Assurbanipal_II
Empress of the Four Corners of the World
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2019
- Messages
- 1,943
- Points
- 153
Soo Villainous's Fortunate Event: A Price For Power
Written by @Yorda
Approved by @Leegood
Once upon a time, in the interstice between worlds, a soul drifted freely in stasis. None could say how long the soul had been there. Without the ability to perform cognitive thought it was merely an entity that existed as nothing more than a stagnant mass of memories.
Those memories were of a world known as "Earth" and the life of a fool. If one were to investigate the memories they would see a girl laughing "ohohoho" loudly into a mirror with sharp eyes. The girl was an incorrigibly obsessed fan of the prideful and arrogant female villains sometimes referred to as "the villainess". She was taken by the glamour of the character archetype. Confident, graceful, incisive, tragic, passionate, cunning, prideful, capable, and so many more different types of villainesses spun around like a dazzling carousel in the girl's mind. Fascination and intrigue, the girl was enraptured by an amorphous ideal that she envied, and thus that envy gave rise to a ridiculous pursuit. The girl endeavoured to become a villainess, and the story of a fool had begun.
Her odd obsession had motivated her to travail the trials of the villainess; she trained herself to obtain a modicum of the splendour contained within her ideals. Music, philosophy, politics, economics, demeanour, and erudite articulation, she dedicated herself to such pursuits vigorously. The girl had spent her life trying to change and trying to become. Her effort without a definite objective waned aimlessly until it ended as prodigally as it began.
That drifting mass of memories of a life so lonely and empty wasn't forever forgotten. It had been disturbed.
Gently awoken, a great mass of light addressed the hazy consciousness. Familiar words broke the tranquility, otome game, heroine, great darkness, magic, and reincarnation. The girl scoffed at the amusing story she heard and
"If I can be reincarnated I want to be a villainess!"
"Maybe I should work with the Abyssal Demon? Wouldn't that be entertaining! How evil! How nefarious! Ohohoho."
The great mass of light listened patiently to the girl's taunting and belittlement out of pity. After all, the girl hadn't yet realized. She was already long dead.
"Fine. I'll reincarnate you, but never forget to remember the words that I've spoken."
The great light grew even more resplendent. A timeless flash illuminated the interstice before all was once again returned to the void with the memories of a fool no longer able to be found.
* * * * *
Soo Villainous, a small-for-her-age redheaded girl, remembered staring at her bowl of soup. It was vegetable soup cooked in an earthen fired pot and poured into neatly turned wooden bowl with an accompanying wooden spoon. At four years she had been nothing more than the only daughter of a poor family until that moment. The warm liquid seemed to pull her into the faint sheen of oil swirls floating upon the surface.
Her parents had called out to their reticent daughter who wasn't eating her meal. Soo turned her head up to look up at them. She was perplexed. There was an anxious and scratchy feeling assailing the young girl's mind. That was the beginning.
It wasn't long before that same confusing feelings assaulted her once more. Her mother's face, a sewing needle, her father humming music, and more simple instances that outwardly seemed inconsequential would give her pause. The moments of perplexity began to increase in frequency. Ihe shorter intervals between events seemed to be culminating towards a singularity in her near future.
"You dirty mixed-blood."
A group of slightly larger children spoke out those cruel words, heavy words with an implication they were too young to understand, and shoved Soo harshly to the ground. Even Soo was too young to truly understand, but the animosity she felt directed towards her didn't need an explanation. Tears welled up in her eyes and she ran away from the jeers of her peers' callous game of ostracism.
She had run all the way to the edge of the lake. Under the cool shade of great tree branches she sat on an outcropping of rocks that reached to the surface of the lake.
Soo looked at her reflection on the surface of the lake. Dirty ribbons of cloth tied up her unkempt red hair. Her mottled patchwork dress was stained by mud. Her pointed ears and the sharp teeth she had were proof of her heritage. Soo was born to a mixed-blood beastkin father and half-elf mother. She was a child of outcasts.
Out of anger she struck the surface of the water that bore her reflection. She was angry, she was ashamed. As the ripples began to subside and the surface returned to its smooth exterior she looked again at the lake surface. The water reflected someone that was her and wasn't her. It was the face of someone familiar, someone dead. She was horrified.
* * * * *
Soo Villainous had remembered everything. Distraught and heartbroken she was forced to remember and live every day of her new life without being able to forget. No matter where she looked, the moment she opened her eyes in the morning to the moment she fell asleep at night, all of it disillusioned her. The humble hovel, the ragged dress she wore, and the sense of not belonging and alienation from her parents. She wasn't able to deny her life and she wasn't able to reconcile her feelings.
The nagging recollection of a dazzling light that once spoke to her as if in a dream now seemed so distant. Only fragments from that time remained in her mind. Those wisp-like memories were transient trails that seemed to threaten to vanish at any time. They cursed her to bouts of anxiety and compelled her to chase after them no matter how she came to doubt or suspect them. Fialoros Magic Academy, she had to go there.
However, Soo soon realized that she would never have the opportunity to attend the prestigious academy. The reason was simple, she was unblessed. Whether it was her pedigree or means, she had been hindered from birth, but Soo didn't give up; she couldn't give up.
Fear had been imprinted in her mind. The regret of a life that ended so suddenly and a dream she failed to fulfill weighed on her heart. She couldn't bear the thought of living another moot life only to have everything slip away again, so she tried everything she could conceive of to reach her goal.
Soo scrounged for food in the forest. She helped anyone she could with odd jobs to make a pittance. She became literate in the language of the island nation of Fialoros. Scrapping and begging she wormed her way forward for each coin attempting to charm whomever she could. She even begged a musician to let her play his instrument for money, which she received several kicks and denials until he agreed days later after her persistence came to fruition. Her hands shook nervously as she pulled the bow over the strings of the instrument. Years of being looked down on as a filthy lower class cretin had bared her from such activities, but once again she heard the crisp cry of music. However, it was still not enough.
Even her parents had given what little support they could. Without being able to understand their daughter they had been decent enough to support her. Soo's desperate actions and odd behaviour had estranged her from many. She had no choice but to apply herself fully for her goal. There was no time for doubt. Hard and cold were her actions, but still it was not enough.
A new day did come for Soo. Two well dressed men had appeared at the family's home. It was the chance of a lifetime, a scholarship offer for Fialoros Magic Academy. Soo's desperate attempts had finally paid off, however, Soo's parents were not so easily convinced. They had misgivings about the fortuitous change of fates, but in the end they couldn't deny their daughter who always seemed miserable the opportunity that they couldn't provide. So the parents unwittingly agreed despite the sensation that something wasn't right.
That day Soo thought about what she had done days earlier. How she had contacted less than desirable folk for money. How she had signed her name on a contract held in confidence without her parents knowledge. All of it for her dream.
* * * * *
Soo Villainous had entered the forbidding gates of the Magical Academy of Fialoros. No longer was she barred from entry, even if the privilege was only tentative and on borrowed time. Yes, it was her right that she had paid a heavy price for.
For the first time in her life she was clothed in good quality cloth, garments without the telltale signs of wear, mending, and patches. She walked without a hint of shame amongst the many fortunate and affluent students as covert black sheep among the flock. Soo smiled while thinking about the many poor village children that had once looked down on her. Where were they? They would never, even if they had tried, be walking through the white marble corridors like her. They were all left behind, along with her past, forevermore.
But not everything went her way. She didn't expect life to treat her differently than it had. Life was a impartial god that always promised death to all. How could she let down her guard against a entity that takes no prisoners.
However, when Soo thought about the god of life her mind naturally drifted to another divine entity. The Goddess of Light.
There was a chapel hall attached to one of the buildings on campus. Soo gazed up at the spire with her dark eyes and soon recollected herself before walking in. The hall was empty at the moment, so she freely walked between the pews to stand before the altar and the stone statue of the Goddess displayed just beyond.
She had often come to similar places of worship throughout the years seeking guidance. Struggling through life she had time and time again called out to the goddess for a reason why. Why was life so hard for me? Why did I have to sacrifice so much just to be here? Why did you never answer me? The long years of her giving effort without reason began to resemble her previous life. Soo had even had moments where she had retrograded to a state of forsaking and forgetting it all. Doubt of her own sanity and memories had crept over her from time to time.
Soo couldn't deny the resentful and bitter feelings she had. The overflowing feelings spilled out of her and resulted in blasphemous words towards the goddess catching in her throat. Just a smidgen more and they would have been vocalized.
Does only the heroine deserve to be happy in this world?
She turned to leave the chapel and had taken a few steps when a gentle voice like a calming breeze tickled her ear. It said wait.
Soo's long pointed ears were naturally a bit sensitive. She wiggled them for good measure before continuing to walk. Again she heard a gentle voice calling for her to wait.
She looked around unable to find the source in the still empty hall.
"Child, I remember you. You are one of the reincarnated."
She had been completely startled by a feminine voice that sounded right next to her.
Soo narrowed her eyes and cast her eye around fervently but could not discern where it originated from.
"I'm the Goddess of Light!"
"Ehhh?!"
The statue of the Goddess was shining! Soo doubted her optical nerves' veracity, after all, she had just foraged for mushrooms and could have made a mistake during identification. She had been very hungry and haste is a recipe for disaster ...
"It's not a mistake! I am the Goddess of Light!"
The voice came again despite Soo covering her ears. It was possibly even louder than before.
"That dastardly Abyssal Demon threw a shroud of darkness over you, which obstructed my perception! Good thing you came here and prayed otherwise the veil would have never been broken and your soul would have been lost for eternity! I knew I was forgetting something! Whew, that sure was close!"
A chill went up her spine. Soo didn't feel so good anymore.
"Goddess-sama?"
"Wait one moment. I'm trying to get all caught up on everything. Checking your memories and life ... oh dear. Oh no ... oh my! That's not good! You've been through some things haven't you?"
Soo didn't know how to reply. She decided to dismiss it as a rhetorical question and sat down on a pew before she fainted. Those mushrooms must have been really dangerous.
"At this rate the destruction of the world is getting closer! I think I can still fix this though ..."
In addition to the voice there also seemed to be some shuffling of papers, banging of wood, and the hustle and bustle of various articles being shifted around. Soo was reminded of the time that someone from her previous life's school had left the intercom on by accident.
"Let's see. I've got a few blessing left on the shelf over here, and a magic sword over there ... how about it? Oh, did I leave this thing on?"
Soo thought that was the case.
"Ehem, to combat the encroaching darkness of the Abyssal Demon who seeks to destroy the world I have selected various agents of light to act in favour of survival. Through great travails you have persevered to make it this far despite the capricious and vile interference of the Demon. I can bestow the blessing of my light upon you child if you still have the desire to continue on with this path. What dost thou desire?"
Soo's thoughts spun around in her head. Knowledge, villainess? Status, villainess? Wealth, villainess? Authority, villianess?
But what was the point of all that?
Soo had learned that life was far shorter than one would ever suspect. To pursue all things and divide her attention and effort was something that would result in her ineffectually amounting to very little. She wanted to go further in this life, to banish the indecision she had before. Soo already knew her choice the Goddess had merely given her the opportunity to speak it herself. It was the root of everything and determined everything. And now, she only had to give voice to her desire.
"I want power. Only power. Overwhelming power."
Everything else she could have ever asked for would have taken a great deal of time and the rewards would be subject to the meddling of others, but personal power for its own sake was something that could belong only to her and would bring immediate gratification. To dispel the weakness within herself that she was ashamed of and to forcefully appropriate her miserable fate, she only wanted power. Whatever glamorous path she foolishly pursued before, the path of a splendid villainess abusing her wealth and authority, was now just a broken dream. Soo believed with conviction that her decision today was steeped in realism.
"You poor child."
Soo couldn't tell what the Goddess meant by those words: the subtle implication behind them eluded her. Was it compassionate sympathy or disappointment?
"If that is truly what you want then I will grant it to you. Whether it brings you happiness or misfortune, you will bear the weight of your wish."
Soo was prepared to accept it. She was no longer indecisive and accepted that all choices led to uncertainty. Perhaps no choice was perfect, but this time she at least did not want to be the same weakling she was before. She begged for power to comfort and console her, to banish her insecurities.
"However, I will give you one bit of advice. It's a little past the expiration date so I can't absolutely guarantee the effects and efficacy. Well, let's just do it anyways, right?"
Even if the world was saved from the Abyssal Demon and the heroine was able to obtain her good ending what ending would Soo receive? She had now placed all her fortunes in the hands of such a goddess.
* * * * *
Consumed x1 Fortunate Events
0 Fortunate Events Remain
Received x1 Degraded Blessing (Buyer Beware)
Consumed x1 Degraded Blessing
0 Degraded Blessings Remain
Obtained: Dark Magic Affinity Boost
Obtained: Increase Magical Talent from Average --> Above Average
System Warning: Unintended Anomaly Detected
* * * * *
System Warning:WalnutSeed of Evil Has Germinated
I AM HERE! WHATEVER HERE MEANS! *Aurora dashing in*
