"... And so, the almighty and glorious king, our beloved great leader, ruler of the lands of Elos, slaughtered the dragon like a butcher slaughters the cow..." Juliet read aloud. His... her? Her mom nodded proudly and patted her back encouragingly.

"My little girl's a true genius! So, have you gotten the reading skill yet?" Her mom eagerly asked. Juliet nodded with a broad smile, albeit a fake one.

"Of course. It's level 9 already!" She proudly announced. Her mom was beaming as she hugged Juliet with another of her crushing hugs.

"Good girl... With your looks and smarts, I'm sure I'll be able to find a wonderful husband for you."

And there it was. The reason for Juliet's recent troubles. Sexism.

She was only 5 years old, and yet her mom had already had several tutots come in and 'instruct her on how to be a lady'. Basically, she was being taught to be a subservient sex slave for whoever more or less bought her in the future. 

Furthermore, while her mom was very caring and rewarding when she succeded, any signs of disobedience or failure were met with harsh spankings or worse. She'd actually been threatened with lashing recently. She, a 5 years old, threatened with lashing.

And, apparently, many of her tutors actually found this to be not strict enough. While she hadn't yet given them a reason to, she could see it in their eyes that she was being too good for their books. In her adult eyes, they wanted to break her to their needs. 

She didn't even know why all of this was. She was grateful for the opportunity to grind skills, but other than that, she hated every moment of it.

She knew she was some sort of noble, or hell, even royalty judging by her name and how she had both money, tutors, and was extremely sheltered. Furthermore, every single fucking book she was given was filled to the brim with obvious propaganda. 

Thankfully, she still benefitted from having meals 3 times a day, a good bed to sleep on, and a mother that, despite her flaws, obviously cared for her. 

And while she'd originally been hesitant about sharing her status, fearful that it might expose her whole rebirthing secret, it'd worked out in the end, somehow.

Name - Helen Juliet Von-Kristerford

Age - 5 year

Level - 1 (0.00%)

Class 1 - Nay

Skills - Nay

Class 2 - Nay

Skills - Nay

General Skills - Elos Dialect Lv.16, Reading Lv.9, Writing Lv.3, Cooking Lv.10, Cleaning Lv.7, Grace Lv.10

Unique Skills - Immortal

She'd also spent quite a bit of time trying to pry information from those around her regarding how statuses and skills worked. Apparently, the first 5 levels were often regarded as the beginning, and each level after that would be both much harder to achieve but also a vast improvement. Furthermore, while some skills directly gave someone knowledge regarding their use, others, like cooking, didn't actually put recepies in one's mind, they simply gave a person an affinity to that subject.

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Furthermore, skills could be merged after a while. For example, her mom had already made clear that until she got the 'Housework' skill, which was a combination of cooking and cleaning, she would not be allowed to leave the house. She'd claimed that the skill would automatically form after getting both cooking and cleaning to level 10, so she was very close to achieving that, much to everyone's suprise.

As such, Juliet had been working her 5-years old ass off to get the damn skill. Apparently, it normally took years for some to get the skills high enough, and although Juliet had only been really doing it for only a year or so, starting since she was 4, she'd already gotten her skills to such a high level, which caused some suspicion.

Originally, Juliet had thought they might find out her secret, but instead, both her mom and the various tutors that came and went simply waved it off as her being a 'genius' and 'having good blood'. 

It was convenient, but annoying. She didn't know if to complain or thank whatever god or manager helped her out.

As Juliet hopped onto her bed after spending an entire afternoon and evening with her dance instructor, the one who helped her get the Grace skill, she shuffled into the covers, just about ready to retire for the day. 

However, not a minute after she'd gotten in her bed and was just about to sleep, she felt the strongest pain she'd ever experienced. Just as a scream was about to tear through her throat, something plunged into her chest, then neck, severing her jugular vein. That stopped her scream before it even started. She thrashed around, attempting to shake off whatever was holding her planted to the bed.

She could barely hear a foreign breathing as she finally stilled, forcing herself to ignore the horrifying pain and trying to make herself look as dead as possible. Half a dozen seconds later, the hand that had kept her still retreated. She didn't dare move for another hour, when she finally reopened her eyes, her room was just like before, if one was to ignore the blood splattered all around her bed.

With trembling hands, she touched her neck and chest, finding it perfectly fine. Her breathing was erratic, and she forced herself to ignore the notifications that the system tried to send her.

Instead, she got up and ran as quickly as she could over to her mom's room. She stopped at her mom's door, knocking twice before entering. 

"Mm... What is it J- Oh lord." Her mom was up in an instant as she ran over to her. 

"Juliet, dear. Tell me everything that happened. Why are you covered in blood?" Her mom soothed as she hugged Juliet, who was trembling and with wide eyes. The moment her mom's arms were around her, she burst into tears as she tried to tell what happened through her sobs.

When she finished, telling her of how someone had stabbed both her throat and heart without her even hearing it, her mom carrying her back to her room, taking one look at the blood splattered all around before promptly shutting the door and going back to her own room.

"That bastard... He promised... Fucking liar!" Her mom hissed before promptly shutting up with an 'oops' face. "You didn't hear that. I hate to ask this, Juliet, but I know you're a smart girl. How did you... live?" Her mom gently asked even as she ran her hand, the one that wasn't holding her daughter up, through Juliet's hair. 

Instead of answering or even trying to lie her way out, Juliet broke into even more tears. Through the haze of panic and confusion and safety and danger that was her mind, whatever rational and thinking mind was left also went in a panic at the question. So, she did the only thing a 5-year old should do and cried even louder.

Her mom, realizing now might not be the time to ask questions, promptly shut up and spent the rest of the night trying to console her daughter. Eventually, Juliet fell asleep, but the tight hold she had on her mom was enough to convince said mom to stay there for the rest of the night, and that was what she did.

Questions could come later, she thought, simply glad her daugher was alive. Perhaps, the capital might not have been as safe a place as she originally thought, she thought, feeling more than betrayed.