Mad God – Reborn

It was already dark as Ren sat in the villa's huge dining room, leaning back in a chair and reading through paper after paper. Ariana, in her maid outfit, patiently sorted the reports her Master had already finished, while Seya nervously fidgeted in the corner, gripping the edge of her clothing. After she finished the last one and set it down, the long dining table creaked painfully under the weight of all the documents stacked on it.

"You did great," Ren said, because she had already gone through the report Seya had submitted right when the sun was about to disappear. By now, she was just testing her nerves, telling her to stay as she seemingly went through the rest, mostly those papers that Sentios collected.

"T-thank you, Your Highness!" Seya bowed quickly after she had been standing there silently for hours.

"Ariana, can you make some coffee for us?"

"Sure, Master." She smiled, set a place on the table for them, and motioned for Seya to sit down.

"I… I…" She stuttered, but in the end, she gave in and walked to the table, nervously setting her butt on the soft cushion of the chair.

"Relax, it is going to be different with me here!" Ren laughed as she picked up a stack and flipped through it like she was searching for a bookmark hidden between the pages, expecting it to fall out at any moment. "Hm? What?" She looked up at Seya, who watched her with wide eyes.

"N-nothing!" She turned her head away immediately, as it was rude for servants to stare at nobles.

"When you reach a certain stage, your mind can capture everything in detail. I'm just memorizing them, and I'll go through them later. Think of it as if I'm placing them inside my mind's library," she explained patiently.

"That really sounds… convenient..." Seya nodded, looking back at her shyly, realizing she won't shout at her for real. "You are so kind… Your Highness…"

"Am I?" Ren giggled. "Why do you say that?"

"Because you are not shouting at us when we look into your eyes… or talk to you without being asked something…"

"Geez, that is how things worked here? Everyone was doing it?"

"No… not everyone. A lot of people who led the servants were kind!" She shook her head in a hurry. "Only the…" She fell silent, looking around nervously, afraid someone would jump out from behind the curtains or from under the marble tiles and beat her up for even mentioning them this way.

"Seya…" Ren stood, walked close to her, and patted her head. Seya yelped at the touch, not knowing how to handle it, but Ren gently pulled her face close and soothed the terrified girl. "Relax. It's okay now... You shouldn't be afraid of your cousin. Or are you?"

"C-c-c-cousin?" Seya asked, lips trembling, looking up into Ren's eyes, hugged by her, her face held close to her tummy.

"Uhum." Ren nodded with a gentle smile. "I am strong, you know. I can feel things, and your bloodline is close to mine. Reading through some of the papers on the table, I found who your father was, and it turns out he was one of the direct sons of Rudrick. Someone from not the so-called pureblood line, so that makes you my cousin!"

"My father?" She blinked, finding it hard to believe what she was hearing, since she never knew him. Not even his background or who he might have been.

"Yep, he was not even part of the main family yet sired someone who inherited such features as you. Hehe! Nature is funny in this way."

"Shouldn't that make her your aunt or something like that, Master?" Ariana joked, bringing brewed coffee and snacks to the table.

"She is younger than me, so she is my cousin," Ren replied with a slight pout, which made Seya giggle, tears at the edge of her eyes. "Good girl," Ren muttered, looking at her, and wiped her eyes before letting go of her face. "I already told you there are going to be changes coming. I bet the shouting ones were the few leaders who couldn't hold back their tempers while they were here, stuck, being leaderless, huh? Well, they are dead, so don't worry about them. Not even about their ghosts!"

"Ghosts?!" Seya's hand trembled again as she reached for a muffin, almost dropping it.

"Master… you are enjoying scaring her, aren't you?" Ariana shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Still, there are no ghosts here, Seya. If there were, I would have felt them out already. Probably!"

"So there are ghosts?!" Seya yelped again, still pushing the muffin into her small mouth, which calmed her mind considerably and made them both laugh a little as they watched her expression change.

"It's not important," Ren said, taking a sip with a satisfied smile. "Sentios is cleaning out the spire, and after that we can move inside when it is usable again."

"But the spire is for nobility only. Servants are only permitted inside if they have work to do!" she explained, already having a second muffin in her hands without herself noticing, pushing it into her mouth like a starved little hamster with greatly puffed-up cheeks.

"It is going to take some time to make them realize what you meant by changes, Master." Ariana stood behind her by then, massaging Ren's shoulders.

"I can see that." She nodded with a soft moan. "Look, Seya, you are going to be assigned under me as my voice and hand. The rest will be under you, and you will organize them into small groups according to their abilities. Don't worry; I'm already making a list of how to do that. After it's all done, we can start reorganizing the courtyard and hire new servants and people to get back on track."

"Does that mean… that we… we are…" she tried to speak, but she almost choked on the food as she realized what Ren's words meant.

"Yep, you all are going to be my new main family, with you at the lead. Don't worry, I'll teach you many things, as you are going to be my second-in-command." She said, patting her back with her powers, before she choked as Seya started coughing, gasping for air. "Before you want to say 'but' or anything like that, forget it. All objections are rejected!" Ren laughed, and seeing the look on her face, Seya went utterly limp as she fainted.

"Geez, Master, you completely short-circuited her!" Ariana walked up to Seya's limp body, lifting her up to bring her to a room so she could rest.

"She needs a bit of rework, but she is going to be okay; she was just suppressed." Ren said with a happy grin, "She is my cousin, and knowing my family, she has a personality inside her that has yet to be awakened."

"I don't know if the world is ready for a second you, Master!" Ariana grunted, rolling her eyes playfully.

"Ahahaha, maybe the world needs more of me!" she winked at her as she picked up her cup once again.

…

….

…..

"So, she is the only remaining direct descendant of Rudrick's line?" asked a firm female voice, sitting inside a bathtub filled with milk and rose petals. Around it, young, naked female servants were washing the voice's owner's slim, perfectly porcelain-white body with the utmost care.

Her name was Keina, leader of one of the other four families, occupying another spire in the city of Rozex. In strength, she was at the 2nd stage of Harmony and a few decades younger than Rudrick, yet she only looked like someone in her early twenties. Her long, silver hair was tied up in a bun as she bathed, enjoying her servants massaging her body while she watched the recording of Ren opening the gates to the closed courtyard.

"Yes, My Liege," her guard captain bowed. She was another young female warrior dressed in bone-white armor, holding her decorated, winged helmet under her arms. "Our informant delivered it as soon as she showed up."

"At least she is a girl." Keina chuckled, watching Ren's figure. "Maybe we can work something out. Men are too… unsophisticated and brutish!"

"You already predicted Rudrick's fall, My Liege. This is our chance. Maybe we can make her a great asset and strengthen our claim to the throne. If we can subdue her…."

"Mmmh… that probably won't go well. Not if we try to use force." She shook her head. "If the rumors are true, she killed Rudrick, no?"

"Those are just rumors. We all heard how injured Rudrick was. It is not hard to lure him into a trap and get rid of him. When they clashed previously, she barely escaped death by chance, and how strong could one become with so little time passing? There are rumors that when Rudrick died, people saw dozens of other cultivators from that… sect or whatever she is part of near the battlefield!"

"Immortal Wonders, if I recall correctly," Keina said after a moment of silence, leaning back and raising her fair feet as the servants started massaging them without instruction. "Doesn't matter. It is only a play between Aerthus and Zelig; we don't need to bother ourselves with that. Our main focus should be taking control of Rozex. Everything comes after that!"

"Yes, my liege!"

…

….

…..

At the same time, in a different spire, another possible contender for the throne of the Naulins, Rabout, was watching the same recording as Keina. Only, it was from a different perspective, from another informant. He was the oldest leader of the four main family branches, already past his first millennium. Yet... He looked like a middle-aged man with short white hair and a well-kept, short beard. He was standing inside a laboratory filled with hundreds of vials, stoves, crucibles, and cauldrons, all containing some kind of concoctions, be they frozen, molten, or outright bubbling liquids.

"I see, I see." He nodded several times as he adjusted his eyeglasses and quickly dismissed the recording crystal, turning back to a freshly mixed, foul-smelling, dark blue liquid in a teardrop-shaped vial before him.

"My Lord…" His assistant said, a young woman with tied-up black hair and blue eyes. She sounded stumped at his reaction. "This… shouldn't we do something about it?"

"Nah, who cares!" He shook his head and gently tapped the vial, which immediately lit up, then exploded violently. Luckily, his 2nd-stage Harmony-level powers contained it, leaving only black marks on his fingers and face, turning his beard the opposite color. "D-damn!" He coughed wildly. "Another failure! Please record that DA80 and O85 are incompatible, and their mixing results in a twin explosion."

"It was… two?" she asked, surprised, as she quickly wrote it down.

"Yes…" Rabout sniffled, grabbed a towel, and wiped his face clean. "And I caught the second one with my face. Tsk! I keep failing with this! Why does it not work?!"

"Maybe you should look for inspiration from the outside world, My Lord." She suggested with a carefree tone.

"From the outside? Milly, do you know when I last went… outside?" He turned toward her, eyebrows raised.

"400 years ago?" She replied, tilting her head to the side, looking completely innocent, like a teen questioning her teacher.

"Almost! Add around... 50 years to that!" He nodded. "The outside world is sick and filled with idiots. I can't stand them at all, not to mention my relatives. They are a bunch of monkeys on drugs! I'm fine being here, in my own tower; they can play their board games without me." he waved his hand as his voice was clearly filled with anger.

"But, My Lord, maybe you could ask for advice from the newcomer. A fresh viewpoint can be the missing link," she said, trying to persuade her lord.

"Mhm… well, you say something interesting… But what should she know? She looks like she is still wet behind her ears! I have no time or patience for talking to an ignorant kid."

"I heard she was someone with a respected position in that Sect that came about a decade ago…"

"A what?" He looked at her again, blinking, completely lost.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot you don't keep up with the outside world. She is from a newly established power and killed Rudrick. Or that is what the rumors say!"

"Wait, Rudrick is dead? That collection of a retarded gene pool bit the dust? Hah! Serves him right!" Rabout laughed heartily. "Okay, okay, I'm going to take a shower, you make me something to eat, and you can tell me everything I missed in the past decade or so."

"Sure!" She smiled happily while she bowed to him, leaving to do as ordered.

"A new perspective…" He looked around his laboratory, a slight smile forming on his face. "Not even a bad idea…"