{ Ate half a tub of coffee ice cream so my bodies literally in the mode of sick/hyper/tired, and I'm all over the place. So what better way to spend my energy by making a chapter in the middle of the night? }
"Young Master, the ceremony will be happening this week. Are you scared?" A female soothed while folding some laundry. A young boy sat upon a bed with a book in his grip, legs swaying leisurely back in forth.
"Me? Scared? Toma, sometimes I do believe you've forgotten my personality? Or..."
Maybe she has some form of memory loss?
The teenage girl's face suddenly reddened as she got into an offended posture. "Young master! Your thinking bad of me arent you!!!" She cried out with pouty eyes as if she had been violated.
The child, Ivy, stuck his tongue out before clapping the book together and shoving it in the shelf before lazily plopping back on the bed, helping fold the rest of the clothes with much more proficient speed.
"No need to worry, I'm not the type to be scared of such....useless things," Ivy sighed.
Toma stopped her work with narrowed eyes at her young master's fast speed of folding the clothing. Before long it was all done and she felt her job as a maid wasn't going so well, first of all, Ivy was very good at everything. Literally everything.
Ever since her young master was able to move his limbs a bit more freely he's been scavenging the mansion for books, food, and clothing, all out of boredom. He was really a mystery to maids and butlers alike, even Toma. the one who took care of him since his birth never knew what was going on in his head.
"Why do I feel like your grammar has advanced young master?"
"I felt like talking better. Is that bad?"
"No young master," Toma sighed stacking the clothing in her arms before leaving the room telling Ivy she had other business to attend to. She had already known Ivy likes his space and can take care of himself quite well without her or anyone else, although she hates to admit her 'little brother is growing up.'
Ivy tsked after seeing Tomas's expression before she left. The young girl can never get it in her head that Ivy isn't a kid! Many times, so many conversations, so much convincing through five whole years! Never once has Toma considered him an adult. Sometimes referring him as her little brother, once even her son since she 'raised him' even though she was eight when feeding him bottled milk!
She would also tell embarrassing stories of changing his diaper like an elder reminiscing of her child's infancy. One can only assume how much frustration Ivy went through.
Ivy's tail twitched jumping off the bed, smoothing his overalls, and merely walking to the messy gardens of his west wing. The west wing where he's stayed since birth practically banished from his family and got to live a very lonely stay( Although he never felt loneliness at all). Ivy didn't bother, he did not care about his status or the resentment of his family.
He's forgotten why he had even chosen a Marquis family since such a dynamic was annoying to deal with. Social gatherings, family meet-ups, such boring...crude...just ew.
Why did he choose to make himself an illegitimate child too!? Had his long years of living corroded his brain to paste? Well...the Marquis was one of the only families with the blood of beast and it was the only well off and goodish kingdom for him to transmigrate into in this particular world. Who was Ivy kidding? he was just a bit bitter about his five years of life so far.
Stupid stepbrother, dumb parents....and a clingy dragon.
Speaking of clingy dragon...
"Kitten~"
But he much prefers this over System creampuff.
"Big lizard, not today please," Ivy scrunched his brows and rubbed his temple speed walking through the garden, but the dragon followed quickly in big strides.
"You always talk funny kitten," Nole teased with a closed eyed smile, his usual childish demeanor coming out to play.
Ivy chastised the bright red hair and gray eyes that had been appearing almost every day of his life. It was like this dragon was sticky tack and would always stick to Ivy, much to Ivy's distaste.
The sudden marriage thing being brought up when he first made the beast contract was just a tease Nole had done to throw the young child off. In the later years, Ivy was very aware of the dragon's trickery, childish, and downright sly behavior, the dragon caused chaos almost everywhere he went. Bad luck surrounded the dragon in ways one might not be able to imagine.
For example, one time he Ivy was on a walk Nole close behind and Ivy tripped into a pond five feet away. That was the start. Many other things happen when Nole was in Ivy's path and he even recorded every instance something bad happen when the dragon was around and concluded-
"You bad luck dragon!" Ivy screeched seeing his shiny rock collection toppled over, a flock of birds playing with them and taking his rocks to their nests. "You've done it again," Ivy accused pointedly, Nole looking innocently at the five year old with a quirked smile.
"Whatever could you mean master!?" Nole tilted his head slyly playing the victim card as Ivy took deep breaths to calm his annoyance. He rarely felt much emotion anyway and most of the time it was anger, annoyance, or boredom. Now that Ivy thinks about it, are those signs of psychopathy?
"Get. All. My. Shiny. Rocks. By. Tonight." Ivy emphasized every world like they were the pillars of the world itself. Nole sweatdropped before giving a small chuckle and running off towards the birds to collect the shiny rocks.
Nole had a feeling the child would hate him for the rest of his life if he didn't do what he was told at that very moment.
-
Chatter, whispers, mutters, and all, reverberated the big catholic architecture in a massive cluster of indistinguishable words. Not one sentence is made out in the swarm of the buzzing crowd or the ant colony of moving humans. Maybe that was an exaggeration of how many people were actually behind the doors, but Ivy hadn't seen such a crowd...well since he was born here.
So many people. Ivy felt somewhat sickened and he hadn't even shown himself yet for his magic ceremony? Mana ceremony? Ivy didn't remember, nor care to. Today wasn't just his big five year old ceremony thing, many nobles of all power had five year olds to test and Ivy was just one of the big noble families of today's 'show off children's day.' Although seeing his parent's faces across from him...Ivy could tell they had venom for him. But they were also worried.
They didn't want to be embarrassed and if Ivy got stupid magic or low mana then he would ultimately become the greatest humiliation/weakness of the Parkensas Marquis family. But if Ivy somehow became the greatest thing their family had ever risen then he could see them buttering up to himself thinking they could easily manipulate a five year old who barely knows why the grass is green.
Ivy waited on a bench while his parents stood looking uninterested in Ivy at all and the father was most conflicted. He had created him after all, gone against his family and slept with another female. The father could sense his wife's disgust as Ivy studied the women caked in makeup and smelled strongly of perfume miles away. The mother was an average woman, their son had tiger blood, while the father had wolf blood; ironic considering he had two sons both feline in nature.
Speaking of his brother, he was currently giving him the stink eye. Their relationship had never gone anywhere but down.
With a spiteful sigh, Ivy didn't care, he had many families in the past, so, so many. He was indifferent to these types of things. Ivy glanced at Toma who was currently wooing over the other nobles her age in the crowds outside the white doors blocking Ivy's view of them.
"Master Ivy, I think I found my soulmate. We made eye contact for five seconds, is it okay for you to pardon me?" Toma whispered very delicately so no one else but Ivy had heard her unprofessional words, her straight face not giving any of it away either.
"Of course my beloved maid," Ivy smiled sarcastically but Toma didn't catch on as she briskly left to her so called "soulmate." He couldn't help the curve of his lips as he thought of her romantic personality that never seemed to end. Asking for marriage to any handsome or powerful men Toma got her clutches on.
Ivy felt saddened as to why this is the case.
Everyone had a backstory, after all, it's part of everyone's lives. Some are complicated while others are not. Toma is hadn't had a very good childhood but she moved on or at least was good at hiding her pain. Ivy looked up to her in that regard, she's a strong child. Someone like him....could never be that strong. Whether if Toma had experienced what he had he would never know if she would still be strong still, but Ivy liked to believe she would be, she would still smile out of happiness, and feel excited about little things.
Even Ivy didn't know why he liked collecting shiny things, such as his rock collection. He had forgotten. It was long ago after all. He liked to believe he's always liked doing such things since birth and that it was just a quirk he had from his very first life.
If his memories are distorted and he had different names from each world, he was afraid he wouldn't even remember his own name.
If his appearance had changed every world, he was afraid he wouldn't even be able to remember or recognize himself.
Ivy doesn't know why such thoughts bother him. He doesn't even remember what feeling like a human feels like, he's been alienated for thousands of years.
It doesn't matter, this is what he wanted anyway. Isn't it? He wanted this freedom. Freedom from the cage.
[ The embers toppled down like snow, and each step left imprints in the ash floor like animal tracks. Blood pools scattered around like cow patterns and the place was like the creation of hell itself. ]
Expectant eyes met Ivys as he stared blankly for a few moments not understanding what was happening. A butler had lowered himself telling him it was his turn in the ceremony and Ivy dazedly stood up. What was that just now? Ivy felt like he had remembered something but it was gone now.
It couldn't have been anything important, Ivy thought.
With his back straightened chin held high, Ivy walked confidently through the path created by the people and stepped upon a wide open platform containing a mirror. How cliche. Ivy shifted his eyes and briefly looked over at the crowd, their eyes bore into his back like eagles to prey.
Ivy didn't feel a once of nervousness as he turned back and placed a hand upon the mirror colors beginning to appear lightly before a charade of colors mixed together creating swirly patterns. A rainbow brighter than the sun cracked the mirror in crisp sound before toppling over like an ancient rune too old to stand upright.
Ivy had expected this.
The room fell into an eerie silence as the five year old looked uncharismatically at the fallen mirror patting his hands together like getting rid of dust. Fixing his collar and bowing ever so slightly to the priest, whose soul left his body, in apology for the ruined item. Turning around to go back to his carriage ready to go he saw many people confused faces and some scared citizens as well.
While Ivy was on his way out a boy around his age (probably someone who did the ceremony too) caught his attention.
Ruby jeweled eyes glistened with uncanny pupils as tousled black hair mopped the baby faced boy, his suit snug nicely around his body which was only a little bigger than Ivy.
Ivy found the boy only a little odd, but that was all.
He continued to bypass his dumbfounded, astonished, shocked, awestruck, so many words could be used for the expressions his family showed.
-
{ It's been quite a while since I made a chapter for this story so I'm wondering if I've improved from the later chapters? So how was it? Better quality than the last chapter maybe? Or have I stayed the same? }