“AAAAAWWWWWNNN” Yawning loudly I stretched my limbs lazily as I sat up from my large king size bed, my back resting comfortably against the wooden backframe. My mother had told me time and time again that stretching and yawning loudly like this was unladylike, So I mentally added it to the long list of unladylike habits that needed ‘correcting’.
I would fix them… sooner or later.
Halfmindedly glancing outside the clear rectangular window to my side, It looked like it was still the crack of dawn as the beautiful Pink moon Nerja was at its peak in the sky, the other moon Vermouth nowhere to be seen.
The casual observer not from this country would probably assume it was nightfall, and just looking at the pitch black starry sky, they would be correct to think so. But since it was dark for nearly the full day, other factors were used to calculate the time of day. The moons being the main one I liked to use on uncloudy days. Thankfully, since we were in the month of suncrest, snow and cloud levels were also at their lowest, meaning the moons were in complete open view most of the time.
Obviously of course, I now had my own room. Believe it or not, I had only moved out of my parents room sometime four years ago. Yes that's right, I was currently nine and soon turning ten, so when I was close to six.
I wouldn't go as far as to put blame on anyone in particular… but it was my mother, I'm putting blame on her.
With my father being usually out on important business trips and conferences up to his sudden disappearance, my mother had been extremely protective for a large portion of my childhood, and my mother was nearly as stubborn as me when she wanted to be.
Sitting up casually from my bed, I began my usual morning routine, walking to the bedroom's private latrine, with just my basic negligee. Although this bedroom had one of the smaller private bathrooms, it still came with the basic functionality of a toilet, bathtub and mirror.
Stepping inside, the usual sight of the sleek well decorated interior greeted me, with light pink plastered walls. I had asked my mother for a light blue or white but she seemed to think that pink was a colour young girls should enjoy.
Taking a quick dip in the bathtub, which had already been prepped with hot water by Lita, I washed my hair and body before promptly standing up to dry off with my purple towel. I didn't like staying in for too long, it got boring quickly, though the hot water was nice to relax in from time to time.
Walking to the front of the mirror, I assessed my close to 10 year old face, ready to dry off and style my hair.
Looks like the training is slowly wearing away the baby fat.
Straight void black hair that fell down to my neck and shimmering gold eyes stared back at me, just based on these two features alone, I deeply resembled my father. My face however resembled my mother. My once cute chubby face had thinned out with my training, and although there were still semblances of baby fat, my face was beginning to look more and more like that of my mother.
After drying my wet hair with the dryer artefact imbued with low tier wind magic, I combed it out then added the purple ribbon my father had given me on my birthing ceremony. Picking a simple black tunic with purple robes, I dressed up and left my room.
The door, now gently closing behind me, my mother just so happened to step out of the room opposite me. Yup, this was as far as she was willing to separate from me. Talk about paranoia.
A grim look was apparent on her face as she gazed at me. Well this was a first, although my mother wasn't particularly hard to read, she at least tried to hide her distress from me most of the time.
“Tene, meet me at the dinner table, I have an important matter to discuss with you.”
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Sitting at the dining hall, an assortment of well made gourmet foods lined the long wooden table, with far too many seats to seat our small family. Lita and my mother sat opposite me, Lizette was usually out and about at this time of the day and usually didn't join us for breakfast.
As for Lita, she nearly always was present for breakfast and to be transparent she ate far more than my mother or myself. When I became old enough to eat at the table I wondered why there were so many unnecessary portions of food. Lita's actions shortly afterwards made me realise why.
As a matter of fact, I came to notice that even our portions were unsafe if we didn't finish quickly enough.
In most servant households, the servants did not dine with their masters and sadly our house wasn't exempt from that rule either. So why was Lita dining with us? Well because she wasn't even a servant, she was my actual sister… adopted sister. Not related by blood, but on paper, she would inherit if something happened to me.
I was honestly pretty surprised when I heard that for the first time, why she chose to live like a servant most of the time was beyond me.
For some strange reason, it seemed she didn't have much of an appetite today, as half of her portions lay untouched, and by half her portions, I meant half the dinner table. Neither did my mother as she looked at me almost hesitantly throughout our meal.
“...Tene” My mother finally said, breaking the silence at the table. She was usually much more talkative.
“Yes mother,” I replied.
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“I'm sure you don't remember since you were just a child but…My half brother who was present at your birthing ceremony, will be arriving shortly” My mother said, I could tell she seemed quite distant from him from her tone of voice. Well I do remember him, after all I was incarnated with all my memories intact, I remember every detail from when I was a baby till now. Not like he was a particularly difficult person to forget.
“A large incident occurred in a nearby town in Snowpeak, my fathers territory. It was completely decimated, everybody was killed, there are currently no known survivors.” My mother said, her voice trembling slightly. She spoke through the details quickly, as if she didn't want to linger on the topic. I can see why she waited for us to finish our meals, not exactly the best meal topic.
I remained silent, waiting for her to finish, in the first place why was she even telling me this? In her mindview I was still nine.
“We're still not sure as to what did it, even though it was just a small town, there were still some powerful guards present. For them to all be killed that easily…” My mother paused, as if trying to drive in the threat of this being.
“It had to be a named monster of at least threat level 8… Tene, that town is not that far from Likeberg, where we are.” Ah, I get where this is going now.
“Your father isn't around right now either” she finished, that last sentence being what I liked to call her nail in the coffin, her catchphrase if you like. Next would certainly come some sort of demand from me, a demand she knew I wouldn't like.
A long silence ensued as if she was trying to let the gravity of the situation sink in.
“My brother was sent by my father to deal with the threat, believe it or not he is a true genius… I can't leave from here Tene, with your father not around, I have the responsibility of looking over his land and people.” my mother continued, her tone beginning to rise.
Here it comes.
“I can't risk you being here with me Tene, you're not only the future of this household, your OUR future… If anything ever happened to you…” Her voice painfully cut off at the end.
“Mother” Cutting her off, I looked her dead in the eye before she could continue, there was no hesitation in my words. She was entitled to feel as she did as a mother but I wouldn't run, without even assessing the enemy completely myself. With my fathers absence, I would look absolutely ridiculous if I fled here. Yes, running away from enemies that were certain death was practical. But only after I had made that decision, not my mother.
“I'm not running, as the next in line, it's my responsibility to stay, what sort of leader would I be in the future If I ran now? I–”
“NO! YOU'RE NOT STRONG ENOUGH YET TENE!!” Not even waiting for me to finish, my mother cut me off harshly.
Haaaaa. This was how she was when my father wasn't around, overly protective to a fault. Lita and Lizete both saw me as much more intelligent as my age would suggest, however it was like my mother was completely blinded. I don't know whether it was through love or through some insecurity or fear but she refused to acknowledge me. Yet alone as a ten year old successor, she still saw me as the baby she held in her arms.
Lita's eyes were signalling to me from across the table. Yup the best way to deal with her from here was to allow her to calm down, there was next to no winning against her like this without my father present when it concerned me.
But this wasn't a simple case of moving rooms, this was far more important to me.
“Mother, I'm not going anywhere” I stared stubbornly in her eyes as I spoke. These were eyes I had never shown my mother before, eyes that showed that no matter what she said or did, I wouldn't budge on the matter.
My mother looked surprised, she was clearly surprised that I could even show such an expression, after all, I had always acted somewhat childlike around her. I couldn't help but think it was partly my fault things had gotten this bad.
perhaps… I didn't dislike the way she had treated me.
Sighing, Lita finally spoke up at the table. “Mistress, we should wait for your brother”
One thing I had concluded about Lita was that she spoke only after carefully selecting and crafting her sentences, almost unnecessarily so.
“He can clarify,” she finished.
A lot of the time, it still led to confusion too, almost like she just wasted her efforts. My mother for some reason, seemed to always be able to understand her intent.
“That was what I was planning, but Tene has to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. My daughter, I know you're much smarter than you let on, but it doesn't change anything. You're only 9 years old. You think you know everything but you don't.” Fair enough, I was only nine years old in her eyes after all.
“Im worried about you because your so similar to your father, you guys just can't seem to get out of trouble, even when it doesn't concern you” Ok, i'll admit there were a ‘couple’ times I might have went a bit too far to stave my boredom in my growing up years, but what was I supposed to do? After I had analysed everything in that drab room there was nothing else to do. Was it partly my fault my mother was overly protective of me? Perhaps.
“This does concern me, this is my home, mother i'm not leaving you here alone” An outsider would probably be extremely surprised listening in. My high pitched childish voice speaking years above its age. Yet nobody at the table seemed particularly surprised. I guess I didn't hide it as well as I thought.
Well, I was never a good actor to be fair.
“...Tene, if things turn dire at any point, you're leaving straight away. That's the best I can do” my mother said, her tone firm.
“...” Pretending to agree, I stayed silent.
I didn't like lies.
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Still comfortably sitting, within the now empty dining hall, I came to a decision.
When I was feeling stressed out or annoyed at my mother there were some small rituals I enjoyed partaking in. Removing the purple ribbon in my hair, I rechecked my status page.
Name: Tene Renhart
Age: 9
Race: Human -> Fallen Angel
Class: —
Stats:
Strength - 16 -> 160
Mana - 200 -> 2000
Agility - 30 -> 300
Intelligence - 90 -> 900
Charisma - 40 -> 400
Endurance - 8 -> 80
Special Skills:
Void Aura [S] - Lv (5/40)
Matter Manipulation [S] - Lv (1/50)
Yafels Blessing [Goddess of ???]
Wings of Supremacy[EX] - Lv(30/50)
The addition of a new skill, the changing of my race from human to fallen angel as well as an x10 towards all my stats were visible to me. I remember a couple of years ago when I had first seen this, A clear boost in all my abilities. Of course I hadn't told my parents or anybody of the matter.
I activated the hidden skill - Wings of Supremacy. My jet black hair began shimmering a soft purple Iridescent color,its color changing abruptly. Glittering purple wings sprouted from my back of a much larger size than when I was young. Instead of soft, light feathers, however, they seemed to shine with almost a metallic lustrous sheen, almost cutting to look at. A small black crown also sat softly atop the back of my head. Yes, it was stuck in place, I had tried to pry it off once before, almost losing my hair in the process.
Focusing on the Wings of Supremacy skill, I checked if anything had changed.
Wings of Supremacy [EX] - Lv (10/40) -> (Return as the incarnation of Pride and cruelty, those who wronged you shall be erased and those who think themselves above you shall kneel.)
Sovereigns Rule [1st] - Lv (5/10) -> (All stats become x10 stronger)
Sovereigns Rule [2nd] - Lv (5/10) -> (hold complete control over your wings to soar above your foes and show them just how feeble their resistance is - 50% physical and magical attack negation)
???
???
Nope, still just as overwhelming as before, looks like there were no additional level ups from the last couple of months of training either. So just as I thought, only direct usage of the skill/skills in question would lead to their improvements. I could also tell, this EX skill was linked to the return of my memories, I HAD to upgrade it, it was my only clue as to how to regain my lost self.
“Well i've got two hour left in this state and three before Lizette's lesson, best let off some steam”