Nike

The ceiling bore the crest of a dragon holding on to a crown with a sorting of bouquets never seen to my eyes. However, I knew them from a description based on a history textbook: A medium length flower with ten petals, all in oval shapes. A perfect size for each one of them and a different color to represent the symbolism of the kingdom. The same page also held a picture of the crest but drawn out of imagination. Alongside it was an activity to draw that same crest. Apart from the boring origins, I remembered the name of the kingdom that it belonged to, forgotten in modern times, yet not to me.

This was the crest of Nekropoli, and judging by the architecture, they made its cylindrical shapes and domes from bronze. I could guess, no, I knew for certain that Id been reborn almost 2000 years back from my common era.

Well, the place was haunting, but it soon dawned on me to look around it for more clues to my sudden displacement. With my baby arms and the cold air at a midnight's hour, I found no one near me. My tears flowed again.

Did my parents leave me on an altar that no one would come in to?! They want me dead that much?! What am I? I hope I'm not an accidental birth! It's enough of being a mistake all my life. I don't need to be conceived again because the world will once more decide to screw me over.

... Such nonsense. I'm done with my life. I don't want to have another chance. Can't a person just live out and die out however they want to? Was it so wrong to die in a world that was always meant for happiness? Now everything brought me back and... I guess make me pay for wasting that utopian bliss, am I right? Not just why again?

I couldn't even think during the frigid wind, with only a blanket by my side on this hard, cold stone. I tried as hard as I could to scream and cry, but I've done this for so long... Let me sleep forever... please.

BAM!

Well, I guess not.

The wooden doors shook wide open. My eyes failed to perceive the rest.

After my slight fever came to pass I awoke in less pain than before but with three people all cuddled up around me, everyone in a maid outfit from the Reigos era: The era where Nekropoli still stood. I felt like slapping myself on the back after correctly guessing what age I had born into, but of course there still isn't an accurate answer to my hypothesis.

Whatever, it wasn't important anymore as it was to get myself acquainted with this new setting.

The ladies all around me were cooing, one of them smiling with tears of joy as she cried out to the other sisters. "Oh Agape, she is alive, she is alive! The Saint's Maiden is alive!"

Saint's maiden... Without a word I looked back to see the what the other woman holding me would say, apparently named Agape. Instead, someone else talked.

"You really think this such divinities in the Church would listen and bring this girl? Such fantasies of yours. This girl was probably left there because no one wanted to take care of her."

"Galene, that is no way to speak to a child. Besides, the King will have you killed for what you've just said." Agape spoke.

She pouted, letting out a breath of air. "I'm still right. Fortunately, the monks opened right on time the Church of Synops."

The first of the maids intercepted. "But the Church of Synops was closed on every side. No normal person would put a child in there now, would they? And even if it were possible, why even going there when they could have left it in the streets or in the woods to die? Obviously it must be the blessed child that the Queen had prayed so much for!"

Galena's mouth did not curve as she said. "But it's a girl... The Queen will absolutely rage about this when she finds out. Kallias, just you wait. She will fume while also trying to hide her face of disappointment towards the King."

The gossips lingered as opposed to Agape, who moved away to the opposite side of the room and placed me upon the bed of cotton and lovely colored covers. Soon I had fallen into another dream. I guess becoming a baby again meant I would start going back into my long sleeping habits.

Mostly, that was the setting to my first day. It is just as horrible as I can remember it being, yet, despite from the possible hypothermia a newborn child would have at the exposed natural elements just hours after I had been born was totally worth the eventual dramatic point of view from the Noble Theseologos of the Highlands Arkadia—Sir Arkadia for short—and the eventual origin story to the most useless of Aristocrats in all of society.

And who do I mean by that if not the epitome of Luxurious Spending Queen type of Villain who cemented herself in history as the stupidest woman and most stuck up of royals as Nike Pasiphilus of Nekropoli, of course, that name was only after she got married.

Well, useless seems to be quite the broad title; it can almost apply to any other aristocrat in this situation.

With Nike of Arkadia—The person whom I've been reborn into and soon to be Pasiphilus—she lived a dramatic life of comedy and tragedy all wrapped together by a bunch of one sided problems that eventually caused her to have such a horrible image as a noble that it took so little before the Queen to get kidnapped one early morning, possibly violated and eventually thrown into a prison for less than a month before her execution, of which being the first of many.

It was such an execution which caused the other kingdoms to shake in fear at the outcomes of the riots, and eventually one such coward noble decided it would be better to punish those who were from the same kingdom as the one that was currently in pure anarchy.

Unfortunately for the world, one of those chased out immigrants was none other than a person who went from a slave boy to a freed teen in another kingdom, and then brought back to said kingdom where he became a wanted prisoner who joined the revolutionary army with the nickname, and future famous name of: Cyrus Aurelius.

THE Cyrus Aurelius, a charismatic new emperor of a golden age in Nekropoli, changing it to the Empire Aurelia.

While trying to remember the story that had come back to my dreams, it suddenly brought me back to reality the kind help of my new mother beating up another woman, which I did not know who it was. During this exchange, I was being held by Agape once more while we both walked to the garden and saw this horrid sight. The bruises upon a woman with no uniform, the crying shouts of my new mother spilling her makeup as she kept being held back by two farm more luxurious older maids than my own, and of course, my father's soldiers not doing nothing to stop her.

Whenever they could or couldn't, I didn't know, and they looked like they didn't seem to care, either. However, I looked away the moment the scene had landed upon me.

After all, it was so much easier to see it in a video or a movie than it is to see it in real life. No matter how much I tried to hold it in, those screams shook my body. It was at that moment that the world seemed to slap me awake where I was. It had done them before and I had cried time and time again when I took a deeper look into what I've lost and what I've received. Everything on both sides.

From then on I realized the such luck to be born as a noble was not worth for me to live in pure laziness. Sure that I may not live for long, but I had lived without mud on my feet nor slaps nor everything else that came with being lower than trash upon this old world. The covers on my feet, the clean water, the robes, brushes and ribbons all for me. Inside, rooms full of books, arts and other grandiose knowledge. Garden from hundredths of flowers and workers every day working around the clock for me.

It was... ballistic.

Such a culture was purely ballistic. Entrapped in madness, I spent the rest of my years learning how to walk and see and talk amongst others only for my fifth birthday to come and make me slip and fall into a realization that I have done nothing else for five years other than being completely useless, apart from some outgoings... Of course, it is normal for a child to just start learning about the world. There shouldn't be any such pressure for them to learn something else apart from the basics.

NO!

What I mean by "all wasted" is the fact that on my fifth birthday I meet my new husband, whose language I know SHIT ABOUT! but I did just start learning how to write my own.

Now with my parents on my side, my mother Helen of Arkadia on my left smiling and waving and speaking the language of Nekropoli at the same time! Is smiling and politely talking to the boy the same age as I, introducing him to me while my father... Why, Sir Theseologos of Arkadia really didn't even waste a single second before coming to talk to the current King of Nekropolis and his eldest son, arranging for my eventual marriage with this boy in front of me as fast as one could.

"Nike!"

My mother's shout brought me wide awake. I too didn't waste a second to put on my fakest smile and show all the courtesy gathered for so many years in front of this child.

What came next, I definitely didn't expect.

"A great pleasure to meet chu! M-my name is Patrocius Pasiphilus, I am the Son of Agnus Pasiphilus, Third to the th-throne, younger brother of Meli... Melinton Pasiphilus, and younger brother of Cesar Pasiphilus."

Seems like that child has been learning for so long to say those lines. It was almost kind of sweet where it was not for the fact he had been the monarch who let all those people starve to death by The Great Famine. He still knew two languages, however, and it got on my nerves, mostly out of jealousy, secondly out of the pure embarrassment that will come with being made fun of for not knowing I had to speak another language at age five. Just one was enough in my lifetime. How was I supposed to remember that people had different languages back then?

"It is but my pleasure to meet you too, Patrocius Pasiphilus! Son of the mighty Agnus Pasiphilus!" I let my voice rise higher so that even the King would notice me. Of course, he only gave back a chuckled, and an amused stare, but it was all I needed.

With fast hands, I quickly grabbed Patrocius by my side and asked, "Would Patrocius love to come to the garden? I have a lot of things to play there with." The answer came in later than I expected. His eyes had been called to a portrait by a somewhat underrated artist I didn't really pay attention to during my tutoring around the castle.

Thinking he had not heard me, I asked again. "Patrocius Pasiphilus?"

"Oh–oh, yes!" So he had…

At least my mother had been smiling as she said, "Go on children and enjoy your time, but be sure to come back soon Nike, for it is your birthday and you must greet all the people here as a suitable host does."

I quickly left the scene with Patrocius after bowing to my mother, who not so dismissively waved back before going to talk with the friends she had invited today. I held no bonds or connections to the people gathered here. None of them were close to me. It didn't matter as I wouldn't try to have any relationships considering the fact that I'll move to Patrocius' Kingdom in the next seven to eight years. For the rest of my lifetime, I would only have to deal with the people there, its costumes and manners, therefore I tried my best to get along with the prince.

The night gleamed, a full resting summer wind passed through us, the few birds sang at midnight, and even the surrounding lights were just far too beautiful to not gaze upon. From afar the songs could still be heard, and laughter combine among its tunes. A tranquil scene made it all the more pleasant for me to talk to the boy.

Stopping upon a waterfall, I said. "Look around Prince Patrocius. Are the statues not beautiful?"

"Y, yes they are." He gazed upon a warrior statue holding a princess in his arms, but quickly turned away as the topic dulled.

"And the moon flowers as well?"

"Yes." He says while clutching to his robes, all of them too heavy for him. It was no wonder I kept walking faster. Maybe I have gotten used to such garments for far longer than he has.

"My mother puts a lot of thought into taking care of these gardens. They were all imported from different places like—

He cut me off with, "Imported?"

"Oh, to bring from other places like…." I pointed to the Moonflowers. "Those grow in Olynthia. While the Magikos..." Five petal flowers used in ceremonies and with a bittersweet scent. "They come from Neftis." The land of the South, the soon to be a favorite place of Cyrus and where he is crowned, not only as king but also a God. For Patrocius, it was but another land he couldn't even make alliances with, lest speak the language.

In the eyes of others, and now of the boy itself, my words were too eloquent even for a five-year-old, but I wasn't regarded as more important than my little brothers, however. — My father is a genius! So what if her daughter is one too? It should be as such— but that didn't mean I was educated to propel my mind. Far from it, I had to gather help from the rest of the maids to let me have especial access to the library, and more often than not I was caught by one guard to another. When the maids couldn't help me anymore out of fear in their chests, I did my own expeditions, no matter the beating or bruises, until I eventually deciphered the words written around the tables. It was an old, extremely old way of writing, but one that aimed for perfection, granting easy access for everyone to understand the sentence structure and its 12 letter alphabet easier than most. All those black and blue marks have long fainted after four months, and more so with all the makeup on my face. But it wasnt all naught, the more the prince would be fasinated by my knowledge, the harder it will be for him to try and get rid of me when we are wed.