NOVEL WEB Chapter 15: Political nonsense
Will
"You look like a servant of the Sitri, one of the members of Sona's peerage." She said what had been on her mind ever since we met. "Are you?"
"I know I look like many things, but that's the easiest way to be mistaken." I denied it, blowing on my tea. "Simple people can be summed up with a label, but when you try the same with me, you only invite calamity, error, and regret."
[ +20 EXP received | Total Exp: 130/350 ]
"That's not a direct answer." She pointed out, dissatisfied with my relaxed attitude. She understood everything I said, yet she refused to accept the answer.
"I am no one's servant, Ravel, because being someone's servant means ceasing to serve myself. It means abandoning my own dreams and desires for those of another, and that is something I will not do this time." A strange feeling arose within me. It seemed that what I said resonated not only with who I was now but with who I had been in the distant past.
My own soul resonated through many lives.
[ +100 EXP received | Total Exp: 230/350 ]
[ SKILL ACQUIRED | "???" has been added to your ability list ]
[ WARNING | Skill incomplete – additional conditions required for full activation ]
"I have my desires and Sona has hers, we can collaborate in the same way that we can simply forget about each other. Today she just called you guys and gave us some incentive and that's it, even though you don't believe it." Ravel nodded in agreement.
[ +20 EXP received | Total Exp: 250/350 ]
"I really can't believe it, I thought you were going to be honest with me. You seemed like a sincere person from the beginning, but I guess I was naive this time." Her eyes began to darken and fall with sadness, all the beautiful sincerity gone. Disappointment took hold of her features and emotions.
"So, what's your version of the story, Ravel?" She mirrored my actions, drinking tea casually, in no hurry to continue the conversation. "The right version, the true one."
"The Sitri wanted to find a way to ensure control and obedience from another noble house without making an enemy. And then they found a vulnerability left by my father." She mentally reviewed the story her father had told her and then added what she knew about me.
"A token lost centuries ago in a distant village, a forgotten descendant who had never been seen before despite his clear abnormality, and no sign of his relatives, who should have been extremely prominent figures among humans." She ruminated, growing increasingly resentful and sad.
"Out of nowhere, he is found by chance by the Sitris, a peasant who suddenly decided to go to Kuoh and it is directly suggested to marry me. Out of nowhere! Out of complete nowhere!" She kept repeating malicious words. "Quite a coincidence, don't you think?"
"Just when we are about to marry Riser and Rias of the Gremory family, a marriage with me would create a lasting alliance between three houses, Phenex, Sitri, and Gremory. This would begin to change the balance of the times, there would be so many consequences, and of course the Sitris would come out on top, followed by the Gremorys." She sighed heavily.
"You make soup and leave us only a little broth, while you divide the meat and vegetables among yourselves." I put the cup back on the table and looked at her angrily.
"Is it over?" She nodded in agreement after taking a deep breath and finally let me speak. "You princesses need to learn to listen to yourself and stop being paranoid." My expression slowly softened.
"The smarter someone is, the more paranoid they are, you know what I mean?"I reached for her hand trying to dispel her negative ideas.
"It's okay to listen to your heart once in a while, you know?" She looked at me, still paranoid, but slowly, under my gaze, her heart seemed to soften.
[ +20 EXP received | Total Exp: 270/350 ]
It wasn't Ravel who was talking to me, it never was.
It was fear, and it wasn't hers, it was her family's, it was Riser's, The heir and her master.
"I'm no saint, Ravel, don't ever fool yourself about that for a second. But I'm also not a miserable opportunist who plots the misfortune of others. I want to eat the soup, but it also makes me happy to share some of it." I looked deeply at her as she averted her gaze heavily, discouragement weighing her down. She criticized someone who had been nothing but kind and good to her all day.
Because she was insecure, because she was young.
"I don't know what reality you've lived in until now, but as someone who has been through much more in this life than my age can show, I tell you this. Trust yourself and what you truly think and feel. Never me, never your idiot brother, and never anyone else, but you." She slowly moved her gaze to meet mine, but still with her head down.
"Can you do that, Ravel?" Finally, our eyes met. There was no certainty in them, only doubt, only chaos and confusion. Uncertainty reigned in her mind. But slowly a result emerged from this conflict, and then she opened her mouth to answer me.
[ +50 EXP received | Total Exp: 320/350 ]
"I..." Suddenly, the door to the room opened, a hot and powerful gust of wind entering along with two very similar men, both with the same powerful and arrogant attitude.
Riser must not have spoken well of me.
"I'm leaving," I sighed as I stood up, the look he gave me saying a lot.
Lord Phenex looked me up and down, his gaze sharp and challenging. However, his challenge was not something I could deal with directly, nor alone. "Sit down, I have a few things to say to you and your kind." I, however, ignored what he was saying and stood side by side with him at the door. Shoulder to shoulder, never looking at each other's faces.
"So tell me straight, I have plenty more to do than listen to your stupid bullshit."Riser snorted and was about to speak, but his father stopped him.
"I know a conspiracy when I see one..." He began to speak suddenly. "I want you to stay away from my family, away from my house, and far away from my daughter. May your filthy, sweaty hands never touch us again, you damned mongrel." I frowned as I listened to his words." Never speak to us again and don't even dare to try to threaten us again."
I sighed, something in his words made me understand more than I wanted to.
"I guess now I know the truth about Token, and I also know I still have a wish left" I said without flinching.
"Yes, what is it?" The air of death never receded, I saw my death in so many scenarios at once. Asking for Ravel's hand was forbidden territory, trying to ask for what I was entitled to was a terrible sacrilege.
I died burned so many times during that conversation, I died so many times crushed, so many times with my limbs torn off.
"I want Ravel's hand and, by right, the Phenex surname, as well as the right to enter the line of succession and contest the inheritance as a legitimate heir," I said without worrying about the increasingly narrow and angry glances, without caring about the gnashing of teeth or clenched fists.
"You are not a Phenex, you never were and never will be, no matter what they say. Ravel will never be your wife to bear the children of a freak, but if that's what you want, if that's what the Sitris want, so be it.Talk your nonsense all you want, but you won't get past tomorrow. In the end, your death will be anything but beautiful, boy, that is your destiny." I laughed with amusement.
"I do not fear death, much less destiny. Death is a long friend of mine, and Destiny is
my servant,incapable of touching a hair on my head, even if it wanted to, It could only remain silent at my will." I felt his expression hardening once again.
"I've met many fools like you before, it will be good to remember the old days." I laughed even louder.
"You keep making the same mistake, still thinking you've met someone like me? You're wrong! Very wrong! There has never been anyone like me, and there never will be another."
[ +30 EXP received | Total Exp: 350/350 ]
[ LEVEL ↑ | New Level: 7 | EXP Reset: 0/400 | Skill Points +2 ]
[ ROUTE CHANGED | Your actions have deviated from the intended course ]
[ ALERT: CALAMITY INBOUND | Classification: Tier IV – City-Level Impact Expected]
"Get out of my house, now!" I snorted.
So I left without looking back. Ravel never told me how she felt.
And I wouldn't know if I didn't survive the coming calamity.
[ End of Part 1: Lucky One ]
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Next Chapters: 16 - Try to fool me/17 - bad joke/ 18 - Make your move
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