“When it was concluded that nothing else was gained from observing the strange behavior of the tyrant of Epsilon Centauri 3 and how the inhabitants of the planet fit into its grander scheme. The fifth legion and a hundred Magi were sent planetside to deal with the self-proclaimed god, and command started evacuating the human population since no form of mind control was found among them.
The empire had long been aware that it was best to spread newly freed humans among the many colonies we now possessed.
What was not foreseen was the outrage and disgust the very same humans we saved showed when we started exterminating the remaining races.
However, the imperial decree was indisputable and would not be questioned by the newly freed souls.
It took a week of constant engagement before the devil was finally slain by a legionary. The beast had swallowed her whole, yet she managed cut her way out of the belly of the beast. The story was retold across the empire as much for the tyrants unique demise as the resilience and unyielding will of the legion.
The Magi claimed the remains of the great beast for study and soon after the planet was made clear for colonization.
With that, the Epsilon Centauri became part of the Empire of humanity.”
- Elistar Iscariot, Grand Magister during the second Kingfisher dynasty.
After a surprisingly orderly group of half-asleep maids swarmed the rooms being set aside for me, we ended up in the west wing of the third floor. The entire operation was completed not only with professionalism but also with haste. I ended up giving everyone involved in making the section of the building livable a silver each. I was trying to build a reputation, after all, since my first plan of staying undercover was never really viable. Lemons and all that.
With the transition from level two to three, I found myself with ample space for guests and proper staff. The change wasn't as dreadful as I had anticipated, and I began to feel a sense of relief settling in at being back in civilization. I was slowly adjusting, but I was far from the outdoors type. I far preferred the comfort of a carriage over a saddle.
Lily had finally excused herself, but not until I had literally started undressing in front of everyone to make my point about how serious I was about that bath. Luckily, that kept Mira from going haywire on me. I could see she was almost squirming about how much she wanted to throw questions at me. The others didn't seem to care or understand, but at least I got my hat back even if it looked like someone had been chewing on my feather.
Finally, leaning back against the brass tub, I closed my eyes for a moment just to enjoy it, but I knew it wouldn't last.
Taking a deep breath, I brought out the Ability crystal, which now looked like it was swallowing light. It was darker than dark, and the colors in the room seemed to take on a gray tone as the contrast slightly changed what I saw. Was it actually dimming the light in the room?
Standing up in the tub, I brought the crystal to the area where my lazy pearlescent sparrow's egg resides, just about where my belly button is and felt the instant connection. Letting it go as it hovered there for a moment before being drawn into my body, spirit or wherever these things went.
A shockwave went through me and seemed to continue outwards in the infinite as it finally settled in place, slowly moving in orbiting around my useless sparrow's egg.
That was it? Is nothing more fancy happening? I really needed to learn more about the Awakened and how we function. So far, I feel like I'm riding a horse with a blindfold, praying I'll end up in the right place. Everything was guesstimating based on what I had overheard over the years, some drawn from my memories, and what felt right.
The trouble was that sometimes my memories didn't match what I was experiencing. Some things were different than in my memories, and I knew I didn't function in the same way as I did in them. Not fully, at least.
Poking at the crystal with my mind, I got a deluge of information poured into me. It would have been overwhelming if not for me having experienced something similar when I woke up alive again. I have led a strange life the last few days…
At least I now understood how the people selling Ability crystals knew what they did without taking them to an artificer. Everything about my ability was hammered into my skull, and I wasn't sure about what to think about it. I also felt that removing the ability was like ripping part of my spirit out, so I was second-guessing using the other three Ability crystals I pillaged from the goblins now. Sure, it would heal, but damn, that would hurt.
The ability wasn't like anything I had heard about in stories, but that didn't mean much. It might be as common as dirt. It was a book.
Activating the ability didn't take any power or energy from me. It summoned a book, nothing special about it, just a dark binding with nothing written or engraved on it. Oh sure, it was hovering in front of me, and I could move it at will, but that was just parlor tricks at best. I could choose to make it visible to others, so if I forgot to turn that function on, the trick would be even worse.
It obviously wasn't corporal since I tested if it would hit the side of the tub. It went straight through the tub, the water, my legs and the other side of the tub. I felt a slight tingling as it passed through my legs, but it may have been my imagination.
Leaning back against the tub, I willed it to open in front of my eyes, and the first page was divided into four equal squares. I knew those squares represented how many different rituals my mind could handle at this time.
Each ritual I choose would take up a spot on this page, and it would allow me to use that ritual without having to draw it out as many times as I wanted, but there would be a cost in energy. If I drew a ritual that demanded more than I could give, I would simply die.
I could change out the rituals once every day, but there could not be more than four rituals that I could activate by will alone until I grew in power.
If I wanted to do other rituals, I had to draw them out each time. Something I understood was a demanding task, and it would backfire if I got it wrong. Guess I'm taking drawing or painting classes one of these days.
The next page contained one of the rituals I could learn. The one was called Shield and would create just that: a shield equal in strength to a regular steel shield covering the direction I used it towards.
It would stop most projectiles and even shockwaves or anything force-related for the duration I focused on keeping it there. On the plus side, it was instantaneous. The downside is it only worked while I actively thought about it being there.
That could be troublesome in a fight. Thinking was not really something I was particularly good at, to begin with, thinking about something constantly…I started to understand that this wouldn't be as easy as I first hoped.
It was on par with a weak to low-tier Ability crystal. I knew at this point that was the tier limit to my rituals.
The actual ritual looked like a circle with three runes or glyphs inside the top of the circle. It looked easy enough, but if the circle wasn't perfect or some squiggle didn't match, the ritual would just fizzle out and take its toll on my energy reserves anyway.
The next page contained a ritual just called Push. It sent an expanding cone of pure kinetic energy five meters in the direction I activated it with a force two times what my body was capable of delivering in a punch.
Considering how much stronger I got when the currents of power from my domain buzzed through me and my continued body enhancement, that could be a good way to dissuade opponents from coming near or potentially turning them into red mist, depending on the speed of the cone of force. One problem was that it hit everything in that area, so gotta keep watch for allies, buildings and things I didn't want to turn to pulp.
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That made me wonder what my roof was when it came to being within the first rank of Awakening. I needed to find someone I could discreetly question or a primer if it existed.
The page after that contained yet another ritual, as I knew it would, and the one after that, yet another. Rifling through, I counted more than a hundred different rituals I could learn at this tier or my level of power. It was nice, but they all sounded like low-level Ability crystals.
There were things like Jump that, unsurprisingly, let me jump really high. Controlled fall that slowed the fall of myself or anyone I activated it on to a non-dangerous speed until I or they hit the ground.
Rest Safe. It kept anyone with less power than me from finding a campsite that I didn't include in the ritual. Anyone could still stumble inside the ritual area by chance.
Friction Control created a ten-by-ten-meter area on the ground where I could choose to turn the surface as smooth as ice or as rough as pebbles and so many more choices. Some sounded like mind manipulation like Friend, and some just plain gave me the shivers like Call of The Dead.
I would have to choose some rituals I could experiment with in the open without anyone noticing and some rituals for an, Oh shit, situation.
The next section of the book was simply closed to me, no matter how much I tried tearing the pages apart, but I knew they contained the next tier of rituals. I wonder what that said about my psychic, that an ability that belonged to me, in essence, it was me as much as my arm, but wouldn't let me even look at certain parts of it. Maybe I had some childhood issues I needed to take a look at.
Letting a tentacle slide out from my back, I sent it across the room to pick up the pouch I had brought with me.
Taking out the three rare Ability crystals. I let them roll around on my palm for a bit, the wetness from my hand making them extra shiny.
Standing up again, I held the first of the crystals I wanted to integrate at the same area I did last time, except nothing happened. I pushed it against my skin, and it didn't even tingle. Just the feeling of the smooth, cold crystal against my skin. It's not very pleasant.
Was there a waiting time before I could integrate another Ability crystal?
Trying the next one didn't give me more than a cold spot where I tried pushing it into my belly. I did notice I was starting to develop muscles there, even if they weren't very visible yet.
The third crystal refused to do its thing with the same aplomb as the two others. The smug little bastard. It was just lying still there in my palm, being shiny. I almost hurled it against the wall.
Retracting the tentacle, I felt a moment of despair. I'm broken, quite possibly a dead man walking, and I'm technically not even a man yet.
That is it. I'm screwed. Without being able to integrate more abilities, I wouldn't get any boons from an ability pairing. Sure, most abilities only granted boons that gave a certain amount of extra control or damage with an element, the ability to increase your strength by a factor of two temporarily or something similar.
However, that was mostly at the beginning for an Awakened when they were still scrounging together abilities that neither really fit their domain nor the other abilities they may have acquired.
When Awakened starts gaining some good money, they could potentially spend it on abilities that fit their domain and have a good chance of achieving a synergy between the abilities if they didn't just imbue a crystal from a slain monster like I did.
These boons were something else. Everything from regrowing limbs in a day to doubling or quadrupling the Awakened barrier was some of the more common ones. There were rumors that some were able to store any item they touched in a space only they had access to and even the ability to move instantly across the kingdom at will.
To say I was angry at the injustice would be a massive understatement. This was bad, it was potentially a big damn problem.
Getting out of the tub, I repacked the crystals. This time, by hand, they were at least worth a lot of gold. Then I started drying off, lost in thought.
Suddenly, I stood in the living room, being shaken by Mira.
”Alucard! What is wrong? What happened?”
“What?”
“You just came in and stood there with the meanest scowl I have seen on any old street thug. You said nothing; you just stood there like a beanpole, and your eyes were not looking right! The crotch-sniffing, plague-infested doxy, were you thinking? You looked ready to start slitting throats. The guys had to take the children to the bedroom because they got scared.”
Well, that's not good. I knew I was prone to tantrums, being a spoiled brat, but I generally remembered those. At least I hadn't done anything really bad this time.
“I just figured something out while bathing, something that may be a problem for me later. Nothing to worry about now. Have the others already gone to bed? Did they eat? Did Lily bring the ice cream for Albert and Saskia? Why are you wearing the same nightgown as the maids?”
Mira let out a deep frustrated sigh, and I knew it was that because she damn well wanted me to hear exactly how exasperated she was with me at the moment.
“The food is over in the dining hall, my lord. Why don't we go and get you something to stuff face with and chat?”
I don't know why she had to put such emphasis on the lord part or why she asked. She practically dragged me there.
Turns out the dining hall is through a sitting room. I can't complain about the size of the rooms Lily had set aside for me. It was at least the same size as the one I had on the second floor, but with a nicer view.
Greeted by a long hardwood table that could seat twenty people, eighteen on the long side and one on each end. I was happy enough to see all the dishes hiding under lids that smelled amazing, even covered up. At least my first proper meal in a while would be warm, if not piping hot.
Stacking up on roasted spuds, greens and what I think is lamb while pretending I didn't see Mira sitting with one leg over the other tapping air with her foot, I made sure she didn't hold any knives as I sat opposite of her on the table. At least there would be something I could throw at her, and if the table failed, we were only on the third floor. The drop couldn't be that bad.
I immediately started stuffing myself, not even realizing how hungry I had been until I had a clean plate and was loading on more. Mira just kept looking, except she now also had her arms crossed, something the fifteen-year-old me didn't complain about, but every other part of me was screaming, “Run!”
Quickly polishing that plate off, I grabbed another portion and some vine. I wonder what has her in such a mood. All in all, things were looking up. Sure, the lord thing was something new, but it wouldn't really matter until I was sixteen.
“My lord? Care to start talking about that? Sir. Alucard.”
Making sure she saw how annoying I found the question. I chew extra slowly while looking straight at her. Here I was, going from learning I was one of the Awakened to learning I might be the weakest Awakened there ever was, Not because of my affinity, no. Because somehow my body or spirit didn't accept more than one Ability crystal… Screw this...Then I just deflated. It wasn't her fault. Of all people, she probably deserved better than me being spiteful now.
Finishing my bite, I shook my head at my own foolishness. Sure, she would have questions under these circumstances. Did it even matter that I was of the nobility? I couldn't really do much with it for another year anyway. On top of that, I knew that particular cover would blow anyway. Time to stop being a child, Alucard. If you plan on taking your house back, you better start acting as an adult, at least. I could almost hear my father say that to me from wherever he was now, wherever souls left for when we died.
“Yes, I hold the right to be addressed as lord Alucard, even if it is just an honorific for another year. Because of where my land is placed on the border of the kingdom, part of the charter pertaining to the rulership of my land is that the head of the house must be of maturity unlike most other lands. It's almost a year until I'm actually a lord over my own land. Until then, it's just an empty honorific of being an heir to the land.”
I didn't bother explaining that as a Marcher Lord, I only owed military feudal service to the king. Still, these were more than met with maintaining the border with fortifications and castles.
In my land, the king's law did not matter, except for high treason, which was still the king's right to judge. My house ruled our lands sicut regale. The law was what the lord of the land said, unlike other dukedoms and earldoms that had to follow the king's law. Because of the necessity to keep the border safe, we were also exempt from the King's tax.
To be fair, the lands should have been made into one dukedom hundreds of years ago, but it just never happened for some reason.
It made me worry about what my aunt was thinking; she had no children, and if I should die, the land would return to the king…Oh, shit. Blasted, corn-stuffed shit hole. I really hope I'm wrong about that line of thought.
“So, you want me to be cutesy like the fancy ladies? Wait. Your fifteen! You're just a little baby. Come here so I can pinch those chubby cheeks. Come to Mira, come now.”
She said while pretending to make pinching motions toward my face from across the table.
“Yeah, you do that, and I'll start pinching and twisting something of yours. No, I don't want you damn well courtesy. Well, not entirely true. There will come times when it is expected. If you do it, I'm expected to punish you by flogging or some sort of public humiliation like the stocks.”
“Well, don't hold your breath on that part. I think I would prefer a flogging. So what now?”
“What do you mean what now?”
“I mean about us, team Mira. You're some sort of fancy lord. Can you really be seen walking around with some girl from the shanties? I thought reputation and honor were everything for you lot.”
“I don't see why anything has to change. We take a few days to rest and get things sorted. Then we pick up some contracts at the guild. I could do it with some time with the guild instructors, as you could too. I'm more than capable of ruining my own reputation, thank you very much. No need to flatter yourself like that and I'm still not sure what the word honor even means. Have you seen what the average lord or lady gets up to? Do they strike you as very honorable people? Besides, Hunters have always been a bit outside the social norms because of the protection the Hunters Guild provides, and when you Awaken, it will matter even less.”
She seemed actually to give it some thought, so I went and got more food.
Halfway through my plate when she said.
“Fine, I'm still not sure what I think about all this, but this place is nice, so that's good.”
She sat with me until I was done eating, and we parted ways in silence when we came to the sleeping quarters.
Too many uncertainties and too many questions were spinning in my head to pay proper attention to anything else. The long day had also taken its toll on me. Since my bed beckoned me, it would not do to disappoint.