Far away as I was from the castle, this didn't stop me from asserting my influence inside the Imperial Court. I was, and still I am a princess, after all. Just in exile.
All members of the Imperial Family have different factions rooting for them. I shared the same faction with my sister until the fiasco with her fiancé happened.
And here I was, living the quiet life of an exiled, long forgotten noble. Or rather, I am posing as living a quiet life as one.
All I've been doing these past few weeks is recruiting people for my cause, just like Artemisia. Except for carrying out my duties as a regular professor here, I've been spending my time analysing my classes and pupils to see if there's any point in recruiting people in here.
I've also experimented with many things here, with the knowledge I had acquired from my past life. My unique, Special Odos. Its colour was red and black, signifying probably my malevolent but equally powerful nature.
I also have found, prior to my Blood Pact with Artemisia, about the 9 Cores. The 9 Cores were the products of mysterious, ludicrous, and hedonistic rituals involving Urgs.
In the past, the Urgs went in great lengths to get for themselves tremendous power. There are numerous attempts involving Urgs trying to increase their magical capabilities and can involve simple, innocent charms to drugs, sacrifices, and massive explicit sexual parties.
There's a legend, that our clan's ancestor, is probably Dionysus, the Ancient Greek god of wine and partying. That's why our strength gets multiplied when experiencing pleasure.
That's when I found out about the 9 Cores. Whenever that pleasure is either shared or contributed in some form to one another, it stays there, amplifying our powers.
After Artemisia, who's my second in command now, she has taken the role in recruiting other people for me, the not-so-important on my agenda.
After what I did to her, she probably views me as some kind of Messiah, a deity. In her eyes, I granted her wish, so I must be God. Cause only God exhibits greatness in such lengths, or so she believes, apparently.
Our organization has grown quite considerably: from just 2 conspirators, to a dozen. And it's increasing every day. Especially since the ones I have on my side are considered as the brightest minds of the Empire. And they are all of them, at my disposal. All I need now is a little something to push it over the edge, and trigger all this admiration and love they have me, to blind devotion and worship.
My carriage has been my brainstorming headquarters. Just a closed space with me in the middle. I've ordered the carriage master, this Knight, to not talk to me while he was transporting me. It's kind of distracting, you know.
I'm on my way home after quite a productive day. I have become even more powerful because of more Blood connections with my followers, and they have become even more affectionate towards me. It's just like creating a paramilitary faction here. But it solely consists of underage maidens.
Look, I'm not homosexual. Even if I get transported into a girls body, my sexual preferences haven't changed; I don't view males as my choice. And that is why i only recruit girls. I say "it's because an innocent young maiden's Odos is much more potent than a males, whose mind is taken over by obscenities and vulgarities."
In such a way, I get to avoid establishing relationships, regarding my hedonistic plans.
The long way up the mountain started ending, and we went faster now that we passed the uphill part of the road.
Now, all it remained, was to reach the Fortress of Ia, my home. Yes, I reside inside a Fortress. I mean, how cool is that? It would have been a lot cooler if there was a garrison in here. This makes it pretty vulnerable to attacks. Hey, I'm the Duchess in here! I can do whatever the hell I want!
Probably, I'll retract some of the garrison forces from the city of Ire, and have them guard the castle. Nobody really knows what this nuthead my sister is, will try to get me out of the picture. Clearly, this little squad of Knights that I have, serves more as a decorative and honorific force than an actual fighting one.
We had arrived. My servants were outside from the Fortress, and greeted me, once again.
I asked the Archmaid once, "How do you know when is the time which I come and you always wait for me outside, ready to greet me?"
She simply said: "We don't."
It truly was cold. Significantly colder than the other days. In this country, there's only 2 seasons: one that is stupid cold, and another one, not so cold.
My servants opened the giant front door for me, and started walking inside. I immediately felt cold. I still continued, my shoes touching determined the red carpet.
My maids bowed down to me, as I entered inside.
I suddenly, and abruptly stopped. Yeah, something was definitely off. Something didn't feel so normal. I thought it was just my imagination, but no, I truly felt a sudden unease inside my stomach.
My head sort of turned on its own around. I drew my Surger out of my bag, and cast it on an unsuspecting maid.
The red and black light went through her body. Her hologram soon died out.
"Fuck."I said to myself, as I looked around. The world started spinning, transforming itself into abstract shapes. Wherever I was, it sure wasn't my home.
"Ahahahaha! Welcome, welcome, dear Vespertite! I hope I didn't scare you!"said a female, corrupted from magic voice. The woman's laughter shared similarities to that of a maniac. I immediately stayed on guard, preparing myself.
"Yeah, whatever you say. What do you want from me? I want to end this quickly."I said, trying to smoke her out.
"Well, I do fancy myself a cup of tea. Made from your blood."said the ever annoying invisible girl, making herself visible.
Emerging out of thin air, she threw her cape aside, and walked in my direction. Her blonde hair, and surprisingly hollow eyes, devoid of any significant sparkle or colour, gave me the impression that she hid her real face under a Veil, a Magic mask so to speak, which hides your true identity by showing a different face than yours.
Sure enough, the girl hid her facial characteristics with a carnival mask, decorated by a rose; quite the trademark of an assassin's arsenal.
"That's quite gross. Drinking tea from blood, I mean. I do recommend Darjeeling, though."I said, playfully.
"Oh, we're smartasses now, huh? You do know that you're going to be buried in a minute now? Do you even realise in what situation you are in right now?"said the girl, smiling under her mask.
"This, as you may have lectured in your university as a Professor, is a 'Domain'. When specific requirements are met, which vary from person to person, you can trap basically anyone, inside an infinite space that the user fully controls."said the girl, pointing her finger upwards as she explains. She probably tried to mimic me as an academic, as a Professor.
Cringe she is, I daresay.
"Good, you seem to have thought of this very well. Where did you plant your 'Domain', assassin? If I may guess, it was the carriage, correct?"
"Ding ding ding! That's a super correct answer, Your Imperial Highness, bravo! Indeed, it is pretty easy to get that naive and petty, son of a bitch Knight to go to sleep, as I...do a little maintenance with the carriage, obviously."she said, letting out another crazed laugh.
"And? What now?"I said, kind of bored with this.
"Ha, what do you mean 'what now?' You just sit there and wait for me to kill you. I'll try to make it as less painful as I can. But, be advised that, although pretty reliable when coin is on the table, my work tends to be a little...messy."she said, licking her black, metallic Surger.
"Great..."i said, holding down mine.
And that's when I realised it. When I tried to cast the first spell, I couldn't. Not even with an incantation.
"Wh-what?!"I panicked, with my Surger jammed.
The assassin laughed it off.
"Pffft, do you think I'd be THAT stupid to let you use your trademark magic bullshitery inside here? I'm sorry, but your access to magic through your Surger currently has been temporarily terminated. Indefinitely."said the Assassin.
Well, shit.
She cast her first spell.
"Nia!"shout the Assassin. I couldn't dodge it by simply moving my head, like I did in the Table before. This girl is more experienced and more capable than the last one. Her spell was pretty well casted, and fast.
I had no other choice but to roll-dodge my way out.
As soon as I used my back to roll on the ground, she had already cast another spell at my way.
"Rui!"she barked, this time a much more powerful, nullifying spell.
"Rui" or "Rhui" is, like "Nia", an Urgish nullifying spell. What it does, is that it essentially negates and warps space and time in a certain area.
The world and the Odos, try to correct the negated void the spell had created, and so, it created a Magica explosion from the pressure. It's literally like stretching a flexible rubber, applying as much more force as you can and suddenly, you let go.
The rubber belt, will come at you with equal force when you previously stretched it, hitting you in the face. That's "Rui" and it's nullifying, negative damage.
But I, had other things to do. And that definitely doesn't include getting blown up.
With my fingertips, I pushed Magica on them, and sketched something in the air with incredible speed.
I stroke a pose with my legs, pushing the sketch out in front of me, as the spell was getting closer to me.
"Algiz!"I shouted, with the spell of my adversary bouncing off in front of me, and exploding in a black-hole fashion many metres away from me.
"W-wha-"
"Isa!" I said, drawing a straight line this time, and then, using my hand as a blaster, I shot her with Magica bullets a couple of times, before her posture broke, and the assassin found herself defeated miserably.
"Wow, that was easier than expected. You nearly had me there."I said, blowing off my fingertips from the heat my Magica generated.
"B-but...how?!"she said, as her body was too weak to move now.
"Maybe I overdid it a little. At least you didn't break a bone. But I can be creative, if you want."I said, smiling deviously at her direction.
"Now, for the lesson of today: 'what was even that?', you're probably wondering. Well, I'm quite surprised you don't know. I thought my sister would pick the finest assassin there is to get the job done."I said, coming closer to her.
"You thought you rendered my connection to the Odos useless. How clueless. You thought my Surger was useless, for you utilised your 'Domain' to your liking."I said, as the Assassin tried to crawl away, with her Domain now slowly falling apart.
I walked right next to her, as she slithered and struggled to get away from me. I pressed my foot against one of her hands, and she cried in pain.
" The lesson is not over yet, Miss Assassin. Class is not dismissed until I say so."i said, further pushing my foot on her hand, hearing a few bones crack.
"What you oh so magnificently witnessed, was something called 'Runes'. With Runes, one can use the Magica of their surroundings, and bend it to their will with those Runes. There are, in total, 48 of them, if you count their reversed form."I said, as her hand oozed blue blood from her nails.
I brought my face closer to her agonised expressions. I wished to see them closer.
"Such a shame; you have the characteristics of a beautiful maiden. Look, I say we make a deal."I said, with a devilish smile at her way.
The only things that came out of her mouth, were painful epiphonemas and cries for help.
"I want you to tell me for who you work. Who hired you. If you let me know, I'll let you go. Hell, I'll even heal you, if you want. Go on."I said.
The assassin just resumed her cries of help.
I sighed.
"Why do you people always make it difficult for me?"I said, leaving her hand free. Instead, i rolled her over, and right then, I was on top of her, creating a small Magica blade with my fingers against her neck.
"Proceed."I said, as the Assassin froze.
She looked at me and then at the blade. Again, she looked back at me, and finally, she broke.
"A-a-..."she tried to say.
"Yes?"i said, pushing my blade a little closer, as azure blood escaped from her neck against my blade.
"...Anastasia. Anastasia...Ylva."she said.
I grinned, with my mouth not helping it but forming a smirk.
"Thank you, dear Assassin. And also..."i said, holding my Surger next to her mouth.
"...thank you for your body."