"In more advanced Martial Artist books, they're not going to start cracking on about Dantains or qi, are they?"
Lifting her hands towards the ceiling, she began to dissociate as she watched the sunlight pour through her fingers and reflect off her pale digits. Very fine scars criss-crossed her palms, creating a delicate silvery sheen that truly made her seem like porcelain at that moment.
"Delphina, just how hard did you work to get to this point. I feel like you'd shatter just from the reality of this. Or were you not that delicate? Was your character in the game just a warped reflection? Or did you go insane from what was happening beyond The Gates? Well, it's not like you can answer any more."
"Still girly, incest is a no-go".
Delphina burst out laughing as she finished with that bombshell, before her face darkened again. "I wonder if any of those Worlds ended up getting eaten, too."
"It's not something I should be reminiscing about right now, though. No one's knocked on my door just yet, shall we check out the Four Great Families for some light-hearted reading instead?".
Settling back onto the bed, Delphina practically dove into the next book she'd chosen to learn from next.
As the Sun reached its zenith, she was still reading through the few books she'd chosen. Brows furrowed and steam practically rising from the top of her head, the level of concentration was obvious. Letting out a profound sigh that even made some of the bed drapes move, Delphina finally rolled over to take a break.
"I can't, I need to write down some of the more critical points, or I feel like I'm going to forget. What is this, a literature exam?"
Chuckling darkly as she walked back over to the desk to compile more bullet points.
Yamino-Mareveil Imperial Family- in decline due to 'The Darkening'.De Velasques- Sword Masters, Information Network leaders, and Hunters for the Imperial Family.De Luna- the former strongest Mage family, went into decline due to traitors in the ranks. Leaders in studying The Gates.De Rios- Trade, artificers, and alchemists. Responsible for the magic-to-technology handover.Burgess- a lesser noble family raised into a Dukedom due to their contribution to Gate clearance during 'The Darkening'.The Heroes vs The Villains- created 'The Underworld' of Mareveil, basically responsible for a lot of civilian deaths and destruction of cities across The World. Probably caused the attraction of The Gap due to the power imbalance their presence caused.
Here, Delphina stopped writing briefly as her fingertips had started trembling.
"It's so much worse than what I thought. If they find out I'm not honestly Delphina, or even a Delphina who has remembered her past lives. That's it, they'll have my head on a god damn execution stage mainly because I'm a de Velasques- the scandal it would create would overturn the Empire."
The reason for her distress was one book passage in particular.
Seeing the turmoil that was beginning, the de Velasques and de Lunas stepped up to make their bloodlines the strongest in the Empire. To be able to combat the Vain Heroes and Terrible Villains.
After many years, the new leaders of de Velasques were regarded as the strongest Sword Master & Mage. The twin leaders took on the Impirical Order to execute anyone and everyone who was deemed to 'remember their past lives'. The de Lunas took a step back due to traitors appearing in the family (executed by Donovan de Velasques).
However, the magic tools their Ducal family created were saved from destruction, and finally completed to detect 'past livers'—courtesy of Maria de Velasques.
With the Impirical Order to find and execute Past Livers being known Worldwide, there was little pushback to prevent the executions. As the common people were the ones most affected by the Heroes and Villains, many took up arms and joined the Information Network or various knighthoods of the Ducal and lesser Noble families.
This turned out to be a stroke of luck, as shortly after the Worldwide Border Militarisation. The first Gate opened.
There was great concern as the de Velasques were focusing on hunting Past Livers. So, the remaining de Lunas took orders to investigate the Gate, albeit under the supervision of the knightage that had formed (the leading family was later given the Ducal surname of Burgess and awarded the title due to their contribution).
(The Four Great Families.)
Once again, Delphina sighed, this time fully hunched over the desk, head hidden in her hands. Dryly wiping her hands down her face, to the point of distortion. She slowly looked up at the decorated ceiling.
"At least the frescos on the ceiling make more sense now. I thought they were ostentatious, but I guess they were just historical depictions of War. Delphina, was this truly your taste? A bit morbid, I'll be honest."
"Heavens above, I feel like I'm having some severe mood swings, just writing a couple of points down has made me truly realise, this isn't a joke. I'm glad that basic bitch of a system managed to get through to some form of assistance."
"Supposedly, this family has never produced a 'past liver'. If, just if, I am the first one. I desperately need Delphina's memories so I can at least act like her better…"
Standing up and walking back towards the bathroom door, her forehead delicately scrunched up, making her seem slightly petulant due to her RBF. Thankfully, she did not seem childlike at all.
"Good point, how old is Delphina right now? When are their coming-of-age ceremonies? Has that already happened?"
Tilting her head as she reached for the bathroom handle, Delphina decided to leave these questions for whenever the 'systems assistance' arrived, having a bath after all that cold sweat was the best thing to do right now.
Unless there's magic involved, using baths is self-explanatory. There's a hot tap and a cold tap; if you run them at the same time, you can customise your bath water temperature. Who knew? It's a shame then that as Delphina spun the left-hand copper tap, soap came out…
As soap was slowly poured into the sunken stone bath, she stared blankly at what was unfolding before her. Her eyes drifted towards the tap that was to be turned next. What might there be this time?
Hopefully, just the perfect temperature water that would soothe her soul, because at this rate, common sense wasn't working, and it was starting to get to her.
It was sparkling water. Gentle tinkling sounds could be heard as bubbles formed in the soap layer and started to froth up in the bath generously. Steam began to rise as the water poured out, and for a brief moment, Delphina felt her shoulders relax.
"Ahh, I'm looking forward to a good soak, and it's only been what? Half a day… Have I ever dealt with something so mentally taxing before?"
Stripping off her sweaty nightdress and throwing it in the direction of what seemed to be a clothing basket, Delphina walked back towards the edge of the bath to test the water's temperature. Only to find that the foam layer that had formed was much thicker than expected.
Taking in a deep breath, she spun the right-hand tap more and decided to find a towel to wrap herself in temporarily.
"Isn't this just like if you accidentally put in too much soap in a washing machine? At least it's not going to overrun anytime soon."
With this, she turned and pointed at the bath, exclaiming loudly, "Hah, I've got you now!" and, as per the law of watching a kettle boil. The tub was at best half full of water. Shame the foam had started to practically burst at the seams of the bath, because she still hadn't turned off the left-hand tap.
Scrambling to fix her mistake, Delphina swiftly and successfully turned off the left soap tap whilst feeling incredibly embarrassed. Flitting around and finally finding where the towels were stored, she all but dove into the foam pit of a bath.
Sparkling water tap still running, she could at least get the foam to die down instead of spilling across the whole floor. It would have left a slippery mess if left unchecked.
"That would be pretty funny though…"