Chapter 235: Good Morning
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
Amelia Milan was born in the year 145 A.D. as the third princess of the royal family. She was considered intelligent since birth and began learning magic from the Mage Country Arlodant at the tender age of five. After her younger brother inherited the throne, she didn’t care about her status as a princess and became a teacher of the Cloud Tower. Still, the Bardi Empire forever recognized her status as a royal, and she was currently number sixty-seven in the line of inheritance.
However, if you took the time to read through the Bardi Empire’s own records, there would only be some meaningless information.
Actually, only one word could describe the original stories regarding Amelia—witch.
Ever since she was born, she was viewed as a strange one. She never acted naughty or noisy like other young children. She was always sitting there by herself, not crying or smiling, just like a wooden puppet.
Even her birth mother and everyone around her suspected that something must have been wrong with her intelligence at the time. However, the first time that she ever spoke, she caused a huge amount of trouble.
“Mother, why do you all have to kill those cuties in the garden? Their cries are so pitiful, so why is everyone ignoring their pleas for help? Don’t you always tell me to help the weak and helpless?”
The young Amelia was unable to understand why those vicious-seeming adults with gardening scissors were destroying the tiny lives of those pitiful, screaming plants. No matter how pitifully those plants screamed, nobody would ever help them.
“Perhaps nobody can hear them because they’re too small. Since you all can’t hear them, allow me to be their helper.”
And so, Amelia took action herself.
“Uncle tree, help us out. Take care of that bad person with the big scissors.”
Just as everyone was celebrating that the princess had spoken for the first time in her life, misfortune descended upon them.
A mere young child’s words became an order that transformed the tremendous rubber tree in the garden into a human-eating tree monster that swallowed the enemy of the plants, the gardener, in a single gulp.
“Save us! Guards! Where are the guards!?”
“Ahhh! There’s a man-eating monster!”
The numerous tree monsters that suddenly appeared in the royal garden caused a huge panic. Amongst all the chaos, there was a tiny princess who stood out from the others. She was currently smiling sweetly at the many plants in the royal garden.
“Relax. From now on, Amelia won’t allow anyone to ever bully you again.”
All the fresh flowers and trees in the forest shook, and flower petals and fruits landed in her hands. These seemed to be small gifts, as if the plants were thanking Amelia’s kindness to them.
For the young Amelia, she viewed this as helping the weak, an act of justice. However, for everyone else, they saw the little princess causing a huge disaster the first time that she ever talked, transforming the trees into monsters that ate an innocent gardener using only the power of her words.
There were well over one hundred people present for that incident in the royal garden. Everyone now viewed Amelia, who had trod over the gardener’s corpse and fresh blood to greet the plants in a friendly manner, as the most abnormal existence of all.
The Bardi Emperor’s strict command for everyone to seal their lips still couldn’t stop rumors spreading of how the third princess was a witch. Every time that Amelia walked somewhere, she would see others looking at her with hatred and fear, always whispering unpleasant things about her.
“Look! That’s the cursed witch. Her first words ever were a curse.”
“That look in her eyes is so scary! Don’t look at me…”
“She glanced over at me! Am I going to be cursed?”
“There are even rumors that say that I’m a witch. It’s all because of that strange child that caused even His Majesty to disdain me.” Even Amelia’s mother, the emperor’s concubine, hated her own second daughter.
At the time, the Bardi Empire’s royal power wasn’t stable yet. In fact, there were political enemies that often attacked the as-of-then weak Bardi royalty, which gave the Bardi Emperor at the time plenty of headaches. He already had five children and never liked this strange daughter of his to begin with, and even considered exiling her.
Originally, with both internal and external pressure, especially with both of her parents disliking her, the best possible result for Amelia should have been to live all alone in a nun cloister somewhere. Luckily for her, she caught the attention of the Bardi royal archmage at the time, Antonius.
“She isn’t a witch at all. She just has a natural talent for communicating with plants. This child was basically born to become a mage. Little Amelia, would you like to come with this old man to Arlodant to learn magic? You’ll meet many young companions just like you in Arlodant.”
Amelia unhesitatingly nodded because she could detect kind intentions from the old grandpa, compared to everyone else’s fear or hatred of her.
Actually, everyone had underestimated Amelia’s abilities from the very start. She didn’t have something as simple as the ability to communicate with plants—her natural talent was the entire Concept of “Communication.”
No matter if it was plant, animal, or human, she could communicate with anything through her consciousness alone. In others’ eyes, she may have been a strange child that didn’t know how to speak or show any emotions, but she was always communicating with her surroundings through the power of her natural talent.
Her incredibly pure natural talent was far too powerful, which actually wasn’t a good thing. Amelia was still young and had a simple way of looking at things in life, while there were too many around her with numerous desires and evil intentions that Amelia found it all difficult to accept.
Her ability wasn’t mind reading. It was a simple, direct communication of sorts. If I tried my best to come up with a suitable analogy, perhaps I should describe her power as the ability to “see through someone’s desires.”
She hated her own maids. Their empty minds had nothing but money and gossip. She hated her brothers. Their immature bodies and minds were filled with carnal lust and ambition. She even hated her own mother and father. Her mother only treated her as a tool to gain the Bardi Emperor’s favor, while her father, the Bardi Emperor, was busy with political affairs and scheming every day.
The glorious-seeming royal palace was inwardly filled with nothing but filth. After some time, Amelia even began to hate all of humanity. She loathed this species that was filled with endless greed and desires.
Plants were simple existences that only needed sunlight, water, and nutrients. They became her haven. She would often avoid everyone else and walk around by herself in the royal garden, not even returning to her room when it was late at night, which actually added to her reputation as a witch.
When Amelia decided for herself to leave her home and become a mage in the Mage Country, the true feelings she sensed behind all the “congratulations,””how nice,””I’m so happy for you,” and so on gave her zero intention of ever returning to her home country.
“Perhaps things will be different in the Mage Country. At the very least, I won’t be considered the only abnormal one there.”
But, sadly for her, humans were humans. There was even more greed, desire, and ambition there. Amelia viewed all these people to be as incomprehensible as aliens. It was only that this time, as Amelia grew up and mentally matured, she learned how to hide her true thoughts so that she didn’t appear to be too different on the surface.
As for her natural talent of communication, that helped her to make the rapidest progress of all in the area of plant magic. Magic was supposed to be the process of searching for the truth to begin with, and as she had the talent of “Communication,” it was no different than having a cheat activated to help her grow. It wasn’t long before she became the youngest high-level teacher of all time in the Mage Country, before she even reached the age of twenty.
Yet no matter how much stronger she grew in magic, there was no foundational change in her as a person. She was still that witch who hated humans. As for why she was always described as having “stormy emotions,” it wasn’t because of her seemingly random way of treating some strangers politely while treating other strangers incredibly rudely—it was actually because she could see through anyone and if they had good or bad intentions.
Due to her hatred of humans and love of simpler life forms, her sense of values was different from most people. In her mind, simple, cute plants had far more value than dirty humans. She even began to hate her own identity as a human. That was why, in order to approach her own mental image of a perfect existence, she unhesitatingly used her colleagues and acolytes as experimental subjects to make future preparations for her own personal body modifications.
Most crazy people believe that the world was crazy while they were actually the only normal person around. If this was the standard used to measure insanity, then Amelia was doubtlessly completely insane, as she always believed herself to be the only normal person out there.
“I don’t have friends, I don’t have enemies (because they’re all dead), I don’t have a lover… I don’t have any of those hated two-legged animals in my life. Ahh, what a joyous life I have.”
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And just as she began shutting herself off in her own little world, believing this to be how life should be lived, she met a new acolyte, the Roland from that year.
“Ah, there’s actually such a pure person?”
Don’t get me wrong—Roland from that year had just crawled out of the grave. What was pure about him definitely wasn’t kindness; he had just been betrayed by the entirety of human society, so his pureness was pure hatred and desire for revenge against the entire world.
“Even though he appears to be smiling so sunnily on the surface, his only desire is simple destruction and revenge. Not only that, he’s not targeting any specific person, he’s targeting the entirety of humanity. Ahh, so beautiful! ‘Something as scummy as humanity doesn’t even need to exist in this world; this world doesn’t need a savior! Just let everything be destroyed.’ His understanding of how things should be is truly amazing.”
From a certain standpoint, the way I was in the past created this maniacal witch of today. Back when I was treating humans as nothing more than ants to be stepped on, I didn’t know at all that I was being a source of pollution that was infecting Amelia with hatred.
And after Amelia chose me as her acolyte, the two of us that both hated humanity now began walking down the same path. On the surface, I was researching ice magic while she was researching plant magic, but in actuality, I was researching undead creation while she was researching forbidden animal and plant combination magic. Neither of us had any limits or moral boundaries of any kind, and we influenced each other as well, becoming worse and worse.
For Amelia back in that year, she considered me to be a true friend that understood her, someone which she would never meet again in a thousand years. I was the only person in the world who she could be honest and direct with. Imperceptibly, she sunk farther than even she expected.
Plants were simple but lacked intelligence. The most they could do was listen to Amelia’s complaints, but of course it was impossible for them to react in any way. However, humans were social creatures by nature, and all humans desired to communicate with others, desiring to be recognized, trusted, and known by others. Even Amelia, who believed that she had gotten used to and enjoyed being alone, was no exception.
After Amelia, who had been alone for the past over one hundred years, opened up her heart for the first time to this “male childhood friend” of hers, she really treated me well, not holding back at all on teaching magical knowledge. In fact, she was a little naggy and obsessive about it, which helped me greatly.
And when I got what I needed, and obtained the power to take my revenge, I unhesitatingly sold out Amelia right before leaving for my journey of revenge.
During my studies in the Cloud Tower, I did make some true friends as well. Although my desire for revenge had never been shaken, I unhesitatingly reported Amelia just for the sake of Kaid and my other friends’ safety in the future.
Of course, Amelia found it impossible to understand such feelings. She only found it strange, strange and incomprehensible.
“Why did you betray me? why did you betray me so unemotionally, without any rage, without any desire for revenge, without any ambition, without even any personal benefits? It’s basically like ‘The sun is coming up from the east, it’s probably going to rain today. I’m in a good mood, let’s go report Amelia,’ and just betray me with a state of mind as if it was only natural… is it only because I’m still a human? I’m what he hates?”
My leaving sunk Amelia into a state of utter confusion and despair. Perhaps the fact that she completely abandoned her identity as a human not long after was also related to this.
When Amelia finished dealing with the trouble I left behind for her and decided to confidently go looking for me for revenge, she heard the news of her “acolyte’s” death.
Amelia, who had always had an icy nature, met with a furious surge of emotions for the first time in her life, but those emotions weren’t the joy that she was expecting. Instead, she felt angry, unwilling, despairing, lost, and sad. She found, to her astonishment, that she had a heartache—not because of the pain of betrayal, but from the pain of losing the one person who knew her best. That pain felt like someone was digging into her skin and tortured her for a long time afterwards.
She thought of how she could never see that person she loved to hate so much. She thought of how she would never be able to see that fake smile on the surface again, how she would never be able to see that person who understood her way of thinking, how she would never be able to truly open up and talk to another again, and how she had forever lost this only haven of hers. Amelia felt a heartache for the first time in her life, but she didn’t even know where her heart was anymore. At that time, Amelia regretted for the first time that she had abandoned her human body, abandoning her ability to cry.
From that day on, time stopped flowing for Amelia… she was still alive, but only that. She once again shut herself within a box with nobody else inside, and used a false mask when dealing with everyone else.
And three hundred plus years later, fate caused us two with such a love-hate relationship to meet each other again, and helped Amelia’s gears of time to begin turning once more. But this time, when we met, Amelia once again didn’t know what to do or think.
She had expected that I would be shocked, afraid, or even instantly attempt escaping when I saw her. And although I indeed acted like I wanted to escape, and never stopped complaining on the surface, her own ability told her that I was quite happy to meet her again, happy to see her, happy to have a reunion with her!
At that moment, the hundreds of years of grudges and dissatisfaction all vanished, and she almost laughed out loud from the joy in her heart. She was only forceful in her words and threats but not actions, because at that moment, Amelia finally came to a realization and noticed what she truly felt.
“I was actually in love with him…”
Researching plant magic? Everything was only an excuse or a fake reason. “I want to be by his side” was actually the source of everything.
“He already has a girlfriend… well, I only wanted a friend anyways—yep—it’s fine as long as I have fun by his side.”
Amelia’s strong sense of pride made her abandon thoughts of competing for me, and even made her unwilling to express her emotions to Roland. “Being friends” was enough for her, even if it was just an excuse that she used in order to numb herself.
As for her behavior in attempting to learn how to cook, that was just another way of her displaying her unwillingness to lose.
But, a certain rash person’s actions broke that excuse of hers that even she didn’t believe in.
That appeal for love and all those flowers on that street couldn’t possibly fool Amelia. She only took one second to understand my true intentions with her ability, but Amelia was shaken by this chance that would never come for her again once in a thousand years.
“As long as I accept—no—as long as I don’t severely refuse him, we’ll be viewed as lovers by everyone, and he’ll even become the one that was chasing after me…”
In the end, she made her decision, and even personally helped make those scandalous rumors spread even faster. She was even related to the fact that those rumors reached Elisa’s ears as if rumors could grow wings… Even she herself didn’t know why she did all that. Probably, she could only barely come up with half a reason—this was her instinctual method of declaring a challenge, hoping for a direct competition.
But after that battle, she sunk into hesitation and confusion due to being overly shaken.
“I don’t even have a normal physical body anymore, nor can I possibly have a normal child. Will he mind?”
“My reputation is so bad, and I’ve done many bad deeds—will he hate me if he knows?”
“Although he only views me as a friend, at least it’s better than what he sees that Elisa as. Roland only views that girl as family, as if she’s his own daughter. At the very least, Roland still views me as a woman.”
“I…”
Countless thoughts kept her mind in constant turmoil. She hadn’t fully recovered from her injuries from the battle at Red Maple Castle yet, and now she just finished fighting with Emordilorcan. In order to perform to her fullest in this Earth Elemental Plane that lacked the wind and water elements, Amelia had worked harder and paid more of a price than what she appeared on the surface.
Now that she was in such a weakened state and a confused state of mind, it caused her to lose control of her entire physical body, revealing her truest form—a pitch-black forest. Her own personal consciousness right now was just like that of an ostrich that had stuck its head into the ground, sinking into a deep form of sleep.
“I should just continue sleeping like this; everything won’t be so bothersome anymore… What will Roland do? Will he be sad if he notices that I’m no longer around anymore? Will he still be together with that little girlfriend of his? Will he forget about me? Will he forget about this foolish woman who doesn’t even dare to confess to him? Will he forget about this foolish woman who doesn’t know how to do any housework whatsoever?”
Her consciousness kept floating around for what she felt an unknown length of time. It wasn’t that she was unable to control the situation outside—it was that Amelia unconsciously gave up on attempting to control her physical body under all her self-complaints and self-regret. She had trapped herself within high walls of her own construction. However, finally, there was a familiar knock on her mental door.
“Hey, my dear sleeping beauty, it’s time for you to wake up. If you keep sleeping, you’re going to miss my birthday party. It’s going to be really awesome; you’ll really regret it if you don’t go.”
Was this another hallucination? Why did this hallucination seem so real, then? That familiar smile even had some rare sincerity beneath it, but the joy and delight at seeing her seemed all so familiar to her, as if it was long ago, when this no-good acolyte of hers had cooked breakfast and was attempting to wake his teacher that had pulled yet another all-nighter experimenting.
“Good morning, Roland.”
The red-faced Amelia didn’t know why she had replied with something so empty, but she saw that Roland felt surprised for a moment upon hearing this, before he smiled just as always in the past.
“Good morning, Amelia. It’s delightful to be able to see you again.”
The witch’s face instantly became burning hot, and unbeknownst to her, her smile arced upwards. She nodded ever so slightly, while she complained in a tiny voice that only she could hear.
“He’s so sly with what he’s thinking! That Roland, he’s basically cheating…”