Chapter 2: Leaving

'Isn't today my birthday? How old is my body now?'

Sitting on a bookshelf, a little boy sat swaying his legs, his expression was of boredom. With pale skin from the lack of light, long, unkempt white hair so dusty that it looked gray, and a pair of cat-like ice blue eyes that seemed to glow in the dark, the boy seemed like an abandoned china doll. A thick tome lay beside him, forgotten by its reader.

The only light in the room came from a dim lamp sitting next to him.

He extinguished the lamp and jumped off the shelf, running his fingers along the grooves on the wall next to it. Thick lines were criss crossed across the stone wall, scratched by a kitchen knife.

'Luckily, this world's time is pretty similar to Earth. I was five when I started counting the days here, so I should be around nine years old if that old clock in my room isn't broken.'

He stepped away from the walls before carving another slash with the kitchen knife. After finishing, he put it in its usual spot. The tower was almost completely dark, so unless Ciel was reading with the dim lamp, he had to navigate everything else through memory and later on, using mana.

The novel world, also named Aeon, had nine main stages for its mages, with each stage having a beginner level, a junior level, an intermediate level, and a peak level. From the novel, Ciel knew that the nine stages were: mage intern, apprentice mage, core mage, master mage, grandmaster mage, archmage, ascending mage, void mage, and the wandering mage.

Ciel was now a junior apprentice mage. He had discovered his dual card and blood high affinities when he  became a beginner apprentice mage. It had come to him like an instinct. He could use a bit of his blood magic by manipulating his blood at a small radius around him, while he hadn't tried out his card affinity yet since there were no cards in the tower. It was probably related to his hobby in his past life, and he was determined to try it out as soon as he could.

After sensing mana for the first time, Ciel could 'see' the mana in each object, giving him a shape in the pitch black darkness.

That was the only reason why he hadn't accidentally stabbed himself with the kitchen knife yet.

'I've spent four years in this godforsaken place. The boredom is killing me. Time to get out.' Ciel grinned excitedly. Besides, the lamp fuel was also running out.

The missing nanny had never come back after he had regained his memories. But this had made it more convenient for Ciel's actions so he wasn't complaining anytime soon. She had probably run off with some valuables in the tower anyway.

He couldn't blame her though, she had no future serving an abandoned prince, and he was also going to run off with valuables from the tower.

Ciel climbed out of the trapdoor entrance. After becoming a beginner apprentice mage, he was able to pry it open using blood magic. It led to a secret basement that was filled with dusty old books about history, myths, and fairy tales. Thankfully, it also had lamp fuel, but that was almost gone after Ciel finished reading all of the books in the basement.

Ciel had been lucky enough to find a thick tome that taught him the basics to the advanced levels of the general language of the world—the Arch language or he would've been illiterate to everyone. He didn't realize a novel world would be so detailed. Back when he had read the book, the main character never had any language barriers. But since 'The First Saintess' had a lot of plot holes, that was probably one of them.

The basement also had a passageway that led to an underground cave, which then led to the palace aboveground. Ciel hadn't cared enough to go above ground before he was fully prepared, so he had only peeked out the entrance at night. The emperor probably never noticed the basement so it didn't have a barrier like the tower. That saved Ciel from thinking of another way to break out of the tower.

Ciel felt that he had gotten lucky. Especially with the underground cave, which had given him precious information and items.

Strolling through the cave that looked closer to a glowing garden than a cave, Ciel felt more comfortable because he didn't have to use mana to 'see' now. He stopped at a glowing crystal suspended in the air and touched it. Once again, just like two years ago, countless lights flew up and engulfed his view.

After the light faded, he was standing in a galaxy of white stars. The same woman from his fragmented memories stood before him, but instead of her tired, sickly state in his mind, she had a healthy glow and a big belly, smiling gently.

"Hello, my wonderful family. This is a recording I made before giving birth just in case I couldn't hold on. And no, I'm not going to die. You should already know that I am of the fairy race. When we give birth, we give a part of the mana forming our body to our children. I didn't find out about this until I was pregnant with Sirius. So I recorded this in case I didn't have enough mana to form my body. If my body fades into light. It's just me coming here to gather mana to restore my form. I should take 3 to 4 years. If I'm not revived by the time four years have passed, then that means something unexpected happened and I might not come back at all.

Caesar, I'm sorry I didn't tell you because you would be worried. To little Theo, mommy left you small surprises that would appear as you grow up. And to Sirius, I hope you liked the name I gave you, even if your father had to be the one to give it to you, I wanted the name to be the first gift I give to you as your mother. Anyway, after this recording stops, you'll find some small other gifts I prepared for you to make up for the years I missed. Hope to see you in person soon my precious family~"

The woman gave an air kiss, winking. Then everything went black.

Ciel blinked, and he was back at the underground garden. He glanced at the crystal again. It was a recording crystal—memento from his mother, the empress.

It was not part of the novel. If not for the history books talking about the Acyuta empire and the history of the neighboring kingdom, Ciel would have doubted the fact that he was even in the novel rather than a random world similar to the novel. However, in the novel, Inertia had stayed dead, so he assumed that she was going to do the same thing in this life.

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Ciel looked at his left hand. On the third finger, was a gleaming silver ring with intricate blue designs engraved on it. It wasn't luxurious but still pretty. This was one of the 'small gifts' Inertia had mentioned. The first time the recording had played, three small chests had appeared before him. He had only been able to open one, the other two were probably intended for Theodore and Caesar. Fairies were one of the strongest beings in magic so he had given up on opening the other chests, which were clearly sealed by Inertia.

The ring was a blood bound space ring whose storage space would grow as the user's mana capacity grew. The other things in the chest was a pouch of money, a white robe engraved with some gold arrays, a simple silver ear cuff, and a map of all the secret passageways in the palace with a note that said, 'Your father and I had fun in the maze under the palace! I hope you do too!'.

Ciel chuckled at the note. He reached towards the recording crystal again, trying to take it away. But just as his previous attempts, it wouldn't budge.

He sighed, "Forget it."

He took one last glance at the underground garden before leaving. Fortunately, it was nighttime outside as he exited the hole behind the portrait of Inertia. Entering another secret passageway, Ciel quickly traveled to Caesar's office that was labeled on the map. He quietly left the two chests from Inertia on the desk and crept back into the passageway.

'With this, my debt for taking Caesar's wife and Thedore's mother away can be counted as paid back. Those chests were never found in the novel anyway.' He thought as he advanced cheerfully towards the exit.

***

The imperial capital of Acyuta was bustling even at night. Street vendors advertised their products everywhere. Among the noisy chatter, a single white hooded figure slipped through the crowd. Ciel didn't stop until he had reached a small bookstore with a symbol of a small raven holding a gold coin in its claws.

"Welcome to Crow's Bookstore! Would you like to browse around first or are you here for something specific?" A middle aged man smiled kindly at the small figure in front of him, not caring if they had hid their face.

Ciel paused, his words still in his mouth.

'Why is this dude speaking in the language of my previous world? Oh well, in Rome, do what Romans do.'

"I would like a book wrapped in raven scales." Ciel replied.

"What color would you like it to be?"

"Black." Ciel replied.

The code for the organization he was currently visiting was also what he learned from the book. Now Ciel could confirm that he was in 'The First Saintess'.

This world had a typical fantasy world currency system, with copper coins at the lowest, one silver coin equal to 100 copper coins, and one gold coin equal to 100 silver coins. There had been 10,000 pure gold coins in the money bag Ciel had received from Inertia. And after pawning off the things from the tower, he had 3,000 more gold. So in total, he had 13,000 gold coins, a big sum even for noble families. Feeling generous, he tipped the man a gold coin.

The man's eyes squinted from smiling. "Many thanks. Please come right this way." He led Ciel to the back and pushed a pitch black book into the bookshelf. The bookshelf creaked open to reveal a waiting room decorated in gold with black furniture. The furniture was arranged so that the black color didn't make the room look gloomy but rather posh.

"Please wait for a minute for me to fetch someone. In the meantime, please enjoy these refreshments." The man bowed at the doorway as a maid pushed in a cart of tea and desserts. The maid poured tea for Ciel, then exited silently.

The door closed.

Ciel reached out and took a cookie. It was sweet. He chewed slowly, enjoying the sweetness he hadn't tasted in a long time—the tower had only given him bread and porridge.

Soon, a man who had his face covered in a realistic black dragon mask stepped in. With his wavy black hair tied in a ponytail around his shoulder and a modern black business suit, he gave off a businessman-like air.

Underneath his mask, his emerald eyes gleamed, "Welcome, dearest customer. Where would you like to go?"

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