Daniel Eldegard was running through the forest as he did his best to keep up with his father. This was their daily training routine every morning, and today was going to be a special one apparently.

He wasn't really quite sure about how today would be a special one, considering they weren't even going to go and hunt any high-class monsters, he'd already fought a lot of low-class monsters before (D Rank and below)... although that wasn't exactly always him, rather, it was usually as her.

Yeah, he was… or rather they were the same person, but having different experiences simultaneously? Actually, it's probably more accurate to say that he and she had a mental link to each other. It was similar to telepathy, but it also transcended that in and of itself.

They didn't simply have each other's thoughts being connected, they also had their experiences connected. Like, if he were to get hurt, she would feel it, and vice versa. Anything that she learned, he learned too… it was almost as if they had one mind, but that wasn't exactly the case since they could still distinguish/differentiate themselves… somewhat.

Speaking of which, the other person he was connected to, Fiora, was currently reading a book at her house. She was apparently studying more advanced magic in order to reach another breakthrough in her training. It was interesting how far she was in already, already being at the Advanced Wizard stage at her young age of twelve when most people generally reached that stage only in their twenties or not at all. Well, he was also twelve years old and pretty much was in the same stage of magic as her due to the weird connection they have, but it's not like anybody knew about that.

No, of course not, Daniel was raised to become an Assassin after all, while Fiora was raised to become a Sage. Neither of their families knew just how proficient they were at being both. But, such is the oddity of their connection.

It didn't start out like this, it was just that… one day, when they were three years old, they both fell into a river in the Holy Lands. After that, they just found themselves having a connection with each other as though they were the same person.

They both still had their own personalities and thoughts… but if they were to be honest, at this point the only way they could differentiate each other were their names and gender. They were pretty much the same other than that.

"Get ready, Daniel, we're almost there." he heard his father, Xavier Eldegard, remind him, running through the forest even faster as they got closer to their destination.

Daniel continued to follow behind, going just fast enough to keep up with his father. He could tell that his father was holding back a bit for his sake, but really, there was no need for it… since he could closely match his father's peak speed already. Although he does have to cheat a bit by using magic, but it was only used when necessary. Otherwise, like right now, he was simply pushing his body as best as he can.

At the very least, he wasn't really bothered by continuously running at this speed, his stamina might just take a hit if he kept it up for too long though. Maybe two hours before he had to take a break or use magic. If he continuously used magic however… well, he could go on for as long as he wanted, but that wasn't really recommended, if what Fiora knew said anything.

Continuous use of your mana on the same spell, even though it should theoretically be possible given enough time in between, could have some very bad effects.

They hadn't had any of these effects yet in their time testing it, but it was better to keep safe than not. He'd been taught that by his mother enough… wait no, that was Fiora's memories not his, damn it. It gets really confusing sometimes.

'Speaking of that… maybe I should call my parents mama and papa instead?' Fiora' thoughts came to him, and he thought of that, it would certainly make things easier…

'Yeah. Though, we always seem to fail at that, so I'm not sure just how effective that would be this time…' Daniel thought to himself, or rather, to themselves, and Fiora chuckled at that.

'Oh well. Just remember, my mother's hair is pink while yours is blonde, my father has blue hair while yours has black hair. There, it's simple, isn't it?'

'And yet I still get confused.'

'I'll just correct you then.'

'... guess that works.'

This was how their thoughts usually went. It was mostly idle banter, at the very least, it's nice to have some company while he was doing idle things. It was definitely confusing and scary at first, but… eventually they got used to it, and ever since then, they've been living their lives like this.

As weird as it was to basically live two lives all at once… at the very least he had control of his own body as Daniel, while she had control of her own body as Fiora. Their minds were just connected somehow.

'You're confusing yourself again.'

'Ah… thanks for reminding me.'

'Of course, what kind of partner would I be if I didn't at least help you?'

'Shouldn't you focus on reading your book?'

'Try being cooped up inside your own home for years. It gets really boring.'

'... True, I definitely understand. Well, that's mostly considering how I also experience what you're experiencing.'

'Exactly! That's why it's always fun for me to experience what you're experiencing. I want to go outside too…'

'Don't worry Fiora, you'll get there…'

Right, he forgot about that. She tended to get down as she thinks about the experiences he's having outside. Still, he did his best to keep her happy, mostly by taking into consideration the ideas and theories she had on what he was doing.

Usually, it involved him experimenting with magic. Ah well, at least it was fun for them. He liked how happy she would get as he did that too.

'Aww, I'm happy you feel that way for me Daniel! Ooh, tell you what, we should totally get engaged to each other. It would be fun!' Fiora suggested, seemingly excited, Daniel just smiled,

'Certainly. But… it would also be incredibly weird. Also, that's still far away, you can't get too excited.' Daniel thought, though he couldn't help but like the idea.

'You can't hide your true emotions from me, Daniel, you're me!'

'And I'm you… even though it's not exactly that way.' he thought, frowning as they finally arrived at their training area for today, 'Well… I guess we're here.'

'This looks different. Really open area though… I have a feeling this will be interesting.'

Indeed. Daniel stopped just at the entrance of the fairly large clearing in the forest, his father stopping just a few paces ahead of him.

As soon as Xavier stopped, Daniel felt something heading towards him. Multiple somethings, rather. Jumping up, he did a backflip, dodging the three sharp blades coming towards him from different directions and grabbing them with his gloved hand. 

As he landed back on where he was standing, he carefully inspected the blades. Three knives, all coated in poison, making him raise his brows. Upon closer look, he saw three symbols written to it—numbers, something that Fiora recognized.

'33, 47, 19? A puzzle?' Fiora's voice came into his mind and he frowned,

'Maybe… must be a code.'

'Why do you always get the fun stuff?! This is unfair…'

'Go ask your mother to give you more interesting things to do. I have to focus on this right now.'

'Fine… also, watch the floor, something's moving to attack you.'

'Thanks.' he thought, although he'd already noticed it. Storing the knives in his spatial bag he looked forward to his father and dashed towards him, pulling out a dagger from his sleeves. 'A special day huh? Come to think of it, I've just recently turned twelve years old, I remember dad telling me about something related to this before…'

'Was it the story about how he officially became an assassin when he turned twelve?' Fiora's voice interrupted again, but he didn't mind it too much, considering how this was pretty normal for them.

'Oh. Guess this is a test.'

'Right. Happy birthday, Daniel.' she said to him cheerfully,

'Yeah, thanks.' he said sarcastically, mentally rolling his eyes at her, pretty much knowing she'd have been sticking her tongue out at him while she'd said those words lately. 'You too.'

Xavier noticed him approaching and immediately stepped to the side, dodging his dagger as he was forced to cancel his surprise attack. "You noticed that?" his father said, eyes wide.

Daniel landed where Xavier had just been and turned to his father with a smile, "I learned from the best."

Xavier laughed, pushing up his glasses, "Well then. Let's see what you've learned." and then the knives started appearing. A dozen of knives headed towards Daniel, something that he was able to easily dodge and parry with his dagger. Dashing towards Xavier, he took care to dodge every attack that went his way, usually coming in the form of a number of knives and daggers, but for the most part, it was rather straightforward.

He managed to get in Xavier's range when his father suddenly threw up a kick towards him, but he expected that, so he simply used it as a leverage to get closer to him, barely managing to scratch at his face with his dagger before he disappeared. When he did disappear, Daniel used his own skill too, disappearing into the shadows of one of the trees as well.

Right, as part of the Eldegard Noble family, he learned a lot of useful skills related to stealth and assassination. It was interesting, considering how these were all similar to magic, but not really, considering how they didn't actually use up any mana compared to what Fiora generally did or made him do.

When he landed on the ground once again, he was a few meters across his father once more.

This time, his father looked quite surprised, more so than lately. "Daniel… you've grown a lot, huh?" Xavier muttered, touching the small scratch on his face with a smile, "Well then… show me everything you've got, my son."

Daniel just nodded with a smile, disappearing into the shadows once more with shadow step and appearing behind his father, pulling out another dagger in his other hand this time. Sharp knives came at him again—'This time there are seven.'—but this time he simply zipped his way past them, dodging to the side whenever he needed before he got through them all and jumped towards his father, increasing his speed again—

But this time he was blocked. His father had a dagger in his hands and was blocking him. Before his father could make a counterattack, he disappeared behind his father, but the man expected this and kicked him away, forcing him to block as he got thrown back, making him have to disappear into the shadows again.

Still, even though shadow step didn't use up mana if at all, it still did use up his stamina and left him more and more fatigued. It wasn't something he couldn't solve with magic—but then again, he was Daniel, he wasn't supposed to know magic too much.

It was annoying, because there were a lot of cool things that could open up for him if he were able to use his magic, but… well, he was an assassin not a wizard/sage.

As he landed on the ground again, he took a moment to regain his bearings. His father still didn't move much, only moving to specific places in the clearing.

Daniel frowned at that and turned to look at the ground, wondering if he could see anything that looked out of place. Nothing seemed to be out of place until he looked at it through Fiora's Sage Eyes.

'What the…  a ritual circle?' Fiora's voice came into his head again, and she seemed to still be absently reading books in her family's library. 'The numbers. They must mean something.'

Nodding to himself slightly, Daniel observed the ground again, turning to follow the ritual circle.

He noticed that his father, Xavier, was standing on one that was shaped like a diamond.

Noticing this, his father looked at him with a frown, "Is there something wrong, Daniel?"

Daniel blinked and shook his head at his father, "No… I just need to check something." as he said this, he jumped up to stand on the top of one of the trees by the clearing.

'... wow. So that's where your family got the emblem.'

'Seems like it.' Daniel replied, taking a good look at the large circle. From above, it seemed to form an almost cracked diamond, almost like a snowflake, but with these dark lines going out of it… 'There are seven different diamonds within the circle to stand on. My father has stood on three of them so far…'

'Right. 33, 47, and 19… There are 47 noble families under the Levaria Kingdom, 33 of which are part of the Royal Army, 19 of which…'

'No, not 19.' Daniel corrected, his mind quickly coming up with an answer to the cryptic puzzle. 'It would be 7, 12 knives were thrown at me, none of which were poisoned. Reduce 12 from 19 and you get 7.'

'But what about the 7 knives thrown afterward?'

'That's how many Noble family lines are extinct.' Daniel remembered, 'The other 7, are honorary Nobles, not part of the Royal Army…'

'Right. The capital council…' Fiora muttered, and he jumped back down to the ground, moving towards one of the diamonds in the circle.

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The one with two parallel lines, slightly cutting off the middle of the diamond.

Before he could step into it, however, Fiora' thoughts stopped him,

'Wait. There's something wrong.'

'What?' Daniel furrowed his brows, stopping just before the diamond and frowning. His father seemed to be staring intently at him, 'My father had stepped into the diamonds with the earth, wind, and dark symbol. The diamonds represent all the seven different affinities of power: earth, wind, water, fire, metal, light and dark… That means, considering that the 7 honorary noble families only collectively possess three of these seven affinities, then I simply have to stand on the one which they don't possess. Right?'

'Yes… if that was what we were actually looking for.' Fiora started, and he started to recall what they'd learned. 'Look, in the Levaria Kingdom, there are 47 Noble families right? Then there are 33 of which part of the Royal Army, from that, there are only 14 not part of the royal army… You see where I'm going with this?'

He did, because he could pretty much see her actual thoughts as though it were his own already. 'You're a genius, Fiora.' Daniel barely managed to contain his laughter at this point.

'I am, aren't I?' Fiora actually laughed, something that he could feel though they were far from each other. 'The 19 was simply a red herring—or, no, rather, it was still important, but it only really said how many different lands were owned by all the Nobles combined throughout the Kingdom. Removing 12 from 14 gives us 2, and considering how there are 7 affinities and your father stepped on three, you then remove that from seven and then remove two from that again and finally you have two affinities… Easy.'

'For you.' Daniel thought with a smile, 'First comes earth, then comes the wind, the darkness covers the land, but the light gives it hope, fire gave way to creativity, and water gave it life. What is left from that is metal. So why two?'

'Look at what your father is standing on right now.'

He did so and saw that his father was standing on one with the dark affinity, being represented by a chaotic mess of lines.

'The two affinities that tirelessly conflict with each other… yet harmoniously coexist despite it all.' Daniel remembered that poetic line that Fiora had once read in her books. It was one of the many things that stuck to him. 'If my father is the darkness… then I am the light.'

'You always get the fun stuff, Daniel.'

'Just be patient Fiora. You'll have your fun too.'

'... if you say so.'

With that, Daniel stepped into a different diamond, one with a cross on it.

His father let out a breath, staring in disbelief "... You figured it out."

Daniel simply smiled at his father, not really knowing what to say at the disbelieving look on Xavier's face.

Honestly, it was all thanks to Fiora that he'd even figured this out.

He'd have never gotten the right answer otherwise.

As if to respond to that, the ritual circle activated.

----------------------------------------

Fiora Indentia was not an ordinary girl, far from it really. Ignoring the connection she had with Daniel Eldegard, her destiny and expectations were simply something that many could only dream of achieving… but for her, that was simply something necessary for her to achieve. For she wouldn't be worthy of the name Indentia if she couldn't even fulfill that simple task.

It was quite pressuring, but it wasn't much for her, she mused about how it was similar to what Daniel had to go through, and he simply agreed on it, but whereas Daniel was expected to become an Assassin…

Fiora was expected to become a Sage. Something not even many could dare to hope of achieving.

Still, she wasn't worried in the slightest, after all, she was the daughter of Sylvia Indentia, one of the greatest Sages to have ever lived. It was simply a matter of when she'll become a Sage.

So far, she was rather close already, with the studies she was doing and the experiments that Daniel was helping her with, it would only be a matter of time before she could finally breakthrough into the Sage level. She was only a few steps away now after all… she just needed a bit more time and research.

Speaking of which, it wasn't really that she wasn't allowed to go out of the Indentia Manor, she just found that it would be much more bothersome to go out considering the amount of people that would be watching her as she trains. At the very least Daniel didn't have many people who were watching him other than his father, but, unlike her, he can disappear from his parents' line of sight and be fine to do his own solitary training.

It made it much more convenient for her because she could still have her research books on hand while he put it into practice wherever he was—usually in the Silver Forest near the Eldegard territory—other than that, she just felt like explaining how she knew all the Assassin skills would be way too complicated and bothersome, so she decided that having Daniel do it for her was better.

Much to his dismay, but she knew that she was having fun, he can't hide that from her after all. Still, she had to go out of the Manor sooner than later so that her family could actually see her magic in action…

She did practice her magic in the garden and the courtyard every now and then, but that was mostly for the basics and not really for new spells because she knew just how destructive some of those can be.

The experiences on Daniel's side certainly helped to reinforce that.

Speaking of which, they were quite sure that his family already knew about his magic, but it doesn't seem like his father hasn't said anything yet so… maybe they just didn't care all too much.

Daniel was rather spoiled after all.

'Hey, as if you're not.' Daniel retorted, making her roll her eyes,

'Yeah sure, look at how many maids you have under you specifically.'

'How many knights do you have watching over you at all times then? Not to mention your maid who very much caters to every single thing you ask for.'

'That's because I'm reasonable. Don't forget your own special butler who does pretty much everything you ask of him.'

'Yeah well… There's going to be no end to this. Shouldn't you be going to your mother right now? She seemed quite interested in where your abilities are at right now.'

'Hmm… fair enough. Aren't you in a ritual right now? Go focus on getting the affinity you need.'

'Yeah sure… well, not like I need to, considering how I possess all of them thanks to you.'

'Details, details. Now shoo, I'm going to focus on my own world right now.' she said to him, though in reality, it's not like their connection would ever be cut with just that. Even now, she was subconsciously aware of what's happening on Daniel's side.

It was a weird experience she couldn't quite explain, neither could he, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Fiora closed the book she was reading and stood up, placing it back where she'd taken it from.

As she walked out of the Indentia Family Library, she snapped her fingers and in a flash of light, Dahlia appeared. Her personal attendant/maid. "Dahlia, please arrange a meeting with my mother this noon at 12PM. Inform her that I wish to show my progress so far."

Dahlia, dressed in her unique yellow maid uniform, bowed to her, "As you wish, Lady Fiora."

Fiora nodded, "Thank you." then her maid disappeared into a flash of light again.

Letting out a small breath, she started to walk towards the courtyard of their manor.

Well, she called it a Manor, but in reality, it was more of a castle. Just not quite as big as the one the Royal Family of Levaria, though it was still respectable in that aspect.

Then again, the five main Dukedoms had castles, the Eldegard and Indentia were just two of them. The other three, Valeria, Zonavium, and Caelixiz had their own special castles in their respective territories.

But, she was getting sidetracked. Right now, she wanted to try out something simple she'd been thinking of for a while now.

'You sure you want to do that in the castle?'

'My mother and… well, my brother has done far worse here.'

'Hmm… fair enough.'

Daniel briefly checked in on her, making her wonder just how long their ritual was going to be taking. At the moment, it seemed as though his father was reciting the typical speech you'd have for an oath-taking ceremony. It was interesting, certainly, but she had more pressing matters at hand right now.

Like trying to properly warp the fabric of reality with her magic for instance.

She arrived at the courtyard and nodded to the guards and some maids who were in the area. They quickly made space for her and she stepped into the middle of the large front yard. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and slowly opened her arms outwards, forming a semicircle with her arms as she let the current of mana within her flow outwards into the pattern that she needed.

Attempting to mess with nature was tricky enough, it only got more complicated as they moved up into attempting to control the fabric of reality itself.

But then again, as a Sage, this was but a small step in the path to attaining full control over reality itself.

Her mother was a Master Sage, and the implications that came from that were deep. But the ability that came with such a heavy title… it was near-endless.

As far as she knew, her mother had been at the young age of fourteen when she had first been able to manipulate space and time to a degree, and only in her sixteenth birthday did she manage to attain full control over it.

Well, for Fiora… it was different. She already technically had the ability to manipulate time and space already at some point before… but only now was she really putting it to the test herself.

Daniel was kind enough to test the magic before she did it herself, preventing many, many, potential disasters from ever coming to light in the castle.

Now… she just had to do it herself.

Steadying her rapidly beating heart—something out of anticipation, excitement, and dread—she carefully directed the mana from her core out onto her hands—specifically her fingertips. Spellcasting with a wand was already fairly tricky, even more so without one. But that was simply the path she chose to walk.

And so far, it was rewarding her well.

Keeping herself calm and focused, she absent-mindedly felt the flow of aura coming into her, seemingly forging with her core. It was from Daniel, she could tell, but she couldn't really focus on that right now, instead, she had to carefully manage the mana she was actively controlling so that it wouldn't suddenly cause a huge accident.

Playing with the laws of nature was a tricky ordeal, after all.

As she finally materialized the specific threads of mana she wanted to use on her fingertips (mixing different amounts of certain affinity's essence into it), she opened her eyes.

Fiora smiled, she was close.

Watching her hands in front of her as she carefully made small gestures with her fingers, moving her arm around and allowing mana to flow in and out every now and then as she formed the shape of the specific magic/spell she wanted to make.

In this case, it was a simple (well, in her terms) rift that connected two separate places within the world, connected to the mana she was using.

Each place had a unique pattern to it, a signature, as she liked to think of. Understanding how the patterns worked and somehow reverse-engineering that so that she could make a dimensional rift was the most difficult part.

But, it wasn't something that she couldn't do. And, rather quickly, she'd found an interesting, if unconventional pattern to it all.

An… algorithm, as she liked to think of it. The steps were rather simple, and most of it was done by simply finding the signature of the mana present around the area that she wanted to connect with a rift.

Most of which, she hardly needed to think of at this point, having made a simple spell to allow her to calculate it (That one took her months even with Daniel's help. As far as she knew, he'd nearly gotten in trouble for it too, but somehow he was able to get out of it.). Now… she just had to make sure that she did this right.

Slowly but surely, she figured out the pattern, attaching the signature to the space she was making a rift on. The amount of mana used here would have been a bit of a problem before, but now, with her increased mana pool and efficiency, it hardly winded her as long as she didn't make anything ridiculous. At least, in theory, most of that practical application was done by Daniel. She just had to use what he learned and put it into action.

Thankfully, pulling from each other's memories and experiences were second nature to them already, and this wasn't even something that made her worry about all that much.

Pinching her fingers together, she pulled them apart as though she was ripping something apart in the air, making a small rift in space appear… Momentarily, there was a small mistake, the difference in the environments she was connecting to and the one she was in right now was causing a small conflict with the balance of everything, but after a slight shift in the amount of air and earth mana, it disappeared.

As she let go of the small rift she'd made, she watched as it stayed there, unmoving and static.

A window into the river just ahead of the castle… that was what she made.

Fiora couldn't quite believe it at first, but, as the realization came to her, she smiled.

'You/I did it.' she and Daniel thought at the same time.

Suppressing her excitement from showing past an excited smile, she placed her hands over the rift and closed upon it, as though crushing it with her hands.

When she opened them, it disappeared, and she couldn't help but grin and just shake in place before finally exploding into laughter as she jumped and pumped her fist into the air.

"Yes! I did it!" Fiora couldn't care at this point. She finally did it.

She managed to do something not even her mother could have done—now it wasn't all on her own, though, Daniel gets most of the credit for the sacrifices he'd made—but it was still something incredibly significant for her.

"Yes! Hahaha, I'm finally a Sage!" she exclaimed, unable to hide her excitement any longer as she jumped around in the courtyard.

'Congratulations! I'm happy for you, Fiora.'

'Yes! Thank you so much! I would hug you so hard right now if you were here!'

'Hahaha, glad I'm not there right now then. Oh yeah, I'm an assassin now.'

'That's great! Congratulations Daniel!'

'Yeah… thanks to you as well.'

Thoughts such as these were passed through each other, and Fiora realized that Daniel had finally finished the ritual with his father and was simply meditating in the woods as he seemed to focus on her experiences right now.

After a moment of celebration, Fiora calmed down and took a deep breath, quickly nodding to herself and standing straight again. Quickly straightening her clothes with wind magic as she exhaled.

That was done… now for the real test.

Cutting off the mana from her right arm, she narrowed her eyes this time, focusing on allowing the flow of mana to her left arm be much stronger and purer.

There was a certain interesting thing she'd learned about working with the different types/affinities of mana before, and much of that was on the purity/concentration of it. As you increase the potency of it, the stronger it gets, yet at the same time, it's also much more difficult to control.

It's the same as handling a small spoon in comparison to a shovel. They both do the same thing, really, but at different scales. And as the scale gets higher, so does the difficulty in using it.

This is why, even as a simple Mage, one had to raise their proficiency in mana control if they wanted to become stronger. Because one can't just suddenly jump from a gust of wind to a tornado and expect themselves to be able to handle it properly by then.

But, now Fiora was sure, with her abilities having reached that of a Sage, she could handle that easily.

Now the question was how well could she handle creating this large rift.

'If it's you, it shouldn't be much of a problem.'

'Doesn't mean I can just take it for granted. A lot of things could still go wrong.'

'Fair enough…' 

Resolving herself, she pointed her left hand down… before flicking it upwards and forming a large portal that was just about her height.

This time, she could see the Naturae River more clearly. When she managed to hold it up for a few seconds without it taxing her all that much, she smiled and exhaled a sigh of relief.

Closing her hand, the portal disappeared.

She didn't want to go through it yet because she'd have rather do it with her mother there, just to see her face—but when she turned around, she saw someone unexpected who was looking at her with an amused smile.

Well, not really unexpected, more… surprising.

"Well then. I'm surprised you're finally able to use reality warping spells, Fiora. As expected of my daughter… still, to have broken my record so much without even informing me? You're quite bold."

Fiora smiled, "Well, I was planning to show it to you later, mother."

Sylvia Indentia, the highest ranked Sage, Master Sage, in the kingdom of Levaria. Her vibrant pink hair was tied up in a ponytail, similar to that of Fiora's own red hair, then her bright red eyes watching her carefully, in an almost appraising manner.

Sylvia sighed and shook her head, albeit with a small smile on her lips, "You truly love surprising people, don't you?"

"Perhaps I do." Although Fiora said that, the truth of the matter was that it was simply a habit she'd picked up from Daniel. He was being trained to be an assassin and that meant that his main goal was to surprise people… that just simply transferred over to her somewhat, similar to how her knowledge in magic had transferred to him as well.

"Well…" Sylvia let out a long breath, closing her eyes for a moment before nodding. "Right then, since I'm already quite sure that you wanted me to allow you more freedom out of the castle then I'll simply grant it to you now, you've reached that level where not even an army of novice knights would be able to deal with you."

Fiora blinked at that, "Huh? O-Oh… but, I hadn't really shown it to you yet…"

"No, you have." Sylvia chuckled, "The quality and quantity of the mana within you… simply put, it is absurd for your age. But considering my blood… it's not really hard to see it happening, surprising as it may be." she then walked up to her and put a hand on the top of her head, "I'm proud of you. I can't imagine the amount of training it must have took you to get to this point… and, honestly, I was starting to get worried about how much less you'd been going outside of the castle. To think you'd been practicing and researching for so long… Well, it'd be rather idiotic of me not to acknowledge it."

Fiora closed her eyes and smiled, "Thank you, mother…"

Suddenly, her mother pulled her into a hug, and she reciprocated it as well.

'Warm… surprising considering her specialty, no?'

'She has a big heart. It's likely why my father had fallen in love with her so.'

'Likely so…'

Idle thoughts passed between her and Daniel, though she mostly enjoyed her mother's warm embrace.

After a while, they separated. They both laughed after a while.

"Oh my sweet Fiora…" Sylvia ran her hand through Fiora's hair, "You've grown quite a lot. You've even surpassed my own achievements already. But… do remember, magic isn't everything. If there's anything else that you'd wish to do your father and I will support you all the way, okay?"

Hearing this, Fiora smiled, grabbing Sylvia's other hand with her own hands. "Of course, mother. To be honest… there is something I've been meaning to ask for a while."

At this, Sylvia blinked before nodding, "Then let's hear it."

Taking a deep breath, Fiora closed her eyes in thought.

'Daniel… you're sure of this, right?'

'Yes. Don't you want to meet more people?'

'I know, but… with my abilities…'

'You're not alone, remember?' Daniel simply said to her, making her pause.

After hearing that, how could she not? 'Alright. You better not break this promise.'

'When—no, how can I even lie to you?'

That's fair enough.

Opening her eyes, she decided…

"Mother, I want to go into the Levarian Royal Academy." Fiora said with a determined look.