The woman's old lips firm into a line, but she sighs, clearly not wanting to fight Lilith. Ha, take that. If I were a less mature man, I'd stick my tongue out at her. The woman sighed again. "At least put him down, so we may begin."
She looked to me, and back to the woman, and her vice grip on my arm slowly loosened. Freed from her arms, I move back and sit against the wall, content to be a part of the background as she goes through her lesson.
Nobility and noble titles were about as typical as they could be in IRAAS. You've got your duke of the north, known for brutality and combat, the scheming ducal family close to the royals, the king, queen, prince, and princess, all with golden blond hair, and finally, a bunch of lower level counts, barrons, viscounts, and marquise who show up as the plot requires. You became a noble by being born one, or by owning land, typically by buying it from an existing count. Since that came with a title, the cost of land was truly monstrous.
There were interesting alternatives however. One such example is the main setting of the novel. The artificial island [Eden]. Which is, of course, a high school for noble and talented students. Because this is a WN world I'm in. Still, the origin of it was pretty interesting. You need to own land to be a noble, and the current headmaster, a man named Urion, wanted to be a noble but was being barred intentionally by all of the families that owned land. So, with his immense magical power, he created a new piece of territory. [Eden], which was suspended in the air.
Right, there was one layer of complexity to this whole situation that I really didn't want to unpack. This is a novel world, but it doesn't quite end there. How many modern fantasies are just fantasies after all? No, IRAAS was, obviously, a reincarnation story. One in which the MC was reincarnated into the world of a game they often played.
That's right. This is the game world of a novel world. This added layer of unneeded complexity does actually make things slightly different. For one, I have placed myself in direct opposition to the MC, who knows about the game world, and, by extension, Lilith. This also prevents me from going and stealing any of the items or hidden power ups the MC would grab, because then, they would know that someone else with knowledge of another world was here.
The MC would be dealing with most if not all of the major problems for me, of course, assuming that I don't butterfly effect things. Which, admittedly, was a large possibility considering the change I would be doing towards Lilith's plotline. I can only hope that Lilith is such a small fry character that her going down a different route doesn't affect things too much.
If needed, I can subtly help out the MC. I mean, they'll probably know off the bat that I'm not supposed to be here and that somethings going on once they reach Lilith's point in the game and things have changed, but I'd like to just keep myself out of the direct line of fire as long as possible.
I should probably work on improving myself just in case though.
I watch with mild interest as Lilith is run through a few exercises for noble posture and ladylike behavior. It's a little funny, seeing the tutor try to teach her about things as minor as which finger to raise while holding a teacup, while said teacup is on a table that's more shattered than it is intact.
Though the tutor has performed the most admirably in terms of fear so far, she does keep an unnecessary amount of distance between herself and Lilith, and anytime Lilith is holding the teacup, she tries to give critiques from behind a small sheet of wood shes using to protect her eyes in the event ceramic goes flying.
That's honestly not too bad of an idea, all things considered. Still, negative points for being a jerk.
The lesson is only about an hour, a mercy compared to what most of the noble ladies have to go through, I think. I'm really no expert on any of these things, but the body of a child would be convenient for that, if nothing else. It's socially acceptable for me to not know or to be confused about things.
The tutor gives a curtsy, which Lilith very clumsily returns, before the tutor leaves, sending a final glance my way. I'm not really too worried about her, even if she wanted to mess with me it would be petty shit I could deal with.
Lilith let out a big sigh once the door was closed, and once again locked. Seriously, were they forgetting I was in here? She turned to me with big puppy dog eyes. "Poe. Poe, did I look like a proper woman?"
I am the last person to ask about that. "Yeah, you sure did."
She beamed, a happy smile on her little face. She ran towards me, and I braced myself as she once again crashed into my chest. I staggered back a few steps, but she must've been holding back because I remained upright.
I gave her a pat on the back, and silently let out a breath. That tutor was mentioned in the novel, and not for a good reason. It would probably happen soon, that tutor was going to try and kill Lilith.
_______________
IRAAS really didn't hold back when it came to tragedy, at least with Lilith. This case in particular, was pretty nasty. Her tutor, one of few people who would willingly enter her room, was going to try and stake her through the heart. Why? It's complicated.
IRAAS has three classifications of [Races]. [Holy], [Unholy], and [Neutral]. I, a human, was a [Neutral] race. [Vampran] was, well, take a wild guess? As far as I could tell from the reading, [Unholy] creatures aren't inherently bad or anything like that, most of it is just bias or prejudice. Though, in all fairness, [Unholy] races are often far, far stronger than [Neutral]. But, the same could be said for the [Holy] creature, most of which were angels or directly linked to the gods of the world.
Exposition dump over, this tutor works for a holy institution. One of the radical ones, which seeks to destroy all of the [Unholy] races they could. Fucked up right? Just because of what she was born as, a group out there was seeking to totally wipe her off the face of the earth.
I'd say the issue resolved itself, but, well, not without heavily traumatizing Lilith. What self-respecting surrogate-parent/friend/companion/ally/older brother wouldn't want to stop that?
How to prevent it was a good question though. The tutor was well trained, had connections, and was so many steps up the social hierarchy I'd need to be shot out of a cannon to catch up. Comparatively, I have the mind of an 18 year old in a world totally new to me, and the body of a malnourished slave with F rank magic.
I really wish I had some clue as to what was going on with that magic, properly using it might be the key to doing this all the right way, whatever the right way was.
I should organize a timeline of events. First, the tutor was going to sneak into Lilith's room one of these days, and try to stake her through the heart. This is going to fail, as Lilit's body reacts unconsciously to the attack, and triggers one of her dormant skills. The skill that made Lilith a serious threat throughout the novel. [Bloody Reality]. I don't remember the word for word definition, but it would be hard to forget what it does. Anything touched by Lilith's blood can be manipulated as she pleases.
In the case of the tutor, though she gets the thing pretty deep in her chest, the moment the plain wooden stake touches Lilith's blood, it dissolves completely. Along with the tutor's hand. The situation turns buckwild, the two scuffle, before eventually Lilith gets her fangs deep in the tutors throat, and bleeds her dry.
With most of the castle rushing to see what had happened, only seeing the hole in Lilith's chest alongside the blood drained husk of the tutor. This does not help her reputation. It's also there she sees Poe's, my, face of fear and swears off drinking blood.
Right, so, what's the approach here? I can't get help, because I'm the new guy here and no one would trust me. I'm also far too weak to stop the tutor myself. I could try taking her down some other way, poison or something, but I don't think I've got in me to murder someone preemptively like that.
I think the best I can do is try and be there when it happens. I won't be the most helpful in the world, but just having someone with her who will take her side, and who will hopefully stop her from getting impaled, will be sufficient.
It probably wouldn't hurt if I could figure out the two spells I have, though I'm not too sure about [Black Fire]. I'd rather not burn my soul up, I've only got the one. Though, that does just leave carving into my body…so…not that many great options available to me
Especially considering how vague the instructions were for [Ritual Of Flesh].
Would just any sigil world? Could I slap one of those S shapes that gets carved into school desks on my body and get superpowers?
I should probably temper my expectations in regards to how powerful this ability is, if it were super strong it would be in greater use. It's either hard to find, which wouldn't make sense for a slave kid to have, has some major drawback, which I don't think would work since it already requires you to carve a sigil into your skin. Finally, and most probable, it doesn't have that effective results.
Still, not looking forwards towards carving into my body.
I think I'm going to wait on that until I know for sure what exactly I should be carving.