Chap 6
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-- "How... How long have you been like that, Rai?"
-- "Since birth, Pax-nii. The color of my eyes are different since then. But worry not, I do not posses any... abnormalities, that is to say, I have no powers that of like the demons'."
-- "You are mostly normal except your red eyes?"
-- "Yes, these red eyes are worrisome, for it resembles the terror in people's hearts. I am hoping that Pax-nii could lend me a help."
-- "..."
-- "I am only asking within the village, not the whole town, not the capital. I believe this is within your capabilities, Pax-nii."
-- "Rai... I know you are a bright child, but what makes you think I could help you? I am only merely the third son..."
-- "The village chief may look stern, but he places you deep in his heart, Pax-nii. He is proud of you, you know? I'm sure that he will listen to you, after all, you are the only one in your family who studies under my father's. Who wouldn't be proud of their children learning so diligently?"
-- "....hehe, Rai-chan is still the same Rai-chan. You are the expert flatterer, I'm sure your future husband will be living in clouds with only your words."
-- "Pax-nii sure loves joking."
-- "Mm, I will talk with my dad, Rai-chan. And for your other plans, I suggest that we wait until tomorrow and gather the children in this mountain, okay?"
-- "Thank you, Pax-nii. I will repay you in the future."
-- "Just a six year old but you already know how to owe someone? Haha, Rai-chan is cute!"
___
Pax stood up and bid his farewell with a small smile -- going back to the woods to finish making his fishing rod. It was still early, so I decided to stick a little longer.
"Are you not afraid?" I started, looking gently down at the little girl beside me.
Amisa shook her head, "...No."
I smiled, "Why is that?"
"I already knew before." She answered in a whisper. "Rai-nee is... is not scary. Rai-nee's eyes are pretty."
"Does that mean demon eyes are pretty?"
"No! Only Rai-nee's!"
I chuckled, "Okay, sorry. I was just joking."
She pouts and looks down, then she mumbles.
"Rai-nee's eyes shouldn't be hidden. Whenever I look up to you, I could get a glimpse of bright red hiding behind your hair. I always thought it was pretty, and only Rai-nee could be pretty with them..."
Amisa is usually quiet, she's a shy little girl who likes to cling on to people she likes and sticks to them like a glue, quietly following behind them. When this girl spoke so much today, it made me happy a little inside, petting her head gently, before thanking her.
After that, I told her that we should go back and she was clutching tightly on my arm all the way. I couldn't fault her for that after scaring.
I left the clearing soon after dropping Amisa back to her brothers to go back home. Spending time with the energetic boys took a toll on my frail body, so by the time I reached home I was panting slightly.
I'm used to taking a walk from the small village up to the mountains, but playing with kids while dealing with them took both physical and mental energy out of me. It was exhausting. That's what I tell myself, at least.
I tried to test my limit, but to no avail. Even with proper care and nurturing, I was still weak and fragile. Therefore I concluded that this new body of mine is basically useless.
It's no use investing to something that would bore no fruit.
After entering the house, I went straight to our shared bedroom and immediately saw a baby wrapped in softest clothes we have.
"The little prince," I whispered and he giggles. I cocked my head to the side before poking a finger on his cheek.
It seems to amuse him, making baby noises and catching my index finger between his hands.
I smiled, "You are worth investing for, your highness. There will be a fruit you will certainly bore..."
I paused when I heard a fart noise, followed by an awful smell, and my face twisted.
"Ugh, that's not the fruit I'm talking about, Prince."
Mom is not here, dad is out somewhere, and I have no choice but to clean and change the royal baby myself.
The clothe smells, and I don't want to wash it myself, so I just threw it away before cleaning the prince with water and my hand stuck on his butt.
I couldn't cease the frown on my face, but it was a helpless situation. I have to take a very good care of this prince if I want to have a smooth future.
"You better repay me for this, Prince."
"Haha, gugu!" The baby laughs.
My lips formed into a tight smile. Amusing.
__
My unusual eyes, colored in red just like that of the demon's, is a big liable in my part. People are fearful of the unknown and those who resemble their nightmares --- unfortunately I am both of those. I have to take care of it and I already thought of a solution.
The plan is simple; make myself seem bright and likeable.
I started with Pax, the youngest of the village Chief's son but also my dad's favorite student. He is known as the diligent learner and my dad, Roldo, praises him the most for that. The villagers caught a wind of it and soon he became famous throughout the village. The village Chief was proud of Pax, saying that out of all Roldo's students, he is most likely going to become a scholar studying in official schools.
It's a big thing for a commoner becoming a scholar, as it becomes easier to be the breadwinner of the family.
Pax is just a boy, but every families in the village look up to him. It'll do me good if I attach myself to him and ride onto his high profile made by the village.
Plus, he is the village Chief's child, if the leader of the people accepts me, it'll be easier for them to do so too.
Roldo is the village's only scholar teacher and his standing is more than enough to gather influence, but it's never good to depend on only one source of asset.
I'll take every means to ensure a smooth success.
Three days passed since the last time I met with Pax -- unfortunately my parents didn't want me to go out for a awhile in fear of getting my eyes discovered again, like how aunty Farra did, although that one was intentional on my side.
I guess it was my fault.
I took the sudden free time to be proactive. The sipusan plant I asked from aunty Farra five days ago have been long hanged dried since then. I took them out from the back of our house, where it is shaded from the direct sunlight, but open for fresh air. It's summer, and the weather is mostly warm, this season is perfect to dry some plants.
I am not an expert on plants back on Earth, but one of my grandpa's close friends is a gardener. He owns a coffee company that produces instant coffees which was very popular. Whenever my grandpa pays him a visit with me, that old man always drags me into his garden and educates me about his "babies", which are the plants and flowers.
It was where I learned about natural hair dyeing. A sage is a plant that can be used for cooking to add flavours to the food as well as to color a person's hair and darken it.
It was a simple process; dry the leaves, pour two cups of water and boil it, add the dried leaves onto the water and leave it for two hours. After straining out the leaves and cooling off the infused water, pour it onto your hair and let it soak for about an hour or so before rinsing it.
The old man once said, --"when your grandpop's too old he couldn't even walk for thirty minutes, do this for him. He thinks that having grey hair will make him look like a wise old man. Too childish, isn't he, child?"
--"Then why should I darken his hair? Wouldn't he hate it? What if he gets an heart attack instead? That's a risky prank, Uncle."
--"That old damned grandpops of yours survived a hefty years in our world, and a mere hair dye kills him? It's unrealistic, child. He even lived longer than his oldest son."
Then, as if he just remembered something, the old man quickly added, --"Sorry, I didn't mean to speak bad. This old brain of mine is getting rusty, and sometimes I forget not to say the things I shouldn't. Little Rai understands, right? Forgive this old man, okay?"
I was seventeen years old back then, and I remember not saying anything. I gave him a slight nod after awhile.
He pats me on my back and says, "The Spauldings are strong, and so are you, Rai."
It has been a long time since then, hasn't it? Three years since I've reincarnated into this world. I must say, I adapted so quickly in just a few years.
The Earth was technologically advanced, but here in this world, in this tiny village of mine, is peaceful and quiet.
Sipusan is a foreign plant, although it may resemble the sage plant in some ways, I still haven't verified it yet. I went outside to take some light colored leaves, and after cooling the infused boiled water, I put the leaves inside the pot. I left it alone for hours while I was attending to the little prince.
Baby Ellios almost immediately beams after seeing me, he lets out little giggles and kept reaching out to me so I could hold him. I didn't bother taking him to my hands.
His golden eyes shines like gemstone -- a yellow topaz, a stone that symbolizes harmony and balance. A complete contrast to his original character from the book; a bringer of chaos, a disturbance to the order. Ellios was not a bright stone, he was dark and mad.
But I will have to change that. It should be easy, unlike from the original book, all it has to take is a good environment and a good teacher figure to look up to.
I don't mind acting like a saint for this.
"Your eyes can not change," I whispered, "and so are mine, but we will need to change your hair into a more common one."
The golden eyes and silver hair is the direct indication of the current royal family in the palace. The first born prince of her Majesty the Queen was kidnapped and lost, and the three biggest capitals in the kingdom has been notified; the Northern, Eastern and Southern capitals. Naturally, the towns and villages sorrounding the capitals have long been informed.
Once someone caught a glimpse of this baby prince in our house, it'll simply lead to doom before death.
The eyes can not be changed, but the hair can. Once done, it'll be much easier to make a story for the eyes. Once the village accepts my red eyes, what more with the golden one?
Well, I hope it'll work. After all, we'll have to stay in this village for a few more years to teach this baby the good path. The environment of the village is very good; fresh air, chilly in the morning, warm in the afternoon, the people are nice and respects our family. Cozy, to be exact, perfect for molding a prince into a well mannered one.
After these three days I spent my time analyzing the effects of the sipusan hair dry I halfheartedly made. The lighter colored leaves I picked up for testing turned light brown. I put more sipusan in the hot water and the leaves turned even darker. After contemplating, I went back to find the prince and examined his hair.
The leaves didn't show a visible sign of side effects, although it changed them to turn brown, I won't know if it'll be fine to directly pour the infused water to Ellios' hair.
"Guu... haha!" The baby reaches out to me again.
I smiled and said, "Let me borrow a strand of your hair, it's for experiment, alright?"
The baby giggles and I took that as an approved permission. I grabbed a scissor from my mom's sewing kit and cut a few hairs.
"Thanks."
He seems happy about it.
I run back around and tried again. First, I directly poured a few strands to the infused water. It changed to darker color, but the hair seemed to lost its life. So, it's not safe to put too much into the hair.
Next, I took a cup and put a strand of hair in it before pouring little bit of infused water. The outcome showed the same and I frowned.
I made a new hair dye, this time I put only two slightly smaller leaves of sipusan, boiled it before letting it cool after. Since this era don't have a brush except for writing on scripts, I used my index finger to brush the silver hair with the infused water, wet enough to know that it'll have an effect.
This time, it showed a more acceptable result. The silver hair turned light brown, looking very good unlike the others earlier.
I made a mental note of this. Later on, when Ellios becomes a toddler, I'll have to change his hair and turn it brown.
__
The next day, the village Chief's son, Pax, came knocking to the house early in the morning.
"Pardon me, Mrs. Sera, I'm here for Rai. If you don't mind we..."
I popped my head out of the window and said, "Pax-nii, my parents aren't here. I'm alone."
"Oh!" Pax stumbles back from the front door and scratches his cheeks, "Sorry, I didn't know. Anyways, I have news for you, Rai!"
"What news?"
He smiles brightly, "A good one!"
_______
So I, uh, I guess I owe you guys an apology. I'm sorry I have never bothered looking into this story for 2 months, I've been busy these days. I'll try to create more chapters but, to be sure that I won't let you guys down, I'll change the status of this story into "hiatus" instead of "ongoing".
Even if hiatus, I could still update chapters bit by bit, right? Anyways, I'm going back to my cave and try to summon my braincells back into my brain.
Again, I'm so, sorry. I will try to make it up to you.
PS. I appreciate all the corrections for the grammar and spelling in this story. I hope y'all summon your "grammar nazi" for me so I could correct myself! English is my third language so I can't be perfect with it. I appreciate direct and nicer assistance if you don't mind <3
Thanks for the chapter,its fine take as much time as you want
Thank you for the update! No problem author-san. Take the time you need. The princess ship is inevitable, it's only a matter of time
Goddamn you're right
By the way, your grammar is fine. It's better than some native speaker's English.
Just watch the conjugation for the verbs. For example, the verb shine. In the present tense, it's shines if it's singular (like 'the light shines' or the 'the sun shines') and shine if it's plural (like 'the stars shine' or 'the lights shine'). In the preterite tense, it's either shined or shone (shone is often more poetic) such as 'the star shined' or the 'the stars shined' or the 'star shone'.
Oh wow, you just opened a whole new world of English grammar to me. Thank you very much!!!
Wait until you start discovering the subtle differences and nuances between synonyms. I believe that it was the writer China Mieville who said that synonyms might mean the same or similar things, but they're flavored differently. They imply and connote different things.
Here are some examples:
Furtive, surreptitious and clandestine. They all mean secret or secretive, but there's a difference. Furtive implies that you're doing something secretly and avoiding detection in a cunning, sly and/or cautious and careful way. A synonym for furtive is stealthy. Surreptitious implies that you're doing something secretly (and perhaps quickly as well) and avoiding detection because you're afraid that it might lead to trouble. Clandestine has a negative connotation. It implies that you're doing something secretly because it's illegal, illicit or at the very least, is some form of iniquity or impropriety.
Another example is sullen, sulky, surly, morose and saturnine. In general, they all mean ill-tempered, but there are nuances. Sullen implies that you also have a tacit, sardonic wit or humor and a refusal to be sociable. Sulky implies that you are also childishly peevish and petulant. Surly implies that you're expressing your ill-temper in your mannerisms or speech. Morose implies that you also have a sense of bitterness and misanthropy. Saturnine is a more poetic term and it implies that you're both ill-tempered and gloomy.
Assent, consent, accede and acquiesce are another example. They all mean to agree. Assent is both a noun and a verb and it means to agree after careful consideration and involves understanding. Consent implies that you agree after thinking of the wills and feelings of the people involved. Accede implies that you agree to do something after being pressured and often implies a yielding or having to agree to some terms. Acquiesce implies that you agree, but it's reluctant, but you stay tacit and do not protest in any way due to some form of respect, venerable aspect or reverence.
Taciturn and reticent. They both mean staying quiet and not speaking or speaking little, but there's a nuance. Taciturn implies that you do not like to talk and are staying quiet and unsually connotes a refusal to be sociable. Reticent implies that you do not like speaking a lot, especially about one's own personal or family matters.
Sagacious, judicious, prudent, and perspicacious. They all mean being sharp-sensed, acute in perception or having good judgment. Sagacious (the noun is sagacity) implies being sharp-sensed and being acute due to having a lot of knowledge, wisdom and being percipient (like a sage, which is where the is derived from). If you're read Edgar Allan Poe, you've probably seen sagacious and its noun form sagacity a few times since he uses those two words several times in his stories. Judicious implies the ability for reaching wise decisions or conclusions (only decisions or conclusions). Prudent (prudence is the noun) usually implies a certain level of caution or self-restraint due to having lots of knowledge and wisdom. Perspicacious (perspicacity) implies the ability to see through and understand what is bewildering, befuddling, bemusing or what is puzzling and perplexing to others.
Diligent, meticulous, scrupulous, sedulous, assiduous, punctilious, and pedantic. Diligent is the general term. Meticulous implies that you're concerned, careful and conscientious with details. Scrupulous means the same thing as meticulous, but it also implies doing it with morality and propriety and with doing it the correct way. That's why the opposite word, unscrupulous, means unfair, unjust, improper or immoral. Sedulous implies that you're diligent in your application and pursuit and to a painstaking and relentless level at that also. Assiduous just implies diligent in your application normally. Punctilious and pedantic have negative connotations. They mean that you're so extremely concerned and careful with every single tiny, little, minute detail that it's almost like there's a shoe up your *** lol. If you're punctilious or pedantic, you'll probably cavil or protest at every single little detail that you find wrong, offensive or something like that.
Of course, there are words that mean the same without any nuances such as insolent (insolence is the noun), impudent (impudence) and impertinent (impertinence). They all mean rude and not showing respect. But there's a similar word: effrontery. Effrontery means being rude and being excessively bold without knowing that you're being rude, a similar word would be audacity or temerity. I believe that the word effrontery might've derived from affront, which means to insult or offend somebody.
And these two following things have conspicuous differences between them, but I'm just including them since they're interesting words that you could use for your story. Parapet and balustrade. A parapet is any barrier at the edge of a structure that's an extension of a wall that's used either for protection or for keeping people from falling off the structure. When people think of parapets, their minds usually go to those walls that one could find on medieval castles (more on that later). A balustrade is almost like the same thing and has the same use as a parapet except that they are more opulent and sumptuous, and are often used for additional decorative and ornamental purposes as well as for defensive and keeping people from falling off purposes lol.
Anyways, this is a generalization since not all castles have these features, but a rampart is a defensive wall around a castle that has a walkway on it. And many ramparts are in the form of a battlement, which is a type of defensive castle wall that most people are familiar with. That low hanging barrier that's an extension of the battlement (defensive castle wall) with the alternating crenel and merlon interstices (for lack of a better term) is called a parapet. A crenel (this word has spelling variations such as cranel and crenelle) is also called an embrasure and they are the gaps in the parapet that archers use to shoot arrows from. A merlon is the solid part or interstice in the parapet that archers can use to hide or for defense. A crenellation is the word for this alternating crenel and merlon pattern in the parapet since some parapets don't have them. A barbican is the name for the outer defenses of a castle and mostly refers to the two towers near the gate or drawbridge (if it has a drawbridge, since not all castles use drawbridges, especially if there is no moat). Thanks Clark Ashton Smith for teaching me the word barbican lol. Turrets are the smaller towers that are often used by archers for offensive or defensive purposes. Later castles also have bartizans, which are small watchtowers. A machicolation is an aperture or an opening in the corbels of the castle, that defenders can use to drop burning liquids, burning objects or other projectiles onto attackers below. A keep, or donjon (thanks Clark Ashton Smith for this word also lol), is the larger fortified tower inside a castle or near a castle. You might be able to destroy the keep or donjon if you catapult burning projectiles into it to cause a conflagration or something, but it's doubtful since it's heavily fortified. Anyways, it's best to look for a picture or something to see what I'm talking about since this description is probably very confusing lol. And castles were mostly built in the medieval era, where siege warfare was common and pitched battles were uncommon. And siege warfare is costly and time-consuming, since you're trying to defeat the enemy through attrition. There were still pitched battles in the medieval era such as the Battle of Crecy, the Battle of Poitiers, the Battle on the Ice (where they actually fought on top of a frozen lake), etc., but they were largely uncommon during the medieval era.
Thanks for the chapter.
Thanks for the chapter
It's all good. Take the time you need. It's pretty good for a third language. I can barely scribble a sentence in anything other than my first language. Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the new chapter!! Don't feel bad for taking an extended break; I'm happy to wait as long as needed for this story. I'm excited to see where it goes though!
"Does that mean all demon eyes are pretty?"
She's implying that she is a demon. Remove "all" to avoid that or use "also" instead.
hello?
big liable
liability
Thanks for the chapters, best of luck~