The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'

On the seventh birthday of the Goltbred heiress came the official Youth Guild induction. For a lot of children it would be considered a rather exciting day. As someone that had been through countless ceremonies and sessions of completing official paperwork in her long previous life, it was entirely mundane. Though the little actress didn't display her utter boredom on the surface.

Her father beamed at how excited his daughter was being! While she was always a bundle of sweetness and smiles, there was something obviously extra about today!

He was right of course. Elua was applying even more energy to her usual acting hoping to attract 'attention'. The most common way to protect a wife was from bullies and overly forward suitors. That meant she had to leave a good impression of a weak and pampered young miss on the surroundings.

As far as being attractive enough, she felt no worries! Her Qat had more than implied she was cute and everyone at the estate always told her she looked pretty on nearly any given day. Even if she wasn't a vain person before, all the constant assurance in this life had been pushing her towards it!

During testing, she faked her strength rather effortlessly against their inferior tools and was recorded as a Mid Initial cultivator in all fields except essence, where she allowed herself to be viewed as Late. She wanted to be able to show off her Element as her 'primary' ability soon when she 'finally' gained an Aspect.

The reason being that her *unusually* developed Illusion Astralism absolutely needed to stay hidden as long as possible to avoid being 'countered'…

'And my Physique is just… rather ridiculous as well. I could pretend I'm only slightly stronger than I should be with a lot of concentration, but I'm worried the specifics of *grip strength* will be noticed if I'm not. If there is some record of the same thing in their archives, they might find out I'm lying. Then that will begin a chain of distrust.'

The raw magnification behind the 'trigger action' actually scared her still. For an Enchanter ranked cultivator, crumbling hand sized stones the way she practiced in secret was an 'exceptional' ability. It was definitely more martially useful than her old 'enhanced taste'.

She was unwilling to risk the chance that a lesser version existed that she could claim to have or that her own Aspect was some kind of overpowered manifestation. At least not until she could perform some research on her own.

The overall testing result she garnered was of course less than 'stellar' among the attending Guild bureaucratic eyes but still notable if only for the relatively 'uniform' gains the girl had made. Most Youth applicants her age had only focused on training a single cultivation path towards Late and the other two were quite often stuck at Early because of talent, family tradition, lack of guidance, or sometimes genuine preference on the part of the kid.

Meanwhile, the true stars that applied their first times had broken into First or Second Echelon Enchanter to gain one of their Aspects. They were usually from the families of prominent cultivators. More than one adult would be forced to cough, or cry, or vomit blood if the fact that she was actually a tri-Aspect, double Enchanter/Primalist at the tender age of seven was ever known.

They might just burn to jealous ash on the spot if she then informed them she could be a Breacher in another year or two with the right resources. Telling an enemy this was honestly a card she was holding onto… the pure surprise at hearing such a thing delivered with confident assurance could always be a good way to make an 'opening'.

It was only after Elua left that clunky ability processing ceremony aside that she would remember an important detail that would put a hitch in one of her plans.

Her parents' very *existence* as aforementioned 'prominent cultivators' would surely dissuade anyone from 'messing' with her at the Youth Guild. At least anyone of such meager ability that Qat could actually deal with them to 'protect' her. It was an obvious problem!

'I'm getting rusty. My scheming is practically devolving into the level of my body's age…'

She was so angry with herself for overlooking it that she wanted to head out into the wilds and obliterate an innocent tree with her ogre-like grip strength! Unfortunately that kind of nonsense - but cathartic - blame shifting was never going to happen. Her father wasn't going to just 'let' her run off somewhere like that, even with an escort.

She wasn't *really* weak, but she was really 'pampered'. Sheltered would be an even better term! Despite being shown in very simple terms how to cultivate, there had been no moves to actually teach her any form of martial combat.

Not even any talk about refining out her 'clear' frail weakness! It was another case of disappointment she'd encountered with an 'affluent family structure'.

She knew for a fact that some of her first opponents in her last life *bragged* about being taught fighting since they were five. Her late teens to mid twenties had been plenty of time for objectively better talent, determination, and viciousness to overcome that 'early benefit' they spoke of. It was to the point that she often wondered if either they had been fooling around all those years since then - or if they had possibly been scammed by their childhood teacher.

She also knew from the way her young fiance carried herself that it could be true. Some children really *did* start learning combat early. Qatrand er Yecine had already been a swordsman like her father when they first met, if the mint eyed girl's sense of musculature and gait were to be trusted.

Elua couldn't wait until she was reasonably old enough to visit and watch her in action. She'd love to have some memories of her progress between now and when they were both much older. Especially if adult Qat was training in some kind of light outfit that would show slips of strong and toned abdominal muscles.

The girl blinked at the intrusive thoughts, smacked her lips together, and wiped the sudden drool off of them. Maybe her body *was* affecting her scheming spirit, but it seemed the reverse was true as well. She would have to be careful about that!

'Perhaps there is even some form of tournament held in the region that I could cheer her on during? I wonder if they have an Under 15 bracket to showcase her talents like in my last life. I probably would have heard about it by now, right?'

She fantasized about such things on the way back, while happily swinging her feet hanging from the carriage seat. Her father, watching out of the corner of his eye, only thought that she was looking forward to the congratulatory feast he'd thought was kept secret.

He couldn't begrudge whichever servant let it slip. Especially when his adorable progeny fully pretended to be surprised! Which she was, but not because she hadn't caught wind of her parent's food-as-a-gift plan. She just hadn't looked all that much further into it and-

'Surely he doesn't expect his small girl to eat *all* of these expensive treats on her own?! Ugh, I *could*… and their energy would convert nicely to getting a touch closer to the peak of physical Enchanter - if I had the time and privacy to cultivate. Sadly they don't know of conversion efficiency even with foods of this calibre available.'

Not for the first time, she wanted to curse this region's knowledge base as 'infantile'. They did know that eating dense nutrient quality things *helped*, but the actual techniques to guide that without a heap of 'waste' were practically unknown… or so well kept secret that it was the same.

"Father, this is so much food! Can we send some of it to Qat?"

The man's grin twitched. He was *somewhat* happy that his daughter took a liking to an, honestly, 'political' marriage partner. Ondua had been ready to pull back if she hated his choice as she had grown to mean a lot more to him than such old promises.

He was a little less *enthused* that the shortened name always left her lips during even the shortest talks the parent had with her…

The other day he even simply said "hello, dear" while passing through the corridor. After receiving her cheerfully polite response, he then caught her giggling, holding her cheeks, and voicing: "Someday Qat can also greet me every morning~"

He almost stumbled on an empty hallway carpet, even though he was a physical Primalist… due to the blunt-force 'spiritual' damage. But now he also didn't know how to 'softly' tell his daughter to bring the boy up less without sounding petty!

So he buckled.

"I suppose that can be done. You intend to let me have a few bites?"

She nodded decisively. Her scheme very much involved making him 'some'.

"I do! I love you very much *also* father~"

A vein near his temple throbbed because of that 'also'. Elua ignored the little signs like that, which proved she was getting to him. She could mostly read his mental state with her spiritual sense even without the body cues. The girl began separating the treats, taking a small portion from everything onto a large plate.

The Goltbred patriarch smiled thinking his child must have wanted to try a little of it all. But then she started busily dividing up even more to the smaller plates in the dining hall. When she was done, she began naming all the servants on duty while pointing at the many dishes and, eventually, two others for her parents.

Ondua even laughed at her 'show' of kindness, the fool.

"Then this one must be what you want to send to the little Yecine."

The man pointed to the final plate of similar proportions to the rest, but the mint eyed girl only returned a 'startled' and 'confused' expression.

"No, that last one is for me. I can't eat more than anyone else. It wouldn't be nice."

He gulped, then tilted his head while pointing to the largest piled plate… fearing the answer just a little. As he should! Re-gifting right in front of their face was a time-honored method of 'bullying' her acquaintances which she felt were somehow 'in the way' of her romance.

The 'suggestion' that she should focus on her cultivation *instead* of thinking about Qat all day - as if she was incapable of doing *both* in 'equal' amounts - had irked her. Turnabout was fair play… she would vex him back!

"Oh! The first one I prepared for us to send to Qat. I'm not sure what kind of tastes he has… also-"

Elua's features turned 'shy' as she looked away from her father and entwined her fingers together 'nervously'.

"Also, I want the one I care about *the most* to have more than 'others'."

While she mumbled, her tender voice still projected perfectly clear for a physical cultivator of his position. She was quite proficient at 'pretending' to try and not be heard. It was no good if the man didn't hear her, after all~

She'd been making her fondness obvious for many months so that if something went wrong on the *other* deceivers' end, there would be a history of strong 'attachment' that could be relied on to still 'obtain' her special Qatrand er Yecine.

Protests and refusals from her half of the family had to be minimized so that the reborn cultivator need not succumb to any 'drastic' measures!

Later that night, her emotionally damaged father was hugged to sleep by a mother that was privately proud of the way her first child was turning out. Not only was she kind and sweet like the man in her arms, she was also 'devoted' - just like her. It was just…

'She seems so perfectly soft-hearted. However… I also want to test if she has my *other* tendencies… no. No, it's better if I don't.'

The Dame Yecine had seen a recording of what she'd once done to that one temptress in her pique. While it was not that she regretted it in the slightest, she could acknowledge that it had been the most brutal of her 'duels'.

'If it happens, it happens… but I personally don't want to see the little darling bathing in filthy blood. Even if the harlot deserved it.'

"Honey, you're choking me again."

The man patted repeatedly on the single hand held at his throat so she didn't forget, knowing that asking nicely wasn't going to be enough.

"Oh, I'm very sorry."

He didn't entirely understand that she had a 'terrific' sense because of what would really be 'too far' when it came to her husband's life, due to her Fidelity Astralism. Yatrel would never cause him *serious* harm!

'If you're sorry then why aren't you stopping! If you love me like you say, don't just tell me what I want to hear!'

Few people were aware that the main reason Ondua er Goltbred was even a strong physical cultivator stemmed from not wanting his wife to kill him accidentally when she was mad. It wasn't even his first Enchanter breakthrough - just the only one he'd had time and felt the *need* for since fleeing to the region and meeting her!