Since the day I woke up in this world, there was one slightly sad truth that I never failed to realise whenever I would look at my mother.
This woman… barely loves me.
There was nothing, literally nothing, that I saw her do that led me to doubt that fact even a little bit.
I knew it was weird how she would rarely play with me except when Rainer was there.
How she would never smile at me after coming home, and eventually not even look at me, like I was just some prop in the house.
I knew it was weird that she didn't even give a slap to Rainer after he proposed to abandon me, and how she agreed to Rainers proposal to name me off an unfunny joke he made without a second thought.
And who was the only one paying enough attention to realise my distress when I opened my eyes?
Emily.
Not my mother, not my father, but their maid.
It was like when I was born, the first things they looked for was… each other's reactions.
I was just an anniversary of their love, I guess you could say.
Even now, she's probably throwing a fit from not finding me at the house along with Emily, not because she loves me, but that Rainer entrusted me with her.
In other words… I was always second in the picture, and if there were more Rainers, I would be below all of them in her priority list.
But despite all the ellipses, I was never sad about this. After all, the only thing I cared about in my life so far was learning optic powers, and also, having already lived a life, it would take more than just being a mother to make me love you. You have to atleast love me back, if even that.
So yeah, hopefully you've realised my hints by now eluding to the fact that I was already a bit far from home by now, travelling with Emily.
We decided to not go through the main gate of the village, because we both knew that the guards would end up recognising us, because our family was among the most famous in the village, and so we went down the long beach along the side of the village, which ended up taking at least an hour and a half.
Right now we're walking through a misty forest donned with nightcloaks, holding each other's hands. She had long taken off her hood, allowing me to see the sweet and mellow smile that was on her face this whole time, flashing to no end by the newborn sun and the shade of the trees, making her look all too beautiful.
I was seriously starting to believe that she really wasn't acting…
"Um, Emily. Where are we going?"
I asked after finally mustering up the necessary courage to do so. It's been 2 hours since we started travelling and this is when I finally decided to bring up the elephant in the room.
"The Capital City, Esavale."
Emily didn't take long to answer.
"Esavale? Isn't that quite a long way from here by foot?"
I inquired. While I was talking to her, for some reason my beliefs of this being an act left my mind temporarily… which worried me to no end.
"Yes, but we won't be walking the whole way of course."
She giggled, as if she was a young girl speaking to her crush.
"Right when we leave this forest we'll find another village. There we'll get a room at an inn and then continue our journey hopefully tomorrow, by carriage."
Oh yes. There's a close neighbour of a village to the Pewter Village called Lavender Village. I'm guessing we're going there.
"But won't Yelena come there to ask around for us? It's a neighbouring village after all."
I asked.
Emily kept silent for a few seconds and then said with a slightly lowered voice:
"She… won't do that."
I soon realised how stupid my question was and regretted wasting our energy.
"Oh, yeah. That was stupid of me to ask."
I admitted with my gaze at the misty path ahead us unchanged.
"Mmm."Emily approved.
I then looked up at Emily and saw her looking at me with a motherly smile. After two seconds of us looking at each other eye to eye, she casually released my hand and moved it up to my scalp to ruffle my hair, after widening her smile. Having had enough, she looked back ahead and held my hand again, with a lightened but still wide smile.
But her face gave a different vibe as she averted her gaze to somewhere I wouldn't think had any relevance.
Suddenly, breaking the atmosphere that I grew rather attached to and any of our trains of thoughts, was a deafening roar, that seemed dangerously close.
With it, a large body jumped straight towards us, showing no signs of stopping.
Something that was on my mind since I entered this forest, was that this forest had a small yet existent amount of low-level beasts lurking inside of it.
One of which was the green haired lion, which is… this.
But wait!! I could do with this!! I'll let the lion get Emily, and while she's preoccupied, I'll attempt an escape!
Yes, Finally author!
Some of my sweet plot armour!!
Making up my mind, I let go of her hand and braced myself to start sprinting. Right when she gives some sort of battle stance, I'll make my run.
Perfect! My plan is perfect!!
As I watched the lion close in on Emily's face, my heart began to race. It was because I was about to sprint. It's a bodily response.
10 inches.
8 inches.
6 inches.
5 inches.
4.
3.
Suddenly, the mouth of the lion that was wide open was abruptly shut, revealing a blunt stick of earth that heroically replaced the mouths position.
Despite this, although substantially lifted upwards, the lions body did not stop its advance, flying harmlessly over the shocked maids head, and landing with a rough tumble.
But it was quick to regain its balance, gripping onto the ground with its sharp claws and letting out a low roar.
But that stance wasn't only for intimidation, as it didn't take long for it follow up with another attack.
Realising I no longer had the ability mentally to go forward with my plan, I began gathering particles in the eyes mind in order to make stone bullets.
My actions were interrupted however by a raging flame that replaced the lion in my vision, completely.
A second later the sudden flame disappeared, leaving, literally nothing in its place. It was as if it was never there in the first place, like this whole battle was an illusion.
I then turned my head towards the lady who I deducted was the probable culprit to this weird happening. And sure enough, I saw the eyes of the lady gazing at the previous position of the lion slowly start to lose its glow, which was a clear sign that she had just used optic powers.
She then turned to look back at me with a tender smile and pointed out to me with a sweet voice:
"You idiot, why would I bring you with me here if I wasn't strong…"
She then proceeded to lightly caress my hair, looking at me so lovingly that my heart skipped a beat.
"Thanks for saving me, Vormet."
She thanked me, still carressing my hair.
"I-It's no problem…"
I confirmed.
…
2 hours of walking went by in a breeze, thanks to the occasional attacks of beasts, and my heavily distracted mind.
I've reached a conclusion in this trip.
These few years, I've grown too soft.
And to be honest, I don't think it was a progressive thing. I believe it was right when I was born.
In my last breaths, I got to see the Northern Lights one last time, which in turn, made it so that when I entered this world, it was like I was going through the side effects of some sort of seeing them.
It was the same in my previous life, whenever I would come back from seeing the Northern Lights, it's like my entire outlook on the world is revamped, albeit very temporarily.
Everything gains colour and meaning for a bit, only for my mind to go black and white after realising what my life was made to be, a life of suffering.
That was my fate, my life was bound to the genre of tragedy right when I was born.
But this time, when I woke up in this body, for some reason everything felt so different from Earth. And it's not that different, the people talk and think the same as earth, they have the same morals, everything except the fantastical races, beasts, and optic powers, we're pretty much the same.
Yet it was different.
I think, the genre of my life changed right when I entered this body. Everything was bright, even the night felt more bright than the zenith at earth.
And so, my mind wasn't given a chance to change back. And I started to gain feelings again, started to think normally and act like someone that was genuinely looking for his own happiness, instead of a rare sky event.
My philosophy on reality almost didn't matter anymore. I knew that there's no point in thinking of reality like that, but that's only if you have a life worth living which I didn't before.
But now that I do, have a life worth living, I let go of that philosophy and seeked happiness more than ever.
And yes, I have been happy. So happy in fact.
But it's times like this that I'm worried about. Times when I would be following someone that my mind knew was plotting a devious revenge on me, just because she gave me some creative sob story that pulled on my heart, and some masterful acting skills to imitate a content mother that finally got what she wanted after centuries of effort.
My body didn't agree with my mind, at all.
Soon enough, my vision was cleared of dense forest, revealing a large grass plain lit intensely by the sun at its peak. And a few hundred meters away, I could see a gargantuan stone wall, that didn't fail to look impressively big even from this distance.
"We're here, Vormet. Lavender Village."
Emily told me.