by Andur
“Oh. I guess that whoever has this spell controls the seas of this world? And who cares how it works? It works! That's the point.” Ascathon looks at me with questioning eyes.
“Even so! A few bubbles! That's all it takes? We won't pay three thousand platinum coins for bubbles!” This is a joke!
“Then we will go and sell the spell to someone else.” Ascathon turns and walks back to the Gate. What's wrong with this kid!? No! Wait!? What's wrong with me!?
What if he sells that spell to someone from the main-continent? Or worse!? What if he sells it to the Phenex Empire!?
“W... Wait! Stop! That's blackmail! What will you use all that money for anyway!?” I grab the kid at his clothes. Urgh. To do something like that as the proud Sky-General! I am acting like a beggar!
“I will use it to live like I want!” Ascathon turns back to me and crosses his arms in front of his chest.
“F...Fine. But we want assurances!” I give the kid a forced smile.
“Which ones?” -Ascathon
“You sign a magical contract that you won't give that spell to anyone else and we pay you the three thousand platinum coins.” Nobody else is allowed to have a spell like that!
Ascathon gives me a huge winning smile.
“~Deal!~”
12 - Tutor and reality.
Norfolk, Sarn-Valley
Having two secretaries isn't bad at all. I lean back in my chair and place my feet on the table while reading a report.
Sarah is dealing with people at the reception and Celestial kneels at a small desk beside the entrance. She is checking the tax-reports for me.
I organized the desk especially for her to emphasize her lower position compared to me. And to humiliate her. A little bit of teasing should be allowed.
It's very convenient to find such a well educated hand. And she seems to have a gift for it! She is faster than me. “You are really sure that you never worked as a secretary in your previous lifes?”
She just glares at me and continues writing.
Too bad. “Well. If you continue at that rate you might have earned zero point zero zero one percent of your worth at the end of your life.” Muaha, yes! Work for me until I die of old age. And forget holidays!
Someone knocks at the door and takes a look into the office. “Are you Ascathon? I am here to apply for the job as a tutor. My name is Stefan Sung.”
An old guy with white hair and the aura of an academic takes a look into the office. I stand up to greet him. “Yes, I will get straight to the point. What is your competency?”
The old guy takes a curious look at Celestial and winces at the sight of her slave-ring. Then he turns towards me. “I worked my entire life at the Academy as a magical researcher. I feel confident to teach basic knowledge and magic.”
He hands me a sheet of paper which turns out to be a certificate from the academy. I take it curiously. “Why aren't you still working at the Academy? It's strange for someone like you to apply as a home tutor.” Then I find the reason for his leave on the certificate. “I see. You investigated new knowledge.”
The expression of the old guy drops and he takes his certificate back. “I was thrown out because I asked too many inconvenient questions about scientific methods and artefacts. I understand that someone like me is unfit to teach untainted minds.” He turns and walks out of the office.
Seems like he already tried at quite a few places to find work. If you are thrown out of the Academy for a reason like that you are socially dead and your career is finished. This must have been quite a blow to him.
I look out of the office. “Sarah. Give the man a room and a contract. He is working full time as a tutor for Liandra and Violetta from now.”
Stefan turns around with a surprised expression.
Then I call for Liandra and Violetta who should be playing upstairs. Seconds later I see both of them rumbling down the stairs. “Liandra, Violetta. This is Stefan. He will be your tutor from now on. If you don't follow his orders I will think up a suitable punishment!”
I turn towards Stefan. “You teach them everything you know. If you need materials, books, items. Just give a list of the needed stuff to Sarah. Did I forget something.” I scratch my cheek while I think hard.
Stefan raises his hand to the height of his chest with a forced smile.
“Yes?” I give him a curious look.
“How am I supposed to teach a slave magic?” Stefan smiles at me.
I blink while I think about his words. Then I look at Liandra and Violetta. “Ah! I forgot!” I point a finger at their slave-rings and concentrate.
*snap* *snap*
Both slave-rings split open and drop to the ground. I bend down and pick them up. Then I place both of them in my pocket.
“No slaves. Family members. If you hurt them I will nail you onto the roof and measure the time it takes you to freeze solid.” I step back into my office and close the door, leaving a shocked Stefan behind. Liandra and Violetta are grinning at him with strange expressions.
Inside my office I feel Celestial's gaze on me so I turn to face her. She is smiling cutely and holding her hand with the slave-ring towards me.
“Forget it! Puppy-eyes don't work on me.”
“Damn!”
I walk back to my chair and sit down again.
“Have you heard anything about Mislow?” Celestial starts to fiddle with her pencil. She has an agitated expression and looks down at her tax-reports.
“I haven't heard anything. And it's unlikely that the borders will be opened any time soon.” I grab the report again and start to search for the point where I was interrupted.
“But there has to be a way to get a message through! I need to know what happened to the rest of my family after the raid!” -Celes
“The only hope for you is that there are some nobles from Mislow at the Ball of Fellmar. The Jarl throws a big party in about a month. He will most likely invite people from everywhere.” I snort when I think about the problematic event.
Probably it will be very chaotic. After all there will be nobles from Mislow and Jamaian present. They will jump at each others throats like bloodhounds.
And the Phenex Empire will greatly benefit from the continued discord between the two most powerful nations on the main continent.
“Will you attend?” Celes looks at me with hopeful eyes.
I shrug my shoulders. “I doubt that I will be able to avoid it after I informed the Jarl about the coming invasion.”
“What invasion!?” Celestial jumps up.
“The Phenex Empire is using the current weakness of the main continent to enlarge its sphere of influence. They sent already a lot of spies with a few merchant ships. My guards accidentally captured one of them and I ripped the information out of his mind. But he preferred to kill himself before I could get anything substantial.” I explain the state of the world to Celestial with a bored voice. “Don't worry. I think we still have a few years of peace. His memories didn't sound like Phenex has already a huge army ready.”
“And you are sitting here with your feet on the desk and reading reports!?” Celestial calls out.
“Hahahaha... do you want me to go out there and play hero? I have done that far too many times. Who cares? Especially you should be able to understand that. I was a hero, I played the demon lord, I conquered the world, I saved the world and I destroyed it. That's how often I already went through all this. And do you know what I learned!?” I hit my fist onto the table and Celestial twitches.
“It doesn't matter! There will always be a next story and another world to save! Just grab the few things you hold dear and protect them as long as you can! And who knows for certain that the Immortal Empress is a bad thing? Maybe she is a better ruler than those stupid governments of the main continent?” I lean back again. “Maybe it's better if she conquers all countries.”
Celestial clenches her fists. “That's a very sad viewpoint. It's sickening me that it comes from someone like me! We ha
ve power! We have a responsibility!”
I throw the report onto my desk and look at Celestial. “You have power? Look at you! All your reincarnations and you ended up with a slave-ring. If you weren't extremely lucky you would have been used as a breeding mare for some mortal idiot. You would have most likely died in the bed while giving birth to another bastard. In your next life you would have sworn to make it better. Remembering your past lifes doesn't make you any stronger than the lucky bastard from next door!”
Celestial turns red. “Lucky!? I am working for an ignoramus like you! If I wasn't in this stupid mansion and surrounded by a hundred guards then I could have fled ten times already! How am I …...”
This idealistic moron! I will show you why you are lucky!
“~To your knees.~”
Celestial falls to her knees with a fearsome expression in her eyes.
“~Turn your back towards me and bend over.~”
Again her body moves against her will and tears well up in her eyes.
Then I stand up and walk towards her to whisper into her ear. “That's why you are lucky! Because someone else would have used the slave-ring's potential! Just poking you with a little pain is nothing! How does it feel to have no control over your own body!?”
I can't believe that she never came across one of those cursed artefacts. They exist in many worlds. Once I received one right after my birth. That special resurrection was pure hell.
“~Release.~”
Celestial drops onto her small desk and wipes the tears from her eyes. Then I turn and walk back to my chair. “When will you be done with the taxes?”
“Today.” She looks at me but strangely there is just pity in her eyes. “Those nightmares, that personality and that world-view. I hope that you will sometime have a life which will make you forget whatever horrid memories are responsible for that.”
13 - Destiny?
Norfolk, Sarn-Valley
“Kukukuhrhrhr!”
I can't help but laugh in an unsightly manner while standing in the kitchen to prepare some food. It has been over a month since Ascathon saved us. At least that's how my ~master~ sees the situation.
He will be in for a nasty shock when I show him my new ~trick~. Having the stupid slave-ring on me forced me to find a possibility to work around it.
Right now I am kneading a silver spoon like modelling clay in fingers. The metal feels so soft! I finally managed to operate my inner magic system without activating my outer one.
The slave-ring doesn't even twitch. Ascathon will be in for a nasty surprise. I just have to find a way to get that thing off of me now! We were warned not to remove them because it would kill us. Obviously it can only be done with the approval of the master.
Unfortunately I realized that it became harder to activate my outer magic system with every hour of training to use just my inner magic system. Will I lose the ability to activate it completely?
Who cares. This new power is marvellous! I was never that good with magic spells to begin with. I was only able to visit the Academy thanks to the hard training of my parents. But this..... it feels like it just came to me naturally!
Am I actually a genius at manipulating my inner magic system without ever realizing it?
By circulating my mana directly through my body without dispersing it into my environment I got an unbelievable physical boost! And by forming a thin layer of mana directly on my skin I have a very formidable protection.
I tried stabbing my own hand with a knife but the tip simply broke off!
Maybe I will wait for a good moment to maximize the shock on Ascathon! Then I will do ~this~ and ~that~ to him! “Kukukuku.....”
“Big Sis is being scary.....”
I turn around and see Liandra and Violetta leaning around the corner of the entrance to the kitchen. After a few seconds I have my expression back under control. “Good that you are here. Food is ready soon. Where is Ascathon?”
“He hid in his basement again, behind that big iron door.” Violetta pouts her cheeks while complaining. It's obvious that she isn't happy about him hiding there. She wants to spend more time with her brother whom she idolizes in a strange way.
I sigh. I guess it's natural. From Liandra's and Violetta's point of view we are a happy and harmonic family by now. She never experienced being a family in this manner.
“Then you start to eat. I will go and get him.” I grab a good heavy metal scoop and leave Liandra and Violetta behind in the kitchen while heading towards the basement.
After some time of investigating this mansion the layout is very well known to me. I even stalked Ascathon for quite some time and finally learned the trick to opening the door to his secret laboratory.
He doesn't know that I already took a very good look at it. If I would tell on him and give the Academy some hints he would end up behind bars very fast. But I don't want to end it that way.
In the last month I came to know him a little. He is a sadist and a loner. Whenever he has time he hides in his basement. Probably to work on a machine to throw this world into chaos.
I am no idiot. Even I realize that his machines are meant to change his principality into an industrial stronghold.
Then there are his nightmares and the bad personality. But I guess he can't help it. He is a serious case of CSR. I don't know how many bad reincarnations he had until now but I guess that they weren't nice experiences.
Arriving at the iron door to the basement I lose no time and start to hit it with my scoop. This creates loud ringing sounds. It's the method of choice to get the caveman out of his cave.
After a minute of pounding the door with increasing speed it opens and Ascathon takes a look outside.
I cross my arms in front of my chest. “Food is ready!”
He sighs and closes the door behind him. It automatically locks and Ascathon follows me without a word to the kitchen where the four of us have dinner.
While eating a thought strikes me. “Didn't you say something about a Ball of Fellmar!? Shouldn't it be held soon?”
Ascathon shakes his head. “It was delayed because some nobles from other nations didn't have time. It's held in another month from now.”
“Why should it be delayed because of that?” Liandra doesn't understand the reasoning.
“The Jarl wishes to talk to all powers of the main continent. He doesn't take the actions of the Phenex Empire lightly. After I informed him about my lucky encounter with the spy he had his army make a complete clean up of the capital. They found a handful of people without proper papers and after interrogating them, my warning was proven.” Ascathon continues to chew on a piece of meat.
I am a little taken aback. “How did they find those spies so fast!?”
Ascathon shrugs his shoulders. “Those with power have their ways. I guess they simply ransacked everyone who looked for a second too long at them and threw them into the prison for further investigations. By doing that in the capital they had to find one or two Phenex spies if the situation was serious. That they found anyone at all proves that Phenex is getting down to do business.”
We continue to eat in silence and I keep sitting in the kitchen while I think about the implications of my situation. Even if I run from here now. Where should I take Liandra? Mislow is at war with Jamaian.
I can't drag her off into a war zone in search of our parents. For all I know they might be dead. And I have neither money nor allies. Then there is the issue with the border. We would have to cross it illegally.
It's not sure how far Ascathon would go in hunting us down but I guess that Norfolk would become dangerous territory too. And it's not like he mistreated the kids in any way...... besides losing his temper with me after I provoked him.
When I look up I realize that it's already night. A strong snowstorm is dancing beyond the window. I totally lost the track of time while zoning out.
Quickly I take the empty plates and place them inside the cleaner. This house disturbs my sense of time with
the good lights! I have to get used to it again. Up until now the best illumination I got was provided by magical spells. But they couldn't be kept up indefinitely and you always had to recast them.
After I am done I walk back towards my room. It's down the stairs and I have to pass Ascathon's room in order to get to the stairway. But when I want to activate the lights in the corridor by waving my hand they don't activate.
Strange. I walk further and find a dark figure in front of Ascathon's room. “Ascathon! Are you playing with the lights? They don....”
*shwish!*
I instinctively twitch when the dark figure waves one of his arms in a throwing motion and something hisses past my head just by a few inches.
Then the dark figure draws a blade which is flashing up in the dim light and dashes towards me while running up the side of the wall.
I activate my fighting aura. That's what I decided to name my new ability. The blade flashes into my direction but somehow it feels like it's moving in slow motion! Is that another effect of enclosing myself completely in mana? Did I get faster? I did it never before on that scale.
With great care I pick the blade out of the assassins hand.
But suddenly the assassin is enclosed in a reddish light and starts to move faster again!? A small dagger shoots forward and scratches across my chest! My aura protects me and I feel that no harm is done.
The assassin lands behind me. Did he use a fighting aura too in order to speed up? His red aura is feeling similar to mine. But it's crude and badly executed. I feel his mana leaking into the surroundings and disperse without any use.
Again the assassin jumps forward and I sidestep his blade while performing a high kick. My heel connects with his forehead and I can feel something snap.
The assassin is blown away like a doll and rolls along the entire length of the corridor until impacting the wall at the far end of it.
Assassins! Bad memories well up in my head and I turn while screaming. “Ascathon! Liandra! Violet!” I kick the door to Ascathon's room open but I find the inside empty.