Lyra clenched her little hands as she stared at the two men before her in fear and anger.
In her previous life, she was taken away at a tender age of just one year by these two brothers, Liam Ashbourne and Logan Ashbourne, to the Ashbourne family in the name of sponsorship.
Along with other children of the same age group, they made Lyra sign a soul contract pledging her loyalty to the Ashbourne family. Life from there was not a pleasant memory for Lyra. She went through brutal training, enduring unimaginable pain and mental stress at a very young age to the point where she did not even remember smiling in her life.
Even though Lyra did not want to, she was forced to kill many innocent people for the sake of the Ashbourne family. Lyra silently endured all this until the day the youngest son of the Ashbourne family head tried to force her to sleep with him.
As Lyra resisted, a battle broke out between the two and in the end he was killed by her accidentally.
Lyra knew that the Ashbourne family would not let her live after killing one of their successors, so using a secret technique she broke the soul contract by burning her lifespan and fled from the Ashbourne family.
Over the next few years, Lyra lived under different names and identities, constantly moving from one place to another to hide herself from her pursuers.
It was at this time, when she was living in hiding, that she accidentally came across the Blue Water Village where she was born. After some investigation, she came to know about her mother and how her brother disappeared from the village six months after the incident where her mother was arrested.
Lyra also inquired at the Shine Bright Orphanage and found out that her brother had sold her life to the Orphanage in return for a large amount of money and was now living in Heavenly Wood City as a rich merchant.
Although Lyra felt heartbroken, she still went to see her brother and told him everything that had happened to her.
Her brother also consoled her and apologized for his mistake, but what she did not expect was that her brother would betray her and sell her information out to the Ashbourne family for some essence coins.
Lyra was forced to flee again with serious injuries from being attacked by the members of the Ashbourne family after being poisoned by her own brother. This time, she chose to enter one of the forbidden lands of Celestia which was rated as a sure death zone, the Moon Cave, since she was sure there was no other way out for her.
But unexpectedly, Lyra met the remnant soul of a mysterious woman holding a golden book inside the cave. She offered her a new life in return for Lyra's soul. Lyra agreed since she was sure she would not survive long under all the injuries covering her body at that time....
And now, seeing the two figures she hated the most standing before her to repeat the past once again, Lyra felt helpless and indignant in her heart.
Logan Ashbourne, the serious looking elder brother, nodded in approval and said, "Tell Miss Mary, we will be sponsoring this kid and she will be taken to the Ashbourne family for her education once the paperwork is complete."
Liam smiled, and just as he was about to turn to call for Mary, he saw Mary walking towards them with a forced smile.
"Greetings, Sir Liam and Sir Logan," Mary slightly bowed before she said in an apologetic tone, "Lyra's sponsorship has already been taken. Please consider someone else."
Little Lyra was stunned when she heard this. She was puzzled as to why things were progressing in a different way than in her previous life.
Liam narrowed his eyes. "Money is not a problem. Please arrange her sponsorship in the name of the Ashbourne family."
Mary shook her head helplessly. "I am extremely sorry, sir. This sponsorship involves a higher ranking officer of the Law Enforcement Union. You know the consequences that will follow if I go against their will, right?"
Liam's eyes turned cold. Just as he was about to say something, Logan patted him on the shoulder and said, "Leave it. Let us examine the other kids. It is not worth it to clash with the Law Enforcement Union just for the sake of a little brat."
Mary bowed towards Logan with a relieved smile on her face. After the two brothers left the room, Mary smiled towards Lyra and said, "Little Lyra, let us go play with your friends."
Lyra absentmindedly nodded towards Mary and walked on her short legs back to the playroom while holding Mary's hand.
...
"Hey Goldy, I am awesome right? Mary truly believed that I know Catherine personally. If not for this trick, I do not know what I would have done to solve this problem," Alvin chatted with Goldy as he walked back to his house.
Goldy squinted her round eyes and said, "Yes, master is awesome."
Alvin smiled, but his mood plummeted as he thought of the two basic essence coins he had to pay to the orphanage. "But now the problem is how to make money. The only option before us to easily earn money is to hunt magic beasts and sell their core and materials. But here I cannot even enter my sea of consciousness to cultivate because of the synchronization with the golden tome..."
Goldy blinked her eyes. "Goldy can feel it. The synchronization will be complete at most in six more hours. Master can cultivate after that."
"That is good. I heard that the village chief will provide a free battle technique to all those people who wish to become a hunter. Let us see if I can get it from him..." Alvin sighed in relief and decided to visit the village chief's house on the way back.
In Celestia, cultivation can be classified mainly into two paths, the warrior path and the magician path. While there is a strict requirement of having a good magic talent to become a magician, being a warrior mainly depends on how much hard work you put in.
There is also difference between the techniques used by warriors and magicians. Warriors practice battle techniques which use pure mana, while magicians practice elemental spells.
Alvin had already chosen to walk the warrior path after he heard about his damaged magic core from Catherine.