Ashley Falcon
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Chapter 145: By my first birthday I was a doctor, a mathematician, and a god. I can claim to be anything, but it doesn’t make it true.
🕑 Added 2022-04-05 10:40:44 +0000 UTCFive hours later I stepped off the roller coaster.
Okay, it had only been five minutes, but it felt like five hours.
Whether or not I’d screamed was nobody’s business. What happened on the roller coaster stayed on the roller coaster.
Amanda wasn’t as confident about roller coasters as she'd looked. It was a pleasant surprise. Her legs were jelly as she stepped off the ride and I shot her a teasing smirk.
“Not. A. Word.” She gritted her teeth.
“Your silence buys mine.” I spoke.
I’d been through worse scrapes before and lived through two lives. I wasn’t sure why a perfectly safe ride made my body shake.
Was it a physiological reaction? Or was that an excuse?
“Congratulations, you two survived.” William’s cheerful voice interrupted my thoughts.
Roxxy and William strode towards us, not a single hair on their heads displaced. They looked like they had gone for a walk in the park.
I'd never felt more hatred for two people than I did now.
There was a chirp in the air as Gold and Agni joined us, and Gerial walked behind them.
“That was fun.” He grinned. “Let’s do a few more of those.”
I wasn’t against his suggestion. The ride had been fun, in its own way. I looked up at the nearby elemental roller coasters.
“I can take them.” I cracked my knuckles. “We can do a few more and then get ice cream. Easy.”
Seven rides later I was deeply regretting my words.
There were too many roller coasters. There were other rides too, different ones, but I was exhausted from the few I'd been on.
The cool touch of the steel bench on my back eased my tension.
"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Amanda asked.
I shook my head, and beside me Gold did the same. I was taking a break from the next ride.
"You guys go ahead." I laid back. "We're going to have a fun time watching you guys scream your heads off."
"I don't scream." Amanda huffed. "No matter what you think you saw.”
She walked over to the rollercoaster and joined up with the rest of the group. Most of us had taken a break at one point or another, the only exception being Roxxy.
It scared me how much she enjoyed this.
"It's you and me now, Buddy.” I scratched Gold’s neck.
He'd had his own fill of fun. He was more amused by people flying through the air while screaming than he was with the roller coasters.
For him flying was a regular occurrence.
I’d even caught him trying to peck out a piece of the earth element roller coaster.
Gold chirped at me and dropped a single stone in my hand. I was wrong. He had taken a peck out of the earth ride.
“Are you building a new nest with your collection?” I chuckled.
Gold bobbed his head in agreement.
"We’re going to have a serious talk about stealing.” I put the stone in my inventory. “You can't go taking chunks out of roller co— oh, hello there.”
My speech was cut off as a person appeared. Their bright silver eyes gazed at me curiously.
It was the kid from before.
I blinked in surprise. He was a child no more than three or four years old and sleek silver hair cascaded across his waist. Gold squawked as I stopped talking, but the child didn't react.
He just stared at me.
"Hello?" I spoke. “Are you lost?"
I briefly considered how silly the question was. If this kid was three or four years old, that meant that he could be just as intelligent as I was.
Then again, I had never met a normal kid before in this world. His vacant gaze didn't give me the impression of intelligence.
The boy paused and then held out his hand.
"Do you want to high-five?" I held my hand out.
I gave him a small high-five and he blinked, looking down at his palm uncomprehendingly.
Okay. This is getting a little creepy.
"Are you lost?” My head perked up. "Or are you super intelligent? I don't know what the protocol is for asking that.”
The child’s silver hair spread across his shoulder as he tilted his head in confusion. Then he stuck his hand out again.
He wanted something.
"I'm not sure what you're looking for." I smiled.
Gold was ruffling his feathers cautiously. His wing poked my cheek and I looked up at him.
He chirped.
I listened carefully to his words, but all I heard was confusion. He didn't know who I was talking to, but that was a given. I didn't even know who the kid was.
Gold grew more agitated.
I looked around me and noticed a strange trend.
Nobody was paying attention to the kid. Not a single glance went his way, and quite a few were directed at me.
They were looking at me like I was crazy.
"You can't see who I'm talking to, can you?" I asked Gold.
Gold nodded and I immediately activated my mana sense. A swirling storm of mana appeared in my vision, covering the sky and keeping the islands afloat. It hurt my head to look at it.
The child was still there.
He wasn’t an illusion. Or invisible like Gerial.
I took a deep breath and calmed down. Magic was commonplace, but that didn't mean I needed to stay here when something strange was happening.
“Lovely chatting with you, but I'm going to head ou—” I pushed myself up.
“Little Bob!” A voice shot out into the air.
My head shot towards the sound of the new voice. A young man was stomping towards the boy. I caught a quick glimpse of his robes, embroidered snow-white birds patterned around it.
They looked like pajamas.
"I told you not to run off when I wasn't looking.” The man sighed. “That’s a whole hour down the drain.”
He had a brilliant mane of silver hair, and startlingly crisp silver eyes.
I could see the family resemblance instantly.
"You must be his dad." I let out a sigh of relief.
I chuckled. I'd scared myself silly over a lost child. After all the things that have happened to me so far, this was the one that warranted the least caution. That was exactly why I needed to relax on this trip.
The man paused as I spoke.
He turned towards me, his eyes glancing over myself and Gold.
"You can see us?” The man’s eyes widened. “Oh, pit donkey. Little Bob, I told you not to go revealing us to strangers.”
He blushed slightly as he realised what he’d said.
“Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude.” He gave me a small wave. "We’ll be heading off now.”
He leaned down and grabbed his son's hand, but the child didn't budge. Instead, the kid looked at me and pointed at me with his free hand.
"Don't point at people." The man’s embarrassment deepened. “I don't remember being this rude when I was young.”
Gold chirped. The puffer still couldn't see the people in front of me. I scratched his neck to calm him down.
"I think he wants something from me." I spoke.
The man’s brows snapped together, and he looked at me closely.
I couldn't sense any magic being used, but his facial expressions shifted and changed in concentration.
"Oh, I see." He turned toward me. “He senses that claim you’ve got on you.”
What?
My hand went straight towards my inventory. It was still there, and I could see the sphere resting inside it. The claim wasn't glowing or reacting, which was a relief.
I turned my attention back to the man. His features shifted in amusement, and he chuckled.
“I don't like claims in general, but little Bob has a bad habit of rejecting them on behalf of people.” He gave the kid's head a pat. “Don't let him get near it.”
The child’s head perked up as he heard the word ‘claim’ and then he pouted as his dad spoke. His fingers made grabbing motions at my inventory.
Sorry little buddy, there’s no way you're getting this.
Little Bob’s dad was thinking the same thing, placing a hand on his chest and guiding him away from me.
"Sorry for the trouble." He saluted me. "Best of luck with the decision making.”
The child looked over his shoulder toward me.
I frowned. This man genuinely didn't care if I opened the claim or not. But I cared. This chance encounter might be an opportunity for me.
“Wait!” I called out and the man stopped.
“Yes?” His tone turned cautious.
“I don't really know what a claim is.” I paused. "I know this is kind of sudden, but I could really use a bit of an explanation. Um, if that's not a bother.”
I was asking a stranger for help. My body was warming up with embarrassment.
The man stared at me and I saw confusion flickering in his eyes. There was a little bit of doubt too, but then he looked at his son and it disappeared.
"Sure, I could use a break." The man's lips broke out into a grin. “If I go on another roller coaster I'm going to die of boredom.”
The man swirled around, his son following him.
I moved to the side of the bench to make room for them. The seat groaned in protest as he sat down, his son resting on his leg.
The boy’s feet hovered above the ground and kicked into the air as he distracted himself, his dad's arm wrapped around his stomach to keep him from running off.
"That's a bit of a complicated subject. Especially since they're so rare nowadays." The man gave me a sympathetic smile. “How much do you know?”
"Absolutely nothing.” I admitted. “I know it's called a clai— ow!”
Gold pecked my cheek.
His body had grown tenser as I’d continued to talk, and he'd finally given into his worries. He couldn't see the people I was talking to. I looked like a madman to him.
I looked at him and then at the man.
“Can you help my friend Gold see you? He thinks I'm going crazy.”
The man held back a smile as the puffer continued to pester me.
He was enjoying the show.
There was a shift in the mana around me, so soft it was almost imperceptible. Gold let out a squawk and he took a step back.
“Your friend can see us now.” The man turned to Gold. “Hello there.”
Gold chirped.
“I can't understand you.” The man spread his arms out helplessly. “Sorry about that.”
His son turned toward Gold, a joyful gleam in his eye. He waved at the puffer, and Gold waved back with his wing.
"See, I'm not crazy.” I fed Gold a treat.
Now that everyone was caught up, I remembered my basic manners.
I hadn’t even greeted the man properly. After all of Amanda’s lessons on talking to nobles I knew she'd smack my back for that.
“Allow me to introduce myself, sir.” I kept my tone even. “My name is Andross Silver, and this is Gold.”
I didn't know if the man was a noble or not, but he was definitely a magician of high calibre. I had barely sensed his spell being cast, and I couldn't feel any mana emanating from him.
It felt like I was looking at an ordinary person, but that went against what I'd seen.
“So formal, I don't go for that kind of talk.” The man grinned. “I'm Bob, and this tiny guy is little Bob.”
He held his toddler’s hand and waved it at me. Little Bob gazed up at his dad with bored eyes, ignoring his antics.
"You look familiar, Mr Silver.” Bob’s lips parted into a smile. “A wonderful name if I do say so myself.”
He pointed at his hair and eyes, and we chuckled.
"So, you want to know about claims." Bob’s nose scrunched as he said the word. "At your age I’m guessing you haven't thought about job searching yet."
"Actually, I have a job.” I straightened.
I felt pride as I spoke. Being a scriber was a hard job, to be sure, but it still existed. I'd like to see people on earth start working full-time at three years old.
My words shocked the man more than the reveal that I had a claim.
"You have a job, and you got a claim?” His voice rose. “That's unusual.”
His foot tapped against the ground, and he stroked his chin.
I let him take his time. He was doing me a favour by talking to me.
"A claim is exactly how it sounds. A party, usually a corporation or big entity, states that someone or something is theirs. Once the claim is accepted the person is partially bound to the entity. Mostly socially but they also gain duties they are tasked with.”
Bob propped his chin up with a finger.
“That claim can be fought. Usually by rivals of the claimer, the government or the claimed themselves. Entities can't just go declaring people their property willy nilly. That kind of thing isn't possible.”
I’d guessed some of that, but it was good to have confirmation.
The idea that I could be bound to the Gesti family gave me pause. That didn't sound good. The fact that I could still fight it filled me with relief.
"If it's optional, then why is that bad?” I asked what I was thinking. “Can't I just reject the claim and go on living my normal life?”
Fermez and Gerial had told me not to reject the claim, only to ignore it. That didn't sit right with me. It felt like I was carrying around a ticking time bomb. I didn't know if it would activate by itself if I accidentally bumped it.
Bob grimaced.
"Rejecting a claim will risk severing all ties to the entity. You're burning a bridge. And not just one.” He crossed his arms over little Bob. “Anyone that does business with them could forever cut you away from their establishments because they're scared of angering their business partner.”
My heart sank.
The Gesti had ties to every business in the world. That was what my granduncle had said.
Would any of them risk angering the immortal household over me? No. They would be losing money over nothing.
That was a decision between servitude and isolation. I couldn't fight that while I was an ordinary person. I would be rejected by every company the Gesti had ties with. Or even the ones that didn't but were scared of the immortal household.
However, that anonymity had a time limit on it.
"You should be asking why the claim exists.” Bob said. “Whoever claimed you either thought they could get away with it, or they had a heck of a reason to do it.”
"I see." I kept my expression neutral.
The Gesti thought I was a commoner. The son of a disowned noble and his wife.
If I rejected the claim, then no businesses would dare anger the Gesti by giving me a job. Each new person associating with me in noble circles would have to make a choice, me or the Gesti.
I'd already seen them make that choice just because I was related to my mother. Nobody would back me up.
The Gesti thought I had no avenues to defend myself.
They don't know that I’m Marked. The thought crossed my mind.
I knew that the church wouldn't sit back and let a claim happen. That’s why Gerial was so angry. The Gesti household had declared a claim on a Marked one.
If they tried to declare me theirs, it could only end badly.
A smile crossed over my features.
“It's strange.” Bob’s expression exuded confusion. “Companies don't usually do this. In fact, the practice has pretty much been abolished. It's public slavery.”
That made sense to me.
A claim only worked when you were so powerful that nobody would dare to fight against you.
An immortal family was that kind of entity.
"What kind of pit donkey would risk his company’s reputation and livelihood to do that?” Bob rolled his eyes. “Anyway, if you're not worried about angering them you can reject it by destroying it.”
"Sure, but what do they get if I accept?" I frowned.
"Whatever they want.” Bob shrugged. “They can't force you to do anything, but they’ll try. And I assume they’d have a plan. It's better not to think about it. Any legitimate company will hire you the normal way.”
His words rang true. This was a personal attack, plain and simple. A trap that I would have walked straight into if my granduncle hadn't warned me not to open the sphere.
“Thank you so much for your help.” I bowed lightly, the bench creaking under me. “I was letting myself become overwhelmed by stress.”
Bob gazed at the surroundings and shook his head.
“If those seven people watching me are any indication, I'd say you have nothing to worry about.” He winked at me. “You're a curious fellow Mr Silver.”
He’d noticed my guards.
I opened my mouth to speak when I spotted a group of familiar figures walking towards me.
My friends had finished their ride and were walking towards me. They were still a distance away, but they'd catch up to me soon.
“It looks like the time for serious conversation is over.” Bob followed my gaze. “Which is good. Because kids need to relax. Actually, everyone does. Just my opinion.
This has been quite an unusual conversation. Perhaps it was fate Mr Silver, but I’m glad little Bob led me to you.” Bob stood up, his son’s hand in his. “I'm quite invested in your story, and I'd like to hear how it goes.”
He raised his hand and an object appeared between his fingers. It was a card.
A small wave of magic emanated from it, and I could see faint silver-blue mana rippling off it in waves.
It was connection-element mana.
“Here. It's a limited-use object, but it'll send me any words written on it while it carries the spell.” He took out a pen and scribbled on the card. “I've added my name, so you don't mistake it for ordinary paper. Treat it carefully, and no prank messages please.”
He handed the card to me.
"Of course." I waved goodbye to him. “Thank you.”
Bob flashed me an amused smile and left. Little Bob gave me a final wave, his head turned down to the ground shyly.
The moment they were gone my mind turned back to the matter of the claim. I needed to ask Gerial what reaction the church would have.
I fiddled with the card in my hand, glancing at it curiously as I thought over the conversation. It had a picture of a snow-white bird on it. There was also a symbol, radiating power, and his name.
I paused, my heart skipping a beat.
The name [Bob] stood out, but it was the symbol next to the writing that caught my eyes.
It was the Gesti family crest.
