-『CHAPTER 01』-

« Heiress of the House of Novaldein »
— Velestina von Novaldein —

 

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I suddenly woken up from my sleep feeling entirely paralyzed to the extent that I couldn't even open my eyes at all. Furthermore, for some odd reason I couldn't fathom, I also had this vague feeling as if someone's peering deeply at my mind.

I felt somehow mentally violated that someone is currently looking at my memories and what's even worse was that I began seeing flashbacks whenever this person stumbled upon those memories that leave a lasting impression on me.

The person who paralyzed me then used some obscure magic that brought out one memory after another and I'm completely stuck completely powerless as I let this person mentally assaults me without stopping. I tried all forms of resistance but for some weird reason, I felt as if something's preventing me from taking actions against this horrid mind intruder.

Thus all I could do was lay there in vexation as I relived my memories once again. Everything started to my recent ones and the mind intruder gradually progresses backwards before it finally reached my month old memories.

These are probably one of the worst times in my life I strongly wanted to forget and to see it all over again was like forcefully opening a wound and rubbing salt directly onto it. I tried to stop the flashbacks but alas, it still go on as I try to resist tearing up like a pathetic damsel who could do nothing but cry.

No not agai—

"—Velestina! I cannot stomach how vile you are to have done such appalling things to a poor girl...It might sour the relationships between our families but I had decided to break my engagement with you."

"Are you for real Aurelius? Don't you know how much damage will that do? You're going to waste all the efforts of our forefathers even from two generations back just to appease a mere girl with no social standing!? Damnable twit! Hey listen to me! I'm not the mastermind behind the abduction of that mentally impaired vixen! Did you really think I'm stupid enough to leave my pendant at the scene of the crime!? Clearly someone intentionally planted all those damn evidence for that pendant was stolen from me!"

"Oh really? That may be so but you're the only one who's been harassing Selena and had the capability to do such crimes. Perhaps one of your lackeys cannot stomach your vile orders anymore that's why this person decided to place those evidence instead!"

"How unreasonable, am I your fiance!? How come your siding more with that retarded commoner girl instead of m—"

"—The majority voted in favor of Lord Aurelius's appeal thus by the ruling of the House of Lords, we hereby banished you, Heiress Novaldein to be momentarily detained at the New World—"

"—We've been outsmarted my dear Velé, I hope that you could forgive me for I as your grandfather had truly failed you. They must had wanted you somehow to be sent towards those god forsaken colonies so that they could try something they couldn't accomplish here in the mainland. Our spies have picked up that the Narfá is planning something big so I'll add more provisions and soldiers to your convoy..."

All these flashbacks suddenly came like a deluge of storm, flooding my mental capacity to the brim and I was left reeling whilst a brain splitting headache assaulted my mind. 

W-Why am I experiencing all of this anyway? 

How could I free myself from this paralysis?

The intruder seemed to have not only disable my movement but also cut all my primary senses as well. My eyesight, hearing and smell felt entirely numb and only my sense of pain seems to be remotely intact due to the headache that was the aftereffect of the flashbacks.

Panic is slowly trying to internally consume me as the lack of sounds from my surroundings also heightened my paranoia.  Nonetheless, I still resisted panicking as I logically try to understand this illogical situation that I was suddenly caught into. 

Hmm, l-let's see.

The last thing I remembered was going to bed after checking all the paperworks that my spies from the New World have sent me. The culprit must had sneaked into my room while I was already asleep and performed this mind intrusion magic. 

Humans are only capable of Pyromancy so this person must had been from a different race. However the only race I know that are adept at Telemancy are light elves but that race is believed to have already gone extinct. In any case, currently I'm on-board a ship sailing through the oceans so the culprit definitely cannot easily maneuver around and there's a high chance that I'm still at my room...just paralyzed.

Silence.

Hmm, I don't understand mind arts but the culprit must be standing pretty close by in order to perform this memory intrusion spell. I don't think this kind of magic can be used at a far distance away from its target and the thought of a dangerous man staring and being close to my vulnerable body entirely creeps me out.

I have to think of something fast!

I-Is there even a way for me to counteract this!?

Hmm, perchance...if the culprit's really close to me then I could try disrupting him by using my magic. I can still use Pyromancy even if I cannot move at all since all it requires is mana and mental channeling.

Even if my assumptions are wrong, I could still make enough commotion to alert everyone on the ship. I only have one chance to do this so I need to make it loud and booming as much as possible. I need something that could widely affect an area so in the end I decided to use [ « Flame Storm » ] since its by far the most destructive spell that I have in my magical arsenal.

I began channeling my magic as I directed the raw mana flowing through all my circuits out towards every pores of my skin. Next I let it accumulate into the air before finally changing its attribute to fire as scorching heat began to instantly incinerate all my surroundings. 

Ugh, so painful!

I can make fire but I was never completely immune to it and since I couldn't move at all, my body got stuck at the blast zone. I felt an inexplicable burning sensation but I didn't stop the spell for my injuries still hasn't reach a critical level yet. 

Just as the pain grew stronger, my senses too have began returning one after another starting from my sense of touch as I suffered a burning sting on my back, then followed by my hearing as the crackling noises of flames suddenly bombarded my ears before finally I could move yet again and my eyes finally opened to—

Silence.

"...W-Where in the world am I?"

—A realm of endless whiteness.

"Hello."

I was thoroughly startled by the weird sound coming from behind me and as I turn my body around, the first thing I see was coming face to face with—what in the damned perdition is this!?!?

I quickly took a step back as I stared upon this massive amalgamation that stood before me. 

Where did this monster came from?

What's up with these world of pure whiteness?

Where am I anyway!?

I was thoroughly confused about everything but my eyes focused in on those glowing orbs encircling this incomprehensible formless entity. A face with agonizing look sometimes appear on the orbs surface and it gives me an entirely eerie vibes as if countless eyes are currently peering straight into my soul.

Silence.

I didn't know how long I've been locked on a stare down against this formless entity but finally I've managed to gathered up my courage to ask, "...A-Are you the culprit that's been invading my mind?"

All the four eyes glowing on top of it seemed to blinked before it responded in a tone akin to a countless voices talking in disjointed synchrony.

"...E's not suré. Edc dra first time E'ja lusa ylnucc someone dryd still remained eh y cognitive state ajah yc E devour draen memories."

I internally scratched my head at the barely coherent words that this monster had uttered, but the word 'devour' followed by 'memories' had instantly raised my alarm sense to its maximum limits. All this time I've been feeling as if someone's been brute forcing its way into my inner most memories and taking it for themselves. This shade-like being is highly suspicious and I'm confident that its the culprit messing around my mental facilities. 

Now then, should I launch a preemptive attack or should I stall for time as I try to gather up more information about this bizarre situation? However I probably won't learn much from interrogating this being for I barely even understood what this monster is saying and stopping the proliferation of my memories being stolen further is something that needs to be rectified as soon as possible.

This monster absolutely looks something that cannot be reason with and I don't know its overall combat capabilities. 

Argh, I hate being blindsided like this!

I simply lack too much information about what's happening. All this time I assumed that I'm only in my room but that seemed to be wrong and now I don't even know if I'm still in Valria at—

Whiish!

—My eyes instantly widened as I barely evaded an orb that suddenly sprang towards me like a speeding arrow. It then began to form a translucent body akin to a specter as it started attacking me with such ferocity comparable to a mindless zombie .

As if the floodgates had been opened, once that first orb started its assault, more and more orbs from that monster began flying towards my way as these batch also began changing their forms to a mindless specters. 

I narrowed my eyes in contempt.

Did the monster ordered these orbs to attack me?

It doesn't have a face so I cannot use physiognomy to understand its behavior and it just simply stood there merely watching me duke it out with these specters.

Hmph, well this assault of its orbs clearly showed me this monster's hostile intentions.

 I cannot let myself be stuck on a defensive combat since I'm not good with it so I swiftly conjured a magical weapon in my hands using Pyromancy as I materialized a violet flaming sword and boosted my feet with flame propellers as I made a sudden leap forward as I out of nowhere bolted like a lightning and stabbed this mental intruder right at its chest.

Ambush successful.

I internally smirked before loudly stating,

"En gardé!"

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