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Chapter 10: This Is Quite Lovely III

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The warm magical carriage moved through the soft snow unhindered. The solid ice was no obstacle either.

The glass window gave a view to fabulous lands, filled with all kinds of miraculous things. Everything was beautiful, too captivating.

It gave a sense of ease and comfort as if in heaven. Well, appearances are often deceiving, and these lands are the best example of that.

Val noticed many spectacular scenes along the way, some of them are that of ether beasts, beautiful ones, and scary ones.

However, not one of those beasts even paid one silver of attention to the carriage as if it doesn't exist or they simply can't see it.

'I feel like I can just stay here looking at some scene for eternity, and I'll never be bored. Then again, I'm an easy person to satisfy.'

'Usually, people set goals when in such environments, but what could be my goal?'

Val closed his eyes and started contemplating his past and his future. 'I never had a specific goal in my previous life. I had many, but I guess the most striking of the bunch are two vague goals...'

'I just want to be entertained, and I am thoroughly entertained right now, I'd say too much even.

The second is being good at everything, well, most things, and it would be better if I can be the best. That wasn't a goal I could fulfill in my previous life, but now...'

The second goal wasn't too strange considering how he lived his life and his bizarre view of the world.

That feeling of being the best at something is a feeling he always loved to the point where he suspects that that aspect of himself was born with him.

Perhaps it was something born within himself due to the circumstances of his childhood, but if that's the case, he remembers no such things that can cause that, and he remembers nearly everything about it. His childhood was quite memorable after all.

His first goal however was a tad bit dangerous, its vagueness is a core part of that danger...

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"Young Master, we're home." The butler informed the sleeping young man before him and then somehow instructed the two horses where to stop.

The carriage has no coachman, the two ether beasts simply follow the instructions they receive, not through words but through what's known as ether signs.

Val opened his eyes directly after that as if he was merely closing his eyes and not actually sleeping.

He found that the butler already exited the carriage and was waiting for him.

"Home huh..." He didn't let him wait as he descended the few stairs of the carriage and absorbed the sight before him.

He found himself on a massive snowy hill, his home right before his eyes.

He also noticed an extremely large city far away down the hill. It's built right next to the hillside within a vast flat land, and it's still growing despite it being the largest city in the Helious family's territory.

It houses approximately 20 million people, an astounding population, yet it's still growing. It's after all the safest city in the territory.

Compared to the other locations where people have to watch their relatives getting devoured by strange ether entities, unable to do anything, this place is much safer.

The response time in here is many times faster as seekers under the Helious family do their best to get rid of dangerous ether entities before they do any significant harm, and most often than not, they succeed.

However, in towns, people have to request aid from the mayor who if capable can get rid of the danger himself, if not, their only other option is to hire a capable seeker or request aid from the family responsible for the territory.

Of course, people can't just move into the city whenever they like. There is always a catch, the tax for people living in the cities is higher than in other locations, and the properties in it are extremely expensive.

There is however an expensive alternative which is to publish a contract in one of the three known associations, namely Specter, beast, and monster hunters.

That's however an expensive option due to several reasons and advantages.

Val turned his attention to his family's estate. The helious castle, a massive dark castle surrounded by a massive hexagonally shaped wall. The castle is similarly shaped hexagonally.

Within those walls were a few other buildings for different purposes. Val paid no heed to those as his nose picked a certain scent.

'Well, considering my family's specialty, it's bound to be something I'll have to get used to, at least until I can cast ether arts.'

The scent of blood was overwhelming within those walls. He smelled nothing outside, but the moment he passed through the gates, the stench of blood overwhelmed his sense of smell.

In this world, the ether seeking method isn't valuable, in fact, the first sequence is public information within anyone's hand. The second sequence also isn't hard to get though the third is extremely valuable.

What's valuable is ether arts. They're the reason why so many ether seekers join families, clans, institutions, and factions.

The ways to use the ether to produce miracles, ways monopolized by the big powers of the world.

The alternative is remaining an ether knight, seekers that can only use the obvious benefit of ether seeking which is a strong resistant body. The difference between them and ether casters is simply incomparable.

"The family head is waiting for you, I believe you still know the way. I have other matters to attend to."

The butler named Louis gently said before disappearing with the wind, seemingly evaporating into nothingness.

Val then made his way into the castle while looking around with a sense of nostalgia in his eyes, remembering all those interesting and incredibly entertaining times with his family, his previous one.

'The castle however... It's on a completely different level than any castle built in my previous world. its majesty and structure are exceptional, and it's massive yet it stands tall and strong.

The irony though... A castle, blood, and death all around. This is exactly like my previous life... I'll humor you, I'm thoroughly entertained after all.'

His footsteps didn't stop, only his smile became wider as he walked through the long and wide hallways of the castle.

The castle looked majestic from the outside, but it's quite simplistic from the inside, with very little decorations or attention to detail, appearances are the least of his father's concerns.

In fact, he hates such things, he always liked simplicity, and he tends to deal with things in simple ways unless forced otherwise.

A simple example would be that his trusted aids needn't bow to him, and that includes his children.

And so, Vall stood within a wide exquisite hall, filled with simplicity and complexity. Before him on an exquisite throne sat his father, Alvion Helious, the founder of the Helious family.

And then, there was silence as Alvion looked down on his bizarre son with his crimson eyes. His face was expressionless.

Val also looked at his father, noticing the similarities between them, not too many similarities, but they're definitely there.

Their hair is similarly inky, seemingly an abyss of pure darkness. The difference in their eyes has something to do with some Blood arts Alvion practiced, or at least, that's what he was told.

"I heard you got married?" Val finally broke the silence after a short while.

That question strangely made Alvion's face twitch and raise his eyebrows, then questioned calmly, "What? Who told you that?"

"Oh, as expected." Val responded as if he knew the answer to his own question beforehand, as if it's nothing surprising, and then he added, "Don't mind it, I was just trying to break the awkward silence."

Alvion couldn't help but raise his eyebrows even further, "You? Trying to break the awkward silence? You usually just there in a trance until I'm forced to speak, so excuse my surprise when you actually said something for once."

Val lifted his right hand and started stroking his chin, seemingly contemplating his words... Until "Hmm I guess you're right? I changed. I wonder why? Oh right! That would happen if one's own father sends them to solitary confinement for more than ten months. It makes perfect sense."

Val nodded to himself as if he figured out the birth of the universe in absolute dry sarcasm.

Alvion seemed to agree as he also nodded, "I agree. On the other hand, a normal father would have to do the same to discipline a disobedient son."

Val smiled at his father's sarcasm, and even Alvion himself smiled. This moment was the closest to a normal conversation the two ever had.

"A normal father would also have to deal with the results of his discipline in case it failed... I'm glad to tell you that your way of discipline has probably succeeded.

I will fully commit to ether seeking and put a fair share of effort into learning the things I was too lazy to learn before.

Anyway, I dearly missed my uninteresting room, so I'll go visit it right now. See you later."

Val didn't wait for Alvion to respond as he walked out of the room hurriedly, leaving the family head to his own thoughts.

'Probably succeeded? What did he mean by that?' Alvion then just shook his head, 'It doesn't really matter, as long as he practices then I can have peace of mind. I had to go through worse things anyway, and I'm still relatively normal...'