Chapter 129: 128. Sudden Nuisance, Part I

I WOKE UP WHEN THE SUN ROSE, but not willingly, of course. Which means a bad mood. Especially because it was the first time I was able to sleep in more than ten Goddess-damn years, so, my anger was very much reasonable.

"Come on, sleeping beauty, wake up," Val spoke too loudly and too close to my ear while shaking my body as if I was a doll. I finally opened my eyes, boiling with anger. "Finally, sis."

{"Damn, Natasha, you have eyeballs,"} great!

How awesome is that? "Has someone died, Valerian Dominic Ludwick Nicholai?" He walked two steps away from me and laughed awkwardly.

"N-no... sis." Then why?

"What time is it now?" I asked, clenching my teeth.

"Four in the morning," FOUR?

"Are you out of your mind, Valerian? I went to sleep like... two or three in the morning. And you are waking me up at four in the morning? What's wrong with you?" I tried to get back to sleeping, laying down again and closing my eyes, but Val placed me on his shoulders and took me out of my bed. "Let me sleep, come on. I don't sleep in ages," and I'm not even joking. The sleep paralysis has been tormenting me forever. "And what about you, stupid cat? You knew what time I went to sleep, and you still let him wake me up now? Shouldn't you be on my damn side?"

{"Duties first, human! Put yourself together. At some point in your life, if you don't die young, you will have plenty of time to be lazy and sleep all day if you want to. But now, you need to put your necessities over stupid things which aren't important at the moment,"} what is he saying? And that's very encouraging, not to say the opposite.

"You only say that because you don't need to sleep. But sleeping is important. I don't want to sleep in the future, I want to sleep now!" Okay, I know I may sound like a spoiled brat, but, seriously, back in the first timeline, I rarely had a good night of sleep. And I'm starving for that. Especially now that Chaos can help me out with the paralysis.

{"This isn't about what you want, Natasha. It's about what you need!"} Now, he's talking like a creature of his age. And I may not know his age exactly, but it's older than the Kingdom who ruled before our Empire was conquered, that's a fact. He may even be older than Padaman itself.

"And right now, Nat, you need to train! So, I'm sorry if I'm disturbing your precious sleep, but we need to do this. You have to control this magic inside of you and we are here to help you. Then put yourself together, take a quick bath, prepare yourself and we'll go out. We need to be out of here before our parents or siblings even think about us," that is so annoying. But he couldn't be more right, and I know that.

"Alright, now, Valerian, Goddess-damn it, put me down. I feel like a fucking sack of potatoes!"

He did as I said, "Sorry."

"Sorry, my butt." I'm not irresponsible. Of course, I know that they are right. I'm just in need of a good night of sleep, but I can wait some years if it means I'll be able to successfully make the changes I have to make. "Ugh, this is so infuriating. But you guys are right," I gave my hand to Val and he stared at it. "You threw me on the bed, dumbass, now help me to get on my feet, please. I'm too lazy when I wake up, and it takes me some hours to get back to normal," he took it and help me out in a second. "Thank you, little Val."

In no time I took a bath and got ready. Dressed up in one of the riding clothes Gwen made for me it, I know it's hers because there's a small white rose sewn on the inside, and that's her mark. She must have come here while we were out, I'll go to her later to thank her for this. Not to mention that I also have to see how is Sabrina doing.

Oh, I'm also going to tell her to make new clothes for Valerian, and later, for Asher as well. Kate's clothes must have already arrived if mine did. I'll see Leo, he must have seen her when she came here.

Tying the belt with Kallisto on my wrist, I got out of the closet, finding Val in my bed, with Chaos resting on his lap. Lazy dummies, and they dared to call ME, of all people, that! But it's not like I can say anything about it, they must be tired as well. It's too early, after all.

"You're gorgeous, Nat," I know.

"I always am," Chaos giggled.

{"Hm, are you humans always this humble?"} In response to that idiot, I only rolled my eyes.

"Shut up and let's go!" nodding, Val, who was also very dressed to train and with his sword on his hip, got up in a second and Chaos came to my side. "You're sure only the two of us can sense the power within you, right?"

{"Tsk, of course, I am, human. I know how to do things. You're the newbie one here,"} rolling his eyes, he met Val's who was laughing. {"And the same goes for you, kid."}

"I know," he said with a smile.

"Anyway, if you're sure, I believe in you," I held him tighter in my arms. "Now let's go. We'll train first and then we go downtown to eat our breakfast. Then we go back to training and after that, we'll have lunch. When we finish, we need to come back to the castle, because I'll have my archery class with Sir Leonard today," it was a good plan, at least we would be able to train a lot, once we are starting so early in the morning.

"I thought you wanted to take food with us," Val pointed smiling.

"Well, that was before. But I want to take you somewhere downtown before you are done after our training," he giggled but didn't protest it. "And it'll be good for Chaos to take a look around."

{"Indeed. We'll be training on that creepy woods you mentioned yesterday, right?"} Both me and Val nodded. {"Then we should be going now,"} we agreed and hushed to my door. Getting out of here as fast and silently as possible.

And when we were about to sneak out of the castle successfully, I sensed a presence near us and stopped, dragging Val with me and hiding behind some tall bushes. "What was that? Why are we hiding?" He whispered confused and when I was going to say something, Chaos did first.

{"Someone is coming this way, kid."}

Some instants after that, Val sensed it, his eyes wide open, "It's dad."

"Yes," I whispered.

"Where are you two?" He whistled. "Why are you hiding from me, kids? Do you want to play? I can sense you two around here," fuck, I keep forgetting how strong he is because it's been too long since I was near him after he died at my hands when I was seventeen. "Okay, okay, I'll play with you," Goddess, please, don't.

{"Your dad is somewhat stupid. He's pretending to not know where you guys are, but he already sensed our exact position,"} of course, he did. Dad is one of the strongest people in the whole Empire. And being born with both water magic and electric magic made him a very sharp and skilled guy, very much like Val, who inherited the electric powers from him.

"Oh, dear Mikla, where could these two be hiding?" At least he's trying to play with us. Too late, but he's trying. "Tasha? Lerian? Where are you?" I wish he could have been like this when I was younger and needed him by my side.

{"He's right above us,"} why does he keep stating the obvious? It's not like I can't feel dad's shadow towering over the bush we hid in.

Opening the bush, literally cutting it in a half, he found us and smiled proudly for that. I shouldn't feel warm after all he did to me, but I kind of did. My thirteen-year-old self just wanted a little of the attention he was giving me at this moment. But for me? Twenty-seven-year-old Natasha? I just feel sad because he's only giving me this now.

"Found you," unfortunately. "Where were you guys going?"

"Val kept asking me to teach him my way of swordsmanship, and I decided to do it," the lie came easily and fast out of my mouth.

"You know what, Nat? That's an amazing idea. Furthermore, why don't you get the Captain of the Grand Duchy Knights position? You are already a Dame, so, you just need to defeat Thorin, I'm sure you can do that. And he would still be the Second in Command of the Imperial Army anyway, so he would probably thank you for taking a burden out of his shoulders," no. I'll pass.

If it was back in the first timeline, before Dalilah started to manipulate me, I would have accepted it without a second thought, because that was my dream position. All I wanted was to become the Captain of the Grand Duchy Knights and then, later, the Second in Command of the Imperial Army. But not anymore. I have another goal now, another mindset as well.

Not to mention that this position makes you go to the front of the war, and I've been there. I do not recommend it. Part of the reasons I suffer so damn much with my ghosts and nightmares now, it's because I became a monster in the war.

I had no other choice. It was between killing them all or being killed. And I had to take care of it, mainly because the fucking war was very much caused by me.

"Thank you, father. But I'll decline the offer. I'm just going to train Val so he can get that position himself. It would be a burden to me, and it's not like I want to be all the time in the Leopenia anyway," he swallowed, disappointed and surprised by what I said last. "I'm a Duchess, remember? I may be here now, but I'll have to take care of my own territory."

But I'm sure he understands my reasons to do so. He may act dumb for many things, but Val and I inherited our intelligence from him, just as much as the color of our hair, and in my case, his eyes as well. And he doesn't have the guts to ask me to stay in the Grand Duchy forever.

{"He's sad,"} I know. But he must know that I'm not going to stay around eternally.

"Oh... okay... But you should pay more attention to your duties as a Dame now, daughter. Act more like one, and all of that. It would be good for you, you would gain more respect," that's what I am aiming for.

"That I'll do, don't worry, dad," he smiled again, gracefully handsome as always. "You're annoyingly handsome, father. You know that?" He laughed out loud.

"I do. You should thank the Goddess that you took after me. That makes the two of us annoyingly good-looking," well, that's true.

{"What a big pride he has, hm. I can see that your similarities go beyond your physical appearance. You both have an ego as huge as the magic inside of you,"} I can't disagree with that. {"And let me tell you, your father is extremely powerful. You must also have inherited that from him!"}

"I agree with that," Val spoke accidentally, making dad laugh more. He must have thought that Val was agreeing with him when he was referring to what Chaos said.

"Okay, okay. Now I'll let you two go. Take your horses with you, and come back after lunch. Don't forget that you have archery class today, young lady," he's finally letting us out of the hooker.

"I wouldn't dare," nodding, he petted our head and left us alone.

We waited for five minutes until we were sure that he wasn't around anymore. {"Damn, what a relief,"} that's surprising, coming from Chaos.

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