'Demon-Spawning-Cloud'

This was the name of a black mist from which, as the name implied, demons emerged. It was made out of Mana. The more Mana it contained, the bigger the cloud was. The bigger the cloud was, the more demons would crawl out of it and the stronger they would be.

And if somebody from a human race, such as Humans, Elves, or the Beast-folk, touched the cloud, they would lose their reason and, thus, cause harm to themselves and those around them. Sadly, up to this day, there was no way to cure someone who was in this state. So anyone, who had touched a Demon-Spawning-Cloud, would end up dead a few days later, be it from suicide, an accident, or because they were killed to be freed from their suffering.

To make matters worse, even though the oldest records described the existence of these clouds, no one knew why, when, or under what conditions they appeared. Only one thing was certain. Each time such a cloud appeared, deaths in the double or even triple digits would follow, because the demons that emerged from it were so powerful that it would take more than ten veteran knights to subdue just one of those monsters. Fortunately, such incidents only happened once every few years. Unfortunately, however, they seemed to happen more often as the demon invasion approached.

Well, all that was, what the human forces knew.

But that knowledge about the cloud was not enough for Fran. It was clear as day to her, that the Demon-Spawning-Cloud and the impending demon invasion were directly connected to each other. So uncovering the mechanics of the cloud could give the human forces a significant advantage in the invasion. It might even provide a solution to preventing the attack in its entirety.

So, since childhood, Fran had devoted herself to studying magic and learning as much as possible about the Demon-Spawning-Cloud. But instead, as she dug through the documents left by her ancestors, she learned about the hero summoning ritual. Not what she had initially hoped for, but still, it was better than nothing. After all, it presented a considerable increase in their chances of winning the battle against the demons.

Unfortunately, no one knew about the ritual, and as a commoner, there was no way she could just nilly-willy walk up to the king and suggest it. So, with King Thor's laws, she attended the Royal Knight Academy, showed off her magical talents to get famous, and eventually became the High Priestess. This position gave her the power to suggest the ritual and see it through.

However, the ritual had failed catastrophically. Not only had the forces of humanity lost one of the most powerful individuals in the world with Knight Commander Rick's death, but Fran had also fallen into a coma for several years. When she woke up, she had already lost her ability to cast magic, and with it her position as the High Priestess and her political power to change the world in a direction, where everyone could survive the demon invasion, not only the most privileged nobles.

Basically, it meant, that Fran had sacrificed her whole life up to this point for the world. She had spent her entire childhood learning about magic, eating only the most basic food to save time and money for research, not pursuing any personal dreams or hobbies, and forsaking the possibility of finding love. But all of it was for naught.

Still, Fran had not lost hope yet. While her friend Milia was now training new knights at the Royal Knight Academy to strengthen the human forces, Fran continued her research after recovering from her coma.

And finally, her efforts bore fruit. Having studied the previous appearances of the Demon-Spawning-Clouds and the circumstances of the areas where they occurred, she was able to formulate a theory as to how they worked, such as why they existed and why they appeared in the first place. But unfortunately, knowing how the mist might function and having a solution to it were two different things.

Then, a few days ago, she received a letter from Viscount Eric, whom she knew well. The letter stated that he wanted her to teach his daughter Clara and a talented servant the ways of magic and to supervise their relationship.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Even though Fran had lost her magic powers, she was still famous as the most knowledgeable scholar in the Valkyria Kingdom when it came to magic. Thus, even as a commoner who was responsible for the failure of the ritual, she was naturally sought after by nobles as a magic teacher for their children.

But of course, she had better things to do, such as continuing her research concerning the Demon-Spawning-Clouds and how to prevent them. She also had still to uncover how they could be connected to the impending demon invasion. So, even though she was on good terms with the previous and even the current head of the Dragonherz family, she would have definitely refused this request.

But she didn't. The reason was the servant, Rina, who had apparently touched a Demon-Spawning-Cloud while keeping her reason intact. Furthermore, if Fran believed the contents of the letter, the cloud had disappeared after that girl had sucked it into her body. No demon had emerged from the cloud! If this was true, then observing Rina could help her research tremendously. Therefore, she agreed to Viscount Eric's request to instruct Clara and Rina in magic and watch their relationship.

Then, at the present, when Fran finally saw the girl in front of her, she couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. True, in her eyes, Rina was a cute, small, huggable girl with graceful movements, who would surely grow into a beauty in the future... but she was not what Fran had expected.

Fran theorised that the Demon-Spawning-Cloud was a mass of dark energy. She thought that places where negative emotions such as anger, envy, hatred, fear, despair, and so on were accumulated, were more susceptible to a Demon-Spawning-Cloud appearing. That was also why everyone would become mad after touching the mist. After all, no human being could possibly endure the negative sentiment, that lay dormant in the mist.

For that reason, Fran had expected to see someone who was mentally hardened by the cruelty of the word. After all, only those who had seen hell had the chance to face despair without going insane. But the little child in front of her didn't seem like that at all. Rina's eyes were brimming with life and she seemed to be very happy to be beside her mistress Clara. There was no way such a seemingly innocent and pure girl could endure the horrors of touching the cloud.

Those facts left Fran with only two possible conclusions.

First, Rina was already mentally broken. After all, if one wasn't capable of feeling anything, then despair wouldn't be an issue. So, to test this theory, Fran had tried all sorts of things like teasing and provoking the mistress-servant pair to see how they, especially Rina, would react. Unfortunately, in the end, it showed that Rina did have emotions. It was obvious to Fran that Rina was very fond of Clara. So, this guess was out.

Only the second conclusion remained for Fran. Her theories about the Demon-Spawning-Cloud being a mass of negative emotions were wrong.

But then she had to wonder.

'Why didn't Rina get crazy like all the others?'

'Why is she still able to talk happily to her mistress?'

'Does Rina's affinity for Dark magic play a role in this?'

'Was she able to keep her sanity, because she has a talent for magic?' After all, when Fran had impulsively thrown the toy dagger at Clara when her friend Milia had been insulted, Rina reacted in a flash, activating a seemingly complicated spell in a split second. Usually, it would take no less than a genius to gather the necessary amount of Mana, pour it out of the body, form a magic seal, and activate it so quickly.

So Fran racked up her brain. She had to keep a close eye on Rina. In doing so, she might one day truly uncover the truth about the secrets behind the Demon-Spawning-Cloud and the demon invasion, in order to save the world. After all, should a dark mist appear again, all she had to do was get Rina to touch it and watch what happened with her own eyes. And while at it, she could teach Rina the best she can. Fran knew that a girl with such talent at such a young age would become very powerful in the future. Rina was someone the human forces needed on the front line against the demons.

Either way, one thing was certain for the elf. Rina was the key to defeating the demons. That was why she had to make sure that Rina would devote her everything to the world, that Rina would touch every Demon-Spawning-Cloud around the world to prevent demons from crawling out and wreaking havoc wherever they were.

It pained Fran in her heart, that such a young, sweet, and innocent girl had to live like that. But the life of one individual was no comparison to the survival of the human races. After all, Fran herself had also sacrificed her happiness for the world, so Rina had to do the same.

So, the elf steeled her heart and spoke up to the girls, who were about to leave the reception room. “Now, now, young lady, sit down and hear me out. It'll benefit you.” 'Or else I will have to take Rina from you forcefully,' Fran thought afterwards.

“Not interested. Now farewell, former High Priestess.” Even though Clara said this, it was apparent to Fran that the young blonde was interested.

So, with a mocking smile on her face, Fran gave Clara the final push in the form of a threat. “Well then, prepare to say goodbye to your precious maid forever.”

She had to stay as close to Rina as possible to observe her. For now, becoming the girls' magic tutor was the best way to achieve that. The first step was to convince Clara to accept her.

***

Looking back on that moment much, much later, Fran, who would be called 'The Brain' by then, could only wail in despair. After all, it was all her fault. Because she had misunderstood the situation at that time. Because she had failed to see, how broken the girl named Rina already was back then.