So, Sahara’s family ignored her and abandoned her, then saved her and treated her well…
It seemed so totally unrealistic to her!
…She’s not the only one…
Sahara couldn’t believe the irony of all this. Many times, she would laugh in the near future of her predicament and find herself shaking her head in bewilderment. She also was convinced that this may not have happened so easily, if she had not started to cultivate at such an early age. If she had been an ordinary child, Talon would have just tried to take her to a ‘house’ outside of the estate, or whatever…She was sure of that! The reason that he was able to so easily accept her, Sahara now seeing the obvious, was because of how much of an asset Talon’s father would see her as. Talon wasn’t stupid, nor was he unkind. He would have tried to help her in the best way possible!
Sahara just shrugged, feeling lucky. She was going to take advantage of her own family's stuff up and eat, drink and sleep well, while she could!
And, indeed, her life was a lot easier now, she even got a maidservant again!
It became official, that Sahara’s name was ‘Sahara Rolland’ and that she was the second daughter of Talon Rolland, the second son of the Right Minister.
A month later, the Rolland Estate celebrated Sahara’s entrance into the family, and she met everyone.
Finally, she had seen the first son, who was the one that everyone was talking about, with his cultivation reaching third rank. Sahara’s opinion on him wasn’t very much, even to her own astonishment.
What she saw, was another resemblance of her ‘stupid grandfather’, but more of a cold, detached look. Whereas Talon showed his gentle, happy nature. They were so very different yet looked somewhat the same.
Sahara found something strange within the family but didn’t want to put too much thought into it. If others couldn’t see the obvious groups of people, then she would think this family was even more stupid than before. The first son seemed to be a discrete leader and his ‘people’ stayed together. Sahara sent a glance over to her ‘stupid grandfather’, only to see him smiling and praising his luck at such a lucky treasure being found by his son.
Did he know at all, that there was something suss here? Surely, he couldn’t be completely ignorant of this…
Sahara sighed, she guessed it really didn’t matter to her, because there isn’t much for her to do about it anyway.
Being dragged around, in her new father’s embrace, she decided not to bother with people fighting other people in one family and continued to relax.
Seeing that people weren’t all ‘beautiful’, it made her happy. This was normal, she thought, as she saw only two or three ladies with exceptional looks…
If she had to be surrounded by ‘beautiful’ people all the time…
Yeah, let’s just say that the books were ‘fantasy’ and leave it at that!
When it came to her self-confidence of looks, she wasn’t very good at it. Actually, in her previous life, she didn’t have a great face and for half of her life, she was overweight, but not to a degree of swollen ankles. Honestly, if she wasn’t so lazy and had worked hard for about a month or two, her weight would have been a lot healthier.
A few of the hundred people, did want to hold Sahara, but she would grasp at her new father strongly. As it was, Sahara wasn’t used to being picked up, she only wanted Talon to have this experience. But that wasn’t the only reason, she was told to act like this by Talon and her ‘stupid grandfather’ themselves.
The old madam got upset with her, but let it go. She saw that she seemed to be a quiet thing and she just tapped on Sahara’s head gently instead.
The rest of the females were not just her new aunties, but great aunts. For a moment of thinking about her real lineage and her new lineage, Sahara was confused. She would accidentally confuse herself on whether a lady was her sister-in-law or her aunt. Sahara would see a sixteen-year-old, who was really her sister, most likely half-sister that is, but couldn’t think of what she was, since she herself was now Talon’s daughter!
Sahara didn’t even know why she acted and thought this way, since she was never accepted into the family before anyway, but…It’s not like you turn into your own niece everyday so…
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But the names! Sahara could hardly remember any of them at all!
She was never good at names, she was better at faces and normally would say, ‘Oh you’re the one who I saw with…’.
Sahara will have to work very hard to remember and how to formally acknowledge all of these people!
Through the game playing inside of her head, on who was who for the two of hers, she came across someone that she had only seen once before…
Her mother was there among them and…The boy that had dragged her outside of the estate! To see him, Sahara couldn’t help but naturally flinch. She had received pain from that boy and would much rather that they never meet again but…It seems now they might even meet more often!
She started to already wonder how she will endure to keep ‘normal’ whenever close to the boy who…
That so called sibling was standing right beside her biological mother and Sahara was completely stunned!
To think that he was her biological, full-blooded brother, made her feel sick. Unconsciously, she held tighter to Talon and Sahara stared at the boy, trying to hide her emotions by blinking.
In her past, blood was thicker than this! Granted she wasn’t treated as well as some other families but…
Thinking of her past, Sahara once again flinched. She had tried not to think of a particular event all this time…She had been busy, so busy that a certain part of her past was just a mere memory, one that she was dealing with…Now, just because of this boy and what he had done to her, she was thinking of something that she was somewhat trying to forget…
Talon noticed a peculiar difference in Sahara and asked her what was wrong. He saw that she was staring at a direction, and he wondered if she wanted to go over there.
When he took one step closer towards the boy that had given her so much pain, Sahara quickly reacted by saying, “No!”
Talon stopped, “Sahara?”
“Down!” She ordered abruptly.
There was no way that she would go any closer to that boy or woman…At least not yet!
Well, could anyone blame her for still being mad? Her mother had only ever seen her once, and in the time of rumors circulating in the kitchen, not one word of worry was said about her mother when Sahara had gone ‘missing’ and was never found. Then…Well, nothing needs to be said of the one that had made her homeless in the first place! She may have been getting less food when Sahara wasn’t homeless but…Who knows if living could have turned out better if she hadn’t been dragged away from her room!?
Of course, this ‘reason’ isn’t something that Sahara could confirm, she did live well enough and even started to cultivate so she decided not to worry what her life might have been like except…The so-called brother was still the reason why she remembered why she didn’t mind being alone, why she didn’t want to think of a certain past! And that was reason enough to not want to go near him again!
…It’s not that Sahara wanted to think of ‘what if’s’ or the past that can’t be changed, it was more like the two people just didn’t deserve her presence around them…At least that was what Sahara put it down too…
Talon sighed to his new daughter’s words. He’d already sorted out a lady teacher for her, which would be started very soon.
Putting his new daughter down, he watched her walk with her little legs, and wanted to follow her. He was looking forward to the little, cute bundle, to growing up to become a pretty lady. He sighed, as he was sure there was quite a challenge ahead of her. It’s just…There was really something strange about her…
Talon wished there was nothing to worry about, as she was only young after all and children were resilient, but…He couldn’t shake the feeling that this girl had gone through a lot and that she will be different. At least she smiles…
Talon’s thoughts were interrupted.
“Talon, I have been wondering if you would gain another child soon, it seems that you gained one off the street instead. It makes one very interested on why father had agreed to this!”
Turning, Talon saw his elder brother in front of him. “Brother is overreacting, this little one was just too adorable to let go.”
The fact that Sahara could cultivate was kept a secret. She has been told to not use it in front of others and let anyone touch her. Hence why Talon wasn’t upset when people wanted to hold her, and she didn’t let them.
It was easy to know if one could cultivate, they just had to use their cultivation base while touching someone else. It was basically the spiritual essence talking to another person’s spiritual essence, which were like opened books with no secrets, and then then the one in charge knows too.
And if someone were to find out, of such a rare event that has happened, her father and ‘stupid grandfather’ were worried that Sahara might be taken away…Somehow…
Sahara guessed that it came under ‘the more you have, the more you have to lose’ category and perhaps this was just them trying to protect their own? Ultimately there is more to it than that, but Sahara was right about a big part of it!
So…Until she reached the age of five, at the very least, will this be kept a secret…
“So, does that mean little brother will pick up any other little, adorable children off the streets and use father’s favoritism to adopt them?”
Talon narrowed his eyes at his elder brother’s words, “I don’t intent to use my favoritism to gain something selfishly.”
“I beg to differ. You are the apple in my father’s eye. If it wasn’t perhaps favoritism…Then something must be special about the child…”
Talon looked the way his brother’s eyes were looking, and saw Sahara standing by the door, all by herself. Talon wanted to question why Sahara looked so…Lonely, but he knew it wasn’t a good time.
Already, his elder brother was questioning the sudden adoption, what was he going to do?
“Perhaps I should introduce myself to my new niece.” His elder brother said, looking at Talon.
Talon was worried, he had never gotten along with his elder brother, Borak. Even though they had never initially fought, it was obvious that they could not get along. If Borak found that Sahara could cultivate, what would he intend to do with her? His brother had questionable behavior as it was, with missing people from the estate and people’s loyalties becoming switched…It was…Indeed questionable…
Yet, at the same time, he simply could not think that Borak was a completely bad person. Talon wanted to trust Borak, it was just that this ‘trust’ had already been used against him before…
Talon sighed but didn’t say anything. He couldn’t let on that the child had indeed, a secret.
“Not stopping me?” Borak asked. For a moment he was sure that there was something about the child. If he wasn’t wrong, this child is probably of high status beforehand. Maybe even an illegitimate child from Talon himself.
Taking the initiative to find clues, Borak left Talon and walked towards his new niece. He had no regard for her young age, no, the new daughter of Talon was just a pawn…
And so…Borak was very much like his father…