Altevia Aulus Cornetia

Did he really pull his sword just because of a small argument? And I thought I was in another world, isn’t this just a rainy day in London?

“We need to get you out of here, my lord.”

Nazir grabbed me by the shoulder and led me towards the exit, catching a sword swung by a man with a goatee in mid-air and shattering it in his hand, and we kept moving. This was one of the dozens of bars my father owned, and I was bored, so I decided to go for a night out, and unluckily I got caught in the middle of a fight.

While dozens of people inside were still attacking each other, I deflected a vertical sword strike with my dagger and grabbed the man by the wrist and pulled him down, leaving a small cut on his arm. As the man fell to the ground from the paralyzing poison, I passed over him without stepping on him. I was calm, too calm actually, because I was used to this kind of situations. And also because of my training with both Mage Club and Nazir, I could rarely feel fear anymore.

“I finally found you,” Julian said. I think he was like 13 years old now, he was getting taller, he was going to be very tall for sure. I was in the middle of my 9th year, it had been a long time since I came into this world, and I felt like a part of it now.

After we left the place, I saw a look on Julian's face that I would say was worried and nervous. His eyebrows were furrowed and he looked sad.

I said, “What happened?” and he answered instantly, “I had an argument with my father, he's sending me to Secily.”

“Secily?”

“The southernmost city in the region.”

“Oh, yeah I know. Why are you upset?”

Julian's eyebrows furrowed a little more, “What do you mean why?

He thinks I've been spending too much time with the commoners, I need to get an education and get engaged.

And my mother said I'd be the laughing stock of the other nobles.

I don't care what the others think, I want to stay here.”

“That was a great sentence.” Julian got a surprised look on his face when I said that, and I continued, “But I think I would have enjoyed going to Secily.”

His surprise grew.

“I don't know about the engagement, but I don't think it would be wise to miss the opportunity for an education.

Are you going to college?”

“No and yes, I'm going to a college prep class or something. I'm too young for college.”

“Prep school? How many years?”

“Three.”

I looked at him in silence for a while, three years was a long time. As much as it was a good opportunity for Julian, I was going to lose one of my very few friends here. I could convince him to stay here if I wanted to, and I know that's what he wanted, but I won't. He had his own life to develop.

I looked at Nazir, “Can I join the preparatory class?” and Nazir shook his head. “My lord, first you are too young, and second there is no need for you to join the preparatory class. You are already better than most college students in terms of knowledge, strength and magic.” My eyes widened and I folded my arms, “Really?” and Nazir nodded, “Really, your talent still amazes me even after all these years.”

I turned to Julian, “Don't be sad or angry, just go to Secily and make new friends. I wanted to travel anyway, you can show me around when I come there.”

Julian looked at me silently, waited for a while and then said in a low voice, “Okay.”

“There's a feast tonight,” he looked at me and continued, “It's going to be crowded, will you come?”

“I don't think so.”

“That's what I thought.

Okay, see you later.”

Julian turned round, and before he started walking I said, “Where are you going?”

He turned to me again, “I'm going to talk to my dad,” and, after I said, “See you,” he smiled and went home.

Now that I think about it, I haven't been going to feasts for a long time. My mother used to force me to go, but recently, I think because I started going out, she no longer insisted when I refused. It was fine from my point of view, in fact it was better for me. We did nothing but stand in the middle of dozens of people I didn't know, eating desserts and listening to classical and jazz music. By the way, if they could play rock, I would have gone with pleasure without my mom having to ask. Drums, saxophone, piano, acoustic guitar, harp, all excellent instruments, but none of them could replace electric and bass guitar. Recently I managed to play some of my favourites like Hendrix, Cem Karaca, Yavuz Cetin, Buckethead, Aerosmith, etc. at low volume in my room using illusion stones, but it was really hard to remember the sounds and lyrics. You know when a piece of music starts playing in your head in a way you can't control, imagine if you could transfer it to a speaker, that's how it worked in the simplest logic and it was hard, really hard. If one day in the future I build a cabin in the woods far away from people, I can listen to it at full volume with great pleasure, but until then I hope I will not forget these beautiful pieces.

As I looked around a little, a slightly overweight, old demon aunty with long brown hair came up to me. “You are Lord Altevia, aren't you?” She asked, and when I nodded in surprise, she handed me a glass cup.

‘’Here, it's hot today,‘’ she said, and when I picked up the glass, she smiled and walked away.

I looked curiously at Nazir and saw him chuckling, “People are starting to recognise you, my lord,” he said, and after looking at the glass in my hand for a while, I took a sip of the orange coloured drink. It tasted a little strange, but I knew what it was. It was made from a fruit called ‘tanned’, which grew on a tree unique to this world and resembled a mango in appearance. In terms of flavour, I think the closest thing I could remember from my old world was iced cherry drinks mixed with sugar. You know, the kind sold at the stands in front of small restaurants on the streets.

I looked up at the sky and hid my eyes from the sun with my hand, it was really hot and there was nothing I could do. I guess the best thing to do was to go home.

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I took another sip of my drink and as I was heading for home, I saw a familiar but unexpected face walking quickly and hurriedly.

“Lady Mira?”

As soon as she heard my voice, she stopped and lowered her hood. She looked at me with her purple hair falling over her shoulders, she looked incredible.

“Altevia?”

“You've grown so much.” - “You've grown so much.”

When we said that at the same time, she giggled and looked at me with a smile. But her eyes looked tired and she looked around when she finished.

“What are you doing here?”

“Nothing very important, your dad's in the harbour, right?”

“I don't know, probably.”

“Alright… I need to go, see you.”

She raised her hood again and continued walking at a fast pace. Her movements were very strange, I think something was wrong. After she walked a little further, I decided to follow her and Nazir followed me without saying anything. After a while I realised that there were 2 other people following her. They were actually well hidden, they guessed the direction Mira was going and they were hiding by going through different streets, sometimes passing her and chatting with other people on the street. And because they usually had their backs to the street, they were able to hide from Mira.

How did I spot them? The Ocean's men liked to wear the waves, the symbol of this place, as tattoos or on their clothes, and people who didn’t have that symbol were easily recognizable when you look around a little. When I saw the same people in a row, I could easily figure out what they were up to. Anyway, enough chasing, I grabbed the arm of one of our men and pointed to the guys following Mira, “Can you catch these guys?” I said and he looked at me for a moment, realised who I was, and immediately nodded and started to smirk. He put his fingers in his mouth and played a loud whistle, and suddenly dozens of people on the street looked at us, he pointed to the guys with his head, and dozens of people nodded without saying anything, and within seconds they grabbed the guys who started to look around in surprise, and put them on the ground.

I saw Mira stop and look at us, I smiled and waved my hand at her, she smiled and bowed her head and kept going.

Ocean's men brought the two who had been following Mira in front of me, and asked, ‘What shall we do with these two, my lord?’ I looked at the pair very briefly and then looked at the questioner and said, “Can you take them to my father?” The man looked down and one of the pair shouted, “Wait, there's been a misunderstanding!” and was knocked unconscious by a blow to the back of the neck.

I didn't know what these men had against Lady Mira, maybe Lady Mira had done something bad, but it didn't matter now. My father would take care of the rest.

Should I go to the harbour or home? Things seemed to be getting interesting, but that didn't change the fact that it was suffocatingly hot.

Oh, wait a minute... If Lady Mira was here, did that mean Rea was here too? There had been no letters or books this month, perhaps she wanted to give the new book by hand? Then she could be at home.

I hurried up the path to the house and Nazir followed me. As we walked, two people called out to us at a light jog and Nazir grabbed me and helped me onto the horse that had been brought to us.

“Oh, thank you, but-”

“I asked for it, my lord, no need to worry,” Nazir interrupted me and mounted the horse that had been brought to him. I think that after the years we had spent together, he now understood my behaviour and way of thinking, it was good.

We arrived home after a half-hour journey, but unfortunately the guards at the gate told us that no one was home except my mother. Rea was staying somewhere else then, or maybe she had stayed at Mirstone while Mira was here. It would have been good to see her after so long, we had exchanged many letters and she was really fun to talk to.

Maybe it sounds strange, maybe it sounds normal, but it's really hard to say, but over the years I've come to see Aurelia and Eliar as my real family. They were not comparable to my mother in my old world, that was a very separate and complicated subject, but they were definitely close to that level, because I felt and still feel that I was their child for many years. And although it was very difficult for me to weigh this at first, there was a very big factor that made me feel like their child, whenever I thought about the age of both of them, I was very young in their eyes. Aurelia in particular, I didn't think she would probably have a problem if I told her about my past, apart from a little shock. She would certainly look at me differently, but in a world like this, with all the fantastic events and things, I was sure that Aurelia, given her age and experience, had experienced stranger and more inconceivable things than this. But would I tell her about my past? Absolutely not. They were my new family, I was used to this reality and I wanted to continue living in it.

I poked my head out of the door of my father's office and saw my mother at his desk, looking at the caerrum dagger in her hand. She was beautiful as always, her grey hair pulled up in a bun and she was wearing a white tunic.

She smiled when she saw me and I walked over and hugged her.

She put the dagger in a grey box on the table with gold scribbles like those on runes and placed it in the second drawer.

“What were you doing?” I asked and she got up from the chair and reached out and kissed me on the head, “It's nothing important, were you in the Ocean?”

I nodded and she took my shoulder and walked with me to the balcony. She loved sitting on the balcony, especially the view. Even though my mum was more social than my dad, it was nice to see her seeking peace from time to time.

I was about to sit next to her and focus on the view when I saw a cut on her finger, yes, I really saw a cut. When I put my hand to the cut, she looked at me silently and I asked, “Why are you not healing that?” She looked at the wound on her finger, there was a little bit of blood running down her palm, “It's nothing important, I'll heal it later,” she said with a smile, and I asked, ‘Doesn't it hurt?

“No, don't worry.”

There was no way it couldn't hurt, but I guess she wanted to feel something once in a while, it was her decision. I kissed her hand, smiled at her and she caressed my cheek.

“Oh, and there's a feast tonight, you're attending.”

“I don't want to.”

“I don’t remember asking your opinion, I'll get your clothes ready.”

“Do I really have to?”

“This one's organised by the empress. Senators, kings, dozens of nobles, and of course their children will be there.

You've been spending too much time in the Ocean, if you're going to take over your father's business, and you will, you need to meet the next generation.”

“Who said I wanted to take over my father's business?”

“It's your inheritance, you're gonna leave it all to your cousins?”

“My father-”

“Altevia, your father can't do this job forever.”

I paused, I felt like my throat was in a knot. Mother stroked my hair and kissed my forehead.

“I'm sorry, sometimes I forget that you can understand a lot of things.

I mean, both he and the people who live in the Ocean will want you to take over in the future, and I think you fit in well.

And don't worry, your father is still young, and elves don't usually die unless they get sick or injured. Half-elves' bodies get weaker, and their appearance ages a bit, but I know I'll have Eliar by my side forever.

Just like I'll have you. You're everything to me.”

It was impossible to explain how she looked at me and I could only think of one thing.

“Where's my sister?”

She put her hand on my chair, pulled me slightly towards her and said, “Come, let's see,” and put her hand on my shoulder.

For a moment my vision went black, then a red light turned into a white ball, and I saw a red-eyed girl with short grey hair and red eyes walking in the darkness. She was holding a dark green short sword, and a creature resembling a giant dog, but with fur that was too fluffy, was walking with her. The vision continued for a little while longer, and then I noticed the bodies of countless creatures behind her, and very shortly afterwards I heard my mother say, “She's getting stronger now that she's cleaning dungeons on her own,” and the vision disappeared.

“So that's why you're not worried at all! Can you watch me like this?!”

Mother didn't say anything, she just smiled and I got my answer straight away.

“How do you do it, I thought magic was limited to the elements, time, telepathy and telekinesis?”

“Magic is far more varied than that but, I use a element, light.”

“Light?”

“I don't know if you can understand, but the way your eyes work has to do with the reflection of light.

Lucretia has a seal I placed on her, and through it I can see what she sees, and from what she sees I can see the surroundings, and from the reflections of the surroundings I can see everything.

You can think of it like a ball bouncing off the walls.”

I was surprised. It was science, very close to modern times. She was talking about a law of physics, to be precise. Her explanation was a bit incomplete, but I could understand what she was trying to say.

“The thought of you watching us all the time is a little frightening, but it's really amazing that you invented such a spell.”

“Oh, I didn't invent this spell.

Lady Aurelia, you are Lady Aurelia, Rat King, Rat King I am.”

When I looked at her in confusion she chuckled, “You haven't met him yet have you?” she said and got up from her chair taking a deep breath and smiling, “Come on, you'll have a shower and get ready.”