The governess was named Margreth, and Malwine wallowed in the sort of vexation she could explain to no one. She had to keep looking at her governess's flowered hat just to avoid unnecessary eye contact whenever possible. Margaret, you bitch. Why must you haunt me so?!
Unfortunate as her name might be, Margreth had done wonders for Malwine’s comprehension of the language, enough that she even felt like she’d been neglected those first days in comparison. This world even had some fancy translucent color cards!
Your [The Plurilingual Psyche] Skill has improved! 7 → 11
Your [The Plurilingual Psyche] Skill has gained 10 levels. No Aspect was developed.
Progress had slowed after the level 10 mark, but now Malwine knew Aspects appeared to be related to leveling a Skill. She could only guess she hadn’t met whatever criteria it had yet. Will it be every 10 levels, I wonder? At least, there would hopefully be other chances.
Malwine still wasn’t anywhere near holding proper conversations with anyone or even understand more than half of each sentence, but her vocabulary had grown.
She was now quite confident in her ability to make herself understood.
One somewhat confusing development was that everything just didn’t look so…amber-y anymore. It got to the point where the illumination inside the room just started looking normal—if annoyingly dim—to her unless she actively focused on the light itself. She had no idea how that worked, as the shimmering out the window still looked green enough to her.
You have reached Level 41 [Banked levels: 10]!
The free level-up from her unforged
Another pleasant surprise had greeted her when she retried her [Identify] during her downtime.
Lady Margreth fon Gruonin - Human - Level ???
So it was because she wasn’t on my contacts list! I knew it!
Not that it explained why she’d been able to see her relatives’ names right off the bat, in any case.
So far, Malwine had garnered that everyone seemed to be under the impression that they couldn’t see all of her information on account of something Beryl did, thanks to her preternaturally improved grasp on the language—the name of which still eluded her, much like any details of where she even was, beyond it presumably being some sort of family estate. No one had spoken about their town or hypothetical country yet either.
She supposed the average 19-month-old didn’t have a particular need to know the full geography of the world they lived in, but at least a bit would have helped!
Bernadette had apparently managed to see her age—Malwine was pretty sure she heard it referenced directly at one point—and who knew what else. Still, she guessed even whatever panel her guardian had access to was affected by [Reveal Nothing], given the frustration she caught glimpses of, for all Bernadette must have thought she was hiding it.
It was also growing increasingly clear that Beryl was nowhere to be found and everyone was confused—they hadn’t known Malwine existed. The fact that the system had labeled her mother as incapacitated seemed to have them working overtime, too. More than once, Thekla had shown up while Bernadette was with her, speaking of some search for Beryl’s whereabouts and something about some guy named Otto.
The knowledge that they cared warmed Malwine’s heart a bit, though the uncertainty as to why or for how long they had apparently been out of contact with Beryl gave her pause.
Would it be suspicious if I ask about her? On one hand, Malwine was fairly certain she could get that through with what she knew so far. But should she? A part of her feared whether revealing anything about how much she herself knew could affect their conclusions somehow. If she had no idea what was happening, and neither did they, she might just end up making things worse by muddling the waters.
For now, she’d settle for what she could overhear while they discussed things. Both Bernadette and Margreth seemed perfectly eager to have conversations near Malwine—she was getting the impression Margreth didn’t like wandering the grounds, instead lingering on what looked suspiciously like a recliner on the corner of the room, reading.
She didn’t recall seeing any of her male relatives aside from Anselm ever since being moved to this room, though she doubted that told her anything relevant about caregiving expectations, considering how Beryl had apparently given her uncle priority.
It was likelier to have something to do with her new grandfather, whose voice was loud enough to transfer over just fine while he yelled at who Malwine could only guess were random staffers in the halls. Is he complaining about…a harvest?
Margreth let out a drawn-out sigh at his latest episode, closing the book on her hands. Malwine made her best attempt at pretending to be asleep as the governess walked up to her. Once her footsteps seemed to have gotten far enough, she went right back to looking at Margreth, who had partially opened the door, leaning out.
“Will you lower your tone? The children are sleeping!”
Wait, children, plural?
Malwine sat as upright as she could, turning to examine the rest of the room. As far as she could tell, there was nobody else in the room, beyond herself and two-thirds of Margreth’s leaning body. It was not only the first time she’d seen her under the considerably brighter light from outside the room, but the first time Malwine actually noticed what her governess wore.
She’d been all but assuming today’s outfit was some elaborate white dress, perhaps because of Margreth’s age—and she’d been quite wrong. Pearlescent stilettos showed from under near-white tiered lace leg warmers, themselves rooted on the bunched-up fabric that covered her knees. A high-low skirt of almost identical color and make as the leg warmers connected with a corset belt that matched the make of her shoes and was itself layered over a long-sleeved off-the-shoulder top.
That’s…a statement for sitting around in the room all day. Has she been wearing stuff like this the entire time? And all I get are self-cleaning onesies?! I want fantasy getups too!
Then again, she supposed Margreth might have things to do after her daily shift with Malwine, and who was she to judge? The realization did lead to disappointment for Malwine when she saw Bernadette that evening, however—her guardian’s dress was indeed just a regular dress, though ‘regular’ was an understatement. It reminded Malwine of some broad-shouldered 19th-century dresses. Pretty, but it honestly belonged more in a ballroom than in her daily life, as far as Malwine was concerned.
If she was going to start assuming Margreth had things to do after work, she’d have to do the same for Bernadette—except in that case, the lady might as well have been running off to formal gatherings when Malwine wasn’t looking.
At some point, Malwine found herself frowning. Am I that bored that I’ve resorted to using people’s outfits as evidence—for what, exactly? Wait, am I being judgmental?
After some wincing, Malwine settled back down to resume her considerable napping, if only to escape the shame. [Cool Head on Your Shoulders] only did so much when she was just jealous, apparently. Quite the design flaw on the Skill, I say…She’d have to take the high road like the mature adult she technically currently wasn’t.
More days passed, their lessons slowing down considerably, and Malwine’s attempts to pin down the dress code had been as fruitless as her quest to figure out who the ‘children’ were. Kristian had, at least, moved his latest screaming matches further away from this room. Must suck to work here, though.
She was going to have to do something about her boredom before it gave her a debuff or something.
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At some point she just found herself wondering if Margreth and Kristian were of comparable strength. Of all the people she’d seen so far, even accounting for all the visitors Bernadette had previously brought around, those two were the only people her [Identify] picked up as over level 100. Malwine didn’t know the exact levels, of course, but she figured it might come down to Skills and maybe cultivation. Maybe?
Unfortunately, crispy copper looked more menacing than eraser-board green. What a shame. She really just wanted to see how her governess compared to her grandfather, okay. And Margreth herself clearly didn’t like the man, so she rarely got the chance to see how the two interacted.
Not much forethought went into what she said the next time she tried communicating with Margreth. If she’d spent perhaps even a few more seconds thinking about it, asking about Beryl by name might have been a smarter idea. “Grandfather is annoying.”
Margreth’s usually taciturn visage cracked for a second, as if the woman were going to choke, but she pulled herself back together with unsurprising smoothness. “Malwine! Why—word—annoying—why—?”
She'd wanted to see Margreth's reaction, to get a better impression about what she thought of Kristian, but now she wondered if she hadn't attained as firm a grasp on the language as she thought, given the governess's reaction…Uh oh. Guess I’ll just double down. I think he annoys us both. “Grandfather! Annoying!”
That had a larger impact than Malwine expected, with the governess’s fists clenching as her expression once again shifted beyond the norm. She promptly stormed out of the room.
…Why do I get the impression I started a fight?
Her grandfather’s distant shouts returned, except for the first time, they were joined by a voice she recognized.
Then the house started shaking.
Oh fuck.
----------------------------------------
Hanne Maritima felt the execution of her plans had been as inadequate as a tapula’s movements while out of the water—not bad, but far from what it could have been.
And oh, had she needed it to be better.
To her chagrin, she found her stride through the manor's foyer impeded by a bottleneck sturdier than the one on her cultivation, in no small part due to various maids and footmen all lingering and muttering among themselves.
Enforcer - Human - Level 138
Governess - Human - Level 132
On the average day, she might have been loved to be a musca on the wall while the people in these estate exchanged barbs, but Hanne was in somewhat of a rush to reconvene with Anselm. Urgently.
“How could you?”
“How could I what?”
“Your granddaughter herself called you violent! Why, pray tell, would a child that age have reason to?”
“Governess, I do not like where your implications are headed. Not once have I raised a hand to my family.”
“You will have to forgive me for finding that dubitable, given all I have witnessed of your temper during my time in your wife’s employ.”
“The way I see it, how dare you? You come to my home as a governess, and see fit to levy unfounded accusations against me. A child that age doesn’t even know what words mean, let alone the weight they carry. I would expect better from the likes of you, so-called noblewoman!”
“As if you knew the first thing about children! Your ilk have never so much as stood within line of sight of a diaper being washed! And you dare try to use my noblesse against me? In vain! The matter at hand is the fact that children have excellent instincts, and when they speak ill of someone, it is rarely without reason.”
Hanne tuned the blabbering out at that point. She felt as though an emigraneus had commenced drilling into her skull. Who was this governess? Did they bring in someone new for the elusive child’s rearing? And why was the would-be patriarch of the Rīsan House involved in such a public argument with this woman? The man had quite the volatile temper, but Hanne had never known him to go beyond jibes.
And what granddaughter? Since when did anyone have a child? Hanne had been gone for less than a month!
Two daunting Presences erupted in full, almost simultaneously. The manor shook, and yelps echoed through the gathered group.
Waves above know how well-paid I hope you all are…
Hanne’s Intuition told her she was witnessing a Presence clash between Intimidation and Mien, the latter something she’d known of but had never witnessed used in such an overt way. Neither used mana, but both were clearly in possession of Skills that enabled them to project their will in an aura-like fashion. The ripples they sent through the ambient mana had Hanne momentarily transfixed.
A maid next to her fainted, and Hanne promply ducked out of the way. A moment later, she leaned to help the maid back up. Hanne could have just caught her instead, but such were the wonders of retrospect.
In any case, she found herself in a woefully uncomfortable position. She had no right to admonish the stranger, let alone the hollow core patriarch, even if her Mana Sources kept her from having anything to fear from those a mere twenty or so levels above her.
She knew from Anselm that none in the family had any Affinities to speak of, and though Hanne was unacquainted with this governess, she felt nothing from the woman that suggested she did, either.
Hanne liked having free reign to walk through the estate—she would gain nothing from burning bridges with the fledgling House's head.
That all did little to alleviate the fact that, blind in their anger, these two were placing the well-being of the weaker mortal staff at risk, despite being mortal themselves. Power came in many forms, to an extent.
In lieu of burning bridges, Hanne settled for the more appealing option of property damage.
She sent her mana to wrap around the metal ring that shackled the candelabrum to the roof, squeezing it. The fog her actions emitted dissipated quickly, and with all eyes on the pair's argument, no attention headed her way once the candelabrum started tumbling down.
The staff all screamed, but Hanne ensured nothing impacted them. Surreptitiously, of course. As for the pair, Hanne gave their struggling forms a glance and shrugged.
They were 130s. They’d be fine.
…In all likelihood.
----------------------------------------
Malwine stared at the elaborate, vaulted ceiling of the playground-adjacent room she’d been spending more time in. Instead of a crib, she had a proper—small—bed now. Not that she could enjoy it too much, with how off the vibes were.
After that day, Margreth had simply never shown up again, and Bernadette had taken over her lessons. No one made any effort to explain anything to Malwine.
On the bright side, this room was pretty, and either her grandfather had stopped being so annoying, or she could no longer hear him from her new location. She never did find out why he was yelling so much at the staff—not that he seemed the type to need a reason to.
Bernadette had started rolling out some toys for her, though Malwine was too busy sulking to enjoy them much.
She was no longer confident in her ability to make herself understood.
It was demotivating. And aside from the usage of points earned from leveling up, her attributes hadn’t increased again, either. She felt at an impasse.
Most days, Malwine gravitated to the wooden stacking blocks Bernadette had laid out for her. There were stacking rings too, but those were lacquered in a manner that unironically reminded her of Margreth’s shoes. So that left the wooden blocks as her main source of enrichment.
That makes it two Marg*s haunting me, just gotta use the wildcard…Malwine couldn’t even muster the energy to laugh at her own bad jokes.
She was unbelievably bored.
And things had gone so well last time Malwine had tried to do anything about it. She still worried about Margreth every now and then. The lady was probably fine, but Malwine knew that, one way or another, she’d been responsible for Margreth no longer being here. Whether she’d left because of Malwine herself or because of the fight she appeared to have had with Kristian—and of course I’d been wondering how they’d compare, damn monkey’s paw—Malwine didn’t know. From the snippets she’d caught, they’d even broken some things.
Her carefully aligned block tower tumbled to the side, the blocks scattering across the floor as if a breeze had knocked them over. Malwine looked around. There was no breeze anywhere, it was an enclosed room!
With a frown, she hobbled over to the now-distant blocks, slowly gathering as many as she could fit within her small arms.
One of the blocks slipped and hit the ground in front of her. That was bound to happen, with how clumsy she still felt even now, and she was pushing herself in carrying so many in the first pla—
Another block fell, and this time it fell like it had been knocked off her hands.
Now positively pissed, Malwine turned to both sides, twice, then screamed.
Adelheid Rīsanin - Human - Level 5
She almost lunged forward before her eyes took in the full picture. A tiny child—perhaps close to her own age—stood to her side, a mischievous yet equally guileless smile on her gap-toothed mouth. She—Adelheid—had surprisingly long brown hair, and her blue eyes made it difficult not to think of Bernadette.
Malwine’s first thought was a bit off-topic. So being Level 10+ at this age isn’t normal uh…Oh well! Keep blaming Beryl!
“Box!”
Malwine raised an eyebrow. Still, the girl seemed delighted to be acknowledged. She smiled back at Adelheid. “Invisible, huh?”
Adelheid tipped her head, visibly confused.
Right, probably hasn’t considered the concept of invisibility. Uhh. If I even got the word right, I guess.
“Box!”
Your [The Plurilingual Psyche] Skill has improved! 11 → 12
Malwine handed a giggling Adelheid one block, then another. She tried to convince herself it was merely the sight of a Skill leveling that had her giggling back.