Thus began my magic training. I went at it with all my will, often passing out from using up all my mana. But every ti it happened, I felt that the mana capacity of my body increased, so I pushed hard to reach that limit at least once per day.
As what I did were mostly harmless and hard-to-detect illusions (they wouldn’t be useful if they were easy to detect), I did it right after going to bed at night, so my mother never noticed that I was doing it, and just thought that I had a very deep sleep.
The years passed, and my dominion over illusions grew more refined and precise. I developed a taste for doing pranks with the girls to lighten the mood when they were distressed.
It looks like I overdid it a couple of tis, to the point that the fox beastkin won started calling an ’honorary kitsune’. I still don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but being called one by actual foxladies makes my heart flutter, so it should be a good thing, right?
The overseers don’t interact much with us, only coming to bring the food, which we would then serve between ourselves, and to bring a woman in or take a woman out.
They are always professional, despite the nature of the services the adult won provided. Guess they’re afraid of an unforgiving boss, or maybe they’re just not fond of damaging the goods they’re going to sell, but they’ve never physically abused us.
Which was a relief, as being slaves and forced to do... those kinds of services... was bad enough already. Every ti I pause to think about the future that awaits as soon as I reach puberty, it makes my stomach revolt.
In any case, the lack of ddling by the overseers played in my favour. They never paid any attention to when they ca to the room, as I’m just a child, so it was easy for to train to my heart’s content. It’s not like I had anything else to do anyway.
There weren’t any books to read, and though I’m a child in the biological sense, my 40 and sothing mind wouldn’t find little kids’ toys interesting, and we didn’t have them anyway.
So I just listened to the stories of my mother and the other adult won, and trained and trained.
So it was to my absolute surprise that one day, right after my seventh birthday, the overseer called my na.
"H-huh? Hi?"
"Aurea Annes, I ask you to co with us."
My mother was even more flustered and confused than .
"NO!" She shouted, her face contorted with anger. "She’s just a little kid, you won’t do this to her. You don’t dare to lay a finger on her body!!!"
"Calm down, Miss Lillian. It’s not what you’re thinking. Please, don’t make this difficult for us. The Duke wants to see her, that’s all. She’s not going to be used, so just calm down."
I tilted my head, puzzlingly. Why was he being so courteous to a re slave? Is that fear I sense? But it wasn’t fear of her, but of sothing else... I couldn’t properly put my finger on it to understand what was going on here.
"The Duke, is it? That bastard cunt of a Duke? What does he want with MY daughter?" My mom seed to have toned down a little bit, but was still pretty angry.
"He knew that you would protest and told to remind you that she is also HIS daughter, and also to remind you of your position right now." With those words, three more overseers ca into the room. But I didn’t care, I was absolutely shocked right now.
WHAT DO YOU AN I’M THE DAUGHTER OF A DUKE????
And wait, wait, he does know where I am... and also, from those words, he knows the position of my....
Oh.
Oh.
OHHH.
This is bad.
Is the Duke the one responsible for us being here in the first place???
My father????
Suddenly, I’m right beside my mother. I won’t call that bastard cunt of a Duke ’father’. There’s no way in Hell.
But at the sa ti, an idea ca to my mind.
"It’s okay, Mom. I want to et my father." I say, making my best to maintain a calm and composed voice and a confident smile. "And he is saying that I won’t be put into those services, right?"
"Y-yes, milady. Nobody’s going to use you today." He turned again to Mother. "So please, Miss Lillian. I will bring her back right after they finish talking."
Milady? Miss Lillian? Was my mother also a figure of importance before slavery? Maybe soone who didn’t reciprocate the Duke’s feelings, so he devised a way to make her a slave so he could...? Oh, fuck. If that’s the case, I have even more reason to hate the guts out of him.
I was then being escorted out of the room for the first ti in the seven years of my life in this world.
As I suspected, this was an underground thing. Right outside the room was a big hall with the overseers I was acquainted with, as well as so burly n that are probably the guards of this place.
It was a very nondescript hall, with very little furniture in it. The overseer who brought from the room led to a staircase at the end of the hall, and close to the staircase, I spotted a table with collars.
There were a dozen collars in it, most of which were the common slave ones that only served to mark the person as a slave. There was one, and only one, of the ones that also dampen magic.
There were also several lateral doors, and the moaning seed to be coming from one of them. My thoughts went to Cambucy, our dear friend, who had just been brought out of the room less than an hour ago, and my heart slumped.
The overseer noticed my hesitation and just called out to .
"Co, don’t mind the noise."
We walked up the staircase. On the following floor, there was a big kitchen, and on the following one, the air changed a bit. It seed that we weren’t underground anymore.
I was brought to a lavish door at the end of a corridor. There was a guard at the side of the door, and he just opened it unceremoniously.
Inside was a spacious office, with two windows, wide open. There were so bookshelves filled to the brim with books and scrolls.
In the middle of the office, a single table, with a single chair, both very refined and elegant. Sitting on the chair - or better said, slumped on the chair - was an unrefined and inelegant man, his poise a stark contrast to the finesse of his clothes and of the office around him.
"Ohhh my dear daughter, it’s so good to finally be able to et you in person."
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