Stahlia Eight Years Old, Second Month 945
The funeral was held three days later. I had stopped crying the day before. It wasn’t that I was no longer sad, I simply had no more tears to shed. It seemed the gods themselves were saddened by Rosial’s death, as the day of her funeral was drab, with light rain falling from dawn to dusk. For once, Giogi’s gang seemed to have some better sense, or maybe Giogi restrained them. Honestly, I didn’t know or care which, but none of them said anything about being knights. Sana stayed with me for the entire three days leading up to the funeral. She didn’t say very much but I was glad she was there.
Jacqueline, after telling me what happened had retreated somewhat; she still stayed nearby me as per her duties, but she seemed distant. I often caught her gazing at me with an expression twisted by emotional pain, a rarity on her usually stoic face to be sure. My mother was very quiet. Like myself, I don’t think she had yet come to terms with what had befallen us. Unlike me, she did not cry, but she no longer smiled or laughed. She was withdrawn deep into herself, simply eating and then returning to her room. My father spent all the time he could by her side but it did little to cure her grief.
The funeral itself passed in a blur. I remember the people our family was close to on a personal level coming by one by one and offering small words, but I recall little of what was said. Before I knew it, I was standing in the cemetery with my father, mother, and the priest. The burial itself was considered highly personal, only people who were considered the family of the deceased would be present, along with a religious officiant. Since Rosial had been only three years old and just had her dedication it meant the attendees were limited to our immediate blood family.
After we got back home, I went up to my room and lay down. I tried to cry into my pillow but was unable. Jacqueline brought me supper and stayed with me until I eventually passed into a dreamless sleep. I woke up the next day and tried to sit up and go down to breakfast but found I lacked the strength or the will to do so. Jacqueline was still by my side but did not scold me, she simply went and brought my meal to my room. Today was supposedly a class day, but I decided I wasn’t going to go.
I fell into a slump, the days passed by in a blink while I turned inwards. I passed through various periods of alternating between blaming myself, blaming Dominic for distracting me, I even tried blaming Sana for not trying hard enough to cure her with a miracle. But no matter who I assigned blame I could not recover from my grief and sadness. Before long, or perhaps after a long while, Jacqueline was not with me when I woke up. She’s finally given up on me. Good, I deserve to just waste away alone. I was so caught up in playing this game that I couldn’t accept it for what it was, this is life. Why didn’t I just use my magic on Rosial? Sure it wouldn’t have shown me her class section or anything, but it might have given a warning about any malignant status such as illness! I just didn’t want to risk her noticing the mana flow and asking difficult questions, I’m such a fool!
The last thing I needed was for her to go "Mommy! Mommy! Stali did something with her hands that felt weird, then told me to keep it a secret!" or something like that by accident. She probably would have kept a secret if I asked her to, but I didn't want to take that risk... I would have either had to explain to my parents that I can use magic or be suspected of doing inappropriate things to my sister. With the boys, even if they say anything I could just play it off as a game. I might get scolded, but that would be that. But now, I wish I had taken that risk... If I could have prevented this, it would have been worth it.
Indeed, I had circled back around to blaming myself. Now, however, I wasn’t blaming myself for missing the hints and flag triggers that lead to a quest failure; I was blaming myself for treating my adorable sister as just a cute NPC. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had always known, but I hadn’t accepted it. Or maybe I had refused to accept it. I died. I died and was brought into another world. This isn’t just an RPG, this is real life. Still, little good that did me; I still could not bring myself to get out of bed.
Sometime later, Jacqueline was back. I didn’t see her come in but she was back at my side, silently. After a long while of just sitting patiently, she spoke. It was the first time I had heard another’s voice since shortly after the funeral. Idly, I thought to myself I haven’t seen Sana or Giogi in a while, have I? I wonder how they’re doing now. “Lady Stahlia, your brother was born this morning. It was a difficult birth but in the end, Rosin was born successfully… Would you like to go and see him?” My brother was born? That would mean it’s been nearly three months, three months since… I shook my head and rolled over away from her, closing my eyes and going to sleep.
I opened my eyes. I was not in my room. Looking around me I blinked. The world was white. I was in a forest covered in snow. Where am I? How did I get here? I did not recognize any of the trees, this was definitely not the mountain forest outside Ris Village. Looking around, all I could see was thick trees and snow. Briefly, I considered that I had died again, and this was another new world or just the afterlife of the world I had been sent to. I dismissed those thoughts when I checked my body and saw that I was still Stahlia. My next impulse was to just lay down in the snow and let the cold have me. I did lay down, but strangely, the snow wasn’t cold. After laying there for long enough that the sun had set and risen twice, I realized that I was not growing hungry or thirsty either. If I wanted to die, I wouldn’t be able to wait for it. Aimlessly, I set out walking.
After walking for what was probably miles, the sun had set and risen a third time, I finally spotted something. There’s some smoke coming over the horizon there. I had climbed a tree to get a better vantage. Stretching out on all sides of me was an endless frozen forest. The smoke I saw in the distance was the first sign of life I had lain eyes on since first opening my eyes here. Indeed, only after seeing the smoke did I realize how empty this place was. I had been walking on snow completely undisturbed by the footsteps of man or animal. I had heard neither bird song nor the chattering of squirrels in three days. Nor had I caught even a glimpse of movement. Even the air was still; there was no wind, and I could not remember having felt a breeze.
This place is scary… I set out towards the smoke, now peering around myself nervously as I went. I tried enhancing my limbs to move faster but found I could not sense my mana. I walked for another day and night. I didn’t feel tired, but the smoke had only been on the horizon, even without enhancements, that distance should have taken me only a half a day at most. In a panic, I started running. I was not sure why I was panicking, but I knew I had to get out of this damned forest.
Suddenly bursting out into a clearing, I blinked. There was a forest behind me but the way in front of me was wide open. I appeared to have emerged onto the shore of a frozen lake. The lake stretched on infinitely, in appearance it was more like a sea or an ocean, but when I laid eyes on it, I somehow knew it was a lake. A little ways away from me was a small cottage, from which smoke was coming out of the chimney. Glancing around warily, I approached the cottage.
Stepping up to the door, I raised my hand to knock but froze when a voice came out. {Goodness, it took you a while to get here, didn’t it?} the voice was clear in fact, I couldn’t think of any voice clearer than this one. But just as it was clear, it was also distant. It sounded as if it came from both very far away and right beside me. A shiver ran down my spine and I debated whether I should go back the way I had come. {well? Are you coming in? I did invite you after all.} Gulping, I decided to through myself off this cliff and opened the door.
Sitting in front of a pot gripping a stirring spoon was a young woman. She was clad in a white dress that seemed to sparkle like freshly fallen snow as she moved. She was facing away from me stirring the pot, occasionally she drew out the spoon and tasted whatever was inside it. Her dress aside, the woman herself was also white. Both her hair and skin were incredibly white. Not pale like a Caucasian or white like an albino. Her skin was devoid of any color at all. Her hair was likewise lacking any color but had a shiny gleam to it, similar to platinum or silver. She put the spoon aside and turned to face me. {Hello Stahlia, I was beginning to think you wouldn’t make it.}
I gasped. Contrary to the rest of her, her eyes were blue. Not a very dark blue, indeed, they were a pale icy blue. That being said, they were absolutely striking, contrasted as they were against the complete absence of color that made up the rest of her. “W-who, Who are you? Where is this? Why am I…” as soon as I opened my mouth, I let loose a storm of questions before I had time to process. Catching myself, I watched the woman warily. She hid a laugh behind a hand placed over her mouth.
{Hmm… Well, I suppose I could answer some of those…} I waited for her to continue. {As for how, you’re dreaming. As for where this is the forest of winter’s ice. As for who… well, let’s go with “I’m a big sister who adores her little sister just like you!} I frowned.
“That’s awful of you. My little sister is dead.” In shock, I touched my face and found that my hand came away wet; for the first time since the day after her death, I was crying.
{Are you sure? I have a friend who is pretty well in tune with things like that, he didn’t tell me anything about your little sister being dead.} She was looking at me with a faint smile. I felt my tears dry, my grief was being replaced with anger.
“Who the fuck do you think you’re messing with?! If you really “love your little sister just like me” then you wouldn’t say something like that!” She sighed and just shook her head.
{Stahlia, mind your temper. I only invited you here because my sweet little Caina was getting so upset watching you wallow in your self-pity.} I felt a chill and took an involuntary step back. Caina? Her little sister’s name is Caina? That would mean…
{It looks like you figured it out. Good for you, but I suppose you had it in you to accept from the very beginning, after all, you managed to escape the forest and find me here.}
I swallowed dryly. Now that she had confirmed my suspicions about her identity, I was reasonably certain that I could trust her about Rosial. Then again, Antenora was the goddess of plots and lies so this might just be a sick joke to her. But I desperately wanted to believe, “Assume I believe you. Why would you bother to call me here? The twelve gods and goddesses supposedly refuse to interact with the non-faithful, and I certainly harbor no faith in you lot.”
She smiled at me; it was an uncomfortable sight, {That is a misconception born of ignorance. Drakan religious dogma has many of the details deliberately hidden or ignorantly removed. The kingdom is not as pleasant a place as you think it is.} She waved her hand, and suddenly I felt very, very, cold. Looking down at myself, I saw that frost was forming over my body, starting from the extremities. Strangely, it didn’t seem to hurt. Testing my fingers, I found that, other than being frozen, they did not appear to be damaged in any way. All of a sudden, a sharp pain wracked through my head. My left arm turned numb, and my leg gave out, causing me to collapse on the floor. If I had been able to think clearly through the pain, I might have realized how superficially similar this was to someone having a stroke.
{Whether or not you choose to give your faith to the gods is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things… I’ve interceded and adjusted your vessel. Whatever it was that prevented our gift from properly activating will no longer do so; I have forcibly activated it.}
Slowly, the pain in my head receded, though I was left with a throbbing headache. Feeling returned to my arm and I regained strength in my leg. I sat up; immediately regretting my actions s my headache reminded me of its existence via a fiery dagger of pain through my temple. I shot the self-proclaimed goddess a glare. She paid me no attention and waved her hand over me again.
{Now it’s time for you to wake up. As a bit of parting advice, ask your shadow about her past; her spirit is treading a knife-edge right now but if you confront her, I think it might tip her to your favor.}
My vision went black, and I felt the sensation of falling. Sitting up in my bed, I blinked and looked around; I was back in my room and covered in a cold sweat, more importantly, my headache seemed to be gone. What the hell was that? Was that really Antenora? As if to answer my question, I heard a familiar DING! And a notification window appeared in my vision.
“Notice: Infusion of Divinity Element Confirmed. Hidden Skill [Blessing of Winter] has been revealed and activated. [Blessing of Winter] will now be listed in the skills section.”
Checking my menu confirmed the new skill. I inspected the description menu to read what the effects were. “WHAT?!” I had thought Prodigy and Finesse Fighting were overpowered, but both of those paled in comparison to Blessing of Winter.
“Blessing of Winter(----LP): User has received the blessing of the Winter Pantheon. The rate at which Talents under the jurisdiction of this pantheon gain experience is doubled. Grants Immunity to the Ice Element. Grants the effects of [Cold Hearted] Skill. Grants the user access to the Divine Element. Secondary Effect: This Skill is hidden from normal Appraisal effects.”
I reread the effects of Blessing of Winter in shock. I didn’t have enough experience to know how common the “Ice Element” was but receiving outright immunity to a damage type was always a strong ability. There was also the part about the experience being doubled. It had to do with the “jurisdiction of winter”, and while I couldn’t be certain, I had the idea that that probably meant it would apply to talents that the winter gods would favor. Things like stealth, poisons, and assassinations. Given my stat spread favored dexterity, that was an incredibly strong effect for me. There was also that line about me having access to the “Divine Element”, but I had no idea. Still, even if that effect was a dud, the rest of this skill more than made up for it.
She said she “forcibly activated their gift” by “bypassing the obstruction”. That would imply that I had this skill already and it was just deactivated because something was blocking it. When did I acquire it? What was blocking it? Of course, there was only one event that came to mind; the blessing I had received at my dedication. At the time, I had been fearful about the implications of getting a blessing from one of the three winter gods, given their personalities. As it turned out, it looked like I had gotten the blessing from all three of them.
This is also the first skill I have seen with a broken LP counter… As if to interrupt my thoughts, My door swung open and Jacqueline rushed in. “Lady Stahlia! What is the matter?!” Right. I did lose myself and exclaim out loud after all. Putting aside other thoughts for later, what to do about Jacqueline? The goddess said to “ask my shadow” and then specifically named my shadow as a “she”. Out of all the women I know, only one person fits the bill.
“Jacqueline. I want your honesty. What happened really to Rosial?” Jacqueline stopped with her mouth hanging open and slowly drew herself up straight.
★★★★★★
Jacqueline
“Jacqueline. I want your honesty. What happened really to Rosial?” I felt my heart stop. Stahlia had figured it out. I did not know how she had managed it, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, Stahlia was always extremely, abnormally, exceptionally intelligent. What should I do now? The normal response would be to silence her, but she’s still a target for Protection-Observation. I can’t silence her without violating my mission parameters, and besides that, I… I do not want to silence her!
I could feel my heart beating out of my chest and my voice was shaking. “Lady Stahlia… We cannot talk here… Will you, will you slip out of the village with me?” Stahlia’s eyes narrowed at me and nodded before getting out of bed for the first time in a little over three months. It was already the middle of the night, so we did not have to wait at all.
Stahlia and I ran through the village under cover of darkness, much the same as we had done three years ago when she had suddenly decided she needed to increase her purpose. Much like then, we ran in silence. Unlike then, it was not a friendly silence; I could feel a current of hostility emanating towards my back from Lady Stahlia. We got over the wall easily and ran roughly two miles into the forest before I waved for her to stop. “Lady Stahlia, this should be far enough. I will answer your questions here.” What am I even saying?! There’s no way I can tell her what she wants to know!
“Jacqueline. You’re my ‘Shadow’ are you not? What does that mean.” It was not phrased as a question, more of a statement and a demand for answers.
“The Order of Shadows. A black operations department under the direct command of King Drakas.” Why am I telling her this?! Nothing good will happen to her when she learns the truth!
“I see. So, you were sent to keep an eye on me. No, you were sent to keep an eye on my father and then were reassigned to me after my Dedication.” Her voice was steady, but there was an edge in it, and not like when Giogi got on her nerves, this was an edge sharpened by real bloodlust.
“That is more or less correct.” All I am doing is confirming things that should never be known! Why am I doing this!?
“Right. Now, what did the ‘Order of Shadows’ do to Rosial?” her eyes glinted with a dangerous light, and I felt myself flinch away. I am not scared of her, am I? I know how strong she is, I taught her after all. I shouldn’t have anything to worry about… right? No… that’s not it… I’m not afraid of her… I’m… I’m afraid for her…?
“Are you sure you want to know? Once you learn the truth, you can never go back.” I tried to tell her with my eyes and tone. There were some secrets in the world that nobody should be burdened with. She crossed her arms and jutted her chin at me, bidding me get on with it. I see, I want to help her. More than my duty to the kingdom. Why?
“The Order of Shadows… The Order of Shadows is made up of agents like me, Shadows who are trained from a very young age. They… those agents… they are children who are abducted after the Dedication finds a desirable purpose. Their families are then led to believe they died from an illness. Rosial was selected to become one of those agents like I was.” Stahlia listened to me quietly, patiently. Once I started, I could no longer stop myself. I told her everything about the order. All of the horrors that I had endured, implicitly, all of the horrors that Rosial would endure as well. Because she put her faith in me? Is that why?
By the time I had finished describing things and fallen silent, Lady Stahlia was sitting on a tree stump with her arms dangling by her side limply. She had ceased crying, and no longer seemed angered at me, “Lady Stahlia, are you… are you alright?” My voiced question seemed to snap her back. I don't... I realize now, I don't want her to hate me. Of all my targets she's the first one.... The first one I...
Looking up at me she smiled grimly, “I am more than alright. I know it was not a lie, Rosial is alive. Now I just have to find her, find her, and burn away any who would stand in my way.” ...The first one I have come to care about.
“Lady Stahlia! You would wage war against the Kingdom of Drakas itself?! You would make an enemy of a kingdom that has stood for a thousand years!” Stahlia nodded and stood up slowly. More than the Kingdom.
“Yes. I swear. What will you do about my declaration? You are still an agent of the King after all.” She looked me in the eye, calmly, resolved. I realized then she had followed me out into the forest unarmed. Not that she would be able to best me if I came after her for real, but to come unarmed, announce an intention like that, and then simply ask me what I was going to do about it… There was only one way I could respond. I did not know when it had happened, but in these past eight years, I had changed. I dropped to my knees.
“Lady Stahlia, I offer you my life and my blade. Please accept them as my apology for what has befallen Lady Rosial. Use me as you will.” My Lady.
★★★★★★
Stahlia
I sighed internally. I’m so glad that worked, leave it to the goddess of traitors to know when someone is close to switching sides. Still, that would have been terrifying!
“Cold Hearted(500LP): User may selectively disable or enable the following effects: Anger, Empathy, Fear, Love, Remorse. The includes effects induced by status ailments as well as natural emotional responses.”
While we had been traveling to the forest, I had taken advantage of the fact that I still had an open Skill slot and looked up “Cold Hearted” in my Life Points catalog. As the name implied, it allowed the skill holder to become a cold-hearted psychopath. Thankfully, it was not an “always active” type of skill, I could turn it off and on as I needed. I had disabled my emotional Anger response while Jacqueline was telling me what my sister would have to endure; If I hadn’t had this ability, I would have been liable to lunge at her and try to tear her throat out with my bare hands. I had likewise turned off my fear response after I realized I had confronted a trained assassin unarmed, gambling on the goddess’s words “she might fall to your side.”. My gamble seemingly paid off, and Jacqueline swore herself to my cause.
Still, 500LP to buy that skill, and I got it more or less for free with some other amazingly op bonuses. I looked down at Jacqueline still kneeling to me with her head lowered, “Jacqueline, raise your head. We have work to do but let’s go home for now; my mother will worry if morning comes, and we are both gone.”
Jacqueline nodded and stood, “Indeed, she would. I also have to figure out what to say in my report; I cannot very well announce that I have decided to betray the kingdom. Especially not at your request.” Right, that would be bad.
We set off walking through the woods back towards the village. While we were walking, Jacqueline eventually asked me a question, “Lady Stahlia, you have always been very intelligent… but I cannot determine. How did you figure out Rosial was alive, and beyond that, that I knew?”
Right, how much should I tell her? I don’t think she was lying when she swore to help me fight the kingdom earlier, but that doesn’t mean I can trust her absolutely. Now that I know more or less her full story, there's no telling what fail-safes the kingdom has on her. On the off chance there's something like a magic listening bug she doesn't know about, I need to mind my words and keep some cards close to my chest.
“You heard me scream before you came running to my room.” It wasn’t a question; we both knew that’s what had happened. Jacqueline nodded nevertheless and waited for me to continue. “I had woken from a dream. I was in a forest of ice and snow. Antenora was there.”
I heard Jacqueline let out a gasp, murmuring “…an oracle…” to herself in a small voice. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me, but I have to tell her something, so I may as well go with a half-truth…
“She told me that Rosial was alive, and to ask you for the details, and she told me she had seen my future as I underwent my dedication. She gave me her blessing then, to help me betray and destroy the Kingdom of Drakas.” That should be enough explanation to satisfy her. Look at me, weaving a plot of half-truths and lies. Does that make you happy Antenora? I smiled grimly to myself.
“I-indeed… …to think your blessing really was hers… Based on your Prodigy Skill and what you have already done with Alchemy, the kingdom determined your blessing was from Caina, goddess of change. To think it would instead be Caina’s elder sister… I see. You do take after her; both of you love your younger sister implicitly.”
Good, that was enough to satisfy her. As a bonus, I learned some juicy tidbits as well, to think the kingdom thought I was destined to bring change. I mean, I fully intend to bring about a great change, but someone else can work out the details after I’m through. As long as I get Rosial happy, I don’t care what happens to anyone else.
The next morning, I resolved myself and came down to breakfast. My mother and father both looked at me in shock before breaking out into happy smiles, “Father, Mother, I am sorry for having worried you. I will no longer shut myself away and will strive to come to terms with my grief.” It wouldn’t do any good to tell them what really happened to Rosial; my father wouldn’t believe me and it would just hurt mother.
“I see, that is very good to hear Stahlia. Do you feel ready to return to your classes? I can send Silvia to notify the head priest.” My father questioned me in a calm but light tone, he was clearly overjoyed to see me up and about again but was endeavoring not to show it.
“No father, I do not think there is anything meaningful for me at the temple school. May I request you have the professor graduate me and prepare a private tutor? I would like to begin preparing for the first- and second-year materials at the Royal Academy. With our family’s new peerage, I believe that would be more appropriate.” After a brief moment of consideration, my father nodded and bid for Silvia to bring him parchment and quill so he could write a letter to the head priest.
“Mother, I can see you frowning; do not worry, I do not intend to cut off any of my friends and allow my station to color my head. I simply believe that I have learned all I can at the temple school. As you and father are aware, I already teach more often than I am a student.” I teach so much that I even acquired the [Teaching II] talent! Damnit Sven! My mother covered her mouth with a hand.
“Dear me, you noticed? Still, it gladdens me as your mother to hear you say you do not intend to let a mere title go to your head.” She sounded very pleased indeed. Of course, I don’t want to cut off my friends, mother, allies are important in war after all… but you don’t need to know that.
My father, true to his word had the priest graduate me from the temple school and a month later, two tutors had arrived. One of them was a general studies tutor who would be “teaching” me math, as well as teaching me geography and history. Apparently, the temple school graduation record would exempt me from learning any more religious philosophy when at the Royal Academy. The general studies tutor was also originally supposed to be teaching me alchemy, but after a single conversation on the subject, I managed to convince him not to bother.
The second tutor was a licensed Red Mage. Different from the class “Fire Mage” I had seen in the Tier Two class selection, Red Mage was a title unrelated to class. To earn the title, one had to demonstrate a mastery of fire magic without depending on talents or skills. In short, color mages used magic by chanting spells, whereas those who had a mage class could have the talent or skill to skip the chant for them. Curious, I asked my magic tutor what his purpose was.
Apparently, he was a Scholar who had then acquired the Researcher class. If I’m interoperating that right, it means you get a new class after fulfilling certain criteria… I guess that’s why character creation was forcing me to pick the lower tier classes; I would have started with whatever Tier One class I picked, then eventually unlocked the higher tiers. If I hadn’t picked a higher tier class due to Life Point cost, it probably would have been random based on what classes I qualified for. Not that it matters for me now; my Tier One thru Five classes are all “Custom Class” after all.
That was how I spent the next year until my ninth birthday. I would go out and visit Sana or Giogi at least once a week on the weekend when they didn’t have class at the temple, and I had a break from my tutors. During the nights after everyone was asleep, I had Jacqueline resume and intensify my training. At least once a month we would sneak out one weekend to hunt goblins as I wanted to try and raise my level as much as possible before going to the Royal Academy.
After a few class levels and talent level-ups, I had enough LP to grab [Finesse Fighting] and promptly purchased it. The damage reduction I received was a lot steeper than I had expected. I actually had a bit of trouble cutting through a goblin’s skin, though I was able to overcome that limitation by using enhancement magic on my dagger blade to increase its sharpness. The “increased critical hit rate” was also astonishingly effective. Rather than making me randomly do more damage like I had expected it to do, it instead seemed to make me more accurate when I was aiming for a weak spot like a neck or eye.
I was seeing good results with Jacqueline’s training after a year, having managed to rank up all of my fighting talents once. My general studies tutor had announced he was not going to teach me math and instead focus on history and geography I was already well above the level taught at the Royal Academy. I mean, I was taking calculus and statistics at a University before I died. I would hope I was above the level taught in what’s basically a middle school plus junior high, going by the student age range.
However, I was struggling with my magic lessons. Since I had no magic talents, I was having to learn chants. According to my magic tutor, I could acquire the magic talent related to a chanted spell’s element if I used the spell enough, the trick was learning the chant. Chants were not in the common language, and despite my significantly above average intelligence stat, I was struggling to memorize them.
It was unforgiving too, a single mispronunciation would cause the spell to fail spectacularly. Often, you would still cast the spell, but it would be deformed somehow. In the worst cases, it would suck up all of my mana at once and knock me out. According to the magic tutor, my struggles were to be expected; spells were not typically taught until the third year at the Royal Academy.
I would assume that that means using chants easily has an intelligence prerequisite, students in those years must have leveled up enough times to meet it. Still, it’s only memorization so I should just have to stick with it; after all, I am making slow progress. The thought did occur to me that due to my Blessing of Winter I might be better off learning Blue Magic or Black Magic; that is, the magic of the water, ice, and shadow elements. But I could hardly tell my father that without explaining why I thought that way, so I stuck with trying my best at Red Magic.
The crux of my issue was that, despite knowing many chants, my Red Mage Tutor didn’t know what the chants meant. Memorizing a language is easy if you learn it like a vocabulary set. Learning a language is much harder when all you can do is memorize sentences. Indeed, it seemed that nobody knew what the words in chants actually meant, just that by speaking to them someone with enough mana could cast a spell.
After a year and a half of effort, I finally managed to acquire the “Fire Magic I” talent. My Red Mage Tutor was astonished. According to him, He had only been teaching me because my father was a baron and paid him well; he had not expected me to be able to progress at my age. “You might be gifted with academics and all that, but memorizing chants is on another level as far as brain power is concerned.” That was what he had told me after I demonstrated a Talent Cast of “Ignite”, the lowest rank of Fire Magic.
I mean, normally you would be right, but six months ago I caved in and bought the “Memorization I” talent. Memorization I was a talent that, as the name implied, improved my ability to memorize things. I had actually been keeping an eye on it for a while after I learned what I would have to do to automatically learn a magic-type talent, but the price had not gone below 100LP. I knew that the prices for talents could change based on how close I was to getting it automatically through practice; I had already observed the “Mana Efficiency I” Talent, which I had first discovered upon leveling up to five. It had taken nearly a year of using my mana, but I had eventually gotten it for free.
About halfway through Autumn in my ninth year, I received a letter from Sven. Ever since my family received a peerage, Sven had fervently refused to treat me the same way, much to my chagrin. This letter was just another example of his changed attitude; before we became nobles Sven would just show up whenever he needed me for something instead of sending me a letter of invitation. Sighing to myself, I opened the letter and read through the contents.
To Lady Stahlia Ris and the esteemed Baron Ris.
I am writing to inform you of my intent to follow the god, Dorian. I have felt Andre’s fire wane in the years since I became Lady Stahlia’s alchemy teacher and now endeavor to walk a different path to hone my abilities to new heights. I am hosting a farewell ceremony where I intend to hand over my business to my younger brother Sieg. Should Lady Stahlia wish to attend, I would request that she announce her intentions with all due haste, as her presence will influence if we grace our tables with Merlot’s bounty.
Put short, Sven was planning to leave Ris Village and hand over his shop to his brother. I had been told of this plan several years ago when Sieg first arrived. He wanted to know if I would be attending the ceremony so he could plan on whether or not to serve alcohol. The religious euphemisms are really irritating. I don’t see why he couldn’t just speak normally to me; he knows I don’t care, and my family are only the barons in a remote mountain region, it’s not like we would stand on ceremony.
“Jacqueline, please inform Sven that I will stop by but will not stay for the meal. In these exact words please tell him ‘You can feel free to drink your asses off.’” Jacqueline, who had read the letter over my shoulder and knew how much I dislike the endless ramblings of high speech chuckled at my instructions and left quickly to deliver my message.
A few days later, I went to Sven’s accompanied by Sana and Giogi, both of them had grown somewhat close to him through accompanying me over the years since we became friends. Arriving at the shop, I announced my arrival, “Mr. Sven! We’re here!” deliberately choosing my words to avoid high speech.
“Ah, Lady Stahlia. Miss Sana, Giogi.” He bowed to me and nodded to Sana and Giogi. I frowned.
“Mr. Sven, for tonight at least, stop treating me like something I’m not.” He grimaced.
“It just doesn’t sit right, you being a real blue-blooded noble and all now, but, if it is just for one night, I’ll try my best.” Honestly, why is it so hard for him? All the other people I’m close with are just fine with addressing me like they did before my father received a title. Still, he had agreed to drop the act for tonight so I gave him a beaming smile. He turned slightly red, earning a cuff on the back from Sieg.
Sana approached Sieg and struck up a conversation about teas, as she usually did when visiting the shop with me. Giogi was hanging around awkwardly; the drinking age for males was ten years old, so he planned on staying for dinner after. To that end, he was avoiding interfering in my farewells. As an aside, women were not allowed to drink until the age of thirteen, a discrepancy that I could not wrap my head around. Both ages are too low in my opinion, but still, this is a society where getting engaged at eight and married at fifteen is seen as normal so I can’t really say anything.
“Mr. Sven, where do you intend to go?” I was genuinely curious; I knew Sven hailed from a small northern island country and had emigrated to Drakas to learn about the local herbs and ingredients.
“Ah, I think I’ll first go and visit my hometown to see my parents. Sieg gave me a letter from ‘em and it seems my pa might finally have forgiven me for running off as I did. After that tho, I dunno. East maybe. I sort of want to visit another continent, and I hear the Eastern Continent has some pretty unique compounds you can’t find anywhere else… I’d love to get my hands on ‘em.” I already knew Sven hadn’t left home under the best of terms, but the fact that he had been all but chased out was news to me. Still, seeing as this was likely going to be our last conversation, I decided not to drag up potentially bad memories by asking about it.
“The Eastern Continent of Riodhas is it? I hear they have excellent food from my Geography Tutor. It’s a shame I likely won’t ever have a chance to visit myself, I would have liked to sample the dishes and played with new ingredients as well.” It was common knowledge in the village that I was engaged to the Francois house and, though I had no intention of actually fulfilling that engagement, I had to keep up the story.
“Aye, it is a real shame. I would have like to see what new concoctions you could dream up with the materials there.” We chatted idly for around an hour before it was time for me to take my leave.
“Mr. Sven, no it isn’t fair to you if I insist on only you drop the formalities. May I call you by name? Just this once.” He nodded with a half-smile.
“Right. Sven, thank you for teaching me and putting up with all my abnormalities for so many years! I wish you luck on your journey and a happy future.” For a moment, I debated disabling my remorse to try and avoid crying but decided that would be in poor taste, so I allowed the tears to well up while struggling with them normally.
“Aye Stahlia, you were a good student. I won’t be there to see it, but I want to wish ya’ luck at the academy and happy marriage with Lord Dominic.” Well, the first part of that was ok, so I’ll forgive you for the second half. I curtsied and turned to leave his shop. I did not see the single tear rolling down Sven’s cheek as I took my leave. Likewise, I did not start crying on the way home. Jacqueline did not have to offer me a handkerchief.
Following Sven’s departure, the remainder of the year passed quickly. I turned ten and at my insistence, we kept the ceremony small. Dominic thankfully did not visit for my celebration so I still had a bit of time to figure out how I would treat him; I would have to see him at the Royal Academy after all. Since no hellfire had descended on me, I could presume that he was properly keeping the promise and had told no one about what had happened that day. Still, why on earth would I trust him that much? I even offered to use my appraisal magic on him when I didn’t even do that for Rosial! I knew he was some sort of noble and my dad’s friend’s son, but that shouldn’t have been enough to make me share something like that.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, He did send me a letter. In his letter, he wished me good health and expressed his regrets over Rosial’s death, as well as an enclosed pair of pearl earrings. He should remember I don’t have pierced ears from when he came to visit! Further, Rosial has been gone for nearly two years! What the hell?! Aren’t you supposed to be my fiancé? Feeling my cheeks start to twitch and grow hot, I forced myself to calm down and think. Given how far behind this world is in some areas, there was probably a reason he is only sending a letter now and has rolled both congratulations and lamentations into it.
Unfortunately for me, upon seeing the gifted earrings, my mother promptly forced me to go to have my ears pierced; citing, “It would be most shameful if you are not wearing them when he first sees you at the Academy.”
Before I knew it, it was the second month of the year 947, and I was saying farewell to my mother and father. As it was located in the Capital, the Royal Academy was a boarding school. I would be spending the next nine months away, though I could return at the end of autumn to winter with my family. Thankfully, I would not be going alone. Sana would be attending a sister Academy that trained children who would be joining the clergy.
Likewise, Giogi had tested well enough to enroll in the Royal Academy’s Knight Course. Becoming a Knight was one of the easiest ways for a commoner to obtain a form of Peerage; Knights were at the same level as a fallen noble in the eyes of society, and skilled ones may even become Barons.
To that end, my father had arranged with Count Francois to have Giogi assigned to me officially as a Knight in Training. I qualified for having a guard attendant due to my engagement; a normal Baron family would not be allowed one. I was more or less ok with this arrangement, as Jacqueline was also coming with me as my attendant maid and in the event of Giogi’s failure, I could count on her.
According to one of the secret conversations we had while we were hunting goblins, her original mission had only been meant to last until I enrolled, but she had stressed the relationship we had built up and managed to get an extension until my graduation. Stil was also being sent with me; my Monster Handling Talent was already made public at this point and through Count Francois, Stil had been registered as my tamed monster. Boarding the carriage with my four friends, we set off for the Royal Academy of the Kingdom of Drakas. I looked out the back of the carriage, reminiscing about my first ten years in my new life until Ris Village receded into the distance.
Stahlia Eight Years Old, Second Month 945
The funeral was held three days later. I had stopped crying the day before. It wasn’t that I was no longer sad, I simply had no more tears to shed. It seemed the gods themselves were saddened by Rosial’s death, as the day of her funeral was drab, with light rain falling from dawn to dusk. For once, Giogi’s gang seemed to have some better sense, or maybe Giogi restrained them. Honestly, I didn’t know or care which, but none of them said anything about being knights. Sana stayed with me for the entire three days leading up to the funeral. She didn’t say very much but I was glad she was there.
Jacqueline, after telling me what happened had retreated somewhat; she still stayed nearby me as per her duties, but she seemed distant. I often caught her gazing at me with an expression twisted by emotional pain, a rarity on her usually stoic face to be sure. My mother was very quiet. Like myself, I don’t think she had yet come to terms with what had befallen us. Unlike me, she did not cry, but she no longer smiled or laughed. She was withdrawn deep into herself, simply eating and then returning to her room. My father spent all the time he could by her side but it did little to cure her grief.
The funeral itself passed in a blur. I remember the people our family was close to on a personal level coming by one by one and offering small words, but I recall little of what was said. Before I knew it, I was standing in the cemetery with my father, mother, and the priest. The burial itself was considered highly personal, only people who were considered the family of the deceased would be present, along with a religious officiant. Since Rosial had been only three years old and just had her dedication it meant the attendees were limited to our immediate blood family.
After we got back home, I went up to my room and lay down. I tried to cry into my pillow but was unable. Jacqueline brought me supper and stayed with me until I eventually passed into a dreamless sleep. I woke up the next day and tried to sit up and go down to breakfast but found I lacked the strength or the will to do so. Jacqueline was still by my side but did not scold me, she simply went and brought my meal to my room. Today was supposedly a class day, but I decided I wasn’t going to go.
I fell into a slump, the days passed by in a blink while I turned inwards. I passed through various periods of alternating between blaming myself, blaming Dominic for distracting me, I even tried blaming Sana for not trying hard enough to cure her with a miracle. But no matter who I assigned blame I could not recover from my grief and sadness. Before long, or perhaps after a long while, Jacqueline was not with me when I woke up. She’s finally given up on me. Good, I deserve to just waste away alone. I was so caught up in playing this game that I couldn’t accept it for what it was, this is life. Why didn’t I just use my magic on Rosial? Sure it wouldn’t have shown me her class section or anything, but it might have given a warning about any malignant status such as illness! I just didn’t want to risk her noticing the mana flow and asking difficult questions, I’m such a fool!
The last thing I needed was for her to go "Mommy! Mommy! Stali did something with her hands that felt weird, then told me to keep it a secret!" or something like that by accident. She probably would have kept a secret if I asked her to, but I didn't want to take that risk... I would have either had to explain to my parents that I can use magic or be suspected of doing inappropriate things to my sister. With the boys, even if they say anything I could just play it off as a game. I might get scolded, but that would be that. But now, I wish I had taken that risk... If I could have prevented this, it would have been worth it.
Indeed, I had circled back around to blaming myself. Now, however, I wasn’t blaming myself for missing the hints and flag triggers that lead to a quest failure; I was blaming myself for treating my adorable sister as just a cute NPC. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had always known, but I hadn’t accepted it. Or maybe I had refused to accept it. I died. I died and was brought into another world. This isn’t just an RPG, this is real life. Still, little good that did me; I still could not bring myself to get out of bed.
Sometime later, Jacqueline was back. I didn’t see her come in but she was back at my side, silently. After a long while of just sitting patiently, she spoke. It was the first time I had heard another’s voice since shortly after the funeral. Idly, I thought to myself I haven’t seen Sana or Giogi in a while, have I? I wonder how they’re doing now. “Lady Stahlia, your brother was born this morning. It was a difficult birth but in the end, Rosin was born successfully… Would you like to go and see him?” My brother was born? That would mean it’s been nearly three months, three months since… I shook my head and rolled over away from her, closing my eyes and going to sleep.
I opened my eyes. I was not in my room. Looking around me I blinked. The world was white. I was in a forest covered in snow. Where am I? How did I get here? I did not recognize any of the trees, this was definitely not the mountain forest outside Ris Village. Looking around, all I could see was thick trees and snow. Briefly, I considered that I had died again, and this was another new world or just the afterlife of the world I had been sent to. I dismissed those thoughts when I checked my body and saw that I was still Stahlia. My next impulse was to just lay down in the snow and let the cold have me. I did lay down, but strangely, the snow wasn’t cold. After laying there for long enough that the sun had set and risen twice, I realized that I was not growing hungry or thirsty either. If I wanted to die, I wouldn’t be able to wait for it. Aimlessly, I set out walking.
After walking for what was probably miles, the sun had set and risen a third time, I finally spotted something. There’s some smoke coming over the horizon there. I had climbed a tree to get a better vantage. Stretching out on all sides of me was an endless frozen forest. The smoke I saw in the distance was the first sign of life I had lain eyes on since first opening my eyes here. Indeed, only after seeing the smoke did I realize how empty this place was. I had been walking on snow completely undisturbed by the footsteps of man or animal. I had heard neither bird song nor the chattering of squirrels in three days. Nor had I caught even a glimpse of movement. Even the air was still; there was no wind, and I could not remember having felt a breeze.
This place is scary… I set out towards the smoke, now peering around myself nervously as I went. I tried enhancing my limbs to move faster but found I could not sense my mana. I walked for another day and night. I didn’t feel tired, but the smoke had only been on the horizon, even without enhancements, that distance should have taken me only a half a day at most. In a panic, I started running. I was not sure why I was panicking, but I knew I had to get out of this damned forest.
Suddenly bursting out into a clearing, I blinked. There was a forest behind me but the way in front of me was wide open. I appeared to have emerged onto the shore of a frozen lake. The lake stretched on infinitely, in appearance it was more like a sea or an ocean, but when I laid eyes on it, I somehow knew it was a lake. A little ways away from me was a small cottage, from which smoke was coming out of the chimney. Glancing around warily, I approached the cottage.
Stepping up to the door, I raised my hand to knock but froze when a voice came out. {Goodness, it took you a while to get here, didn’t it?} the voice was clear in fact, I couldn’t think of any voice clearer than this one. But just as it was clear, it was also distant. It sounded as if it came from both very far away and right beside me. A shiver ran down my spine and I debated whether I should go back the way I had come. {well? Are you coming in? I did invite you after all.} Gulping, I decided to through myself off this cliff and opened the door.
Sitting in front of a pot gripping a stirring spoon was a young woman. She was clad in a white dress that seemed to sparkle like freshly fallen snow as she moved. She was facing away from me stirring the pot, occasionally she drew out the spoon and tasted whatever was inside it. Her dress aside, the woman herself was also white. Both her hair and skin were incredibly white. Not pale like a Caucasian or white like an albino. Her skin was devoid of any color at all. Her hair was likewise lacking any color but had a shiny gleam to it, similar to platinum or silver. She put the spoon aside and turned to face me. {Hello Stahlia, I was beginning to think you wouldn’t make it.}
I gasped. Contrary to the rest of her, her eyes were blue. Not a very dark blue, indeed, they were a pale icy blue. That being said, they were absolutely striking, contrasted as they were against the complete absence of color that made up the rest of her. “W-who, Who are you? Where is this? Why am I…” as soon as I opened my mouth, I let loose a storm of questions before I had time to process. Catching myself, I watched the woman warily. She hid a laugh behind a hand placed over her mouth.
{Hmm… Well, I suppose I could answer some of those…} I waited for her to continue. {As for how, you’re dreaming. As for where this is the forest of winter’s ice. As for who… well, let’s go with “I’m a big sister who adores her little sister just like you!} I frowned.
“That’s awful of you. My little sister is dead.” In shock, I touched my face and found that my hand came away wet; for the first time since the day after her death, I was crying.
{Are you sure? I have a friend who is pretty well in tune with things like that, he didn’t tell me anything about your little sister being dead.} She was looking at me with a faint smile. I felt my tears dry, my grief was being replaced with anger.
“Who the fuck do you think you’re messing with?! If you really “love your little sister just like me” then you wouldn’t say something like that!” She sighed and just shook her head.
{Stahlia, mind your temper. I only invited you here because my sweet little Caina was getting so upset watching you wallow in your self-pity.} I felt a chill and took an involuntary step back. Caina? Her little sister’s name is Caina? That would mean…
{It looks like you figured it out. Good for you, but I suppose you had it in you to accept from the very beginning, after all, you managed to escape the forest and find me here.}
I swallowed dryly. Now that she had confirmed my suspicions about her identity, I was reasonably certain that I could trust her about Rosial. Then again, Antenora was the goddess of plots and lies so this might just be a sick joke to her. But I desperately wanted to believe, “Assume I believe you. Why would you bother to call me here? The twelve gods and goddesses supposedly refuse to interact with the non-faithful, and I certainly harbor no faith in you lot.”
She smiled at me; it was an uncomfortable sight, {That is a misconception born of ignorance. Drakan religious dogma has many of the details deliberately hidden or ignorantly removed. The kingdom is not as pleasant a place as you think it is.} She waved her hand, and suddenly I felt very, very, cold. Looking down at myself, I saw that frost was forming over my body, starting from the extremities. Strangely, it didn’t seem to hurt. Testing my fingers, I found that, other than being frozen, they did not appear to be damaged in any way. All of a sudden, a sharp pain wracked through my head. My left arm turned numb, and my leg gave out, causing me to collapse on the floor. If I had been able to think clearly through the pain, I might have realized how superficially similar this was to someone having a stroke.
{Whether or not you choose to give your faith to the gods is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things… I’ve interceded and adjusted your vessel. Whatever it was that prevented our gift from properly activating will no longer do so; I have forcibly activated it.}
Slowly, the pain in my head receded, though I was left with a throbbing headache. Feeling returned to my arm and I regained strength in my leg. I sat up; immediately regretting my actions s my headache reminded me of its existence via a fiery dagger of pain through my temple. I shot the self-proclaimed goddess a glare. She paid me no attention and waved her hand over me again.
{Now it’s time for you to wake up. As a bit of parting advice, ask your shadow about her past; her spirit is treading a knife-edge right now but if you confront her, I think it might tip her to your favor.}
My vision went black, and I felt the sensation of falling. Sitting up in my bed, I blinked and looked around; I was back in my room and covered in a cold sweat, more importantly, my headache seemed to be gone. What the hell was that? Was that really Antenora? As if to answer my question, I heard a familiar DING! And a notification window appeared in my vision.
“Notice: Infusion of Divinity Element Confirmed. Hidden Skill [Blessing of Winter] has been revealed and activated. [Blessing of Winter] will now be listed in the skills section.”
Checking my menu confirmed the new skill. I inspected the description menu to read what the effects were. “WHAT?!” I had thought Prodigy and Finesse Fighting were overpowered, but both of those paled in comparison to Blessing of Winter.
“Blessing of Winter(----LP): User has received the blessing of the Winter Pantheon. The rate at which Talents under the jurisdiction of this pantheon gain experience is doubled. Grants Immunity to the Ice Element. Grants the effects of [Cold Hearted] Skill. Grants the user access to the Divine Element. Secondary Effect: This Skill is hidden from normal Appraisal effects.”
I reread the effects of Blessing of Winter in shock. I didn’t have enough experience to know how common the “Ice Element” was but receiving outright immunity to a damage type was always a strong ability. There was also the part about the experience being doubled. It had to do with the “jurisdiction of winter”, and while I couldn’t be certain, I had the idea that that probably meant it would apply to talents that the winter gods would favor. Things like stealth, poisons, and assassinations. Given my stat spread favored dexterity, that was an incredibly strong effect for me. There was also that line about me having access to the “Divine Element”, but I had no idea. Still, even if that effect was a dud, the rest of this skill more than made up for it.
She said she “forcibly activated their gift” by “bypassing the obstruction”. That would imply that I had this skill already and it was just deactivated because something was blocking it. When did I acquire it? What was blocking it? Of course, there was only one event that came to mind; the blessing I had received at my dedication. At the time, I had been fearful about the implications of getting a blessing from one of the three winter gods, given their personalities. As it turned out, it looked like I had gotten the blessing from all three of them.
This is also the first skill I have seen with a broken LP counter… As if to interrupt my thoughts, My door swung open and Jacqueline rushed in. “Lady Stahlia! What is the matter?!” Right. I did lose myself and exclaim out loud after all. Putting aside other thoughts for later, what to do about Jacqueline? The goddess said to “ask my shadow” and then specifically named my shadow as a “she”. Out of all the women I know, only one person fits the bill.
“Jacqueline. I want your honesty. What happened really to Rosial?” Jacqueline stopped with her mouth hanging open and slowly drew herself up straight.
★★★★★★
Jacqueline
“Jacqueline. I want your honesty. What happened really to Rosial?” I felt my heart stop. Stahlia had figured it out. I did not know how she had managed it, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, Stahlia was always extremely, abnormally, exceptionally intelligent. What should I do now? The normal response would be to silence her, but she’s still a target for Protection-Observation. I can’t silence her without violating my mission parameters, and besides that, I… I do not want to silence her!
I could feel my heart beating out of my chest and my voice was shaking. “Lady Stahlia… We cannot talk here… Will you, will you slip out of the village with me?” Stahlia’s eyes narrowed at me and nodded before getting out of bed for the first time in a little over three months. It was already the middle of the night, so we did not have to wait at all.
Stahlia and I ran through the village under cover of darkness, much the same as we had done three years ago when she had suddenly decided she needed to increase her purpose. Much like then, we ran in silence. Unlike then, it was not a friendly silence; I could feel a current of hostility emanating towards my back from Lady Stahlia. We got over the wall easily and ran roughly two miles into the forest before I waved for her to stop. “Lady Stahlia, this should be far enough. I will answer your questions here.” What am I even saying?! There’s no way I can tell her what she wants to know!
“Jacqueline. You’re my ‘Shadow’ are you not? What does that mean.” It was not phrased as a question, more of a statement and a demand for answers.
“The Order of Shadows. A black operations department under the direct command of King Drakas.” Why am I telling her this?! Nothing good will happen to her when she learns the truth!
“I see. So, you were sent to keep an eye on me. No, you were sent to keep an eye on my father and then were reassigned to me after my Dedication.” Her voice was steady, but there was an edge in it, and not like when Giogi got on her nerves, this was an edge sharpened by real bloodlust.
“That is more or less correct.” All I am doing is confirming things that should never be known! Why am I doing this!?
“Right. Now, what did the ‘Order of Shadows’ do to Rosial?” her eyes glinted with a dangerous light, and I felt myself flinch away. I am not scared of her, am I? I know how strong she is, I taught her after all. I shouldn’t have anything to worry about… right? No… that’s not it… I’m not afraid of her… I’m… I’m afraid for her…?
“Are you sure you want to know? Once you learn the truth, you can never go back.” I tried to tell her with my eyes and tone. There were some secrets in the world that nobody should be burdened with. She crossed her arms and jutted her chin at me, bidding me get on with it. I see, I want to help her. More than my duty to the kingdom. Why?
“The Order of Shadows… The Order of Shadows is made up of agents like me, Shadows who are trained from a very young age. They… those agents… they are children who are abducted after the Dedication finds a desirable purpose. Their families are then led to believe they died from an illness. Rosial was selected to become one of those agents like I was.” Stahlia listened to me quietly, patiently. Once I started, I could no longer stop myself. I told her everything about the order. All of the horrors that I had endured, implicitly, all of the horrors that Rosial would endure as well. Because she put her faith in me? Is that why?
By the time I had finished describing things and fallen silent, Lady Stahlia was sitting on a tree stump with her arms dangling by her side limply. She had ceased crying, and no longer seemed angered at me, “Lady Stahlia, are you… are you alright?” My voiced question seemed to snap her back. I don't... I realize now, I don't want her to hate me. Of all my targets she's the first one.... The first one I...
Looking up at me she smiled grimly, “I am more than alright. I know it was not a lie, Rosial is alive. Now I just have to find her, find her, and burn away any who would stand in my way.” ...The first one I have come to care about.
“Lady Stahlia! You would wage war against the Kingdom of Drakas itself?! You would make an enemy of a kingdom that has stood for a thousand years!” Stahlia nodded and stood up slowly. More than the Kingdom.
“Yes. I swear. What will you do about my declaration? You are still an agent of the King after all.” She looked me in the eye, calmly, resolved. I realized then she had followed me out into the forest unarmed. Not that she would be able to best me if I came after her for real, but to come unarmed, announce an intention like that, and then simply ask me what I was going to do about it… There was only one way I could respond. I did not know when it had happened, but in these past eight years, I had changed. I dropped to my knees.
“Lady Stahlia, I offer you my life and my blade. Please accept them as my apology for what has befallen Lady Rosial. Use me as you will.” My Lady.
★★★★★★
Stahlia
I sighed internally. I’m so glad that worked, leave it to the goddess of traitors to know when someone is close to switching sides. Still, that would have been terrifying!
“Cold Hearted(500LP): User may selectively disable or enable the following effects: Anger, Empathy, Fear, Love, Remorse. The includes effects induced by status ailments as well as natural emotional responses.”
While we had been traveling to the forest, I had taken advantage of the fact that I still had an open Skill slot and looked up “Cold Hearted” in my Life Points catalog. As the name implied, it allowed the skill holder to become a cold-hearted psychopath. Thankfully, it was not an “always active” type of skill, I could turn it off and on as I needed. I had disabled my emotional Anger response while Jacqueline was telling me what my sister would have to endure; If I hadn’t had this ability, I would have been liable to lunge at her and try to tear her throat out with my bare hands. I had likewise turned off my fear response after I realized I had confronted a trained assassin unarmed, gambling on the goddess’s words “she might fall to your side.”. My gamble seemingly paid off, and Jacqueline swore herself to my cause.
Still, 500LP to buy that skill, and I got it more or less for free with some other amazingly op bonuses. I looked down at Jacqueline still kneeling to me with her head lowered, “Jacqueline, raise your head. We have work to do but let’s go home for now; my mother will worry if morning comes, and we are both gone.”
Jacqueline nodded and stood, “Indeed, she would. I also have to figure out what to say in my report; I cannot very well announce that I have decided to betray the kingdom. Especially not at your request.” Right, that would be bad.
We set off walking through the woods back towards the village. While we were walking, Jacqueline eventually asked me a question, “Lady Stahlia, you have always been very intelligent… but I cannot determine. How did you figure out Rosial was alive, and beyond that, that I knew?”
Right, how much should I tell her? I don’t think she was lying when she swore to help me fight the kingdom earlier, but that doesn’t mean I can trust her absolutely. Now that I know more or less her full story, there's no telling what fail-safes the kingdom has on her. On the off chance there's something like a magic listening bug she doesn't know about, I need to mind my words and keep some cards close to my chest.
“You heard me scream before you came running to my room.” It wasn’t a question; we both knew that’s what had happened. Jacqueline nodded nevertheless and waited for me to continue. “I had woken from a dream. I was in a forest of ice and snow. Antenora was there.”
I heard Jacqueline let out a gasp, murmuring “…an oracle…” to herself in a small voice. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me, but I have to tell her something, so I may as well go with a half-truth…
“She told me that Rosial was alive, and to ask you for the details, and she told me she had seen my future as I underwent my dedication. She gave me her blessing then, to help me betray and destroy the Kingdom of Drakas.” That should be enough explanation to satisfy her. Look at me, weaving a plot of half-truths and lies. Does that make you happy Antenora? I smiled grimly to myself.
“I-indeed… …to think your blessing really was hers… Based on your Prodigy Skill and what you have already done with Alchemy, the kingdom determined your blessing was from Caina, goddess of change. To think it would instead be Caina’s elder sister… I see. You do take after her; both of you love your younger sister implicitly.”
Good, that was enough to satisfy her. As a bonus, I learned some juicy tidbits as well, to think the kingdom thought I was destined to bring change. I mean, I fully intend to bring about a great change, but someone else can work out the details after I’m through. As long as I get Rosial happy, I don’t care what happens to anyone else.
The next morning, I resolved myself and came down to breakfast. My mother and father both looked at me in shock before breaking out into happy smiles, “Father, Mother, I am sorry for having worried you. I will no longer shut myself away and will strive to come to terms with my grief.” It wouldn’t do any good to tell them what really happened to Rosial; my father wouldn’t believe me and it would just hurt mother.
“I see, that is very good to hear Stahlia. Do you feel ready to return to your classes? I can send Silvia to notify the head priest.” My father questioned me in a calm but light tone, he was clearly overjoyed to see me up and about again but was endeavoring not to show it.
“No father, I do not think there is anything meaningful for me at the temple school. May I request you have the professor graduate me and prepare a private tutor? I would like to begin preparing for the first- and second-year materials at the Royal Academy. With our family’s new peerage, I believe that would be more appropriate.” After a brief moment of consideration, my father nodded and bid for Silvia to bring him parchment and quill so he could write a letter to the head priest.
“Mother, I can see you frowning; do not worry, I do not intend to cut off any of my friends and allow my station to color my head. I simply believe that I have learned all I can at the temple school. As you and father are aware, I already teach more often than I am a student.” I teach so much that I even acquired the [Teaching II] talent! Damnit Sven! My mother covered her mouth with a hand.
“Dear me, you noticed? Still, it gladdens me as your mother to hear you say you do not intend to let a mere title go to your head.” She sounded very pleased indeed. Of course, I don’t want to cut off my friends, mother, allies are important in war after all… but you don’t need to know that.
My father, true to his word had the priest graduate me from the temple school and a month later, two tutors had arrived. One of them was a general studies tutor who would be “teaching” me math, as well as teaching me geography and history. Apparently, the temple school graduation record would exempt me from learning any more religious philosophy when at the Royal Academy. The general studies tutor was also originally supposed to be teaching me alchemy, but after a single conversation on the subject, I managed to convince him not to bother.
The second tutor was a licensed Red Mage. Different from the class “Fire Mage” I had seen in the Tier Two class selection, Red Mage was a title unrelated to class. To earn the title, one had to demonstrate a mastery of fire magic without depending on talents or skills. In short, color mages used magic by chanting spells, whereas those who had a mage class could have the talent or skill to skip the chant for them. Curious, I asked my magic tutor what his purpose was.
Apparently, he was a Scholar who had then acquired the Researcher class. If I’m interoperating that right, it means you get a new class after fulfilling certain criteria… I guess that’s why character creation was forcing me to pick the lower tier classes; I would have started with whatever Tier One class I picked, then eventually unlocked the higher tiers. If I hadn’t picked a higher tier class due to Life Point cost, it probably would have been random based on what classes I qualified for. Not that it matters for me now; my Tier One thru Five classes are all “Custom Class” after all.
That was how I spent the next year until my ninth birthday. I would go out and visit Sana or Giogi at least once a week on the weekend when they didn’t have class at the temple, and I had a break from my tutors. During the nights after everyone was asleep, I had Jacqueline resume and intensify my training. At least once a month we would sneak out one weekend to hunt goblins as I wanted to try and raise my level as much as possible before going to the Royal Academy.
After a few class levels and talent level-ups, I had enough LP to grab [Finesse Fighting] and promptly purchased it. The damage reduction I received was a lot steeper than I had expected. I actually had a bit of trouble cutting through a goblin’s skin, though I was able to overcome that limitation by using enhancement magic on my dagger blade to increase its sharpness. The “increased critical hit rate” was also astonishingly effective. Rather than making me randomly do more damage like I had expected it to do, it instead seemed to make me more accurate when I was aiming for a weak spot like a neck or eye.
I was seeing good results with Jacqueline’s training after a year, having managed to rank up all of my fighting talents once. My general studies tutor had announced he was not going to teach me math and instead focus on history and geography I was already well above the level taught at the Royal Academy. I mean, I was taking calculus and statistics at a University before I died. I would hope I was above the level taught in what’s basically a middle school plus junior high, going by the student age range.
However, I was struggling with my magic lessons. Since I had no magic talents, I was having to learn chants. According to my magic tutor, I could acquire the magic talent related to a chanted spell’s element if I used the spell enough, the trick was learning the chant. Chants were not in the common language, and despite my significantly above average intelligence stat, I was struggling to memorize them.
It was unforgiving too, a single mispronunciation would cause the spell to fail spectacularly. Often, you would still cast the spell, but it would be deformed somehow. In the worst cases, it would suck up all of my mana at once and knock me out. According to the magic tutor, my struggles were to be expected; spells were not typically taught until the third year at the Royal Academy.
I would assume that that means using chants easily has an intelligence prerequisite, students in those years must have leveled up enough times to meet it. Still, it’s only memorization so I should just have to stick with it; after all, I am making slow progress. The thought did occur to me that due to my Blessing of Winter I might be better off learning Blue Magic or Black Magic; that is, the magic of the water, ice, and shadow elements. But I could hardly tell my father that without explaining why I thought that way, so I stuck with trying my best at Red Magic.
The crux of my issue was that, despite knowing many chants, my Red Mage Tutor didn’t know what the chants meant. Memorizing a language is easy if you learn it like a vocabulary set. Learning a language is much harder when all you can do is memorize sentences. Indeed, it seemed that nobody knew what the words in chants actually meant, just that by speaking to them someone with enough mana could cast a spell.
After a year and a half of effort, I finally managed to acquire the “Fire Magic I” talent. My Red Mage Tutor was astonished. According to him, He had only been teaching me because my father was a baron and paid him well; he had not expected me to be able to progress at my age. “You might be gifted with academics and all that, but memorizing chants is on another level as far as brain power is concerned.” That was what he had told me after I demonstrated a Talent Cast of “Ignite”, the lowest rank of Fire Magic.
I mean, normally you would be right, but six months ago I caved in and bought the “Memorization I” talent. Memorization I was a talent that, as the name implied, improved my ability to memorize things. I had actually been keeping an eye on it for a while after I learned what I would have to do to automatically learn a magic-type talent, but the price had not gone below 100LP. I knew that the prices for talents could change based on how close I was to getting it automatically through practice; I had already observed the “Mana Efficiency I” Talent, which I had first discovered upon leveling up to five. It had taken nearly a year of using my mana, but I had eventually gotten it for free.
About halfway through Autumn in my ninth year, I received a letter from Sven. Ever since my family received a peerage, Sven had fervently refused to treat me the same way, much to my chagrin. This letter was just another example of his changed attitude; before we became nobles Sven would just show up whenever he needed me for something instead of sending me a letter of invitation. Sighing to myself, I opened the letter and read through the contents.
To Lady Stahlia Ris and the esteemed Baron Ris.
I am writing to inform you of my intent to follow the god, Dorian. I have felt Andre’s fire wane in the years since I became Lady Stahlia’s alchemy teacher and now endeavor to walk a different path to hone my abilities to new heights. I am hosting a farewell ceremony where I intend to hand over my business to my younger brother Sieg. Should Lady Stahlia wish to attend, I would request that she announce her intentions with all due haste, as her presence will influence if we grace our tables with Merlot’s bounty.
Put short, Sven was planning to leave Ris Village and hand over his shop to his brother. I had been told of this plan several years ago when Sieg first arrived. He wanted to know if I would be attending the ceremony so he could plan on whether or not to serve alcohol. The religious euphemisms are really irritating. I don’t see why he couldn’t just speak normally to me; he knows I don’t care, and my family are only the barons in a remote mountain region, it’s not like we would stand on ceremony.
“Jacqueline, please inform Sven that I will stop by but will not stay for the meal. In these exact words please tell him ‘You can feel free to drink your asses off.’” Jacqueline, who had read the letter over my shoulder and knew how much I dislike the endless ramblings of high speech chuckled at my instructions and left quickly to deliver my message.
A few days later, I went to Sven’s accompanied by Sana and Giogi, both of them had grown somewhat close to him through accompanying me over the years since we became friends. Arriving at the shop, I announced my arrival, “Mr. Sven! We’re here!” deliberately choosing my words to avoid high speech.
“Ah, Lady Stahlia. Miss Sana, Giogi.” He bowed to me and nodded to Sana and Giogi. I frowned.
“Mr. Sven, for tonight at least, stop treating me like something I’m not.” He grimaced.
“It just doesn’t sit right, you being a real blue-blooded noble and all now, but, if it is just for one night, I’ll try my best.” Honestly, why is it so hard for him? All the other people I’m close with are just fine with addressing me like they did before my father received a title. Still, he had agreed to drop the act for tonight so I gave him a beaming smile. He turned slightly red, earning a cuff on the back from Sieg.
Sana approached Sieg and struck up a conversation about teas, as she usually did when visiting the shop with me. Giogi was hanging around awkwardly; the drinking age for males was ten years old, so he planned on staying for dinner after. To that end, he was avoiding interfering in my farewells. As an aside, women were not allowed to drink until the age of thirteen, a discrepancy that I could not wrap my head around. Both ages are too low in my opinion, but still, this is a society where getting engaged at eight and married at fifteen is seen as normal so I can’t really say anything.
“Mr. Sven, where do you intend to go?” I was genuinely curious; I knew Sven hailed from a small northern island country and had emigrated to Drakas to learn about the local herbs and ingredients.
“Ah, I think I’ll first go and visit my hometown to see my parents. Sieg gave me a letter from ‘em and it seems my pa might finally have forgiven me for running off as I did. After that tho, I dunno. East maybe. I sort of want to visit another continent, and I hear the Eastern Continent has some pretty unique compounds you can’t find anywhere else… I’d love to get my hands on ‘em.” I already knew Sven hadn’t left home under the best of terms, but the fact that he had been all but chased out was news to me. Still, seeing as this was likely going to be our last conversation, I decided not to drag up potentially bad memories by asking about it.
“The Eastern Continent of Riodhas is it? I hear they have excellent food from my Geography Tutor. It’s a shame I likely won’t ever have a chance to visit myself, I would have liked to sample the dishes and played with new ingredients as well.” It was common knowledge in the village that I was engaged to the Francois house and, though I had no intention of actually fulfilling that engagement, I had to keep up the story.
“Aye, it is a real shame. I would have like to see what new concoctions you could dream up with the materials there.” We chatted idly for around an hour before it was time for me to take my leave.
“Mr. Sven, no it isn’t fair to you if I insist on only you drop the formalities. May I call you by name? Just this once.” He nodded with a half-smile.
“Right. Sven, thank you for teaching me and putting up with all my abnormalities for so many years! I wish you luck on your journey and a happy future.” For a moment, I debated disabling my remorse to try and avoid crying but decided that would be in poor taste, so I allowed the tears to well up while struggling with them normally.
“Aye Stahlia, you were a good student. I won’t be there to see it, but I want to wish ya’ luck at the academy and happy marriage with Lord Dominic.” Well, the first part of that was ok, so I’ll forgive you for the second half. I curtsied and turned to leave his shop. I did not see the single tear rolling down Sven’s cheek as I took my leave. Likewise, I did not start crying on the way home. Jacqueline did not have to offer me a handkerchief.
Following Sven’s departure, the remainder of the year passed quickly. I turned ten and at my insistence, we kept the ceremony small. Dominic thankfully did not visit for my celebration so I still had a bit of time to figure out how I would treat him; I would have to see him at the Royal Academy after all. Since no hellfire had descended on me, I could presume that he was properly keeping the promise and had told no one about what had happened that day. Still, why on earth would I trust him that much? I even offered to use my appraisal magic on him when I didn’t even do that for Rosial! I knew he was some sort of noble and my dad’s friend’s son, but that shouldn’t have been enough to make me share something like that.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, He did send me a letter. In his letter, he wished me good health and expressed his regrets over Rosial’s death, as well as an enclosed pair of pearl earrings. He should remember I don’t have pierced ears from when he came to visit! Further, Rosial has been gone for nearly two years! What the hell?! Aren’t you supposed to be my fiancé? Feeling my cheeks start to twitch and grow hot, I forced myself to calm down and think. Given how far behind this world is in some areas, there was probably a reason he is only sending a letter now and has rolled both congratulations and lamentations into it.
Unfortunately for me, upon seeing the gifted earrings, my mother promptly forced me to go to have my ears pierced; citing, “It would be most shameful if you are not wearing them when he first sees you at the Academy.”
Before I knew it, it was the second month of the year 947, and I was saying farewell to my mother and father. As it was located in the Capital, the Royal Academy was a boarding school. I would be spending the next nine months away, though I could return at the end of autumn to winter with my family. Thankfully, I would not be going alone. Sana would be attending a sister Academy that trained children who would be joining the clergy.
Likewise, Giogi had tested well enough to enroll in the Royal Academy’s Knight Course. Becoming a Knight was one of the easiest ways for a commoner to obtain a form of Peerage; Knights were at the same level as a fallen noble in the eyes of society, and skilled ones may even become Barons.
To that end, my father had arranged with Count Francois to have Giogi assigned to me officially as a Knight in Training. I qualified for having a guard attendant due to my engagement; a normal Baron family would not be allowed one. I was more or less ok with this arrangement, as Jacqueline was also coming with me as my attendant maid and in the event of Giogi’s failure, I could count on her.
According to one of the secret conversations we had while we were hunting goblins, her original mission had only been meant to last until I enrolled, but she had stressed the relationship we had built up and managed to get an extension until my graduation. Stil was also being sent with me; my Monster Handling Talent was already made public at this point and through Count Francois, Stil had been registered as my tamed monster. Boarding the carriage with my four friends, we set off for the Royal Academy of the Kingdom of Drakas. I looked out the back of the carriage, reminiscing about my first ten years in my new life until Ris Village receded into the distance.
