I yawned. 

Today was a bad day. Last night, I went to bed late, so I really didn’t want to wake up at literally six in the morning. Old habits die hard, I guess.

I tossed and turned around in my bed, trying to fall back asleep again. After a few minutes, I simply gave up and reluctantly sat on the edge of my bed and stretched my body.

Looking in the mirror, which was positioned right beside my bed, I spotted a little girl with dull gray eyes, messy back-length raven hair, and a relatively petite figure even for her age. She had a face that was slightly attractive, but not too much. Basically, one would easily forget about her literally seconds after taking their eyes off her.

Since my mirror (thankfully) wasn’t haunted by a dead Void fiend, the girl was very obviously me. 

“—Achooo!”

I sneezed and wiped my nose. This was another reason why today sucked. The temperature was in the minus, yet school was still open. As I was about to curse the greedy headmaster out loud, I saw the door to my room opening in the reflection in the mirror. 

Emerged from the door was my Mom. She had jet black hair just like mine, but her eyes were of crystal blue. One might think that I inherited these pair of dull gray eyes from my father, but reality was just a little bit different…

Before I could finish my thought, Mom walked straight up to my bed and hugged me. She didn’t usually do this. I wondered what caused her to do so…

“Ast…” she said with the sweetest voice she could conjure up.

Yep, that was my nickname. If she’d called me “Astrape Gray” with a stern voice, then I would’ve instantly known that something worse than death itself was going to happen to me. Luckily, she didn’t.

“What is it, Mom?” I lazily answered. To be truthful, I still hadn’t fully woken up yet.

Mom, being her usual self, detected such things immediately. She ran her hand through my hair—making it even messier—and whispered,

“How about you skip school and spend today with me?”
I furrowed my brows. Skipping school sounded fantastic—especially when I got to spend more time with Mom, but despite my earlier complaints, I absolutely had to go today. After all, I didn’t want to miss out on my best friend—Raun—confessing his feelings to his long-time crush.

Yeah, he was going to get cold-heartedly rejected; no doubt about it. All the teasing materials I’d get from this made going out in this god awful weather absolutely worth it.

So, with determination oozing from every minute gesture I made, I shook my head.

“Sorry. I can’t miss school today.”
“Is that so?” She let out a dejected sigh. Then, she patted my head again; messing up my hair even more. “Can you at least spend the morning with this old lady, then?”

She was no “old lady.” Being barely twenty-eight, it was apparent that Mom had me when she was only fifteen. Sometimes, the kids at school would tell me that I was a burden and an “accident” that ruined Mom’s life. And, although I didn’t want to admit it, I started to think that they were right.

So, the least I could do was agree to her second request.

“Got it, Mom.”

“Great. First, let’s clean the house up…”

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.

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“Ast, would you like me to read you some stories?”

I stopped sweeping the floor and wiped the sweat on my forehead. Then, I made sure to make the poutiest face I could.

“I’m twelve! I’m not little anymore!”

“Come on, let’s do it for old times’ sake.”

The “old times” meant two years ago. At that time, Mom found me reading a…suspicious book, and she literally ripped it apart in front of my eyes. To compensate, she began reading book to me until a few months ago, when she stopped for some reasons.

No, the “suspicious book” wasn’t an erotic one. What? Surprised that I, a twelve-year-old girl, knew what that was? Fufu, fools. While girls my age was busy playing house with dolls, I’d already known how babies were made.

And it was all thanks to Raun. A year ago, he showed me a book on pornography. From then, I found out more about the process of reproducing through advanced biology books and dirty jokes that the teachers often said to each other.

Well, it was pretty fucked up, now that I think about it.

But no matter. Back to the book. It was a novel written by author Marcela Dervit—my Grandmother. For some reasons, Mom absolutely hated her. She made sure that the old hag couldn’t get close to me.

Well, it failed spectacularly when on one cloudly afternoon, Marcela approached me and gave me the book before dashing away immediately.

It was titled “The Hero of Light and her Yuri Harem,” and I guessed that it hadn’t been published yet since I couldn’t find it anywhere, which was weird since Marcela was a famous author.

Anyways, I didn’t get to read a page before Mom ripped it apart, and I couldn’t get any more copies since Marcela died like, a week later.

Her funeral was big, with even several Nobles attending it. Of course, Mom didn’t let me go.

Okay, enough reminiscing. If I dallied in my thoughts any longer, Mom would show her overprotective side and take me to a doctor.

“Fine. I guess a book wouldn’t hurt…”

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.

.

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I was wrong.

The book hurt, albeit more mentally than physically. And it didn’t even assault me via a headache. Instead, it bored me to death.

“Ast, how to you hold a teacup?”

“Just hold it normally.”

“That’s wrong. Hold it with your pinky finger pointed out.”

Yes, it was a book on Noble etiquette. Absolutely boring, I know.

“Why are we even reading this?” I asked with a long yawn.

“It’ll be useful for you in the future.”

‘Like hell am I going to ever use this.’

A leisure life on a flower farm was definitely one that seemed attractive to me, not the deadly world of politics. Though, I wondered if Noble politics were as deadly as the novels portrayed…

After thirty more minutes, I was finally freed from this tortuous reading session. Yawning loudly to make sure Mom knew that I didn’t enjoy this one bit, I got up from her lap and began preparing for school.

I stuffed everything in my backpack and was about to leave home when Mom called out to me.

“Ast, are you absolutely sure that you need to go to school today? Mommy will be lonely without you.”

‘What’s with her today?’

“I’m sure, Mom. Besides, I’ll be back as soon as school ends, so you won’t be alone for that long.”

To that, Mom just gave me a sad smile and hugged me…very tightly, as if not willing to let me go. However, she soon released the hug once she saw my face slowly turning blue. 

“Remember, whatever happens, mommy still loves you.”

The corners of her eyes were strangely wet. I made sure to wipe the tears and give her a kiss on the cheek before dashing out of the house.

“See you, Mom!”

“See you again, however long it’ll take...”

‘Five to six hours, give or take.’

I shrugged before trudging through the thick snow.