Lillian walked to her own side of the room, pausing. She turned, facing Piper, not wanting her to misinterpret her silence. "I'm taking a nap before tonight's ball," she stated.
Piper's eyes widened, feeling relieved that it wasn't her story that made Lillian go silent,
"Ah, it's fine with me, I'll be stepping out to check on a friend." Piper quietly said as she stood up and headed towards the door.
Lillian was unzipping her gown when Piper turned, "Should I call your maid?"
"Oh no, don't worry, I can handle this myself," Lillian chuckled lightly, while taking the dress off.
Piper nodded in response before leaving the room.
Lillian brought a chemise from her side of the wardrobe before taking off her undergarments and changing into a chemise.
She got into her bed, covering herself with the light quilt blanket. Lillian turned her head side to side to get really comfortable. "Ahh," she sighed.
Her shoulders relaxed from the tension she felt all through the morning.
"Let's take a look at the system," she mumbled to herself. "Zoom," she said lightly. The system dashboard opened right before her. If someone walked in, they'd think she was looking at the ceiling and talking to herself. On the screen, her profile showed clearly in big typed letters;
VOWKEEPER SYSTEM
USER: LILLIAN NIRVANA
Former Identity: Shannon Miles
Status: TRANSMIGRATED ENTITY
System Stability: 87% (UNSTABLE WORLD)
Level: 1 (Vow growth-based)
Lillian's eyebrows shot up. "Level 1! I'm at level 1, but I've been practising some of the new skills that just got unlocked," she whined, her feet kicking up on the bed, getting into a seated position with her hands and legs folded.
A silent voice at the back of her head whispered, "Using the skills randomly builds nothing; it's based on each quest and tasks, all you've done is to get your current body back in order and restore part of your memory and randomly use the skills without control."
Her shoulders shuddered, knowing what the voice said was correct.
"Show me my stats," she sighed. The reality of her starting as a bottom feeder in the system rank finally hit her. The core stats appeared on the screen.
CORE STATS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Class: Vowbound Noble → TRUTH SEEKER
STR (Strength): 0
AGI (Agility): 0
INT (Intelligence): 19
WIL (Willpower): 20
AUTH (Authority): 2
FATE RESIST (Fate): 16
"I've just been called useless in every language possible," Lillian lamented, looking at her stats, "well, at least my intelligence and willpower don't look so bad." She muttered to herself.
"That's something I can work with, maybe it's like the equivalent to human IQ being 260 or 180," she muttered once again, rubbing her chin.
She brought up the notification box, looking at the first-ever main quest. The words appeared, with a big timer by the side of the quest; she had four more hours to go, and she needed to get it done.
She didn't even want to think of the consequences, knowing so well that systems come with huge consequences when their quests are not followed through.
"How would I even know who this ally or enemy is? not like I'm good at making good decisions, especially when it comes to making dinner for myself." She grumbled.
I'll take a nap and handle this later. For now, I don't want to think about it so much," she finally let go.
Knowing deep down that she had to make a stance and there was nothing she could do but participate in it, if she wanted to live well or either end up going home, but she was still uncertain about the outcome, due to the book still being in progress.
"Zoom out," she muttered, resting her head back on the soft pillow, allowing her body to sink further into the bed, silently closing her eyes, succumbing to her well-awaited rest. She truly was exhausted.
______________________________________________________________________
"Lillian, Lillian, pass the ball," came a light male voice.
Laughter filled the air as the kids played in the garden. Two women sat in the background, watching the kids lovingly, as they played with no cares in the world.
The women laughed at their antics, their stares filled with love; one was pregnant while the other wasn't.
They drank tea while having light conversations, enjoying each other's company also.
"That's not fair, you're cheating, Jameson," came the little girl's voice towards the boy who looked a year older than her.
He let out a light laugh, "I'm not, I'm just taller than you now, and I have longer legs, so I can get things done more easily than you do." He replied, patting Lillian's head.
She pouted, folding her arms, while shaking her head to stop Jameson from patting her head.
Jameson burst into fits of laughter, "You look like a fish, you know," he said in between.
"I'm not a fish," Lillian retorted, her eyes turning red as water began to well up in them, "you're mean Jameson," she let out, then ran to the women who sat not too far from them.
Jameson, lips resting in a calm smile, "You're not just any fish, you're my fish." He muttered to himself, not taking his gaze off Lillian.
Lillian's mother carried her on her lap, as she laughed at Lillian's narration of what Jameson had done to her, knowing that in the next hour, the girl would get over it; it was nothing but light banter.
Suddenly, the background changed, the garden burning out with the women in it.
She could hear Jameson's voice in the background narrating how he was going to have a little sister, his voice filled with pride that he would have a sibling to play with, and Lillian would finally have a girl to do girly things with, since he was usually the cannon fodder for Lillian.
Not that he minded it, he really liked her even before she understood the word love or what it meant to like someone.
Tears fell on Lillian's cheeks as her lashes fluttered.