Today is June 2nd 330 RPT in the Blueseva household. The death of Mada Ashenwald is already a thing from the past. Imogyeran is still in possession of his ‘occupation’ as one of the family’s attendants and is willfully executing his orders to this day.
Currently, Esteban Blueseva is walking to his personal room while lost in thought. He is keeping a fast pace -one might even say a restless pace- as he makes his way through the corridors. On his forehead one can see deep wrinkles and a small bead of sweat forming, which is very unusual for his typically preferred attire.
Since Esteban has previously waged thoughts for and against keeping the boy in this place at this position many times over, the current situation might seem a little contradictory for one reason or another.
Recently, Esteban had an entire 180 degree change of angle on this matter. The prevailing thought in his dichotomy over this decision was this:
First of all, the major reason for his initial deliberation on the matter were the child’s well-being, both physically and mentally.
His fear had been the child being afflicted with a case of Mind-Deprivation and he had the hope of the symptoms reducing by giving him more freedom to express himself outside his role as an attendant and being free from his social standing of a war-slave’s offspring.
This matter however resolved itself relatively quickly around a month and a half after the incident.
The boy’s complexion and expressions in total improved back to the point, where one was able to call him mentally stable and his social capabilities have rehabilitated to his previous state. In short, the symptoms of Mind-Deprivation can no longer be seen anywhere on this boy now.
This strengthened the former family-chief’s decision to keep him here. He interpreted the boy’s recovery as being due to the environment acting as a sort of protective environment for the preadolescent boy.
The reality of the matter behind his recovery has simply been his increased harmony with the spirits and him being able to curry favor from them over time. The more he interacted with the same spirits, the less they were repulsed by his actions and the more they started accepting the communication on their own and positively assisting him in warding off the stray spirits.
Unbeknownst to anyone the abilities to anyone else, Imogyeran was making rapid progress in his ability to call upon, influence and order the environment to do his bidding. It is now to a level, where he could be called a better expert in spirit-channeling than most seasoned veterans in this field of work.*
Then there was also a concern for the boy’s physical health, since he was subjected to arguably hard work that might have been too much for a boy of his age.
This matter seems to have also resolved itself. Imogyeran’s complexion has drastically improved and one can even find hints of a muscular build on his body. He also seems decently nourished, so that’s not a problem either.
The outside world is tough for even the most seasoned veteran of life to survive in. Once one is exposed to the many different types of hindrances of life such as money, food and shelter, there would inevitably be no turning back for them.
Even disregarding the social burdens as well as the basic human needs, the outside world of Gaia is full of creatures of many kinds, most of whom are not studied nearly enough and create many dangerous environments for humans to trespass in.
He was calling himself crazy for hastily considering letting a barely 5-year old boy blindly run into the deep dangers of the world. Of course, Esteban would have made the appropriate arrangements creating a suitable situation for the boy through his connections and his authority as an accomplished veteran Estican noble but in his opinion, this type of a plan was too short-sighted for such a young boy to take.
Instead, the seasoned tactician opted for a long-term strategy for the boy’s future as an accomplished figure with ties to this family.
He would silently nurture the boy with highly valued skill-sets, that normally would only be available for the high-society, while under the moniker of his ‘personal brush-up’.
The topics would include smaller tasks like learning calligraphy and a set of different etiquette in presence of nobility, there would also be a wide range of military related contents inside them.
One time, he would teach the boy how to play a game called ‘Ringo-Reygo’, the game of the flat-footed king.
as long as you have two sets of 50 chips with a special adhesive enhancement, the game can be played on any rough surface, that is at least 4×4 meter large.
It consists of grouping your troupes into different units consisting of
cavalry, melee-unit, artillery, naval and aerial forces as well as surveillance forces and special-operations units.
Depending the rarity of the units, one would need to stack a number of chips together in order to create the corresponding forces.
They would utilize those units in order to protect their flat-footed king from their enemy while also targeting the opponent’s king.
This game originally served the purpose of inaugurating becoming generals into their position of leading a large number of military force and has a high renown among the people of the same kind as Esteban in this country.
In fact, most unconventional methods of education, which Esteban used, had a military background or were indirectly related with the military.
What a cold irony.
Outside of those types of education, Esteban would seldom take Imogyeran out to hunt the wildlife for food and the two of them would even camp outside for a night or two.
He would teach the child about reading cattle tracks and territorial signs on the environment, which they used to avoid the territories of larger and more dangerous wildlife.
Needless to say, these types of trips were often done with ample people as additional protection and Imogyeran was not the only young boy to attend this trip of theirs.
Nevertheless, he was the youngest and the bonding between himself and Esteban was palpably the deepest, no words spoken.
Until now, everything has gone mostly according to his plan. According to that, Esteban should be able to, in around 6 months promote Imogyeran’s status inside the family under the cover of his high amount of merits.
His first promotion would put him on the level of a personal attendant of his granddaughter and would significantly free him from his low social status. Then after a series of years, Esteban would gradually reward him a higher status.
Who knows, if Imogyeran and Elise were to get along well in the distant future, then marriage might also be a possible idea for him. That however would not be up to him to decide.
This was supposed to be the plan for the future but there are two variables, which have forced him to think about changing that plan.
To start off with the positive variable, Imogyeran has fared off better than expected in the execution of his tasks and assignments and his progress actually lies above the previously assumed perimeters of deviation from his original assumptions.
First of all, his physical coordination was as rough and unrefined as expected. The boy was simply too young to have full control over the many minute intricacies of the human body and had many difficulties with tasks that required him to show delicacy such as building a tent or whittling(the latter resulted in the boy cutting himself a total of 13 times within three hours).
His calligraphy also looked as terrible as one would expect but at the very least, the boy was very adamant about giving it his best when learning something.
Whenever he was stuck on a bad test result, he would try to persuade the old man to let him repeat that very test over and over again, sometimes taking multiple hours to finish one task.
This willpower impressed Esteban by a great deal to say the least.
His physical condition in itself was actually very positive and it seemed like he had done extensive physical training on his own during the times he locked himself up inside his room.
Then there are his mental abilities such as speech, memory capacity and contextual understanding. The boy was relatively decent at them from the beginning but his speed of progress seemed a little out of the ordinary. He was relatively quickly able to proficiently speak in a mannerly tone with the old man and the boy has seemingly found out a secret trick or something, because it seemed like his memorizing ability has improved by leaps and bounds overnight.
But the most outstanding feature about the boy is his situational awareness as well as his flexibility when confronted with complicated problems.
His utilization of tactical gambits that create opportunities for a breakthrough into enemy territory as well as his understanding of defensive formations that fortify and secure the structurally relevant spaces of the home-base are all flowing naturally and he responds well to the teachings from Esteban in this field. It is to the level, where he would make a great general in his future career. Judging by his increased win-rate when playing on terrain featuring water or large altitude changes, he would be useful as a naval admiral or maybe being responsible for special task forces might be more up his alley.
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The two of them even went over a bunch of military encryption methods and their corresponding decryptions(even though Esteban only ever revealed low-grade or very old encryptions to the boy).
Aside from the military side of things the boy has a talent in solving riddles well above his age-group in a decent amount of time. With a bit of polish, Esteban was sure about the boy’s future being bright regardless of the occupation he would pursue.
During one of their joint expeditions, Esteban once gave Imogyeran the task of capturing a pair of turquoise wobblers, a bunch of small turquoise critters, which were commonly found near bigger cities. One of those wobblers randomly showed up on their trips and this task was the whimsical result from that encounter.
He hadn’t really expected the child to be able and catch them due to their speedy nature and small stature but after vanishing into the forest it took less than two minutes for him to come back with the two animals in his hands. To this day, the seasoned veteran still hadn’t figured out how he did that and the boy wouldn’t divulge his secrets.
He suspects that the boy was able to corner the animals into a cramped space and due to some coincidence or maybe a plan of his he must have been able to seal the escape routes and catch the wobblers that way.
At least that’s his personal guess. He would have been surprised.
All these incidents have made him think of more effective plans for the boy’s future and during the last few days his thoughts have been occupied with preponing the promotion of Imogyeran. And then there was the second incident, that happened this noon.
It is currently noon on June 2nd 330 RPT, we are now inside the front yard of the Blueseva mansion. The people in attendance are Elise Blueseva, her older brother Ricardo Blueseva and their attendant Imogyeran Ashenwald. At the wish of Elise Imogyeran and her are currently huddled together in a corner of the yard and are reading a book about different bugs and critters while Ricardo is watching them with a jealous gaze.
Throughout the years, Imogyeran and Ricardo have tried to minimize their contact with each other. One didn’t like the other’s personality and code of conduct while the other felt weirdly uncomfortable with the one’s behavior that was too uncanny for their social role. Due to the differences in the education between men and women in Estican nobility as well as the fact that Imogyeran was typically assigned to Elise when it came to education, the two of them were mostly successful with their endeavor of avoiding each other.
That is until the second-to-last camping trip under the supervision of Esteban, Ricardo’s and Elise’s grandfather.
The two of them were both present on this trip and it was this trip that showed Ricardo the appreciation that his grandfather was holding for a boy, who was not even related by blood to the family. This has resulted in a deep envy sprouting inside the heart of Ricardo.
Due to their difference in age(Ricardo is 1 year older than Elise, who is around 6 months older than Imogyeran) Ricardo has already started proper physical training and is receiving highly physical education. He has been given the opportunity to train in military tactics under his grandfather but refused due to personal preferences. Ricardo is still not very proficient in etiquette but has already grasped the rough concepts of it over the years. This can also be seen in his style of clothing.
He is wearing a white military jacket with a golden strap and blue insignia embedded on its back. Ricardo’s lower parts are covered in jet-black leather, which has been enchanted to grow with the wearer, and a pair of purple shoes. His brown-blonde hair is combed back and his blue eyes give off a rebellious aura from his still juvenile face. The boy’s facial traits would surely make him a handsome man in a matter of years.
Elise on the other hand is wearing a white summer-dress and a pair of silver shoes with small heels on them. Her attire was set together by her grandmother Maria Blueseva and made to enhance her round blue eyes. Her hair was tied into a knot and she was wearing a slight amount of golden make-up under her eyes, which she had grown to like(though Imogyeran preferred her looks without it).
Imogyeran simply came with his usual attendee’s outfit: a white vest with two buttons at its top, a black shirt on top with a neatly turned-down collar and a pair of black shoes. In order to signify that he is above the level of a war-slaves child and instead a personal attendant to Elise and Esteban Ashenwald, he has been given this outfit with the caviar of a brown and dirty pelt draped over his left shoulder. This signifies his lower ranking and is a compulsory accessory to his dress.
< You could carry 50 me-s if you wanted to!>> The two of them are currently looking at a page containing a Giant beetle. Contrary to the name’s implication the giant beetle are a palm-sized type of beetle that has a smaller frontal horn and a large head-horn. They use their head-horn in combination with a charge to oppress their competitors and after pinning their prey down using their monstrous strength and their head-horn, they are able to explosively extend their frontal horn to pierce the prey’s head. In response to the sting, most of their prey begins slightly petrifying, which makes it easier for the beetle to eat them. ___ Scientists speculate that their chitinous exoskeleton is permeating an alluring substance for spirits from the earth-attribute. Their high strength can be attributed to the spirits fortifying their body through the contact with the exoskeleton while they are capable of using the beetle’s frontal horn as a syringe to pierce a small hole into the inner parts of their prey and inject those earth-spirits into them which temporarily petrifies their nervous system. ___ While Elise is giggling and laughing about, Imogyeran simply listens to her having fun while reading the pages of the book on his own. He doesn’t mind her cheery nature, no on the contrary he really likes listening to Elise’s stories as they are fun to listen to. He simply chooses to stay silent because their interests are mostly very different and a conversation wouldn’t amount to that much in his opinion. However today they share a common interest: < < < They are looking at the ‘Aranero Ciempies’ or the ‘deceitful centipede’. ___ As the name implies, the deceitful centipede is a type of centipede that survives by deceiving its competitors about its body length and its lethality. Every few years, this centipede grows an additional pair of legs and another component to its body. Each of these are grown by forming a parasitic relationship with different spirits, meaning that each compartment of this centipede is a miniature spiritual familiar with the head being the only real part to this insect. As long as the head survives, the centipede will reform itself with the passing of time. Each limb possesses a small hole, which can inhale, compress and exhale the surrounding air. This process is enhanced due to the utilization of the spirits inside each pair of limbs. The spirits that are in a symbiotic relationship with this animal possess either the nature of wind or the nature of fire. The fire spirits ignite the compressed air by mixing some of the centipede’s secretions, which are highly flammable, with it and lighting those on fire. The resulting explosion is then directed outwards and will cover a few dozens of centimeters of space between its limps and the potential enemy it is being used against. This process can only be done a few times at once due to the limited amount of secretion inside the centipede’s body and the fragility of the connections between limbs. This creature can be found in the desert and inside exotic climates as well as in cold areas with smaller critters in the vicinity. If this centipede appears inside a village, it is considered a sign for a critter plaque and a bad overall hygienic standard. Scientists are still researching this specimen extensively and is a highly important subject of future innovation. *This animal is often referred to as one but it is not actually a centipede ___ < Elise stays silent for a moment and watches the boy silently as he excitedly analyzes the insect’s special features and goes on a monologue about how cool it looks. She always noticed him being more apprehensive around them than he truly seems to be. In moments like this one, Elise feels like she gets to see a tiny bit of the real Imogyeran Ashenwald. As she thinks that she lets out a smile. <<...Elli! Hello? Oh esteemed miss Elise-Hoaquins Blueseva, your humble servant is requesting you for an answer?>> The girl awakens from her momentary stupor by the provocation of the sheepish boy. Her face reddens with anger, once she hears these words. <> She tries to pull at his hair and to tackle him from the side while Imogyeran is finding the current situation absolutely hilarious. < he shouts out while letting out a beautifully cheerful and hearty laugh. After that Elise actually stops. < < < < < What? Was she talking to the same person that has lived with her for the last 5 or so years? The confusion, that both of them felt was warranted on both sides. On one hand, the attendant Imogyeran has never once laughed while in the presence of another person in the Blueseva household. He might have smiled once or twice but not a single laugh has emerged from his lips for over 5 years. That is why Elise was very confused about the situation and Imogyeran’s statement. On the other hand, Imogyeran the spirit-channeler has lived a very happy life for the last one and a half years, where he was having fun with a myriad of spiritual beings and he considers himself a very cheerful person in his mind. He doesn’t realize his lack of showing affection towards others. Neither does he realize his lack of happiness in the world of the living humans around him. Thus this awkward situation between the two is born. Elise wants to break the silence but the one to break it first is her brother Ricardo. He goes up to the unsuspecting guy and slaps his face. Imogyeran’s confusion lasts only a second and he changes back to his usual behavior. He looks down at the shoes from Ricardo and says in a low tone <> He completes his words with a deep bow. Ricardo puts a hand on top of Imogyeran’s head and pushes him to the ground with a furious expression. < He growls at the boy, who is simply lying underneath his fist without moving an inch. This makes him even more furious and he picks the servant up with one arm while preparing to punch his face in with the other. < She tries to step between the two of them and tries to direct Ricardo’s punches away from Imogyeran. < With this blunt shout her brother simply shoves her out of the way and stands before Imogyeran, still not having punched out. He can’t bring himself to say these words. Elise has pulled up her legs and is currently loudly crying. He can already hear the other attendants rushing in. In this situation he decides to do something, which he normally would never have done. < < The boy does as told and he sees a pair of hollow red eyes staring back at him. It feels like he has the illusion of the boy’s head only containing a withered skull, not even a speck of flesh on it. He pulls off the silver glove on his left hand and throws it in front of Imogyeran’s feet. < < Nobody that heard this last declaration understood what was going on. Underneath all the stupor and surprised gazes of those people, who arrived a beat late at the scene, Imogyeran softly whispered these words: <> He wore a warm and soft smile, happy for the day to come. Back in the present: