Bethany Hart could only wish success upon her, the youngest member of the family, Marilyn Althorn. She could only wish for her safety, her good health, and her good behaviour. Because right now…

She had gotten pretty worried.

It had been a few days since Marilyn had unlocked the potential of using magic, her aptitude for it being considered 'very rare' to see for a child. Robert could not contain his excitement for exactly three days straight because of it.

It had all been well and good; she herself was definitely been impressed by such a fact. But, there was one problem that she had been trying to answer for herself.

Marilyn, for a six-year-old, had been getting increasingly reckless.

"Miss Marilyn, are you sure about this?" she said, her eyebrows furrowed to indicate her concern.

So far, the young girl had been practising magic all by herself. And while that could cause appraisal, the spells that she was conjuring had been increasingly getting more and more dangerous.

The first day after it had been unlocked, it was nothing special. Marilyn practised doing a simple light conjuration spell much like yesterday, all in order for her to better see in the dark.

The second day, the risk of injury had increased; she had learned how to summon fire through the understanding of how it is created by principle.

The third day, she had learned how to slice objects with intangible wind, those blades being strong enough to cut through a large tree with a simple wave of the hand.

And now on the fourth day…

"Lancea Lucis…"

The light lance spell. It was supposed to be an intermediate spell all things considered, but it was still deemed too complex for a six-year-old to learn. Bethany could only watch from the sidelines, hoping that at least she would be fine.

Lancea Lucis, by principle, was a spell to summon light in an offensive manner, and a powerful one could decimate a dragon's head whilst leaving no trace behind. But the cost of learning it was that one must understand how light functions on the fundamental level, how it interacts with the world at large, and what damage it could cause in bursts. It was far more complex than simply conjuring light for the sake of illumination.

Normally a six-year-old wouldn't be able to understand this, but then again Robert had used about half a dozen of these when he was the age of the eldest child of this family, Helena, who's currently 8 years of age.

But he had been a prodigy and rather obsessed with magic, having access to some of the best books about it. Perhaps Marilyn would be the same case too?

She sighed.

Perhaps she had been overthinking this. Who knew, maybe that quality did run in the family.

"Just… be careful, mistress."

She had hoped for the best, as she watched the white-haired and silver-eyed girl summon a glyph in front of her.

The air around them began to shake from the converging of Essence Energy into the glyph. Focus was maintained by the young girl, who took a deep breath, and released the fusion of magic into the form of light.

The target? A rather moderately large pumpkin.

"Hah—!"

With a yell, the light was released into a beam, and in an instant it disintegrated the pumpkin until nothing was left. Even the platform it had been standing on had its top half gone immediately. If it had backfired, Marilyn would've been vaporised.

That beam had clearly been much larger than the ones an 8-year-old Robert would have used.

"Yes! I did it!"

Bethany clapped in accordance with Marilyn's celebration. The young girl was rather giddy with the result, jumping a little as she looked towards Bethany.

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But her cheer had been cut short; she was immediately embarrassed. Bethany had laughed internally. Such innocence being showcased to her very eyes.

———————

It was now the fifth day of Marilyn's solo training. And the goal of this session? Summon lightning from the skies to strike down a dummy made out of old disposable pillows both she and Bethany had made for this.

One of the more basic weather manipulation spells, less potent than the more complicated ones. But certainly, it was a cause for definite concern.

At its most powerful setting, by the maid's knowledge, the spell at hand could make the enemy mistakenly think that a thunder god was angry at them. The lightning could destroy ships and cause house-sized craters to form, the target area being more widespread, and the gusts of wind enough to uproot swathes of trees and the foundations of a mid-sized town.

She had just hoped that Marilyn wouldn't reach that level of potency at such a young age. The risk of the spell going out of control would be too high.

Marilyn would be standing upon a large clearing on a hill, outside of the manor for the sake of the house's safety. She had brought a large wooden stick to act as a spellcasting focus. She had found it during the trek here through the forest.

And turning her head to the maid, Marilyn had wanted to confirm that Bethany would give her permission to do this.

…Would she let her do this?

That had been a question that had been hard to answer. Because the risk of this had been simply too high. But… a part of her had wanted to see this, to see the girl succeed.

So, she relented and nodded.

"Be careful, mistress."

Marilyn had smiled, and turned her head towards the clear blue skies. And with a swift motion, she pointed the stick upwards. There's no need for chanting out loud on what the sky should do when casting a complex spell, as long as one understands what they're doing.

But by tradition, she would call out its name.

"Tonitrus."

Focusing Essence Energy upon the very sky itself, Marilyn had gathered clouds into a single area of effect. The clouds had condensed enough over a large area that the local region would darken, including the village in the distance. But there would be no rain, simply…

"No…"

Marilyn had gathered too much, Bethany had thought. She had seen the spell in action; mages would simply gather it for a brief moment to summon lightning. Compared to them, the girl had been gathering too much at once.

The sounds of thunder were present, as well as the crackling of lightning and great gusts of wind. Trees in the surrounding forest uprooted, and if they hadn't gone this far away from civilization the entire village could be threatened and destroyed.

And then…

"Miss Marilyn!"

Lightning had struck the very girl that had called for it. Her eyes widened in shock before the next instant it had hit her. Bethany had tried to reach for her, but the strike knocked her back significantly. A part of the hill had been destroyed, a large crater had formed, and the girl had laid… dead.

Bethany quickly stood up and ran back up the hill again, reaching for the girl. Luckily the spell had ended, and fortunately no houses were destroyed. But…

"Stay with me, don't go! Mistress!"

Marilyn had gasped at last after the maid's call, and found herself to be in her arms. Her clothes had repaired themselves, and any wounds that inflicted her were gone. She sat, butt on the ground, heart racing.

She looked at her hand, where the stick had meant to be. It disintegrated into ashes before her own two eyes.

Bethany sighed out a breath of relief, quickly propping herself and the girl up. And Marilyn just simply… looked downwards, in shame.

"You're too reckless, just what did you think would happen when you cast that spell?" said the maid.

"I… I got too excited. Lost focus. Tried to make it bigger," she explained, in a rather timid manner too. Marilyn had rubbed one of her arms to try and distract herself, an act of guilt.

The maid crossed her arms, rather… disappointed at the girl. "I would be considering cancelling your training with your father until you grow older because of this."

Panic ensued, "Wait, no! Please don't!"

"Why is that?" The maid raised an eyebrow. "This is getting too dangerous, you know that."

"I-I… I want this… it's something that I can be proud of… I don't want it to go."

"You can still practise it by your eighth birthday, no?"

"But still, I want this! I'll take full responsibility and I will never cast dangerous spells again!" Marilyn had practically hugged the maid's legs in protest of her decision.

She did not want to feel useless, she wanted to be relied upon. And that meant she would train herself in magic every day, so that she could be someone capable once she had grown up.

The maid, Bethany, had heard her cries well and clear. While still rather upset, she could not help but listen. It had reminded her of Robert when he was young, how stubborn and reckless he had been. It's a case for empathy for the maid now too, seeing him in Marilyn's eyes.

She had kept Marilyn's immortality gimmick a secret that only the two of them would know. And the logic here would be that the risk could be lessened for her dangerous acts, as at the end of the day Marilyn would be fine. But that behaviour was simply a no-go.

That would be something that only caused more worries than not. It would only encourage her recklessness.

The maid would depart herself from Marilyn, but she would kneel down to her level.

"Promise me that you would not do these kinds of things by yourself, without your father's supervision," she said to her.

"I-I will!"

"And promise me that you would not hurt yourself, please."

"I-I…" That second promise had been a bit too uncertain to be kept by her. "I don't know about that…"

"At least don't intentionally hurt yourself, promise? Whatever it may be, that act will not lead you anywhere."

"A-alright! I promise!"

And the maid smiled, "Good."

The woman would proceed to carry Marilyn in her arms, at least she knew that Marilyn was an honest girl. So when it came to promises, she wouldn't doubt her. Hopefully that shall remain the case when she grows older.

"Let's head back."

The pillow dummy was left behind, still intact.