Hey guys, this is the end of this first chapter. The next one will be more interesting, I promise it so bear with it ! :)

Enjoy and don't hesitate to leave a comment !

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A few minutes after Shina sneakily escaped, various tremor occurred in front of the cottage, yet Shina didn’t feel any of them. After entering the cottage, it was like she was in a different world.

The small house’s inside were as big as a mansion, each room were at least 100m² wide. Shina didn’t give it a second thought and ran down through the halls. After living here for four years, she had since long grown used to this scene.

The cottage was linked to a different dimension. The very first time she had seen this scene, she almost suffered a heart attack, for Shina who had lived in a world where magic was just a dream, what looked ordinary for her parents was for her unbelievable.

But after those years, she had since long, despite how sad her parents were, grown used to all this.

As she ran down through the thirty meters long corridor, Shina suddenly stopped.

Ever since she was reborn, she had never been alone for more than ten minutes. She was treated like a treasure by her parents and there were always at least one by her side no matter what happened.

She was in front of a door, a normal door like every other in the hall. But even after four years, she never knew what was inside.

While she never really asked any question about this door, thinking more deeply about this, she soon began to feel curious and excited about what was on the other side. While she had grown used to all the ‘trick’ her parents had, it didn’t mean that she didn’t find them exciting.

Slowly opening the door, she soon realized that the room was very different than any others. It was much larger yet at the same time smaller, approximately three meters wide, but more than two hundred meters were occupied by a very large machine.

The machine looked very simple, yet at the same time, it was bizarre. It was divided in three very easy to discern part, the first one was a small glass case which was filled with a large amount of tiny orb. Each of them had the same size as marbles, all filled were countless little strands of light, they were illuminating the room.

They were like stars sparkling in the night with all their might, Shina couldn’t help but instinctively tend her hands toward them, but they were blocked by the glass case.

The second part was linked to the glass case by a tube, it aspiring something from the marbles. Even with Shina’s eyes, who could precisely see a target six meters away from her, she had to concentrate to be able to see the small sand grains being aspirated toward the second zone of the machine.

None of the sand grains could be seen in the second zone, they were all hidden by the white light emanating from it. It was as if they vanished into oblivion as soon as they arrived.

Or so she thought until she saw the last zone which was the largest and the one who took most of the place. It was a container filled with sand, the sheer amount of sand it contained made it impossible to tell how much tons it was filled with.

All the sand that seemed to have disappeared in the second zone very slowly dropped into this container which was linked to the first zone. It released a very faint amount of grains which entered the marbles.

Shina’s eyes were suddenly attracted by a small glittering light which came from a shelf at the left of the machine. There were three small marbles laying in a bowl.

Their light were much weaker than those in the glass case. Shina couldn’t help but take them in her hands, but as soon as she touched them, they starting gravitating above her hand.

They were like three little stars playing around her hands, baiting her then slipping away from her grasp each time she tried to catch them.

A few hours passed since Shina entered the room and started playing with the little marbles, she felt like they were three little children playing around as they flew around the room. Each time she caught one, she released them and waited a few seconds, giving them the time to make some distance before trying to catch them again.

*Crack*

Suddenly, one of the marble’s light dimmed and fell to the ground, the surface was fractured and its light started blinking like it was on the verge of dying.

The two other marbles started rotating around it as if they were worrying about its condition.

“Are you...alright?” Shina mumbled worriedly.

The marble continued to blink, but as time passed it was becoming dimmer and the lapse of time between each emanation of light grew shorter. The orb’s surface slowly started to crumble like mud.

“Shina! Are you alright?!” Arsal suddenly barged into the room with a distressed expression, but as he analyzed the situation, he issued a sigh of relief and approached Shina who wore a pained expression.

“The marble...it’s dying.”

After noticing the broken marble, Arsal somehow managed to understand the situation. “Defective universe… So that’s where this mana comes from.” He said in an indifferent tone.

“Defective universe?...”

As Shina heard her father’s word, she couldn’t suppress the feeling of astonishment which rose in her heart. Those little frail orb which flew around her were actually universe, after looking more deeply at the two remaining ones, she finally noticed that the shining little bits which filled the marble were actually galaxies.

Because of her sudden discovery, Shina’s face paled as she looked at the broken orb.

‘If those are universe, then did I break one entire world?’

Her thoughts suddenly froze as she realized the seriousness of the situation.

When she was a simple human, Earth had a world population of 7.5 billion. But that was only on the Earth, who knew if there weren’t a dozen or thousand of populated planets.

“You don’t have to worry that much, they can’t give birth to any living being.”

As if reading Shina’s mind, Arsal made her feel relieved, but she still felt guilty for indirectly destroying this little universe.

“If it wasn’t for me playing with it… It wouldn’t be dying.”

“As I said, it’s a defective universe. Like those two others, they’ll probably die in a few years.”

“A few years… Can’t we repair them?”

Arsal looked at the two marbles flying around her daughter, shining in a warm and kind light as if trying to appease her feelings.

“Do you know why they are incomplete, unlike the others in the machine?”

Shina shook her head as she observed the other marbles which were floating in the glass case.

“Unlike those ones, the one inside the machine are devoid of will and emotion. They are only tools which exist to harbor life. If when born a universe possess a free will, then won't be able to regulate it's mana output or renew it. It and will slowly exhaust all its reserve until death.”

“So, the only way to save them is to…”

“To destroy their soul… Now, do you really want to save them?”

Arsal tone was indifferent. For him, removing the will of a few universe was something he had done many times before. The effort and time needed to make one were enormous and he wasn’t most of the time willing to put it aside and simply wait for its death.

But even if it made no difference for him, he still treated this matter seriously… Because this matter was related to his daughter.

Both outcomes were cruel, one was to refuse their will and turn them into dolls made to harbor the life of billions of people. The other was to simply wait for them to simply die.

Arsal’s heart was filled with grief, but he knew that his daughter would soon need to mature as fast as quickly, and this was the perfect opportunity for her to recall that the world is unfair.

Shina looked at the three marbles, the two others returned to the broken one’s side as if to reassure him. She felt in her heart that they were like newborn children, they wished for life more than anything, yet were also endowed with an intelligence high enough for them to understand what they were talking about.

“That’s unfair for them…”

“Humu… That’s how it is. I’ll let you chose their destiny.”

Shina picked up the two flying marbles in her hands and carefully grasped the broken one, making sure of not hurting it more than it already was. She looked at them with tears in her eyes as she recalled her dark past.

“What is life without freedom?... I am sure they would rather die free than live as a tool.”

The memory of her past in that large and cold mansion assailed her mind. She had done her best not to think about it for those last four years, but she somehow felt that this situation was similar to her’s. She had lived as a doll, did her best to seal her emotion in order to one day live free, but she was willing to accept it because she had hope that one day she would gain her freedom.

But for theses tiny universes, it was different. Right now they had their own freedom, but if surrendered it to save their life, then they would forever lose it.

“I want them to live free until the end. Even if it’s a few minutes, or a few years… I want them to be aware that, right now, they are free.”

Arsal only smiled, he hadn’t expected his daughter to choose this option at all. At the same time he was happy about how mature she was, yet also saddened.

A normal child would have chosen to remove their free will, ignoring the other part demands. Not because they are cruel, but because a child is naturally selfish and that it’s their parent's duty to teach them.

But Shina was far more mature than any child of her age, the hardship she suffered in her previous life made her mature many times faster.

Arsal looked at her, his eyes held a hint of sorrow.

‘I shouldn’t think too much about this, this wound in her heart already mostly healed. After meeting that brat, she’ll be able to erase those scars.’

Arsal nodded at Shina and approached at the large machine, touching the container holding the large amount of sand

“Do you know what this is?”

Shina shook her head, she didn’t know what this machine was.

“This is the reincarnation system.”

Looking at the first zone of the machine, his finger pointed at the sand coming out of the marbles.

“Those grains of sand are the soul of the deceased from multiple worlds and regroup them together. This machine collects their soul and sends them toward the afterworld, in other words… This is the place most human call ‘Heaven’, a gigantic universe containing every living.

The other destination is where those filled with regrets are sent for them to once again after having their memories being erased, simply waiting to be reincarnated.”

Looking at the machine, Shina finally understood how important it was and how powerful her parents were for inventing such a thing, but it also brought a question to her mind.

“Why did you make something like that?”

“Because we were bored.”

“...”

‘Seriously?!’ Shina thought as she almost had a heart attack, she knew her father wasn’t the type of people to tell a lie, moreover without batting an eye. Arsal faintly smiled.

“Living being’s possibilities are infinite, you’ll always find something to learn by watching them, whenever it’s magic, food, magic engineering or formation. Lots of worlds use the same laws, yet their inhabitant uses them differently. We might make those worlds, but that’s it. What happen afterward and how the worlds develop isn’t our business. And that’s exactly why this is interesting.”

A hot warmth covered Shina’s heart, the three marbles were shining in a dim light, yet it contained unlimited strength and desire to live. She felt like the marbles were asking her for help

The three orbs were blinking together like they were resonating and the broken marbles which had begun to disintegrate turned into a light which illuminated the room. The two others as if responding to its call also turned into a sphere of light and fused with it under Shina’s surprise.

Not only Shina, but Arsal also looked shocked by what was happening, but he quickly regained his composure and chuckled.

The three marbles fused into a single one, losing most of its color, it turned into a pitch black orb.

‘The three universe combined their power and will to turn into a completely different entity... While they lost most of their power, they managed used Shina’s mana and sympathy creates a link between them. They depend on her to stay alive.’

Had Arsal felt any enmity from the marbles against his daughter, he would have instantly taken action and mercilessly reduced them to dust. But after noticing what relation they had with Shina he felt relaxed.

Shina smiled as she held the black orb in her hands.

“You’ll be my first friend. Your name shall be...Kiel”

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End of Chapter 1