Broken Pocket Watch

Hours went by as Sylvia laid motionless on the chair with her head still down. Her tears were already dried up as she simply resigned herself to her fate.

She felt a sense of dread and fear when looking at the door leading to the hallway and felt ashamed of herself. She didn't want anyone to look at her right now and wanted to keep being isolated in her own world.

Unfortunately, things didn't work that way for her as the door burst open as two figures entered the room.

With her eyes puffy and red she looked to see who would dare barge into her father's office and once she saw the smirk on the two woman's faces she instantly felt her blood run cold as her body screamed at her to run.

"Well well well, look what we have here."

The woman with luscious black hair and sharp eyes along with her seductive and curvy body made her way towards where Sylvia was sitting. Following behind her was a younger carbon copy of her that also held a knowing smirk.

Seeing her mother and older sister slowly move towards her she tensed up and avoided eye contact as she looked at the floor and attempted to ignore them.

"I heard someone didn't get a single elemental affinity, isn't that right dear?"

Her mother said as she crept towards her left side speaking with "affection" that contained her satisfied thoughts.

"Mother I heard the same, last time I checked this brat would get a 'punishment' if she disappointed father."

Her sister whispered in a voice loud enough for both of them to hear as she shifted her way towards Sylvia's right side fulling trapping her along with her mother.

Reminded of the consequences of disappointing her father she almost cried once again but held back her tears as she was unwilling to show weakness in front of these two devils.

Seeing her reaction they sneered and moved toward her yet again.

"Mother, don't you have two elemental affinities? What were they again I'm so forgetful today?"

"Oh dear, can't you remember? I have an affinity with [Night] and [Moon] silly."

"Ahhh I remember now, do you know what affinities I have?"

"Of course you have [Flower] and [Night], [Flower] from your father and [Night] from me."

"Hehe you remembered, I'm so glad I have two affinities, I would kill myself if I didn't have any."

"Me too dear, I couldn't bear showing my face anywhere if people found out I was defective."

Hearing the conversation between the two as they were blatantly provoking she couldn't hold back and abruptly left her chair and attempted to storm out of the room as fast as possible leaving behind the two.

However, her desires were unsettled as she felt her foot was stuck on something. Looking down she saw vines wrapped around her ankle and she was unable to move. Looking behind her she saw her sister holding the vines as she smirked at her futile attempt to run away.

"Where are you going? Big sis wants to have fun with you, it's rude to run away like that."

Her sister yanked on the vine making Sylvia trip face-first towards the ground. With the help of her reaction speed, she was able to prevent herself from crushing her nose as she used her arms to prevent her complete fall.

Attempting to yank her sister in a tug of war in payback she was met with her not even budging an inch. She may be an awakened with a physique incomparable to a normal person but her sister was also an awakened with a C rank mana core at that. In addition, even if she was now awakened she was still a 7-year-old that was unable to draw out her full power.

She was swiftly brought back towards the two with her joints bound by Scarlet's vines as they continued to humiliate and tease her and constantly remind her of her failures.

This lasted for an additional hour before a maid entered the room informing them that it was already lunchtime.

The two women simply clicked their tongues as they left the room leaving behind Sylvia with her eyes completely emotionless and empty. She stood up and was about to move towards the dining room when she heard the maid speak to her once again.

"Your lunch will be provided separately from now on until you are removed from the mansion one week later."

Sylvia looked towards the maid as she was unable to get a good look at her prior and realize that it was her own personal maid Maia that was speaking such cold words to her. Seeing Maia's expressionless face that was completely different from her cheerful attitude this morning she realized that Maia saw her as worthless and unfit to be her master.

Maia simply looked coldly at her as she turned away and neglected her. Sylvia left in shock as her own personal maid abandoning her slowly dragged her feet to her bedroom where she saw food left on the table.

Taking a closer look the food was cold and unacceptable to be served in this mansion. She looked at the food and noticed it was placed on a metallic tray as if she were in prison instead of a fancy plate. She looked at the lackluster meal and saw the moldy bread alongside the soggy peas. On top of all of this, the glass of water was murky and somewhat unclean. All of this together destroyed her appetite as she simply moved to her bed and laid down.

Her punishment or in her father's words agreement was that if she was unable to obtain 3 elemental affinities then she would be kicked out of the house. Of course, he was unable to disown her until she reached the age of 18, but until then he wouldn't consider her his child anymore and she was left to her own devices.

As she lay motionless in her bed she decided to once again check her status window.

[Status Window

Name: Sylvia Rose

Age: 7

Mana Core: F-

Elemental Affinity: null

Unique Ability: Pause

Skills: null]

She simply mulled over the Elemental Affinity and went to her Unique Ability. Curious, she tapped on her ability as another pop-up appeared that detailed her ability. After all, this was going to be her only ability lest she can get her hands on an Elemental Affinity Potion that was near impossible even for her family. Even if they did get it they wouldn't dare waste it on her and most likely would give it to the heir of the family, Roy.

[Unique Ability: Pause

Rank: F

Rank F: Allows the user to pause time for 1 second.]

She wasn't surprised that her ability was only at an F- as all unique abilities were growing and as she grew stronger so would her unique ability. When she obtains an E- rank mana core her unique ability would once again evolve and she would obtain options in the direction she wants her abilities to grow.

With rising curiosity, she decided to test her ability for herself as she would be stuck with it for the rest of her life.

"Pause."

A soft whisper came out of her luscious lips and if anyone could hear her would go into a craze due to the near heavenly and angelic voice that leaked out. It would always make her father confused into why she was nearly mute almost all the time refusing to speak a single word for months on end when she had such a beautiful voice.

It didn't matter to him anymore as she was considered less than dirt now and at the time he simply shrugged it off thinking that she was simply shy.

However, at her command and activation of her unique skill, the world around her became devoid of color besides her. The previous purple drapes on her bed now turned into a pastel gray. Looking further she looked around and noticed nearly everything was monochromatic. She attempted to move her hand to touch the drapes but noticed she was unable to move.

After what felt like an eternity of absorbing the world around her, color began to return and she was able to move her body once again.

She fell into deep thought and put together her findings. Firstly, when she utilized her unique ability everything would be devoid of color. Second, when time is paused she too was unable to move and was only able to observe.

With that out of the way, she decided to push herself to the limit. She wanted to see how many times she could pause time before she was unable to continue. After continuously reactivating her ability she found out that she was only able to pause time 5 times in a row without difficulty. However, afterward she would feel discomfort and shortness of breath.

She made a mental note of this as she decided that she would try out her inventory next. Using the inventory was simple, she simply needed to think of using it, similar to the status window. Putting items inside and taking them out was also relatively easy. All she had to do was will the item and she would be able to access it. Of course, the inventory had a capacity and it would grow alongside her mana core, currently with a mere F- rank mana core, her inventory was the size of an ordinary backpack.

As she willed for the inventory to appear she noticed something odd about it. Normally, the inventory shouldn't have anything inside of it. However, she instinctively felt that something was already inside.

She gulped as she willed the item inside of her inventory to appear. She looked towards the item in her hand and was deeply confused. What was laying in her hand was a broken pocket watch. The pocket watch was stuck at 12 o'clock and it looked incredibly worn out. The screen was cracked and the previous silver rim was turned into rust, losing its former brilliance.

Pondering why such an item was in her inventory and how it got there in the first place, she never used or even touched such an item in her life. After all, what was the point in using such a pointless item when her phone or computer was able to tell the time. Her family may be living in the middle ages but that didn't mean they didn't utilize technology, in fact, they heavily relied on technology and she used her laptop to obtain knowledge that was unavailable to her in the first place.

As she fiddled with the watch she found out she could wind up the watch. As she winded up the watch she realized she was winding it counterclockwise, she simply ignored it and continued messing around until she finally made a full rotation. When the hand reached back to the 12 o'clock spot she felt mana fluctuating around her violently.

Surprised she looked around and noticed the chaotic mana that was uncontrollable akin to a mana storm. She closed her eyes shut and held onto the pocket watch for dear life as she knew the outcomes of being trapped in a mana storm, death, or heavily injured/crippled.

As she squeezed her eyes shut she passed out due to the overflow of mana into her body.

Her father, feeling the violent fluctuation of mana in her room rushed to her room for an explanation. As he entered the room he felt the fluctuations of mana lingering in the air, the disgusting food left on the table, and no signs of Sylvia.

Sylvia Rose was gone.