Bab 43: The Act II
An eerie silence spread throughout the dining hall making the whole situation really awkward for anyone but me. I had already become used to awkward situations in my past life to the pint they almost don't affect me anymore.
The food finally came, giving me the chance to feast upon everything on the dining table. everyone seemed surprised that my body could hold so much food, yet all I wanted at that point was to get some extra elemental energies circulating within my body. I had wasted most of it on my little scuffle with the humans back in the forest and I hadn't had a good meal since then. Seeing the food in front of me awakened some kind of beast-like instinct that made me eat everything in my line of vision without a care in the world.
Unfortunately, this seemed to enforce the idea that I don't know anything about etiquette to Elaina and her parents.
When we finally finished eating, they all eyed me wearily, looking at me like I was some kind of beast that would eat all their foods without a second thought. The head chef however, was ecstatic. It seemed there hasn't been anyone in the house that has fully appreciated her food and cooking skill. Seeing me however, caused her to be extremely jubilant.
"Your cooking is amazing! When I saw it I felt like I had been starved for multiple days. If I keep going like this I might actually gain some weight. Mrs Starnight here would be pretty angry if that happened, right?" I said while winking at the chef.
The Chef's Scarlet eyes widened for a bit before she gave me the most radiant smile she could and bowed deeply before leaving again.
Everyone but the girl in front of me glared at the chef before doing the same to me. They had both a look of determination to 'fix me' and worry for the future.
"Well good luck ya'll. I'll be going to my room and doing my own things, don't follow me or I might attack you on instinct" I stated while giving them the warmest fake smile I could give.
"No, you are not going anywhere! Clearly you lack all signs of pride and self so we are going to start there. I'm going to reteach you how to eat, walk and even speak!" Elaina retorted while 3 guards came out of nowhere blocking my escape.
"ugh..." I grunted while moving towards her and retorting "At your service your majesty" and giving a bow by moving my left leg behind my right while bending my knees and curving my back slightly. This time however, just out of spite and pettiness, I cupped my hand and threw it in front of me from my right to my left as well as keeping my left arm behind my back. I did this instead of lifting the skirt I was forced to wear for lunch.
The girl who I keep forgetting the name of started laughing, while both her parents and grandparents stared at me in contempt.
"You are honestly so infuriating, I wonder how your parents put up with you!" Said the old hag.
"oh? They did, I'm just being spiteful for being sent here against my will. Expect me to carry on doing this for the next 2 weeks by the way. Of course you could just let me go back home and you wouldn't need to deal with me." I exclaimed with a smug grin
"You will know true torture after these two weeks if you go at the rate you are at the moment" The old man snarled.
Oh you have no idea what you are getting yourself into.
For the next 5 days, I would 'learn' how to become a good women at the very mature age of 5 while also learning magic for the time I'm supposed to be asleep. For some reason she would check if I was asleep? I don't actually know why she would do such a thing but I cant really complain. I am able to locate any of them from 5 meters away from me, making sneaking up on me a task that not even an assassin can accomplish.
Over time, I made friends with the only person in the house that seemed to understand my pains, Argenta, which I called Gen due to her name not being very memorable. I cant seem to remember her brother's name, but 'WhatEverHisNameIs' tried to make friends with me on multiple occasions, sometimes on his mother's command, sometimes on his own.
I couldn't understand what he wanted so sometimes I would just ignore him while other times I would make him regret talking to me by being as annoying and disrespectful as possible.
Every time I would do so, Gen and me would laugh out loud at the memory and she would get scolded by her mother for spoiling me to much. Apparently she was looking for a job in becoming an battle mage for the royals to both increase her prestige and her knowledge on magic.
We would hang out every now and then whenever she had some free time to spare for me, since she was also a busy women. Her grandparents were the biggest pains in the a*ses though. I kept trying to avoid them, but the moment I would get distracted or forced to stay in a single spot they would always know and find me in a few seconds.
They seemed to have bribed a few of the house staff to stop me for as long as possible so they can catch up to me. They seemed to understand that I had a very high environmental awareness, meaning they had to be extremely fast to catch me otherwise I would run.
"How can a 5 year old be such a pain in the a*s?!" Asked the Elaina and the old hag in unison after failing to catch me once again.
"I'm starting to think having such a big house might be a disadvantage for us rather than for her. Non of the staff can actually stop her without destroying furniture and the fact that she is as nimble as a worm does not help at all." Said Elaina while panting heavily.
"The only way we can catch her is after breakfast, lunch and dinner. We gotta catch her at dinner or we wont see her for the rest of the day." Said the old hag.
When dinner was finally announced and everyone arrived, everyone but me, Gen and her brother looked exhausted. They were clearly having a bad time trying to "teach me" something I already knew by heart from my previous teacher. They knew I already knew all of it, but they had no idea why I wasn't using any of those teachings. They seemed to think that the reason for my indiscipline was due to it not being my reflex.
Just to piss them off a little, I decided to work by etiquette for this dinner only. Not speaking while there was food in my mouth, not eating using my hands but rather with the proper silverware and finally, speaking elegantly, fluently and without informalities.
My strong change was meant to tell them "I know what I need to do, I just wont do it"
Gen Started to hyperventilate while laughing while I cracked jokes in the most elegant manner I could think off. This made everyone but the two of us very uncomfortable and confused. They had thought that I was too young and immature to act well in front of society, yet here I was acting like the "women" they were trying to create.
I broke the illusion after dinner had ended and I had left the dinner hall. I started to laugh my a*s off with Gen now in the hallways while all the butlers and servants looked at us with relaxed smiles or genuine confusion. The head chef seemed to be the most shocked by the change, since in the room she looked disappointed that I had finally changed while outside she looked mostly confused and shocked at the same time.
Even after her face lightened up a little, she wouldn't dare voice our her curiosities or even laugh with us at the joke we had created in the dining hall, yet she didn't have to since it was almost written on her face.
At times like these, I see how truly beautiful human beings can become when they put their greed and envy away. The women in front of me had one goal in life, and it was to make others happy through her cooking. I don't know why she had decided this, what history she has with cooking or what history she has with helping people, but I didn't care.
Right now she was just one of the few truly selfless people in the world so I'm going to enjoy this feeling, the feeling of being appreciated and this feeling of being able to gift someone back equally to that they had given to me.
I swiftly and quietly travelled to my room without anyone except Gen noticing. I sat down cross-legged on the floor while trying to feel the energies around me and absorbing them through my pores rather through my lungs. I would usually spend most of my nights like this, trying to find new ways to use the elemental energies within my body. I was already able to close large wounds within my abdomen in seconds as if the wound had never been inflicted. The only thing that would happen is that I would become a little hungry while also being low on elemental energies within my body.
Right now having eaten food in the last hour would make me immortal to the first dangerous hit no matter what it is. This is extremely helpful especially in the future, since I'm basically unkillable until someone finds a good way to do so.
The next day had come before I even knew it and it was the day of the party. Apparently it was Elaina's son's magic awakening party, which happened to be his 6 birthday too. I could see he had carried a lot of weight on his shoulders for the last 6 days since he wanted to be as impressive as possible when he does awaken his magical prowess.
For now though, all he could do was wait. As for me, one would normally expect me to try and console him but I honestly do not care. No one tried to console me back on earth when I was wringed or put under immense pressure, yet this boy who has everything I had ever wished to have is complaining about something so miniscule? Even if he does have a weak affinity to all magics, he has his whole life ahead of him. Not only can he still become a magic warrior instead of a mage since that specialisation requires less mana mastery and more body refinement, but also, he still wont lost any favour within the other families since his family already has so much power, a single child without a good affinity is more of a setback or delay than a disaster.
In the end, I couldn't help but sigh and ignore all the commotion his magic awakening will bring tome and his family. Even if I somehow manifested some selflessness within me, it would still be very disadvantageous to help him. His parents are trying to find him an arrangement and are also plotting against me, meaning they are most likely to capitalise on me helping him simply making the whole thing quite a stupid idea from the get go.
I finally had gotten out of my room wearing the dress Elaina had asked me to wear which I obliged with. The original plan was to not make me see my parents for two weeks but for some reason their tiny minds had not taken into account the fact that one of their youngest would have a birthday, forcing my parents, my brothers and finally, my sister to attend the birthday. I didn't want to make fools out of my parents yet I was not going to oblige so easily.
-- Hadiah diterima