There was sothing inexorably weird about talking to a girl whose Mana Source values were several tis her own. Especially about a Skill with such an ominous na.
In my defense, I think she’s cheating too.
That said… Malwine was getting increasingly confused. She stared at the panel between them, gesturing in Adelheid’s direction.
[That Which Lurks]
The more you hide, the better you hide. The longer the hiding period, the better the benefit. Improves everything.
“Just ‘improves everything’? ‘Everything’ as in what?”
“I don’t know,” Adelheid shrugged, all too casually. “I think it ans everything. Just everything.”
“Everything related to the Class, to hiding, to {Missing}…?”
Another shrug was the only answer she got.
Malwine shook her head. It felt heavy—the closest comparison she could think of would have been what happens when you try to shake wet hair—despite being perfectly fine, as far as she could tell. “Okay. Let’s go with that. Does it increase every ti you ‘hide’?”
“I told it not to go up,” Adelheid explained. “But now I’m going to ignore great-grandma. So it will go up.”
Wait, that’s a thing you can do? It was almost impressive to see how much her little half-aunt had achieved so far, seemingly in no small part due to her utter refusal to overthink anything.
“Okay,” Malwine motioned for Adelheid to move forward, which the girl did without hesitation. “Let’s see it, then! If you start hiding and coming out, does it increase?”
“I think it will,” Adelheid said as her expression shifted to an adorable impression of a frown. “How many tis should I…?”
“As many as you want?”
Adelheid disappeared. The act was silent, but Malwine was starting to notice a pattern. It oddly reminded her of the snuffing of a candle, imperceptible wisps of smoke trailing around where she had once been. It wasn’t sothing she saw or slled, but closer to how she could see the mana in her core or feel it moving through her body—it was so other form of perception she didn’t know the na for.
Malwine had, frankly, neglected to ponder the matter often enough. It seed independent to Skills, Traits, or Aspects—as far as she could tell, there was no need for her to get sothing specialized to sense mana, at least generally. Visualizing her core had all but co naturally, after all.
Everything else was harder to pinpoint, however. She didn’t actually have much to go on, since people around her didn’t seem to be regularly doing anything that would lead to her noticing mana. But it was almost obvious with Adelheid now—as the girl popped in and out of the room, the sensation only grew easier to identify.
It wasn’t the sa type of impression she got from using [Nosy Old Lady], either—it was sothing far more generalized. Malwine reviewed the Skill, the very sa she’d used to first find out Adelheid had Affinities. She tried to ignore the slightly disconcerting realization that six months had already passed since she’d derived {Vestige} from her {Missing}.
[Nosy Old Lady] Not even death could convince you to just let what is actually dead rest, so perhaps this might persuade you that living, breathing people can be interesting, too. You may feel any living target’s current Affinities without needing access to their core. This Skill may be enhanced by your Perception and affected by your target's Presence, but relies on your actual capacity to sense and differentiate Affinities.Trait: NoneAspect: [Purpose]. Any and all Skills are thrice as effective when used for the benefit of sobody else.
The Skill description still felt like a personal attack, but reencountering that ntion of it enabling her to feel the Affinities of others without needing ‘access to their core’ gave Malwine an idea. Could she improve this proto-mana sense by putting a Trait on this specific Skill? It was certainly the closest she had to a sensory Skill.
Besides, it was an Unranked Skill—putting a Trait there could lead to so utterly broken results, if [Imitation Beyond Filiality] had taught her anything. A part of her regretted attaching [Identify] to [Cool Head on Your Shoulders], even if it hadn’t been as though she could have put it anywhere else.
Still, a Trait could… Malwine tried not to think about how unlikely she was to get a new Trait anyti soon.
“It’s up to two!” Adelheid reappeared with a grin, breaking her out of her reverie. The girl proceeded to vanish again without awaiting a response.
Huh, level 2 already? Perhaps Malwine shouldn’t have been surprised—she’d had Skills that soared through the early levels herself.
“Three!”
Malwine nodded, almost making a thumbs-up gesture before it struck her that she wasn’t even sure whether that was a thing here? Was it? The worst part was that, short of going out of her way to observe people, she had no idea as to how to find out. She certainly couldn’t ask—how could she explain even knowing the gesture?—and she’d have better odds at trying to reveal a harvestable that wasn’t a restorative than learning anything useful about social norms from her family.
“Four!”
Have mine ever gone up this fast? I’m not even sur—
“Five!”
—now you’re just rubbing it in, aren’t you?
It wasn’t as though she could bring herself to be genuinely mad, but watching the girl recite her increasing Skill levels while doing nothing was quite the odd experience. She stood still given that implicit expectation that she’d wait for Adelheid to be done, but there appeared to be no end in sight, and the girl had sohow gotten to level eight already.
“Maybe that’s eno—”
Adelheid kept going.
With a sigh, Malwine just gave up. This would clearly take more ti than she expected. If I were progressing a Skill so quickly, would I want to stop? Probably not. She couldn’t really bla Adelheid for being so excited to keep leveling it. While she was at it, she might as well prepare for the third round of this Skill-sharing ga they’d gotten going.
Malwine resettled in her bed and reached for one of the dictionaries in the family library, if only to confirm what that word on Adelheid’s third Skill na had been. So it’s like a hole? ‘The hole in everything’?I take that back, this one worries more than the second one.
And with the pattern so far, it’s going to have a description that’s utterly unhelpful.
“It’s not going up anymore,” Adelheid sighed, sitting on the floor after what had to be close to an hour of teleporting in and out of the room. “I’m sad now.”
“How high did it go?”
“[That Which Lurks] has a thirteen next to it now.”
“Aweso!” Malwine reached over, hoping a hug would cheer the girl up. That had worked just fine before. “You leveled up, too!”
Adelheid Rīsanin - Human - Level 11
It was sothing Malwine had noticed a while ago, but hadn’t even been able to bring up with the girl constantly disappearing.
“Yep! Now I’m…” Adelheid’s gaze grew distant as she pulled away. “It’s counting the numbers next to Skills?”
“What do you an?”
“On the status thing… It says ‘Lifeti Skill levels’ and 14. One in [Shadow Manipulation], thirteen in [That Which Lurks]. But why is it counting?”
“Oh. The more you have on those, the more attribute points you get per level. I don’t know all the exact points where it increases.”
“So I should level Skills!” Adelheid nearly shouted the revelation, looking surprisingly incensed for her age. “Great-grandma is so dumb!”
“Shh!” Malwine took a finger to her own lips and gestured for silence. “Soone might hear us!”
“No one ever hears .”
“But we still have to be careful. To keep this secret!”
The girl’s eyes lit up in realization. “Oh! Okay.”
“Yeah,” Malwine nodded, before going on to describe the last of her own three chosen Skills. “Anyhow—[Write Anywhere] is a Skill and also Epic. Here’s what it does…”
It was strange. Malwine found she was having fun talking to Adelheid. Maybe she’d been that desperate for human interaction, but it felt like sothing more. All tied to that looming concern about how she didn’t even know who she was, not really. There had been a ti when she’d simply thought of herself as the widow reborn, especially early on.
As ti went on, she felt less and less sure. It wasn’t even just about her struggles with both keeping up appearances and suppressing her urges—the widow hadn’t stood at the pinnacle of maturity to begin with, but she did often wonder whether being young again was affecting her.
Nowadays, she just thought… Well, she was Malwine. Did it really matter in the end? She was enjoying her ti here, her ti with her little half-aunt—with her little kind-of-sister, apparently.
She refused to consider herself a child, though, at least when it ca to this internal debate. It just made her uncomfortable—as if thinking that she was, indeed, technically an age 4 toddler would sohow be the greatest possible admission of weakness.
“It’s cool that you can write like that,” Adelheid conceded. “But what do you use it for?”
“Taking notes. You know, writing about stuff,” Malwine started, just as she grew suddenly aware of the opportunity before her. “Oh, do you know what a census is?”
“Nop! What is a census?”
“It’s like a list of people who live in a place. Their nas, their ages… Here, let show you.”
NurationNaRelation to HouseAgeMarital StatusChildrenOccupationNatureFather's NatureMother's Nature1Bernadette fon HūdijaninHead of Household32Married4HomakerGrēdôcavan??????????2Kristian RīsanHusband?Married9???????????????????3Thekla RīsaninStepdaughter?Single0Unemployed?Grēdôcavan??????????4Anselm RīsanStepson32Single0Unemployed?Grēdôcavan??????????5Kristoffer RīsanStepson20Single0Unemployed?Grēdôcavan??????????6Alaric RīsanStepson15Single0DependentGrēdôcavan??????????7Matilda RīsaninDaughter9Single0DependentGrēdôcavan?????Grēdôcavan8Paul RīsanSon7Single0DependentGrēdôcavan?????Grēdôcavan9Adelheid RīsaninDaughter3Single0DependentGrēdôcavan?????Grēdôcavan10Benedikt RīsanSon0Single0DependentGrēdôcavan?????Grēdôcavan11Johann FastēnEmployee71Single?AntiquarianGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan12'Veit'Employee?Single?Forester???????????????13Anna FranziskaEmployee33Single1CleanerGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan14MariaEmployee52Single0CleanerGrēdôcavan??????????15FriedrichEmployee49Single0CleanerGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan16HelgaEmployee44Single0CleanerGrēdôcavan??????????17MariaEmployee27Married0CookGrēdôcavan??????????18JohannEmployee28Married0CookGrēdôcavan??????????19MariaEmployee36Single2CookGrēdôcavan??????????20FranziskaEmployee41Single0GardenerGrēdôcavan??????????21GretelEmployee53Single0ChefGrēdôcavan??????????22HildaEmployee45Single1AttendantGrēdôcavan??????????23MargrethEmployee46Married3AttendantGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan24Anna MariaEmployee47Single0AttendantGrēdôcavan??????????25KlausEmployee44Single0AttendantGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan
This needs corrections. I’d almost forgotten.
“Oh! I’m there!”
“You are. The ages might not be perfect since people might have gotten to a full year since I made that. I’m also missing a lot of people…”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you missing people?”
“I got most of the nas from talking to this maid in the kitchen, Anna Franziska—she’s on the list, too—but she didn’t know everyone’s nas or their facts. Plus I think I was starting to worry her with the questions.”
“In the kitchen?”
“The part where they bring the food out. She’s a maid and she was cleaning around the table when I asked her this stuff.”
“Okay,” Adelheid said with surprising seriousness, turning to the door. “I don’t like it when things are missing—”
That certainly sounded ironic to Malwine, considering the na of the girl’s seemingly main Affinity, but—
“—so let’s go!”
For a mont, as Adelheid gripped her arm, Malwine thought the girl might have been about to pull her towards the door. That’d have been acceptable enough—maybe if she kept going up and down the stairs, she might get her Endurance to go up a little more, pointless as it would be.
Instead, the world blurred. The sensation returned, but magnified, now bordering on disorienting. Instead of getting an impression of a candle being snuffed out, she montarily felt like wisps of smoke going up. It passed blessedly quick, and the sensation faded even from mory.
The disorientation was another story.
A giggling Adelheid held her arm still, and they were next to… chair legs? They were in the dining room again? Indeed, as Malwine oriented herself, she recognized the chairs she—and Adelheid—used whenever they ate here.
“It worked again!”
Malwine was too busy making sure no one had been around to see them. I’m not even going to question the fact that she can do this. Why would she be surprised? Adelheid clearly operated on a different version of logic.
Anna Franziska exited the kitchen just then, trusty broom in hand. She was smiling—said smile practically lted off her face the mont she noticed them. The maid was looking at Adelheid as though she were a cryptid. “The child!”
“Hi, Anna Franziska,” Malwine greeted her, only slightly surprised by the sa maid being present cleaning the area. Maybe they did all have assigned rooms or sothing, and Malwine had simply neglected to notice prior to forcing herself to learn their nas.
“Hello?” the maid gave her greeting a questioning return, still focused on Adelheid. “How did you… get the child to stay around?”
“I still haven’t learned everyone’s nas,” Malwine said. “And I told her about it, so she wanted to help.”
“Yes!” Adelheid nodded emphatically. “We can’t let the census be missing nas.”
Anna Franziska blinked. “…The census?”
“I read that word sowhere.”
Adelheid was ready to back her up. “It ans list of nas!”
“It… I see,” Anna Franziska spoke slowly. Seriously, what is it with people and acting like Adelheid is a mirage they could stop seeing at any ti?
“So, Anna Franziska,” Malwine smiled, her hands folded behind her back in the best impression she could make of propriety. “Could you please take us around so I can learn more people’s nas?”
If Adelheid was going to throw her off the deep end here, she might as well get that census done. Sure, it was bound to have so inconsistencies thanks to future entries corresponding to a different month, but Malwine’s answer to that risk remained the sa as it had been to the possibility of Anna Franziska being wrong about things—she did not intend for this to be the last or only she made, so there would always be room for improvent in subsequent versions.
“…That, I can do,” the maid replied, after a pause.
From the glances she kept sneaking at Adelheid, Malwine suspected Anna Franziska agreed to it only for the sake of watching the girl. Whether it was because the staff were under so kind of order to keep an eye on her if she showed up, or out of curiosity, Malwine didn’t know.
Just going through the kitchen alone, she finally got to see the faces of three of the other people Anna Franziska had ntioned the first ti, the cooks—specifically, the married Johann and Maria, as well as the other Maria.
It was with that Johann that the census—which Malwine kept updating in its hidden panel—finally started to grow again. He was acquainted with two caterers Anna Franziska didn’t know, the both of which were currently on leave. They’d been on leave for a while, actually.
Johann was slightly concerned about their wellbeing, but this wasn’t Malwine’s problem to solve.
He was also able to shed so light into sothing Malwine had wondered more than once—just why the hell did this estate employ so many people? The answer, as far as she could tell, was that they had a lot of people on standby as ‘support’. It supposedly had sothing to do with the property’s original territory and its quirks, which enabled Bernie to hire people and change their positions on the fly so long as they were qualified. The sa went for assigning tasks, with the sa requirents.
It did make Malwine a bit curious as to how the system worked as far as properties went—Johann made it sound like these were all system features, after all.
The next interesting tidbit she learned was that most of the household staff was organized not by Bernie, but by a butler who rarely showed her face. Apparently, she was the widow of soone who served under the Hero whose party Kristian and Katrina belonged to. She was also ninety-three.
Neither Johann nor any of the other staff present could tell her more, but apparently, the woman had been in that position before any of the others got here, and seemingly intended to be there for the rest of her life.
There were so other interesting cases, such as a staffer whose mother was Grēdôcavan, but whose father was unknown, as well as two dedicated snow-shovelers, presumably for all the snow that didn’t get anywhere near the estate thanks to the wards.
Oh, and Malwine couldn’t forget Karl—whoever that was, he worked alongside the housemaids, and they refused to give him any title other than, well, housemaid. It resulted in an entry for her census that Malwine was sure would likely look positively hilarious to anyone looking at it without this context. Even with it, probably.
The flood of Marias and Annas—plus a bonus Anna Maria—refused to end, and Malwine was mostly used to it by now. It was the sa as the Johanns, really. She had already accepted she was in for a lifeti of having to distinguish people by their positions or other distinguishing features, because anyone who didn’t belong to a house appeared quite stubborn about not using any surnas, even when Malwine found it unlikely they didn’t have literally anything they could have shalessly lifted from further up on their family trees.
Things went well, all things considered—even if Malwine knew all too well that she wouldn’t have rembered any of these nas with only a single ntion, had it not been for [Write Anywhere].
Not to ntion, absolutely everyone gaped at Adelheid the mont they saw her, and few stopped even after it beca clear the girl was not about to disappear.
NurationNaRelation to HouseAgeMarital StatusChildrenOccupationNatureFather's NatureMother's Nature1Bernadette fon HūdijaninHead of Household32Married4HomakerGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan2Kristian RīsanHusband61Married9???????????????????3Anselm RīsanStepson32Single0Unemployed?Grēdôcavan?????Regnąfelsian?4Thekla RīsaninStepdaughter28Single0Unemployed?Grēdôcavan?????Regnąfelsian?5Kristoffer RīsanStepson20Single0Unemployed?Grēdôcavan?????Regnąfelsian?6Alaric RīsanStepson15Single0DependentGrēdôcavan?????Regnąfelsian?7Matilda RīsaninDaughter9Single0DependentGrēdôcavan?????Grēdôcavan8Paul RīsanSon7Single0DependentGrēdôcavan?????Grēdôcavan9Adelheid RīsaninDaughter3Single0DependentGrēdôcavan?????Grēdôcavan10Benedikt RīsanSon0Single0DependentGrēdôcavan?????Grēdôcavan11Johann FastēnEmployee71Single?AntiquarianGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan12'Veit'Employee?Single?Forester???????????????13Anna FranziskaEmployee33Single1Kitchen MaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan14MariaEmployee52Single0Kitchen MaidGrēdôcavan??????????15FriedrichEmployee49Single0Kitchen MaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan16HelgaEmployee44Single0Kitchen MaidGrēdôcavan??????????17MariaEmployee27Married0CookGrēdôcavan??????????18JohannEmployee28Married0CookGrēdôcavan??????????19MariaEmployee36Single2CookGrēdôcavan??????????20FranziskaEmployee41Single0GardenerGrēdôcavan??????????21GretelEmployee53Single0ChefGrēdôcavan??????????22HildaEmployee45Single1AttendantGrēdôcavan??????????23MargrethEmployee46Married3AttendantGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan24Anna MariaEmployee47Single0AttendantGrēdôcavan??????????25KlausEmployee44Single0AttendantGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan26KasparEmployee51Single0CatererGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan27EdithEmployee38Single0CatererGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan28Hildegard fon WerruinEmployee93Widowed1ButlerGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan29GerhardtEmployee48Single1GroundskeeperGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan30TheresiaEmployee33Single5GroundskeeperGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan31VeronicaEmployee25Single2Scullery MaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan32Anna WilhelminaEmployee46Single4Scullery MaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan33DorotheaEmployee31Single5Scullery MaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan34SophiaEmployee44Married0HousemaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan35SelmaEmployee32Single1HousemaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan36KarlEmployee51Single2HousemaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan37MariaEmployee41Single2HousemaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan38UrsulaEmployee55Single0ChambermaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan39KorneliaEmployee44Married2ChambermaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan40ErnaEmployee49Single2ChambermaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan41IngebjørgEmployee27Single2Chambermaid???????????????42AnnaEmployee33Single4ChambermaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan43KlaraEmployee54Single1Laundry MaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan44IrmaEmployee42Single0Snow-ShovelerGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan45FritzEmployee40Single3Snow-ShovelerGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan46AlinaEmployee38Single0Parlour MaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan47NinaEmployee46Single1Parlour MaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan48ThereseEmployee29Single0Parlour MaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan49KarinaEmployee44Single4Still-Room Maid???????????????50AnnaEmployee26Married0Still-Room MaidGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan51GottfriedEmployee32Single0HousemanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan52EilhardEmployee50Single1HousemanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan53BernhardEmployee50Single0HousemanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan54DagobertEmployee26Single3PageGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan55PeterEmployee41Single0PageGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan56KlensEmployee36Single4PageGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan57TilmanEmployee54Single3FootmanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan58RainerEmployee41Single4FootmanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan59ThomasEmployee31Married1Painter???????????????60JohnEmployee37Married5Painter???????????????61CarlottaEmployee28Single0SupportGrēdôcavan?????Grēdôcavan62MartinEmployee35Single3SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan63AnnaEmployee40Single2SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan64SimonEmployee54Single0SupportGrēdôcavan??????????65KarlEmployee39Single2SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan66MarleneEmployee43Married4SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan67MaximilianEmployee51Single0SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan68BiankaEmployee38Single0SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan69LudwigEmployee33Single1SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan70AstridEmployee47Single1SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan71WilhelminaEmployee26Single0SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan72HilmaEmployee39Single3SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan73LorentzEmployee34Single5SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan74NiklausEmployee50Single0SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan75IrmingardEmployee37Single3SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan76RembrandtEmployee29Married3SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan77AnthonEmployee47Single2SupportGrēdôcavan??????????78GundaEmployee48Single4SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan79WinfriedEmployee53Single5SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan80PhilippEmployee33Single4SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan81LeopoldineEmployee55Single3SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan82MariaEmployee32Single2SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan83LukasEmployee47Single5SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan84GretelEmployee44Single0SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan85Johann MariaEmployee42Single3SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan86XavierEmployee53Single0SupportGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavanGrēdôcavan
The only thing she was missing was an age for Veit, and while she couldn’t outright show the census to Adelheid with Anna Franziska around, the girl had clearly noticed that last remaining tidbit, as she remained alert, almost expecting Malwine to do sothing.
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…Why do I get the feeling this is going to be a headache?
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