NOVEL WEB Chapter 13: Curses and second helpings, part three (82)
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Tanya looked at Erika as she waddled her way over to the toddler herself. She was deep in thought, ever since they had expelled those thieves from the tomb. It was strange. She was strange, she realized once more. In her first life, she was pretty sure that she had developed every known condition known to man.
Near the end of her second life, she was pretty sure that she hadn’t in fact, developed every condition known to mankind. After all, she was pretty sure she wasn’t depressed. She had Visha, after all.
Her gut reactions to things weren’t caused by her own ideas, but by some deep emotion within herself. She didn’t really know if this was because of her new race, or if it was simply a side effect of being reborn thrice. Maybe her personality would be ingrained and burned into her very soul.
Then again, she didn’t have enough knowledge about the fact to actually say or think about it too deeply. Maybe she should go to the library more often? The librarian treated her rather nicely, and her cousin Mare was always and had a good recommendation for everything.
She turned her mind and focused back on her half-sister that was walking toward her. Erika seemed concentrated on something. Her face was all scrunched up and her brow was kneaded.
Tanya tilted her cute, black haired head in confusion at this. Yes, she has black hair in this life. The author can’t remember if he has described her yet, but she did inherit her father’s hair color, which is a slightly lighter black than Albedo’s.
Erika looked into those golden eye’s of her sister, and didn’t see what she had been expecting to see. They hadn’t actually talked all too much about, really anything at all really. The one big thing that they had spoken of was their lives and what was going to happen going forward.
Tanya had stayed surprisingly silent the entire time. Erika had guessed that the girl was going to spout some long and lengthy speech about how she was going to take control of the tomb in the future, but no.
She had simply said that she was going to enjoy this retirement to the fullest, whatever that entailed. Erika took a slightly chilled breath, and spoke. The voice that came out was laced with concentration and focus. As if she was talking to the principal for the first time as a kindergartener.
“Tanya, why don’t you want to be heir?” she simply asked.
The older sister spoke swiftly, and with a casualness that besieged the thought and self-assuredness of her own thoughts on the matter. To her, it was simple. This life was a gift, away from the clutches of a false god that would see her bend the knee. A real second chance.
“Too muf haffle. I donf wanna a liv of papawook. I wanna haf a life of happiness a self enjowmenf,” the child prodigy said.
Erika’s eyes opened wide. This was not an answer that she had thought the devil of the Rhine would think. She had thought that maybe that Tanya wanted to make a separate empire, away from their now father and family. Now, though, that idea was crushed.
“Yay! I wanna live a life of happiness with you too, Tanya!” Wictoria shouted out as she tackled the other girl to the ground.
Tanya smiled despite her misgivings with Wictoria tackling her to the ground all the time in glee now. She was used to it, and she found it made Wictoria happy if the two of them simply cuddled like family every now and again. Erika, meanwhile, was scowling.
Confusion and slight resentment flashed in her mind. This wasn’t the person that she had known in her past life. This was a different person altogether in fact. At least, that was how Erika saw it.
More thoughts like these ran in her mind. Then, the gears began to turn. Why was she acting like this? Well, maybe she simply wanted a childhood. After all, she had only lived to sixteen in her past life, with the whole her whole childhood bathed in bloodshed.
Maybe even demon’s need days off. That thought sent a shiver of humor up the undead automata’s spine. She smiled at that thought. She felt her emotions mellow out and a single line of much less convoluted thought invaded her mind.
‘Let’s not look a gifted horse in the mouth, shall we?’ she thought.
All the while, Albedo looked on. She, like any mother would or should, was happy that her daughter had on such a smile. After all, this was Ainz Sama’s daughter. Her plans would surely grow in scope after all. The floor guardian overseer was sure of it.
If her daughter didn’t achieve whatever her dreams were, then she would simply bend or break those objects away. After all, she was a good mother, at least in her opinion.
Tanya felt a shiver of a familiar feeling go down her spine. It was the same feeling that she had whenever Being X would dop something against her. Though, when she looked back at her mother, where the feeling came from, all she saw was a wonderful smile of motherly love.
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