บท 7: Life in the Orphanage
7th October 1984, London
I was sitting under one of the oak trees towering in the orphanage's backyard. The sky was being covered by clouds. Slowly changing from clear blue into a murky grey. Just as I liked it. I was not a fan of the sun. The wind was playing softly with my now shoulder-length red hair. I wore a dark green sweater and black pants.
Anna and Melissa wanted me to wear skirts after I had grown up from the onesies. But I was of a different opinion. When I told them that I want to wear pants they tried to persuade me otherwise. Saying things like I will look cuter in a skirt, that as a girl I should wear skirts and that the cuter girls have a better chance to get adopted. I give a d*mn if I will be cuter with the skirt. Although I am slowly getting used to my new... hardware. Wearing skirts is just something that I absolutely won't do.
But I couldn't give them my reasons and I had to somehow convince them. I didn't throw a tantrum. That was beneath me, so I used my most powerful persuasion skill. I glared at them with my emotionless eyes that gives others chills. It was one of the skills that I gained thanks to my new body.
The life of a little child is very boring with nothing to do for someone with an adult mind. So I had a lot of time to get familiar with my new body and some of my new abilities.
Thanks to my new body I now have unlimited memory storage and analytical capacity. I can vividly remember everything that I have seen, read, or done. This skill is godsent, as I am planning to learn a lot of things and I will live for a really long time, so I will have a lot of memories to keep in mind. Other aspects of my body are absolute concentration, emotionless glare and although I am fully capable of experiencing emotions, I can't fully express them. So I am seen as quite dull by others. Not that I mind as I am not the enthusiastic kind of person.
I already tried to use my Contractor's ability to materialize the PTRD-41 Anti-tank Sniper Rifle, but I am too small to use it right now. But I did it while I was using my Presence Concealment as the the ability is fairly flashy.
Presence Concealment EX. I am using this ability quite a lot. I use it when I want to be alone or when I want to sneak into the kitchen to get my hands on some snacks. I also sometimes use it to scare the living daylights out of Anna, Melissa, and the other children living in the orphanage. I even managed to get myself a nickname. The children started to call me 'Little Ghost'. But the Director was not pleased when I tried to scare her too one time. That day I had to kneel in the corner for two hours and then go to sleep without dinner.
When I activate the Presence Concealment, it costs me some of my magic. The amount depends on a few factors like the concentration of the light and the number of shadows in my surroundings. So in a very dark place, it costs me almost none of my magic. It's also really hard to activate it when I am under someone's gaze. When I tried it I had to spend almost all magic in me and I felt like fainting.
But the best thing about the Presence Concealment EX is the ability to become one with the World itself. It mainly allows me to become one with the darkness and absorb some of the ambient magic from it. So after the initial activation, I can remain concealed as long as I want and there is magic around me.
The only other ability that I could freely use is Spirit Vision, one of the abilities belonging to Apothecary Pathway. With it I can see others' "Health" and "Well Being". Handy ability if I wanted to be a doctor or a mediwitch. But it could be helpful in finding the weakpoints of my enemies. If they have some old or badly healed injury then I can make use of it. Every ability can be useful if you know how and when to use it.
Currently, I was training the manipulation of ambient magic. I separated the magic into two types. First is the magic that is everywhere around, floating in the air, flowing through the water, and seeping from the earth. I can somehow feel this magic around me but manipulation of it is really hard. It requires a great amount of willpower. At the start, I could only make a ripple in it, but now I can slightly manipulate the flow of ambient magic to my will. I can do pretty much nothing with it right now, but I believe that the ability to manipulate ambient magic has future potential.
The second type of magic is the one flowing through my blood. This type of magic I simply call magic. Nice and simple. I theorize that magic is in every magical being, but I can't be sure, I only felt magic in my body and a small amount of it in another person.
I can freely manipulate the magic. Move it in my body and also let it come outside. When I move the magic outside of my body, I can basically use telekinesis with it. Move and levitate things and more. Really handy when I need to pick up something or close the curtains when the morning sun irritates me. The only downside is that the magic out of my body is swiftly assimilated into the surrounding magic, but this process takes longer the stronger my will on the magic is.
After being spent, the magic is automatically replenished with the ambient magic around. The magic is drawn inside the body and converted into magic till the maximum amount the body could bear. The more magic I still have inside me the faster the conversion, so if I spend all of my magic then I will be recovering from it very slowly. My magic recovery is fastest when I become one with the darkness thanks to the Presence Concealment EX.
But the more magic I use, the larger my maximum magic capacity is slowly becoming.
I tried to do various spells with my magic, but the only things I could do were the Lumos and Nox spells and somehow set things aflame. It just didn't work, even though I clearly imagined the effects of the spells. It looks like the wand really is essential for actual magic spells.
But there is a problem with my theory. Accidental magic, the magic of untrained magical children can do various things, like making a glass wall disappear and then re-appear. There is something that I am missing. Maybe the emotions are the answer? That would be a problem for me as I am not that good with emotions.
I stopped my line of thoughts and looked at the person that was now standing before me. The only other person from whom I can feel magic. So she is most likely a squib or a descendant of one.
"So you were here again. It's almost time for dinner, so let's go back inside." Said Anna, offering me her hand to help me stand up. I ignored her hand and stood up by myself, but Anna still took hold of my hand and lead me back to the orphanage like I couldn't walk by myself.
Anna becomes very protective of me. I think it's my fault. I don't know how to act like a little child. What is normal to do at this age? How much should I talk? How should I talk? I just don't know. So I mostly don't talk. I don't want to play with the other small kids, so I just find some quiet place and practice my magic and mana control. The only times I play together with the other kids is when they are playing Hide And Seek as I am unbeatable in this game. So I am mostly alone. Well not entirely alone as Agony is always with me.
Thus I am seen as a weird lonely little girl that has problems with communication and socialization. Not to mention my sometimes emotionless eyes and ability to disappear.
"So did you have a good day?" I just nodded to Anna's question. We soon entered through the back door and she lead me directly to the dining room, where she finally let go of my hand.
The dining room was the second largest room of the orphanage after the common room. The room was openly connected to the kitchen and there were two long dining tables for the kids and one smaller one for the Director, Anna, and Melissa. There was a rule that the table closer to the adults' table is for girls and the babies and the other table was for boys. One of the reasons that the sitting order was divided like this, is because there were fewer girls and babies, than there were boys. The girls and babies were just more popular when someone came to the orphanage wishing to adopt a child.
I went to my usual seat at the end of the first table and soon the older kids that had the cooking shift today came and started to serve today's dinner. It was fish with mashed potatoes and some vegetables. It was rather good.
Life in the Oak Leaf Orphanage is quite comfortable. There are currently forty-seven children, but the building is big enough. The people working here are very kind and we have all the essential things and healthy food on our plates. From what I heard, the orphanage was sponsored by some rich businessman that came from this orphanage.
I swiftly ate three servings of the meal. I have quite a big appetite. I mainly blame Agony for it.
{You should be grateful. Thanks to me you can eat however much you like and whatever you want and still have a perfectly slim figure. What a lucky girl you are~.}
I will just ignore her.
After dinner, I went to my room on the first floor. When I was three years old, I could finally leave the baby room and I was moved to the room for children.
On the ground floor of the orphanage, there's the dining room, the kitchen, the common room, the baby room, and the rooms that belong to the directors, Anna and Melissa. On the first floor are four-bedded rooms for children younger than twelve and on the second floor are single rooms for older children until the age of eighteen. On every floor, there are two big bathrooms.
I now live in a room with three other girls. It's just a simple room with four beds, a big table with chairs, two cabinets and a big bay window with white curtains. The walls are painted in light blue color.
My bed is the one nearest to the door.
It was quite awkward for me at first but after more than a year I got used to it. It helped that they were only little girls. Like me now. Their names were Jessica, Rebecca, and Emily. Jessica and Rebecca were twin sisters. They are two years older than me. They have wavy black hair and hazel eyes, but rather plain faces. Emily is three years older than me. She has long auburn hair, freckles around her nose, and blue eyes. Like with the others, I didn't talk with them much and they mostly ignored me. But it suits me like that.
My mentality is slowly changing. I know I am different from the humans around me. I am practically immortal, they are not. If they stab a knife in their belly, they will bleed out. I won't. I tried it before and the wound naturally healed in seconds. With Agony's help, the healing process is even faster. I can do magic and they are just muggles. I am just different.
I was laying in my bed, but unlike my three roommates, I didn't sleep yet. My new body needs only a few hours of sleep. Every day before I go to sleep, I meditate and cultivate my demonic energy. As I have no other form of supernatural energy in me than the magic, I can only use the magic and direct it to my Demon Seed. The Seed then consumes the magic and releases a small amount of demonic energy into my body.
I only figured out a few applications for demonic energy. If I let it circulate in me, then I can feel it slowly changing my body into a stronger and more perfect one. If I get wounded, then the demonic energy naturally flows into the wound and heals it. And if I release the demonic energy out of my body, it gains the appearance of pure black fog. I still don't know much about it, only that it destroys anything it touches and it doesn't even leave any dust behind.
I ended my cultivation after about four hours and fell asleep.
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง