Shades of the New World

Chapter 237: Arrangements

'Though, can a certain personality be considered a deficiency?' Evin thought, wondering if perhaps he was judging the girl a bit too harshly. But thinking about it a bit deeper, the answer became apparent.

'Of course a personality can be classified as a deficiency, what am I even hesitating about? Though I wouldn't go as far to call Iva's personality a deficiency she just seems childish and naive at most.'

Evin pondered about the matter for a bit, but still couldn't quite feel convinced of it all. He felt that something made by an Authority shouldn't be something so incomplete. The thought even made him feel like he was being a bit too entitled, but Evin couldn't shake off the feeling of disappointment in his head.

"Do you have a note or something similar that was left by Lady Veidrakar?" Evin asked, wondering if she left an explanation of some sorts.

"Why would you want to see that? Anyway, are you going to give me the two tons or not?" Iva asked almost hostilely.

"So there is something," Evin said and started pestering the System for the note.

Eventually, Iva gave up and threw Evin an almost ethereal piece of paper.

[You must be wondering if there was some sort of mistake, considering how the System should be acting. Unfortunately for you, this is the best method I have to impart the method most effectively to your sister,] the note began.

Evin read through the note and found that his speculation about the system being a bit flawed to be correct. Since this whole thing was created through the Imaginary Artifact Creation, as the system said, there was a catch to it all. 

Apparently, the system would always have an avid passion for Imaginary Artificing, but they would also take on a form that was some sort of a negative extreme of the host's personality. 

For example, if Sasha had a slightly cold personality, then Iva would act extremely devoid of any sort of emotion or feeling, acting almost borderline psychopathic in the eyes of others (if they could perceive her, of course). If Sasha turned out to be a person who upheld her own belief and logic in the highest standard, then Iva would never consider or care about what anyone else thought and felt about certain topics, even Sasha herself. An EQ of close to zero, so to say.

Evin didn't know which category the Iva in front of him fell under, but he wasn't going to worry about this much. After all, he didn't really know much about Sasha, so he really couldn't make any good guesses.

'But if I have to make a guess, then I suppose Sasha's a bit childish and attention-seeking,' Evin concluded and read further.

[Obviously, Iva wouldn't be completely dysfunctional, as that would make them almost unbearable to handle. She could be convinced of something through proper argument, acting almost identically to actual, real people. Sure, she might forget about it, or just choose to ignore these previous conversations (depending on her personality), but that was a different problem,] the note read.

After reading a bit further, Evin learned that these negative personalities would be mended slowly, as the host became more proficient with the Artificing method. Iva would also be growing alongside its host.

The Authority didn't mention anything about what would happen if Sasha completed the entire training arc with Iva, which was a bit concerning. 

Moreover, Veidrakar made it so that Iva couldn't disobey direct orders of Sasha (though she could protest about it all she wanted) and she also left a method to block out Iva's voice for an hour, and... to also get rid of her once and for all if things became a bit too unbearable for Sasha to handle.

'What the fuck? Artificial system or not, isn't it a bit fucked up to let a teen decide its life and death?' Evin thought with creased brows, wondering what the hell goes on through the heads of these Authorities.

Evin read further to see whether there were any other important info, but Veidrakar had only described the method to block out or delete Iva and the note ended there. It didn't include anything about whether Evin should tell Sasha about these things, giving him the impression that the Authority was giving him free rein to decide what to do with the information.

Frowning, Evin looked at Iva, who was quietly sitting next to him with a worried look on her face. Evin could obviously tell that she knew what Sasha and Evin could do to her.

"Have you told any of this to Sasha?" he asked.

"No, I don't have to," Iva replied.

"Shit, ugh. Alright. I won't tell Sasha about the method to get rid of you, but I will tell her the method to block you out. I will talk to her and explain how you're an extreme manifestation of her personality, which should help a bit with her accepting you more easily," Evin said slowly.

"Uh-huh," Iva replied, a relieved look becoming apparent in her eyes.

"But, I want you to remember that Sasha probably won't be as excited as you about Imaginary Artificing. I talked to her a few hours ago, and I could guess that she probably had a dream job in her mind of some sorts. Perhaps she wanted to become a baker like our parents, or maybe she wanted to become a clothing designer of some sorts. What I'm trying to tell you is that your passion will not come first for Sasha. Maybe she will grow excited about it one day, but don't expect too much on the first day," Evin explained.

Iva nodded slowly, seemingly pondering about the intricacies of her new relation with Sasha.

"But, to be honest, it's a thing between you and Sasha, so I'll try my best to stay out of it all," Evin said with faked confidence.

He could think of so many ways where this whole arrangement could end in complete disaster, it wasn't even funny.  He wanted to make it so that Sasha could complain about Iva to him if things ever went too unbearable and vice versa, where Sasha started to abuse the blocking feature endlessly.

After all, sharing your everything with someone else inside your head wasn't really the easiest feeling to get used to. Evin could handle it, and even enjoy it a bit, since he severely lacked such invasiveness for the past three centuries, but he couldn't really say the same for Sasha. 

But, Evin thought that maybe that was too meddling of him and decided not to say anything extra to the two. After all, Sasha wasn't a completely nave, and she possessed a silver horn, which made her smarter than the average 11-year-old. It could almost be argued that she was smarter than most adults.

At any rate, the two got out of the World of Thoughts and Evin started explaining things to Sasha: about his initial conversation with Helain and Veidrakar; the dragon's explanation of how the inheritance worked and how Iva was a slightly distorted version of herself. 

The girl seemed a bit shocked to hear that all this was the arrangement of Veidrakar, the almighty Authority of the World of Thoughts, which made her appreciate everything with a bit more gratitude. She also seemed to look at Evin with a new light, something that almost seemed to border on reverence.

Evin made sure to quickly destroy these delusions from his sister's mind.

He then left almost all the lodestones he had to Sasha and ordered a two tons with a Storage Ring from the Cosmics as well. 

After everything was finished, he left the room with a sigh, a foreboding feeling inside his chest.

'I'm suing Veidrakar if things go to shit,' Evin thought resolutely as he fell onto his bed.

Sighing, he perked up his ears, and could hear Aran and his parents talking in the house about them becoming 1st grades during Aran's absence.

'Guess they'll end up arranging a dinner of some sorts between the two families' Evin thought and went to take a bath in advance.

Though, he could easily clean himself up with some magic, like he usually did, Evin decided to do it in a bath since that was much calming than just ridding of his smell and dirt in a few seconds.

"How can I feel this tired and stressed even though, I'm just 7? This is definitely not a kid friendly world..." he muttered with a weary sigh.

"Well, I've done everything I came here to do, so I guess I can be proud of that. Though, starting from the day after, I'll have to work hard on my magical studies... How come it feels like I've only taken a break for three days at most? This is such a scam..." Evin started talking in Earth's English, talking about all the things he felt unfair, while slouching in his bathtub.

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