Chapter 139: Intense Training
- Abelis Academy City, Abandoned Classroom, After School, Several Weeks Later - Rose's POV –
In the last few weeks the harassment from the Serpanis and Manchen children had continued to increase. Well, really only the Manchen child. The Serpanis one, Alice, was quite the cinnamon roll. Shy and reserved, she only seemed to even accompany the larger, and more intimidating, Lamia out of fear and a sense of duty. I had been informed that I’d also be meeting the child of our branch family, and the newest Ducal house, Persimmon de la Sanguis III, at some point but apparently, she was a frail child, so it had been decided that we would meet formally immediately before my upcoming Celebration of Birth. It seemed strange to think about, but I was about to turn 7, or 13ish going by Earth estimates.
Because I had been more or less introduced to Noble society, albeit not in an official sense as that wouldn’t happen until my 10th Celebration of Birth, this party had been planned as a large event. I guess basically everyone who is anyone had been invited, including local political leaders as well as some that I had met previously. This would also be my first large celebration since the... last one. The thought of the events that had led to me killing for the first time still made me nearly tear up even now. If this were my previous world, I was certain that I would likely need therapy for years to deal with the trauma but in this world, it was considered quite normal to experience a serious fight at a fairly early age. While I had certainly done so much earlier than was generally expected it wasn’t enough to cause alarm bells to ring in any of the surrounding adults' minds. And, while I was starting to get better, I had not had the confidence to actively seek out such help. In my old life seeking help for mental problems was seen as a weakness that would reflect badly on my parents and I’d been told throughout my life that I should just “suck it up” and “consider how privileged I was”. Technically true on the privilege but certainly a bad mentality to have. As a consequence of such thoughts even now I found it hard to speak up about how just thinking of that event made my hands shake and how I would nearly cry myself to sleep if I were alone. I’d never let Karen know but I actually appreciated her constant attempts to sneak into bed with me. It made me feel much less alone, despite kicking her out every time.
[Hey! Pay attention! I know you’re upset about this but I’m taking time out of my busy schedule to make sure that you’re prepared to host your own noble get together. Plus, it was high time that I refreshed you on proper etiquette.] - Queen Laura
[S-Sorry! I was just distracted! So now I just need to give at least one dance to every male partner of equal social standing, correct?] - Rose
[Hah... not just. The point is to make yourself available to be asked. Rather than approaching those that are of similar status you wait for them to come to you. It’s considered quite inappropriate for a noble woman to request a dance from someone at their own standing as it can be interpreted as her having impure intentions.] - Queen Laura
[Ugh! There are so many unspoken rules to this nonsense! Couldn’t I just bring an escort so I could refuse all of the complicated stuff?] - Rose
[Oh, you certainly could. In a normal party hosted by another it might even be expected for you to do so. But YOU are the hostess this time. While you certainly could refuse dance requests using an escort as an excuse without seeming rude this would also be seen as a public admission of a formal relationship with whomever you bring as your partner. I’m more than willing to allow my son Arlen to accompany you though if you wish, in fact I would welcome it!] - Queen Laura
[No no no! I’ll listen to your convoluted rule so anything but that!] - Rose
[Shame. Oh well as I was saying...] - Queen Laura
Yup that’s right, I’d be hosting my own noble party. Less formal than the one that I’d have when I turned 10 this was considered a trial run of my actual debut and as such would reflect on both my ability as well as that of my family. Using this as an excuse my Auntie had paid extra for an Image Stone that was both able to show an entire body as well as last long enough to be useful for these long study sessions that she was forcing on me and which I reluctantly accepted. If it were just myself on the chopping block I’d not care either way what these fake ass nobles thought of me, but the thought of harming my family’s reputation was a complete nonstarter. I knew that my parents would never blame me if something DID happen but even so I’d grown to love my real family much more than that fake one in my previous life. The only one I’d cared about back then was my sister, the rest of them wouldn’t even earn a passing glance from me if they died on the sidewalk in front of me. Unfortunately, I’d not come to this realization in my previous life which would have saved me a lot of heartache and pain. It’d taken time and distance to realize how dependent I was even living separately from those monsters. I hope Mary’s okay...
- The Place Between, Palace of the Goddess of Mercy Rose, That Night - Rose's POV –
Life carried on, once more learning etiquette I found myself exhausted by the end of the day. I’d spent the second half of my lesson today on learning the proper etiquette when dancing with people I didn’t know. The acceptable actions from both parties were extremely strict. Apparently, in the past, it had been extremely common for one party to do something to their partner without consent and then claim they were at fault. Over the years this had led to major political scandals as well as even war in some cases. The losses of life had been massive. As a result, a set of rules had been adopted over the entire continent to stop such useless damage from occurring again. It was... partially successful. Of course, if someone ignored the rules and acted with impunity, even to someone with lesser social standing, it allowed the victim to defend themselves. Up to a point anyway, because of this world still being stuck in their version of the Renaissance era there was still a power imbalance depending on your noble title or that of your family. Recent advancements in technology had started to allow upwards mobility however so the number of shenanigans that noble houses could get away with had started to wane. It was still a far cry from the modern world I was familiar with, however.
Despite this tiredness however I found myself in the same place as always, my inner world. Growing exponentially since I’d first discovered it, I’d noticed that growth increasing even more since I’d started to train with Love. It was like I was somehow honing the energy I was sending to this place, not necessarily increasing it but decreasing the waste. As a result, I’d nearly formed a fully actualized world, although most of it was empty of “sentience”. If I concentrated, I could even feel specific parts of it as if I were looking at them from a satellite camera. As of yet I hadn’t managed to zoom in any further but even at that height the level of detail I could discern was immense.
Resembling my old world, I noticed that the continents looked loosely similar to those of Earth. It looked like the drawings of someone that didn’t quite remember the shapes they were supposed to be modelling after, close but not quite. The biggest difference though was if you looked at the actual content of those landmasses. Filled with strange creatures, most of which I recognized either from Earth mythology or from my studies in Miscalis. Some of them I’d seen before, most I had not. Because of this I had no idea if said creatures actually existed or even acted as they did in my created world. They did, without exception, seem to know who and what I was. Even the lowliest of creatures would react to my presence with affection and awe. A disturbing scene if you imagine a whole host of sea cucumbers the size of dogs attempting to rub against me affectionately. Luckily their fantasy counterparts that I created were as slow as the ones back Earth and I was able to escape. The clear dejection that I could somehow sense from them nearly made me turn back even if the thought of their slimy bodies reminded me of certain content online that would get you banned on some websites on Earth.
[No no no! Not like that you fool! Search for the mistake! The weakness! Every incursion from someone of a similar level to you will not be able to uniformly incorporate your realm into theirs! There will be momentary mistakes, a flaw here and a weakness there. You must learn how to search those out and take advantage of them to push back. Just remember that when a mind touches yours, they also leave themselves vulnerable.] - Love
[Like Undine?] - Rose
[Exactly like that, when incorporating someone's Mind Palace into their own the other party is quite literally imposing their own existence over your own. This leaves them vulnerable if they end up biting off more than they can chew. In such a situation they must either; fight with everything they got and lose entirely or, leave a large portion of themselves behind, losing it forever. When Undine left a piece of her behind it was like leaving a part of her very existence in your hands, without a mind to defend itself. You must be prepared to fight with that in mind. Later I’ll teach you how to compartmentalize so that you can lower the risk but you’re nowhere near ready for such advanced techniques.] - Love
While we’d started this training with a mostly silent Love the demon had become more and more expressive as our training had progressed. Now, though we’d begun with him telling me to figure it out for myself, he was actively teaching me the best ways to defend myself and even leaving hints on how to counterattack in the event of an actual incursion. If I didn’t know any better, I’d guess that he was enjoying himself. But that couldn’t be the case, after all how could a several billion-year-old demon possibly enjoy teaching some weak mortal like myself. Although apparently, I couldn’t really use the term mortal anymore considering my current form was likely to last, if not forever, certainly much longer than any human ever had. These thoughts had further solidified that THIS was my body even more so than I already had. Over the years I’d started to think of myself more and more as Rose and learning of how long I’d likely have this form had made those thoughts even more clear since it was extremely likely that I’d be Rose for much MUCH longer than I’d ever been Austin.
With those thoughts I once more focused on following the clues given by Love as I attempted to forcibly eject the crazy powerful demon. Once again, I failed, though it didn’t feel bitter at all...
