CHAPTER 36 - ELISE AINDREA P2
~36.2~
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“Velarus, Mabel, welcome to Athas.” I snapped my finger and the table I was sitting at expanded and two more seats appeared. “I mean to tell these souls about my life before Alexandria. I would like you two to sit in and listen. Feel free to chime in whenever you want.”
The man nodded and took a seat. The woman smiled at me and held her hand out, meaning for me to place my hand in hers. I did, and she grasped it with both hands. “You’ve been through so much since you left. I can tell your current body has Alexandrian blood in it, but there are others there, too. What in the world have you been through that brought you to this?”
I wasn’t sure what to say, so I simply smiled.
She nodded and took her seat.
I quickly recapped what had already been said and continued where I left off. “There was a structure in the center of the continent known as the World Tower. It was so tall that it seemingly faded out of existence. South of the tower was Gallia, west was Nacht, east was Weltwald, southeast was Wavecrest, and north was Serendell. Those are the names of the five nations on the continent of Arcadia.”
“The year I turned eighteen, I left Aindrea to attend the academy in the royal capital, Aristide. I took my companion, Kuro the Black Wolf, with me. You might notice some similarities with the life of Elise Arbelle. The two lives, up until I entered The World Tower, were very similar. It’s the very same Kuro that appeared in Elise’s life, who is with us now serving as Sanae’s weapon.”
“The two lives were similar, but I had no Chloe or Claude. I say that, but I did have two shadows from Aindrea that were assigned to me. They are my cousins, like Chloe and Claude, but our relationship was a very different. I had an idea on how to change that when I entered the academy, but I need a little more time to think about it.”
“Anyway, I entered Aristide and made a scene in the streets just like Elise Arbelle where I put a guard in his place, then another scene at school on my first day when I aced an instructor’s exam where other students struggled to barely pass. On my second day...”
I weaved my memory magic to show everyone my story.
*****
“Hello!” a pink-haired catgirl greeted me as I arrived in the classroom.
“Oh, hello. I’m Elise.” I gave her a smile as I introduced myself.
Pink hair! She’s pretty.
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Physics was the fourth class of the day, and the first I’d shared with this girl. She returned my smile as she gave her own introduction. Her smile reminded me of someone.
“My name is Maya Rosenwald. I’m from Weltwald.”
I smiled and curtsied. “Greetings, Lady Maya. I am Elise Aindrea from Gallia.”
“You have such a pretty name!”
I hadn’t talked to hardly anyone except school staff until Maya approached me. I had attended a local school in Aindrea before. The other children kept their distance there, too, probably because my family governed the county. I had very few friends. The ones I had were great, but except for Serah and Stella they stayed behind in Aindrea to enter the workforce. Serah and Stella were my shadows so they didn’t interact with me in public.
“Thank you!” I was genuinely happy to hear that compliment. “I quite like your name as well.”
It was a name I was familiar with. It belonged to somebody I cared for deeply, but she wasn’t present in that life.
Yes, that life wasn’t my first. I was exiled from a higher realm to one of the mortal worlds. I happened to land in a life as Elise Aindrea. I knew nothing about the world at first, but the more I learned about it, the more familiar it felt. As it turns out, it was my own design. A Transcendent being exiled to a mortal world was exceedingly rare, but not only did it happen to me, it was one of my worlds.
I’ll take care of things there if I ever return to Nova. That’s where the name Elysia Alexandria came from. I claimed my original name in this world after the World Tower and established the Kingdom of Alexandria in the center of the continent where the tower stood. But that wouldn’t be for a few more years.
All that said, this pink-haired girl reminded me of my partner in crime, Maya Velinova. Yes, by the way. That’s Alethea and Mavel’s original self, just as Elysia Alexandria is Kye and Sanae’s original self.
Perhaps because I had a soft spot for pink-haired girls, or perhaps because of my soft spot for girls with the name Maya, I decided to try befriending this girl. She was very kind to me.
“Do you enjoy physics at all?” I asked.
She smirked. “Skipping to small talk already?”
“I’m not particularly social. I’m not quite sure what to talk about.”
With a giggle, she said. “Anything is fine with me. Sorry if I made that seem like I was criticizing you. I didn’t mean it that way.”
I shook my head. “That’s okay. I didn’t sense any malice in your voice.”
“Check it out! Maya is making a move on a new girl already.”
I glanced over to where that voice came from. A brown-haired wolfgirl and black-haired catgirl were looking at us with what was unmistakably mockery.
“Claire. Ellen.” The look in Maya’s eyes changed drastically. She looked at me with kindness, but looked at them with disgust.
“What do you mean?” I asked as the girls snickered at us.
“Be careful around that cat,” the wolfgirl said. “She has a penchant to try escalating friendships to relationships.”
“I never tried to do that! It just happened that way!”
“Ha!” The catgirl pointed at Maya. “Six times! You tried dating your friends six times! But none of them were gay. Honestly, there are so few beastkin that are gay. I don’t understand why you kept trying.”
“I didn’t try! It just happened. I developed feelings for each one, but once I confessed and got turned down, they stopped talking to me. And I didn’t try to force anything or approach them without their permission after. Stop trying to make it sound worse than it is!”
She shrugged. “Anyway, Miss Blonde-hair, watch out. If you want to be her friend, just remember that. She’s gay and might-”
“Let me stop you there.”
*****
Revision: 2025-2-7