Guys, I'll be honest with you. I made so many revisions to this chapter that I actually wound up posting it a day late. Even now I'm not too sure about it, so tell me what you think, and depending on your comments, I might go back and revise it again. 

“So, I hope that this doesn’t come across as rude… but why were you named Sophia? That seems like an odd name for a boy.”

At that moment it took everything that Sophia had not to laugh in the prince’s face. Oh my god, he’s so freaking dense! She thought. “Well you see,” she said, “my mother always wanted a girl, so when I was born, I guess that she just refused to change it out of denial. It doesn’t help that my features are a little effeminate.” In an instant, she came up with a bogus story.

Let’s see just how long it takes this prince to find out. On the outside, her face was completely neutral, but on the inside, she was cackling manically.

Marcus actually gave her a look of pity. He completely bought her ridiculous story. “Ah, I’m sorry your high- er, I mean Marcus. I’m going to go above deck to train for a while.” She had to leave. If she stayed any longer, she wouldn’t be able to contain herself. Sophia would definitely start laughing at the handsome, bumbling prince. I’m teaching him a valuable lesson, she thought, this prince is far too trusting for his own good.

“Alright Sophia, I’ll- um, see you later.” Marcus truly felt sorry for this boy forced to live as a girl, and was doing his best to be understanding. Sophia immediately ran onto the upper deck. How sad, Marcus thought to himself. I can’t imagine why a mother would treat her son so terribly. I definitely need to do something to cheer him up later.

When Sophia reached the upper deck, the first thing that she did was collapse and laugh hysterically for more than a minute. In two lifetimes, she’d never met anyone so gullible. “Oh man, just how sheltered was this kid?” she said while wiping tears out of her eyes. It was common knowledge that Prince Marcus East was the king’s only living relative, and therefore, he had spent his whole life surrounded by guards and servants to protect him and tend to his every need. “I think that I’m actually starting to fear for the future of the nation!”

Once she had calmed down, Sophia decided to leave tormenting the prince for another day, and instead, focused on cultivating according to the methods in her mother’s book. Cassandra had provided numerous techniques, and after careful study, Sophia found two that seemed particularly suited for her, Mysterious Jade Power and Illusory Snow Dance.

Mysterious Jade Power drew upon the water element’s ability to bestow life and had the power to enhance a practitioner’s vitality. After achieving mastery of this technique, even life threatening injuries could be healed in a matter of minutes. As for Illusory Snow Dance, it drew upon the power of ice and snow. This technique had the effect of making the user’s movements bizarre and ghost-like. More importantly however, it could increase the practitioner’s affinity for ice based magic arts, something that’s absolutely crucial for someone who specializes in the water element.

Mysterious Jade Power was more effective during the day so that was the technique that Sophia decided to train in first. Fortunately, the airship followed the coastline as it flew, making the water element in the air rather abundant. As Sophia meditated, performing the incantations described in her mother’s book, traces of deep-green, watery light slowly began converging around her body. Suddenly she gasped, the Mysterious Jade Power entered through her pores and started strengthening her body at an unbelievable rate. Her master’s martial arts couldn’t even begin to compare.

Sophia spent several hours immersed in the Mysterious Jade Power. Only when her Spiritual Power was close to being exhausted did she stop. Forgive me Master Fu, she thought with tears streaming down her face. I wanted to stay true to your teachings, but if I’m to have any hope of reaching the pinnacle of this new world, I must adapt. Master Fu had always demanded that she aim for martial perfection, so perhaps he would feel proud that Sophia had managed to find techniques that surpassed his own. At least, that’s what Sophia told herself.

There were still a few hours of sunlight left, but Sophia had only just awakened her Spirit Realm and the amount of Spiritual Power that she could use was rather limited, so she decided to take a break and go below deck to get something to eat.

Marcus was waiting for her in the ship’s dining hall. Like everything else on the airship, it was extremely luxurious. The table was exquisitely carved and polished. Sophia couldn’t identify the wood used to make it, but she assumed that it was frighteningly expensive. She was actually rather hesitant to use it, fearing that she might damage it.

The floor was covered with a velvet rug that seemed only slightly less expensive than the table, while the walls and ceiling had been plastered white and decorated with golden candlesticks, priceless art, and a crystal chandelier that glowed with magical lights.

Holy shit! Sophia thought. If we weren’t both kids, I might suspect that he was trying to sleep with me! This kind of luxury might not be such a big deal for royalty, but a commoner like Sophia couldn’t imagine being allowed to even look at such a room without ulterior motives being involved.

“Sophia!” Marcus greeted, “I’m glad that you’re here. The cooks just finished preparing dinner.” Two places had been set at the table. Once Sophia took her seat, Marcus snapped his fingers and a group of servants brought out several trays of food. Just looking at it, Sophia’s mouth began to water. Grilled fish, boiled lobster, fried shrimp; East Dragon kingdom was a sea faring nation, so these types of foods weren’t too uncommon, but the sheer size of them was beyond belief.

The fish had clearly been cut into smaller pieces, so it was difficult to judge how big the thing had been when it was still alive, but each shrimp was about the size of a small dog, and the lobster was so big that they couldn’t even fit the whole thing on the table. Instead, the servants brought it out on a cart and cut off pieces to serve to them.

“Marcus…” Sophia said hesitantly, “are we really supposed to eat all of this?”

For a moment Marcus looked at her strangely before apparently realizing something. “Oh, right. I forgot that your Spirit Realm only recently awakened.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Marcus chuckled. “Well you see, as your body gets stronger from practicing bodily cultivation techniques, you’ll need more and more energy to sustain it. As such, your appetite will grow larger and larger.”

“Eh!” Sophia hadn’t thought of that at all. Looking at the mountain of food she couldn’t help but be slightly afraid. After all, Prince Marcus only seemed to be a couple years older than her and he already needed to eat so much! What would happen to her in five, ten, or twenty years from now? Just how many metric tons of food would she need to consume on a daily basis?!

“Haha, you don’t need to be so concerned,” Marcus said, noticing her terror. Once you get strong enough, you’ll be able to start hunting magical beasts. Their flesh is far more nourishing than ordinary food. These dishes are only from low level magical beast. If they were from stronger beasts then we wouldn’t need to eat as much.”

“So what are we supposed to do right now?” Sophia asked. “It’ll be years before we’re strong enough to hunt magical beast on our own!” Magical beasts were extremely dangerous creatures that mortals couldn’t even hope to defeat.

“Once we’re at South Sea academy, our meals with be provided by the school. So like I said, you don’t need to be concerned.”

Sophia heaved a sigh of relief before turning to the food and digging in unceremoniously. The servants seemed appalled by her table manners, but Marcus found it rather amusing. At home, he was constantly told how to stand, how to sit, how to eat, and even how to speak, but Sophia didn’t have to worry about any of that. For a moment, Marcus felt envious of this “boy” who was so free and unrestrained. Screw propriety! He thought, now that I’m away from home I should enjoy my freedom while it lasts!

The two stuffed themselves like pigs eating from a trough, but in the end, they couldn’t even finish half of the feast. “What happens to the rest of it?” Sophia asked. “I’d hate to waste food.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“It goes to the servants,” Marcus said nonchalantly. “I intentionally ordered them to make more than we would actually need for precisely that reason. Normally, they wouldn’t be allowed to eat such expensive food.”

At this point, Sophia was no longer surprised by Marcus’ kind heart and generosity. To be honest, she hadn’t found the food particularly tasty. The meals made by her mother were vastly more appetizing. That’s odd, is my mother actually a better cook than a prince’s personal chefs? Sophia mentally shrugged and decided not to think about it anymore. I’ll ask Mom about it when I get home.

After dinner, the two decided to relax for a while in the ship’s lounge area, and wait for their food to digest. “I must say Sophia, I’m quite impressed with your dedication towards cultivation.”

“Oh? Really?” Sophia didn’t see herself as particularly dedicated. At least, not like she was in her past life. As James, she’d trained endlessly under the brutal teaching of Master Fu. Compared to that, a few hours of meditation didn’t seem like a very big deal.

“Absolutely!” Marcus declared, “I’ve heard stories about nobles who, despite being born with a high tier Spirit Realm, become lazy and complacent. They look for superficial power in magic tools rather than taking the time to cultivate their bodies and master magic arts.”

Now Sophia was confused. “But… why?” she asked. “I mean, bodily cultivation isn’t even that hard, so why would they give up an opportunity to become stronger?”

Marcus stared at her for a moment before he suddenly burst out laughing. “Haha, you must be even more gifted than Bishop Gilliam said! You have to understand Sophia, most people can’t handle constantly exhausting their Spiritual Power every few minutes for hours on end. Even I would run out of Spiritual Power after about two hours! You were up on the deck for over six hours, so I don’t even want to think about how many times you must have thoroughly exhausted yourself.”

Sophia’s eyes widened. Of course! Now it all makes sense! Ever since her Spirit Realm had first been awakened, Lloyd, her mother, and even Bishop Gilliam couldn’t stop gushing about how amazing it was. Until now though, she hadn’t been able understand just what it was that made Vast Ocean so incredible. This was the answer, Spiritual Power reserve. Sophia’s Vast Ocean was utterly massive. Thus far, she wasn’t even capable of using a tenth of its power, and yet when training with a high level technique like Mysterious Jade Power, she could still train for six hours without much difficulty.

With access to so much Spiritual Power, she would be able to train harder and for longer periods of time than her peers. It’s no wonder Gilliam had such high expectations for her. With the ability to withstand intense training for hours on end, it would be stranger if she didn’t become powerful!

After dinner, Sophia excused herself and returned to her cabin; there she waited for night to fall. Once the sky turned dark and the moon began to rise up from beyond the horizon, she quietly snuck out from her room and made her way to the upper deck.

Seeing the ocean from up in the air during the day was dazzling, but it couldn’t even compare to the beauty of the night sky. With the ship flying over the clouds, nothing could obstruct her view. “They look so close,” Sophia whispered, “it almost feels like I could reach out and touch them.” This sky didn’t have any of the same constellations that Earth did, but it was beautiful all the same.

“This world is so much more dangerous than my own, filled with demons and monsters, but it’s also so much more beautiful.”

Sophia spent a few minutes admiring the way that the night sky looked from the deck of the airship, but as the full moon rose higher and higher she knew that it was time to get on with the real reason that she snuck out of her room.

Pulling out the leather-bound book, Sophia flipped to the section explaining the Illusory Snow Dance. This training method was very different from Mysterious Jade Power. The Illusory Snow Dance was best performed in an extremely cold location. In addition, it would display its optimal effect at night, when the moon is full.

As for why she had to sneak out, that was because Illusory Snow Dance was a bodily cultivation technique designed specifically for women. Sophia didn’t want anyone to see her perform it so that she could toy with the prince for a little while longer.

Convinced that she had memorized the movements accurately, Sophia put away the leather-bound book, and took her first hesitant step. Unlike Mysterious Jade Power which could be performed during meditation, Illusory Snow Dance actually required a literal dance. Sophia had never danced before, in this life or her previous one, so naturally, her first attempt was awful.

 Despite her incredible skill in martial arts, Sophia just couldn’t manage to achieve the grace and flexibility required for Illusory Snow Dance. For hours she bumbled about, tripping over her own two feet, as the moon slowly crept across the sky.

“Damn it!” she cursed, stomping her foot in frustration. “Why did they make this technique rely on a stupid dance?! Just because I’m a girl now, that means that I’m suddenly supposed to be good at dancing?! That’s sexist!”

Sophia shouted curses and abuses one after another before she eventually calmed down and returned to her practice. At this point, she didn’t even care about how effective the technique might be. She just wanted to master it in order to spite whoever created it.

As the hours passed by, Sophia failed over and over again to properly execute the Illusory Snow Dance, but with each failure her movements became more and more refined. Finally, just before the first rays of dawn broke over the horizon, Sophia managed to complete the dance’s first step. It was still somewhat stiff and imperfect, but that first step allowed Sophia to finally experience the magic of the Illusory Snow Dance.

The space around Sophia became completely silent. She couldn’t hear a single thing, not the sound of the wind, not the faint creaking of the ship’s moving parts, not even the crash of waves from the ocean below. In addition, the temperature around her dropped, turning into a chill that seemed to seep into her bones. For only an instant, the cold was accompanied by an illusion of dancing snowflakes.

“Incredible…” she whispered, after a few moments. The snowflakes hadn’t just been breathtakingly beautiful, they also seemed to contain some kind of profound mystery that Sophia couldn’t even begin to grasp.

When the snowflakes faded, Sophia stopped practicing and turned to the east to watch the sunrise. Her mouth faintly curved into a biter smile. That one single step from Illusory Snow Dance had been as effective as nearly a half hour of practicing Mysterious Jade Power. In that single moment, she had the faintest feeling of her body becoming as soft as fresh snow but as tough as millennial ice.

“I’m such an idiot,” she sighed, “I spent so much time training my yang chi and didn’t even think about training my yin chi… or perhaps, I just didn’t want to. For years I’ve pretended to accept my new body, but deep down, I’ve been desperately clinging to my old habits… trying to hold on to a life that no longer exists.”

Sophia clenched her fists tightly. “This is where I cast off the shackles of my previous life, once and for all!

Whether I’m a boy or a girl doesn’t matter anymore!

If embracing this new body is what needs to be done for me to reach martial perfection, then that’s what I’ll do!”

This was something that Sophia had been subconsciously putting off for a long time, but now, she couldn’t afford to do so anymore. “Goodbye Master, you were my family when my real family failed me. Goodbye Yuki, although we only met briefly, I believe that there was a chance of us having something together. And finally, goodbye James, your life was pretty shitty, although it had its moments. Unfortunately, I can no longer be you, but I will always remember you fondly.”

At last, the sun fully lifted itself from the eastern sea and shined down upon Sophia for the first time.