Nora awoke from her cultivation to see two very startled parents in front of herself...
-
Nora's mom had followed after her daughter once she broke out of her statue-like trance. She had found her daughter in an unbreakable meditative trance and found her daughter to be violently sweating, twitching and struggling for air. Her attempts to awaken her daughter were completely ineffective so she rushed to get her husband. Although Nora's dad was equally startled he held his composure and rushed out of the house to get a cleric.
When the cleric arrived and saw Nora in such a precarious state he pulled out an old tome and cast a holy spell in attempts to heal her. His efforts proved useless and he left to consult his superiors. Leaving two very confused and startled parents anxiously staring at their daughter.
Over the next few hours, the cleric had yet to return. Until suddenly Nora stopped her violent twitching, the profuse sweating, and even her breathing calmed. The already shocked parents awaited with bated breath.
Seemingly returning to normal Nora calmly opened her eyes and found herself staring back at her two parents.
Nora's dad was the first to break the silence, "Nora are you alright? Are you hurt? What just happened..." the string of questions was interrupted by Nora, "Calm down," noticing the genuine concern on their faces truly showed her how much they cared for her, "everything is fine. I was simply cultivating"
The phrase 'cultivating' set Nora's mom off on her own string of questions, "What were you cultivating? A disease? An egg?"
Nora thought to herself, 'Do they not know what cultivation is?' She decided that she would attempt to clarify. "I was using mana to temper my body"
Seeming to make progress Nora's parents had some of their questions answered while many more questions arose.
"Where did you learn a Knight Technique?" Nora's dad questioned
A few things instantly clicked in Nora's head leading her to mentally ask some questions, 'So Knights are this worlds cultivators? If they are cultivators, what kind are they?'
Pushing those thoughts aside she struggled to think of a convincing excuse. She decided to go with it and in a complete hail mary shot said, "I taught myself..."
These three words warped Nora's dad's face into an expression of pure bliss. He ran out of the room at an incredible speed shouting at the top of his lungs, "MY DAUGHTER IS A PRODIGY!"
He had seemingly forgotten the violently sweating and twitching which had occurred just minutes prior. Nora's mom quickly apologized, "I should go get him before he does something stupid..." and quickly chased after him.
Nora's two parents who had just undergone a myriad of emotions had left her in a stupor as she thought to herself 'Maybe I shouldn't have said that...'
-
Nora's parent's absolute excitement calmed down over the next few days as the first milestone of Nora's life would soon begin. Nora had a mere 3 weeks before she would be enrolled into the Imperial Academy of Allosian Empire.
Nora asked her parents for a book on the empire's history and her parents gleefully provided her with one. Glossing over what she deemed as useless filler she took note of the main points.
Well over a thousand years prior the current year, the Allosian Empire was founded by nine major families who had been prosecuted and hunted down by the Aford Empire to the northeast. These families who fled joined together to form their own nation. Over the millennia, three of the families merged into the Lightcrow Imperial Family becoming the major power of the empire and forcing the other families to submit to their authority. Of the remaining six founding families, two had died out from internal fighting. Leaving the current four founding families of the Allosian Empire. The Locke Family, the Moongreen Family, Ironelk Family, & the Silverhill Family.
For the past hundred years, the Allosian Empire has been in constant skirmishes with the Republic of Godge, a relatively new rising nation which has pushed the once mighty Aford Empire into a decline. These skirmishes have caused a certain level of tension between the two nations.
Nearing the back of the book there were a handful of pages dedicated to notable families of the empire's history. Curiously Nora asked her parent's about her surname. Nora's parents assumed that she wanted to see if her their surname was in fact on the back of the book, therefore they clearly told her that her surname was in fact 'Redblood'
Nora quickly flipped to the back of the book and her eyes scanned the pages looking for her own family. She saw some families of great generals, revolutionary scholars, powerful mages, and just before she lost hope of finding her family among the pages, she flipped to the page about the Redbloods.
The Redblood Family had earned their surname through sheer combat. They were one of the first people to migrate to the Allosian Empire when it had first founded and had helped defend the fledgling nation ever since. During the First Defensive War against the Aford Empire, the Redblood family had single-handedly acted as the vanguard force and managed to slaughter all opposition in their path. When they returned they were completely drenched in red blood, earning them the surname of Redblood. Forever cementing their family name in the Allosian history books.