The birds are chirping. The sun is shining. All is well, in this wonderful wide world.
Well, except for the Duke right next to me. He is not pleased with the chirping of the birds. He does not care for the shining of the sun. He will destroy any lifeform in his path. Powerful, almighty, and aloof can’t even begin to describe him. Annihilator of worlds, ender of the cosmos-
“Over there.”
The Duke points, and the tens of people following us run to the stands and the other side of something that looks like a tennis court. They’re setting up machines. The upgrade to the training grounds was slated for today, and it just so happened that I would be its first tester.
Seriously, though, the Duke scares the shit out of me. He’s not even trying to intimidate me yet I would still tell him everything I know. He resembles me more than my half-brothers, with the whole pale blue eyes and hair. He also, though, has a bluish-grey beard. It only adds to the intimidation factor.
I’ve mostly recovered Noel’s memories at this point, and those pertaining to the Duke… utterly terrify me. The Duke is supposedly quite the kind person, but he sets expectations for people that he expects them to live up to. Noel … uh…
I don’t think Noel lived up to a single one…
So, the Duke was overjoyed yesterday, when I proved I had my Mark. For once in Noel’s life, he did something that made the old guy proud. Now, though… now his expectations have skyrocketed. I mean, he’s told me he expects a 2 inch diameter ice ball on my first try. I know for a fact that a 2 inch fireball required Kirbe, the protagonist of the game, three days of incessant trying. Kirbe has monstrous levels of talent. What the fuck am I supposed to do? No way in hell I can beat the literal protagonist of the world.
After about fifteen minutes, the scientist dudes finish setting up the equipment and file out of the training area into the stands. They look expectant. The Duke claps one hand on my shoulder (I jumped) and pulls me to the first machine.
“Make an iceball.”
How.
The answer to that question was immediately evident. I felt the power of the Duke’s Mark flow within me, guiding my Mark. It pushed at an ability I didn’t know I had, and right in front of me, a ball of ice condensed out of thin air.
Whoa.
That was fucking awesome.
The Duke stepped back. “Now you try.”
Still high off my Mark’s usage, I pushed all the power I had into my hands, holding them up so that a small ice ball formed in between my palms. I felt amazing. Invincible. The Cold had my back, and I-
And then my Mark ran out of power and I snapped back to reality. The iceball fell to the ground. The Duke crouched down and picked it up.
A little less than an inch diameter, at best. The Duke looked disappointed. Hey, fuck you. He turned around and walked away. A scientist ran towards him, talking about how I didn’t finish all the tests, but the Duke waves him off.
What a fucking prick.
The scientist from before comes up to me and starts instructing me on how to use the first machine. Basically, it measured the density and temperature of the iceball. The scientist placed the iceball into a small container, and we waited for a couple seconds.
Peeng!
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A small gauge on the side of the machine began filling up. As the liquid rose through the cylinder, parts of the glass started glowing. One kilogram per meter cubed, two kilograms per meter cubed, and then the liquid slowed to a crawl. A little above two kilograms per meter cubed. If I remember correctly, the density of ice is approximately 1 kilogram per meter cubed, so…
…
Honestly, I have no idea what the benchmark for this is. There aren’t any important characters from this family in the game. Was the Duke’s “two inch diameter iceball” normal? Was this Mark just fucking overpowered? Am I just defective? The world may never know.
On the other side of the machine, another gauge began draining, stopping at roughly negative 3 degrees Fahrenheit. The scientist nodded, and began explaining the baselines for the machine. On the first try for the beta tester ice related Marks, the density is maybe a little more than one, the diameter is a little less than one, and the temperature is about negative three degrees Fahrenheit. I still have no idea how I compare to Everpine Marks, though. That’s annoying. Probably should ask my brothers. The good thing about iceball is that the basic visualizations necessary for it are the same as most ice related spells, so mastering iceball makes pretty much everything else easy. So, I guess that’s what I’ll be doing for a while yet.
Sounds fun. Yaaay.
Looking at it from the outside, though, the palace I live in is enormous. It’s a little bigger than a football field in length and width, and almost five stories high. Jesus, these people are rich. There are also all sorts of fancy decorations on the outside. I think one of those blue ribbons would have fed me for a month at least…
I sigh.
Distracting myself isn’t going to get me anywhere. This is going to be a boring couple of weeks.
----------------------------------------
Something just occurred to me: who was my ancestor? Non-human for sure. To pass down Marks of these levels, most high nobility descend from horrifically powerful non-humans. Pretty much the only high nobility who descend from humans are the royalty. Descended from the Great Protector of the Land, yadda yadda yadda. Most Marks are traceable, however. The Great Knight, the duke of one of the four ducal houses, descends from a dragon. This is obvious because his Mark manifests as dragon scales. The Spirit Witch, a duchess, descends from a ninetailed fox. Her nine tails are her most powerful weapon, as she can boost her spells by up to nine times with them. Finally, the last Duke is the Seaquaker, descendant from some eldritch horror in the depths of the sea. His tentacle form is fucking horrifying. That cutscene still gives me literal nightmares. Why? Why did the devs put that in? Why? It’s unnecessary. No one needs that shit.
Anyway.
One of my more far-fetched backup plans is to locate my ancestor. If it’s from an immortal race, like an elemental spirit or a dragon or a golem or something, it’s not impossible to find and request help. Key point there being not impossible. Considering that this ancestor has never made contact with me, and neither the Duke nor my brothers ever talked about it, it’s highly likely that they don’t care about this family. Which means if I were to go to them, I’d have to bribe them. To know what to bribe them with, I have to know who they are. So now I’m digging through the Duke’s library for a history of this family while regenerating my stamina for iceball training. I know the Great Knight has a history book tracing his lineage, so I just assumed it was par for the course for all Dukes.
But apparently not.
I haven’t found this goddamn book even after hours of searching this library. Seriously, so many of these books seem utterly useless. Why is there a book on how to resolve ancient Thorin sex issues? Not to mention I know one of these herbs is now near-extinct. There’s only one of these anymore, and it’s in the Great Knight’s herb garden. Shit. Do I just ask someone?
I wave over one of the butlers walking past.
“Hey, are you doing anything right now?”
“I’m currently helping prepare lunch, milord.”
“Can you help me find a book?” Ehh, the chefs can handle lunch.
“Which book are you looking for, milord?”
“A history of this family, where we come from, stuff like that,” I say as I turn to resume digging through shelves.
“...” No response? I look over at him to see him look at me with an inquisitive stare.
“Milord, no such books exist, have existed, or will ever exist. The Everpine line has made sure of that over the centuries. With all due respect sir, are you feeling well?” He took off a glove and put his hand on my forehead. “No signs of fever.”
“Yeah… now that you mention it, I am feeling a bit tired… I think, uh, I think I’ll go take a nap.
“Well then, sir, if you’ll excuse me...” He bowed, swiftly turned, and walked away.
Can’t afford to make any more slip ups like that. I’ll have to re-examine Noel’s memory in much greater detail this time. More that that, though…
What is the Everpine family trying to cover up?