“So, these are the engine models I’ve been planning.” Lilith picked up a few papers filled with the pictures, graphs, and equations she was so proud of, and happily pushed them at Silene. “The best one is the oil based one. It’s so much more efficient it practically goes forever!”

“You told me about them,” Silene said, leaning in to get a better look. “Looks pretty complicated.”

“Yeah,” Lilith said. “It’s mostly based off of this PV equals nRT equation, which worked for the horns I made.” She picked up one and showed Silene.

“I saw those too,” Silene said. “A fisherman was using them to freeze his fish.”

“Oh! I’m glad he got good use out of it!” Lilith smiled. She was worried it wouldn’t make enough ice.

“Mhmm.” Silene looked back to the papers, but her eyes seemed to glaze over. “Do you think you could take that with you somewhere while you explain it?”

“Uh, sure.” Lilith started picking up her papers and the coil, then followed Silene outside. She was hoping Silene could make sense of it, unlike Malena. It was nice to say what was on her mind, but it was nicer to be understood.

…

“So, when you do all the equations,” Lilith said, now walking outside with the papers. “Two engines come out at the top. The turbine and the gas one. And the turbine one is way too complicated with all its blades, so it’ll take forever to make.”

Silene nodded. “The math is right, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t teach us anything like that in class.”

“Nope,” Lilith shook her head. This was all Wispy stuff. “But I’ll be able to prove it even before I make an engine.”

Silene waved to someone with a large hat as they passed by, who smiled and waved back. “How is that?” She asked Lilith.

“Because I plan on making the scuba system first, and I’ve already got one of the coils I need ready. Though, now that I think about it, I need to insulate the wire.” She paused, made a note on her paper, then continued. “I’ll be putting a lot of air into a small container. A small room full of air into something like a metal backpack. When the air goes in, the pressure will rise while the volume is constant, so the temperature will rise too, because PV equals nRT. And when the air goes out, the temperature will drop.”

“How will you know about the volume part then?” Silene asked before waving back at another person who was leaning against an old wooden house.

It was an interesting question. A container with a fixed size wouldn’t say anything about volume, but a container that changed size to equalize pressure wouldn’t heat up. You could just blow into a bag to prove that… hold on. “Aha. That one’s actually easier,” Lilith said. “Raise the pressure, and the temperature goes up, right? But if you have a container that can grow, like a bag or a leather flask, then it just gets bigger instead, or gets more volume. So volume goes up and pressure goes back down. Oh! It’s like a water mage when they take an air bubble underwater, and it gets smaller and smaller as the pressure goes up, and the temperature doesn’t change.”

Silene was silent for a while, clearly thinking about it. She absent mindedly waved back to another person that passed them as she thought.

Silene was waving a lot. It reminded her of when she was back home. “You have a lot of friends over here,” Lilith said. “Is this close to your place?”

Silene blinked. “I was actually just wandering, but I guess I walked closer to the farming area. I help them out by putting bio magic into their seeds.”

“Oh.” Lilith blinked. “Wait, why don’t they just use their own bio magic?”

“Because they don’t have it?” Silene raised an eyebrow. “Not everyone has every type of magic like you do.”

“I know that,” Lilith said, frowning.“But they could still learn new magic.”

“It takes years for most people to learn new magic,” Silene said. “And even then, they might not ever get it.”

Lilith furrowed her brow. She was pretty sure Malena figured out how to teleport stuff recently, and it didn’t take years for her. “Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Silene said. “If all the farmers could be bio mages, we’d probably be farming in the rocky mountains too now just because we could.”

Farming in the mountains. That was a neat thought. “Huh.” But it was strange. Malena figured out her magic, almost all her friends knew magic, and according to Wispy, he taught her magic even though she was born without it. The idea that there were countless people that didn’t reject magic but still couldn’t get it was strange.

“Oh, look at that!” Silene pointed, breaking Lilith from her thoughts.

Lilith looked. There were a lot of people outside under pergolas dancing in various ways. “Oh, neat.”

“Wanna join them?” Silene asked, smiling.

Lilith blinked. She’d never danced before. It wasn’t as if her home town didn’t have dances, she just never joined them since she didn’t like most of them enough for more than a smile and a wave, but she didn’t have anything against the Solis people. “Uh, s-- sure.” She still didn’t know how to dance though.

Silene pulled her along.

Up on a stage there was a young farmer playing a stringed instrument and singing.

“In a golden field, the sun shining so bright,

There's a goddess of harvest, a wondrous sight!

With a crown of flowers, and dressed in green,

She brings abundance like you've never seen!

Lilith looked at Silene, at the flowers she usually kept in her hair, and at her green dress. That song was a lot of praise.

Silene smiled, looked away, and shook her head.

“Heeey!” Someone pointed. “Goddess of harveeest!” they slurred. They had a beer in their other hand.

Silene sighed, then yelled at the drunken gathering, “That’s blasphemous you guys! You’re only supposed to call Haven a goddess!” She was smiling though.

“See, I told you she’d be mad.” Another guy called up to the stage. “She’s devout.”

“I thought it sounded good though.” The kid up on stage frowned.

Silene sighed again. “It does sound good. Don’t stop the music just for me!”

“Yeah, don’t stop the music just for the goddess!” Someone else yelled to the stage, laughing. “The show must go on!”

“Goddess of harvest?” Lilith asked.

“Seeds pumped with bio magic can grow really well, like nine out of ten seeds sprouting instead of one out of ten,” Silene said. “A lot of stronger bio mages stop doing it because they become healers, but I grew up around here. I might be the only one that does it on a large scale.”

“Oh, who’s your friend?” someone asked.

Silene stepped aside so Lilith was no longer behind her. “This is Lilith! I met her at school!”

“Can she do magic too?” Someone else asked.

“Yeah,” Silene said. “Electricity.”

“You mean lightning?” They asked.

Lilith nodded. “Y-- yeah.” She wasn’t sure how well that would be received. It was a pretty scary magic compared to helping things grow.

“Cool! Can I see?”

She was relieved to hear that, so she let herself show off a bit, flying up into the air and letting a few sparks fly off her hand.

“She’s like a goddess of thunder and rain!” Someone said, then pushed a kid beside them forward. “She should be your age. You wanna dance with the thunder goddess, right? I saw you looking at her.”

The kid froze, then walked forward hesitantly.

Lilith was surprised at both how open they were being, and how blasphemous, calling her a goddess too. Maybe Haven’s religion didn’t spread to the farms? Or maybe it was more open minded than her beastfolk’s beliefs.

The kid stood in front of Lilith and asked, “D-- do you wanna dance?”

Lilith paled. “Uh, S-- sure. How do you dance though?”

“Well, you see them? You can get the rhythm, right? Just walk back and forth and hop at the right times, or to the right at times.”

Lilith tried to follow his movements, She hopped, then stepped to the side, then stepped back, but it was the wrong direction and they were moving apart. So, she quickly rushed back, then stepped forward and collided with them. They almost both fell down, but she caught him and they lifted each other up, then tried dancing again, but Lilith was hesitating.

“Hey, try some of this!” Someone nearby reached out and offered her their beer. “It’ll help with the nerves!”

Lilith took it and chugged.

“Whoa!” They took it back from her. “Don’t drink it all!”

---

After the dance, with the crescendo being Lilith spinning in place while the kid held her hand, people started leaving, and Silene had to hold Lilith up since she had trouble keeping her balance.

“I didn’t even get his name…” Lilith frowned. She could still feel butterflies in her stomach.

“You’re attached after one dance?” Silene asked.

“He was cute and we danced.” Lilith swayed. “It was fun.”

“I guess that’s fair enough,” Silene said. “I didn’t know you were romantic at all though.”

“No one ever approached me before,” Lilith said, smiling wide. “The people back home were all mean. They hated magic.”

“Oh yeah,” Silene frowned. “I forget you’re, well, from where you’re from sometimes. Still, you can’t just get attached to the first guy that asks you to a dance and doesn’t hate magic.”

“Why not?” Lilith tilted her head. “He liked my magic, it was fun, and he was cute.” Back home, that combination would’ve been impossible.

“Are you drunk? You’re being silly and you were walking funny.” Silene said. “Are you even going to remember this?”

Lilith raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t saying anything silly at all. “I’m not drunk,” she said. “I felt weird after taking a few sips of the beer, and then it wore off.”

“Then why were you having trouble walking?” Silene asked.

“The dancing made me dizzy,” Lilith said. “Did you not see me spinning at the end?”

“Oh,“ Silene said, then smirked. ”So you’re not even a lovey dovey drunk, you’re just lovey dovey.”

“M-- maybe I am.” Lilith looked away, blushing. “What’s wrong with that?”

Silene continued smirking at Lilith. “Can’t believe I used to be afraid of this girl,” She muttered.

---

Meanwhile, after his workout, Prince Keith was struggling with his own emotions. This torture couldn’t be what Malena wanted, so he called for his top knight, eventually finding him in a dining area just looking out to the courtyard and not eating anything. What kind of psycho would sit around food and not eat anything?

“Reinhold! Are you sure these were the best trainers you could find?” He asked. “That muscle freak keeps trying to get me to do impossible workouts, and he won’t let me eat! And all your ‘strategist’ does is yell at me! Why aren’t any of them Voldian either?”

Reinhold looked up. “The muscular guy is Adonis Maximus--”

“Seriously?”

“--Yes. He’s worked with quite a few people to get rid of their love handles, and he also trained a few adventurers. He knows what he’s doing.”

“Why won’t he let me eat?” Keith asked.

“I assume he let you eat steak after your workout?” Reinhold raised an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah, but just that is nothing,” Keith said, his stomach growling.

“That’s all you need. If you eat constantly, it’s not going to work.”

“But I’m starving!” Keith threw his arms out.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“From what I heard, that should go away in a week or two. You just have to bear with it.” He looked down at the prince. “You can last a week, right? The people here eat nothing for a week as part of their religion.”

Prince Keith squinted back up. Why was this knight looking at him like that? He was a prince, so of course he could do anything anyone else could if he tried hard enough. The only question was: was it worth his time? He wasn’t sure if this was. “Of course I can last a week.” He sighed. “But why does that other guy keep yelling at me?”

“Honestly, William might be a bit of a sadist, but his training is actually tame compared to what the troops go through back home.”

“Really?” Keith looked at Reinhold like he grew a second head. “There’s no way the average person could go through that hell. What’s even the point of letting someone be mean to you?”

“He’s not being mean.” Reinhold shook his head. “He actually said you reminded him of some of his old recruits. I think he liked training you.”

“Yeah, sadistically.”

“I don’t think it’s like that. He genuinely wants you to become better,” Reinhold said. “You can rest easy. The runes on my armor would stop me if I tried to lie to you.”

“I know.” Prince Keith almost rolled his eyes, but kept them on the runes instead. Apparently the strategist was in fact helping him, somehow. “Do I even need to do this though? I’m already a prince. I don’t need to lose weight or deal with that crazy yelling guy. Maybe I should just demonstrate my power to Malena so she can understand it.”

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” Reinhold said. “She's a princess herself. She has her own power.”

That was true, but then something was weird. “So she should know then,” Keith said, raising an eyebrow. “People follow her because she’s a princess, and people follow me because I’m a prince. We’re royalty.”

Reinhold paused for a moment, looking away, then looked back to Keith. “People don’t follow you because you’re the prince. They follow you because your dad the king hasn’t rid himself of you like the other kings have done with their sons. That’s the only reason our runes are still bound to you.”

Prince Keith froze. He stared at Reinhold’s runes, but they weren’t glowing at all, so it was the truth. “Rid himself of me?” Was Malena right about his power not being as assured as he thought? That couldn’t be right, could it?

“Yep,” Reinhold said.

Prince Keith trembled. He thought his dad was just distant because he had to work, but not even his own father loved him?

---

Later, Prince Keith found Malena after school and had her take a walk with him. She just wanted to relax with Lilith after a hard day of school, but this child of a prince had to force her to take walks with him like she was some kind of pet.

“I can’t take it,” Keith said, sighing and trying to keep himself from crying. “The training is horrible. They keep yelling at me, and my whole body hurts. Is that really what you wanted?”

A flash of contempt showed on Malena’s face before she hid it. “Unfortunately things are just like that sometimes. You can’t improve unless you go through something boring or even painful.” She patted her stomach. “The religion here does a week of fasting once a year, so we all share that pain. I think it’s easier to deal with because we have each other and we know the people in charge have what’s best in mind.”

Keith stole a look at Malena as she tried to hide her emotions. “Do they?” Keith asked. “I feel like they hate me, like they’re making training extra painful just to punish me, because I’m Prince.”

Malena looked back at him. “I thought being a prince was only a good thing, that you had your power because you were a prince.”

“Well you’re a princess,” Keith said. “You know what it’s like.”

Malena paused, remembering that she was, as of a few days ago, actually a princess. The castle was still working on how to properly announce it since it was so sudden.

“Some people are envious of your position and some people are loyal,” Keith continued. “The envious ones will always be envious, so they’re just trash.”

Malena paused to think. No one was envious of her yet. There were several that knew she was a princess already, and the rumor and news was spreading. Takumi had gracefully accepted her being the princess, even smiling at the thought of being an aide in the future, though she seemed bitter that she lost. The adults in the kingdom mostly gave Malena nods of approval too. Maybe people would be envious of her in the future, but she hadn’t seen it yet.

She also strongly disagreed with the ‘they’re just trash’ complaint. Her strategy class was just getting into the subject of one-on-one meetings, and there was the concept of a ‘smell test’. People could generally sense if something was wrong, but they couldn’t always say what it was, so ops commanders doing one-on-ones sometimes had to rely on indicators. Envy was one such indicator. It either meant a soldier thought someone else didn’t earn their position, or it meant that whoever was envious was also arrogant.

“No one’s ‘just trash’”, Malena said after her pause, excepting that maybe the Prince himself counted. “They might always be envious, but even then people can work past their problems to be good.” Most of the stories in her strategy class seemed to be filled with horrible people after all.

“I don’t think so,” Keith said. “I think all my trainers envy me.”

Malena frowned. “Even if they do, I doubt the people chosen as trainers for the prince himself would let that stop them from doing their job. And since they’re so close to you, you can show them that you’re worthy of your position. That way, there’s nothing to be envious of.”

Prince Keith blinked. “What? What does being worthy have to do with anything?”

“You don’t know what envy means?” Malena asked, frustrated. “It means they think they’re better than you, and that you got your position through favoritism.”

Prince Keith raised an eyebrow. “I got my position because I’m the king’s son. Who would think they’re better than the king’s son?”

Malena paused to choose her words carefully. “I don’t think anyone thinks they’re better than the king’s son,” Malena said, then grit her teeth and let some of her frustration out. “They think they’re better than some weak kid that slumps all the time and doesn’t understand what’s going on around him.” She froze. Maybe she was going too far. Even if it was the truth, she didn’t want him to hate her, because then she’d lose control over him.

Prince Keith grimaced and looked at the ground for a while. It looked like the truth hurt. But then, he shook his head. “They’re wrong. I am better than them, because I’m the prince.”

---

Malena got back to her dorm to find Lilith laying on her bed, closing her eyes, smiling, and hugging one of her sponges. It was disgustingly cute.

Malena shook her head. She was spending too much time grossed out by Keith. “Well, you’re certainly happy,” she said, her frown turning into a smile. “Did something good happen?”

Lilith looked over, still smiling. “Silene took me to a dance!”

“Ah,” Malena said. “I wish I could’ve gone to a dance. Better than hanging out with that gross Prince.”

“Gross Prince?” Lilith raised an eyebrow.

Malena blinked. “Oh yeah.” She sighed, hoping the news wouldn’t make Lilith grow distant from her or become envious. “I… I passed a test to become princess. King Solis held it because he doesn’t have any heirs.”

Lilith’s face was blank for a while, before she broke out in a huge smile. “So you really are gonna become Queen! Are you gonna make me the head of magical research and let me make laws?”

Malena stared dubiously at Lilith. “And what laws would you make?”

“Everyone should be trained in magic!” Lilith said. “You learned it after all, so maybe other people can. And if we put more effort into training, the magic teachers might get better too and help people that couldn’t get it before!”

Malena thought about it. “Honestly I was expecting something crazier, maybe having to do with your engines.”

“I’m not that obsessed with my work,” Lilith said.

Malena doubted that, but then she doubted her doubts. Lilith often gave the impression that she didn’t take things seriously, but in reality she might’ve been a workaholic, especially after she tried training her last electrical magic to the point she hurt herself. “Yeah. I might actually have to think about this,” she said. Perhaps Takumi could stop Lilith from overworking herself rather than underworking, but then, Takumi might’ve had some pride to deal with.

“So who’s the prince?” Lilith asked while Malena was thinking.

“Ugh.” Malena slumped. “He’s some ugly kid who used his dad’s influence for everything. He doesn’t even get why people don’t like when they see that the person in charge of them is some gross, slobbering, slouching man-child,” she said. “He’s my age, but he acts like he’s half my age.”

Lilith shuddered. “You said Prince? That sounds more like a goblin.”

“It does, doesn’t it,” Malena laughed. “Yeah, both kingdoms are forcing me to act nice around this goblin of a man.” She groaned. “He’s fallen for me completely and he can’t even use that to get through a workout without crying about it!”

“Eugh.” Lilith shied away. “Sorry you have to go through that.” She paused. “Wait, isn’t it wrong though? If you don’t like the guy, you should just avoid him.”

“Both kingdoms,” Malena deadpanned at Lilith. “Both kingdoms are forcing me to do this to keep peace between them.”

“Why can’t they just keep peace by themselves?” Lilith asked.

“Because Voldia wants a political marriage, or else they’re sending their army,” Malena gritted her teeth, then froze. That was probably supposed to be info for her and her only. “Uh, don’t tell anyone that.”

Lilith took that in, then glared at the window. “So Voldia’s forcing you, and Solis isn’t protecting you.”

“Solis can’t defeat Voldia,” Malena said more quietly. “Their army is bigger and they have more powerful mages.”

Lilith didn’t respond for a while, frowning. But then, she got up, walked over to the window, and stuck her gloved hand out before making another lightning ball, which drifted a few feet before exploding.

Malena sighed. Lilith seemed to have improved her technique, but it still looked dangerous. It was both comforting and troubling that Lilith was doing something so dangerous for her sake.

Lilith turned back after another explosion. “I was going to go scuba diving with Silene soon. There are only going to be two scuba suits, but do you want to come anyway? I could have Ethen carry you.”

“What’s scuba diving?” Malena asked.

Lilith paused, then said, “Scuba means self contained underwater breathing apparatus.”

“Oh,” Malena said, then paused. Lilith said it like it was a military acronym, but the letters didn’t match up right. It was like it was translated from another language. “I don’t see how that makes ‘scuba’, but I wouldn’t mind going. It’ll have to be on the weekend, after my daily Prince babysitting.”

“Ew.”

Malena smiled, then looked at Lilith’s gloves. She was already doing something dangerous right now. Did that girl have any sense of danger? “Wait, how safe is going underwater in a cave?” She started thinking of various ways Lilith could get trapped.

Lilith shrugged.

“If you get stuck, is there any way Ethen and I could save you?”

Lilith thought. Then, her eyes landed on one of her spools of copper wire, and she slumped. “I got an idea…”

Malena looked over. That wire looked like… a lot of boring work to make.

---

On the weekend, Lilith took her makeshift but well tested scuba systems, along with Silene, Ethen, and Malena, to her adit. Now, she was finally standing at the end of the river with her friends, eager to see how it continued underground.

“You’re going under there?” Malena asked, holding a large lantern.

“Yep,” Lilith said, stripping to her underwear alongside Silene, then handing her clothes to Malena.

“Whoa, have some decency!” Malena’s eyes went wide. “Ethen is here!”

“I don’t mind,” Ethen said.

“Shut up Ethen,” Malena said. “Lilith, you can’t show that much skin to a guy.”

Lilith blinked. She couldn’t? People didn’t seem to care much about that back home. “Why not?”

“It’s indecent,” Malena said.

“No it’s not?” Lilith said, confused as she put her leather fins on her feet.

“But… it is,” Malena said.

“You politicians are too strict,” Silene said.

Malena lolled her head back and sighed.

Lilith and Silene finished putting on their flippers, then sat and dipped their feet into the water.

“Oh, cold,” Silene said.

“Warmth magic!” Lilith warmed the area around her feet, but it took a lot of energy out of her.

“I don’t think you can do that the whole time,” Silene said. “We can adjust though. It’s not too cold.” She scooted forward until she fell in, then shivered. The current started gently pulling her away, but the copper wire held her back.

Lilith hesitantly scooted in as well, then tensed up as she splashed in. “Cold!” But after a few shivers, she started to adjust.

Everything was ready, but Lilith wanted to explain things one last time. It’d be unfortunate if they messed up and pulled them back before they could explore fully. So, she held up her gauge. “Alright, Silene, Malena: this tells us how much air we have left. If either of us gets down to half, we’ll go back up. If we need help coming back up, I’ll tap twice on the wire or try to speak into it, so keep that cup on your ear. If we need you to stop pulling, I’ll tap three times.”

“Why would you need us to stop pulling?” Malena asked.

“I just learned about something called ‘the bends’,” Lilith said. “Air expands as it goes up in water, including the air in our body. We’ll need to stop if it’s expanding too much.”

Malena blinked. “Wait, so you can go down fine, stop at half, but then you might have to stop when you’re coming back up?”

“Yeah,” Lilith said.

Malena shook her head. “That doesn’t add up! At least give yourself some room. Maybe stop at a third instead of a half.”

Lilith paused, then sighed and nodded. “Alright. That means we won’t be able to go as deep, but it’s probably a good idea.” She put her regulator in, put the goggles she made on, then pressed a button and some bubbles came up beside her before she fell underwater. There, she flicked the copper wire twice.

Malena, hearing the loud taps, pulled Lilith back up.

“Good, it works!” Lilith smiled, now above the water. “Now how about speaking.” She dove back below the water, then held the wire to her regulator.

A very muffled “Hello?” came out the other side.

“Hi,” Malena replied back, which vibrated through the water.

Lilith smiled, came back up above the water, and gave a thumbs up. “Alright, it’s good! We’re going!” She dove back down, then her flippers kicked above the water.

Silene followed beside her. After they were both underwater, the current carried them, but it was light enough that a few kicks could help at times.

Then, once Lilith was under the rock completely, a voice in her head rang out, ‘this is how you died in your past life.’ She froze, but she didn’t want to go back now. Besides, Silene had bio magic and she had her telekinesis, so things weren’t the same. The jellyfish that killed her last time probably didn’t exist in this world either, and even if it did, she could detect it with her mana sense. This was way safer than dealing with dragons.

---

“So, there’s a rumor going around that you’re the new princess?” Ethen said.

Malena leaned back, wondering how many times she was going to have to answer that. “Yes, I am.”

Ethen smiled. “I’m glad someone studying strategy is going to be in charge,” he said. “So, are we going to war with Voldia soon then?”

Malena stared back. “What? No! I became Princess so we could make peace with Voldia!”

Ethen shook his head. “There is no making peace with bullies. The adventurers complained about their jobs being taken by foreigners, the knights abuse their power and kill too often, and they’re just walking through Solis like they own the place. We have to fight back.”

Malena shook her head in turn. “If we fight back, we’re going to lose. Their army is bigger and stronger than ours.”

“Maybe we can use a strategy like Elio used on me then,” Ethen said. “There are ways of dealing with stronger opponents. You should know since you’re a strategist.”

“No,” Malena said. “Voldia’s military is both stronger and smarter. Otherwise the king would’ve fought back.”

Ethen paused for a moment before speaking. “Your king is a wuss.”

Malena’s eyebrows shot up and she glared. She knew he was a foreigner, but that was too far.

But then she thought back to when she saw the king and the sad, defeated look he had. The word ‘doormat’ came to mind, but she still shook her head. Under the circumstances, his actions made sense. “No, he’s doing what’s best to defend his people. Going to war means many of us will die, and if we lose, which we probably will, the rest will be enslaved or killed.”

“Slavers deserve war,” Ethen said. “Even if it costs us, slavery is worse than death. It’d be better if every citizen of Solis fought and died than let themselves become slaves.”

“It’d be better if no one died or became a slave,” Malena shot back.

“You’re becoming slaves already,” Ethen said. “You’re letting their knights walk armed through your kingdom and giving them a voice in your courts.”

Malena frowned. He might’ve had a point. Solis letting foreign armies roam the city was strange. But what could she do about it?