Skills are the source of all power. In order to survive on a world as infested with monsters as ours, one needs to grow beyond the weakness of childhood and walk the path of the gods. To do so, one must learn and master skills, each one enhancing the body, the mind, and the spirit in ways subtle and overt.
It is through the skill system that we, the mortal denizens of this world, are able to build civilization and fight off the primeval monsters that infest every corner of the land. However, the idea that the gods made the skill system so we could create civilization runs counter to existing studies of how the skill system effects the individual.
Those who merely master physical skills will always run into a wall where their skills and body cease to grow; those who only master skills related to magic will find themselves all the lesser for ignoring the body and spirit; and those that only seek to refine the spirit will find that the body and the mind fail them.
It is only through growing skills related to the mind, body, and spirit that one can rise to the rank of Master and one day become a god. This is why every child in our great country is taught the basics of the three powers, so that they will have an understanding of all three aspects of their potential. One day, this old man hopes to see one of his own people rise beyond the rank of Master to stand amongst the Pantheon…
~An excerpt from The Nature of Our World, author unknown
Sure enough, the next day, they were called to the lord’s castle. A grand carriage with a young oni sitting in the driver’s chair waited outside while a spirit fox with the typical ageless look of one that had passed their first century conversed with his mother in an apologetic voice.
Iryun found it odd that his mother seemed more exasperated than worried, given the potential conflicts that might be born of a bastard – especially an acknowledged one – having too much talent compared to his legitimate siblings. The knight didn’t seem particularly bothered either, save that he was inconveniencing Iryun’s mother, which he found even odder.
Briefly, they went back inside, where his mother had him change into a set of pitch black robes he’d never seen before, with the symbol of a fox devouring a snake embroidered in silver across the back. Now that he thought about it, the same symbol had been present on the outside of the carriage. The robe was made of several layers of silk, and it felt like it was meant to be adjusted as the wearer grew so that it could be used until he reached adolescence.
The knight bowed from the waist as Iryun passed, making his shoulders twitch in surprise, his furred ears going flat against his head for a moment. However, he kept walking forward, careful not to step on the hem of the robes. The knight rose a moment later and hurried over to the carriage, opening the wood-paneled door and pulling out a step ladder that he placed in front of it.
Iryun’s mother got in first, with a familiarity that Iryun was quickly beginning to think wasn’t as odd as he had anticipated. Iryun himself got in without too much trouble, though he had to raise the hem of the robe to keep it from catching on the steps.
There were two benches placed on opposite sides perpendicular to the doors, with stuffed silk cushions merged into the back and seat. His mother sat on the one to the right, patting the seat beside her. Iryun obediently pulled himself up onto the bench, his feet only extending halfway down to the floor. His mother caressed his head, causing comforting warmth to spread through him, easing his oddly childish anxiety.
Is my body influencing me more than I thought? I don’t think I was the type to get this worried about the little things in life… He wondered. As Tajiri, he’d always been a daredevil, the type to throw himself into trouble for the hell of it. It seemed odd to him that he was reacting as if he were actually the same age as his body.
“My beloved child, use this chance to practice the Mist of Knowledge. Now that the system has accepted you as a child of the gods, you will find it much easier to do so. Keep practicing until we arrive,” His mother commanded gently.
Iryun nodded, closing his eyes as he concentrated on connecting his own spiritual self to the natural essence of the world around him. This time, instead of forming a hand of countless threads of power, he spread his power out in waves of mist-like particles in all directions. Normally, those who used the technique only spread it in a circle around themselves, but his mother, being a former adventurer, had taught him to create a sphere with a slightly wider spread between each particle. This allowed him to sense everything in a sphere forty meters in radius as they traveled.
He found every aspect of using the sage arts infinitely easier than they had been the day before. He realized his mother was right… the system must be aiding him to form the sage arts technique. He could sense everything within his sphere more clearly as well, each particle being slightly more refined than previous.
The world around Iryun was illuminated in his spirit, which then informed his mind what it saw, or so his mother said. However, to him, it seemed like it was going directly to his mind. Small animals were visible to him alongside the road, and he could see the knight and driver sitting in the seat in front, the four horses pulling the carriage, and the road itself, made of packed dirt and lined with stones along the edges.
Occasionally, he caught sight of small monsters, like goblins or horn rabbits at the edges of his ‘vision’, but that was nothing unusual. There were almost always weak monsters waiting in the wilds when he was training at home as well. Even the weakest of knights could easily kill a hundred such creatures with no trouble, from what his mother had taught him, so he didn’t let the hideousness of the creatures bother him.
As they traveled, he also muttered short descriptions of what he saw to his mother, to signify to her that he was paying attention to her instructions.
The most important aspect of sage arts, that distinguished them from the other two powers, was that there was essentially no limit to what could be done with them, as long as one had the concentration and spiritual strength to support them. However, most people hit a wall in spiritual strength at some point, where they simply couldn’t progress without a breakthrough…
While magic could cast fireballs and rituals that could destroy cities, a true master of sage arts could hold influence over an entire continent with a single technique. That was why all towns and cities had spiritual barriers, to prevent malicious users of sage arts from causing harm from outside.
That didn’t prevent a user from sage arts from causing havoc outside of settlements, but most who put a focus on the sage arts were fundamentally disinterested in conflict in the first place. The act of connecting one’s spirit with natural essence through spiritual energy put one in tune with the world, removing the immediacy of emotions and allowing a clarity of thought that often eluded people otherwise.
It was why everyone was taught the basics, even in countries where the use of the powers was restricted to certain castes. Sage arts made the common people calmer and less likely to rise up in rebellion, and by taking natural essence in and turning it into qi through meditation, it was possible to sustain oneself without food for a time, a technique peasants often made use of in dry years.
In Iryun’s case, it seemed to ease the odd friction leftover from merging Tajiri and Iryun’s personality and memories. The part of him that was completely Tajiri was still uncomfortable with Iryun’s childish reactions, and the part of him that was totally Iryun wanted to cling to his mother more than anything else.
I think that psychopathic old man deliberately messed up merging our personalities… sounds like something he would do, Iryun thought to himself placidly, his emotions serene due to his use of sage arts.
Two hours later, they arrived in front of the lord’s castle, a small one done in a style similar to that seen in Japan during the 1500’s, with stone walls and a mixed wood and stone keep. Spirit foxes and oni in segmented iron plate armor walked the walls, and most were armed with what could only be seen as naginatas, the watch commanders also having a katana at their hip.
Young men and women in roughspun robes ran from place to place, most likely pages and servants running messages. As we passed through the gates, Iryun got a good look at what lay inside the walls and shuddered. The way the murder holes were set up made him imagine what it would be like to have to assault the place through the front gate, as there were two sets, one on the outside and one on the inside… and the one on the inside was plated with iron, as opposed to the outside being mostly wood. Whoever thought that up had a sick personality, to say the least.
There were also older men and women in blue robes (the fabric in question seemingly varying based on rank) conversing in the courtyard, some of them using brushes to write on wooden tablets connected by strings. He noticed one person rolling said tablets into a cylindrical roll in his internal vision and nodded slightly, Something like the methods used in ancient China… it makes sense not to waste valuable parchment on daily tasks. Bureaucracy looks to be well-developed here.
They came to a stop in front of the keep, and the knight leaped down from the front seat, walking at a measured pace to the coach’s door and opening it. He then pulled the step ladder out once again and bowed.
“Milady Vianara, the Lord awaits,” He said reverently. Iryun was a bit surprised at the degree to which the knight was honoring his mother.
From what he understood, even the least of knights in their country was the son of a minor noble or a warrior who had distinguished themselves enough to earn a title. So, his reaction meant that his mother’s rank was high enough that the knight felt compelled to honor her that way. That meant his mother was nobility, at the very least… meaning that it was hard to see why they were living in a small, if prosperous village without any guards.
My mom’s name is Vianara… well, at least I don’t have to embarrass myself by asking, He thought as he released his sage arts completely, his spirit settling back into his body.
He frowned a moment later, an odd sensation of something clicking into place resonating through his being, My status, maybe? I’ll check it later.
Iryun looked around curiously as they walked through the large double doors of the keep, the knight proceeding in front of them, his mother walking with a dignity and grace that spoke of good breeding. If he were still just Iryun, he might not have noticed the difference, but it was definitely there. It was similar to some of the women from old money he’d meet on Earth, the way they’d been educated bleeding into their every motion.
Iryun’s tail waved back and forth in response to his motions, but he was oblivious to the fact, as well as the amusement of the guards they passed in the hallway. He also failed to notice the warmth in their gazes, that put the lie to his expectations of his welcome in his father’s home.
It was a mark of the degree to which Tajiri had a tendency toward pessimistic assessments of reality that he never considered the idea that there might be some other reason for his mother’s seeming exile besides his father’s disinterest. Iryun, his reborn self, was more optimistic, so it was likely that in time, the two sides of his personality would even out.
The keep itself had four stories, and it was on the third where they came to a large room with an elegant shoji (a door made of wood and paper panels) sliding panel door. The shoji was decorated with ink pictures of birds playing in a field of flowers.
A moment later, the door slid open, to reveal a beautiful spirit fox with gold hair and fur, as well as gentle amber eyes that reminded him of his sister from his previous life. Her eyes lit up when she caught sight of Iryun, something that could only be joy present in them, defying once again his existing understanding of his position.
“So this is Iryun, Via? I can see why you bragged about him so much in your letters,” She said, covering her face with a paper fan briefly as she laughed.
Vianara smiled joyfully and took the lady’s left hand in both of her own, obviously happy to see her, “Yes, he is a beautiful boy, isn’t he? I’m glad to see you again, Chiyome. Your daughter was adorable at the ceremony. Why didn’t you come with her?”
“The idiot got in a fight with the old monster again, so I had to spend the day keeping the rest of the clan calm,” She replied, her expression souring.
“Oh? I suppose the old monster decided to try to find a way around the contract again?” Vianara said, her expression sharpening.
Chiyome nodded wearily, “He still thinks he can get around it if he finds a loophole. Everyone else knows you can’t do that with a soul contract, but he’s not about to listen. The idiot found out and confronted him, and their argument set the clan scrambling to take sides. It took me most of the day to set them straight.”
“Why did we fall for the idiot, anyway? If we’d fallen for someone else, we wouldn’t have to deal with a monster who thinks they are above the Divine Laws throwing a tantrum,” Vianara asked, venom in her voice for the first time that Iryun could recall.
“There is nothing for it. We were young and didn’t know his real name,” Chiyome replied, twisting her lips as if she’d bitten into something sour.
“… and the idiot wasn’t the heir at the time, so he probably thought there wouldn’t be any problem,” Vianara said, the venom weakening and resignation entering her tone.
Iryun now understood that the ‘idiot’ was his father, though he wasn’t sure who ‘the old monster’ was, other than someone in authority within the clan as a whole. As for the soul contract, he had no reference points to understand what it might be other than the words themselves. He decided to wait and ask his mother when he got home.
“At least Iryun didn’t inherit the Grace of the Fox Lord… if he had, the old monster probably would have done something really stupid,” Chiyome said, her expression weary.
“It would have automatically made him legitimate and a rival for the next head of the clan,” Iryun’s mother finished.
Now Iryun understood what was going on, at least to an extent. The Grace of the Fox Lord was apparently some kind of inherited Unique Skill that signaled that one was the proper successor to the clan. However, the presence of multiple Unique Skills in Iryun’s status had earned the attention of someone his father was reluctant to defy and his mother was wary of.
The only question was just how far that individual intended to take things. At present, Iryun was a helpless child. Theoretically, his Unique Skills would make him dangerous in time, but that was for the future, not the now.
“Sometimes I wish I’d just taken Iryun with me back to Va’halia. My people might be insular, but they would have accepted him as a member of the family without all this mess,” Vianara said, her expression sour.
They had settled down around a table set into the floor with a glowing red stone beneath it. When his legs went under the table, Iryun suddenly found his slightly chilled body warming up, as if proximity to the stone was increasing his body heat.
“If you’d taken him away, the monster would have used it as an excuse to have you hunted down. You know that. Va’halia might be one of the larger elven city-states, but that doesn’t mean they can ignore the power of a Master with impunity,” Chiyome replied, shaking her head slightly.
A Master… that explains a lot, Iryun thought to himself as he listened to the conversation. Master was a term used for those who had reached the limits of mortal evolution through skill mastery. Each of those individuals was roughly equivalent to a legion of moderately skilled soldiers in power, and they were generally kept out of direct political power in most of the nations Iryun had been instructed upon.
The damage a Master could do generally gave them a great deal of authority behind-the-scenes, and it explained why his father couldn’t defy the ‘old monster’ for his mother’s sake.
“Master Xin probably wants to assess Iryun to see if he would be an appropriate guardian for Phara. Finding clan members with the power to protect someone who possesses the Grace is difficult in the best of times, since anyone that good will be just as valuable out hunting monsters and brigands,” Chiyome concluded.
“That old man really needs someone to give him a good foot to the face,” Vianara said, a suppressive aura suddenly weighing down on everyone around her.
Blood ran from Iryun’s nose as he felt, for the first time, his mother’s killing intent.
She looked down with surprise, her face twisting in sorrow and regret, “I am sorry, my beloved boy. I… just lost my temper.”
“Vianara, you are the second most powerful individual on the clan’s lands… most people would have been knocked unconscious by your aura being unleashed like that. It looks like your son has as much potential as his status would indicate,” A deep baritone voice suddenly came from the sliding doors on the other side of the room, and a muscular mystic fox with pitch black hair came in.
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He was a large man, three tails waving behind him, his eyes silver in color. His face was split by a pink scar that went from above his right eye, across his nose, and down to the left side of his jaw. His hands had long and thickly-muscled fingers, and a frown seemed to be permanently installed on his face.
“Husband,” Chiyome said, her eyes full of reproach.
Surprisingly, he flinched when he met those eyes, his gaze falling to the floor, a gesture that said everything about who held the reins in their relationship. When his eyes shifted to Vianara, they once again turned away quickly, this time in regret and self-loathing.
“Kuden, why are you edging around the soul contract? You know that Iryun has no place in the clan until he reaches his majority,” Vianara said reprovingly.
He sighed deeply, “This wasn’t just Grandfather. The Fourth Princess was present when the report arrived, and she gave an order in the name of her father. I have to at least make the effort to present him to her.”
Vianara froze, “You allowed news of my son to enter the ears of a member of the Imperial Family?”
The rage in his mother’s voice was terrible, and he could tell that she was only barely suppressing the urge to kill the man she had once, according to her, loved deeply enough to marry.
He took a step back, his eyes shifting back and forth as if looking for an escape route, “I can’t disobey an order from Grandfather, you know that-”
“It’s not that you can’t. You won’t!” She practically screamed, a lightning bolt flashing from her hand to smash into his chest, blasting him through the open doorway behind him.
Lightning flashed around Vianara, her eyes glowing violet as her magic converged and formed a long spear in her right hand, “I should have done this the moment you decided to divorce me. At least then, I wouldn’t be subjecting my son to the whims of a monster and his royal allies.”
Chiyome sipped at a cup of tea, shifting a plate of sweet bread in front of Iryun, “Are you hungry, child?”
Iryun just stared at her incredulously. He couldn’t believe she was so calm when her husband was about to be murdered by his ex-wife.
“Oh, I gave up on him years ago. The only reason I tolerate him is for Phara’s sake,” Chiyome said calmly, her eyes cold and emotionless when they glanced over her husband’s smoking form.
“But…” He tried to protest weakly.
“That idiot didn’t have the guts to stand up for us in front of his grandfather at the time when it was most important. Moreover, he still hasn’t managed to pull himself free from the monster’s influence. He could have ignored Xin’s proclamations if he’d had the guts to do so from the beginning, but instead he just nodded and signed the proclamation of divorce when it was offered to him,” She explained as Vianara stabbed the lightning spear into her ex-husband’s leg, causing him to shriek in agony, his body twitching and spasming randomly as his nervous system misfired.
Guards could be seen, standing expressionlessly as they looked forward, not bothering to pay any attention to what was happening to their lord. Their attention was instead entirely focused on Chiyome, and Iryun thought that this fact was symbolic of how fractured the clan was on the inside.
After all, if they were loyal to their lord first, they would not be tolerating him being tortured in front of their faces this way. The degree of apathy they showed toward his fate told Iryun that the clan he was nominally a part of was diseased on a fundamental level.
“Vianara, I think that is enough. If you aren’t going to kill him, please find something else to take your mind off your fear for your son,” Chiyome said wearily after almost five minutes of torture.
Iryun’s mother took a step back, the lightning spear vanishing, “You’re right, Chiyome. He isn’t worth it… and it isn’t as if he will ever stand up to the monster to his face. Given the contents of the contract, I am justified in taking Iryun back to my homeland.”
“Via, if you take him to your homeland, the Empire will probably make a move. At the very least, we’ll have to show his status to the princess to avoid offending the Imperial Family,” Chiyome said reprovingly.
Vianara looked at her son and sighed deeply, “Offending the imperials would not be wise, I suppose. I will kill that old monster if he makes the mistake of actually trying to use my boy, though.”
There was confidence in those words, and that confidence was most likely not unwarranted. It was not because his mother was a Master (she wasn’t). Rather, it was because the breach of a soul contract, even slightly, had the effect of massively reducing the benefit one gains from skills. A simple ‘breach in spirit’ of a soul contract was often enough to cause a Master to be reduced to a mere mortal once again.
Which begged the question of how Iryun’s mother had managed to get someone as powerful as that to sign one in the first place.
After a half hour of sitting around the table, sipping tea and munching on sweet breads, the clan lord twitched and sat up, his eyes bleary and his hair and fur sticking out in all directions. He glared accusingly at the two guards, who didn’t pay him any attention, then moved his gaze to his wife, who gave him a bland, apathetic look little different from the men who were supposed to serve him.
He rose to his feet and smoothed his hair with his hands, eventually convincing it to fall flat against his head, and then he came over to the table and sat across from Iryun, his wife and ex-wife to either side. His attempts to create some dignity for himself only made his appearance that much more comical, but Iryun was too tired to laugh. Neither Tajiri nor Iryun had ever experienced a situation so ridiculous and yet so filled with turbulent emotions before.
“Vianara, will you not show our son to his great-grandfather?” He said hopefully, his eyes fearful as he looked for any signs of further rage from his ex-wife.
“He is not ‘our’ son, as you well know, Kuden. That was made clear in the soul contract from the beginning. In exchange for me remaining within your domain, neither you nor any member of your clan may interfere with our lives in any way without my permission… and you don’t have it and never will,” She replied flatly.
“But, the Princess…!”
“No buts, Kuden. You are in breach of the spirit of the contract, and your grandfather has breached in truth by allowing my son’s status to enter the ears of a member of the Imperial family. The only reason I am here is because that I don’t want the Imperial House as an enemy when I return to my homeland,” She cut him off coldly, and golden light suddenly spread through the air around them.
Kuden screamed suddenly, grasping his heart as chains emerged from thin air, wrapping around his body as the two women who had once loved him looked on with cold eyes.
A shriek that sent waves of purple energy running through everything in the vicinity came from another part of the castle, Xin most likely suffering in the same way as Vianara made her accusation and the Goddess of Oaths and Vows made her displeasure known. The guards’ eyes suddenly filled with satisfaction as they gazed eagerly upon their clan lord’s suffering.
The Goddess of Oaths and Vows was one of a small number of gods that all children were taught about, mostly because she was so vital to daily life. Her name was Ninha, and her ‘blessings’ were all ‘contracts’ that had special effects. The weakest of these was the oath-binding, in which a verbal oath is made to perform a certain action or act in a certain way in exchange for a gift in the form of a skill. Most people made such an oath when they reached their majority, as it was a simple and straightforward way to obtain a useful skill related to their profession.
The second of these was the soul contract, where Ninha oversaw two parties making a contract and took on the role of enforcing it. This was often used in treaties between nations and agreements where a simple word of honor was considered insufficient. Since the cost could range anywhere from a loss of skills to the life of the one in breach of the contract, it was considered a highly reliable way to bind an agreement.
The third and last of those was the Divine Contract, where one swore themselves to the service of a deity. Divine Contracts bound the soul even after death and couldn’t be undone save through the agreement of the deity in question.
Even the smallest child knew it was foolish to try to dance around the contents of a soul contract… and Vianara’s words had given the Goddess the reason she needed to punish the oath-breakers.
“Let us go meet the Princess. Xin is no longer a threat,” Chiyome said calmly, Vianara nodding in response. Neither of them looked at Kudan, though Iryun felt a surge of pity for the man who was supposedly his father.
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They went down deep into the castle’s center, using a set of stairs that began in a room across from where they’d entered that floor. The stairs creaked slightly as they went downward several floors, until they were well below the ground level.
Iryun’s child body was feeling tired from the walking, so his mother picked him up and held him in the crook of her arm for the last few floors. There were no doors leading out of the stairwell, meaning that the only access was through the room where they’d been conversing.
When they reached the bottom, they came to a set of double doors bound with steel. Chiyome pushed them open, revealing a large room that smelled of incense and alcohol.
An ancient man lay on a bed near the rear of the room, gasping and writhing in obvious pain as a cold-eyed but beautiful golden-furred spirit fox woman looked on. When they entered, the woman’s midnight black eyes shifted to their group, glancing at Chiyome, followed by Vianara, before finally falling upon Iryun, her gaze warming slightly, even though her expression didn’t change.
“I suppose I should apologize for causing you trouble, Lady Vianara. I was unaware you had formed a soul contract with such a strict binding with Master Xin,” She said, her voice a fluid tenor.
“It is of no moment, Highness. Now that I am free of the contract, I can remove my son from this clan’s influence without breaking my end,” Vianara replied, a neutral smile curving her lips.
“You needn’t be concerned that I will attempt to interfere, milady. I am not my eldest brother, to be so greedy for talent that I would take a child from its mother just because it has a Unique Skill. I had no idea my curiosity would cause so much pain to your family,” She apologized once again without actually apologizing. Her eyes were still warm and focused on Iryun, for some reason. He couldn’t figure out why she was so intent, but he wasn’t afraid of that attention, for some reason.
“Thank you, Highness. I believe your request was to view my son’s status?” Vianara inquired, a spark of anger briefly touching her eyes.
“If you would be so kind. Even if he is destined to leave the Empire, any child with noble blood who possesses a Unique Skill must be added to the Registry of Powers. If I had not been present when your former husband made his report, this would not be necessary, but alas… I am merely a tool of the Empire,” She said, showing honest regret.
Vianara and Chiyome both sighed heavily after looking to one another for a moment. Chiyome briefly touched the hilt of the dagger sheathed at her side, obviously without any intention of drawing it, “The Imperial Gestalt…”
The princess nodded, looking apologetic, “I’m afraid I was connected when the report was made. As a result, my memory of the report has already become a part of the Gestalt.”
The Imperial Gestalt was the method by which members of the Imperial Family maintained the heritage and records of the Empire. Anyone with the blood of the Imperial Family, no matter how distant, could connect to the Gestalt and access or store records. This gave the rulers of the Empire access to immense amounts of information on history and precedent, as well as records of skills and the builds of their more successful citizens.
Iryun wasn’t aware of this, though. As a child, he had no reason to be educated on the particulars of the Empire’s mechanisms of rule and domination. The part of him that was Tajiri, recognized the concept of a gestalt from some old philosophy books he’d read out of boredom in his misspent youth of his previous life. However, from what he could tell, the two concepts weren’t a perfect match based on the feelings he had about the language they were speaking.
“Very well… my boy, please display your status,” Vianara said gently.
Iryun nodded slightly, his ears flattening against his head in worry.
Name: Iryun Liodosia
Age: 5
Race: Spirit Fox (elven bloodline)
Common Skills: Qigong 1, Sage Arts 2, Magic 1, Farming 1
Passive Skills: Mental Contamination 5 (locked, hidden), Mental Resistance 2, Magic Resistance 1
Unique Skills: Divine Contract: Artifact Steed 1, Infinite Growth, World Inventory 1
“Hmm… definitely Tier 2, and well along to Tier 3 with the help of the Unique skills. Your son is quite talented to have already grown his sage arts skill in a single day,” The Princess complimented.
Iryun tilted his head to the side quizzically, his ears twitching in curiosity, “What are Tiers?”
“It’s just a term for how physically strong or mentally capable one becomes based on their skills. As a rule, every level 1 Passive or Common skill counts for one part in ten of the journey from Tier 1 to Tier 2. A level 2 skill counts for three parts, and each Unique Skill at level 1 counts for three. You are about halfway to Tier 3 at present,” She explained. She also explained that the requirement for each Tier increased by ten points compared to the previous one. So, reaching Tier 3 required twenty points, compared to Tier 2 requiring ten. In addition, reaching Level 10 in any common or passive skill would grant advancement of an entire Tier, with Tier 5 being the lowest one could be before reaching Master.
So I’m already into Tier 3, based on that hidden skill I have… but just what does that mean? I don’t feel any stronger or faster than before I got my status… He wondered. Though he wasn’t aware of it, his hidden skill was actually a measure of how abnormal his spirit and mind were. It was the gods’ mercy that it wasn’t visible, as those with the Mental Contamination skill tended to be imprisoned or killed in most countries.
The princess seemed to read his mind, “You won’t feel the effects until you pass your tenth year. At that point, the system will allow your body to begin evolving in preparation for adulthood. Based on your skills… you will probably have a near-even split between mind, spirit, and body if you only improve the skills you already have.”
“Thank you,” He said in response to her willingness to answer his unspoken question.
“I’ve recorded his status, as required by law. Now, I will take my leave, as it appears that my presence will only cause more trouble if I remain,” A pentagram inside a circle made out of blue light appeared beneath her feet, apparently formed by the motions of her three lovely tails. A moment later, she vanished from their sight. Apparently, it was a magic circle meant for teleportation.
Vianara sighed, looking troubled, “I’m sorry, Chiyome. I’ll have to ask you to let me have a horse and enough supplies to make it across the border.”
“That is fine. I don’t imagine the princess will tell anyone what she recorded in the gestalt, but it is only a matter of time until someone sees the results and they send out a ‘recruiter’,” Chiyome replied.
“Killing a representative of the Emperor would ruin everything for you and Phara,” Vianara said with a sigh.
“Then don’t kill them, my idiotic friend!” Chiyome scolded.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not willing to condemn my son to a life serving that piece of withered meat in fox form that has been sitting on the throne for the last two thousand years. The way he uses up ‘talented children’ makes the treatment of Varnaian slave soldiers seem gentle!” Vianara argued.
“Via…” Chiyome calmed herself, apparently realizing she’d gone too far.
“Chi… I really am sorry. However, the only reason I signed that contract after Kuden divorced me was to protect my son,” Vianara said flatly.
Chiyome let out her breath slowly, shaking her head. She took a look at Iryun, whose tail was low and his ears flat against his head as he listened to them argue. She realized that this argument wasn’t doing any of them any good, so she nodded, “Very well, I will arrange for your supplies and the horse. I will also have something for the boy by the time you leave.”
Via’s expression softened, “Thank you, Chi. Take care of Phara… and if you can, get yourself out of this clan. It probably won’t last now that Xin can’t perform his duties and the idiot has lost control over the clansmen.”
“I had already planned to send Phara to my own family. My brother will care for her while I try to salvage things here,” Chiyome replied wearily.
“Don’t overdo it. I know you still feel an attachment to Kudan, but he is only going to be a burden to you and Phara,” Via warned as she picked up Iryun and held him sitting in the crook of her right arm.
They headed back up the stairwell, careless of the old man still writhing in agony on the bed below.
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Phara’s Viewpoint
Phara was displeased with her mother. Up until now, she had been unaware she had a brother, and it was only at the ceremony that she found out. Moreover, her brother was a handsome fox whose beauty made her heart beat faster just looking upon him.
His kind eyes only made the infatuation she was feeling stronger, and the sight of his status reinforced it further.
Phara was a typical noble child, in that she had been raised in isolation from other children due to the need to educate her to rule. The discovery that she had a talented brother whom she had never been allowed to meet angered her greatly, as she had always wanted siblings.
Of course, she had a few half-sisters, but they were being raised as servants and were always looking at her with resentment or fear because of the power she would hold over them. Her father’s tendency to spread his seed wherever he took an interest had created at least a dozen such illegitimate children that he failed to acknowledge.
Worse, since they were the children of servants, they were seen as unworthy to converse with her.
Iryun was different, though. The fact that he had her surname meant he was real family… and something about him just made her want to be around him, even though they had just met.
Unfortunately, he didn’t look at her again after the ceremony, and she didn’t have a chance to express her anger to her mother.
So she quietly followed her mother when she went to the meeting with Vianara and Iryun, and she witnessed everything that followed. However, to her, it was all unimportant compared to how adorable she found her brother to be.
The fact that he was going to leave and she couldn’t follow wrenched at her heart, so she couldn’t stop herself from running into the open as they prepared to depart.
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For some reason, when they were about to depart, Phara came running out of the keep and leapt at Iryun, embracing him with all the force her small body could muster, “Big brother!”
Iryun looked at Chiyome in confusion, but the older woman looked just as confused as he felt.
“I just found out I had a brother, and now you are leaving me?” She met Iryun’s gaze with with moist eyes.
Iryun was confused. The first time he met his sister was the previous day, and she had showed no signs of recognition at the time. Moreover, they hadn’t even talked before… why was she so obviously attached to him?
Also, there was something in her gaze that made the part of him that was Tajiri wary… though Tajiri himself had no idea what it was, precisely.
Reflexively, he patted her back with his right hand gently, “Lady Phara… I… I have no choice but to leave. I want to get to know you, but… but…”
His stammering came from a mix of their confusion and the fact that Iryun had little experience with girls his own age. As a ‘half-breed’, while he wasn’t a subject of persecution, the spirit fox purebloods of the village did not want him near their pureblood children, and the few oni and elves living in the village had similar feelings. So, Iryun had never really had many chances to play with other children.
The fact was that the instability caused by the slow merging of the two personalities made controlling his emotions that much harder, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that Iryun’s childish nature was dominant over Tajiri’s calm and breezy personality. Tajiri found it impossible to act like an adult, and Iryun had no interest in doing so.
“That’s cute…” Vianara said, smiling, her eyes glinting with humor.
Chiyome massaged her face briefly before grasping her daughter’s shoulder and pulling her off Iryun, “Phara, he has no choice. If they don’t leave now, he will most likely be taken by the Emperor’s recruiters. If that happens, you will never see him again, anyway.”
Tears fell from her eyes, and she shook her head back and forth, refusing to believe it.
However, Vianara shook her head in pity before grabbing her son and placing him on the horse. She then swung up into the saddle and had him put his hands around her belly, “Goodbye, Chi. Goodbye, Phara. I hope we can meet again.”
She flicked the reins and the horse began to walk forward, shifting to a light trot in response to her commands a moment later.
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That night, Phara stared into the bronze mirror sitting on the table beside her futon, thinking about her brother. She did not find it odd at all that her thoughts were consumed by a boy she had just met. She was too young and innocent to understand what was happening to her.
A faint ghost of an old man with a long white beard appeared behind her, smiling with eyes that filled with black fog, malice and malevolence radiating from his being as he rubbed her ears. Phara didn’t react, apparently incapable of noticing the man.
A moment later, he vanished into mist, as if he had never been present at all, leaving Phara to mumble her brother’s name under her breath again and again.
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