A/N (MUST READ): Do be sure to take note of the dates every now and then because this will be the first and only time I will be saying that a large timeskip just occurred between segments (most of the time, it's between chapters, but there will be times there would be a somewhat large timeskip inside one chapter and that will occur if there's a line break)

Not part of the important note: Also, I've edited a paragraph in the Prologue, not something you need to see since I just reworded said paragraphs, I doubt anybody would notice the change even when they know this particular piece of information and is actively looking for it anyways, I might reveal the change at the Ending Arc notes, keyword: might

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AFoS - Chapter 5
Season of Change

June 9, 47 - Rose's Household

*Almost 4 months Timeskip (Do read the A/N above if you haven't already)*

Arcene sighs, another boring and fruitless day of school done. Frankly, she just wants to just be done with all of this already but not only does she not know how but that would also attract so many attentions directed at her both good and bad, she does not want to deal with the problems with being popular at all

Dealing with cultural change and gender change are already troublesome in on itselves, she doesn't want another problem to latch on to her again, one much more troublesome than the last ones

So… She decided to stay low as much as possible, thankfully enough, she's been doing that even before she has her memories returned

And so, that leads to a mystery that she has so many assumptions and theories trying to answer it but still no evidence suggesting so. The mystery was 'Why did she have so many traits from her past life in the time before she had her memories back?

The first and obvious would be that "It's you, of course you would still retain your own personality traits, even people with amnesia would still act like when they still had their memories."

But, Arcene's circumstance is vastly different from that of having amnesia, she has a 100% different body than that of her past life, her brain should not hold any of her past life's personality traits even with her memories, maybe by some coincidence she could have a few similar personality traits but no, she does not only has a few, but she has so many that scratching it off as a mere coincidence would be foolish at best

The best answer Arcene could think of is that she retained said personality traits via the soul just like how she tried to explain why she still retains a few of her habits from her previous life, and said theory also explains as to why she still hasn't gotten an identity crisis, a mental breakdown, or an existential crisis

'I still don't get why I haven't even once had a mental breakdown or existential crisis despite receiving so much mind-blowing and reality shattering informations that would most likely make any normal and average person have a mental breakdown or existential crisis.' Arcene thought to herself

She really was an oddity huh? And that still hasn't changed even after she has reincarnated

"Hey Sum! Want to play a match of Ancient Tactics?" Arcene asked in a bored tone

Ancient Tactics was one of the very few games that she's confident that even after years has passed, she'd still be playing it or at the very least, be heavily engraved deep in her mind

The fact that it's an RTS game similar to the likes of Command & Conquer was the main reason she liked it very well

And then there's the fact that it also brings a sense of nostalgia, Ancient Tactics is quite similar to the game she has been playing for years in her past life before she died – Rusted Warfare

Though, Arcene did wonder why it hasn't blown up yet with how flexible and good it is, and she was given an answer when she found out it was only a few months old which definitely explained the amount of glitches she accidentally found the first few days of her playing it

"Uhm… No please?" Summer said shakily "I-I uh… Have an assignment to finish first…"

Arcene just looks blankly at this 'If you're gonna lie, lie better than that.'

"Okay." Arcene said despite her thoughts, she let Summer go

Summer then runs off to god knows where as Arcene just looks at her retreating figure in exasperation

'Fine, I guess I'll just play by myself.' Arcene thought, she wasn't really bothered by the recent development, Summer has done that a lot of times already after all

Arcene then just took her scroll from her desk beside her bed and opened it up before clicking on the familiar icon of Ancient Tactics

*Timeskip*

-ope you fix this soon, I'll be waiting as always.

Sincerely,
Inscors4ir

Arcene then rereads her bug report email another time before she clicks enter to send it

This wasn't the first time she sent a bug report to whoever the person or people that are the maker of Ancient Tactics and this probably wouldn't be the last time

Frankly, the only reason why she's currently doing this is because Ancient Tactics is one of the very few games she wanted to see improve and prosper and the amount of times she's reported a bug is to the point the creator/s are familiar with her if the use of 'thank you again' and other things that suggests familiarity in their reply emails are anything to go by

Though after doing that, Arcene has nothing else to do that she could think of… So she was left here, bored once again

Arcene just sighs once again

Playing against AIs get boring quite quick, that's why she prefers fighting with other people even when they aren't really good at playing it, though, she still prefers playing against good players hence why she tries to teach to the people she's playing against some tactics

Which is really tiring mentally but, if there's one thing she knows she has a lot, it's patience

But still, teaching someone else is just plain tiring

Arcene clicks a map to start a new game in that map, besides, she has nothing else better to do

Time to play another match with AIs

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Arianell sighs as she looks at the list in front of her

'Fine… If I were to go back to being an active Huntress then we could financially still recover from this… Despite its price, this is the best candidate for a newer safer home, letting this golden opportunity go by is foolish at best.' Arianell thought to herself with a slight bit of exasperation

Then, a call was heard

Arianell stood up from the chair to reach for her scroll before looking at the caller

Caller:
'Mora'

She then clicked accept to let the call go through

"Hey Mora, what's up?" Arianell said

"Nothing too important, just checkin' up with all of you." A feminine voice –Mora said

"Is that so, then everything's fine so far, though we are starting to actually plan to move out of Vale Proper." Arianell replied

"Huh, anything found yet?" Mora asked

"I have a list of possible places, but none good so far." Arianell answered

"Good news then! Aspen apparently has an unattended land back in Patch! He nor anyone else in his family has any use for it anymore anyways so they're thinking of selling it and I'm quite sure they would sell it to you at a discounted price." Mora said

"That's…" Arianell trailed off, shocked for a moment before continuing "How much?"

"Oh! I- Ah wait, yeah?" Mora was about to answer but her attention was taken by someone who could still be heard in the scroll but Arianell was unable to understand anything they were saying

"Give me a sec, looks like we'll have to cut this convo off short Aria, I have an emergency mission right now and I haven't asked Aspenthe price just yet, also visit when you can! I'dlike to see your little girls soon! Alsosay hi to lil' gem for me! Bye!" Mora said that so fast that Arianell barely had time to register it before Mora abruptly cut off the call

'Must be really important if she'd do this, but… The offer is definitely quite convenient but I'm not complaining…' Arianell thought, her mood now being lifted a bit

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July 19, 47 - Feng's Training Hall

'I want nothing more than to just lay on a bed and sleep… Forever, preferably.' Arcene thought to herself as she drinks water from a bottle before wiping a few sweats dripping down from her face

Arcene isn't really new in martial arts, she had in her past life when she was still actually young –both mentally and physically– dabbled in Taekwondo and she still remembers some of the moves thought to her, but she never passed yellow belt because they had to move houses

Actually no… That may not be the actual reason why Arcene stopped taking classes at the time, but she can't quite make out what it was so she resorted to that excuse instead

Back to the topic, she isn't new in martial arts and she fully knows that it's full of repetition (and by extension, boredom) but she just doesn't have the drive to continue

But… During her Taekwondo classes in her past life, she was full of vigor and energy, so what's the difference? Easy, mental age, at that time she was mentally young but right now, she's more smarter and wiser and she has found out one thing: the futility of life

No matter how you try and how far you got through, in the end, it wouldn't even matter because everything has an eventual end, it doesn't matter if it's humanity, the world, the sun, the milky way or the whole universe, there will come a time where there will be nothing left

And that slow realization in her past life made her less and less motivated in life to the point the only reason why she's even trying is to satisfy her own wants at the barest minimum and at best, average efforts

And that leads to a point that Arcene has been wondering for so long even in her past life, how scary would she be if she's actually putting everything she's got? Combined with her should be new powers made her even more unpredictable to herself

Arcene puts down the now empty bottle before sighing

She wants nothing more than to go to bed

"Not too tired I assume?" A muscular voice –Hai asked and Arcene nodded in response

"Gotta save that energy when you move out after all." Hai said in a joking tone but it got Arcene's eyebrows to lazily rise a bit

"Your parents didn't tell you?" Hai said, already reading her like a book, and then decided to just answer her obvious question despite her not saying anything "I guess your parents forgot it, they do have a bit of a habit of doing that but anyways, you'd be moving to patch soon."

Arcene merely nodded in response, though a bit shock more towards that neither of her parents said anything about about moving out than actually moving out, she's also no stranger about out of houses before after all, they moved around 5 times in her past life for as long as she could remember, which says a lot since she was only 15 (almost 16) when she died

'Hope I wouldn't be helping with the luggage, I mean I'm too young right?' Arcene thought to herself but was still unsure of what would happen, that's one of the downsides of having a mind open to many many possibilities, you always wouldn't be sure of yourself which doesn't really help her low self-esteem

'Why do I have to get reborn… I don't want to deal with the huge mess of chaos and the ocean of problems that is life… End my suffering please…' Arcene thought to herself as she sighs

Hai sits down next to Arcene before putting his admittedly large hand on top of Arcene's head

Arcene blinked, this was the first time she has been on the receiving end of a head pat that she could remember because not only was she the eldest, but she was also the tallest out of her old siblings –actually, even now she still is a tiny bit older and taller than her twin which makes her the eldest and tallest out of her siblings, but that's beside the point

"Don't worry, you'll still be learning here and besides, once you finished your training, I'll give you a Certificate of Graduation like every other student that finishes training because of course, so that if you ever did decided to become a Huntress or go to one of the academies to become one then you would be able to without any controversies." Hai said

Even though no one told Hai about Arcene's lack of interest at becoming a Huntress, he figured it out almost instantaneously upon noticing Arcene's lackluster efforts

Arcene –already being familiar with Hai– decided to get bold "You have some guts to say those things that a normal child wouldn't be able to understand and expect them to get it."

"I doubt the description 'normal' will ever fit you." Hai said before laughing and Arcene started to suppress her chuckle along with hiding her smile behind her first, but failed at doing both

"True true." Arcene readily agreed with Hai's statement before she actually started chuckling

If Arcene were to continue living, she'd rather spend the rest of her days like this, just full of lightheartedness and no worries at all even though that's virtually impossible to achieve in reality, especially in this world

Hai continued to pat Arcene's head and she's actually starting to like it a bit, but she will not tell anybody about this, this will be one of her secrets that she will be keeping with even in her grave

"Ey Uncle Hai." Arcene said, getting Hai's attention

"Hm?" Hai hummed, cuing Arcene to continue while also indicating that he's listening

"Wouldn't us moving to Patch make things a bit more harder for training because of distance?" Arcene asked

"Yeah, it does." Hai admitted "But your parents and I already worked that out, you and Summer would be accompanied by a friend of your mother before we meet up at the Vale General Library because your mother's friend works there and also lives in Patch."

"Hm." Arcene hummed in acknowledgement 'That's quite convenient but nothing too weird.'

Arcene and Hai continued on conversing a little more while… Well actually it's Hai talking and Arcene listening in and asking questions and making a few statements here and there but those are little details you shouldn't really need to know

And then, ringing was heard by both occupants

"That must be them." Hai said as he reached out for his scroll "Hello Aria."

"Yeah, she's right next to me." Hai said to the scroll as he glanced briefly at Arcene before actually looking back at her "Your parents asked for you."

Arcene readily took the scroll, already expecting it "Hello?"

"Ah Arcy! I'm sorry I forgot to tell you but we're moving to Patch next week." Arianell said through the scroll

"Ah, Uncle Hai already said that earlier." Arcene said 'Although, quite a weird coincidence that they both happen to say that to me on the same day.'

"Ah okay, that's good." Arianell said "Anyways, Summer and I are already on the way to get you."

After that, Arcene just awkwardly didn't said anything because she doesn't know what else is there to say and so she waited for Arianell to jumpstart the conversation again instead and thankfully, she did after a few seconds of just background noises

"How are you?" Arianell asked

"I'm fine." Arcene answered

But apparently, that was everything Arianell could think off as silence reigned over the conversation once more

After like half a minute passed, Arianell finally said something

"We're already close by." Arianell announced and Arcene hummed but that led her to conundrum, should she end the call or should she let Arianell end the call?

"Alright, I'm gonna end the call now." Arianell said and Arcene was filled relief before she let out an affirmative and acknowledging hum and then the call ended there

Arcene stood up before she started walking towards the living room, Hai already left the training hall somewhere in the middle of the call earlier so she was the only one left there

Arcene then entered the living room

*Small Timeskip*

"Did Uncle Hai taught you anything cool!?" Summer asked full of vigor before she whined "I don't wanna be left out of it!"

"One: No, it's just evasion and Two: Quiet down." Arcene answered and then said to Summer who ignored it

"I could've missed something cool being taught and I wouldn't know it!" Summer continued on regardless

"Shut up, you missed nothing, it was just normal evasion." Arcene said with a bit of sharpness and that actually got Summer to listen

"Oh…" Summer said in disappointment

Arcene would've also added 'If you were careful enough then you would've known that.' but decided otherwise, knowing that Summer learned the hard way of what the consequences if you weren't careful about how you train your body and Arcene didn't really wanted to come off as too rude

And so, that led Arcene into not saying anything, she's not really the most talkative person anyways and would've definitely preferred peace and quiet, something she knows she has little chance of getting as long as Summer is nearby

"-and then there was Miss Miran who was like "Quiet down!" and everybody was-" are one of the few things that actually managed to arrive at Arcene's brain and stayed there for a few moments

Really, Arcene has never seen anyone shifting gears and into an entirely different mood as fast as how Summer does everyday

She also doesn't know how anyone could have so many things to talk about and all of it the person got in just under one day…

Arcene sighs in exasperation and tiredness, she feels like an old person despite physically being 6 years old… But physical age does not equals mental age

She did a quick mental calculation and she would be around 21 years old by now… Well technically 20 years old since her first life's birthday is on October and it's still July currently but those are small details

Arcene sighs once again, really, 21 is still not that old but she feels like she'd lived through multiple decades now… At times like this, she hates being smart and wise for her age (both her past and current age), or just being smart and wise generally, is being normal too much to ask for? For Arcene, probably yes

And so, the day continued on as normal for Arcene…

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July 28, 47 - Patch, Vale (Exact location unknown)

"And done." Garnet muttered to himself as he puts down the last box down to the ground before he sighs from mild tiredness

Garnet looks around a bit to see the kitchen having quite a lot of unpacked boxes, he could already feel the tiredness

And then, he hears distant chatter from upstairs

'Weird… Are the kids already up there? That was fast.' Garnet thought to himself but decided to still check up the second floor just in case

And lo and behold, he found Summer and Arcene on their scrolls and the room they're in being surprisingly neat, Summer isn't really that type of person to take the initiative at cleaning so Garnet assumed that Arcene started it before coercing Summer into helping

If that's the case, then all is well

"... pffffttt- *cough*" Arcene 'coughed' before saying "Hm… Very well then."

Summer suddenly became twitchy as she looks intensely at her scroll

"Launch your All or Nothing assault, come on, I dare you." Arcene says with a small smirk "Let's see how much do you really know about my base."

'They're probably playing that game again.' Garnet thought to himself, also not being surprised at the role reversal here with Arcene talking and Summer being quiet because despite Arcene's usual reserved behaviour, she is quite the competitive player when she gets into it and once she gets filled with adrenaline, she starts to get quite talkative

And based on what Arcene said, Summer is losing their match which would explain why she's quiet right now

After confirming everything is fine, Garnet slowly closes the door and went downstairs again

As he arrived at the living room, he was met with Arianell unpacking the boxes and by the looks of it, she already managed to unpack and organize a sizable portion of the boxes

Garnet started helping her with no hesitations so that the job will be finished faster

For a while, both of them was just unpacking and organizing stuff with no talking between each other, this was a by-product of their professionalism in their Huntsman careers, they don't really talk much once they get started and focused on a job or task

After a while, they both finished unpacking and organizing the room, both of them stood on the doorway to look at the living room

"Phew, that saved a lot of time, thanks for helping me Net." Arianell said to Garnet

"Hm." Garnet hummed while waving his hand, as if to say 'It's nothing.'

"Alright, if you need me I'll be i-" Garnet said but was interrupted by someone

"Nooooo!" A distant muffled voice coming from upstairs was heard, Garnet recognized the voice as Summer

Garnet and Arianell chuckled a bit, already knowing why Summer would scream like that; she was too confident at doing something only for it to flop, it was not the first time that happened and it became somewhat a normalcy for it to happen

"Anyways, if you need me, I'll be in the kitchen." Garnet said

"And you think I'll just let you fix that mess all alone?" Arianell asked jokingly while weakly jabbing Garnet with her elbow

Garnet chuckled a bit before saying "No."

Both of them entered the kitchen

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Fun Fact: Writing this (and the last few chapters) makes me bored, why? Because this is so far just the exposition, the goals of these chapters are to establish the characters' personalities, a bit of their personal history and their relationships with other characters hence why there's absolutely no action here, but to those who are for some reason wanting one then don't worry, action will come in a few chapters and I have been waiting to write that with increasing hype

A/N: And that concludes Chapter 5! Frankly, as I have said in the fun fact, I wrote this with a very bored mood…

But another thing I noted was that I was having small difficulties at writing Garnet… I don't know why I'm having those difficulties exactly but I have some suspicions at what it was, one of them is the lack of solid father figure I had during my childhood making me having difficulties at writing a good father character because I don't have personal experience at how fathers should act (because a lot of the things I write are drawn up from my own [or others that I had seen/read] experiences)

Or two and the most likely answer: I don't have a very solid personality pre-drawn up for Garnet, I have those for a lot of the other characters like Hai, Summer, Arianell, or even Seraphina but not for Garnet

Date of Publish: October 22, 2022 (GMT+8)

Yes finally! I Didn't forget to add the publish date for the first time and don't have to edit it in when I already published it!

Date of ScribbleHub Publish: November 8, 2022 (GMT+8)