Chapter 46: Greeting Spoiled Children With A Lying Smile
Altair retired to her room under the guidance of Dave. It seemed that they trusted her word more than they did in the past as Dave didn't bother to sit by her bed and wait for her to fall asleep. There wouldn't have been much time for him to wait anyway as Altair quickly succumbed to the soft enveloping comfort of her bed as she sank into it.
In the morning a new problem assaulted her. Every single time she felt the urge to open her eyes and wake up it was quickly overpowered by her new beds power to make her want to melt back into sleep among the blankets and pillows. She slept undisturbed for longer than she should have. Eventually, her stomach finally won over the beds overpowering strength and she begrudgingly pulled herself out of bed.
The sunlight was pouring in at full strength from the windows by then. Noel wasn't in the room at the time but Stacey was. She was sitting next to the bed while looking at a Holodisplay on her communicator that showed an array of strange clothes. Stacey noticed that Altair was up and quickly turned off her communicator as if she was hiding it. She then looked at Altair with a warm and gentle smile and said, "Good morning, Young Miss."
Altair ignored her strange activities even though she was interested in the strange communicator device. She struggled to drag herself off the bed while carrying the blanket around her, her hair a mess and her eyes showing that she was clearly not fully awake. She looked at Stacey and asked, "What time is it" as her stomach protested its emptiness to her.
Stacey stood from her chair and said, "It's noon right now, Young Miss. You have been sleeping for fifteen hours."
Altair blinked at her with dazed eyes as the words went into her head and slowly started to drift out just as they came. She looked at the table nearby and started to slowly walk towards it. Halfway to the table she stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder at Stacey and asked, "fifteen hours?" Stacey did not know about her time outside last night. Altair knew that she didn't go to bed at the time that Stacey was thinking of but she didn't stay up for another hour so it was close enough.
Stacey nodded in response to her words and quickly sent a message to Noel to prepare breakfast for Altair.
It was then that Altair looked back at the table before her with wide eyes. 'I slept for that long?' Her new bed was truly too dangerous.
While waiting for food to be brought to Altair, Stacey informed her on how her tutors were waiting for hours for her to wake up. Altair felt slightly guilty to find out about that, at least until Stacey told her that the time schedule doesn't really matter to them.
It turned out that the world she was on did not adhere to day schedules completely as even her tutors would be fine to show up at midnight to teach her and nobody would mind. Even students at military academies didn't have a set schedule and could be taking classes after midnight. Of course, if they lived in the dorms than they had to deal with all of the hassle of being harassed constantly by teachers and being forced onto an absurd schedule designed to break them down mentally.
With that information on her mind the guilt that Altair felt quickly vanished.
After Altair ate she started her studies under several different tutors. The subjects she was being taught were diverse and varied and she learned mostly from books and spoken lectures. She was learning the history of the Empire, grammar for the Empires language, math, and science. She was also being taught etiquette as she expected she would be. However, she didn't expect that she would also be taught tactics, strategy, economics, and budgeting.
Her schedule quickly became consistent and predictable so her tutors stopped wasting time by arriving too soon. She spent twenty hours every day studying under her tutors, followed by sleeping for at least ten hours per day.
It did not take long for her to become overwhelmed by her studies. There were no days off. The only breaks she got was to eat food and to occasionally take a walk as suggested by her maids.
Altair was actually in full control over her schedule. The tutors only came and taught her in such a fevered away because she didn't complain about it. At any time she was able to tell them she wanted a break and they would have listened to her. However, she didn't know that and assumed the way she was being taught was the normal way. So, she devoted herself completely to her studies even though it was wearing her out.
As a result, her tutors started to treat her as a genius in the making because they knew about her cover story of being an amnesiac.
Altair would like to claim it was a peaceful time filled with learning that was well spent. But she was born and raised in a remote village and had grown up using her body to its fullest then drafted into a resistance army where she continued to use her body but at a far harsher rate. Now she was sitting in a chair all day, every day, and it was starting to drive her mad. She really wanted to run around and exercise. After a while, with each passing day It grew heavier and heavier on her mind.
After a month and a half of nonstop studying she had an expected visitor pop up in the middle of a lesson. It was her new adoptive brother. One of the few things that had been running through her mind during her breaks was how to deal with this violent child.
Since she had experienced the power of Donel and Renald firsthand, she was more cautious about how she should handle Joshua. She was fairly certain that she could, currently, overpower him in a fight. However, she knew that the limits of his power far outstripped what she would be able to use even when she regained all of her Magic.
One downside to her power that the Humans of this place didn't seem to have was that Mana could not be expanded on easily. As far as she knew it required a special ore that had long been completely consumed on her own world, Manamium, in order to gain a larger Mana reservoir. However, it had already been several hundred years since the last piece of Manamium was consumed on her world so Altair didn't even know what it looked like, let alone how to use it. So, as far as she knew, her power could not be expanded upon while Joshua's would eventually grow past hers at full power.
Since that was the case it would be in her best interest to end the grudge between them permanently. Otherwise she would probably not survive the repercussions in the long run.
But then the problem becomes: how exactly does she end the grudge between them completely?
Altair had many thoughts on it but settled on a very basic and commonly used strategy: the carrot and the stick.
Joshua didn't show up alone. He brought along the girl Altair had seen before and who had watched Joshua beat her into the ground, Alice Penwhel, along with three other boys, two of which appeared to be the same age as Joshua. One of the boys had glasses on and looked like a scholar. Another boy appeared to be one who Altair would judge to be overly energetic because he couldn't seem to stop moving. The last boy was massive compared to the others, both in height and the size of his limbs.
They had come walking in together. Their differing heights were highlighted due to their proximity with one another. The scholar stood at the same height as Alice, at 144 cm. The energetic boy was slightly taller than Joshua, around 150 cm. The giant of a boy stood at 175, towering over all of the others.
Altair's first thoughts upon seeing this group was quite simple. She assumed that Joshua had brought his friends to gang up on her and, in her mind; she shook her head in disappointment. Outwardly she smiled brightly at them when they entered.
The tutor saw the children arrive and noted that one was the Young Master of the household so he immediately bowed in respect while asking, "Young Master what brings you here during Young Miss's lesson?"
Joshua glared at the tutor and flatly stated, "Get out. No more lessons today."
The tutor bowed in compliance before hastily retreating from the room. He had heard a lot of awful rumors about how Joshua treated those that worked for his family. Due to what he heard he didn't want to be in the same room as him for even one second. So when was essentially told to buzz off, he did so with glee.
Altair watched the tutor leave in amazement. Was that really all it took to get out of her lessons? She mentally tucked this information away to attempt at a later date as she sized up the newcomers.
Alice and the others eyed Altair with an interested expression.
Joshua walked toward Altair proudly like he had something to prove. The other children followed after him and this told Altair that this brat had indeed brought his friends to beat her up. Or maybe he found the strongest kids he could and bribed them to do so. Either way, it wouldn't affect what she planned to do.
Altair deliberately spoke in a loving tone as she asked, "Did you come to play, Big Brother?" She had used the same words and warmth in her voice as when she had spoken to her real brother in the past. She knew that this would probably irritate Joshua in the short run as it made her skin crawl to say it. However she had to paint herself in a certain light so that she could wash away her past image to Joshua as quickly as possible. She just didn't expect that Joshua would bring other people along when he came to see her. She struggled to keep the embarrassment from showing on her face and maintained a perfectly peaceful and warm smile towards Joshua. The only hints of the lie she was showing were hidden deep within her eyes and required a person to be really close to be able to see through her deception. Thanks to the distance between her and the kids, there was no chance of them finding out the truth.
This caused Joshua to nearly stumble forward while the rest of the children looked at Altair in confusion. Joshua had neglected to speak of their second meeting where he got trashed in one blow from Altair so the other children only knew of when Alice stumbled upon Joshua beating Altair. With Altair's bizarre treatment of Joshua, portraying the perfect picture of a loving little sister, they were speechless.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone