"Well done."
Ayesha got up from her sit and approached me, ruffling through my creamy white hairs, she praised me with a smile.
"Thank you, aunt Ayesha."
I also responded back with the same smile.
Hearing me call her aunt, I kind of felt a bitter sensation inside her.
Oh, I forgot to mention, when I am close with people... I am now able to perceive their emotions and they are spot on. It is not that hard to guess why is this, right?
But I didn't dwell on it longer, I cannot change the bitterness inside her.
Looking at my rough hands, filled with scars... I felt a sense of accomplishment. Why you ask?
Looking back on my past life... it is filled with almost all bad memories. From a young age, I wanted to live a peaceful and happy life, free of any problems, with my family, marry a girl that I love and wanted to have that life continued even after I die. But all of that was wishful thinking... reality was much different. But now...
I might have lost my old self... the demon king... a title that only symbolises the destruction and evil... I might have lost it now.
The rage i once had... it is hard for me to find it inside me.
I have a mother who loves me dearly, a little bit too dearly, an aunt who is loaded as fuck and can bring me anything I want, hate to mention her in such a way, but a secret admirer or maybe a foolish girl... my sister, Setsuna. Feels great to be surrounded by so many woman's, they do fight sometime, not literally but it is clear... but maybe this is the kind of life that I always wanted to have.
[Did you forget abou-]
And a clingy seductress who is also a pedophile, who has been eyeing on a child from his birth.
[You are not a child.]
I am.
[If I am a pedophile, then what about your mother? Isn't she the same?]
She is a mother, if a mother doesn't love her child then who will?
[Stop lying to yourself, husband. One day, i will make you mine for sure, you already are though. But do not think I don't know how you look at her.]
How i look at her?
[Do you take me for a fool? I know you better than you know yourself, so do not try to fool me.]
Yeah, yeah, you are an all knowing goddess.
She kept on blabbering things, but I ignored her.
She isn't annoying and to be honest, it's fun to tease her. I would consider her as a fun companion, though I do not have such feelings towards her that she is implying, at least yet.
These are all i have in my life and people that I have feelings for... but the question still lingers in my mind, will everything be the same once they know who I really am?
Setsuna and Zixane will stay the same, but about mother and Ayesha...
"Eleanor said she is going to bring something for you, she must be arriving soon." Ayesha said to me.
I nodded at her.
My training for today was over, but mother said she has a surprise for me. She went out to being something and hasn't came yet.
What could it be?
Just as I wondered about what the surprise that she mentioned was, I felt something and turned to look at the sky, Ayesha felt the same and she also looked towards the sky while wrapping her arms around me and casted a barrier around me.
She was so fast that I wasn't even able to see that.
But we sensed wrong, that wasn't an attack at all, but she still didn't disipate the barrier.
I could feel the tension building up in her, her face looked pained.
The sky had turned golden. Divine lights from heaven appeared on the mortal plane.
These lights... I have seen them before.
"Someone is ascending..." Ayesha whispered to herself.
Ascension... yeah, i remember. This is the same phenemona that occured when I was ascending.
But who could it be?
And why would Ayesha have tensed expression if someone was ascending? Isn't it a good thing for her if a transcended being joined their faction?
Could it be that she is afraid if the later is the enemy of the faction?
Even though, all the races and regions have allied and formed a union faction called the United front, not all are in favour of it.
Some hold grudges against them or simply fo not wish to be part of them, and few even are my followers, even though I never created them.
Followed by the golden lights, the stairs of ascension appeared in the sky.
I couldn't see anyone on that stairs... I still wasn't strong enough to see who it was.
But Ayesha must be able to see it, right?
I turned to look at her, but she wasn't looking at the stairs at all. There was a emptiness in her... her feelings were muddled. Is something bothering her?
Maybe I should ask.
"Aunt Ayesha, are you hurt?"
"Hmm? Why would you say that, Ravi?"
"It's just, you seem sad."
She gave me a soft smile and pinched my cheeks. Don't know why she did that.
"Oh, now you can read people's face too. I am not sad, just... a bit disappointed in myself. You do know about the war that is ongoing, right?"
I nodded my head.
"We are in very need of people like him. Oh, you may not know about what's happening, right? That golden light you just saw appears when someone is ascending, meaning reaching a new rank, and when they are doing so, that stairs which is visible right now appears. There are a total of thousand steps there and the farther you reach, the more powerful you will be."
How? I do not have any idea about that.
"How is it related?"
"The rank from 1 to 8 are called mortal ranks, after reaching the peak of the rank 8, you can ascend after realising or learning about a law. The farther you travel the more knowledge you gain about the law that you will master, many people reach the few hundred steps and couldn't continue after that, but till now I have not heard about anyone reaching the 1000th step."
'Even mother, who has transcended only reached 865th step and couldn't continue further. Sigh, the whole world, then faction wants me to ascend and here I am, who is still stuck at the rank 8. Elven princess, Strongest healer, saintess favoured by the goddess and what not... but here I am still stuck on the same realm for years without any progression.'
So the more you climb the stronger you become.
Hmm, and what if someone dies on the very first step? I wanted to ask this for a friend, but refrained from doing so.
I once again looked at her, only to find that she was back to her gloomy self.
At that time, I had no idea of what was going on inside her mind.
After that, we both went inside.
The maids has already prepared the food for us, my food included the white and creamy liquid as well.
As we were having the food that was ettiquettely served before us, mother arrived.
She was actually out to capture some beasts for me to practice. Just practising with the dummies won't be enough for me, only real beasts will provide me with enough experience.
I could have just hunted the beasts down that should have been hanging around the forest that surrounds the castle, but mother actually wiped out every single of them when she came here.
Even without her mana core, she is still strong and with her experience, she can fight well.
If I have to estimate, her strength should lie around rank 6 mid or high. It can be above that but definitely not below.
After that, mother and Ayesha went inside to talk about something. They closed the door so I wasn't able to hear anything at all.
I was now alone, with only Setsuna inside the same room. Nowadays, I feel scared of her... why?
When we are alone, she doesn't miss an opportunity to bite me. Not like she tears apart my meat, but she bites on my ears, sometime on my neck too and licks her tongue improperly.
Even now, she is standing, like a good maid, but that foxy smirk on her face tells me that she is onto something.
'Seems your peaceful life is about to end, dear brother. Be prepared to turn back the demon that you once used to be.'
***
Thanks for reading everyone.
Hope you liked this chapter. Do tell me your thoughts on comments. And what do you think who could be the one who ascended just now? Try to guess if you want.
Stay tuned for more...