Ethereal Paradigm 104 Yes, Your Highness

"These wounds won't seem to heal. This pain is just too real, There's just so much, that time can not erase..."

-Evanescence, My Immortal.

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Knowing that this Illusory Valhalla, is not what it completely seems... that everything shown is indeed hand-picked, but not altered, I reached the innermost part of the garden, and there my sister is, playing the atypical princess, alone, in her usual velvet gothic dress, that matched perfectly with her purple-colored eyes.

A refreshing scene that if it was not because of the Patriarch's Paradigm Shift, perhaps I could never see again. I have to thank him later for that... but it's not like I want to be here either, so he still reserves the right to be severely punished.

Seeing her reminds me of Shiro, who is still in hibernation for using her Paradigm Shift and I hope she's okay in Celes's provision. Not that I doubt that Herrscher though. Now then...

"Oh, Jaiden!!! Come here! Why did you suddenly disappear, you jerk? From a world business dominator, do you now wish to be one with those presence-concealing Ninjas?"

Seeing me approaching without taking into credibility the borders of her castle, she looked at me, as if she just saw the harshest being alive for leaving her with a valid reason...probably.

Yet, she's the hash one, even without a taint of melodramatic means... leaving me completely, even without warnings. Even without saying the least of Goodbyes...

"Yow," I responded, out of instinct with a little hand wave, as I have had also forgotten how I greet her back then. Yet, what's clear is that all I'm missing right now is a piece of grass or a cigarette in my mouth, to sound and look alike to that of the MAFIA Dons.

"'Yow?'... Jaiden, is that supposed to be a statement that you're now ready to integrate yourself to outside cultures? Hmph! And there you were the other day, spouting about defeating older brother by using internal resources alone."

Ah, right... She knows probably more than anyone else, about my self-proclaimed, ongoing rivalry with that man around these times. Well, aside from being a delusional princess, she also can become the best advisor there is at certain circumstances, giving me advice from books that she read, and by books, I mean not those that seven-year-olds typically read.

Raging from philosophies of Socrates to David Hume and history books (which I have always hated) is all you can find in her collection, not Cinderella and the Seven Dwarves nor any of the young-kids' fictional stories. And it's not like my family deprived her of those things, nor is it because she's against the idea of princesses falling in love at their early liberty. She just hated it, seeing how unrealistic and subjective the events are.

And lookie here, where I am now. Something that Jean would probably hate even more.. ullaged in both surrealistic and subjective events, in another world with an entire city, a genius classmate, an adoptive little sister, and a Goddess. Petty Riddance.

Oh, and did I mention that Jean finished reading Leo Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' at the age of five? A book that even in my current age still appears uninteresting... Probably not. And I'm saying this proudly, how enigmatic the personalities in my family are.

But, a kid, not even in her teens talking like this, is still somewhat implausible, especially when I got myself acquainted with how they should 'normally' act, the moment this household lost it all, with me gaining more neo-perspectives, with the help, of course, of my conservative grandma, who in my first years with her, has done her best to introduce me to some 'possible' friends and ultimately failed.

Well, it's an understatement if Jean will not act like this. After all, being enclosed within this household truly can develop your maturity in no time. Not to mention the austere and stern home-schooling system, coalesced with that Xerxes' guidance that straight out seems to deprive us of our youth, but just wanted us purely to learn things that are out of the norm's picture. Not that we didn't prefer it though...

"Well, whatever... If you're gonna do it again, I will punish you accordingly okay?"

"Ahahaahaaha. Well, yes... your highness."

Oh, I actually remembered... how I used to address her back then.. which voluntarily just sprung up.

"That's more like it! Now then, how was piano class? Did you defeat brother this time?"

"Hmmm... As if."

"Yeah, I know, but I'll remind you for as long as I can... It's not like it's impossible though."

"Eh?" I said aloud.

"Brother is indeed out of our caliber, but its only a matter of time before he will lose momentum, and till then... Just bear with it okay? You'll soon find yourself at the top without you even knowing... And that right there is an amalgamation from Socrates' and Sun Tsuz' Beliefs. Now, what are you doing standing there? I believe that I gave you special permission to gain access to my castle anytime you wanted it..."

"Ahahahaha... Yes. Your highness, I'm coming in then. Excuse me" I then stepped right in, in a castle with the size of a typical greenhouse, but inside is not her toys, it's her vast array of a messy book collection, thereby calling it her castle...

Yet, something which she just said, seemed to have caught my attention... 'Lose momentum' indeed. If she's talking about losing ground of that man's picture-perfect aristocracy heir, then she has become one of the best and legitimate astrologers ever to exist, a title that she herself will assuredly hate...

"What's this? Jean, trying to be a forecaster? Hahahaha! I can't bear the thoughts."

"Hmph! You better did not think that I sounded like an astrologer who relies on Tarot Cards. I believe in God and it's evil to believe both of them at the same time. "

God huh... I have always believed in one, especially now...

(...)

From there, we continued having fun... Not playing Monopoly which is the trend of those days, nor a game of tag or hide-and-seek.

We're having fun, just as it has always been for the both of us... Playing chess till dawn while incorporating our Knowledge from the book 'Art of War'. Yes, Chess, spicing it up a bit with strategic philosophies to test our knowledge's tenacity... And guess what... Even with the IQ of 140 plus, I never won. Not a single match...

What's more implausible is that I found myself... genuinely smiling... after all these years.

Time passed, and the surreal and earthly daybreak begins to taint the entire illusory background. An illusion indeed, but not in a way that what I'm seeing now is entirely false and virtual. It's as if, time really did turn back itself...

And yet, I know too well, the dynamism of events... and the ephemerality within.

In two nights' time... of which one is already in sight...

Everything is fated to change... Your highness, you're going to disappear again, right? Like those presence-concealing Ninjas that you talked about...

Chapter end