ALL NOVEL 52. A Serious Discussion (Part 1)
Aurora, making a point to mentally correct herself from thinking of her name in Caelus Online that she had become used to, rolled her eyes at the last comment as she looked over the desk to find what was likely a box of chocolates.
She reached over and opened it, taking out one of the dark brown spherical confectionaries and putting it in her mouth. The sweet, creamy chocolate flavour with a hint of hazelnut spread across her tongue as she relished in the taste. Fortuna had been right; the chocolates were divine. She also felt the mental fatigue and pressure that she had been feeling inexplicably lightened, making her feel the best she had in weeks.
Aurora let out a content sigh as she let her mind wander to the demands Jupiter had made. Fortuna may be an airhead, but Aurora had to agree with her that Jupiter seemed to be treating her situation like a drama. While Fortuna may lack common sense and subtleties, it seemed her intuition may be quite sharp.
His demands were not exactly big or extreme, but they would still be an inconvenience. Having to retake her last year will reduce her time for other things, but she may be able to negotiate about her attendance and reduce it given her situation of taking over the Branford Group again, making it so she just had to take the exams.
As for starring in a movie, that was blatantly agreed to by Jupiter for their amusement. She could not completely understand what kind of amusement the gods would get out of seeing her acting, but as long as she had complete control over what she was acting in, then she couldn’t complain too much.
Aurora spent the next half hour shuffling through the documents, piecing together her new life as she went. With every new document she looked over, the pressure she was feeling started to slightly abate. Fortuna had done a surprisingly good job having effectively made sure there were no discrepancies in her fabricated life that could have caused issues down the line. How much of it was actually her work and how much was done by her apparent assistant Minerva she could only speculate, but she had a feeling the actual assistant in this case was Fortuna.
From what she found, she had lived within the mansion for most of her childhood while studying at home. This was apparently due to an unknown medical condition that caused her to become easily fatigued and pass out, and according to the doctor’s report she had found, it had ‘miraculously disappeared’ when she was 18. After taking her A levels at age 18, she chose to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Melbourne University, renting a house alone instead of staying in a dorm.
After piecing everything in her past together, it painted her as someone who had next to no interaction with the outside world which was thankfully quite convenient. The last thing she needed was some random people claiming to be her friends turning up and making things complicated.
As for what she had been doing more recently, upon hearing about Chester's death she had immediately handed in her letter of withdrawal to Melbourne University and returned to England, requesting to transfer to LSE to complete her last year in their Philosophy, Politics and Economics Bachelor’s Degree, which brought her to now.
Happy with the understanding of the situation she found herself in, Aurora decided to move on to the list that Harold had prepared for her. The well organised list had various tasks written down such as ‘Purchase new clothing’ and ‘Meeting with Brandford Group Executive Manager Gareth Brewer’. Looking through helped ease some of her remaining concerns as the number of tasks needed to get herself established was much shorter than she had first expected, and what was on the list was fairly simple to complete. Much of it was just a repeat of what she had done in the past few weeks, with some additional tasks thrown in.
However, the first thing on her list was to deal with matters at home. Her estate and staff were currently in a sort of limbo as they awaited confirmation about Chester’s current situation, so clearing their worries and explaining the situation was the first thing she needed to sort out.
“Harold, gather the involved staff. It’s about time we got some of these tasks crossed off.”
With a slight bow, Harold responded as he began to move and gather those within the manor who were trusted enough with such sensitive information.
“At once.”
Aurora tidied up her desk before pulling out her phone to send a short text to her friends who were no doubt becoming impatient that she had not messaged them about her current state. She quickly typed out a message that everything was as Fortuna had explained and she had become an established person with all the documents to prove it. Adding that she was fine and had no major issues, she sent the message along with a selfie showing her appearance and put her phone away.
With nothing else left to do, Aurora got up from her comfortable office chair and slowly made her way towards the Dining room where Harold would be gathering everyone she needed to talk to.
Upon entering, she could see six people sitting around the dining table showing a mix of sadness, surprise and apprehensive expressions on their faces, all of them were dressed in all black in a show of mourning. Looking around the table she could see everyone in attendance. To her immediate left was the head of security and chauffeur, while facing them on the opposite side of the table was the head maid Hilda, and the three maids Aurora trusted most, Regina, Ingrid, and Lucy.
Aurora could tell the downcast emotions from those sat in front of her were from her own supposed death which brought mixed feelings of happiness that she meant enough for them to feel that way, but also sadness that she had inadvertently caused them. She assumed that the expressions of shock were from her attire while the apprehension was from learning how true Harold's words were.
Aurora made her way to sit at her place at the head of the table with Harold standing behind her to the side as the quiet whispering stopped and the room fell into silence. Making herself comfortable, she looked at each person sitting at the table before she spoke.
“I will start off by confirming Harold's words. I am indeed Chester. As he told you, the gods caused this.”
Aurora gestured to herself as she spoke.
“I assume that they implanted memories of Aurora into your minds, as well as the knowledge of my existence to those relevant. I know this is inconceivable, but I assure you this is all very much reality.”
Some of those present gave each other looks as the head of security, David, with furrowed brows and a displeased look spoke out, sounding quite angry.
“Young Miss, first I must object to you playing such a morbid joke at such a time. Your brother has met an unfortunate accident, and you decide to play some prank, even getting the butler involved as well!”
Aurora nodded her head in acceptance of the words, the others around the table looking nervously amongst each other, unsure how to react.
“I can understand what you are saying and would unequivocally agree with you were I not telling the truth. Here, give me a second and I will show you some proof.”
Astaria closed her eyes and let her mana flow into the room around her. While her mana pool may not be as big as it was in the past, nor as big as in game without the boosts from her equipment, she had more than enough control to be able to make efficient use of what she had.
Going into her memories, she noticed that her recollection of events since she entered into the game was far sharper than before. She concluded it was thanks to her new constitution that her memory had improved. While not perfect, it would be helpful as she focused on her experience of her meeting with Fortuna and pushed it into the illusion forming in the room.
Aurora opened her eyes as she heard gasps of surprise and confusion as everything but the people sat around the table and their chairs disappeared to be replaced by an illusion of her memory of entering character the customisation inside Caelus. The sudden change of scenery disoriented some around the table as they gripped onto their chairs so they didn’t suddenly fall down.
Hilda tried reaching out to the illusion of Aurora when she was still Chester, only for her hand to phase the projection as it looked upwards to where Fortuna was descending.
As the illusion played out the conversation between Aurora and Fortuna, looks of shock, confusion and surprise appeared on the faces she was observing, noting that David’s expression was slowly morphing into horror as the illusion continued.
