The Belmeth Empire, or otherwise known as the Kingdom of Blood or Empire of War, is one of the three great powers on the Auren continent.

  It is a nation built upon cruelty, and blood, ever obsessed with the glory of war and the sanctity of bloodshed. They see war not as senseless violence but as proof of vitality, a crucible that purges weakness and elevates the strong.

  Of course, it wasn’t always like this. This crazy nonsense about war and stuff began after the current ruling house usurped the former.

  Yes, the Empire was founded centuries ago by a warlord who united warring tribes under one banner and forged an empire where honor was proven only through combat and strength, but that changed as time went on.

  For decades, they had become a peace loving nation. It was only after the Drachenfels family took over and reset Belmeth back a hundred years.

  At least that was the conclusion she drew on the bits of information she received.

  But that didn’t explain why he was on top of her right now.

  “Shhhh! For Stars’s sake, there’s no need to tell that to the entire forest”

  He whispered to her, his breath tickling against her cheek.

  Yor had barely exclaimed the word ‘noble’ before Elias suddenly crashed into her. Her back hit the earth as his hands clamped over her mouth, not allowing even a squeal to escape.

  Naturally, she was both surprised and confused by this. But even more than that she felt anger rising from her chest.

  ‘What the bloody hell does he think he’s doing?!’

  This guy had pinned her down like some wild dog out of nowhere, anyone would feel a bit of anger. Or it was just her. Still, her first instinct was to throw him off, maybe even clock him across the jaw, but she stopped herself.

  ‘Calm down. Don’t act on impulse’

  She exhaled all of that tension through her nostrils since her mouth was still blocked. Elias searched her blind eyes for any hint of understanding before asking.

  “I can’t have people in the village knowing I used to be a noble. Do you…do you understand? Please, don’t go around saying that out loud”

  Yor looked at his astris fluctuations for a bit before confirming that he was very serious about this. Whatever the reason he had, she didn’t want to know or get herself involved with such. And so, she gave him a single stiff nod.

  Only then did he slowly peel his hands away.

  “S-sorry, Yor. I shouldn’t have…”

  “Mind getting off me now?”

  Her brows knitted together.

  “Yes, right, of course, sorry”

  Just when he was about to push himself up, Agnes’ voice rang across the clearing with an amused tone.

  “Hold on there. I don’t think you kids are ready for that sort of action yet”

  Both of them turned their heads to the pair of Agnes and Arthur strolling toward them. For one dreadful heartbeat, no one said anything. Elias and Yor just stared at the two with stunned expressions.

  That was until Yor snapped herself back into motion. She shoved the boy off her in a flustered scramble and sprang to her feet. He stumbled up after her almost immediately.

  “It’s not what it looks like!”

  “We weren’t…uh, we weren’t doing anything!”

  They both blurted at once, their cheeks flared crimson. In response, the giant woman threw her head back and let out a loud laugh.

  “Oh, I dunno. Looked pretty plain to me!”

  Utterly unbothered by their protests, Agnes kept on teasing and laughing at them. However, that died down in the next instance, when Arthur said something.

  “Agnes. Behave yourself, will you? Such talk is crude and unbecoming for a lady. You’ll put indecent thoughts in their heads before they reach the right age”

  He clicked his tongue and shook his head.

  “Tansy would be disappointed in you”

  Agnes didn’t try to argue, she just surrendered with an apology and told Arthur to loosen up. Yor, however, wished the ground would split open and swallow her whole. Because right now, her face felt like fire.

  ‘What is wrong with me? Why am I even blushing? I’m not some green child. I’m supposed to be an adult. A grown woman! I’ve lived longer than any of them for crying out loud! I shouldn’t be embarrassed at stuff like this!’

  She clenched her fists at her sides, frustrated by the betrayal of her body. It was then that she realized what she failed to account for…

  ‘Hormones…this cursed little body. No wonder my face feels like it’s on fire. Ugh, this is ridiculous. I can’t even control myself!’

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  That was the only logical reason she could come up with. Despite her mature mind, she was still a growing girl. An early teenager. And that came with little control over the changes of one’s body.

  This is what it meant to be thirteen again. She had accepted her new reality but thinking about the stuff she went through as a teen in her old world added to the fuel of her frustration.

  Meanwhile, Elias rubbed the back of his neck, his astris radiating that embarrassed rose gold hue.

  “We weren’t….honestly, I would never…”

  Arthur patted Elias on his shoulder and told him.

  “If you truly wish to make Miss Drapes yours in the future. You’re gonna have to go through her older sister first. Can you…”

  “That’s enough! What the heck is wrong with you people?!”

  ****

  It didn’t take long before Yor was able to calm herself down for the second time this night. Due to this she was also starting to get the impression that maybe she had a short temper in this life.

  ‘Fuwaa…what’s wrong with me?’

  She sighed heavily, sitting on the ground with her head buried between her knees. She contemplated why her life came to this point and the answer was pretty much the same no matter which angle she tried to look at it by.

  It truly was hopeless.

  For a while she simply sat there by herself. Nobody bothered to check on her, not that she needed it but still. It would have been nice.

  Unknowingly, she found herself missing Marcille’s dotting nature. She raised her head and stared at the drowned chapel.

  ‘They’ve been gone for a while now. I wonder if they are ok’

  As heartfelt as her concerns were, this wasn’t the time to be worrying about others. Because right now, the waters of the black lake began to stir.

  Yor inspected the black waters for a while longer until her brows pulled together.

  “...That’s strange. I could’ve sworn I saw something move”

  It was quite now, the stir she thought she saw earlier turned out to be nothing. Or so she thought. She leaned forward a little, doing her best not to get as close as she was now.

  ‘No. I’m not imagining things. My eyes may not work but my perception is anything but normal’

  Her vision wasn’t sight in the way others knew it. She may have not been able to see faces or matter with vivid clarity, but she did see the weave of astris itself. The current that binds all things, living or otherwise.

  For her to see something that wasn’t there was impossible. Maybe it wasn’t as impossible as she thought because she still didn’t know much about this world.

  “But still, something’s lurking in there. I just can’t prove it”

  ‘Or maybe I’m just being paranoid’

  This was making her feel uneasy. She hugged her arms around herself and shook her head at the thought she had.

  “Yeah, no way. There’s no chance I’m getting any closer to that creepy lake. I’ve seen enough horror films in my old life to know better.”

  The smart thing to do in this situation would be to get someone more qualified to handle stuff like this, that being Duskfall. Turning away, she searched for the others.

  It didn’t take long before she found them. Not too far off, she spotted Elias, Seth and Silas huddled in a circle around Arthur. He seemed to be in the middle of explaining something she couldn’t make out.

  She was that far from them that even her enhanced hearing didn’t hear them properly. Also Agnes was nowhere in sight. She was probably scouting nearby.

  “I really did overreact”

  Yor muttered as she pushed herself to her feet, brushed the grass off her skirt and made her way to share her paranoia.

  At first, she strided casually toward them, a bit embarrassed about the way she reacted. But that went out the window the moment she stepped within earshot and heard something interesting.

  She immediately ran up to them, slowing down just before reaching the group then came to a halt. All of them turned their heads.

  “Um, evening…”

  She lifted a hand in a weak wave and curved her lips into an awkward smile.

  For a drawn out moment, they silently stared at her, unsure of how to react to her change.

  “Miss Drapes. Feeling better now? I noticed you’d gotten worked up earlier. Thought it best to give you room to gather your thoughts.”

  That…was considerate, but she wished that someone would have at least tried to keep her company instead of sitting alone in a possible monster infested forest.

  Yor scratched her cheek with her finger and gave a little nod.

  “I’m alright now. Thank you”

  With that settled, Yor wanted to tell them about the strange stuff happening in the black lake, but before she could…

  “Oi, Yor! Come sit here! You nearly missed it, uncle was saying all sorts”

  “Yeah, c’mon. We saved you a spot”

  …The twins interrupted.

  They shuffled over to give her room, almost fighting each other to make space until they left her a neat little spot between them. Yor hesitated for a moment before giving in, lowering herself down beside them.

  She had meant to tell them about the unease she felt a few minutes ago…but her curiosity got the better of her when she caught the tail end of their earlier topic.

  The twins just ignited her interest in it. She turned to the gentleman and directed her question at him.

  “What were you talking about? Could you start over again? About Sealed Techniques”

  Up until now, Yor had only seen and heard about the applications of Sealed Techniques. But she didn’t know what they were. In hindsight they just seemed to be superpowers with flaws.

  Now that she thought about it, that’s exactly what they are!

  Even so, she still wanted to hear this world’s version of them.

  “...Ah. That”

  Arthur looked at Elias first and said.

  “Learning about such at a young age is much more advantageous. You should have the credit of raising the question, Elias”

  The boy sat straighter at the mention of his name.

  “I—I just wanted to know…about that orange haired lady. When we encountered that monster, I saw her use a strange power. I've only heard stories about them, but I’ve never seen them before in person. I just wanted to know…”

  He raised his head to face Arthur.

  “How can I get strong myself!”

  He proclaimed, leaving everyone in silence. Meanwhile…

  Orange haired lady?

  Yor thought about who that was. Then it clicked when she remembered the part about a strange power. The lady Elias was mostly likely referring to must have been Temperance because she was the only one who displayed her Sealed Technique.

  ‘Orange hair, huh. I’ll have to take note of that’

  Since she couldn’t tell people by their physical features like the way others did, that went for their hair, skin and eye color. So descriptors like that mattered.

  Silas nudged Elias with his elbow.

  “You really don’t know anything, do you? Village people really are clueless”

  Elias tried to defend himself but was immediately cut off by Seth.

  “Yeah! Everyone knows about Sealed Techniques. When we beat big sis Marcille and join Duskfall, we’ll get ours too”

  The boys puffed their chests proudly like little roosters as they boasted. That made Yor almost giggle but at the same time she was equally curious.

  She raised a brow.

  “Is that really how it works? You just need to complete some trial? Like beat up someone, then you get your own Sealed Technique?”

  If it was so straightforward then why were there so many restrictions to using it? According to what Arthur told her, they had to fulfil some kind of condition before being allowed to use them.

  In other words, they couldn’t use them freely.

  Arthur chuckled at her question and shook his head.

  “That’s one way of putting it, but not entirely true”

  Hearing that made the twin’s shoulders sag immediately, they deflated.

  “Aww, really?!”

  Seth and Silas whined. Yor looked at the two with strange warmth and sighed. She knew it wouldn’t be as simple as that.

  ‘Sealed Techniques, huh? That’s worth listening to. If I’m going to survive in this world, I’ll need to know everything about them.’

  She smirked.

  ‘Maybe even awaken one for myself’