced them one last time, then let go and watched them leave the Wujing family's old estate.

Kohaku and Hisui walked hand in hand with Aoko, occasionally looking back toward their mother as they went, their hearts carrying both hope and unease.

Aoko squeezed their little hands and smiled at them.

"All right," Aoko said. "It's time to take you home. Close your eyes for a moment."

Kohaku and Hisui obediently closed their eyes. They only heard Sister Aoko Aozaki say something in a language they had never heard before, one that sounded almost like singing. Then they felt lightheaded and slightly dizzy, instinctively tightening their grip on Aoko's hand so they would not fall.

"All right. You can open your eyes now."

At Aoko's words, Kohaku and Hisui opened their eyes again, only to find themselves in the garden before a beautiful, enormous Western-style mansion.

Is this what Mother meant by a magus?! The sisters' understanding of the world was utterly shaken. They had never imagined that someone could bring them from the Wujing family's old estate to the front of this mansion in an instant.

And judging by the surroundings, this was not even the same mountain as their old home.

"Big Sister Aoko, was that magic?" Kohaku asked, looking at Aoko with sparkling eyes and posing a question fitting for a girl her age.

"Of course it was!" Aoko declared proudly. "Big Sister here is a Magician!"