Is It Time For The Training Montage? Or Do I Get Answers?

On the way home that night, my parents walked about like normal. They talked about things around town and how glad they were they didn’t run into the Father leaving the church. When we got home, my parents sat down with me at the table. My mother begins speaking, “My Violet, I know that you have probably been trying to make sense of this situation. Everything from the history we have been keeping from you and our pasts. I want you to know we don’t want to keep these things from you, but we will tell you at the right time. Trust us when we say, it’s best that you wait until we tell you, before jumping to your own conclusions.”

My father continues, “We both know you are very smart and have been trying to figure out the things we hide from you. I know you try to eavesdrop on our conversations or read papers on my desk. All we can tell you is, we are a part of this Empire’s history. Due to this fact, we face dangers as a family that we have to prepare you for. Once we believe you are mature enough, we will tell you everything.”

Both my parent’s look at me pleading, I nod and smile with a giggle. My parents both look relieved to see me be so understanding, and they give me a hug. After these series of events, our schedule changed. Everything stayed the same except, after finishing their work, my parents each taught me different subjects. My father is focusing on literacy and water magic, while my mother is focused on alchemy and monsters. They decided that every month, my parents would teach me a new subject. It was a cycle, my mother taught alchemy and monsters, then hunting and weapons, after that she would teach light magic and noble etiquette and culture. My father on the other hand would always teach water magic and literacy, but cycled the third subject he taught. First it was math, which I excelled in, next was strategy, and finally was how to run a business.

When my lessons first started, I thought my head was going to explode, but luckily it was broken up into a feasible schedule. Monday and Wednesday would be my father’s day to teach, while Tuesday and Thursday would be my mother’s day. On Fridays, I could choose what subject to focus on, like a free day. Saturdays, we would go out as a family to town and do the things we normally did before. On Sundays, my mother goes to hunt, so my father does chores and I relax all day. There were breaks for a week, for holidays or a day I hit a milestone, like when I said my first words. It was strategically planned on a Monday, I really didn’t want to hear a lecture from my mother about noble etiquette and culture. I crawled up to her and looked her straight in the eyes, and said, “Mama”. She dropped the books she was carrying and screamed for my father, who ran to the living room so fast you would think she screamed bloody murder. My father looks at my mother and is confused, until my mother screams about me saying my first words. They were so excited, they decided to go to the bakery and buy a cake to celebrate.

The same thing happened when I learned to walk, but my parents were in opposite positions. My mother ran in, and my father was screaming like a little girl. It was hilarious, I made it my goal to always shock them when I could. With this, time flew by, and it had already been two years since I started receiving an education.

At this time, I could finally hold conversations with my parents and could move around well enough to begin practical weapons training in our backyard with wooden weapons. Mother would spar with me, but she would give herself the handicap of only moving her arms because she was a trained swordswoman. Father’s lessons started to include more magic theory and replaced math with an extended section of theory, since I learned math already from my previous life. My parents still don’t know about my previous life, and they still haven’t told me about the history of the Empire nor their involvement. This changed with a letter that came one in the early morning, delivered by my aunt, Aileen.

My aunt is out of breath, it was evident she ran here as soon as she got the letter because she was still in her nun robes from a prayer service. She waves a letter in the air, and she yells, “The Empress! The Empress sent you a letter!”

“What?!” My parents both said in unison, as they rushed into the living room, where I was greeting my aunt with a glass of water. My aunt hands the envelope to my mother and my father rushes to get a letter opener, my mother is in such disbelief she makes a letter opener with light manipulation and opens the letter. Rushing back to see my mother had already opened the letter, my father puts the letter opener on the table and walks towards my mother, reading the letter in a trance. “What does it say, Vivian?”

My father says, with a worried expression, the room is tense. No one is moving, until my mother breaks the silence with a deep breath in and out. “She wants us to come to the Interracial Summit in one week to be diplomats. She also wants us to bring Violet to meet her and the Crown Princess personally.”

“Vivian, you can’t be serious! You told the Empress you wanted to live a life away from the Capital’s political schemes. What could this mean? Edwin, help me out here, explain what is going on.” My aunt is in disbelief, and my father takes a deep breath and sighs. “I had a feeling she would need us sooner or later, but I didn’t think it would be this soon. Violet barely has a grasp of illusion magic, she can only turn her hair color from black to brown or black to purple.”

“Edwin, we can’t disobey a direct order from Her Majesty. We will come clean about her eyes only to her Majesty and trust that she will not use Violet until she is fully grown. That way, when Violet can fight against anyone, she won't be easily used by the royal family. We don’t have access to magical tools that can hide her eyes well nor do we have the dark magic books, we have to ask her Majesty. This is the only way, her Majesty has done many things for us, and we are one of her biggest allies. We have to trust that she won't try to utilize Violet as soon as we see her.”

“I trust her Majesty as much as you do, she is strategic. She won’t use a tool that isn’t ready to be used, but I don’t like the idea of my daughter being a tool used in the future!” My father is pacing back and forth, and my mother stops him. They stare at each other for what seems like an eternity. My mother breaks the silence, “You and I know that there are bigger dangers than the Empress knowing about Violet’s eyes.”

“That’s another reason we shouldn’t go! He will be there, and I don’t want him to interact with Violet. This is the same man that killed his own wife for giving birth to a son with blue eyes.”

“Edwin, to hide her, it has to be in plain sight. We have to have the tools from her Majesty to hide her eyes. In the end, we have to go.” My mother turns to me and smiles, it’s become a habit for my parents to smile to reassure me of something. My father sighs, “Okay, we will go, but we have to tell Violet what she’s walking into on the trip. Let’s start packing.”

My mother nods and runs over to give me a hug. I guess it’s finally time for me to know what they have been hiding from me. After two years of waiting, I finally can get answers.

The next day, my parents are packing up the carriage, and I’m saying goodbye to my aunt, who has to stay to continue her training as a nun. “I have a gift for you, Violet! Now I want you to know violence is never the answer, but if worse comes to worst, and you have to fight, make sure to incapacitate them.”

My aunt hands me a black box with a white ribbon tied to the top. I pull the ribbon to unravel it and slowly open the box to see a silver bracelet. I hold the bracelet in my hand, looking at it from all angles, but it just looks like a regular bangle bracelet with a golden mana stone in the middle. It had engravings that had lightning strikes intertwining with chains. It reminded me of bracelets from jewelry store ads I’d see in my past life. “It’s just a bracelet, Auntie Aileen. How is this supposed to help me fight my enemies.”

My aunt takes the bracelet from my hands and starts to summon a ball of light to surround the bracelet. The bracelet shines in her hand and turns into a silver lightning chain whip. “You can change the whip into a regular silver whip or a lightning chain whip. Light magic can be harnessed to become lightning. Don’t tell you parents I gave you this, and don’t use it on royalty or else you will be killed. Now you can shower me with love, kid!”

“Thank you, Auntie Aileen! I’ll use this well, and I’ll try to stay out of trouble.” I give my aunt a hug, and she stops summoning the light magic and the whip turns back into a bracelet. She puts on the bracelet on my wrist and I run to my father, who lifts me into the carriage. We waved goodbye one last time and the coachmen started moving forward.

My parents both sigh and look at me with a serious gaze. My mother starts, “Violet, we are going to tell you the history of the Empire along with our pasts. Please save your questions until after we finish.”

I nod in agreement and my mother continues, “When Edraevia was first created, it focused on the prosperity of the people living in the land. As decades passed, a government started to form, creating the Edraevia Kingdom. Royalty and nobility, along with the church, ruled over the land for centuries until the rule of the 15th Emperor, Ethanos Vale Edraevia. He was a selfish ruler, who plundered the people’s resources and under his tyrannical rule Edraevia fought many wars and made many enemies. In the process of conquering land, Edraevia became an Empire, but it came at a cost. The people rebelled against the Emperor and enthroned his brother, the only other living royal, that was a part of the main line. Decades went on, and the Empire was still at constant war, the people were angered by this and demanded an end to the violence. The 16th Emperor decided to step down and let his daughter become Empress to calm the rage of the masses. She was the first woman to rule over the Empire. The Empress stopped all the battles that we were fighting and called a retreat of all forces, with this the Empire lost many resources it had gained from the conquered kingdoms regaining their lands. This caused a divide amongst the nobles, creating the nobles faction, with the Mortem Duchy at the forefront. The Empress declared that there would be no more war and that we needed to usher in a time of peace and rebuilding, but the Empire was never able to recover with the lack of resources. Decades more went on, until the 20th Emperor Edward Collin Edraevia.”

My father cut her off and continued the story while my mother glared at him, “This part of history isn’t easy to tell, so I’ll continue. Emperor Edward loved entertainment and didn’t care for the people. He let the nobles take advantage of the people and let nobles break the laws put in place if they could entertain him. He became obsessed with beautiful women, the nobles would offer, and had many children. With the multiple heirs, he had an idea on how to crown the next Emperor from his children, a death game. The entire Empire became a battlefield of death and destruction, nobles chose sides and supported their candidates with weapons, money and assassins. It was the dark ages of the Empire, no one believed that a good Emperor would come of the fight for the crown, and they were right. This tradition continued for three more generations, until the least likely candidate tricked her opponents. That was the second woman to ever rule, Ellenia Alexandria Edraevia the first. She was strategic in her undertaking, being overlooked as a woman she would turn the heirs against each other, while gaining support of noble women. She finally won over the citizens through her work with the church. Once the last two heirs realized what she was doing, it was too late. They were both killed, and it signalled the end of the dark era, the Empress was the 24th ruler of the empire and married the Pope to usher in an era of peace.”

My mother holds my father’s hand and that stops him from speaking. They both stare at me to see how I’m taking it, while I stare at them with an expressionless face. My mother continues, “Although the Empress was cunning, she couldn’t fix the falling Empire due to the corruption taking place. She rooted out some main nobles and put them to death, but by the time her first son became of age, the nobles demanded he take the throne immediately. The 25th ruler of the Edraevia Empire, Lewin Devoré Edraevia, tried his best to please the nobles and sent nobles who had lesser crimes to become Priests as repentance. This caused corruption in the church because nobles would throw their power around the common priests and nuns. Emperor Lewin became very busy with efforts to rebuild the Empire to its former glory and couldn’t properly raise his heirs. Usually, the royal family does not let nannies raise the heirs because the nanny's family could have influence over the royal heir. He sent his daughter to live with his mother, Empress Dowager, and let his wife raise their son. The daughter was not loved by her mother, but was beloved by her grandmother, so much, so she was named after her. This is Ellenia Alexandria Edraevia the second. Then Princess Ellenia was known throughout the land for her intellectual prowess and care for the people. When the time came to crown the next Emperor, Ellenia was chosen, to the shock of her mother and brother. Her mother gathered greedy nobles and planned to kill her own daughter. Ellenia sought the help of the people and nobles, declaring to make the Empire prosperous under her rule. She gathered a team together, which included: the Saintess, a well respected general, a low level assistant of her grandmother, a wealthy merchant and the head of an assassin's guild. The team gathered support for Ellenia and helped eliminate her enemies. The assassin’s guild became her shadows, gathering information and killing nobles that supported her brother. The merchant funded her campaign through his businesses, the assistant aided her in making plans to improve the Empire, the general trained the knights that swore allegiance to Ellenia, and the Saintess swayed the masses. The Saintess accompanied Ellenia everywhere and spread the word that Ellenia was blessed by the Goddess to bring prosperity.”

My mother pauses as she starts to say something, my father cuts her off, “The Saintess was known for her kind blessings and her beauty, leading to her becoming the flower of the Empire. With all of these factors in place, Ellenia was able to ascend to the throne. Her celebration couldn’t last forever, and the nobles by her mother's side demanded prosperity. Empress Ellenia decided to wage a war, to the dismay of the people and to the delight of the nobles. At this time, Empress Ellenia had only planned to take over kingdoms that had fallen to monsters. The Empress’ team was hard at work to support the people, while the Empress dealt with the nobles. The subjugation of the monsters was fast thanks to the support of the Saintess and the general, but when we least expected it there was a monster wave flooding into the conquered lands, injuring the general. Without any reinforcements, the Saintess was forced to take up a sword to lead the survivors to victory. After this, the Empire beat the monsters and gained lands, the success of the war led to greed. It was inevitable that the nobles wanted more and those in the church were corrupt with those wanting power, so they found a way to change the Saintess' job title to Holy Paladin and sent her to wage war for the Empire. We go to war for five years and conquer land after land, but we come to a standstill with the Empire of Makaria, who has a better military. The troops still victorious come back with the Holy Paladin leading them. It is at this time that we find the nobles in the church using dark magic to change the Holy Paladin’s job title with the help of the current Duke Mortem. The deal was for the Duke to marry the Holy Paladin in exchange for the job change.”

My father chokes up, and my mother continues, “Empress Ellenia gathered evidence against most of the corrupt dealings in the church and put them to death. In the process, she made the arranged marriage null and void, letting the Holy Paladin decide who she wanted to marry. Now, I’m sure you have heard the current dilemma in the royal family is between the heir of the late Duchess Mortem and the heir of Empress Ellenia. Things are at a standstill for now, but the noble faction supporting the Duke and the imperial faction supporting the royal family are preparing for a civil war.”

I interrupted my mother, “Wait, I have a few questions. I’ve heard before that I would be in the middle of this civil war, I’m wondering why? Also, how does my father factor into this history? And how did you become the Saintess in the first place? How did you already know how to use a sword? What happened to the Empress’s mother and brother?”

My mother nodded and continued speaking, “I thought I said to hold your questions until the end, but since they are valid questions, I’ll answer. The Empress’s mother and brother are dead, but it is thought by the nobles that they are locked in a prison somewhere secret. As for my story, I was originally a merchant's daughter. It was only me and my father for a while, before he couldn’t take care of me anymore and left me at a church where they were having Saint training. This is where I met your aunt Aileen. They trained the girls to be perfect, with the education a noble woman would receive. I never thought I would become the Saintess, so I secretly dressed as a boy and learned the sword from the well respected general. This is also how I met her Majesty, we were friends and sparring partners ever since we were seven. While this was happening, I was still studying to be a Saintess. When the girls became of age 16, that was when the Goddess would choose her apostle in the form of the Saintess among us. I was chosen and heard her words as she blessed me with her divinity. I was so scared, I wanted to run away. No one would hear what I wanted to say, everyone in the church had already made the decision. I had to present myself in front of the nobility, so we could have continued support from the royal family and the nobles. The shock on her Majesty and the general's face was priceless when I walked in because they had just realized I was a woman the whole time. Her Majesty said I could follow my dreams of being a swordswoman if I joined her, and I did. I continued to train until I was better than any swordsman in the Empire. The Empress didn’t want to send me to war, but I begged her because I wanted to protect the general who had been like a father to me. In the end, I took up a sword and showed my prowess, but the church took advantage of me, and that’s how history goes.”

My mother smiled while telling me about her time with the Empress and the general, but stopped herself with a quick cough to clear her throat. My father looked at her to make sure she was okay and started talking, “My family was a branch family of the Mortem Duchy, but since we were five times removed cousins of the main house, no one paid us any mind. We were a Viscount family with a small village aligned with the nobles faction. We had already become bankrupt by the time I was ten, because of my parents overspending and my older brother’s indulgence in alcohol and women at the age of 16. My family was harming the village by raising the already high taxes to keep up with lavish spending, so I went to the Capital and became a low level worker in the palace to gain prestige to take the Viscount title away from my brother and help the villagers. After four years of working as a paper shuffler, I accidentally ran into Empress Dowager, Empress Ellenia’s grandmother. I begged her to take my family's title away and save the village, since I had not made any progress in moving up in the palace court. She took interest in me and granted my wish in exchange for me working as one of her assistants. After three years, she ordered me to aid Empress Ellenia in her battle for the throne as an aid and strategist. It’s also how I met your mother, since we worked closely to help the citizens and in strategies for fighting in the war.”

“Okay, so father was the assistant from the Empress’s team and mother was the Saintess later turned Holy Paladin. Is this why you were granted noble titles and new names? Also, how do I factor into the civil war?” My questions leave my parents surprised. I think they expected me to ask them more about their love life, but I can already guess that my father chased after my mother with his romanticism, and she fell in love. They both are bookworms, so I assumed the entire ordeal was embarrassing and very awkward, especially seeing that they were too busy for relationships given working for the Empress. They were probably each other’s first loves, like in my last life. My mother starts speaking, “Once your father asked the Empress to bless our marriage, she gave us noble titles. Originally, she was going to make me a Duchess, but we compromised at Count. After the war, she had given me a last name, but I never went public with it until I got married. The Empress blessed me with the name Virac, meaning flower. She was the one who started the rumor that I was the flower of high society, and it just kind of stuck with the nobility. The name Virac was very important to me, so your father decided to take my name when we married. As for your involvement in the civil war, I believe your father could better explain that.”

My father stares at my mother, I assumed because she just pushed off the most important point to explain to me to him. “Violet, as we are figures in history and a part of the Empress’s team, you would be expected to carry out our legacy and help the Crown Princess Leilani to the throne, but you have violet eyes. Your eye color represents the mark of the Mortem Duchy and shows you are in possession of Lucifer’s blood. Lucifer has powerful dark magic and as his descendant, you will have access to that powerful range of magic as well. The current main family of the Mortem Duchy can use dark magic, but not at its full potential like you could if you master it. If I were to use an example, if you could use dark magic specifically at 100%, then the main family can use it at 80% and branch families can use less than that. I can only use dark magic at 10%, this is the main reason why I can’t teach you to your full potential and need the spell books the Empress has to teach you. Back to the civil war, since you do have violet eyes, the Mortem Duchy would want you to marry into their family to create an heir with violet eyes. The dilemma is you would have to decide between the noble faction and imperial faction. If you serve the Crown Princess, you would support the Imperial faction and be used as a weapon, but if you marry into the Mortem Duchy, you would support the noble faction and produce an heir in the process helping the Mortem Duchy reclaim power to put the Royal Consort’s son, the Duke’s nephew, on the throne. Both factions would try to fight for you or kill you, making you the center of the civil war. We want neither of those things for you. We want you to live a happy life and be strong enough to choose your own path, this is why we have been training you. At this conference, it is imperative that only the Empress knows that you have violet eyes. If anyone else finds out, your future will be in danger and your potential and use of all elements will be seen as a weapon. Everyone must think you can only use light, dark and water magic, and that you are not special in any way.”

“I understand father, thank you for telling me this, and I will try my best to avoid trouble while at this conference. I’ll look at the bigger picture!” My motivation is cut short when my mother speaks up, “Violet, you always look at the big picture, which isn’t a bad thing, but you miss small details that could make the picture much more beautiful. You must also focus on the little things, don’t forget that.”

After that comment, I stared at my mother for a long time. I realized it was the first time I’ve seen her hair up in a bun since my last life. When she would go to work in her business attire and bun, before she lost her job.