Duke Furukawa sat in his secret meeting room in a house tucked in the corners of the city of Azuria along with his closest allies. Just a few days ago his daughter had a meeting with various influential kids and even if she was optimistic, he was experienced enough to know that this was going to be a slow thing.
“Duke, not that I don’t like the food or company, but why are we here exactly?” Fushin, one powerful merchant and longtime ally of the Duke asked.
“Well my friend, nobody likes to lose things they have, don’t they? New blood is starting to circulate around and if we don’t get a hold of it we might be left behind. I am sure everyone here has some idea what I am talking about at least.” The duke said.
“The Royal family has eyes on the girl and if they get her our fragile balance of power will be gone.” Marquise Sonia said with a scow in her face. The woman wasn’t one to show emotions but she was visibly bothered by the situation.
“Marquise, are you privy to anything we might not be?” The Duke asked.
“Yes…There are serious talks about the third prince choosing another first wife.”
“Forgive me if I am being rude, but isn’t your youngest daughter to be married to the third prince?” Another Duke, Duke Azalin asked.
“Yes.” The woman calmly answered.
“The Royal family was always one to put stability and balance above power. Do you think that the girl is worth it?” Fushin asked everyone.
“10 years old, Ki Condensation Stage, Death Aspect mana body, Controller and Emitter ranks are incalculable as of the moment, can kill immortals, quite easily if reports and rumors are to be believed. From a pure military standpoint I would give my arms and legs to have that girl.” Hoshi, a female general with close ties to the royal guards explained.
“Which is why I gathered all of you here. After some investigation I can say with certainty that there will not be an easy way to do this. We need to prepare for the long game.”
“What do you mean?” One minor noble asked.
“We cannot shower the family with gifts to get close as they don’t need it, want it and will clearly see our intentions. We cannot strong arm them because no immortal in any of our families will come to our defense. We cannot openly get a financial hold on the family too because they either work directly for the crown or a business so inconsequential that anyone with a brain would sniff us a mile away. There is also the fact that the girl is the newest apprentice of the Dimensional Mage himself and he is not known to be the kind of man that forgives people easily.”
“What do you suggest?” Duchess Shiroi asked.
“Like I said, we will need to play the long game. We will need a genuine and natural friendship.”
“I hope you are not expecting any of us to lower ourselves to the level of commoners.” Marquise Sonia said with disgust in her voice.
“No. Let’s slowly put them up. Train them. We have many subordinates that could, if we worked together, guide them to us.”
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“Still, what would we earn working together? There is only one of her.” Duke Azalin asked.
“She comes with all her connections, my fellow duke. The dwarf girl that is encroaching in the territory of Fushin here, 3 future Royal knights, A general, a healer on par with a saint, a possible future King of another nation. Those are only the closest ones, who knows what second hand connections she has.”
“I was told that the girl values friendship above all else. The lengths she will go for those she is close to are unfathomable. She put a leash on herself so who are we to free her from that?” The Duchess said.
“So, what is your first suggestion?” Another noble asked.
“We need pawns. I, myself, am scouting for possible future members of this special class. I can see the older members graduating this year, leaving a few spots for new people. I would of course love that someone of my own blood was there but I have to be realistic.”
“I have some friends that might help me acquire a few relevant businesses without using my name.” Fushin said.
“I heard that various nobles and merchants are bombarding the poor family with requests they can’t refuse. I think stopping those might be a good sign of friendship, don't you think?” The Duchess said.
“It might be a good idea to prepare a partner for the girl. Someone that knows what is best for everyone. There are plenty of young men out there with too much power and not much brain that I know would love some help.” The Marquise said.
“All parts of the army want the piece of that girl. If she ever finds herself there I believe we can be good friends.” The general said.
“Foreign powers are poking us a little more than necessary. I believe we should poke them back a little, shouldn’t we?” Duke Azalin said to the other nobles and merchants there.
“Seems like a good start. Remember, we just want to be friends with the girl and her family. No need to show our superiority. Let’s take it slow.” Duke Furukawa said.
—-
Mia awoke in the middle of the night silently screaming as her nightmare came to an end. She was covered in sweat and breathing heavily.
She didn’t remember much of what the nightmare was about but she remembered enough. Someone was taking away the people she loved away from her because she wasn’t strong enough to protect them. They were screaming and crying for help, blaming her for their suffering.
Now that Mia was eating those strange pills, she actually had energy to do stuff, like having nightmares. She didn’t remember having one until now. She also knew that she needed to quickly get her mana pathways in order.
Her current cultivation technique needed to be modified to be something between what she was doing and what she would do in the next stage. She looked around and people like her are more of a myth than anything else. Either people are born with aspect bodies and can cultivate normally, from their point of view at least, or they acquire one when it won’t be a problem for them, on the third stage of cultivation or higher.
She looked down and saw the necklace with Onyx mana stone and a few tears began to fall as she held it in her hands.
It was somewhat stupid but Mia was probably sure that she would be a terrible pet owner. Most pets would die before you so you have to prepare for that but not for a moment Mia thought that Onyx would leave her. She remembers having some sort of animal compassion once during one of her many trips in her old life but doesn’t exactly remember what happened, just that it was a really sad memory.
Mia found herself looking at the mirror she had in her room. She had changed, things had changed. She had scars before but now they will be permanent. No matter how much she feels happy or smiles she knows that there will always be something dark inside of her that will put her down if it gets the chance. Her friends are the same. They outwardly look ok but she knows that they changed and she doesn’t know if it was for the better or worse. She has almost no contact with them outside the academy and that will not change. She just hopes that when she deals with The Steps she will be able to live without the fear that someone will hunt her or her friends down.
Even with her depressive thoughts, her body was still that of a child and soon sleep came again. Mia fell asleep hoping that her friendship and family could hold on until she was ready.