NABC Luck–Unluck (1)
Luck–Unluck (1)
Somewhere in the desert kingdom, Ethan and Violet were standing on top of a hill looking below. Their faces had matured quite a bit for these past few months. Violet's hair had grown more and darker as well, cascading down her back in waves. It wasn't like a normal hill of a small small mountain filled with grass and trees but just made of red soil and stones—kind of a desert hill.
They were looking below, so many things were happening there at once. Few people running around, some guards taking some pale, dirty people covered in chains like they were slaves. Meanwhile, some who could were going by themselves, some were distributing food and water.
Violet turns to look at Ethan with a smile, "Hero of deserts huh? Quite the nice nickname you got," her eyes twinkling with amusement.
Ethan blushes a little, scratching the back of his head, "They are just overreacting," he says, though a small smile plays on his lips.
Past these days, alongside their self-training, they had to do something to earn money and even essence stones. They couldn't just take King Abdul's generosity every time. He had already helped them enough.
So these past months, Ethan and others collaborated with the police force of here to catch criminals and even execute some, go into expedition, kill monsters, and so on. Their days were filled with danger and purpose.
But the reason he got the title of hero of desert was because of his benevolence. He exposed many merchants, freed so many slaves and brought justice to many poor. He had already become quite famous and of course a moving target for bad people.
But without caring about all that, today too, he freed another carriage carrying illegal slaves. The gratitude in the eyes of those he saved was reward enough.
"It's midnight already, let's go back," he says, his voice weary but satisfied.
"Okay," Violet nods in agreement, her expression softening as she looks at the scene below.
They go back to the palace of Abdul, entering the familiar place again. They were living here for a long time now, training, practicing refining and merging essence stones and so on. Yet somehow it still felt strange. No matter how safe it was, this wasn't their home.
It was always Anastasia, where they actually belonged.
As they both were walking inside, Ethan stops, his eyes scanning back and forth.
"Mohammad Abdul?" he calls out, his voice echoing slightly in the corridor.
At that moment, a shadow around them wraps up and Abdul comes out of it. His appearance was sudden, as if materializing from darkness itself.
"Yes, I am," he says.
"I wasn't spying, of course. You rarely come back so late at night, so I got curious," he adds, a hint of concern in his eyes.
"Ohh, sorry to make you worry. The mission took more than we expected," Violet replies, apologizing lightly.
"No worry, I wasn't complaining... I should take my leave now. Have a good night," he says, disappearing in the shadows once again, leaving no trace behind.
Ethan and Violet look at each other and shake their head with a little chuckle and decide to be on their way.
Ethan goes to his own room while Violet joins in with her sharing room with Emma, Sylvania, Cassandra, and Belta.
Upon entering, Ethan directly jumps on bed in exhaustion. His body was clearly screaming to sleep just there without care, but he needed to wash himself and change his clothes as per routine. Discipline was important, even when exhausted.
With an exhausted sigh, he stood up from bed and took out his garments one by one. As he did, a medal-like locket fell out from his pocket.
It had a carving of a woman floating on a lotus-like flower. The same locket that he received back at the academy, inside the illusory inheritance. It was cool to the touch, with an intricate design that seemed to shift in the dim light.
If it were normally, he would have just left it there and pick it up later on whenever he felt like it. It didn't seem much useful anyway.
But right now, Ethan just couldn't keep his eyes away from it.
Because right now, the locket seemed to be glowing. Tiny particles coming out of it, shimmering like tiny stars in the darkness of his room.
"What the...",
Ethan was about to shout, but then his eyes widen in shock.
Right now, he was standing in the outskirts of a large village, near a large river. Both village and the large river were really close, no wonder it was quite a large village. The water sparkled under the moonlight, a silver ribbon cutting through the landscape.
Drinking water was the most important thing for settlements of any species after all.
"Where am I? What place is this?" he thought to himself but no answer came to his mind. .
But then all of a sudden, an ethereal mesmerizing voice of a woman came to his mind directly. It was like hearing a melody without instruments, pure and resonant.
"A charming night of full moon, accompanied by countless stars... In the blue sky, two shooting stars falling down~,"
As he heard it, he turns back and forth yet spots nothing. He could feel the presence of a woman around him but somehow could not see. It was like being watched by someone who existed just beyond his perception.
As he looks above, in the sky, there was actually a full moon and two shooting stars were falling down. They streaked across the darkness, leaving trails of light.
It felt like he was seeing a movie but instead of enjoying it on backseat, he could move around and look anywhere freely. He was both participant and observer.
"With two stars, came us, the two sisters~," the voice continued.
At the same time, as the two stars completely fall, a small pod-like wooden thing came floating through the river. Crying of babies could be heard from inside, the sound carried on the night breeze.
Ethan tried to go into water but for some reason he couldn't. It was as if an invisible barrier prevented him from entering the river, his feet meeting resistance before they could touch the water.
As he was struggling, someone walks past him—no, he actually went through Ethan's body like he was just a hologram.
It was just an old man. He looks at the twin babies with a complicated expression, but then with a sigh, he grabs them and takes them to the village.
All of a sudden, the scene fast forwards a few years later, as the woman's voice speaks about how she and her sister got raised by the village chief as orphans.
They had already turned six years old, with same identical face and body. It was almost impossible to tell them apart, like mirrors reflecting each other.
"But who would knew? Soon, distinguishing between us sisters would be as easy as breathing air?~," the voice adds, a touch of irony in her words.
One of the twin sisters was standing by a gambling den. She has soft green hair and emerald eyes, anyone could tell she would be a beauty once she grows up. She was standing besides the same old man who took those sisters in. He turned out to be chief of the village.
But despite being chief, he had a habit of gambling.
Right now, he was playing the mud stone gambling.
There were different types of mud-stones to choose from: green, red, purple, black, and the rarest of them all, "golden."
The "green stones" were the cheapest, while the "golden ones" were the most expensive. The higher the price, the better chance you had of finding an essence stone.
"Urgh... I lost again," he sighs. He gave quite money to buy purple ones but didn't get a single one. His shoulders slump in defeat.
He was about to leave but then he looks at the little girl besides her.
"You know Laxmi?, children are gods, thus they have voice of gods as well, honest and pure. How about this time, you tell me to pick one?" he asks, his eyes hopeful.
Laxmi pondered for a second and then chose two from red and one from black one. Her choices were made without hesitation.
The chief felt puzzled for a second but decides to go along with it.
And few moments later, he just couldn't hide his astonishment.
"Amazing... Amazing! Three Rank C essence stones? How rare is it? Not just rare, I might've been first person to ever have a hatrick," he starts jumping around hugging the shopkeeper who was of course feeling angry because of the loss he just faced.
And even hugged Laxmi, lifting her into the air with joy.
"Haha... This old man is even more rich, let's try something else," he said, taking Laxmi's hand and went through other gambles.
And he won every single. Ethan watches as he wins every single one with pure luck. It was like today was his day, fortune smiling upon him through the girl.
Time fast forwards again, showing how rumors had quickly spread across the village of her unnatural luck.
Some people purposely used to take her to their shops and let her sit there, so that they can get more customers and somehow it actually worked. Businesses flourished in her presence.
As years passed by, not only the village but even the capital city of Arc Kingdom got to know of it. The tale of the lucky girl spread like wildfire.
Many merchants and nobles were coming to meet her, just so they can increase their luck. They brought gifts, made offerings, hoping to borrow some of her fortune.
The time fast forwards, different scenes appear like Ethan was looking at paintings, each capturing a moment of her journey.
"At that time, I did not know if I actually had powers or if I actually got powers because everyone started believing that I had one~," the female voice spoke again, ethereal and distant.
"Soon enough, I heard rumors that my sister, Alaxmi is opposite of me. After that, at gambling dens, I rarely met her so I wasn't sure," she continues, a hint of sadness in her tone.
"Before I could have a proper conversation or take a look at her condition, I was awarded with this generation's saintess by the king himself and had to depart for capital city~," her voice carries the weight of duty and separation.
"My followers increased day by day. As they did, my powers seemed to have only increased. People from other kingdoms were putting their life on the line just to have a look at me~,"
"They started calling me Saintess of Luck and Prosperity!"
"And one fateful and un-fateful day, I got seed of divinity in me. But of course, with the unnatural amount of luck, I was bound to become a constellation," she says, her voice was calm but it had deep feeling of emptiness and loneliness behind it.
"Thus I became one!" she adds.
And all of a sudden, whole surroundings falters, Ethan feels the same pain in his head. The visions shatter like glass, reality rushing back in a disorienting wave.
And once again, he was standing in his personal room, half naked, but bewildered.
He looks around, everything seemed same, nothing has changed but Ethan clearly knew that something has definitely changed.
Because, he felt something inside him, an unusual power just like an essence stone. He couldn't see but sense that it was inside him, dormant yet potent, waiting to be used.
Some information were also flooding inside his mind for how to use it, but it felt too suspicious to just use it. The knowledge was there, instinctual, as if he'd always known it, yet foreign enough to give him pause.
After pondering for a bit, he decides to open his status to check if something has changed.
And surprisingly, there was something eye-catching—a new skill.
But it was quite a strange one.
Ethan felt even more confused by seeing it. "What a weird name, or is it even a name?" he sighs to himself, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
He paces around in the room thinking for a few minutes, his bare feet silent on the cool floor. Somehow, he already knew what this was going to do.
It was something that could drastically increase someone's luck or something like that.
Of course, he can't use it all the time. Maybe once in months, but its effect would surely be for a few weeks or even a month. The limitations were clear in his mind, as if they'd always been there.
If it was actually what he instinctively knew, then he just received a boon.
No longer able to control or hide his excitement, he walks towards the body mirror attached to his cupboard. His reflection stared back, half-naked and uncertain.
His half-naked body reflecting on it, his eyes locked on his own reflection.
With a deep breath, he built some courage and then raised both of his hand forward, not upward.
And then, with one of his index fingers touching the thumb of the next hand while that hand's index finger touching the previous hand's thumb, making a rectangle shape with his fingers.
His right eye was reflecting from the rectangle hole, it was like he was clicking a photo of himself—more accurately, reflection of his in the mirror.
Few seconds later,
"......" Ethan just stood there in the same pose, feeling a little awkward. The silence stretched, broken only by his own breathing.
"Did I use it? Nothing changed though?" he mutters to himself, lowering his hands slowly.
Although he kind of sensed that whatever power he has in him, it was used and now needs time to recover to be used again. The feeling was subtle, like a breath held too long, now released.
But there was no flashy light, or mana flow coming out of his body or any eye-catching thing. No changes to his body either. The mirror still showed the same Ethan, unchanged.
So it was kind of hard to believe that something actually happened.
Or maybe it actually didn't work. Whatever he received was just in name; it didn't possess any power? Or more like, it's been so long that it lost its power?
"Young man," a voice came out of nowhere, almost frightening him. It was sudden, unexpected in the quiet of his room.
But it only took him less than a second to realize that it was Gareth, the old spirit who was actually the teacher of the hero who defeated the demon king.
"Phew... Don't scare me all of a sudden," he says, his heart still racing.
"I couldn't help it, I have good news," Gareth says, caressing his beard. His form shimmered slightly, as if not quite solid and of course he was just a soul.
"Good news?" Ethan repeats, his brow furrowed in confusion.
Gareth nods, "Yes, now you are qualified to inherit my inheritance, Tower of Heaven,"
"W-what? How?" Ethan couldn't help but shout in shock.
From what he knew, to qualify he needs to clear a Rank B level inheritance at minimum. But he never did until now.
"Hehe... You just got something from that thing you found in illusory inheritance right? It's the same as receiving reward from a constellation's inheritance. And yes, something like this is far superior than even clearing Rank B inheritance. So rejoice!" Gareth explained, his eyes twinkling with amusement.
"Is this for real?" Ethan couldn't hide his smirk, the disbelief giving way to excitement.
Their main problem up until now was to grow stronger with essence stones, knowledge, etc. But there was a real scarcity of it, resources hard to come by.
"Can I share it with Violet and others too?" he asks, his thoughts immediately turning to his companions.
"You can, you are now practically the owner of Tower of Heaven after all. Who am I to interfere? But I must say, they won't benefit from it as much as you'll," he says, his expression serious for a moment.
Ethan nods with a determined smile, "No worries, any progress is better than nothing at all," his voice filled with resolve.
"Good then, I'll take you there tomorrow. Be ready," with that Gareth yawns and goes back inside the golden ring once again, disappearing as suddenly as he appeared.
Once again, Ethan stood alone in the room, completely bewildered, looking at his reflection without blinking. The events of the past minutes swirled in his mind, almost too much to process.
He raises his hand forward and slowly touches his cheek in the reflection. The cool glass a stark contrast to his warm skin.
"I just used that unknown power and next moment I got what I wanted these days the most? Was it just a coincidence that Gareth came out right after I used it?" he wonders aloud.
To be honest, he wasn't sure. If it was just accidental coincidence or not, but what matters was he got Tower of Heaven, a Rank A inheritance.