[Celeste Pov]
It actually happened, oh my lord! I can't believe it—I've been reborn.
For the first few seconds, everything appeared blurry, but slowly my vision started returning. I was amazed to see a beautiful elf with dark skin and white hair washing my now tiny body.
Then I heard the voice of the lady I heard yelling earlier, "Please, let me hold her, let me hold my baby." Ah, so she's my mother.
I was wrapped up in a blanket and passed on to the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. She had dark violet hair that matched her eyes, with a beauty mark by her lips. She had this mature look about her, like she had experienced a lot of things. I wondered if when I grow up, I will look as beautiful as her.
The way she looked at me as she held me—it was different from how my parents used to look at me. It was with so much love and affection. She started to caress my face as her eyes watered with tears.
"She's so beautiful," she said, her voice filled with happy emotions.
"She's perfect," she continued to mutter, with tears now streaming down her face.
She then looked toward the man with a happy smile and passed me off to someone else. "Here, hold her."
I was at first reluctant and didn't want to leave her hold. I didn't want to let go of the feeling of being loved. It felt so warm, so comforting.
I looked at the man who took hold of me rather grumbly, that was until I got a good look at him...
'He's so Handsome!' My very own prince charming.
He gently started to rub my cheek with his finger before proceeding to kiss my forehead.
I felt the love he had for me as he kissed my forehead, which dispelled all the previous sadness I had towards dying... So he's my new daddy.
He looks so handsome and strong. Is he like a king or something? If he is, that would definitely make me a princess.
From around my new daddy, new faces started appearing. They were all very beautiful as well—more elves appeared, one with blond hair, one with short white-blueish hair, another with dark blue that appeared purple, and a light blue one.
Then there was one that had the ears of a dog or wolf on her head, and another one with that of a cat. Although they all looked different, they were all very pretty... Are they my daddy's servants?
I saw their faces all start smiling towards him with a smitten look, like how I would have looked at a puppy or a kitten.
"SOOOO CUTTEEEEE!" They all unexpectedly shouted, causing me to almost jump out of my skin in fright.
I started to cry due to how frightened I was, which was unexpected; even I was surprised by my sudden outburst.
Through my tears, I saw how my daddy glared towards the woman for making me cry, causing them to shrink back apologetically.
I felt daddy swinging me in his arms softly, trying to calm me down. He looked towards me with a gentle smile. "It's alright, little one, daddy's here. Shhh, there's no need to cry," he softly whispered.
This is nothing like how my previous father treated me back in my past life. He wasn't full of affection like my new daddy is. So this is the love of a father—I feel so protected...
My own body started to relax, and my cries started turning into little whimpers. Daddy's head suddenly turned to the side, gaining a look of surprise; his eyes changed shape, turning purple, making them appear like coin slots. They looked beautiful as he started holding me protectively.
He looked angry, really angry, and scary. But the good kind of scary.
"Gates? What the hell are they doing in this world?" He growled before releasing a frustrated sigh.
He kissed my forehead once more—an act I'm starting to enjoy. "I'll be right back, little one," he whispered reassuringly.
I wanted to reach out and stop him. I wanted him to continue holding me in his arms, but before long, he passed me to my new beautiful mommy.
"What is going on?" she asked with worry, a sentiment I'm beginning to share. I just met this new daddy; I hope nothing bad happens to him.
"I'm sorry, I can't explain. I'll be right back. Igris, I'll leave my daughter's protection in your hands," he explained, which really wasn't much of an explanation, before calling forth someone.
From his shadow, a black knight appeared. He wore black armor with a purple outline, a large blue sword at his side, and a red feather? Ribbon? Whatever it was on his helmet and a black cape that hung from his shoulder.
'HE LOOKS SO COOL!' Is he my daddy's knight? What did my daddy call him again… oh right… Igris… woah, even the name is cool.
"Leave it to me, my liege," Igris responded, his voice sounding serious.
Daddy's body was then covered by this yellow goop before it popped and it showed him dressed in a cool outfit that made him look strong and mysterious.
He then completely disappeared into his shadow, which caused me to look in amazement. Would I possibly be able to do that in the future? I sure hope so; that was cool as heck.
My mother then brought me closer to her bosom. My body acted on its own and clung to her chest while I started to drink her milk.
'This is so embarrassing!!'
As I continued to drink my mother's milk, I saw my daddy's servants and his knight all turn towards where daddy left, the cat and dog servant started to hiss and bark.
Mommy looked around before looking towards the black knight. "Can you tell me what's going on? Why did Cid suddenly leave, and why did they start getting angry? You even looked toward that direction."
Mommy sounded nervous... No, a feeling more than nervous. Before long, Igris responded, "My liege is enraged... a feeling so strong it's resonating through our connection with him. Whatever he discovered in the gates I can't imagine was very pleasant," he explained.
So daddy is really, really angry, huh? I wonder what happened. 'Please be safe, daddy'... I couldn't help but pray.
"That term, Cid, used it as well. Just what is it?" Mommy said.
But is that really his name? It sounded... so lame. I thought it would have sounded more mysterious, powerful, one that had a commanding sound, like the one Igris had... Not "Cid," so lame.
"It's complicated. I cannot reveal anything without my liege's permission as it pertains solely to him," Igris continued to explain.
Igris then turned towards the blond elf. "Dismiss the ones that aren't connected with our liege; he has given me permission to explain the current situation."
The blond servant nodded and turned towards the others, making me realize there were more people peeking; wow, there are a lot. Just how many servants does daddy have?
The ones that stayed were maids that scared me, and three other human females. One had white hair, another one had pink hair, and the other one weirdly enough looked like daddy... Are they related?
"Is Cid alright?" The pink, shorter one asked nervously.
To which Igris replied, "Worry not; our liege is strong. He's almost impossible to kill... Now, for the important matter, as you all must already be aware, our liege isn't human; he is from an ancient race known as Monarchs."
What? Does that mean I'm not human either? Am I also a Monarch?... Nice.
"Wait, that should be impossible; he was born from my mother and father, both of whom are human. He's my little brother, so how could he be from another race altogether?" The one that looked like daddy said.
Ah, so they are related; that makes her my aunt. Interesting. I've never had an aunt before.
"My liege was created by the Absolute Being, a being that has long since perished, but my liege wasn't the only one. The Absolute Being—" Igris went on to explain using terms that were a bit difficult to figure out.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait," the white-haired human one interrupted, "The Absolute Being!? Who is that!?" She asked, something I also wanted to know; he sounds important.
"He was God. At the dawn of time, when light and darkness were all that existed, the Absolute Being split the light to create the Rulers and split the darkness to create the Monarchs."
Hearing Igris, my brain almost exploded in amazement. 'HE'S AN ANGEL!? MY DADDY WAS CREATED BY GOD SO HE MUST BE AN ANGEL!? DOES THAT MAKE ME AN ANGEL AS WELL!? FORGET BEING A PRINCESS; THAT'S SO LAME. AN ANGEL IS WAY COOLER.'
[Celeste PoV]
A Noble? Yawn. A King? Too overused. An Emperor? Oh brother, can't you get any more predictable? Now, an Angel, that's where it's at. Why, you may ask… well, because MY DADDY'S A FREAKING ANGEL, BABY! WOOOAH!
Igris continued to speak, and I eagerly listened, wanting to know more about my daddy.
"At the dawn of time, when light and darkness were all that existed, the Absolute Being split the light to create the Rulers and split the darkness to create the Monarchs."
'…'
Wait, Igris called daddy a Monarch. Does that mean he was created from darkness and not light… so he's not an angel…?
Is he the Devil then?
Am I the daughter of a Devil? Would… I start wanting to eat children…? Does my daddy like to eat children…?
Um, is it too late to take back my woos? You know, now that you mention it, being the daughter of a regular Noble doesn't sound too bad.
"So, in other words, our lord is a being born from darkness..." One of them asked, as I was beginning to question my life.
And like music to my little ears, Igris continued,
"No," Igris shook his head. "Our liege was born a Ruler. In fact, out of all the Rulers, our liege was the strongest of them all."
BRING BACK MY WOOS, BABY! TRIPLE THEM EVEN. Cause not only is my daddy an angel, HE WAS THE STRONGEST ONE OF THEM ALL.
Hehehe, and I'm his daughter. If I could move my body right about now, I would be dancing.
The Daughter of the Strongest Angel, ooh, that sounds lovely.
But wait, he said 'Was,' which means it's in the past. So what happened? And wait, didn't Igris call him a Monarch? What a confusing story this is turning out to be.
I better listen. I don't want to celebrate too early again. Go on my lovely knight, finish your tales.
"But I thought you said he was a Monarch?" the whitish-blue-haired elf asked curiously.
Which I was just thinking about too. Thumbs up to you for asking what I'm thinking.
To which Igris responded, "He was... You'll understand in a moment. You see, the Rulers and the Monarchs were in constant war with each other. This war led to countless deaths and bloodshed. The Rulers asked the Absolute Being to gift them strength to finally end the Monarchs and stop this war, but the Absolute Being did not reply. It was then that the Rulers realized that their war with the Monarchs was mere entertainment to him and that the Absolute Being did not want the war to end."
So God was evil… I can see that being true… Now I don't even know how to feel about this. But maybe it was because of this God that I was able to be reborn and meet my daddy, so he can't be that evil, right?
"This fact, along with the realization that the war would never end as long as the Absolute Being was alive, led seven of the eight Rulers to rebel against their god. Our liege, the last and strongest Ruler, was the only one who remained loyal to the Absolute Being and tried his best to stop them, but they eventually defeated him and left him for dead," Igris continued, not giving me a chance to fully process my previous thoughts.
If I'm my daddy's daughter, that means he survived against them. Wow, just how strong is my daddy to be able to fight and survive against seven angels?
As these thoughts came to mind, I heard the wolf lady let out a cry, "Nooo! Bossu! He can't be dead!"
This… this lady isn't very smart, is she? Even I, a child, was able to figure out he's still alive.
I watched as they all slowly turned towards the wolf lady on the floor.
"Delta, remember our connection; our master is alive," the blond elf lady said.
I see, so her name is Delta. What an interesting name… Speaking of names, what kind of Angel name is Cid? Is God not very creative?
Delta quickly stood back up and appeared normal. "Oh right, please continue."
Hehehe, she's funny. Now that I look closer, she's very pretty too… I want to touch her tail and ears. I wonder if they're soft.
"My liege didn't die; before he could die, he discovered that the Absolute Being had hidden a monstrous power inside his body and promptly activated it, transforming himself into the Shadow Monarch," Igris said.
'The Shadow Monarch… What a cool name. So he's an angel turned demon? Is he a demonic Angel? An Angelic Demon?
Okay, an Angelic Demon sounds kinda nice. Let's go with that. My new daddio is an Angelic Demon, the strongest of them, being able to face against seven angels and live to tell the tale… named Cid… sigh.
Come on, daddy, you can do better than that.
"With his health fully restored and now even stronger than before, Ashborn returned to the battlefront to continue the fight. But by the time he got back, he found out that he was too late, as the rebellion was already over, and the Absolute Being was already dead," Igris continued.
Okay, okay, okay, wait a minute. That was too much information in that one sentence. I'm going to need time to process.
First things first, HIS NAME IS ASHBORN AND HE CHOSE CID… ASHBORN IS SUCH A SICK NAME, THOUGH. WHY WOULD HE WANT TO CHANGE IT? When I'm older and able to talk, daddy and I are going to have a serious talk about names.
And God is dead? Was that why he didn't respond to my prayers every time I wished to get better, when I wished my father and mother would look at me with love instead of regret, when I wished all my pain would go away…
Would he have answered if he was still alive? Based on what Igris said about him, I'm beginning to doubt it. He would have just watched me for his amusement, like Igris said he was doing during the war he described.
"After the Rulers captured Legia, the Monarch of Beginnings, the King of Giants, Ashborn realized that the Monarchs would lose if he didn't step in and decided to offer them his help, an offer that they reluctantly accepted."
'...'
"Unfortunately for Ashborn, even though he managed to stabilize the power balance and keep the war going, his overwhelming powers earned him great fear from both sides and eventually led two of the nine Monarchs, Rakan, the Monarch of Fangs, King of Beasts, and Baran, the Monarch of White Flames, the Demon King, to turn on him."
COWARDS! Fight him one on one. I bet you wouldn't dare.
"Although Ashborn easily defeated them in battle and killed Baran in retaliation for his treachery, his shadow army was nearly annihilated in the process."
Wait, so is my daddy considered a hero as well, since after all he did defeat the Demon King… My daddy's titles just keep getting bigger and bigger… The Hero's Daughter… eh… The Daughter of The Shadow Monarch. Sounds more imposing.
A funny name came to mind, which caused my baby body to laugh.
'The Daughter of the Shadow Monarch Cid!' Hehehehehehe, that sounds ridiculous.
Mother looked down at me with a smile, seeing me laugh, and rubbed my cheek with her finger the same way daddy did.
"Awww, she's so cute. Now I really want a daughter with Lord husband," the dark blue-haired elf said, hearing my laugh and walking towards me.
She then somehow slipped on the carpet before falling face first onto the ground.
Ouch… that looks like it… wait… Lord Husband…? What did she just call my daddy?
The whitish-blue-haired lady let out a sigh, putting a hand on her cheek. "I know the feeling, but our Lord Husband said it's best to wait."
Another one?
The elf lady that looked like she was about to fall asleep any minute let out a sigh of her own, a sigh of resignation.
"If that's true, I'm probably last."
"That's not entirely true," the blond elf said. "I was the first one to get married to him, but it was Aurora who got pregnant first before I did, and she still hasn't even married him yet, so you never know."
'...'
MY DADDY'S A PLAYER! THESE LADIES AREN'T HIS SERVANTS, THEY'RE HIS WIVES!!
What has my new life come to… Are we here just to suffer?
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A/N: People unexpectedly really loved Celeste lol.