The Abandoned Empress : Once More

Chapter 02

Shina de Pratham Riveria blinked confoundedly several times as she glanced around her office at the Casimiro Tea Plaza that she had owned when the Castina Empire had not fallen. Her amber eyes that were said to be an unique distinct trait of the Pratham Riveria Family, then landed on the calendar that was situated on the teal wall of her office. Time had been turned. Her chin resting on the palm of her head, she pondered aloud. "What exactly has that god done, now?"

Footsteps of a child could be heard with the opening of the door. The child was eleven year old Cerin de Pratham Riveria, but with the mind of her eighteen year old self. "Grandmother, is this another one of your stunts to get me to learn the Pratham's arts?" She asked, her voice stone-cold as ever.

Shina instantly raised her hands up in surrender, declaring her innocence. "This wasn't done by grandmother, okay Rin!" She whined. "How could you to think I would ever play with time like this?!"

Cerin's amber eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The grandmother quickly admitted, "okay, there was that one time when you were three, and when you were five .... and .... when you were seven and .... maybe some other times, but I would never do something outrageous like this!" Then she went onto say, "this was all Vita's doing."

"...Vita." Cerin murmured. Then she sighed. She would have to go through puberty again. The child pushed her hand out trying to release some of her power. Just like when she had been eleven years old, she could barely do anything with this tiny weak body of hers. 

Shina chuckled in delight on seeing this. "See, Rin! This is why grandmother told you to delve completely in the Pratham's arts. Even with your body like such, you would have still been able to do the things your previous self could have done, not having to worry about the age of your body. From how I see it, you barely escaped with having your memories washed clean by Vita back to the mental age of your eleven year old self." She pointed out.

"Grandmother." She called out.

"Yes, my little Rin?~ Could this be you finally asking more about the Pratham's arts?!~" 

"No." She frankly answered, causing her grandmother to instantly deflate. Her very being was stoic like ever. "I did not call you to ask about that, but as to why a god would turn back time."

Shina happily hummed on hearing this. Then she asked, "well, I should be asking you that, Rin.~ I could sense bit of that god's aura on you which is making grandmother a little bit jelly.~"

Ignoring the last part of her grandmother being jealous, Cerin's brain had quickly found the answer. Before she had woken up to head to her grandmother's office, she had unwantedly found herself being a third party, viewing every single last detail as to when Aristia la Monique misery had officially begun to when it had ended like a play in theatre. "Aristia la Monique."

"That pitiful child who was fated to have a life full of misery, huh." Shina said, her tone of voice solemn. "It seems like Vita is trying to correct the mistakes of the past, because of the blessed child." She got up gently stroking the cheek of her granddaughter, completely erasing the aura of Vita she had felt on Cerin. For Vita to put a child through such a thing, it somewhat angered her. Her granddaughter was only a year older than Aristia la Monique, the girl's future she had read. She had thought about if such a fate would befall onto her granddaughter, how would she had felt, even if her grandchild being controlled by something like fate could never occur.

****

"Madame Pratham Riveria." 

She heard three knocks on the door. Reverting into an elderly form of her current form with graying hair and amber eyes in her mid-seventies by simply sliding a silver ring onto her finger, Shina stated. "You may come in."

The knob turned and a young blonde woman wearing the Casimiro's maid uniform appeared. "A letter and a gift has arrived for you, Madame Pratham Riveria."

Taking a book down from the bookcase against the wall in her study, Shina instructed. "After you have rested them on my desk, you may leave."

"As you wish, Madame." After carrying out her orders, there was the sound of the door lightly closing.

Stacking several thick, heavy textbooks onto the table of her study, Shina sat back down. She didn't open the letter and instead immediately burned it to ashes. The amber eyed woman did this because, she already knew it's contents. Even though the letter didn't possess the waxed crest of the imperial family, she knew that it was from Emperor Mirkan Lu Shana Castina. 

The main contents of the letter held a request for her to come to the imperial palace since she was now in and was staying a few years in the capital to teach a few things to the young Prince, Ruvellis Kamaludin Shana Castina, along with some other matters he had desired her advice on. He had even mentioned for her to bring along her young granddaughter, Cerin, who he had yet to meet. 

She had declined in the past once she had received this letter and had sent the present back, but since she was going to live in this timeline once more, Shina decided to do things a little differently because following the script of the past was boring to her. She and her granddaughter, Cerin, had little to no part in the events of the previous timeline that had led to the empire's destruction. And she wished to spice things up a bit so things would be a little more interesting.

Opening her drawer and retrieving some paper, she placed her quill in the small jar of black ink, removed it and started to write a response. Slowly a smile emerged on her face at the sudden thought of Cerin. "I wonder if you will learn the true Pratham's arts quicker in this timeline, my adorable, little Rin.~" She couldn't wait. 

****

Cerin who was back in the Pratham Riveria Family's mansion that was in capital suddenly shuddered as she dropped the book that she had been reading onto her lap. The child's amber eyes narrowed. She knew this feeling all too well. "What are you planning, grandmother?" She asked particularly no one since she was in a her room all by herself.

Closing the book, she gently rested it onto her nightstand then laid on her plush canopy bed. Cerin had decided to not concern herself with what her grandmother was exactly planning, because she had always gotten through whatever Shina had orchestrated, even at times if she had found it a little bit exasperating. 

Holding her hand to the ceiling of her canopy bed, Cerin had truly realized how small her hand was and how weak she was compared her past self before time had been manipulated. Her amber eyes closed. Time turning back didn't meant much to her. She had dealt with things much worse. This occurrence had only brought a slight drawback to her. Her eyelids lifting, the child with ash purple hair balled her raised hand. That slight drawback was something that could be fixed with training. She knew she had no one to blame, but herself for having to almost start from scratch again. 

Then after some time Cerin's thoughts turned to Aristia la Monique. She had pondered as to why she had eased the girl's suffering in her final moments. She had first-handedly had seen many others' deaths who had as well been cursed by fate to have a life filled with pain and misery before they had perished. 

Was it because her fate had turned out like this because of god's blessed child? Or was it because her grandmother had foretold her about Aristia's grim future? 

"My little Rin even though we are less emotionless than humans, it doesn't mean we don't have feelings. For someone of our kind you are warm-hearted."

A memory of her grandmother echoed in her mind. She murmured, "warm-hearted, huh."