Chapter 7: Upbringing
Azelda, the Beloved of Cerulanda, was born to farmer parents, an extremely normal couple who were neither necessarily wealthy nor necessarily poor. Her parents were human and lacked the power to see spirits, so whenever Azelda was in a good mood, they didn’t notice that she was looking at spirits the whole time. Even in town, there wasn’t anyone who could see spirits. In the royal capital, there were demi-humans from different nations coming to and fro, so someone there might have noticed her presence, but since the town she was born in was in the boonies, far away from the capital, she was raised like any other child.
The point at which all that changed was around when Azelda first started to crawl. Her parents met with an unfortunate accident that claimed their lives, leaving Azelda on her own. Without any other relatives of her own, Azelda was entrusted to an orphanage. From there, a few years passed with no one the wiser until a government official from the capital came to inspect the orphanage and noticed the abnormally high amount of spirits around the vicinity of the establishment. That was when he found Azelda happily chatting with the spirits, and her Beloved status was finally revealed.
Azelda was immediately taken to the royal capital, and her entire life turned on its head. Unlike her simple and frugal upbringing in the orphanage, she was living in the lap of luxury in the royal castle. Her simple meals of bread and soup were upgraded to an insane amount of foods to choose from. Her hand-me-downs from the older girls were replaced by fine silk dresses. The cramped room she shared with several other children was interchanged with a room so spacious that everyone in the orphanage could comfortably sprawl out on the floor. At first, Azelda couldn’t help but be confused, but she quickly adjusted to her new life, possibly due to the fact that children tended to be better at adapting to situations.
One day, however, a servant yelled at her. It was an older girl who felt uncomfortable with how Azelda was becoming used to people pampering her and how selfish it was making her. She yelled at her out of concern for her future, but that wasn’t communicated to Azelda and it just enraged her. The servant figured that would happen and tried to patiently discipline Azelda in spite of that. However, the spirits were sensitive to Azelda’s temper tantrum and ended up attacking the girl. The attack didn’t leave any fatal wounds, but after feeling the wrath of a Beloved, the servant was ordered to leave the castle.
Afraid of being thrown out of the castle in similar fashion, or afraid that the Beloved would threaten to leave the nation, everyone became careful of Azelda’s feelings and stopped refusing her for anything. That only served to make Azelda’s selfishness shine even brighter. However, it wasn’t uncommon for Beloveds to turn out like her. It was only natural since they had the favor of the spirits from birth and were spoiled by everyone around them as a result.
Currently, Azelda found herself in the Nation of the Dragon King, unwilling to stay in Cerulanda with the raider still about, but ever since she arrived, she was surprised by the many differences to Cerulanda. She was taken aback by the dragonkin, who were all much more beautiful than her entourage of good-looking gentlemen. Although she made orders for her room since it wasn’t to her liking, everything from the bed sheets to the curtains was of higher quality than that of Cerulanda. She checked the closet to find dresses and accessories prepared for her that were clearly different in value than what she herself brought from Cerulanda. That fact made Azelda seethe with rage.
“Now, see here! Why is the difference in quality between here and Cerulanda so big?! Has Cerulanda been trying to pass off items of inferior quality to me, a Beloved, in hopes of deceiving me this entire time?!” Azelda asked, fuming.
The maid from Cerulanda could only flusteredly deny the claim. “P-Perish the very thought! I can absolutely assure you that we only allow you to use the finest quality items of our nation, Lady Beloved. However, since the Nation of the Dragon King is a major nation and referred to as one of the Four Great Nations, they are more powerful as a nation than our own...”
“What? You’re saying they’re rich?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Azelda regretted not leaving Cerulanda and becoming the Beloved of the Nation of the Dragon King sooner.
“If they’re so rich, then maybe I should just stay here for good.”
“Lady Beloved!” the maid practically screamed, turning pale.
“Well, it’s obviously better to be in a rich nation that has no raiders than a poor nation that does,” Azelda added.
“Lady Beloved,” said one of the men in the room as he stepped forward. He was the second son of a marquis family and the person with the highest title out of all of her entourage.
Once the man with handsome features almost identical to his peers’ came forward, Azelda shifted her brow in displeasure, asking, “What, do you plan on voicing complaints as well?”
The marquis’s second son simply smiled sweetly and softly shook his head. “Absolutely not,” he said. “There is not a soul alive who would raise objection with your decision. However, I am a man of Cerulanda. If you desire to stay here in the Nation of the Dragon King, me and the others will no longer be able to serve you.”
Looking at the man with his head held low, Azelda snorted at him as if she wasn’t interested in his sad display. “Oh? This has nothing to do with who you belong to. Where’s the harm if all of you just stay here, too?”
“No, we are all of Cerulanda, so we cannot stay here in the Nation of the Dragon King forever, milady.”
“There is no one who objects to my decisions, correct? I will just propose you staying here to the king myself.”
“L-Lady Beloved...”
The maids who came with her were all used to her selfishness, but this seemed to be the limit of what they were willing to follow. They racked their brains as to how they could change Azelda’s mind.
Finally, one of the maids timidly spoke up. “However, Lady Beloved, I am informed there is already a Beloved in this nation. But, well... they might accept a switch...”
“In that case, all you have to do is take the Beloved here back with you. Yes, that’s it! I am so smart!”
The other maids looked at one another, perplexed.
“That might be a good idea. From their nation’s standpoint, they would have a Beloved in their midst either way, after all,” said one of the followers, backing up Azelda’s suggestion instead of objecting. This made all the other maids gasp in disbelief.
“That’s right! If we’re both Beloveds, I should do. Now that it’s settled, I’ll go talk to him.”
“Please, wait just a second,” the marquis’s second son said, attempting to stop Azelda before she bolted out the room.
“Why should I?”
“I don’t think it’s too late to see whether the Nation of the Dragon King is somewhere you can live comfortably, Lady Beloved. After all, we cannot discern from a simple glance what problems lie where in this nation.”
“Good point. We’ll watch and wait for a tad, then.”
“As you wish, milady.”
It seemed as though the marquis’s son bought a little time, and all of the maids breathed a sigh of relief.
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