{Timeskip - three months}
{Elenoir POV}
"Hey Eli sweetie?"
"Hm?"
Looking up from the now set table, I heard my mother call my name prompting me to look towards her as she brought a warm pan of soup into the dinning room.
"Could you please go wake up the twins while I finish getting breakfast ready?"
"Sure!"
Hearing her question I felt an evil grin appear on my lips before disappearing and I gave my mom an excited response as I headed towards the stairs.
"Just don't be too aggressive!"
My mother warned me, causing me to wave my hand dismissively.
"No promises!"
...
As I arrived in front of their bedroom door I made sure to carefully open the door so as to not wake them up, and then looked around the room at my victims.
Usually, I wouldn't have to be careful at all when waking Athena up because anything less the physical pain will only send her into a deeper sleep, but because of the fact that Arthur, who usually wakes up before me is asleep, I had to stay quiet so as to not ruin my fun.
'Now who should I get firs-'
My thoughts were cut off when I heard the bathroom door to my right open up.
'Wait, who?'
I had already confirmed that there was someone in both Athena and Arthur's bed, so unless there was a third person in here then that ment...
'An intruder!'
Without another thought I quickly sent the strongest kick I could muster in the intruder's direction, hoping to immobilize it so I had time to run.
"Ummm? What are you doing?"
As my kick reached the supposed intruder I felt my ankle get caught, shortly followed by an unfamiliar voice.
"W-who are y-yo- !!!"
Turning in the direction of the intruder I was about to question it but upon seeing its figure, I froze.
"Beautiful..."
I whispered under my breath, looking at the figure before me. Personally, I prided myself on my above average looks that I had inherited from my mom, but seeing the young girl who stood before me, all the arrogance that I had built up through the past few years immediately ceased to exist.
The girl was young, probably around my age and had long golden blonde hair that hung down to her waist. As I continued to look at her, I noticed that she also had equally, if not more beautiful eyes, which glowed with a blinding golden radiance.
'S-she's so cute!!!'
Completely ignoring the fact that she was a home intruder I immediately had the urge to hug the adorable girl in front of me.
'Wait Elenoir, remember that she doesn't live here, she's a mysterious stranger who could be dangerou-'
"Hey Papa... I think I messed up."
I felt my entire body go cold as I watched the girl turn to my older brother and call him PAPA.
'What!?!?'
...
{Arthur POV}
"Hey Papa... I think I messed up."
"Hm?"
Today was one of the rare days that Sylvie had woken up before me and after seeing that I was still asleep decided that she had time to take a shower before Athena woke up.
'What happened?'
I called out mentally, not really wanting to get up since my body was beyond sore from yesterday's training.
'Your sister...'
Although she didn't even finish her sentence, I roughly understood what happened and reluctantly dug my hands into the mattress to push myself up.
Yawn...*
After a satisfying yawn I turned my tired eyes to see my daughter, who was in her usual black dress, confronting my sister who's gaze was alternating between me and Sylvie with a confused expression.
'At least you hid your horns...'
'I altered my human form so they only appear when I'm fighting.'
I raised an eyebrow.
'Why, I thought you were proud of your horns?'
She just gave a troubled look and responded.
'Do you have any idea how hard it is to wash my hair with those horns in the way?'
Getting her point, I stopped asking her questions and looked towards my sister who had her mouth hanging open like a dying fish.
Sigh...*
"Alright Eli, I'm sure you want an explanation?"
My question only seemed to half bring her out of her stupor, as she failed to articulate words and just nodded slowly.
"Alright..."
Pushing myself off the end of my bed, I cracked my back and walked over to Sylvie as I placed a hand on her head.
"You know my bond Sylvie, right?"
She nodded and I smirked.
"This is her in her human form, and since I raised her since she was born she treats me like her father, and I treat her like my daughter."
My explanation only seemed to make her more confused as she finally managed to speak again and asked a question.
"So Sylvie... is actually human?"
I could feel my daughter's exasperation creep into me through our bond, but just ignored it as I continued to explain.
"No... Sylvie is more like an SSS-class mana beast that can change into human form."
After hearing my very broken down explanation, Eli seemed to finally grasp what Sylvie was and looked at her with an amazed expression.
"Wait, so you're like the god of mana beasts!!!"
'Don't add to her ego...'
Hearing this remark, the exasperation left my daughter as she puffed her chest out and pride and nodded.
"Exactly!"
Sigh...*
'I'm going back to sleep...'
...
After about another five minutes of pointless conversation, I finally managed to convince Eli to keep Sylvie's abilities a secret, causing a large weight off my shoulders.
"Alright, I'm going back to sleep..."
And just as I was about to go back to bed I heard my sister, who was about to leave turn back with a happy expression, saying.
"Oh actually, you need to get ready since I think breakfast is ready and we're going to the announcements almost immediately after!"
'Fuck.'
Sigh...*
Grabbing a towel off a hanger, I entered the bathroom to take a quick shower only to hear a loud impact shortly followed by my twin coughing.
'Thanks for getting me up Sylv.'
'No problem...'
...
"Hey, we're going to be late because of you."
I said impatiently as I watched my sister finish tying her hair into a ponytail.
"Bullshit Arthur, the announcement starts in like thirty minutes."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Then why did everyone seem so eager to leave directly after breakfast?"
She shrugged.
"Maybe to get a good view of the announcement? Well it doesn't matter, let's go!"
Once she was done getting ready, she grabbed my arm and yanked me with enough force that Sylvie almost fell off my head.
'I like the other aunt better...'
'She's younger than you.'
'At least she'll have one good role model to look up to.'
Hearing her matter of fact response, I just shook my head and followed Athena.
'She better know where she's going...'
...
Smack!*
'What the?'
As we were at about the halfway point between the Helstea mansion and the announcement venue, we suddenly heard the sound of a loud impact coming from an alleyway.
"Is something happening over there?"
My sister asked aloud as we started to head in the sounds direction to get a better look.
'Hm? It's just bullying, let's not get involve-'
Just as I was about to walk away I felt my sister's walking speed increase as she approached the group.
"Hey. What do you think you're doing?"
'Bloodlust.'
Although she didn't release a strong bloodlust, it was enough to grab the attention of teens who weren't even dark-orange.
'This is going to be annoying...'
...
{Kathlyn POV}
"I can understand not joining our parents in Etistin, but do we really need to travel with this much discretion?"
Hearing the irritated voice of my brother as he continued to complain to our guard, I could only sigh in annoyance as I looked out the window.
"You're lucky I even agreed to come when the only reason you asked me to is because your lady friend canceled on you."
Despite the fact that I was looking away from him I could easily envision my brother's expression as he coughed in embarrassment.
'Why does he put such a high price on his pride?'
In the past few months my teacher had been rather busy with other matters concerning the other continent, giving me lots of free time that I hadn't had in years. Because of this, I had somehow managed to repair my relationship with my brother to a passive state, but now after being continuously bothered by him I'm not sure if it's really a good thing.
'I guess only time will tel-'
Bang!*
Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a loud banging sound that originated from an alley nearby.
"Stop the carriage."
Hearing my voice, our guard flinched slightly and hesitated.
"Open it Rawn, Kathlyn is a silver core and I highly doubt some alley rats could harm her."
Hearing my brother's voice the guard stopped hesitating and signaled for the diver to stop the carriage causing my eyebrow to twitch in annoyance.
'I'll deal with him later.'
...
"What's going on here!"
Almost immediately once we entered the alleyway my brother took the chance to expose our position, disallowing us the opportunity to witness the situation for ourselves.
'Students?'
Before doing anything else, I took my brother's distraction as a chance to quickly analyze those present, wondering why exactly students would fight outside of the academy when there's already a dueling system in place.
'It seems like this group of nobles were beating up that dwarf, but who are those people? They don't appear to be students.'
Turning my attention from the Xyrus student, I looked closely at the two auburn haired individuals who appeared to be twins.
'Wait, is she...
As I continued to watch them I suddenly recognized the female twin as Athena Leywin.
'Supposedly she's a genius on par with me, but who is he?'
Athena Leywin, or more infamously known as the princess of Xyrus, was someone who had already reached Silver core despite being only eleven, and is even more popular for being someone who rejected being Cynthia Goodsky's disciple.
'Did she have a brother?'
Seeing as I wasn't finding anything out just by looking at him, I imbued mana into my eyes and attempted to examine his core stage.
"???"
'White, Golden, and... Black?'
Looking at the multitude of colors that surrounded him, it became apparent that I had failed to see his core stage, and because of my curiosity I started to imbue more mana.
"!!!"
Suddenly, as I felt I was getting closer to finding his stage, his head snapped in my direction and my mana immediately retracted as it was redirected by my crest.
'So...cold.'
His ocean blue eyes carried a terrifyingly little amount of emotion, as he watched me silently with an eyebrow raised.
'Why do I feel like I'm standing in front of a monarch?'
The longer I held eye contact with him, the more I felt as if I was being observed by some greater being, and I was disrespecting them by not bowing my head.
"Who are you?"
I mouthed as I continued to watch his ever frozen expression.
But he just gave a smile that didn't reach his eyes and whispered.
"I am nothing to someone like you... a crest holder."
Despite the distance between us I felt his words reach me without any trouble as my crest started to burn.
'What is happ-'
He continued.
"I'm going to Xyrus in a few months... entertain me then."
And then, like it was all some illusion, the burning ceased and my mind returned to reality, leaving me with a very strange but pleasant emotion. It felt like my purposeless life had finally gained an objective, and I felt the mana that my crest had taken return to me, just feeling slightly purer.
'This feeling... I like it.'
——————————————————————————
A/n
I have hinted at it before, but I'm now going to confirm that while Kathlyn is reincarnated, she doesn't have her memories from her past life. (I also don't think I'm going to have her regain her memories so I don't have to change her character.)
She's like Nico in the sense that she doesn't have her memories, but still possesses any strong emotions that her past self had.
Any feedback?
Any Ideas for the future?
Finally, Option 1 - Chad, won by a overwhelming amount of votes so I'm going to use it as the base of the Xyrus Ark. I may also use elements from the other options, but development in character's and relationships will be the main focus.
That's all
~2136 words