The sun was setting in the eastern nation. Leona was gazing out towards the orange tinted horizon as she was resting against a boulder near a cliff that overlooked the city. The first day of training proved to be much more arduous than she had imagined, her body felt heavy, her eyelids were almost closing on their own before she heard a familiar voice come from behind her.

“Beautiful isn’t it?”

Yuna’s question prompted her to glance over the shoulder before answering.

“Yes… quite so…”

She yawned as she turned back to look at the coastal city. Fishing boats and trading ships were constantly coming and going which was a rare sight from where she came from and it felt soothing to just stare at the bustling docks.

Yuna kneeled down and sat on top of her own legs, she was carrying two dark green ceramic cups with a hot liquid inside as hot steam waffed from within.

“Here. This should help with your fatigue. Be careful, it’s hot.”

“Ah, thank you Yuna.”

Leona took the offer and carefully held the cup from the edges. She carefully tilted the cup towards herself as she slowly sipped its contents.

“Hmm…!”

It was indeed quite hot as she felt the tip of her tongue sting a bit, but the taste was unlike anything she had before. As opposed to the familiar grassy sugary taste of the tea she used to drink in Arcadia, the one Yuna brought had a distinct roasted scent accompanied by a subtle nutty flavor that was easy on the stomach.

Leona could feel some of the fatigue go away as she turned to the shrine maiden.

“This is really good…”

“I am glad that you liked it.” She smiled warmly. “Dad usually prefers the rice roasted a bit more for a stronger taste. But that makes it too bitter for me…”

“You used rice for brewing it?”

“Yes! It makes it easier for the stomach to digest food later on and since we are done with training for today, I thought it would be a good idea to start the evening with something to prepare for dinner.”

“I see…”

She took another sip from her drink.

Yuna remained silent while holding the ceramic cup with her left hand underneath it while the right supported it from the side. There was a certain air of elegance to how she carried herself.

Looking closely at her, Leona couldn’t help but wonder just how old she was. In terms of height and appearance, she looked like a teenager but her demeanor and actions seemed more fit for a young woman like Leona herself.

“Miss Yuna, I have a question if you can humor me.”

“Just Yuna is fine, what is your question?”

“How old are you?”

“Huh?”

The question genuinely surprised her as she turned to her with wide eyes.

“Ah… I’m sorry if that was rude…”

“Oh no, I didn’t take it as rude, I just thought it was unusual for someone to ask about my age.” She chuckled. “I’m sixteen. My sister is twenty and dad is… something along the lines of centuries…”

“So you’re younger than me…”

“Oh? How old are you, Miss Leona?”

“Nineteen. I was born just after the Great War ended.”

“Great War…” She closed her eyes as she recalled the familiar name. “Ah… the human demon war right? The one where Eleonora and the Demon Prince worked together to defeat the Mad Demon King?”

“Yes exactly.”

“Eighteen forty-seven if I’m not mistaken? I was born in eighteen fifty-five.”

Leona was genuinely surprised by her accuracy.

“Have you studied Arcadian history before?”

“Yes, dad was adamant in teaching us general knowledge before letting us learn about magic. He said it was necessary for us to exercise the mind before trying to grasp something as abstract as magic.”

“Abstract huh?” That reminded her of her own mother. “You mentioned to me during training that your sister is just as good if not better than you in offensive magic. How come you two know so many spells of different elements?”

She tilted her head slightly up with closed eyes, as if pondering on something.

“Hmm… I’m not technically supposed to teach you this but…” She looked her direct in the eyes. “Are you willing to give some of your time for this?”

“But of course! If it can help me to grow stronger.”

“Very well. As you might already know from our previous conversation in the city, There are six main elements: fire, ice, wind, earth, lightning and water; each of them having a certain degree of advantage from one another.”

“Yeah. Fire is strong against ice, but weak against water and somewhat beaten by earth. Ice on the other hand is strong against both wind and lightning. Wind is strong against earth but is weakened by water. Earth is strong against lightning and lightning itself is strong against water.”

“You are entirely correct.” Yuna settled down her ceramic cup on the grass beside her. “That is the basis of the elemental magic chart. However there are two other major elements that are not completely obvious at first.”

“Light and dark.”

“Yes.” Yuna snapped her fingers and six different elemental orbs floated in the air in a hexagon formation. “Fire, ice, wind, earth, lightning and water. These are the major elements that are visible and therefore comprehensible to us. However, if you were to mix all of these elements while being able to maintain balance between all of them…” She flicked her hand and closed it into a fist which made the orbs congregate in the middle, forming a bright orb of seemingly pure white. “...you reach the light element.”

“It’s so bright…” Leona averted her eyes since looking straight at it felt like she was staring directly into the sun. “But what is the advantage of knowing this?”

“The light element has a very interesting factor that none of the other elements can compare to and it’s the ability to control time.”

That made her mind go blank for a second.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Time, as the passage of time.” She flicked her hand and the spell disappeared. She then pointed at the sun setting just below the horizon. “For instance, if I had an infinite amount of mana, I could, in theory, revert time back to when the sun was above the horizon.”

“Wait… then does that mean it’s possible to rewrite history with it?”

“That would require an unbelievable amount of mana.” Yuna chuckled. “For example, if I were to cut my finger and decide to revert the time on that specific wound, it would take me my entire mana pool and I would still not be able to achieve that.”

“Oh… I see… this is more complicated than I thought…”

“Don’t be discouraged. I heard you fought Kaeli before, did she use a spell called ‘Megido’?”

Leona squinted her eyes a bit as she was trying to remember the very first encounter with the high elf.

“I believe so… I don’t quite remember that well…”

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“That is a spell born from the light element. The entire incantation is: ‘Radiant light, cast down judgment, Megido.’ it uses partial summoning magic in order to achieve greater firepower in exchange for higher cast delay.”

“Wait, partial summoning? What is that supposed to mean?”

“Huh? You have been using partial summoning incantations during our entire training.”

“Have I?”

“Yes. Both ‘Windshot’ and ‘Wind Blast’. The ‘Winds of time’ part in both of their incantations are words pertaining to summoning of spirits.”

Leona had her mouth half open as she averted her gaze towards the grass.

“I… I didn’t know that…”

“It’s a rather recent discovery in this world. Dad always told us to not use summoning magic too often as it makes your body too dependent on the mana of the spirits.”

The tactician looked at her again and shook her head while also shaking her hand.

“Wait, wait… I don’t understand it. You said spirits, but what are these spirits you’re talking about?”

Yuna held her chin with her right hand and her right elbow with her left while tilting her head a bit to the right while she pondered for the best way to explain it to her.

“This is a difficult topic because not even I completely understand their nature.” She seemed a bit bashful as she chuckled a bit. “Dad told me they co-exist with us and the main reason why magic exists is because of their presence. But to greatly simplify the idea—think of them as invisible tiny people that aid you in casting magic whenever you call out to them. However, each time you call out to them it means that you’re not using the mana inside your body, which limits yourself how much of it you can draw out at once.”

Tried as she might, Leona couldn’t quite grasp the meaning behind her words as her own head started to pulsate.

“Nngh… my head hurts…”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I get overly excited when talking about magic.”

“No, it’s not your fault. It’s just that… I thought I knew everything there was to know about magic but I see this is much more complex than I could have imagined.”

“I-I see.”

Suddenly a shout jolted the shrine maiden up. Her older sister was addressing her from the trail that led to the forest.

“Yuna! Where is Miss Leona?!”

“Ah!” She turned her upper body and looked behind her. Setsuna was walking alone towards her. “She’s right here with me, we were taking a break after the training.”

After approaching her young sister, Setsuna noticed Leona resting against the boulder.

“Oh, I didn’t see you from back there, my apologies.”

“Don’t be, I was simply resting.” She leaned her back against the boulder before placing her right hand on top of it in order to lift herself up. “How did Krieg fare in the training?”

“He is improving faster than I imagined. But he is still too unstable to properly use aether blade.”

Leona frowned her brows a bit as she proceeded to ask.

“Both you and your father mentioned aether blade, is that technique any different from blade energy?”

“Um… essentially, they are the same thing, but aether blade is the correct terminology.” Yuna explained as she stood up holding the empty cups in each hand. “In higher concentrations, mana becomes something we call aether.”

“That’s my sister.” Setsuna ruffled Yuna’s hair before turning to Leona. “The technique Miyamoto uses boils down to accumulating and compressing enough mana through the blade then releasing it into a slash. Since the mana is so dense, it becomes capable of cutting through most materials or opponents.”

“Aether…?”

Yet again another term that Leona couldn’t wrap her head around.

“Don’t worry.” Setsuna reassured her. “We can go through some basic magic theory while we have dinner.”

“That would be most helpful.” The tactician offered a slight bow. “Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it.” She turned around while using her staff as a walking cane. “Shall we return?”

“Are we using teleportation magic again?”

Leona apprehensively asked as she wasn’t exactly looking forward to the feeling of mana sickness.

“No, father prefers to have dinner up here in the mountains.” Yuna smiled at Leona as she carried the cups back as well. “Actually, we sleep up here as well.”

“Up here? Where exactly?”

She couldn’t imagine anyone living in such a desolate place far away from civilization. It was a nice place for training in the morning and afternoon but as the sun was settling there was nothing but trees and the sounds of the nocturnal fauna waking up.

“It’s a bit of a hike, but we’ll get there.” Setsuna chuckled a bit. “Push comes to shove, I can teleport you there.”

“Ah, no, thank you. I can walk.”

Though soon Leona would know better than to speak in advance.

The way back was a harrowing experience to her; not only the forest and vegetation was much more compact and dense than Arcadia’s Great Forest, but the trail was upwards towards the mountain which made the climb even more difficult.

“Ha… ah…. Ha…” Leona was panting and gasping for air as her thighs and forelegs were burning from exhaustion. “How many times have you two done this hike?”

She asked as seeing neither of them being tired from the upwards climb.

“Almost every day?”

Yuna said while looking at her older sister for confirmation.

“Yes, except we start from the foot of the mountain since we have to go to the city every day.”

“F-from the foot of the mountain?!”

“Father would often say that a mage that can’t run is a dead mage.” Setsuna laughed. “I can still cast teleportation magic on you, Miss Leona.”

“N-no… I can… I can still keep going…”

Her lower body was burning up and her lower back was killing her, but it was still better than feeling mana sickness from teleporting.

“Do tell me if you change your mind.”

Setsuna giggled before turning around and continuing climbing. Yuna discreetly approached Leona and whispered.

“You can use wind magic to make it easier.”

“Ah.”

The girl smiled before turning around to keep up with her older sister.

‘That’s right…’ Leona shook her head as she thought to herself. ‘I was so tired I didn’t think of this earlier.’

She concentrated the mana around her ankles and covered both of her legs with vortexes of wind that helped bring her foot up on each step she took. With a bit more practice, she was sure it was something she would be able to keep constantly using.

Her body felt lighter and most of the strain was lifted from her lower body which allowed her to catch up to Setsuna.

“Oh? Did you have a realization, Miss Leona?”

The older shrine maiden asked.

“I was just too engrossed in not relying on teleportation magic that I forgot that I can also use magic for this.”

“That is a viable strategy, but do take care to not overexert yourself. You did after all, just finish training your mana capacity.”

“Huh?” At that time Leona’s vision was becoming blurry. “Oooh… what is happening…?”

She kneeled on the slope and the wind magic enveloping her lower body dissipated. Yuna approached her and touched her wrist.

“Another bout of mana shock. It’s a minor one though but don’t push yourself too hard.”

The girl closed her eyes and focused on transfusing some mana to her. There was tingling around her wrist at first, but it soon gave way to a gentle warmth that filled her body and washed away the lightheadedness she felt.

“Thank you…” She stood up and stared at her hand, with her vision no longer blurry and her head no longer aching, she asked. “How are you so good at transferring mana?”

“It comes with practice.”

“Practice? Why would you need to practice it?”

“It’s part of our Father’s training regime.” Setsuna explained as she was waiting for her younger sister to wrap up her treatment. “If you are able to transfer mana at will, it means you have some degree of control over it.”

“Hmm… that makes sense.”

She could feel her body regaining strength as Yuna lent more of her mana. As the tingling sensation gave way to warmth, Leona felt completely reinvigorated.

“There.” Yuna stood up with a faint smile on her face. “This should do the trick.”

“Thank you, Yuna.” She stood up as the lightheadedness was quickly subsiding. “I must say you really know everything there is to know about magic don’t you?”

“I just know what I know.” She giggled. “Most of what I learned was from dad after all.”

As they resumed their climb, Leona’s mind began to wonder about her newfound allies in such a faraway land.

Miyamoto was the previous lord of Nara; Robert, an otherworldly hero; Setsuna and Yuna both were outstanding in terms of magic prowess; Phoebe was an extremely skilled assassin and Kaeli was by far the most dangerous mage she had ever fought.

There was no shortage of talented people around her but she felt doubt deep down.

‘Am I really the one to bring peace to this world?’

Their abilities far surpassed her own in many ways and yet she was the one chosen to lead, it served as a sort of a reminder that would constantly gnaw at the back of her mind that she needed to become stronger.

“Hey, why the long face?”

A sudden male voice snapped Leona out of her thoughts and when she realized, she was already at the top of the mountain. Robert was holding a wine glass filled with a dark red liquid that swirled around the edges of the cup as he gave it a slight twirl with his wrist.

“Huh? Oh, Robert… I was just thinking about my own situation.” She sighed. “I’m surrounded by incredible people and yet, why have I been chosen to lead? It seems… unfair at best.”

He chuckled.

“Every chessboard needs a king. Real life is just the same.” He took a sip of his drink before snapping with his left fingers and making the glass disappear out of thin air. “Is that not the calling of someone who holds the title of Princess Tactician?”

“That is just another title the nobles came up with.” She grabbed on her left shoulder before giving it a firm squeeze to reassure herself. “Lives wouldn’t have been lost on this journey if I had been stronger, or smarter for that matter.”

“Well… it is true that no amount of regret will bring those who lost their lives back.” His words felt like daggers piercing through her chest as she clenched her teeth from dread. “However, if you are capable of taking responsibility for those mistakes and look into improving upon them—I dare say you are fit to lead.” He took half a step to the side and turned his upper body to show behind him with an extended arm. “All you need to do is look at those around you.”

Kaeli was leaning against the left side of the cave wall while Krieg seemed to be waiting for her—through a face full of dirt spots, he smiled and said.

“Welcome back Leona.”

Her dreadful thoughts gave place to something a bit happier once he saw them.

‘That’s right…’ She gave her shoulder one last squeeze before letting go of it. ‘This time… this time… nobody died…’

She smiled with teary eyes.

“I’m back.”