NOVEL NEXT 34 – The Phoenix is Bigger
Chapter 34 - The Phoenix is Bigger
I woke up startled and a bit sweaty, getting up in desperation, looking at my hands and feet while checking my entire body.
“It's still me… I'm still me…” I murmur to myself.
I'm still Nathan Evenhart.
Being back in that place in my past life was not a good feeling; I had never felt as desperate as I did the moment my mind, for a second, thought I had ceased to be Nathan Evenhart.
“Are you scared, General? Hahaha, had a good dream?” said the beautiful blonde woman with an attractive body in a revealing white dress, but the most disgusting and malevolent person I had ever known.
“Fuck you, Athena. Leave me alone,” I said, throwing a blanket over the apparition, but it passed through the woman.
Many have skeletons in their closet, but I have a dead Goddess.
“Ahhh! It's not my fault you dreamed of that place. Do you think I would bother the only person who can see me?”
I look at the damn Goddess.
“I think! I think you would do something like that.”
Letting my heart relax, I look at my room where I've lived for the past three years since my mother and I moved to my family's castle, and I feel relieved. That's right, I’m now 8 years old and still living here.
“Can you give me some attention? I literally have nothing to do…” complained the Goddess.
I empty my thoughts and ignore her presence.
She disappeared… thankfully.
I sighed in relief and tried to concentrate on falling asleep again.
A lot has happened to me in the past three years, and I mean a lot. Now I can even reach higher places… I know you don't care about that, but to me, it's very important.
What happened in recent times is that the confusion over my engagement to Chloe finally passed. I don't know what magic my aunt worked to resolve it, but it worked. The nobles had to calm down and continue with their lives. As we were in the midst of an economic crisis due to the loss of a good part of our mages, everyone had to swallow their pride and make peace to help each other. In the years before I came to this castle, the nobles made a fuss and even refused to collaborate because of the dispute over the Duchy, but when they saw their wealth rapidly diminishing due to the high cost of the crisis… they gladly accepted what my aunt did and eventually decided to work together.
My aunt was happy to have managed to resolve things diplomatically, and finally, the Evenhart territory was progressing and returning to the abundance it had before the war. My aunt's solution was to invest a good portion of our wealth in recruiting children. The children of these mages had the chance to become mages, as did other children scattered throughout our territory. She offered to take care of the education of these young mages and guarantee employment for them. You might have a talent for magic, but without someone to teach you, it was useless. Aunt Margie's solution was to help them develop and have them work on our lands.
After putting down the small noble rebellion, Aunt Margie allowed the soldiers to work effectively, as we had to keep a good part of them camped around our fortress for security.
Gradually, the new changes she implemented began to yield results. My aunt even changed the tax collection system, reducing it and offering exemptions for those who produced more, and deployed her armies to be stationed in bases along the roads. We wanted to ensure the safety of merchants and farmers. It would be complicated to encourage them to risk their economies producing in large quantities if there was no one to protect them. If they invested all their savings in buying grains, seeds, cattle, and supplies to sustain it all, only for a bandit to appear and burn their crops or rob them, it would be for nothing. On the contrary, it would create a bankruptcy process that would only worsen the situation.
To ensure safety and assist the farmers, my aunt had to deploy our army to patrol the roads 24/7. The soldiers enjoyed having a bit of action, although not much happened. Here in our Duchy, we do not tolerate crime, especially against a farmer whose family has shared the land with us for generations and helps produce wealth for our territory.
Nikolaus Wolves had to swallow his greed and collaborate with the other nobles when he saw everyone else moving forward.
Chloe and I are still forbidden to leave the fortress without authorization, but this rule would be in effect even without the previous confusion since we are heirs and cannot freely wander alone and exposed. Occasionally, we go to the town and disguise ourselves with simple clothes to move around. Fortunately, here in the Evenhart Duchy, they keep the heirs hidden from the public until they are older. This way, we can go out and get to know the region without causing a stir. This is a family custom, but in other places, nobles are taught from a young age to show off and flaunt their status wherever they go.
Sifu told us that our way is better because it prevents creating proud and spoiled children. If a child is treated like a 'king,' they will start to see others as inferior. So, to the public, when we are on the streets, we are just commoners, and they talk to us normally when they serve us in the shops. We walk alone, but there are always hidden guards disguised when we go to town, and I suspect they even send some Assassin Maids to watch over us.
“Hey! Don’t hug me with your claws! Your talons hurt,” I complained to my roommate.
‘Screech,’ said the sleepy Cylla, turning to the other side.
“Screech to you too!” I turned irritated to the other direction.
I liked it better when she was small…
My roommate was full of habits and would complain if I didn’t follow them. We had made a bed for her on the floor, but Cylla always jumped into my bed at bedtime. I fought every time she did this and kicked her out to her bed, but the clever girl would wait until I fell asleep to jump back into bed.
To avoid waking up startled, thinking someone was trying to kill me every time she jumped into bed, I ended up letting her sleep with me. Luckily, my bed was big… the problem was that my roommate was also getting bigger.
Little by little, Cylla was changing not only in size but also in shape. That little bird I saved from the infernal chains was now quite big. Cylla was a bit larger than me and must have been almost five feet tall. She had lost her bird-like appearance and was now becoming something new.
The scrawny phoenix I knew as a baby now had four legs and a long body. Her bird-like form was changing into a bird hybrid that looked like a quadruped animal. She was still predominantly a red eagle, but now her body also had fur, and the feathers remained on her wings. In my world, she might be compared to a griffin, although those creatures were only stories told to children and were a mixture of various different animals.
My phoenix roommate, who now had a furry, red quadruped body and wings, gave me trouble at night, especially when she used her paws to hug and trap me. Obviously, I didn’t have the strength to escape her grip, even though I had been a Sovereign in another life… here, I was just an 8-year-old kid.
Little by little, Cylla became more sociable with others and roamed around the mansion or the castle, even becoming friends with my mother and aunt, occasionally responding to them. The other legacies were a bit apprehensive about the fact that she was really getting bigger. Before, it was just speculation about what might happen, but now that they were actually seeing her grow in size, they were worried.
My teacher Sifu sometimes appeared and tried to communicate with her; it seemed he had some kind of nostalgia related to the stories his former masters told him. When he saw Cylla’s quadruped form, he better understood his knowledge about the ancient Phoenix Masters. We continued feeding her meat, but Cylla began eating only once a week, so it became easier to feed her.
She liked to stay mainly in the fountain area or in the artificial landscape with grass and a pond that was downstairs in the mansion. There was a pond where my aunt kept testing her magic, trying to create special cold water for torturing prisoners. My aunt is a very special mage capable of using a fusion of elements. Aunt Margie had the Water and Air elements, allowing her to access the Ice element, which she used for torture… I know, my family is crazy.
Cylla enjoyed bathing in the pond and didn’t mind the cold since she was a phoenix, so the room with the artificial landscape became a sort of ‘lair’ for her. We had to deal with the concern that she was getting bigger and would soon need a new place for the phoenix. Although Cylla still fit easily in the artificial room, the problem was that she wouldn’t fit through the door if she grew more. My aunt said she would handle the situation and try to vacate a warehouse in the fortress for her, but the problem was that the phoenix would have to stay outside where she could be seen, and the excuse of her being just an S-rank bird wouldn’t work anymore.
My roommate couldn’t even be called a bird anymore due to her quadruped form, and we were thinking about what to do as she grew. Fortunately, my phoenix friend didn’t stray far from me, so she hadn’t flown around outside yet, but I knew I couldn’t prevent her from doing so at some point.
“Nate! Nate! She’s here!”
‘Boom!’
My door was violently opened by the little monster, my cousin.
“Come on! Come on!” she shouted, jumping on my bed and shaking me.
I tried to move but couldn’t do much since she was on top of me, shaking me wildly.
“I’m awake!” As soon as I said that, a jet of water splashed in my face from Chloe’s hands.
“Come on, Nate! We have to go.”
“You soaked me! I was already awake!” I complained.
The little monster shrugged and ran off happily.
“At this rate, I’ll keep being better than you,” she shouted, running down the corridors.
I sighed.
“That show-off girl…” I grumbled, wiping my wet face on my shirt.