NOVEL NEXT Chapter 014: City of Heidelberg
“I want to go to Heidelberg now!”
I was sitting at the dinner table, having breakfast with my family, after having just experienced the craziest night of my entire existence. Quite an achievement considering my mommy is a sadist and I have literally died before awakening in the body of a little rich adopted girl.
I had a lot to say about what happened last night; honestly it was hard for me to understand all of the emotions & thoughts swirling through my mind at this moment. It was actually quite ironic - considering that the whole meeting was apparently about introspection. Either way, what was discussed, I indeed didn’t mind all that much.
In hindsight it made a lot of sense.
At some point I even understood how I earned [Grasp Soul] - it was (once more) back to understanding more about myself. Seeing all those sprites floating around allowed for me to understand what the ‘energy’ that made up the soul was and due to being a spirit of a strong bloodline… Well it only makes sense I would be able to interact with a soul.
Upon witnessing that person (whether they are male, female or something else I have no clue) playing around with the sprites - it was as if something just clicked. An internal realisation that I wouldn’t have realised if not for having just gone through an entire conversation around introspection. That was certainly an interesting development and certainly not something negative.
When one considers that a powerful entity just took me away - without me being able to notice let alone resist it - to their lair with ease. All that was just ‘what happened’ thus didn’t cover what could have happened; to me that tells a far more horrifying story.
If that entity had malicious intentions (there would have been literally nothing I could do about it) I would just be subjected to any of their desires no matter what they were.
Death would have been the nicest result.
There was only one thing for that. I would need to get way stronger, to the point I would no longer be as helpless, at least to the point of no longer getting caught off guard. Even if I have knowledge of the future…. That would be useless if I never made it to LHO where most of my research was obviously focused. If I found out more about theology maybe I could have found out what ‘god’ that entity was or ones I need to watch out for.
Yet I was foolish enough not to do that.
Thus the best I could do would be to use what I already had to ensure I did; thankfully it just so happened that the therapist had given me a great idea to do that. In order to do that I would need to obtain my reward and use it to its natural fullest extent.
Obviously the family were quite confused at my sudden statement - although Alexis didn’t seem like she could care less as she poked her egg with a piece of crispy bacon. Mother appeared to wish to, no doubt, say no however daddy raised his hand to stop her for a moment before turning toward me.
“Why do you want to go there all of a sudden?” His voice was as measured as his narrowed eyes that seemed to have the ability to look right through me. Fortunately I had already thought up a very good rationale for why I would suddenly decide something like this. “You promised to give me the branch there so why wouldn’t I want to go there daddy?”
Tilting my head cutely so the side - letting those yellow & pink locks of mine cascade down my face - to deliver a powerful attack to those who were watching. Alas. It seemed that daddy had managed to resist it enough to scrunch up his face with an ever so faint frown on his face. “Is that any reason to rush; I have no plans to renege on your reward yet there is hardly a rush.”
Damn… It seems acting cute had the opposite effect as he now wants to keep me around.
“But isn’t it natural for a kid, who got a new toy, to want to play with it? Not to mention that I want to take part in some more competitions. I can’t be called lazy!” Offering a bright smile (trying to quell his desire to keep me close with this smile as payment) his frown somewhat weakened in response to this.
Still, he didn’t seem fully convinced, he glanced towards mother who practically had glowing eyes at how cute I was when fully utilising these big eyes of mine. Mother in turn looked towards him - causing his stance to weaken even more - eventually he just let out a large sigh. “We should head back to Berlin anyway so this works out…”
“Yay~!” Mission success.
“But you will have to sign up for another tournament.” Daddy suddenly remarked as he got back to eating his own breakfast while checking various things on his holopad. Obviously I had no problems with that so I just nodded my head along before diving into my own breakfast once more.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Honestly, you would have thought that the problem of boredom during long travels would be solved when we can freely send people to the planet of Pluto & back, but no… No it has not.
There wasn’t absolutely nothing to do as I always had a ton of questions to ask Big B; when we set off it had only been a week since that big social event. On top of that, I had an extra ride over to that Furstin branch I now (apparently) owned. So I had plenty of time to ask Big B all about their functions.
On the brightside, I have managed to get many enlightening answers out of Big B about how they work as well as the limitations placed upon them compared to other systems. Many illuminating answers like “redacted” and “don’t have information in the current data set” that will help me greatly improve my understanding of how to use my greatest advantage.
I did get to learn something very interesting though; the system is able to actually give me missions that have rewards that would apparently help with my growth.
Their reaction to my question of “what kind of rewards” was my favourite of all (my reaction to it shall be redacted from public knowledge) and I certainly didn’t get told off for foul language by my mother. What I did learn was the requirements to activate a mission. Obviously I was quite curious about why I hadn’t got one yet.
According to Big B there needed to either be a significant challenge, something which was fair if not a little upsetting, or be to achieve something that aligns with my ancestral goal. Although that wasn’t a lot of information - it was a lot better than being totally in the dark about the capabilities of my personal system.
With all that being said, I now stood in front of a city that practically oozed a sense of history with many buildings that had been preserved from the 14th century. Even after two world wars - Germany had managed to preserve this time capsule of a city - where many others suffered tragic losses. Thanks to it not being seen as a worthy target by those racist English & American mongrels.
Walking through the masoned streets - my own little suitcase in my left hand - I got to see a lot of smiling faces. Many foreigners wandered around with maps in their hands. Though many likely thought of me as a tourist just like all these people; I didn’t exactly look like one would expect a proud next generation German from the second most prestigious family to appear. The first, of course, being the Hohenzollern family that had led our world to the height we have managed to achieve.
Those scum at Vagen are, sadly, likely to be the third.
“Is she…”
“The little prodigy?”
“What is someone from Porshi doing here?”
“Does it matter when she’s clearly adopted!”
“I hear she’s the heir to Furstin so maybe getting an internship at our branch?”
“Ah~ how lucky to go on holiday now; make sure to record this!”
“Wait, isn't she only like 4 years old!”
“A prodigy has been born in Germany!”
Huh, does it appear as if I have underestimated my own fame?
“Young miss strawberry… Are you okay?” The worried voice of Thompson reminded me of the obvious fact that I would never have been allowed to go off on my own as a child. As such, Thompson was made to be my ‘guardian’ on this little trip and would be playing a role between a secretary as well as a teacher.
He was the one who always helped father, thus it only made sense.
Knowing his worries, I just presented a bright smile towards him to help allay any worries he may have had for my mental health. Hearing a wave of “aw” coming from the onlookers. “Why wouldn’t I be okay when I’m about to take one step closer to my dreams, grandpa Thompson?”
That was perfectly true - in a few minutes I would finally have taken the first step I needed in order to have some financial impact within Porshi. Which would greatly help me in the future. My plan wasn’t to instantly make some crazy big impact on the state of things though… I wasn’t a business man so it would be risky to make carless moves instead of using this time to grow in a stable fashion.
“I see, well, remember that we are going to see the people in charge of this branch before we settle into our accommodations. Do not get too excited. You will not be getting up to too much today!” A big grin on his face -as if he was even more excited than me about this than even I was. We weren’t completely alone (I was too important an asset as a major heir on the level of a large family to be without at least guards) yet those guards were very professional so it may as well have been.
“Why do we not just have our accommodations at the branch so I can get to work straight away…” I said with a pout on my face. Though I indeed believed that this greatly impeded my efficiency to work.
Grandpa gave a healthy chuckle, shaking his head with a smile still on his face, as he seemed a little proud that I was even asking that question. “It is to not negatively impact the social & mental health of our workers; we do have a boarding house. Yet it is a few streets away - so as to take care of our employees - and we’ll be staying there.”
Indeed that was important… I suppose I’ll just have to go with his preparation.