Appraisal Stone

Chapter 9: Appraisal Stone

I want to say that I was conned but the truth is that I only figured out my own mistake after it was already done. I was too impulsive, I pulled the trigger before I knew if there was anything loaded.

Still, how dare he trick me! I thought I was his apostle, shouldn't he be showering me with gifts? 

The whole time I was fuming I hadn't noticed that the direction we were heading to wasn't my room to sleep. It was further into the palace, to a place I had never been to before. When we finally arrived we were stopped by an older man in his late 60's.

"Lady Samantha, it's good to see you. How is the prince doing today? Is he sick?" The old man had a look of concern for the baby in his mothers arms.

'Am I sick? Why did he ask that all of a sudden?'

'Uh oh.' For once Pilfer actually sounded a bit panicked.

"It's good to see you too elder. As for him he's fine as well, I was just hoping to have Jessup use the appraisal stone." 

'Appraisal stone? What is that?'

'Doesn't matter, just as long as they dont have the royal stone it should be fine.'

"Lady Samantha, your grandfather needs to be in attendance. Without him I'm afraid I can't allow you to use it unless there is a serious emergency." 

I expected my mother to push back a little more but surprisingly she just let it slide and said her goodbyes. Even the elder looked a little baffled over her indifferent attitude. 

"I understand." 

Maybe she didn't make it into a big deal because she has a clue as to what it could be? I can't begin to imagine what's going through her head right now. 

After a few minutes she drops me off at my room with the maids and heads off. I'm placed down in my bed and I look back on the weird events of today and recall that I'm still wearing this necklace that kid gave me. Should a baby really be wearing jewelry? 

My mother didn't seem to mind so I guess it's ok. Pilf said I could summon the things that I've placed in storage so I might as well try it out. I press my hand on the necklace and poof there it goes. I'm surprised that it didn't take more effort but I'm glad it wasn't too hard to manage. 

After a few minutes of testing it out I head to bed and call it a day. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

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Months go by and I'm able to see a lot better. It's almost been a year now since I've been in this world and my Grove Kingdom language is at level 8. It's progressed so much that I truly hate myself for buying the skill. I really need to be more patient and less impulsive.

My mother seems more perturbed lately, she's been visiting my father a lot lately. I don't know what he did to be locked up but it had to have been a while. 

I tried asking Pilf about it, but apparently he didn't even know anything about this family. I've spoken to him about the products he sells and apparently they're all either skills and techniques he possesses or that he's stolen over the years. Including the Grove Kingdom Language, he says the language originated from a native country somewhere nearby and that he just changed the name for my sake.

From what I can gather, this kingdom is relatively new. Not even 100 years old, no wonder he doesn't know about it. So this kingdom hasn't changed leadership once since then? The king must be insanely old, at least a 100. So where is he?

Does this mean that if he dies I could be king? Just as was having that thought, my mother who was reading next to me decides to get up right before a maid comes in to bring a message to my mother. "Lady Samantha, your cousins are here to see you." 

Oh it's the cousins! Cousin 1, 2 and 3. Don't ask me, they've never mentioned their names.

"Sister! How is jessy!"

"Sam, he is so cute! I love his smile, he clearly likes me more!"

"Don't be ridiculous! He's just a baby, besides it's clear that he smiles everytime he sees me."

They're so annoying, they are always so touchy feely.

"Alright calm down, he isn't going anywhere. Cate, do you think you can take care of him while I go to his father?" While ignoring my cousin's name being called I noticed that the tone in my mothers voice has changed a little. It sounds a little more strained.

"What? Oh, him. Yeah sure, I'll take care of little Jessy." I don't even think they were listening to her. Cousin 1-3 hasn't stopped messing around with me. I'm a bit worried about her though. I hope nothing bad happens.

Samantha got ready to leave when she heard her cousin shout, "Ah! He's looking at Sam! He's so cute! Do you miss your momma already?" Ignoring her. My mother and I locked eyes for a second and she soon walked away. Leaving me with the 3 devils.

I was going to wait until she came back when someone came knocking at the door a few minutes later, "Sorry to burst your bubble but I need to borrow him for a while." 

Cousin 2 was about to complain, but the person at the door stopped her, "Orders from the king." 

Immediately the 3 sisters stood up and put their heads down at once, "Yes, lady Amelia."

That's right. The one who walked through the door was my favorite aunt, but from the look on her face it didn't seem like a happy occasion. She picked me up like I was weightless despite the fact that I had clearly grown larger in the past year and we headed to the courtyard near the gardens where a portal suddenly opened up.

The same portal I had seen previously once before. When we walked through the portal this time we were in a forest instead of the mountains. Aunt Amelia found a rock to sit on and she began to play with me while waiting for something. As I was wondering about it, I looked behind Aunt Amelia and saw a weird scene behind her.

She noticed my gaze, thinking it was the look of a curious child and walked up to it and reached her hand out only to reel back in pain. A second after we both looked at the tip of her finger only to see blood.

This dangerous bubble who's height I couldn't couldn't fully see was massive. All I know is that it went far and wide, but inside the bubble there was just rock and dirt with a boiling black liquid the size of a small lake in the center. 

I kept staring at it, and it felt so… Powerful. I swear I could feel something coming from it. Like some kind of energy. I couldn't figure out what I was looking at so I asked the only one who might.

'Pilfer. What is that?' 

'Huh? Wait, where are you? I thought you were near the central continent. How did you get so far, so quickly?' 

Even Pilfer is confused. This might be a bigger deal than he thought. 'Where are we?' 

'Um, it looks like you're on the continent of Du'coth I think… I don't know the specifics but you are at an insane distance away from the central continent.'

I heard that grandpa was extremely proficient in space magic but the only way we could get here is if he had been here himself. 

'As for the thing you're looking at… it looks like a spatial barrier and the black inkish stuff is… Black Star Silver? That's a looooot of energy going into it. Whoever is in there must be pretty strong. It looks like he's really been cultivating.' 

I looked back at the barrier wondering who could be inside but I had an idea. The only person I could think of… Was the king.

As I was finally starting to relax I heard footsteps behind me, but Aunt Amelia noticed first.

"Sister. And ergo right?" Aunt Amelia is just as bad with names as I am. I would believe it more if someone told me she was my mother, but I look at the man she was talking about and notice a slightly disheveled man in his mid 30's with a long black beard and black hair. Is this ergo?

Samantha and Amelia talk a lot but the man and I never took our eyes off each other. Until now I had never met my birth father but something told me this was exactly who this was, and I think whatever is about to happen to him will be big.

I was going to ask Pilfer about it but then I heard something... We all heard something. 

"COME." Everyone looked at the source, and in both my lifetimes I've felt true fear only twice but now this will be the third time. The first was when I was killed by flying truck-gun the second was when I ended up in the demon world. Now, all I could see was a man covered in black ink, rising out of this dark pit. 

'God's. This man knows how to make an entrance. Kid, don't piss him off. I can't help you.'

Pilfer, a god actually sounds worried. Who is my grandfather? What can he do to worry a god?

The man I met for the first time, who I assume to be my father walks over to the barrier. I assume he thought he was going to die the moment he stepped through but suddenly we all heard something even more frightening.

"BRING THE CHILD" Child? Does he mean me? As I stared in shock at the demon that could bring fear to another demon, and a god at that… I wasn't feeling confident in my own safety.

Aunt Amelia walked over and passed me to my possible father. She is no longer my favorite aunt. 

I look back at the man looking at me and once again we lock eyes and all he can say to me is to 'be brave.' What? No thank you. I don't want this at all. 

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Authors not: Finally caught up. This was way more painful than I thought it would be. Can't wait for future chapters, and if anyone notices anything strange please let me know. I make sure to make as many notes as possible but I only just now realized that Agro-mun was in prison for like 17 months… So things like that might happen again, but I'll make sure to correct them.