(Author: Hello! The Necromancer King is back, but I am still writing this story so no worries guys. Just be aware that my main story is back so there won't be as many quick updates as before. Trey is dead, sacrificing his life, but Seti still lives (what kind of MC gets replaced in 4 chapters? MC replacements are never good). Rebecca finds out and is enraged and goes to see Seti. Enjoy.)
------Chapter 5: Sibling Trouble-----------
Seti yawned as he finished reading another book before picking up a new one. He had been reading non-stop for days as he read and re-read the books Flint gave him before storing it in his spatial ring. it wasn't that he was tired of reading. He was irritated because his little sister started throwing a fit when she heard Trey died. Trey tried to kill him and Rebecca was concerned about the a*shole who nearly succeeded? Rebecca disappointed him more and more.
"Open the door! You owe me an explanation!" Rebecca shouted.
"Why don't you just knock it down already?" Seti sighed. "Mother already warned you not to disturb me. Go away before I call the guards to take you away by force."
"Why don't you come out and fight me?" Rebecca shouted. "You just won by luck. Trey was a good person! He didn't deserve to die nor have his family executed."
"Trey...yeah. That is my fault and I could care less if he didn't die as I would have killed him anyway," Seti sighed as he put his book in the spatial ring. "As for his family, I really thank mom for doing that. Saved me the trouble of doing it myself when I'm older."
"YOU MONSTER!" Rebecca roared and blasted the door open with a flash of light.
"Ah, I have to trouble the servants to get it replaced and the maids to clean the mess," Seti sighed as the door fragments littered the floor. Rebecca's face was contorted with rage with her face a bright red. SHe glared at him as if to try to kill him by glaring at his very soul.
"You know we're related right? Sorry, but I'm not interested in dating my own sister," Seti said, startling Rebecca. "If someone saw those eyes staring at me so intently, they'd think you would commit a crime of passion. I would hate for the world to associate me as the brother of a hero with a sibling fetish. It would really be too embarrassing."
"I don't love you!" she roared.
"That breaks my heart," Seti mocked as if he were about to cry as he had his hands over his chest. "Aren't siblings supposed to love each other? Ah, how painful. Truly, my heart has never been so disappointed. Then again, I already cut ties with you. I'll never acknowledge being your brother. I gave up on you long ago. You lack integrity, humility, compassion, honesty to yourself, and so many more qualities a hero should have. The knights, servants, and maids all like me because I'm nice to them. You think yourself above such people. You won't get far in the long run as a hero."
"You and me, in the battleground in weeks! I don't care if I'm lowering myself, as a rank 2 magus, to fight you. You will be punished!" Rebecca shouted as she threw a lightning bolt at him.
Seti sighed as he easily dodged the lightning bolt and slapped his sister, sending her flying out of his room. The loud smack brought all the guards, servants, and maids as they saw Rebecca outside. They saw Seti walked silently and lean on the doorway. A large red mark the size of a hand was prominent on her right cheek.
"How did you...?" Rebecca asked, shocked.
"See you in two weeks little sister. You may be powerful, but you're a fool to only rely on your power," Seti sighed. "You are too dependent on your magic and did not train your body. I heard you're learning a weapon. Seems to me that you're not really learning how to use it but how to substitute using it instead of a staff. Tell you what, my spear instructor is coming soon. We'll fight in a month. Savvy?"
"Savvy?" she snarled. "Fine! A month then! I'll show you who is stronger!"
"Yeah, but why end the fun there," Seti smirked. "Guards, my sister has violated Her Majesty's orders and bothered me as I am still in recovery. Sentence her to solitary confinement in her room. Only her masters and my father and mother are allowed to see her."
"What are you doing? Unhand me!" Rebecca cried as she was lifted up by the guards.
"Her Majesty's orders are absolute," one knight said and the two dragged Rebecca away, her screams turning into curses of revenge as she kicked and twisted her body in the air while trying to escape.
Seti laughed and spent the rest of his resting period reading in relaxation. After the week was over, he began meditating and cultivating violet fire essence as he listed to lectures from Flint. He didn't know when the general would come so he devoted his time learning magic seriously.
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A few days later.
"How could he? How could he?" she thought as she was trapped in her own room. It had been days since she was punished by her mother for disobeying her. She wasn't upset about that. She was upset because she was supposed to be more powerful than her brother and she was! The only problem was that he dodged her lightning bolt and even slapped her out of his room! He slapped her!
Sure, Trey did a bad thing trying to kill him, but Seti drove him to a suicide attack! He shouldn't have put so much pressure on Trey! Not only that, Trey often gave her pointers as she was new to using lightning. How could Trey have lost? Not only that, Trey's family was executed and all their belongings and land were given to Seti. She didn't even own her own room as it belonged to her parents. Everything she had, was given to her, but Seti owned land and items that did not belong to her parents and was free to do what he wished with them.
She never hated her brother before, but now she did. He humiliated her in front of guards, knights, servants, and maids. No doubt, rumors of the event would spread and she would become the hero who was defeated by a upcoming magus who barely awakened of the first rank. Utter humiliation!
She banged her fists on her bed and thrashed her pillows everywhere, the feathers flying all over her room. It was unfair! Her mother loved him more than her. Her mother only looked at her in disgust, no matter how great her achievements and looked favorably at Seti and Adam. She knew she was just like Seti, having the love and affection of only one parent. Adam and Logan had the love and affection of normal parents with one as close to them as they were to Seti and Rebecca. Her father loved her and Logan and her mother loved Adam and Seti. She wished she was like Logan with the adoration and love of their dad and a normal, motherly, affection from their mom.
"It's not fair! It's not!" she screamed and light flashed from her body, incinerating everything in her room to a pitch black ash.
"I have to beat Seti in a month. I have to get justice for Trey and my honor back," Rebecca muttered. "Mom will see how worthless Seti is and love me as she does Logan. She has to. She has to...."
As she yelled her frustration, two people stood a few dozen feet from her door. They could hear her incessant complaints and screams. They had ordered the guards, servants, and maids not to come near her for the time being. They were King Marcus and Queen Snow, her parents.
"Now look whose wrong?" Marcus asked Snow. "She wants your love too."
"She is a spoiled brat and refused to listen to me before and now she regrets it," Snow said coldly. "She won't listen if she's told she's wrong. She is not like Seti. She does not know hardship. No one ever tried to kill her and she has many friends, some of them real despite her status as a future hero. I heard the words from both of their encounters. Seti tried to teach her and warn her and she would not listen. She is no hero and you made her that way."
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"I....I know. I was just so proud I had a talented son and now a hero..." Marcus began.
"What of Adam? Is he not a gifted magus? What about Seti? Sure, he is weak, but he is very cunning and defeated someone more powerful than him using his wits. Are they not your sons? Are they not talented? Don't be a hypocrite Marcus. You know you're in the wrong," Snow snarled and left to do her duties.
"I never do anything right when it comes to the kids," Marcus sighed. "Everything else, she is happy and well satisfied, but we both value the kids more than our kingdom. I divided our family and only healed the rift between me and Adam. I have to teach Rebecca better and hope my wife loves her again. As for Seti......I know I'm too late to be a father to him. He always had hope like Rebecca has now, but it disappeared and only hate or indifference remains. I must prevent Rebecca from having the same feelings to my wife."
Marcus breathed deeply as he steeled his resolve and headed inside his daughter's room. She screamed at him at first when he talked to her, but he was a king and did not allow her to speak rudely to him for long. It was a long overdue session to teach his daughter the right path. He only had a month before the siblings fought and many nobles and knights would be there to see it. They could take advantage of the rift between them and begin their attempt to control the throne in the future.
If there was one thing about the life of a noble, it was that you could not trust anyone completely. In the end, people always vied for the throne and those who had it always struggled to keep it and those who serve it in check.
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Seti sat in a circle of candles as he sat before the campfire. With every breath, the candle flames went up and down. If one looked closely, they could see a glow on his back as his body emanated a violet aura as he absorbed violet fire essence. It felt good absorbing the violet fire essence. It gave him a warm feeling in his body and his muscles always seemed to relax and become richer due to the mana flowing from the seed in his mind. Flint called it the Mind Realm. Warriors, and magic practitioners alike, could develop a Mind Realm and convert the absorbed element essence into mana. Warriors and mages who don't have magical tattoos don't absorb a specific elemental essence and just absorb the essence around them.
Seti tried to control the size of the campfire. Occasionally, he could change the shape of the campfire into a tree. However, he wasn't skilled enough to create leaves for the trees and struggled just to make branches and roots form. Flint said that it was an exercise of control. Seti had to create the individual stems, branches, and details of the leaves. It had to look like a real tree, but one made of fire. Making an orb was easy as it was a simple sphere without requiring any details.
"You can make a detailed tree with roots, trunk, and branches," Flint smiled as he approached Seti. "This is good. You might be a mid-rank 1 magus now. Fights with your life on the line, or fighting stronger opponents, stimulates your thinking process and your growth as you invent new ways to use your fire and unconsciously succeed. It also becomes easier after the fight."
"How can I manipulate the fight with my sister? She uses light and lightning," Seti asked.
"Her light magic won't affect you much as you absorb violet fire essence which comes from the same source as she uses to obtain light essence: the sun. However, her lightning is the main problem. It is much faster and more destructive as it is, her personality. The main problem of lightning users is that they have tremendous power with huge mana usage to accompany it. Light is even more powerful and has the least mana requirement which makes all magus and mages fearful of a combative light magic user," Flint said. "Try to influence her to use her lightning. Drag out the battle and don't fight her directly. In facing a more powerful foe, it is better to show a moment of inferiority to a power they want to use and barely escape. Let her spells brush against you and she will become overconfident and kepp using her lightning magic."
"It won't be me beating her physically. It will be me defeating her strategically and mentally," Seti nodded in agreement as his master left him alone to train. "To use my enemy's own strength against herself. Truly a wicked strategy. It's certainly my style. I can't let the future hero lose much face. She needs some confidence and for people to depend on her as they know her abilities. I should use my reflexes to the fullest against her light magic and react more slowly against her lightning. Luckily, she focuses on power for her light magic. Otherwise, it would be harder to dodge it and pretend to barely escape the lightning as light is faster than lightning. I wonder if a guy named Ning came up the name of that element. What's wrong with thunder?"
Seti formed the tree of fire, it's length being three feet in height. He couldn't make it any bigger as he kept shaping the fire into leaves. Right now, his main priority was control. If he could control the fire and suddenly expand it, he could use it as a trump card to take his sister unawares. That was why he had a circle of candles made around him. He was simultaneously training in both control and magnitude manipulation over fire. It was a strict training taught to him by Flint, but would definitely increase his chances of victory for the fated battle against his sister.
"Control and magnitude. Increase and decrease of heat," Seti muttered over and over as leaves started to form on one branch while he tried controlling the fire on the candles when they became bigger and smaller. "Power in moderation and control in guidance. Application of knowledge and manipulating the opponent. Observing elemental qualities and using the surroundings."
Flint watched silently from the trees as Seti continued the difficult training. He saw the king and queen arrive next to him moments later. They heard a small laugh from Seti as he accomplished his task of making a small, detailed tree of flames. The queen was well pleased while the king had mixed feelings.
"Your Majesties,' Flint bowed. "Third Prince Seti is doing marvelously in his training. When it comes to power, it is only in that regard that he is behind his peers."
"He is doing well. Thank you Flint," the queen said before looking at Marcus. "Shouldn't you be with Rebecca?"
"I lectured her for a bit. I need to give her time to adjust and change," Marcus replied. "So this is how Seti is as a magus. I have truly wronged Seti for calling him worthless three months after his seventh birthday and devoting all my time on Rebecca. Can he become stronger?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Flint agreed. "Save for heroes, I believe he will be a better magus than they are. Power is not everything but it does end a match between magic practitioners almost immediately. Power is a major factor, but many only depend on power over another aspect. It is only a matter of time before Seti proves them wrong. Many don't know it, Your Majesties, but the true experts are ones who specialize in control. The magus who has more control over his element almost always wins among the peak of the magus. Even a warrior of the highest skill would prefer fighting a group of overpowered magus than a single magus with ultimate control over his element or elements if he is a fifth rank or above."