Gazing at the beautiful and clear blue skies through her window, Mercedes couldn't help but sigh to herself. A couple weeks have passed since Mercedes entered the Virtual-Augmented reality. During this duration, she had been doing nothing but learning from her teachers.
It wasn't that she was complaining. Mercedes wanted to do something other than the communication training. After all, she wanted to test whether her skills really had increased.
"Well, I may not be as ready as I think I am. I'm sure that my teachers should know if I'm ready to apply what I have learned." Mercedes calmly uttered before looking at her diary.
After meeting her teachers, she asked for a diary from Astarte. The reason why she wanted a diary was to record her growth during the training process. And from the looks of it, Mercedes managed to pass some troublesome hurdles.
Though, not all of them. She still had many problems in many fields.
Speaking of the things she had learned, Mercedes learned a lot during the past couple of weeks. Mercedes first learned the motto of communication or the motto of Astarte.
"Basic communication is a clear conversing of other beings. But mastery of communication results in manipulation of how the communication would go through. Whether it be through lies, body language, and many more."
From this motto, Mercedes understood that communication was also a weapon. To become the best of it, she must learn its intricacies. With this in mind, she learned her second lesson.
Body language. In the ways of communication, smiling was nothing more but part of body language. One can stop smiling but portray the same message as smiling. In itself, body language was among the important lessons she went through.
Seduction, manipulation, elaboration, and calmness. These were the powerful tools of communication that will help you acquire any information you wish to obtain.
Three weeks was what it took for Mercedes to get a gist of it. While she couldn't master it as fast as she had initially thought, she understood how it worked and how one could detect it. Mastery of body language would probably take time.
The third lesson was Patience. According to her teachers, one mustn't be impatient when acquiring something. Impatience can result in failure, so Mercedes had to train herself to become patient. And this was the hardest training for Mercedes.
The training in Patience was enough to make Mercedes stressed for days.
'Remembering it is enough to give me chills.' Mercedes's arms trembled while remembering the days she went through during the patience training. She would have wreaked havoc if not for Astarte aiding her.
"Well, it's not like it matters." Mercedes shook her head and continued reading through her diary.
The next lesson was the easiest of them.
It was about the fear of insults. Mercedes needed to be calm even if she got insulted by other people. She must remain logical and not have her emotions clouded.
Obviously, for someone like her, it was hard at first. She would always give a counter-insult against the ones that dared to insult her. It would result in a long fight, which resulted in the opponent manipulating her reactions.
This gave Mercedes a realization of how much insults can manipulate someone. It can make them say something they would have never said. Make them support things they would never support just to provoke the opponent. Insults can really demean somebody.
Anyhow, the same as everything else, Mercedes went through the day being insulted by other ladies. Whether it be her appearance or personality, she would be insulted for every action she took. There were times she would cry beside Astarte's side.
Even her spirit couldn't help her against barrages of insults.
Though, the reason why Mercedes considered this lesson as easy was simple. It was something she easily mastered. Mercedes never thought that she'd have a knack for it. But fortunately, she did.
After realizing that the effects of insults depend entirely on her reactions, Mercedes realized how worthless it was against an opponent with a clear view of oneself. She also realized that there was no need to fight against the truth.
Mercedes simply has to accept the truth and move on with it. If the insult was a lie, then presenting the truth in a calm fashion would be enough to shut anyone up.
So she learned the ways of communicating conflict.
No matter how much the other ladies insulted her. She always smiled at them as if she hadn't heard such insults. If they give her lies, she would speak the truth before them.
Nothing more, nothing less.
And it was finally time for the final lesson.
The final lesson was none other than becoming the hostess of the entertainment hub.
Mercedes found herself confused at first and profusely refused it. How could someone like her become a hostess? She was an ugly pig who didn't even master much of the communication skills her teachers taught her.
At the moment, while she wanted to display her newly learned skills, she'd rather use them on normal people rather than the ones from the hostess club. This was the reason why Mercedes was bored.
Either she would have to continue staying here or become a temporary hostess.
She understood that her teachers didn't have any deviant reasonings in their minds. The ones in the entertainment hub were people with frequent encounters of communication. While they were not masters of it, they knew more about it than themselves.
So they were good judges for a newbie like her.
But Mercedes wasn't just unskilled. She was also an ugly duckling. Her teachers have high expectations of her. How could she even attain the expectations they have?
"Should I really become a hostess? Why am I even afraid of disappointment? Shouldn't I already be used to it?" Mercedes muttered to herself before hearing a gentle voice right beside her.
"Becoming used to disappointments is something you should avoid. You need to be afraid of it so that you can grow. However, you must not let the fear caged you."
Mercedes glanced to the right and saw Astarte sitting on her bed. Astarte had a determined smile on her face and continued.
"Bravery isn't about becoming used to fear. It is facing it despite being afraid of it."
"So you should step forward, Mercedes."
"If you're disappointed, just cry out."
"You're right... It's better to take an opportunity than waste it because of fear." Mercedes stretched her pale arms and walked towards the door. Before leaving the room, she looked back at Astarte and thanked her. "Thank you, Astarte. You're really dependable."
"No need to thank me. It's something I do when I'm bored." Astarte replied with a smile before Mercedes disappeared in front of her sight. Afterward, Astarte's expression changed as she stared at the darkness.
"I don't appreciate you stalking the girl."
Astarte warned with a cold tone escaping her lips. She wasn't happy with how much someone had been stalking the young girl. It was strange and dangerous.
"I'm not stalking her for no reason, Astarte. I'm curious as to why you favor someone you pick up from the streets." A lady emerged from the darkness. She had chromatic silver hair with crimson eyes. She wore a black-tight suit while having a belt with daggers clad on it.
From her appearance, one can easily guess that the lady was none other than an assassin. But whose assassin was she, and why was she stalking Mercedes?
"You know me, I pick up people that interest me. Wasn't it the same for you?" Astarte coldly replied while the assassin lady chuckled upon hearing her words.
"Well, I guess you're right. But you should know that I am a seeker of truth. I don't wish to be ignorant." The assassin lady muttered before disappearing with the darkness.
Astarte sighed to herself while gazing at the ceiling. She had many problems shrouding her mind. She understood the truth and the pain it could bring. So she knew not to tell anyone about it.
"Sometimes being ignorant is better than knowing the truth. After all, at the very least, you aren't burdened by its weight." Astarte mumbled as she remembered the time when she discovered the truth. She was actually devastated at first that she had spent all of her wealth lavishly.
Although, with time, she understood that there was no use in dwelling on the truth. Astarte simply needed to accept it as part of the world. Only then did Astarte manage to go over it. However, it still was a painful truth.
'I hope to not let anyone be burdened by it. Let the truth die with me and for one to never discover or know of it.' Astarte thought to herself before standing up. She walked to the windows and gazed at the heaven that was far from her fingers.
"Isn't that right, Spade? It would be better if the truth died along with me. Until then, I wouldn't be able to rest in peace." Astarte softly remarked before a monotone voice commented on her words.
[𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞.]
[𝐀𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰, 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬.]
"I understand why you're in a hurry, Spade. But you must understand that she isn't your tool to use. She's not a tool for anyone to use. She's a free person." Astarte reminded Spade of one important thing.
[𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥]
[𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐀𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐒, 𝐘𝐨𝐮, 𝐨𝐫 𝐈.]
"As long as you understand, I don't have any complaints." Astarte calmly asserted before staring downward and gazing upon the city of Imperium and the world around it. She closed her eyelids and murmured.
"Virtual-Augmented Reality... This world is nothing more but a replica."
"Though, for a world that has already fallen.
"Knowledge is the only thing we can bestow to others."