Chapter 31 - Sneaking Out

A few days later, my package had arrived. The clothes that I had designed myself had come. they would become bigger as I would increase in size too meaning I would never grow out of them which is what I liked. My family seemed to be worried for me though as they referred to the clothes as 'too masculine'. I didn't heed them much thought since I liked it the way it was.

The Clothes I had designed were a long trench coat that would reach my the middle to the upper part of my calves. They were pitch black with outlines of gold one inch think on inch away from the edges of the coat. The coat would split into 3 ends when reaching my belt area to give me more manoeuvrability within them. It had a hood that was optionally put there. The collars were long enough to reach the bottom of my ears and cover half of my hair at the same time. The collars can be folded to look a lot smaller and to also allow me to put the hood on. Inside all of this i wore a black shirt with golden outlines of the same designs as the trench coat and the same going for the pants (trousers) and shoes.

The inner parts of every on of the clothes was the a gold with a black outline of the same design. this gives the option of changing the colour of your clothes on the go which the shows just needed a simple imprint of mana to change from majority black to majority gold. To me, it looks amazing, but to my parents, not so much. They seemed slightly pissed off at the fact I didn't like the clothes they had gotten me but I didn't pay their complaints any heed.

For the next few days I kept asking my mother if I can go out to hunt again but she kept saying no and that it is "too dangerous" for me. I would spend most of the daylight hours with my tutor and since my mother had forbid me from training with dad, I had nothing to do. Aroura already had too much work on her hands trying to get ready for her apprenticeship in summer by forging a few amulets and rings she might be able to show her teacher/ boss to allow them to see what level she was at and estimate how long it might take to teach her.

My brothers were just annoying so I always ignored their complaints. Since my birthday when I had gotten then knife and the gloves they had been acting more annoying than usual. They would call me name like "Attention beggar" or "waste of space". Even though I just wanted to ignore them because they are just kids after all, it opened some old wounds from my passed life that hadn't closed off properly. I complained to my parents one or two times but all they would get is a short scolding followed by a "now shake hands and say sorry". Parents don't seem to think that children's words can be shallow with no meaning. Just like adults, children are equally if not more cruel to each other and lying eventually becomes second nature to them. Heck, even I can spout the largest bullsh*t without batting an eye.

One thing I did realise though is that my grandma had become less strict on me since the day that we almost got exposed. My mother had seemed to forget about the whole drinking thing right after that women, WhatEverHerNameIs, started ranting about how they didn't bother to raise me properly. This automatically took most of the blame off my grandma and she seems to have appreciated the tactic and ingenuity I showed.

Anyway, I would spend some time with my father every day but we wouldn't really train. he would give me tips but he wasn't allowed to physically help me train. All I could do is follow the routine he gave me back when I was training with him. Me and my mother would however spend more time together every week due to the fact she would take me out to shop in the inner districts of the town. She tried to help me make friends with the local girls in the area that were close to my age to no results. I was simply too uninterested by the children my age who seemed to care about clothes, fashion and the local drama.

I kept asking my mom to allow me to spend time with Throid and Alan but she kept saying they aren't my friends but rather that they are a bad influence on me. I understand that they are probably a bad influence on a any child and I also don't see them as my friends either but they were the next best thing. I see them as companions that have my back, so its only fair to have theirs. Plus, their uncaring attitude is quite refreshing making them good company when my sister was too busy. My dad had to work for most of the day and would only come back when the sun had already set so I didn't get much company with him unless it was the weekend.

After another of my mothers failed attempts to make me give half a sh*t about whatever the local kids were bickering about she gave up. Clearly I didn't have interest in people who would care more about the colour of their flip flops than using their brains.

"Pandora, you can at least try making friends! If things go on like this you will be lonely until your and adult, and then there is no way back! Cherish these days before you regret not doing so."

Eh? Why would I? These kids are annoying as hell. Making me try and communicate with people who's brains haven't fully developed yet might as well burn half of by brain cells in one fell swoop too. I might kill them before that happens though, she said it herself, people I am around will have either a good or bad influence on me. These kids will totally make me lose more than few braincells whenever I try to make sense of any of the sh*t they try to explain to me. It's not that they are too clever for me, its just that their logic makes such little sense that I would have a better time talking to an ant.

"These kids are annoying mom. They just talk about boring things like clothes or what kind of boys they like the most" I replied to my mom in a deadpan face

"YOUR A KID! Come on Pany, why don't you at least try to talk to them? For me?" My mother half whimpered half smiled at me.

I sighed and walked towards the kid. I was wearing the trench/over coat that I had used on of its features to fold it in to make it look more like a jacket than an overcoat. I walked towards them and they seemed to have no environmental awareness since I was less than 1 meter away when less than half of them realised that I was there. They started pointing out to each other that i was there before they were all aware of my presence and started to stare at me like an animal at the zoo.

From my perception awareness and my soul flame being able to locate any other soul flame within 40 meters, I could see my my mom was all tensed up since her soul flame was almost frozen while making small yet fast pulses as if it was a heartbeat. It's light was flickering slightly showing that she was probably stressing out.

"Hello, what's your name?" asked one of the girls who was clearly the leader while walking towards me with a smug face.

"Pandora" I said with a monotone voice

"Pandora? Like panda-rah.... HAHAHAHAHAHH" every child started to laugh at the joke while I inwardly cringed at the fact that I was born into the same generation as these kids.

"What's your name?" I asked while curling up my lip in cringe and disgust at the idea of hanging out with these kind of people.

"Aria Dallas" said the girl with a smile. She had bright emerald eyes and brown hair with highlights of blonde reaching down to her waist. She had a childish oval face with thin eyebrows. She probably is the same age as me yet she is a good head shorter than me making her intimidation tactic pathetic at best. she had semi tanned skin olive coloured skin that showed how much time she spent outside.

The girl extended her hand towards me followed by a burst of my mothers soul flame indicating she was happy for me. hm hm… too naïve. The girl stared at my eyes while her soul flame screamed at me with confidence. Everyone else was staring at me, even the adults around 50 meters away. They were clearly the parents of the kids in front of, yet I was more worried at the fact that after the initial outburst of happiness, my mother started walking towards them. I can't ruin my mom's fun right? BULLSH*T! SHE'S RUNING MINE WHY WOULDNT I DO THE SAME!

Oh for f*ck sake. Oh well, its not like we are going to stay here too long. I better get used to this or ill have to argue my way out of ever meeting kids the same age as me again.

I shook the girls hand, yet for some reason I could feel ill intent behind it. It didn't make much sense to me until I saw her shocked face then struggling face. Everyone else's smiles were wiped away from their faces and were more confused than anything.

Oh! She's trying to squeeze my hand... Wow.... this is truly pathetic, should I just give her the win this time? I feel super bad... Oh look she's using two hand now! Maybe I should just pity the child and give her the win while taking the humiliation. They are kids after all... Thank god my body isn't as weak as these kids. Maybe I should thank my parents for their geneti-

"WHAT THE HELL!" Shouted the girl while letting go of my hand and derailing all my thoughts at the same time...

Damn, Loud as F*CK!

"WHAT KIND OF METAL IS YOUR HAND MADE OUT?!" She asked while pointing at me as if i just killed someone. I replied by pointing my index finger at myself while paying attention to the soul flames closing in from about 40 meters away.

I immediately looked at them just to see my mom look disappointed and the mothers glaring at me as if I just pissed on their front lawn.

What the f*ck did I do to deserve this? This is why I will never go out with my mom again. I'm just going to sneak out next time when she is too distracted or whenever they are asleep. Maybe then I'll finally be able to hunt alone or even try using magic on beasts and animals in the forest. They would make excellent test subjects for my magic.

"What is the matter Aria? Did this girl hurt you? Why is a girl older than you playing with you kids?" Said a women who looked to be in her mid thirties, yet age is decisive. A wise man once said 'Don't judge a book by its cover'!

"Pany! What did you do!" asked my mother just for me to shrug. I really don't know what I did wrong. I didn't even hit the kid let alone touch her of my own will. Technically she was grabbing my hand so I'm the victim, but nooo... They will somehow find a way to blame m-

My thoughts and eye roll were cut off when I felt a huge shift on my hand. It was the same girl, Ara I think her name was, trying to squeeze my hand. I looked her with the most unamused face I could muster before asking "What are you doing?" with emphasis on the "you".

"What the potato is your hand made of?! I'm using all my strength, y-yet... y-y-yet it still WONT WORK!" Aro said while her eyes started to full with water.

Wow! This is pathetic beyond belief. Maybe I shou-... Nah, no point in doing that. You learn to not play with fire when it burns you. You know not to play with knives when they cut you.

I quickly shake my hand off her grip while narrowing my eyes at the adults who were staring at me with nonchalant faces now. Her mother seemed to be the only one able to keep a grudge on me. I did nothing wrong but I know these adults are no better than children. If you're going to act like children I might as wall treat you like children. How the hell did this society not break down by now with so many D*CKS in power? Does power really change a person that much?

"Apologize to my daughter" said a women with the same hair and eye colour as... Ayra?

"She did nothing wrong mom! I was trying to welcom-" Ayro said while trying to explain what happened to her mother just to be cut off with a loud shout

"DON'T YOU DARE APOLOGIZE IN HER STEAD! SHE SHOULD HAVE JUST COMPLIED AND FELL TO HER KNEES!" Said the women-child in front of me.

What the hell?! Is this some kind of anime or something. Logically if everyone in this kingdom is like this, it should have collapsed both economically and socially. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a few riots on the streets by now.

"mom? Are all nobles like this?" I asked while pointing at the shouting women

"What did I tell you about being rude to people?! You should apologize now!" said my mother with a half sorry face half furious.

"Sorry? For what? If I say sorry to everyone that thinks they are right I might as well take it as a full time job" I said while narrowing my eyes are the pathetic posture of my mother. I knew she was bad and cared for her social status, but isn't this a bit too much? She might as well become a slave to high society at this point!

SLAP!

I didn't expect this to be honest. My mom lost her cool and slapped me. It was quite strong yet I didn't move my face more than an inch as I kept staring at her. She was... Crying?! What the hell is she crying for?!

She grabbed my hand and started walk away from the crowd and towards the street. We quickly took a carriage from the street and went straight home. The whole ride was quite but hen he finally got inside I calmly took off my shoes and put them onto the shoe cupboard. I walked towards the living room where I was expecting the lecture to happen when I felt a pull on my shoulder.

"give me the two rings and knife" She demanded with her right hand palm open. I complied giving her the rings but not the knife.

"The knife." she said again with a calm voice

"I'm willing to give you the rings and be grounded because you have right to do both. But the knife was a gift from dad s-" I was cut off by another slap that seemed to resonate through the whole house.

"THE KNIFE! RIGHT NOW! ON MY HAND!" she shouted before going silent. My mother carried on after a few seconds by when she voiced out "Who do you think I'm doing all this for? It's for our family! FOR OUR FAMILY! EVERY SINGLE DAY I TRY MY HARDEST TO MAKE US NOBLES TO MAKE OUT LIVES BETTER YET YOU ACT LIKE THAT! YOU UNGRATEFUL CHILD GIVE ME THE KNIFE RIGHT NOW BEFORE I DO SOMETHING YOU WONT LIKE!"

I had never gotten pissed at my mother before. I was always grateful for having her and even when I locked myself in my room for a week, it was to simply act childish. I didn't do anything out of spite and I was never angry directly at my mom, but rather, I was angry everything at everything that caused my mother to act this way.

Today however, between all the children that I had to deal with, with the constant pestering of my mom to get friends and my weekly dose of the noble world, I finally didn't care. The moment she went for another slap, my wild instincts kicked in and I dodged.

She looked shocked for a split second before she grabbed me by the collar of my jacket and tried to slap me again. This time I just pushed her away with enough force to loosen the grab before slapping the hand away. I stayed silent the whole time as flashbacks from the beatings I took back on earth replayed in my mind.

My soul flame flickers purple for a second before turning golden again when Aroura's voice reached my ears. I controlled the killing intent that was on the verge of spilling out and stopped back towards Aroura.

My mother was on the floor sobbing while gripping the carpet with her claw-like fingernails, some breaking in the process. Aroura looked at me for second before asking "what happened?" in a hurried voice.

"No idea" I said with a shrug

"YES YOU DO! YOU KNEW VERY WELL WHAT YOU DID! GO TO YOUR ROOM AND DON'T LET ME SEE YOUR FACE FOR A MONTH!" My mother shouted.

"Mom don't you think that's a little extre-" Aroura choked on her words when she saw me shrug and walk towards the kitchen as if nothing happened. She went and followed me when I asked her for some food because I was kind of hungry.

"Why the hell are you all so loud?!" asked Granny while rubbing her eyes and stretching her back. When her blurry vision seemed to fade, she looked at my mother who was still on the floor sobbing with wide eyes before looking at me. I simply shrugged before reiterating what happened with extreme bias to not make me seem like the villain, even though I wasn't. I was still slightly pissed off at the fact she tried to hit me over something so simple but I shrugged it off again without any care.

After I finished eating, both Aroura and Granny seemed to be worried while looking at my mother who was sprawled on the couch. I went upstairs to go back to my isolation. My etiquette classes were about to end anyway in two weeks so I wouldn't cancel them for no reason. They were pretty helpful if I want to go in disguise as someone within a party. They did tell me a lot about the society but not enough to explain to me why my mother would act like a pain in the ass.

I decided just to lock my room and go to sleep for a bit since I haven't done that for quite a while now. I might be able to go days without any rest, but I still need to sleep every now and then to allow my brain to relax to perform more efficiently the next day.

As I lay my head on the pillow, I felt my conscience drift away slowly, before everything turned black and all my worries for the future faded away at the last second