Serena Pendragon Pov.

“And what does he want, dear?” I heard Draco ask me with a certain tone as I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.

‘Still not over your inferiority complex? What a shame. I really should have tried harder to get Solis, but he was too perceptive. Life wouldn’t have been as easy as it is for me now. Plus, that damn princess would not allow just any female to get close to him.’

“According to him, another city is being opened in his land and he wants to use that opportunity to bring all of us that spent all those years in our classroom together for the opening party.” I walked over to him and stroked his cheek.

“That won’t be a problem, will it? I was hoping you could come with me, and really, it’s only a portal away so it wouldn't take up much time.” I looked him directly in the eye as I spoke.

“Of course we can go. You don’t need to ask me permission for these things, we’re a team. Any decision you make is a decision we make together.” He said earnestly. I smiled sweetly and leaned in to give him a kiss.

‘Of course I know I don’t have to ask you, but men need the illusion of control to feel big and important. Well, some men, I should say, not all. But those that do are ever so easy to control.’

My life in this new land, this new world, was something I didn't expect after closing my eyes for the last time. I was an experienced but no name medic in a world that had renowned healers that revolutionised the way things were done. I was a side character, a nobody, an extra. I married an ordinary man, had ordinary children and later, ordinary grandchildren. I eventually died an ordinary death as an old, ordinary woman.

When I opened my eyes for the first time here, I was a bit confused. The magic was so dense and thick and so easily pliable, not like the stiff immovable ether I was used to. As I grew, I noticed that I had the beauty that I had always dreamed of and my brain function and motor skills were performing better than whatever my last body ever could. I reveled in the fact that I could become someone of note in this life, as opposed to how I was in my last. But I had to start young if I was to get anywhere.

With that in mind, I managed to, at a young age, get a travelling wizard to teach me and the rest was history.

I went to the royal academy as a commoner, something very rare to do, expecting to be the best of the best. They were, after all, just little children and I had a lifetime of experiences to fall back on. Starting in the school proved I was right.

I was the most beautiful, so far, the most intelligent, so far, the most powerful, so far, and everything was going well. As I was in the midst of basking in the euphoria of being absolutely superior, it was then I met my first setback, the princess.

I had always known there was a royal family in the back of my mind and I honestly didn’t care. The only interactions we were to have was if they had a prince I could get close to in his formative years, but they didn’t. All they had was a princess my age and a prince out of my possible area of influence. Oh well, I thought, there were many others to choose from.

But things didn’t stop there. She was the most beautiful, you say? Doesn’t matter, she doesn’t show her face anyway so we could never conclusively know. She had built the most magic circles? She had a head start with the best teachers at her beck and call, we can always, no, I can always catch up. She’s just a child, a princess at that. She’ll be lax, eventually. I just needed to be patient.

And then the first exam came and she beat me, but she didn’t even come first. Meaning I didn’t even come second. To add insult to injury, I didn't even come third. These were children, just fucking children. And the exam was hard so there should be no way they had any business scoring as high as they did. Who the fuck is Solis Whitefyre and why is he better than the princess. Who the fuck is Brandon Smith and why is he better than me.

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I sought out Brandon first and it was there and then I decided that we would never have any meaningful interaction again. Before I could even get a word in edgewise, he let it be known that he was a seer who had decent control of his abilities so he knew me better than anybody else, that he knew my intentions.

what the fuck was that supposed to mean.

I turned and left him alone, recalibrating my offensive strategy. The next person I tried to meet was this Solis person. I learned all I could about his family from the library mentally prepared myself. Before I could even get close to him, the princess came to me.

‘Leave him out of your little games.’ I can still hear her say that to me till this day, the little bitch. But I could wait, I could bide my time. We had seven years together. Everything was going to be alright. So I just concentrated on building my group of potential partners from influential families and the final exams.

I was expecting to do better, position wise, and go from there. I was disappointed again with the results. There were no changes. No fucking changes after all the work I put in. Who even were these children, was the physiology so different that children advance faster here? I knew the answer then, but I was in denial.

In the second year with all my homeroom classmates, I learned what true exceptionality was as opposed to my ‘headstart’ intelligence. All of them saw through me easily, embarrassingly, and it all started with the Solis library incident.

I had been having problems with Draco being too controlling and I didn’t know then if I would have been able to come in between him and his engagement to the Medici family, so I needed options and he was driving them away.

I needed someone powerful to balance him out, and knew exactly who to go for. I still had the princess’s warning at the back of my mind but what could she realistically do. I hyped myself up thinking about the possibilities. Solis was objectively more handsome than Draco, but he had this cold unapproachable exterior that I didn’t have the patience for, but he would do in tamping down Draco a few pegs.

That was the day I began to resent Solis Whitefyre. Talking to him took me back to how I was in my previous world, talking to my betters who knew everything about a subject that I couldn’t hope to even begin to comprehend. It was humiliating, and everyone in that homeroom took his lead.

In a sad sort of way, the people in that homeroom could be considered the only people who had ever seen even a small facet of the true me, well, the me I was ever going to be willing to share. They could be considered my only….friends?

‘Heh, look at me getting sentimental.’ I did enjoy some of the verbal spars I had with them leading all the way up till graduation.

Then the time came for the graduation project. I knew that it would be the only time I would ever have a chance to be the best, so I dipped into my past. I understood spell theory and magic well enough to craft a set of medical spells, a direct rip-off of those I had used in my past life. They were way ahead of what was available so it would get my name in the history books.

‘I might not be as innovative as them but damn if I don't use experience to overshadow them.’ I got a little bit delusional about it at the time.

‘Serena Pendragon, the great healing saint, beautiful and smart.’ I scoffed at the thought now but that is what was going through my head at the time. Then I had to be reminded, once again, of my place in this world by Solis Whitefyre.

A world tree. A fucking world tree. I revolutionise medical magic, shifting it centuries into the future and you plant a world tree. Forget about his mind arts whatever, that product would always be niche, but a world tree? And a new title for him just to add insult to injury? Really? Really?!

I must admit, It….took me a while to come back from that anger high.

Years later, I now have a name for myself as one of the preeminent medical wizards out there, am a high noble, just under the imperial family, by marriage, and have two children that will follow in my footsteps to be just as extraordinary as I am. And from what I’ve researched on the schools, they will make it be.

So what if I’m a little bit jealous. My life has turned out far better than I could have ever hoped it would be, far better than even my wildest dreams in my last life.

“I love you, honey.” Draco said.

“I love you, too.” I reapplied.

‘And I actually might.’