Chapter 30
"I can see you have the basic etiquette already down," the tutor nodded and smiled politely before guiding me to a dining table. I swallowed, looking at all the different sizes of forks, spoons, and knives.
"Now listen carefully because I am only going to repeat this once," she pointed to the napkin that was folded neatly before me, placing it on the plate.
"Wait for the host to begin the feast. Once he unfolds his napkin, do the same and place it on your lap." The tutor unfolded the napkin as she instructed, and placed it onto my lap. "Keep it there until you finish eating. If you need to leave the table, place the napkin on the side of your plate."
"When you finish eating, it goes on the left side of your plate." I watched in horror as she explained all the necessities of table manners. It was extremely hard to resist the urge to roll my eyes at the infinite rules set up by some kind of superior nobleman in history. Like, what were they thinking? Why couldn't they have used chopsticks and a spoon for everything? You could literally do anything with chopsticks.
Even stabbing people in the eyes.
"The knife on your upper left is the butter knife. The two utensils located above your plate are the dessert utensils. The salad fork is the small one, and next to that is your dinner fork." She continued.
"The smaller utensils are always for the salads and the larger ones are for normal use." She then picked up a spoon that was smaller than the one beside it. "The only exception is the spoon. For spoons, the bigger one is for the soup while the smaller is for normal use."
I mouthed a small 'oh' before nodding and noting the information down into my mind.
Pointing to the last fork located on the edge of the table, she announced it as the oyster fork. There were three plates ordered from the largest to the smallest, stacked up onto each other. The dinner plate, being the largest and on the bottom, second in line was the salad plate, and the smallest was the soup plate that was ordered at the very top.
All the explanations were cool, and the tutor had made things much easier for me to remember but…
"Isn't this the western etiquette? Is there a difference between western and Asian?" I asked after she finished naming the spoons.
"That is why I am only teaching you the names of utensils and what they are used for," the tutor smiled wickedly before slightly giggling. "I am not teaching you how to eat."
"There's…" My eyes widened. "There's a way to eat?"
She ignored my question.
"Western etiquette is the most complex one. For Asian, just follow what the host does. Normally in their society, they prefer casual. You will be ushered to eat at a more rapid pace compared to western etiquette and have people shove food onto your plate. That is a way to show respect and care." She continued as I listened in stunned awe.
I was already pretty familiar with Asian etiquette from my current and past life, but to actually be hearing someone describe about it…
It was extremely interesting.
I mean, I am literally being treated and trained like a queen. Who wouldn't take this chance to learn?
"Try to flaunt your skirt more," I heard the dance instructor call out over the music as I threw the edge of my long dress, forcing the frills to jump out and wave their arms.
My partner dipped me and supported me up before I did an intense twirl, slamming into my partner's chest and whimpering an apology.
"Again, Alyona!" The instructor called out as the music started to play from the beginning. You know the awesome dips and twirls that people watched in movies?
Yeah, well, apparently you had to practice millions of times before actually dancing with a random stranger so that you would be able to improvise with your millions of practice instincts! I whimpered as the soles of my feet started to hurt, making me miss a beat.
"From the top!" The instructor yelled as I compiled obediently.
Honestly, when I asked the purpose of learning how to dance, Felix scoffed and said that dance was where all the pent-up sexual tension was being held. Mastering how to edge men on was the key factor that played inside the bedroom.
'Yeah, but what if my target doesn't know how to dance? Do I just straddle his lap for something?!'
-Was what I really wanted to ask.
I collapsed in my bed after another hour of talking about business. The good thing was that I had already gotten the vague idea of investing and stocks. Buy them at the lowest point, sell them out at the highest and when you think they will fall.
My eyes fluttered tiredly at the black and white room, being exactly what I had advised Felix I wanted my room to be like. It wasn't like those castle or princess rooms from movies, it was much smaller than that, but it was bigger than the room I had in Yagami's house.
"Geez, Henrik really is training me like his long-lost daughter," I murmured before closing my eyes.
In hindsight, I knew vaguely what he was training me to do. He was preparing to hand over the surface rather than the underground to me. While his forces took control over the underground, it was my job to use the connections from Henrik and build companies that could flourish above, strengthening his power more.
I was also aware that I was being used politically. Henrik was probably planning to marry me off to secure the bonds between two major groups, though he had not chosen which group yet. Most likely it would be the Red Dragons or the Xzar group since they had shown the most interest in me.
It did not faze me that I was being used, since he was not able to betray me because of our Death Vow. That saying, he could not marry me off to a family which had more than a 50% chance of killing me. That would be betrayal.
Not to mention I didn't care about love. It actually helped even more if I was married to a guy who had money. My life spendings would be secured, and even better, if that guy was somehow infatuated with me, I could grasp all the power in my hands.
Henrik knew my ambitions, and so he knew I was also okay with being sold off to marriage as long as it was possible for me to control it from the inside, AKA: Henrik's increase of power.
I chuckled in my pillow, laughing at how similar Henrik and I were. If I was adopted from a young age, I would have really thought that he was my blood-related father. This was a family that I could survive in. A family which could push me with my ambition, supporting me.
Yes, I now realized that normal families did not suit me at all.
I was a rule breaker. A manipulator. A heartless and cruel person woman.
I did not belong in families that gave love or warmth.
I belonged with those who lusted for power.
Those who were selfish and ambitious.
Of course, I would have no problem betraying Henrik the moment I wanted, or saw more rewards in betraying him. I smirked.
Thank god that the Death Note did not work on me. But then again, in the past history of Death Note users, who would be sane in their mind to actually test the Death Note with their own name? I knew confidently that they did not want to risk their own lives.
But see how far I got for risking?
Wealth. Power. Skills.
High risk and high rewards.
That's how this world worked.
The good thing was that I had watched the Death Note once before I came here, so the risk was lowered exponentially.
I closed my eyes before drifting into sleep, knowing that tomorrow morning I would have to move again.
4 days passed just in a blink of an eye. I walked into our group's private small jet with Felix before the engine started, lifting us across the numerous small houses that seemed like ants.
I sighed.
"Being rich is sure easy."
Felix rolled his eyes at my statement.
"We're not exactly rich enough to live comfortably," his eyes strayed across the window and onto mountain Fuji, which Japan was famous for. "That's what you're here for."
"I'm assuming that with the money we have now, it would be shady to actually use it?" I batted my eyelashes that were extended at the salon just hours ago. Some of the workers had also accompanied me, acting as my personal designers. Felix shook his head and told me that money was never enough.
"We need someone to start a large company on the surface, then start building multiple ones without raising the suspicions of others," Felix answered before a tray of cold food came in between us. "Or we need to implant spies in all the companies, which would be untactful."
"You already have the NPA as a deal from me," I took a plate of salad with my red nails, lifting the lettuce into my mouth with utmost grace. "And with the Death Note, it would be easy as hell."
"Manipulation, huh?" Felix murmured darkly before taking a glass of red wine.
"Yeah, just shut or kill anyone who stands in our way." I jazzed my hands before turning to face him. "It would be easy as pie to hit the lottery."
"That is, if we win the game between the detectives and your brother." Felix pointed out.
I hummed in agreement before turning my head towards the window.
"By the way, keep an eye on two apps called Youtube and Tiktok once the touch screen phones come out," I added as the glint in Felix's eye instantly lightened.
"Future?" He said and I nodded.
"Not only that, I have a couple of products we can work on that are a hit in the future, but you'd have to acquire specific men for me." My smile widened at my thoughts.
"Have them sign the Death Note vow of working with us forever," I turned to Felix as his eyes bulged out.
"You're not thinking-"
"The most influential developers on the internet and the billionaires that will rule over the future."
If this was taking place in the real world, it would work. There were FBI's in the anime. The world also worked similarly to the real world with time, technology, and people. Yes, everyone in this world was a bit stereotypical and narrow-minded, but that was how the early 2000s were like too.
Not to mention the growing technology of touch screen phones...
My eyes gleamed at the thought.
This...this could be an alternate dimension of my world.
Felix called over a pen and pencil quickly as I wrote a couple of names and their companies in the future.
Bill Gates: William Henry Gates (Microsoft)
Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne (apple)
Felix glanced over some of the names before giving a barely audible gasp.
"Gates is one of the most famous entrepreneurs during the 1970s!"
I almost shrieked.
Yes, this was another dimension! But-but! Why isn't there a bigger reveal?!
"He's going to become the CEO of a company called Microsoft!" I grabbed Felix's arm desperately, pleading with my big eyes. "He will become a billionaire no doubt! Not to mention his creation will be sold all over the world! You have to get his name!"
With my knowledge, this-
I could become more than a legend.
I could legit rule the world forever if I played things correctly.
I was hyperventilating. Everything around me was swirling and morphing into a 2D version of whirl candy. My sweat was now rolling down my head as I heard Felix's voice, above me, shouting something. My head was light, almost too light before my corpse thudded onto the floor of the plane.
The world started to echo before I reached out, panting my last words.
"You...must...get...their names…"
I had a dream.
In that dream, I was standing amidst the clouds, staring down at the cities that formed beneath my feet. The view made me calm as if I had nothing to worry about in my world.
"Sayu," I heard Light's bitter voice behind me as the wind blew gently on my neck.
"Brother," I fruitfully turned around to see his bloody uniform compared to my clean and neat one. "How are you faring?"
For some reason, the expression on his face was almost ruefully in pain. I snorted.
"Look!" I waved around me, staring at the light that seeped comfortably out of the clouds. "This is what I have achieved!"
I cackled with glee.
"I am God! Not you! I rule the cities and the people!" I pointed to myself before eyeing his dark matted brown hair that did not move in the wind.
"Fuck your justice! Go to hell with your perfect world! This is my world!" I screamed with my cheeks ablaze, suddenly angry at him. Fire spat out from my stomach when I saw his hand reach out to me, only to stop and hesitate midway.
"Sayu…" He whispered.
"My dear brother, look at what you have become!" I jeered at his pathetic state. "This is how you rule the world! This is how you step on others and prevail!"
"I was nothing," I forcefully spat out. "Nobody wanted me. Nobody cared for me. No one!"
Light's jaw tensed so hard that bulging veins could be seen on his face. His soft features were no more, only the lifeless and pale face with fury and sadness grew more apparent from my words.
"My parents hated me, my friends saw me withering in pain and laughed at my misery!" The tears I fought so hard to contain back started to fall. Droplets and droplets splattered to the ground that belongs to the city underneath my bare feet.
"I hate this world. I hate everyone in it! Not just you-everyone who could see me as a tool, love me, then trample across me!"
"Why, why didn't they just kill me?" I snorted dryly at my own words. "Instead of showering me with love, then ripping it apart before me...why couldn't they just have ended me in the beginning?!"
Everything around me started to crash down, the cities beneath me toppling over like my mind was sustaining their picture and structures. They should've killed me in the beginning. I would not have been in such pain if they did.
They should've just ended me.
So I wouldn't have turned the way I did.
"It hurts, Light." I chuckled even more as the shivers crawled up my arms, digging into my shoulders to gain access to my heart. "It hurts so bad."
I felt his touch, blinking through my blurry vision and I saw his arms that slowly wrapped around me, holding me to himself. Light buried his face in my hair before whimpering from something. But I didn't care anymore. It had always been me that was hurting. Why couldn't it be someone else?
Why was I always the leftover? Why did people always choose over me? What was wrong with me? What didn't I have that others did not? I strove to be perfect, I learned, I stood up, but why?
Why was I always unneeded?
"Why can't it be someone else?"
"Why?"
"Why is it always me?"
I trembled as I felt his lips on my forehead, rocking me back and forth while murmuring my name.
"That is not my name," I said wetly.
"But to me, you will always be my sister."
"You only see me as a fool," my voice came out hoarse, with no more energy to speak anymore. I felt Light's face twist in agony before he coughed out, liquid dripping from his mouth as it splattered onto my white clothes. It reminded me of someone. Specifically, Itachi Uchiha, who sacrificed himself for his little brother.
"You're not the sacrificial kind, Light." I pushed him away to see the hole near his left part of his chest. Looking closer, he was wearing the suit in the last moments of his life in the anime. He smiled ironically before taking a lock of my hair, the corner of his eyes being a bit wet as he kissed my hair so lightly, that it felt like he would disappear.
I stared coldly at the blood, not finding it beautiful or repulsive in any way. It just felt empty to me. Cold and empty.
"Then change it," Light's sincere eyes gazed into mine, shaking something inside of my heart.
"Change me so that you can change."
I stared dumbly at him, the colour of red painting my clothes the longer he spoke.
What was this, a play-on with words?
"Are you...are you serious?" I furrowed my eyebrows and knit them together so hard that it felt stupid.
Light laughed, the dryness in his throat almost coming out as sharp daggers scratching their nails on his cords.
"My sister, I have never lied as you do."
"Tears are words that need to be written." -Paulo Coelho