A sharp eared woman of long black hair and deep blue eyes was slowly blinking awake while covered by a hide blanket. She wore an Asteriam uniform, consisting of a thick deep green overcoat, layered trousers of the same color and thick dark leather boots.

“So why was I brought here?”

Kaeli asked after looking around the campfire in the middle of the forest as she put the blanket aside. A lone man was hunched over a tree log while scribbling on it with a red pen.

“What do you think about your story so far?”

“Huh?! What do I think?!” She seemed outraged as she stood up brandishing her right arm to the side as the question seemed atrocious. “First, I get blasted by her magic to the ocean and then you drop me a bloody kraken to deal with!”

He proceeded to turn around and lay with his back against the log without taking his eyes off the notepad.

“Well, it’s part of the plot.”

“Is making me miserable part of the plot?” He looked at her over the notepad and simply went back to scribbling. “At least answer me.”

“You were supposed to be the main antagonist at some point.” He gave her a half hearted answer as if disinterested in her reaction. “To be fair, I wished for you to be the actual villain but it just wouldn’t work out.”

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“Just why make me a villain at all then?!”

“I made you too powerful.” He looked at her over the notepad again. “Think about it logically, if Leona had your help in the first assault in the mansion against Alexander, what do you think would happen?”

“We would probably win?”

He sighed exasperatedly.

“You know, for an archmage, you’re quite weak in the tactics department.”

“Huh?! Excuse me! I’m quite powerful, you know!”

She raised her left hand and every elemental force appeared rotating around her palm. A fire sphere, three small shards of ice, green colored wind rotating onto itself, cubic stones constantly changing shape, an orb of sizzling lightning and a floating ball of water.

There were just way too many spells.

“Even I am getting tired of writing these off…”

“Hey! You gave me this power!”

“Yes, yes. Point is, you’re too powerful, but not powerful enough and Leona wasn’t even ready at that time either.” He scratched the side of his head with the pen. “Listen, I’m not about to throw my two daughters to their deaths for dramatic effect.”

Kaeli raised an eyebrow as she reeled back with both hands near her chest. Her ears were wiggling slightly.

“What do you mean daughters…”

“You two were one of the first characters I wrote. I can’t help not feeling like a parent.”

“I… I never heard those words before…”

“Yeah, yeah. You’ll forget we had this conversation the moment you go back. So off you go.”

“Huh?! No wait!”

She jumped over the campfire to reach him but the man simply wrote something in the notepad and Kaeli—along her hide blanket, disappeared. The man sighed.

“Maybe a slice of life wouldn’t be so bad after all…”