What was happening?
It was the biggest question that circled Avy's mind, unable to say something, move from her position much more ask about the matter at hand, pertaining to the child currently screaming like crazy in front of her. The servants were also frozen in their places, but the more she realized, it was like they were careful not to make any sound, even their breathing slowed, carefully setting aside the things they were doing.
Some of them quickly went towards their young master in an attempt to calm him down while the others rushed inside the mansion, they acted fast like they already knew what to do by experience. Avy, of course, was still on the chair as she did not dare to do anything hasty lest it causes more trouble. All she could do was watch as the servants gently whispered reassurance to the child who did not look like he was listening at all, he was curled up into a ball, now on one of the butler's arms, screaming louder whenever he senses someone coming close to touch him.
Clion looked so weak and fragile, a small creature trying to defend himself from predators. He was small and helpless on the grassy ground of the garden while the butler knelt down next to him, trying his best to keep him at bay.
Avy didn't know if she should step back to make way for the ones who are knowledgeable about the situation or just stay there and witness everything unfold. She was sure that she'd be alright no matter what she do since she had her two servants with her, however, a chilling sensation made all her hair stand. Clerivan and Mariel were already on guard, standing next to her and it seemed like they were willing to silence Clion if their lady wishes them to.
She did not feel well.
Something wasn't right and she felt that her two servants sensed it too.
"H-he's gonna explode," she mumbled mindlessly as if she was looking at a balloon that was being pumped with air for more than it could take. The feeling that some pressure would burst out from it soon instinctively made her want to step away.
She saw how the servants started looking terrified as all of them, other than the butler who was holding Clion down, started backing away. She could feel the danger radiating from the kid, but before she could say something, someone scooped her up from where she was sitting, it was Clerivan who then carried her away from the commotion although she was still able to get a glimpse of the butler gesturing all the servants to go, leaving both him and the small child alone in the middle of the garden.
"He better leave too, or that kid's uncontrolled manifestation would blow him to kingdom come."
Avy was surprised to hear Ares' voice inside her head. It was the first time she's heard of him that day since he disappeared the night before hence she looked around until she saw him, in his cat form, sitting on top of a tree branch not so far away from the scene. He looked amused, the black cat even had a mischievous expression playing on his face while eyeing the commotion below.
"What's happening?" she asked as her knight carried her in his arms, knowing all too well that she wouldn't get a good answer if she asked the curse servant of hers who was too busy making a dangerous situation his source of entertainment.
"A magic manifestation, Mi'lady," the knight answered with a solemn expression on his usually stoic face. "A rampant one," he then added.
Although Clerivan handled her gently, she was still able to feel his grip slightly tightening as if he was getting ready to run faster if the need arises. She had an idea of what was going on, of course, she read the whole book in detail before. It was explained in the novel before because it happened to the male lead when he was a child.
Magic manifestation. It was the so-called awakening of the people in that world where they would be able to use magic for the first time. It usually happens around the ages of eight to thirteen years old although it mostly appears at age ten, the first decade of a human's life. A rampant manifestation isn't rare at all, but only royals and nobles are bound to experience such a thing because of the amount of mana they have.
A rampant manifestation was one of the reasons why Zach, the male lead bottled up a lot of inferiority complex thinking it was another flaw that made him more unwanted and unloved. Instead of socializing and interacting with people, he chose to cure and improve himself so that it wouldn't be an imperfection that would make him seem weak in the eyes of the crowd. But before that, he had to suffer a lot to achieve his goal.
"The kid is oozing natural riches. That lots of mana is not something you would encounter every day."
Avy heard Ares again, but this time, the cat was looking at her dead in the eye, as if telling her to do something. She frowned and glared at him knowing exactly what he wanted.
'I'm not doing it.' she stayed still.
"If that's what you want. But be ready to witness that butler's insides scattered all over the place." the sly cat laughed.
Imagining the poor butler's intestines blowing up in front of her, Avy grimaced and inwardly gagged, but still hesitated. A sudden burst of mana could cause a lot of damage to the surroundings and even though she knows that she can take mana with her body, she still has lingering doubts and concerns that she might also die in the process.
"Also, it's your ability's power-hungry nature that caused that child's early manifestation."
"It's."
"Your."
"Fault."
Hearing that statement from her curse servant, Avy groaned in annoyance and broke away from her knight's hold. That explains why she felt relaxed around the child, it was because he is a noble whose core is already preparing for a manifestation, she was able to force out all the saved-up mana he had inside of him. Children are the most vulnerable when they are about to undergo manifestation because their cores open up and only close once they are already stable. Being exposed to a walking mana sucker like her was probably one of the few ways to make their power go rampant, or even worse get blocked.
Right, she's now a walking black hole, a mana glutton that leeches off other people's life forces, what else could make it worse?
"My Lady!" she heard Clerivan and Mariel shout and try to run after their dashing lady.
"MOVE!!" she yelled at the butler who was hugging Clion, glancing at Ares who quickly understood what her look meant, and before the butler knew it, a sudden force made him fly out of the way harshly, slamming him to the wall of tall bushes a couple of meters away from Clion.
"NO! LADY AVY!"
Avy ignored all the shouts of protest and proceeded to hug the small child tightly as if hugging a bomb that was about to blow up. No one dared to breathe as if something bad would happen if they did. Avy's eyes were closed, bracing for the expected impact.
One.
Two.
Three.
More than enough time had passed but nothing happened. Avy slowly opened her eyes and loosened her grip on the child that she was holding. She did not feel anything hurting on her body, not even the internal pain that she felt when she was in the forest about to get killed by a feral bear. She was fine.
"Young Master!"
The running footsteps of the people that quickly surrounded them pulled out Avy from her thoughts and the next thing she knew, she was being thoroughly inspected by Mariel who was holding both of her shoulders, sporting a worried expression.
"Why would you do that, My Lady?! You could've hurt yourself!" the maid clamored apprehensively, her usually soft tone fading into something way scarier until Clerivan gestured for her to stop.
"You are raising your voice, Miss Mariel," he pointed out.
Mariel looked like she realized what she had just done and quickly erased the frown on her face and said, "I'm sorry, My lady. I was just overwhelmed by emotions."
She just ignored her statement and looked at her side, where she found Clion now in the care of the servants, one of them checking his pulse. It was the butler earlier, apparently, he was still able to stand up after being kicked so hard that he flew away. His clothes had a couple of leaves sticking on them as he was decorated with dirt, his maroon-colored hair was a mess, brown eyes focused on the child.
"Oh no... Did the manifestation not take place?"
Avy saw the servants except for the one checking Clion looked shocked, some of them covered their mouths. They stared at their young master with pity, others even had tears in their eyes while doing so. For a moment, Avy felt a pang of guilt stabbing her from the inside since it might be her fault that Clion's manifestation was sabotaged, the reason being some incidents where young children's manifestation was stopped, they could no longer make it happen again, that or the child will suffer before finally opening up his core where the magic comes from.
Both paths would make their life a living hell in a world where people get measured by the amount of talent they have in controlling and using one's magic. That was why the original Avy did not have any friends. Her inferiority complex killed her painfully on the inside masking it with a nasty attitude as a defense mechanism to protect her fragile self.
She didn't want the poor child to experience the same taunting and pitying gazes that Avy in the novel received from people. She didn't want him to turn out to be like her and meet a horrible end.
"No. It's the opposite." all of them went silent as the servant holding Clion spoke.
"Young Master Clion's mana is stable. The manifestation is successful, and it was not a rampant awakening," he stated, voice relieved but full of wonder.
Avy slumped her shoulders with ease, she was still sitting on the grass ground and as if the tension made her numb, it was just then she felt the itch on her hands. She lifted them up and brushed the dirt off when some kind of liquid dropped on her arm. It was red, and she felt it coming from her nose.
"My lady..." Mariel stared at her in horror, and then at the Harrington duchy's servants who were pre-occupied tending to their young master.
"Revie, cover," she commanded in a whispering tone. Clerivan discreetly shielded her from everyone's view using his cape before flames burst from the small droplets of blood on her arm and on the grass. She was not burned by her own flames, but the ground was left with a trace of it when the fire died, something she had no control over.
"I'm tired. Let's leave," she said, standing up from where she was sitting before leaving the scene, her right hand was covering her nose while her knight stood behind her, preventing the others from seeing her face. She did not spare the servants one last glance and just walked out, Mariel following behind.
And as she was leaving the scene, a small girl that looked exactly like Clion run past her, a couple of maids tailing behind her.
"Clion!!" the little girl shouted.
Avy concluded that it might be the sister that the small boy wanted her to meet, but she didn't have the time to look back since she might bleed too much that the fire it would make will no longer be unnoticeable.
~~~
"It would be dangerous if you do not control your magic soon, Mi'lady. Not only for the people around you but also for yourself."
After the incident, Avy returned to her room to rest although she did not feel any kind of pain or fatigue at all. If she were to be honest, she felt like she woke up refreshed from a long sleep that she needed for ages, and aside from the bleeding nose that she got after absorbing all the rampaging mana from Clion, she was alright. The only thing she had to take care of is her currently nagging maid and the knight who refused to leave her side.
"We have to continue your training as soon as possible," Mariel stated, determined as she stood by her lady's side who didn't seem to listen to her ramblings and continued to stare at the book in her hands.
The three of them were on the room's balcony, Avy was sitting on a chair with a small table in front of her, a cup of hot chocolate on a small plate waiting. Clerivan and Mariel were on either side, that in her opinion, was a little bit too close to her liking.
"Miss Mariel is right Mi'lady. It has been long ever since you stopped your training with sir Raux, we cannot delay it any longer," Clerivan commented on the side. It was already night time yet the two of them still didn't leave their lady's side, and Avy was getting annoyed by their presence bugging her at close proximity.
She closed the book and put it down on top of the table as she irritatedly sighed in defeat. "Fine, tomorrow morning. I'll do it."
She knew that she had to face reality and do something to control the powers that were bestowed upon her by fate, but deep inside, she wanted to enjoy the feeling of freedom where she doesn't need to worry about the responsibility of wielding such powerful force that could put her life into even dangerous situations. It seems like she could no longer run away from her future.
Right. She's still not certain that she would live to see the sunrise after the end of the novel that the original Avy wasn't able to witness. There are still people out there who would take her head not only because she is the novel's villainess but also because she is an important figure in the empire. Her presence means a stronger allegiance of the imperial family with the Arkwrights who undoubtedly control military power enough to eradicate a country. People would want to ruin the relationship they have and use the other to get rid of the other and the easiest way to rust a sturdy metal pillar is to prey on the weakest, which she hates to admit, is her. The magicless lady who doesn't have any remarkable talent.
Rising to power using her blood magic alone cannot give her enough strength to protect herself whilst using her knowledge of her world would gather suspicion from not only the people in her empire but also dangerous eyes all over the world. She also cannot make use of the power of darkness that she now has since Ares warned her that it would cause a big uproar that would not be good for her, at least based on his memories of the two users of the ability before her.
The only option she currently has is to hide behind the power that would surely shield her from the dangers of the world. That is her family. She doesn't need to bitch about being independent when she's free to stay and use her background as a wall to block all the problems that might come with every action she makes. Especially when she's not confident that she could get along with everyone and be loved by people, unlike the protagonist. She may not look like it, but she is aware of how her personality is rotten and undeniably unlikeable. She would only leave her safe place if the need arises or if she is certain that she can defend her life on her own.
"Where are you going, Mi'lady?" Mariel followed her to the door after she stood up from being seated on the chair, leaving her book behind.
"I'll just check if the kid is still breathing fine before going to sleep," Avy answered, darting a glance at the gray cat who was peacefully sleeping on the couch near the fireplace before twisting the knob of the door and stepping out of the room.
'Ares.'
She called her servant's name which was immediately answered by the one she was looking for.
"What?" the voice asked.
'Come.'
After that, Ares didn't speak again and after a short while, the black cat that he disguised himself as appeared and started walking alongside Avy with the other two servants following them behind. It has been long since Avy noticed how she and her curse familiar are somewhat closely connected because of her soul being bonded with him after she transferred to her new body, and it has been long since she became aware of his emotions to an extent that she could feel what he also feels at the moment. And speaking of it, Ares seemed like he was pretty happy for someone who has nothing else to do.
"I found something while roaming around this estate."
Avy inwardly scoffed, and she was right then, after all, his tone sounded quite boastful as if he discovered a treasure box hidden somewhere.
'Something useful?' she asked earning her a peal of bragging laughter from the other.
"It is more than useful if I may say," Ares stated, raising a bucket of curiosity in his master's head.
"You can also claim that one as yours if you desire to."
~~~
I am very sorry for updating late. Things just became too unbearable lately and I lost the motivation to write for quite some time. I'm really thankful to those who messaged me to continue the story and to those who commented their thoughts on the characters and the plot. It really gave me the strength to write again. School is almost over, and I hope I would be able to finally start being productive.