After the incident at the graveyard, security had increased by quite a bit, and obviously no one was allowed to leave the estate. This resulted in all the children ended up getting shut in the playrooms together for most of the day.
However, on the last day, the twins came up to Theo, looking rather curious. They had been giving him looks for some time now, but it seemed they were a bit more invested now.
"Lord Cromwell..."
"Please, just call me Theo".
"Well then, Theo...I was just wondering, it seems like there are some people missing from the estate. Where is your older sister, or her head maid?"
Certainly, all of the maids had been operating directly under the head butler, which was a bit odd for a Duke Household.
"Ah, some incidents happened, and it seems she got arrested for embezzling before you arrived. We have yet to properly replace her. As for my sister, its important for the children of the duke to arrive at the academy early to make proper preparations and do early socializing, so she left early".
"I see...sorry, I heard she was quite capable".
Yeah, well, thats certainly true. She is ruthless, cold blooded, sadistic, cruel, but she also is pulling off what might as well be a coup at age eleven, so yeah I cant argue with that.
"A lot of people said she was nice also, but I have heard some rumors that she is acttually quite mean and cruel. Are you okay?"
The question caught Theo so off guard, he was not sure how to react at first. He wasn't aware any such rumors had been revealed yet, although it wouldn't totally surprise him. However, Theo did remember from the game, that the in game character Theo got along much better with the main protagonists then he did his own sister. Many suspect that his relationship with the protagonists was part of the reason why he was killed too, so this conversation was actually putting him in great peril.
But before he could react, he realized he had started crying a little. He quickly wiped them away.
In the endings where the protagonists rush towards the solution, Theo dies faster actually, as the chaos of things gettitng thrown off the rails makes his sister more cruel and sadistic. It also lead to a rahter haphazard terrorist attack being rushed, which makes it harder for the protagonists to stop it and results in countless civilian deatths.
"...thanks for asking".
That was all he could say, when Rowyn stepped in.
"Might be a bit too personal of a conversation starter, dont you think?"
The twins seemed to realize this and went wide eyed.
"Ah, apologies".
"My bad".
I wasn't expecting that...but if word gets to my sister about that conversation, it could go very badly for me. I have to consider the possibility that she might even try to have me killed before school even starts if I make too many overt moves after all.
Either way, they still glanced Theo's way with some concern, but overall the topic didn't come back up again.
As such, they were able to leave the next day without a hitch. Theo was able to perform his noble duties splendidly, and once that was done, he retreated back into his room with Rowyn. Once he confirmed they were alone, Rowyn sighed.
"You are doing that again, aren't you?"
"I cant help it, even with all the seriousness, its still kind of jarring!"
What Theo was currently doing was taking off all of his clothes, and then standing in front of a mirror naked looking at his own body.
"Yes, we get it, you are young and cute now".
"Sorry, its just...I know I did this a lot already, but I just cant help myself" Theo said, looking at Rowyn. "Maybe I should be more surprised at you. You are taking this information, and being naked in the same room as me...wait, why are you?"
"As a spirit, I normally dont care...but honestly, this makes it feel slightly less weird to see this".
"And the other tthing?"
"You yourself declared you would live as a boy and consider yourself a boy, and you have a boy's body, so even if in your past life you were a girl, I only see you as a boy now. Plus, you yourself also have memories of Theo, a boy, and I feel like rather then possessing him or awakening previous memories, its more like you two are...fused? Like Theo was Theo, and then got a big information dump or something like that with an ego attached to it, and they merged together".
"You think so?"
"Yeah. Its probably why you were able to accept being a boy so easily maybe...well, in any case, I just went with it and consider you a boy".
"Thats a good mindset to have...I suppose I can accept that".
"Frankly, I am just confused on how this is even possible. You died, and you somehow reincarnated in...what was it called? An otome game?"
As Theo's first Guardian Spirit, when they connected telepathically, a certain amount of information got shared with Rowyn. This included Theo's previous life apparently, so Rowyn had a rough understanding of the situation.
"It was called that yet, and that is what it is based on, but it was made with the idea of being marketed to a broader audience. As such, they also put a lot of detail into it".
"Yeah but...that really doesn't make sense to me. Because this is a very real world, a very real, solid world. So how could a game be so perfectly based upon it? And how does it know the future? How was it able to predict these things perfectly?"
Rowyn started to state such things that normally would never, ever be brought up if one was reincarnated into an otome game. Theo sat on the bed for a moment, and gave it some serious thought.
"I suppose...I guess it makes sense. However, I dont have anywhere near enough answers".
"Yeah about that, why is it that you die in every potential timeline also? Isn't that just abnormal?"
"No, that is roughly explained. My sister is why".
"But dont you often get killed by the calamities as well, Elder Vampires, Werewolves, and other beasts?"
"Yes, but...they was some suggestions that my sister might have drawn their wraith somehow, and they killed me as revenge, or my sister purposefully had me put in harms way. I mean, normally I wouldn't even attend the Academy at nine years old, but my sister got me in through her authority with some other kids".
"Oh yeah...I guess being the youngest there, you get seen as an easier target".
"Pretty much".
"Hmm. I still have questions, but I doubt saying them here and now would do any good, we already have too many unanswered questions. Instead, we should probably do some training. Now, first of all, get back in front of the mirror".
"Eh, didn't you complain before?"
"Nah, right now we are doing Guardian Spirit Summoning. In my current form, I can handle a good amount, but we need to make sure you properly get used to being able to summon me. That includes making sure you can make your summoning pose again".
"Wait, summoning pose?"
"Well, its sort of like a contract between us about me being your Guardian Spirit, like any other Guardian Spirit. And the pose you were in at that time is sort of like the signature. To summon my full power again, you need to do that same pose. There can be exceptions occasionally, but that requires some hard practice and determination, so I figured we should get started now. First of all, you had both your palms pressing against your chest, since you were trying to keep your soul from overflowing out. You were bowing your head a bit too, and your knees were bent".
Theo followed the directions, and then looked into the mirror and blushed.
"I was making this pose?!?!"
"...yeah, its rather maiden like".
"Uhg...well whatever. So then I just need to summon you...alright, lets do a test run. 'I need you, Guardian Knight!'".
Theo repeated himself, but normal Rowyn was still in front of him. Rowyn looked over, and saw the issue.
"Ah, your knees. They were pointed inward".
"Uhg...how embarassing".
The fact that this was Theo's summoning pose now, all because it was from such a tense atmosphere and he got such an amazing Guardian Spirit as his first. Theo was not entirely pleased, but he couldn't change it now. It was essentially a signature. Either way, he decided to go through with it.
"I need you, Guardian Knight!"
Suddenly he felt a heavy load on his body. Even though he hadn't gotten dressed again, it felt like heavy metal armor and heavy metal underwear had been put on his body. Everything was uncomfortable and weighed a ton, and it felt like his spirit was about to burst out of his chest.
However, he was able to successfully summon Rowyn's larger, knightly form. This was the normal appearance for any Guardian Knight spirit. There were some things unique to Rowyn's design, but otherwise it was like that. A very large suit of armor, that was at least four times as big as Rowyn's normal form was. One could probably fit at least four Rowyns inside of the armor. It was nearly 3M tall after all.
"Can you...shrink or change it at all?"
"Sorry, but these forms are set. They are part of our soul, our identity. We cant change them at all".
"...understood".
Rowyn moved around a little in his bigger form, and tried a few things. If he lowered his passive skill use, it seemed to get a bit easier on Theo. Every time he used an active skill, Theo felt a surge from within himself that was unpleasant. However, there were no signs of change or issues with his outer body.
Eventually, Rowyn returned to his normal form. Theo got up immediately.
"That was...intense".
"Yeah. But it seems to just be an overload of energy, I didn't see annything physically wrong with your body. You just can barely handle the strain of my full power. While I do sword practice, perhaps you should do spirit practice".
"Y-yeah".
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The two got dressed after that, and headed to the courtyard. Theo was too drained from the experiment earlier to do practice with his Celestial Magic or look into Spirit Practice, so he just ended up reading at the gazebo while Rowyn did some practice.
Apparently, since it had been awhile since he had a physical body, he wanted to do some practice swings and re-adjust himself to having such a solid body. Certainly, Rowyn got hungry, thirsty, he even got dirty and needed to take baths, and Theo had caught him napping once, although Theo was still unsure if that was just a trick, since when Theo tried to poke his cheek, he ended up getting tossed upside down.
This was completely unheard of for a Guardian Spirit, and it was believed to be because Theo had spent time o nthe shores of the boundary, not only between worlds, but between the living and the dead. Thanks to that stronger connection to the Spirit World, his Guardian Spirit was able to live like this.
I wonder though, if that might somehow also be increasing the strain on me. Basically, its like there is no filter, no safeguards that protect me, something like that.
As Rowyn was training, some knights came by. Theo recognized them immediately as some of his sister's guard knights. A few of them would have remained with her, but the rest once they were done escorting the carriage, would come back. ANd Theo had a good idea of what their orders were.
My sister has likely ordered them to mess with me as much as possible, probably all in the name of "training". But she is probably really furious about the head maid, so this is the only way she could really lash back at me right now.
"Young master, we have been told by your sister to see to your combat training" one said, as he swung a wooden sword down at Theo suddenly. Theo flinched as he was about to be hit, but the impact never came. Instead, Theo heard a clank. He opened his eyes, and saw that Rowyn now stood inbetween him and the guards and knights, a wooden sword in his hand and the knight who had tried to hit him was now empty handed.
"I am the young master's personal knight, Rowyn. If anyone would be training him, it would be me, so I would kindly request you try to not hurt my master. If you truly need a training partner that badly..."
Rowyn narrowed his eyes at them, his demeanors and voice sending a chill down their spines.
"...I would be more then happy to oblige".
"Tsk. You beastkin brat".
One of them drew their swords and attacked Rowyn, but he blocked it with a shorter sword. Really, the one with the longer sword should have an advantage, but after the clash he nimbly rotated his blade around the blade, deflecting it to the side and then placing his wooden sword to the neck of the man in a clean motion.
"Checkmate" he said, as he removed the wooden sword. The man meanwhile passed out, as if he had just faced death itself.
Ah, they always bully me, so I guess I dont feel sorry for them even considering who they are up against. They are up against a legendary knight after all. Or rather, it seems like his skills are not dull at all.
The next one came at him, rushing towards him with extreme zeal. He tried to use his range to attack before Rowyn was expecting, but Rowyn sidestepped the slash so casually, quickly hit his wooden sword down at the arm, striking a nerve point and making his arm get stunned, making him drop his sword in the process as he put the blade to his neck as well. He backed away, frightened.
Yes, those two had learned just how skilled Rowyn was. One of them drew a real sword, but Rowyn just looked at him with a smirk.
"To panic at this little, it shows how poorly skilled you are".
He tried to strike at Rowyn, but Rowyn dodged with the slightest of margins, the blade just coming within a centimeter of his nose, and then he got up close to the soldier and gave him a good uppercut, causing him to let go of his weapon as he flew backwards and hit the ground.
Rowyn then put his wooden sword onto his neck, winning the match.
Two more of them came together, both of them attacking Rowyn at once. Rowyn of course dodged both blades again, using minimal movements. The guards tried to watch his feet, but then his feet suddenly seemed to move in the opposite direction of his body, confusing them as he suddenly moved around to both of them, placing the wooden knife to one of their necks. The other tried to attack him with a stab with a real sword, but Rowyn jumped up, placing his palm on the flat side of the sword, pushing off of it and causing the sword to go into the ground as he landed right on the guy's shoulders, and he placed his wooden sword on the man's neck, as his legs were hanging off on either side as he was riding the man piggy back. He then pushed off, adjusting his body so he did a handstand into a sort of reverse cartwheel.
At this point, the knights and guards had been completely and totally demoralized, and anyone who had not been trounced by Rowyn had already run away.
"Well, I think that went well".
Rowyn said that with a smile, before facing back at them.
"I am in charge of Young Master's physical training. If anyone else wants to get involved, they will have to beat me first. And I wont hold back next time".
The guards gulped, as they understood from waht they just dealt with that trying to do that would be hell for them. Some even ran away on the spot from that declaration.
"Yeah, I dont think we will have to worry about them anymore".
"Especially since some of them need to change their underwear".
"Well yeah, you didn't hide your bloodlust after all".
Seriously, Rowyn is normally so calm and peaceful, but he was practically staring daggers at them. Its no wonder they started to draw real weapons, with that much blood lust it wouldn't be surprised if their life was in danger.
Rowyn was incredibly loyal as a person, but also he seemed to determined to help bring down Theo's sister.
"I feel like you may actually want to brign her down more then me, which is a tiny bit surprising".
"Well yeah, I cant stand how she treats you, but also...its obviously she doesn't stand for any of your great grandfather's ideals. Your father barely does as well, from what little iv seen of his stuff. But you, you have that same sort of energy and charisma as him. I wont let his legacy be defiled by some brat with ambitions. And I wont let you be killed again by some psychopath".
It seems this had become just a tiny bit personal for Rowyn. It seems he was a tad bit annoyed with the current state of the family, except for Theo.
"By the way...you are aware Zuuki and Paza are Imperial Spies right?"
"I know Zuuki is from the game, but Paza I never actually confirmed. But they are siblings, and so logic dictates Paza must be as well".
"Yeah, but....what I am unsure of is why they both serve you. No offense, but Imperial Spies...they seem to genuinely care about you. Sure they seem young, but I feel like its more then that. Its worth keeping in mind at least".
"Well, they are my friends, they genuinely hold tthose feelings....which then, doesn't quite make sense for spies? Maybe? I thought we weere avoiding stating questions we couldn't answer?"
"True".
There were many mysteries, and not all of them could be properly explained. At least not yet.
"For now, we need to do more prepwork".
"Getting the Scholarly Owl would help us overall, since he could help collect and gather infformation, and also just help keep track of various information".
"Yeah. There is also a Doppleganger at school in a few years, but since it took a different appearance in each game run and was a background character, it may be difficult to pin down. That would be good".
While they kept chatting telepathically, Theo proceeded to read his book and Rowyn did some more warmups. Even tthough they were the weakest of his sister's guards and knights, which is part of the reason they were sent back, Rowyn defeating them like that was likely very embarassing.
If it had been the best of them, at least a few would have given them trouble.
Especially Carliah. She appears in the game a lot, tormenting Theo, the protagonists, and anyone else who gets in her way. SHe was also fairly paranoid, which is why my sister got away with so much. That woman left behind no evidence of anything. She even sets up red herrings to have other people get blamed in her stead.
Truly, she was a rather annoying villainess who wouldn't be taken down easily. And as the daughter and heir to a duke, she had extensive protective charms and already had a lot of combat training, so even Rowyn wouldn't be able to cut her down so easily. From what Theodore could remember, from the runs where he had to fight her directly, she possesses a bunch of randomly generated gear that is different each run, but there are some constants.
The Crystal Lily is a broach she always has on her, and it has five different effects. Instant Death Prevention, Magical Status Immunity, Lifeshield Savior, Mistress Time, and Supreme Vitality. The first two were fairly straight forward. One would prevent any curse, hex, spell, or other such method from instantly killing her. Magical Status Immunity meant that trying to use magic to petrify her, stun her, control her, confuse her, would fail. Lifeshield Savior was an effect similar to the Guardian Shield that Theo had thanks to Guardian Knight. If she was about to die to an attack, it would block the attack. However, it had the additional effect of healing all previously acquired injuries and restoring her stamina as well. Mistress Time would trigger if someone got past all that. If she got a lethal blow, it would rewind time to the very start of the fight, except only she would be aware of it.
In the game, that was the flavor for that ability. How it actually worked in the game was that the boss, her, would be aware of all the commonly used spells the character had, and would have counters for them ready. It would also use the combat habits recorded in the game log as well for this, so you would end up fighting someone who your style was always weak against.
Supreme Vitality was probably the simplest. It made her very healthy, have lots of stamina, increased resistance to physical abnormalities, and increased her body stat by a good bit.
And since she was almost never alone, it would mean that even if Rowyn wanted to kill her to get her out of the way, he would have to fight against superior numbers, against someone who had such an enchanted object, and that was just one of the ones she had. There were two others as well.
The Lotus Hairpin doubled as a wand. It was a mastercrafted objected like the Broach, and in addition to casting spells from the magic she could use, it could also store twenty pre-cast spells in it. Four casts of Reaper, which could kill someone instantly, four casts of molten impact, four casts of thundering gale, six casts of group heal, and two casts of Resurrection. The wand also cut mana use for spells in half, and also increased their power by 30%.
And then finally, there was Shun's Bracelet. Created by the greatest Artificer in the history of the Empire, its effects allow one to create powerful defensive barriers around themselves that are difficult to break, prevent one from being too cold or too hot, reflect the first twenty physical attacks in a battle back at the attacker, reflect the first twenty magical attacks in a battle back at the caster, and it prevents curses.
When Rowyn heard this, his brow furrowed.
"...thats just unfair".
"Yeah. She is the last boss for a reason".
Incidentally, this was Rowyn's stats while in his human, or rather, beastkin form. His mortal form.
Name: Rowyn (Fraudwyn) Body: 3 (7) Age: 7 (102) Spirit: 4 (14) Class: (Superior) [Apprentice] Knight Level [8] (17) Magic: 2 (5) Attributes: None (Celestial, Void, Spirit) Agility: 4 (9) Species: Cat Beastkin (Spirit?) Fate: -2 (5) Bloodlines: None Brain: 9 (24) Special Abilities: Beastkin Senses (Spirit Form, Guardian Spirit abilities, Telepathy with Master, Fraudwyn Sword Style) Skills: Swordsmanship 4 (10 MAXED!), Beast Riding 5 (10 MAXED!), Shieldplay 3 (10 MAXED!), (Fraudwyn Sword Style 10 MAXED!, Spirit Arts 4, Master Sword Style 7) Status Conditions: None (Spirit Linked, Soulbound to Theodore Lua Cromwell, Manifested) Available Skillpoints: 0
Everything within the parathesis was hidden from other people seeing, if they tried to invesitgate his status. He also pretended to be a level 8. It had to be high enough for it to be believable that such a fake status was protecting me against these knights after all. Normally hiding such Status was impossible, but Rowyn did it like it was nothing. The brackets were anything that we added as fake information, only we could see the brackets and parathesis, or anything inside of the parathesis.
However, every time he did it, it brought Theo great pain. So it was not something they could do often. If anyone asked, we could just say he was born with high attributes, even if they discovered his true status.
And this was him in his Guardian Spirit form.
Name: Guardian Knight (Rowyn Fraudwyn) Body: 32 Age: 102 Spirit: 42 Class: Superior Knight Level 42 Magic: 12 Attributes: Celestial, Void, Spirit Agility: 22 Species: Guardian Spirit Fate: 5 Bloodlines: None Brain: 24 Special Abilities: Beastkin Senses, Spirit Form, Guardian Spirit abilities, Telepathy with Master, Fraudwyn Sword Style Skills: Swordsmanship 4 (10 MAXED!), Beast Riding 5 (10 MAXED!), Shieldplay 3 (10 MAXED!), (Fraudwyn Sword Style 10 MAXED!, Spirit Arts 4, Master Sword Style 7) Status Conditions: Spirit Linked, Soulbound to Theodore Lua Cromwell, Manifested Available Skillpoints: 0
Even in the latter, as they did not know the rest of her potential combat gear, it was too dangerous to attempt.
Of course, Theo considered the possibility she might not have all of those yet. She definently had to be a lower level right now in the game, and Rowyn thought of that too. However, Theo would be a sitting duck if Rowyn tried to attack her, and its possible in a full scale battle, Theo wouldn't be able to survive Rowyn using that much power. Not to mention, she was too far away to try anything at the moment.
Theo definently couldn't keep him manifested in his full form long enough to run over there and attack.
So the idea of doing an early, full on assault on her was immediately rejected. Too many risks, too many negatives.
Incidentally, in the game, all of her gear was Soulbound, so not only would stealing any of that gear be pointless if you wanted to ue it for yourself, even when she died, there were self destruct enchantments on them all, and you only had enough time to purify one provided you had the materials for that ready. Furthermore, the broach self destructs early, so you cant even get that at all. If you tried, you just wasted the chance to get another two.
This caused dismay to a number of people who played for the first time and wanted the broach, but the game designers must have felt that should be a boss only thing due to how powerful it was.
Although, I could certainly see my sister setting those up on her own.
Either way, they had a lot of work ahead of them.