No good, I have to show some guts. Alisha cleared her throat and decided to start afresh.
“I, wu,” She bit her tongue, “I, I have the right– As the rightful owner of Molan, who is my private property, to know everything to do with him. I therefore beseech Miss Tina to tell me why you are looking for Molan. Ah, Miss Tina may leave out any details which might violate Miss Tina’s privacy but I hope you can tell me anything else that pertains to Molan.”
Hu. Alisha breathed out and relaxed after finishing her speech in one breath.
However, Tina completely ignored her.
“M, miss Tina?”
“…”
“Geh, umm.”
“… (very small sip)”
Alisha was mad to the point where tears were starting to form.
What is this! She completely ignored me!
Is it because she feels there’s no need to! That I’m nothing and she can’t even be bothered to pay me any attention at all! That she doesn’t respect me, a princess!
Fine! It’s always been like this anyway! No one ever gave me the respect a princess ought to receive!
Nobody cares about me!
Nobody… Cares about me…!
I wasn’t born with good looks.
My magical talent is average.
I wasn’t endowed with the intelligence my third elder sister had which enabled her to be a scholar.
Daddy doesn’t have any high hopes for me. He appointed all my other siblings to important official positions but all he gave me were dolls.
On my birthday, my third elder sister couldn’t find time and nobody else came either. You still have Molan, who is wracking his brains out trying to prepare a present for you, while all I can do is blow out the candles myself and wish myself happy birthday.
At international liaison parties, all my elder sisters are so beautiful and all my elder brothers are so handsome. Retainers, officials and nobles all surround them while nobody pay me any heed even though I put in so much effort to dress up.
Mother spent her whole life in the inner palace. Even when I got sick, she would never come. The maids would constantly laugh at me behind my back while all I could do was to pretend that nothing happened. My third elder sister who promised she wouldn’t leave me is now marrying to someone in a faraway land without even thinking of me. The boy I like says that I look weird in hairpins. Nobody likes me, nobody loves me!
I’ve worked hard, for the sake of being liked by all of you. Even though magic proficiency is heavily reliant on inborn talent, I still keep my nose to the grinder and studied hard. I’ve always followed royal etiquette and watched my manners and clothing. Every day, I put on make up and iron out every crease in my clothing, in the hopes of looking every bit more beautiful. I always read the reports that the high officials give to daddy every week and use any chance I get to show the fruits of my learning to daddy so that his opinion of me will improve…
But all daddy gave me was a doll.
Why… Does he not care about me?
“Your braids are very cute.”
“Eh?”
Alisha rubbed her eyes which were filled with tears, “What?”
“Your braids are very cute.” Tina repeated as she looked at Alisha and smiled.
“…!!” Alisha grabbed her cup and downed several gulps at once, choking in the process and coughed as she took Tina’s handkerchief and wiped her mouth before returning to her.
“T, thanks.” Alisha said with reddened cheeks as she lowered her head.
— How do I describe this feeling?
I am thankful to her for the handkerchief, and also for the praise.
My original hairstyle was twin tails but I specially braided them today. I’d done it before a few days ago while preparing for school and it was very troublesome but the outcome was very good and I was confident about it. I was anxious about what Molan thought about it but he didn’t say anything when we left the room. He didn’t say anything when we left school. He didn’t say anything when we boarded the carriage. And he didn’t say anything all morning at the market either.
I held hope the whole time but was disappointed the whole way.
You deserve it! Alisha scolded in her heart. Not being able to see Tina’s smile is your punishment.
Alisha did her best to suppress her raging emotions and piped up, “Mo, Molan is really taking his time huh?”
Tina got up, “Can I touch it?”
“Eh? Touch what!?”
“Hair.”
“P-p-p-p-p-please go ahead.”
Tina staggered over to Alisha’s side and sat down beside her. Only now did Alisha notice Tina’s injury.
“Did you get your ankle injured?”
“I hit a rock when I jumped over the gates.”
“Do you need any medical attention?”
Tina shook her head and reached out to touch Alisha’s head.
Didn’t you want to touch my hair? Why are you touching my head…
It was soft, comfortable and a little itchy. Alisha slowly relaxed as Tina caressed her head with her soft hands and let Tina did as she wanted.
Only several minutes later did the guard who was watching over the toilet run over and inform Alisha that Molan wasn’t in the toilet.
As my classmates said, the me on earth is a lonesome fellow.
I don’t actually buy this 100%. There are extroverted people so there will naturally introverted people who, unlike the former, lose energy when spending time with others. I belong to the latter, and when I have lost enough energy in social interactions, I need to be alone to regain energy. This is something very normal but because of the biased view of some people, I’ve been branded as a loner.
When I was in my senior year in middle school, I proactively engaged my classmates and even volunteered to be class vice president. It was a really hectic year and in the end, I wasn’t suited to such a lifestyle so I reverted in high school.
Well, all of this was just the lead-in. What’s next is what I really want to say.
Have you ever been bullied in school?
Normally, students with good grades don’t become targets for bullying. This is something I only realised in high school. Middle school Molan was thin, dark and secluded in the last row of class. His grades were lousy and he was a lonesome fellow. Teachers don’t pay him any attention and his classmates don’t get along with him either.
This kind of fellow is the most suitable target for bullying.
The first time was sophomore summer in middle school when I returned to class one afternoon to find my bag filled with spit. I know who did it because they prevented me from leaving when school ended. My decision not to seek redress from the form teacher only emboldened them. They would extort money from me and when I said I had none, they would take turns to slap me. Hey, it’s not like I’ll magically have money if you hit me hard enough. Then someone said that if it would be obvious if they hit my face and so they changed to other parts of my body.
This wasn’t the last time and it was a very dark period in my life before it got found out. My wounds never got the chance to fully heal and I always had fresh wounds so I had to wear long sleeves even when it was 30-40 degrees (Celsius) so that nobody would see the bruises.
In the end, the class president found out and told the teachers. The 4 bullies were expelled and my mother came to school, scolding, crying and destroying various pieces of furniture while the principal and my form teacher bowed deeply and apologised to her. When we left, the class president took my hand and asked me why I didn’t tell anyone.
Because I was afraid, I said to her.
Actually, I was lying.
— If I told the adults, I would lose my opportunity for revenge.
It’s truly regrettable, as my plan for revenge was almost coming to fruition but the bullies were all gone.
How can this be? It doesn’t make sense at all. Those kids who hurt me weren’t punished by me personally. Whoever bullies me will get bullied by me in turn.
If you want to kill me, I will kill you before you can kill me.
I’m right, aren’t I?
Magic attack? Fire serpent? It’s more like an earthworm. Go ahead and burn all you want.
I see you decided to revert to your physical weapon now that you see magic doesn’t work. Here, I’ll let you stab me thrice, no, how about 5 times? Well, it’s not like I can’t let you stab me 10 times actually but your dagger broke after your first try so there’s nothing I can do there.
There’s no way you can compete with me in terms of leg power. The me now can reach speeds many times that of top Olympic sprinters so just give up trying to run away and just kneel and beg for mercy.
But even if you really do kneel down, I won’t forgive you. Live by the sword, die by the sword. If you don’t even have that bit of resolve in you, what are you doing becoming an assassin?
Let’s start with the right arm, shall we?
This reminds me of Gundam models. I collect a lot of Gundam models. I don’t have that many now though, as some were broken by my dad who sat on them and some were lost when we moved houses. Do you know about the Wing Zero? My cousin broke off its right arm.
Just like this.
Bear with it, next is the left leg. What do you mean stop? You didn’t say such things when you were doing this to me. Next is your forehead. Let me use your leg for a bit. 1, 2, 3, boom!
Ah, it flew out, the neck is too weak.
Hai, it’s no fun at all. You’re too weak. You’ve died before I could have my fun, even though you were acting so cool before when you said you would kill me.
You don’t know your place, tch tch tch. Your race is all like this. Just because you flipped the tables once, you forgot fear? Keke.
“You despicable humans.”
It seems like I forgot about something? Maa, it’s probably not important.
The weather these past few days has turned cold but it’s still not to the degree where one would wear ear mufflers. Moreover, one does not wear ear mufflers while wearing cooling clothing. And so, passers-by were baffled as they saw 2 golden tourists running through the streets in this sort of garb.
One was tall, one was short. One was a young man, one was a little girl. Both were exceptionally good looking and had white, untainted skin, with long golden, flowing hair tied at the back. The reflection from the sun was so bright, it seemed like it could light up an entire district.
Were they nobles from somewhere? Gossip arose wherever they passed through but the 2 tourists ignored their surroundings.
Just then, the tall young man bent down so that he could better hear what the little girl said, “Is it this way?”
“Yes, it’s this road in the dream.” The little girl– Tess nodded, her ice cold face filled with fear, “Big brother… Just ahead…”
“Alright.” Zkocha said as he carried Tess and used lightning magic to accelerate himself.
“Humans!” He roared out towards the street gawkers, “Flee now if you don’t wish to die!”
Before the sound of his voice faded, they both disappeared from the streets and everyone around looked at each other, unsure how they ought to react.
When they reached the scene, Zkocha immediately covered Tess’s eyes. But it’s no use, Zkocha thought, Tess has already seen all pf this in her dreams.
The buildings in this area weren’t painted red. And the troops which patrolled the area, passers-by and stall owners were not splattered all over the place like this either.
Amidst the gore and nauseating stench, the culprit sat cross-legged on the ground with a woman in his arms. He was currently eating her from her shoulder and looked like he was enjoying a delicacy.
There was a large hole in the woman’s chest. Looks like her heart was eaten much earlier. When she died, her eyes didn’t close, and her look of terror was etched into Zkocha’s brain. Anger poured out of Zkocha as he frowned, sending sparks out of his body.
“You weren’t this hideous the last time I saw you.” Zkocha spat out.
The young man was covered in scales on one side of the body and a horn protruded from his forehead. He looked up at Zkocha with blood red eyes and licked the blood on his lips with a serpent-like tongue.
“Ah,” He said in the same hoarse voice as the youth, “I remember you.”
asd398 