Chap 2
~•~
Two years later...
"Mom," I called out after wiping my face with a soaked towel.
My voice sounded pitched and soft, but it was noticeably firm. My tone have a temperament of an adult, which I found that it's something I can't just change.
I smiled to my mom as I sit down behind the table. She placed a bowl of hot soup with two boiled eggs.
Hah, eggs...
"Good morning," Mom smiled gently, the wrinkles between her eyebrows smoothens as she says, "Eat it while it's hot."
I humped and rolled a boiled egg around the soup before eating it slowly.
Mom chuckles lightly and says, "The chief gave us some eggs last night."
The chief is the village head, the one who has the last say in the village and works under a lord.
"It is one of his way to thank and appreciate your dad for teaching the children in here."
"Didn't he gave dad a sack of rice last month?"
"He did, and now we're almost out of it. Oh, that reminds me, Roldo is going to bring rice to home so we'll be eating something mouthful for a few days! Eat up more, alright?"
"Thank you, mom. But you shouldn't worry too much about me, at least leave an egg for you to eat."
I don't know how many eggs did the village head gave, but I'm sure it's not enough to last for a month. Saving food is natural, however mom gave me two while dad will probably have two as well. It's easy to guess that my mother gave me her portion.
Her smile twitched, turning into a bittersweet one.
"You're a child, you need more food to grow up well."
I gave her a smooth smile, "Okay, I'll take care of you when I do. I'll make sure you'll taste meat everyday."
She giggles, "I look forward to it!"
Mom approached me as I eat and gently moved the thick strands of my hair out of my cheeks. Then, she looks at my eyes with a small smile.
"You don't have to hide your eyes when you're inside the house, honey. You're safe here."
I chuckled and before fixing my hair back to my scalp, "Sorry, force of habit. Red eyes is an unusual color for a commoner, right?"
"I don't think so, though the others may see it in a bad way. But mommy loves her cute daughter, so it's fine by me."
"I know, " I smiled, "thank you, mom."
It's a good thing that you don't find me as weird, even though I sound like an adult.
~•~
While waiting for the afternoon to come, I usually see my dad off after breakfast before doing self studying in our shared room. With the help of his books that are available and a small slate, practicing reading and writing is easy to do for an adult.
The language and writing system in this world is different, meaning the people don't speak English here. They speak a foreign language that doesn't exist on Earth, which forced me to sit down and study it with the help of my dad.
I believe it's called Inzinia, an old language that still exists in the kingdom. It was also the very first name of the kingdom before the very late King, Onzinio Mortoquella, renamed it to Morinzina Kingdom.
It was a good thing that dad is a scholar and his job is being a tāchen. Tāchen is equivalent to Earth's teacher.
Anyways, I found it a little bit peculiar to think that the original novel was written in pure English, but the actual world don't speak it.
Odd...
One of dad's books is a small history book that contains general informations of the current royal family and the previous events that happened; such as the war in the North against the Freltors and the big bandit incidents on the way to the capital.
This is how I learned that the world is actually inside a novel.
Scanning through the royal names and the well known big family names, it was easy to spot and connect the dots between the original novel and this world; the Alcantara royal family, the ducal houses of Chalistine and Gallameo families, and the Quesenberry marquis family. These are the most notable families in the book who will play big roles in the novel when the time comes.
Oh, fun fact; the Mortoquella royal family I mentioned earlier are just the past characters in the original novel. According to the history in the novel, the entire Mortoquella family was wiped out a century ago and was replaced by a family branch, and that branch was also replaced by another family branch which is the one who currently rules the kingdom now; the Alcantara royal family.
What a complicated thing the royal family is.
The history book didn't have the information that will struck the whole kingdom into the beginning of chaos yet; the disappearance of the newborn prince.
Oh, it's almost time for me to go.
"Mom, I'll go out to play."
"Okay, be careful outside!"
"Will do." I closed the door of our house before jogging towards up the mountain.
The locks of hair smoothly covers my eyes, but it didn't hinder my vision. It took me a few minutes before I reach the farmlands where the peasants work.
I distanced myself from the people I pass by and lowered my head.
"Oh, isn't that Rai, tāchen Roldo's daughter?"
"Oi, Rai!"
"Too early for the afternoon walk, aye? Don't get yourself too worked up!"
"It's hot today, so be careful of the sun's heat!"
The peasants working on fields greeted. I nodded to them and said an I will, thank you.
A woman walks out from a nearby house and approached me with a smile. She holds something that's wrapped in two huge leaves and said, "Rai, are you going back to the mountains?"
I stepped back, lowered my head and answered yes.
Farra, the wife of Nomas who works in the town but lives in this village. He is one of dad's trusted friends here.
She handed me the thing wrapped in leaves, "Here, it's entelop. I made a snack earlier and had too much. I hope you like it..."
Entelop is a common snack delicacies that can be found everywhere in the kingdom. It's from a small plant that has five huge leaves around its capsule-like body. When fried out in the sun, its leaves becomes brownish in color and smells like a fried chicken, but tastes sweet and very crunchy. The plant is called enteliom.
I thanked Farra, bowed my head before jogging back to the mountains.
Absolutely my favorite. It's the perfect snack, the perfect definition of perfection. Muah, delicious -- as what Gordon Ramsay quotes.
~•~
As usual, I go back to the mountains to check if there will be a basket with a lost prince inside. It had become a habit for the past three years now which is something I forbid myself to break.
First, it's because I want to ride a royal horse for free pass into the palace. The second reason is for me to exercise my body, which I found to be extremely weak in nature.
I don't know when will the prince be born, the book didn't state it either.
But the struggles and chaos did start when the prince suddenly disappears.
On the good side, these trips left my legs and hips in good shape and I'm confident I can outrun a regular man during a chase. That should serve as a poor attempt of self defense in a fantasy world dominated by strength and magical power.
The woods are still the same calm and cool, and after a two hours of jogging, I arrive by the river.
"Sigh, it's waiting time again."
I put my still wrapped entelop down before picking up a few smooth stones and stood by the river, then I start throwing the stones on the water surface. I entertained myself by counting how many jumps the stones makes whenever I throw it, and the highest is five jumps, which barely made it to six before it sunk down. It's not counted.
chirp chirp chirp
A flock of birds suddenly flies out of the trees nearby. It caught me off guard, a sharp chill ran down my spine.
When a huge group of birds noisily flies away, it usually meant that they were disturbed by something.
But by what?
"Uwah! Uwah! Uuh, ah!"
Oh, there's the reason.
My ears are pierced by a sharp sound of a baby crying away from a distance, then I saw a small basket decorated with golden pattern being led by the river's current.
I quickly jump down the river, swimming my way over to the basket.
I struggled against the current, I didn't expect it to be stronger than it looks like from the calm surface. Either that, or I'm just too weak.
I braved away the cold sensation pricking against my skin, grabbing the basket to my chest before quickly swimming back to the shore.
"Hah, hah, bloody hell."
My teeth chatters as I carefully put the basket on the ground. I ignored my super wet clothes and shivering body and focused myself on checking the baby.
He's a boy, and he's awfully loud. The baby doesn't seem to plan to stop his crying any time soon.
I fiddled inside the basket, carefully not touching the delicate skin of a baby with my cold and soaked fingers, until I finally spot the thing I wanted to see.
It's a medalion, engraved in it is a throne, a pair of wings behind it and then a golden crown above.
Jackpot...
I lightly stroked the crying baby with my index finger and smiled.
"Hello, little royalty. From today onwards, you'll lead me straight to your older sister. I hope we'll get along well, Prince Ellios."
The Prince has arrived, in that case, the struggles in the palace has began.
The main character, Hiyas Chalistine, is nine years old now and he should've started his training way earlier and have summoned a servant by now.
The people in the south will start to make trouble, at least according to the original novel, but I have the little prince now. Will the rebellion still happen in the future, I wonder?
And the Princess...
A smile tugs on my lips.
At seven years of age, Her highness's magic training is about to start...
One of the most powerful Summoners of the continent are about to be born.
____
A/N: Hello, I wanna thank the people who commented on the first chapter of this story. It's my first time posting in Scribblehub and when I read the comments, I was like ecstatic, hehe.
So thank you, thank youuu so much for the support and positive comments <3
I've decided that I will upload once every week now, if my brain does its job right. I wanna see how far can I go with this story but I can't promise updating so frequently. What I can promise though is there will be updates at least 2 chapters a month. My goal is Sunday at night in my time zone. I just hope this won't explode my brain into pieces.
I appreciate the nice comments and it really motivates me a lot so again, thank you sooo much hehe.
This episode is kinda laid back, but that's because I wanna explore this world and put whatever I can imagine in here. I've been watching a playthrough of a game called "Subnautica" in YT and its settings is in alien world with alien creatures and yeah I've been inspired to create my own alien things and creatures. After all, this is isekai and isekai is supposed to be a new world, like an alien world hehe
I'll do it properly next time. Peace out!
Maybe that’s why he was a villain in the book, abandoned in the forest alone, hope he sees Mc as a mother or something.
Or a sister, seeing as she's just a kid
Muah, delicious -- as what Gordon Ramsay quotes.
Wait, what? Gordon Ramsay compliments food?
When you say Gordon Ramsay quote my mind instantly shouted: "IT'S f*ckING RAW!"
Thanks for sharing, The2ndKid!
Nice start so far, can't wait for what else you've got cooking
i guess she six years then?
Thank you for chapter.
Thanks for the chapter.
Since the main character has red hair which is uncommon among commoners, I'm assuming that she is also special in her own way. I'm theorizing that she's some sort of sorceress or thaumaturge and she just does not even know it lol. (A summoner implies having to conjure up an intermediary to attack, whereas a sorceress deals more direct damage and has more oversight over her powers since there's no intermediary.) And since she possesses some knowledge and insight about the world, I assume that she's one of those characters who considers her options and sees how things will unfold, before taking action or interfering and also due to this wisdom, some might mistake her for being a prophetess or a sibyl, which will further add to her problems lol.
Anyways, your writing style and the way that you describe the world kind of reminds me of Ursula K. Le Guin's "Earthsea" stories for some reason, which is a good thing.
Also, if you need some more inspiration, you could read:
Arthur Machen (not well known nowadays, but many people ranging from Guillermo del Toro to Neil Gaiman are fans of his.)
Clive Barker (especially "Weaveworld" and "Imajica")
Jorge Luis Borges (look for a good translation of his two most famous works ("Ficciones" and "El Aleph"), because his works are extremely dense in content. A single page probably has like 3 or more pages worth of storytelling with quite a few metaphors. If you can read Spanish, that's better, you're getting the words directly from him since certain things could be lost in the translation process)
"Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Anything by Roger Zelazny (he's well known for having protagonists who are either demigods or gods and making them entertaining also)
The short stories by Samuel R. Delany
"The Sandman" by Neil Gaiman. His works are very dense in content. There's a video on youtube called "Neil Gaiman's Sandman: What Dreams Cost" probably explains part of the story better than I do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhA0GVi_N4E
"Lucifer" by Mike Carey. I already mentioned this one already in a previous comment I believe.
And alsosince the main character has red hair, you could read up on Catalina Sforza, who also had red hair (in a painting of her at least). She was an Italian noblewoman during the Renaissance and was nicknamed the Tigress (sometimes the Tigress of Forli) since she literally led armies against some people who conspired and warred against her and outmaneuvered them.
Anyways, sorry for the rambling and keep up the good work.
Thank you so much for talking so much, you guys really do my heart a favor alot so I really, reeeally like it xD
Also I apologize for not making it clear before posting it, but the red color is actually the MC's eyes. I'm sorry!! I'm already scolding myself in the mirror and I will definitely make things clearer! I hope you can forgive this lowly one ???
@The2ndKid The red eyes kind of added to the suspicions and assumptions that she is special in her own way lol.
By the way, you're forgiven :). I'm not cruel like Dream.
Explanation about that last Dream reference:
In "The Sandman" by Neil Gaiman, the protagonist Dream (also called Morpheus) gets captured unintentionally by some sorcerers who were performing a ritual. They were actually attempting to summon and imprison Death (Dream's older sister) to bargain with her for immortality. After 70 years of imprisonment, he finally escapes and is not pleased. Since his original captors had died, he took out his anger on the son of one of them by making it so that he gets imprisoned in his own dreams, where he dreams that he wakes up from a nightmare, then the reality that he woke up in quickly transforms into another nightmare...for eternity. Yes, he can do that and more. The demon Azazel, who is basically an eldritch abomination with innumerable eyes and mouths on his body and looks like some weird abstract shadow entity, tried to kill Dream. Dream simply shrunk him and put him into a fish bowl as punishment lol. Morpheus can actually be quite cruel.
Dream is one of the 7 Endless and the Endless are anthropomorphized abstract concepts who govern the concept that they represent, but they also govern the opposite concept, therefore Death also governs Life, Dream also governs Reality, Destruction also governs Creation, etc. They're billions of years old actually, but they act very human. But the story is not about their powers, but more about how interesting the characters are as well as the power of storytelling.
Thanks for the chapter :)
Thanks for the chapter
A couple corrections:
actual world don't speak it.
--> "doesn't"
as what Gordon Ramsay quotes
--> "as said by Gordon Ramsay" or something, but I personally don't think that part is necessary, those who get the reference will get more satisfaction from it if his name isn't mentioned, and those who don't get it won't gain much from knowing :P But you could add an asterisk and explain it at end of chapter too I guess
There's like 5 ";" close to each other, might wanna change some of those to one of these: , . :
Hope you pick this back up some day, this chapter seems promising :D Appreciate what you've written so far either way