It was already dark when Ren was sitting in the villa's huge dining room, leaning back in a chair, reading through paper after paper. Ariana, wearing her maid outfit, was patiently sorting those her Master already had finished while Seya was nervously fidgeting in the corner of the room, holding onto the edge of her clothing. The long dining table before Ren was creaking painfully under the weight of all the documents stacked on top of it.
"You did great!" Ren said, who already went through the report she had submitted as the sun went down. By now, she was just testing her nerves, telling her to stay as she was going through the rest of what Sentios collected from the villa.
"T-thank you, Your Highness!" Seya bowed quickly. She was standing there silently for hours by now.
"Ariana, can you make some coffee for us?"
"Sure, Master!" She smiled, cleaning up a place on the table for them and signaling Seya to sit down.
"I… I…" She stuttered, but in the end, she gave in and walked to the table, placing her butt nervously onto the soft cushion of the chair.
"Relax, it is going to be different with me here!" Ren laughed, picking up another stack as she was flipping through it with a speed as if someone was only searching for a bookmark hidden between the pages, expecting it to fall out any moment. "Hm? What?" she looked up at Seya, who was watching her with enlarged eyes.
"N-nothing!" she turned her head away immediately as it was rude for servants to stare at nobles.
"When you reach a certain stage, your mind can capture everything in detail. I'm just memorizing them, and I'll go through them later. Think of it as if I'm placing them inside my mind's library, " she explained patiently.
"That really sounds… convenient!" Seya nodded, looking back at her shyly, realizing she won't shout at her for real. "You are so kind… Your Highness…"
"Am I?" Ren giggled. "Why do you say that?"
"Because you are not shouting at us when we look into your eyes… or talk to you without being asked something…."
"Geez, that is how things worked here? Everyone was doing it?"
"No… not everyone. A lot of people who led the servants were kind!" she shook her head in reply. "Only the…" She fell silent, looking around nervously, afraid they would jump out from behind the curtains or below the marble tiles and beat her up for even mentioning them this way.
"Seya…" Ren stood up, walking close to her and patting her head. Seya yelped out from the touch, not knowing how to deal with it, but Ren softly hugged her face close to herself, soothing the terrified girl. "Relax~ It's okay now~ You shouldn't be afraid of your cousin! Or are you?"
"C-c-c-cousin?" Seya asked with trembling lips looking up into Ren's eyes, hugged by her, holding her face close to her tummy.
"Uhum~" Ren nodded with a gentle smile. "I am strong, you know. I can feel things, and your bloodline is close to mine! Reading through some of the papers on the table, I found who your father was, and it turns out he was one of the direct sons of Rudrick! Someone from not the so-called "pureblood" line, but still! That makes you my cousin!"
"My father?" she blinked her eyes, hard to believe what she was hearing as she never knew him. Not even his background or who he might have been.
"Yep, he was not even part of the main family yet sired someone who inherited such features as you~ Hehe~ Nature is funny in this way!"
"Shouldn't that make her your aunt or something like that, Master?" Ariana joked, bringing the brewed coffee to the table with some snacks.
"She is younger than me, so she is my cousin!" Ren replied with a slight pout, suddenly making Seya giggle, with tears at the edge of her eyes. "Good girl~" Ren wiped her eyes before releasing her face. "I already told you there are going to be changes coming! I bet the shouting ones were the few leaders who could not hold back their tempers as they remained here, leaderless, huh? Well, they are dead, so don't worry about them! Not even about their ghosts!"
"Ghosts?!" Seya's hand trembled again as she reached for a muffin, almost dropping it.
"Master… you are enjoying scaring her, aren't you?" Ariana shook her head. "Still, there are no ghosts here, Seya! If there were, I would have already felt them out! Probably!"
"So there are ghosts?!" Seya yelped again, still pushing the muffin into her small mouth, calming her mind considerably, making the two laugh a little, watching her expressions change.
"It's not important!" Ren took a sip with a satisfied smile. "Sentios is cleaning out the spire; we can move inside after it is usable again."
"But the spire is for nobility only. Servants are only permitted inside if they have work to do!" she explained, already having a second muffin in her hands without herself noticing, pushing it into her mouth like a starved little hamster with greatly puffed-up cheeks.
"It is going to take some time to make them realize what you meant by changes, Master." Ariana stood behind her, massaging Ren's shoulders.
"I can see that." She nodded with a soft moan. "Look, Seya, you are going to be assigned under me as my voice and hand. The rest will be under you, and you will organize them into small groups according to their abilities. Don't worry; I'm already making a list of how to do that! After it's all done, we can start reorganizing the courtyard and hire new servants and people to get back on track!"
"Does that mean… that we… we are…" she tried to speak, but she almost choked on the food as she realized what Ren's words meant.
"Yep, you all are going to be my new main family, with you at the lead! Don't worry, I'll teach you many things as you are going to be my second-in-command!" she patted her back before she choked. She was starting to cough, gasping for air. "Before you want to say "but" or anything like that, forget it! All objections are rejected!" Ren laughed and seeing the look on her face Seya went utterly limp as she fainted.
"Geez, Master, you completely short-circuited her!" Ariana walked up to Seya's limp body, lifting her up to bring her to a room so she could rest.
"She needs a bit of rework, but she is going to be okay; she was just suppressed! She is my cousin and knowing my family, she has a personality inside her that has yet to be awakened~."
"I don't know if the world is ready for a second you, Master!" Ariana rolled her eyes playfully.
"Ahahaha, maybe the world needs more of me~" she winked at her as she picked up her cup once again.
…
….
…..
"So, she is the only remaining direct descendant of Rudrick's line?" asked a firm female voice, sitting inside a bathtub filled with milk and rose petals. Young, naked female servants were washing her slim, perfectly porcelain-white body with the utmost care.
Her name was Keina, leader of one of the other four families, occupying another spire in the city of Rozex. In strength, she was at the 2nd stage of Harmony and a few decades younger than Rudrick, yet she only looked like someone in her early twenties. Her long, silver hair was tied up into a knot as she was bathing, enjoying her servants massaging her body while she was watching the recording of Ren opening the gates to the closed courtyard.
"Yes, My Liege." her guard captain bowed. She was another young female warrior dressed in bone-white armor, holding her decorated, winged helmet under her arms. "Our informant delivered it as soon as she showed up."
"At least she is a girl." Keina chuckled, watching Ren's figure. "Maybe we can work something out! Men are too… unsophisticated and brutish!"
"You already predicted Rudrick's fall, My Liege. This is our chance. Maybe we can make her a great asset and strengthen our claim for the throne! If we can subdue her…."
"Mmmh… that probably won't go well! Not if we try to use force." she shook her head. "If the rumors are true, she killed Rudrick, no?"
"Those are just rumors. We all heard how injured Rudrick was. It is not hard to lure him into a trap and get rid of him! When they clashed previously, she barely escaped death by chance, and how strong could one become with so little time passing? There are rumors that when Rudrick died, people saw dozens of other cultivators from that… sect or whatever she is part of near the battlefield!"
"Immortal Wonders, if I recall correctly," Keina said after a bit of silence, leaning backward, raising her fair feet as the servants started massaging them without instructions. "Doesn't matter. It is only a play between Aerthus and Zelig; we don't need to bother ourselves with that! Our main focus should be taking control of Rozex. Everything comes after that!"
"Yes, my liege!"
…
….
…..
At the same time, in a different spire, another possible contender for the throne of the Naulins, Rabout, was watching the same recording as Keina. Only, it was from a different perspective, from another informant. He was the oldest leader of the four main family branches, already past 1100 years old. He looked like a middle-aged man with short white hair and a well-kept, short beard. He was standing inside a laboratory filled with hundreds of vials, stoves, crucibles, and cauldrons, all containing some kind of concoctions, be they frozen, molten, or outright bubbling liquids.
"I see, I see." he nodded multiple times, fixing his eyeglasses, dismissing the recording crystal quickly, and turning back to a freshly mixed, foul-smelling, dark blue liquid before him in a teardrop-shaped vial.
"My Lord…" His assistant said, a young woman with tied-up black hair and blue eyes. She sounded stumped at his reaction. "This… shouldn't we do something about it?"
"Nah, who cares!" he shook his head as he gently tapped the vial that immediately lit up, followed by a violent explosion. Luckily it was directly contained with his 2nd stage of Harmony level powers, only leaving black marks on his fingers and face, dying his beard into the opposite color. "D-damn!" He coughed wildly. "Another failure! Please record that DA80 and O85 are incompatible, and their mixing results in a twin explosion."
"It was… two?" she asked with surprise as she quickly wrote it down.
"Yes…" Rabout sniffled, grabbing a towel and wiping his face clean. "And I caught the second one with my face. Tsk! I keep failing with this! Why does it not work?!"
"Maybe you should look for inspiration from the outside world, My Lord." She suggested with a carefree tone.
"From the outside? Milly, do you know when I last went… outside?" He turned towards her with raised eyebrows.
"400 years ago?" She replied with a question, tilting her head to the sides, looking completely innocent, like a teen questioning her teacher.
"Almost! Add around 40 years to that!" He nodded. "The outside world is sick and filled with idiots! I can't stand them at all, not to mention my relatives! They are a bunch of monkeys on drugs! I'm fine being here, in my own tower; they can play their board games without me!" he waved his hand as his voice was clearly filled with anger.
"But, My Lord, maybe you could ask for advice from the newcomer! A fresh viewpoint can be the missing link!" she said, trying to persuade her lord.
"Mhm… well, you say something interesting… But what should she know? She looks like she is still wet behind her ears! I have no time and patience talking to an ignorant kid!"
"I heard she was someone with a respectful position in that Sect that came about a decade ago…."
"A what?" He looked at her again, blinking his eyes, completely lost.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot you don't keep up with the outside world! She is from a newly established power and killed Rudrick. Or that is what the rumors say!"
"Wait, Rudrick is dead? That collection of a retarded gene pool bit the dust? Hah! Serves him right!" Rabout laughed heartily. "Okay, okay, I'm going to take a shower, you make me something to eat, and you can tell me everything I missed in the past decade or so!"
"Sure!" she smiled happily, bowing towards him before leaving.
"A new perspective…" he looked around his laboratory, forming a slight smile on his face. "Not even a bad idea…."
It was already dark when Ren was sitting in the villa's huge dining room, leaning back in a chair, reading through paper after paper. Ariana, wearing her maid outfit, was patiently sorting those her Master already had finished while Seya was nervously fidgeting in the corner of the room, holding onto the edge of her clothing. The long dining table before Ren was creaking painfully under the weight of all the documents stacked on top of it.
"You did great!" Ren said, who already went through the report she had submitted as the sun went down. By now, she was just testing her nerves, telling her to stay as she was going through the rest of what Sentios collected from the villa.
"T-thank you, Your Highness!" Seya bowed quickly. She was standing there silently for hours by now.
"Ariana, can you make some coffee for us?"
"Sure, Master!" She smiled, cleaning up a place on the table for them and signaling Seya to sit down.
"I… I…" She stuttered, but in the end, she gave in and walked to the table, placing her butt nervously onto the soft cushion of the chair.
"Relax, it is going to be different with me here!" Ren laughed, picking up another stack as she was flipping through it with a speed as if someone was only searching for a bookmark hidden between the pages, expecting it to fall out any moment. "Hm? What?" she looked up at Seya, who was watching her with enlarged eyes.
"N-nothing!" she turned her head away immediately as it was rude for servants to stare at nobles.
"When you reach a certain stage, your mind can capture everything in detail. I'm just memorizing them, and I'll go through them later. Think of it as if I'm placing them inside my mind's library, " she explained patiently.
"That really sounds… convenient!" Seya nodded, looking back at her shyly, realizing she won't shout at her for real. "You are so kind… Your Highness…"
"Am I?" Ren giggled. "Why do you say that?"
"Because you are not shouting at us when we look into your eyes… or talk to you without being asked something…."
"Geez, that is how things worked here? Everyone was doing it?"
"No… not everyone. A lot of people who led the servants were kind!" she shook her head in reply. "Only the…" She fell silent, looking around nervously, afraid they would jump out from behind the curtains or below the marble tiles and beat her up for even mentioning them this way.
"Seya…" Ren stood up, walking close to her and patting her head. Seya yelped out from the touch, not knowing how to deal with it, but Ren softly hugged her face close to herself, soothing the terrified girl. "Relax~ It's okay now~ You shouldn't be afraid of your cousin! Or are you?"
"C-c-c-cousin?" Seya asked with trembling lips looking up into Ren's eyes, hugged by her, holding her face close to her tummy.
"Uhum~" Ren nodded with a gentle smile. "I am strong, you know. I can feel things, and your bloodline is close to mine! Reading through some of the papers on the table, I found who your father was, and it turns out he was one of the direct sons of Rudrick! Someone from not the so-called "pureblood" line, but still! That makes you my cousin!"
"My father?" she blinked her eyes, hard to believe what she was hearing as she never knew him. Not even his background or who he might have been.
"Yep, he was not even part of the main family yet sired someone who inherited such features as you~ Hehe~ Nature is funny in this way!"
"Shouldn't that make her your aunt or something like that, Master?" Ariana joked, bringing the brewed coffee to the table with some snacks.
"She is younger than me, so she is my cousin!" Ren replied with a slight pout, suddenly making Seya giggle, with tears at the edge of her eyes. "Good girl~" Ren wiped her eyes before releasing her face. "I already told you there are going to be changes coming! I bet the shouting ones were the few leaders who could not hold back their tempers as they remained here, leaderless, huh? Well, they are dead, so don't worry about them! Not even about their ghosts!"
"Ghosts?!" Seya's hand trembled again as she reached for a muffin, almost dropping it.
"Master… you are enjoying scaring her, aren't you?" Ariana shook her head. "Still, there are no ghosts here, Seya! If there were, I would have already felt them out! Probably!"
"So there are ghosts?!" Seya yelped again, still pushing the muffin into her small mouth, calming her mind considerably, making the two laugh a little, watching her expressions change.
"It's not important!" Ren took a sip with a satisfied smile. "Sentios is cleaning out the spire; we can move inside after it is usable again."
"But the spire is for nobility only. Servants are only permitted inside if they have work to do!" she explained, already having a second muffin in her hands without herself noticing, pushing it into her mouth like a starved little hamster with greatly puffed-up cheeks.
"It is going to take some time to make them realize what you meant by changes, Master." Ariana stood behind her, massaging Ren's shoulders.
"I can see that." She nodded with a soft moan. "Look, Seya, you are going to be assigned under me as my voice and hand. The rest will be under you, and you will organize them into small groups according to their abilities. Don't worry; I'm already making a list of how to do that! After it's all done, we can start reorganizing the courtyard and hire new servants and people to get back on track!"
"Does that mean… that we… we are…" she tried to speak, but she almost choked on the food as she realized what Ren's words meant.
"Yep, you all are going to be my new main family, with you at the lead! Don't worry, I'll teach you many things as you are going to be my second-in-command!" she patted her back before she choked. She was starting to cough, gasping for air. "Before you want to say "but" or anything like that, forget it! All objections are rejected!" Ren laughed and seeing the look on her face Seya went utterly limp as she fainted.
"Geez, Master, you completely short-circuited her!" Ariana walked up to Seya's limp body, lifting her up to bring her to a room so she could rest.
"She needs a bit of rework, but she is going to be okay; she was just suppressed! She is my cousin and knowing my family, she has a personality inside her that has yet to be awakened~."
"I don't know if the world is ready for a second you, Master!" Ariana rolled her eyes playfully.
"Ahahaha, maybe the world needs more of me~" she winked at her as she picked up her cup once again.
…
….
…..
"So, she is the only remaining direct descendant of Rudrick's line?" asked a firm female voice, sitting inside a bathtub filled with milk and rose petals. Young, naked female servants were washing her slim, perfectly porcelain-white body with the utmost care.
Her name was Keina, leader of one of the other four families, occupying another spire in the city of Rozex. In strength, she was at the 2nd stage of Harmony and a few decades younger than Rudrick, yet she only looked like someone in her early twenties. Her long, silver hair was tied up into a knot as she was bathing, enjoying her servants massaging her body while she was watching the recording of Ren opening the gates to the closed courtyard.
"Yes, My Liege." her guard captain bowed. She was another young female warrior dressed in bone-white armor, holding her decorated, winged helmet under her arms. "Our informant delivered it as soon as she showed up."
"At least she is a girl." Keina chuckled, watching Ren's figure. "Maybe we can work something out! Men are too… unsophisticated and brutish!"
"You already predicted Rudrick's fall, My Liege. This is our chance. Maybe we can make her a great asset and strengthen our claim for the throne! If we can subdue her…."
"Mmmh… that probably won't go well! Not if we try to use force." she shook her head. "If the rumors are true, she killed Rudrick, no?"
"Those are just rumors. We all heard how injured Rudrick was. It is not hard to lure him into a trap and get rid of him! When they clashed previously, she barely escaped death by chance, and how strong could one become with so little time passing? There are rumors that when Rudrick died, people saw dozens of other cultivators from that… sect or whatever she is part of near the battlefield!"
"Immortal Wonders, if I recall correctly," Keina said after a bit of silence, leaning backward, raising her fair feet as the servants started massaging them without instructions. "Doesn't matter. It is only a play between Aerthus and Zelig; we don't need to bother ourselves with that! Our main focus should be taking control of Rozex. Everything comes after that!"
"Yes, my liege!"
…
….
…..
At the same time, in a different spire, another possible contender for the throne of the Naulins, Rabout, was watching the same recording as Keina. Only, it was from a different perspective, from another informant. He was the oldest leader of the four main family branches, already past 1100 years old. He looked like a middle-aged man with short white hair and a well-kept, short beard. He was standing inside a laboratory filled with hundreds of vials, stoves, crucibles, and cauldrons, all containing some kind of concoctions, be they frozen, molten, or outright bubbling liquids.
"I see, I see." he nodded multiple times, fixing his eyeglasses, dismissing the recording crystal quickly, and turning back to a freshly mixed, foul-smelling, dark blue liquid before him in a teardrop-shaped vial.
"My Lord…" His assistant said, a young woman with tied-up black hair and blue eyes. She sounded stumped at his reaction. "This… shouldn't we do something about it?"
"Nah, who cares!" he shook his head as he gently tapped the vial that immediately lit up, followed by a violent explosion. Luckily it was directly contained with his 2nd stage of Harmony level powers, only leaving black marks on his fingers and face, dying his beard into the opposite color. "D-damn!" He coughed wildly. "Another failure! Please record that DA80 and O85 are incompatible, and their mixing results in a twin explosion."
"It was… two?" she asked with surprise as she quickly wrote it down.
"Yes…" Rabout sniffled, grabbing a towel and wiping his face clean. "And I caught the second one with my face. Tsk! I keep failing with this! Why does it not work?!"
"Maybe you should look for inspiration from the outside world, My Lord." She suggested with a carefree tone.
"From the outside? Milly, do you know when I last went… outside?" He turned towards her with raised eyebrows.
"400 years ago?" She replied with a question, tilting her head to the sides, looking completely innocent, like a teen questioning her teacher.
"Almost! Add around 40 years to that!" He nodded. "The outside world is sick and filled with idiots! I can't stand them at all, not to mention my relatives! They are a bunch of monkeys on drugs! I'm fine being here, in my own tower; they can play their board games without me!" he waved his hand as his voice was clearly filled with anger.
"But, My Lord, maybe you could ask for advice from the newcomer! A fresh viewpoint can be the missing link!" she said, trying to persuade her lord.
"Mhm… well, you say something interesting… But what should she know? She looks like she is still wet behind her ears! I have no time and patience talking to an ignorant kid!"
"I heard she was someone with a respectful position in that Sect that came about a decade ago…."
"A what?" He looked at her again, blinking his eyes, completely lost.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot you don't keep up with the outside world! She is from a newly established power and killed Rudrick. Or that is what the rumors say!"
"Wait, Rudrick is dead? That collection of a retarded gene pool bit the dust? Hah! Serves him right!" Rabout laughed heartily. "Okay, okay, I'm going to take a shower, you make me something to eat, and you can tell me everything I missed in the past decade or so!"
"Sure!" she smiled happily, bowing towards him before leaving.
"A new perspective…" he looked around his laboratory, forming a slight smile on his face. "Not even a bad idea…."
