‘My career shouldn’t have turned out that way.’ Helena, the physics teacher thought so after being reborn. Nothing in her life had prepared her to such situation. Her scientific mind had trouble registering the new place she was in. Large-scale teleportation wasn’t something science easily explained, and her distraughtness was apparent on her baby face.

A man was looking at her while a woman was holding her in her arms. Both of them worn colored clothes. Helena couldn’t make out much with her newborn’s sight, but both seemed well-off. It was the same for the room she was in. Her mother and herself were resting under a richly adorned canopy bed. The woman whispered to her ear. “Hello sweetie. You are so cute~~.” Happiness was visible on the woman’s face.

The man barged in. “Honey, you should give our daughter a name, as per the tradition.”

The new mother smiled. “You will be Helena Selenit, future duchess of Selenit, if you want to.”

‘The same name that I had in my previous life. Wait! Duchess? What kind of world am I in?’ That day wasn’t the last one where Helena would have that kind of reaction.

*****

Five years later.

Helena was woken up by her maid. Most of the staff working for the Selenit family was made of men in their twenties, but her personal maid was a woman, courtesy of her parents for her young dignity.

Women were generally born with a higher mana pool than men, leading to a few changes compared to Helena’s world. If the men were still privileged for heavy labor and other highly physical tasks, women were occupying most of the highly important positions in society. That disparity led to some interesting consequences, and Helena had yet to discover them all.

“Wake up young lady, today is an important day for you~.” Her maid, Celestine, spoke to her young mistress with that particular mix of english and french, with a harsher undertone, that was the common language of the Europia continent.

“Oh, Celestine. Is it already morning?”

“Happy birthday young lady, and yes, it is currently 9am.”

“Alright, let’s prepare ourselves for the appraisal.” ‘Hehehe. Once I am admitted in Swordhold’s elementary school, I should be able to meet up with my former students. I wonder how they took their reincarnations…’

Half an hour later, Helena descended to the dining room to have a breakfast with her loving parents and the staff of the mansion. She took a deep breath before entering the room, she knew her new family loved her, but her former life’s memories were nagging her and acting everyday was taxing in its own way.

“Mom! Dad! Did you have a good night?”

“Yes sweetie. More importantly, happy birthday Helena.”

“Thanks dad.” Helena beamed a genuine smile toward her parents, she was seriously starting to enjoy her new life.

Her mother chimed in. “Eat quickly, we need to be at the Cathedral of Churdilt one hour before midday.”

“Sure!”

After breakfast, Helena and her parents took a carriage for the Cathedral. They arrived just in time for the beginning of the ceremony.

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The kids present there were plenty. Swordhold was the capital of an entire continent, its population was comparable to a big city from Earth -it was the only city rivalizing Earth in population-, so the children from normal or high backgrounds were everywhere. The most important thing was that the Cathedral of Churdilt was hosting the Appraisal Ceremony only four times a year, and thus lots of families waited for those dates to be able to boast that their offsprings were appraised in the biggest cathedral of Europia.

Several lines were forming, with at a duo Appraiser/Detect Lie at the end of each line. Helena took place at the end of one of them and paid attention to the results of the appraisals, hoping to find her former students among them. Most of the appraisals were negatives, after all, only one person in a hundred would have a Minor Gift, and one in a thousand would become Gift Bearers. It is said that Major Gifts also exists, but the last one recorded was from the Golden Age of Europia, several hundreds years ago.

Helena finally caught on a name she knew. The kid was a young boy with grey hair and answered when the name “Cillian” was called. He was the quiet guy who always followed Liam. If Helena remembered right, they were childhood friends and relied a lot on each other.

The priest announced. “Cillian, congratulations, you are the bearer of the Gift ‘Scholar of the First Sin’. Your mana pool is also way above average, your future is bright. You can get more informations about your Gift by opening your status.”

The other former students followed quickly. Aisling, the girl with a cheerful face received the Gift ‘Emissary of War’. Judging by its name, it was very combat oriented. Her boyfriend, Cathal, received the Gift ‘the Heresy of Life’, with uncertain effects.

One of the last kids who got appraised before Helena was Liam. His dual gifts made quite the commotion in the entire Cathedral. It was already rare to have one Gift, so to have two required godly levels of luck. His new powers were the Minor Gift ‘Eye of Appraisal’ and the Gift ‘Bloodbath’.

When Liam left the choir of the Cathedral to go sit on one of the benches with his parents, he seemed to recognize his former teacher and nodded to Helena without trying to get closer to her. It would be difficult for him to justify to his family his seemingly close ties with a total stranger.

Finally, it was the time for Helena to get tested. “Helena Selenit, come forward.” An old priestess with white fluffy hair called out to her. Her last name signified that she was the daughter and potential heiress of a noble family. The crowd quieted down and paid close attention to the ongoing appraisal.

“Congratulations, you have been bestowed the Gift ‘Headseeker’. Your mana pool, though not incredible, is above the average for a Gift bearer.” Helena smiled wryly, the name of her Gift sounded ominous.

‘I better check it soon.’ While she was thinking to herself, the priestess continued her speech, words flowing from her mouth with the ease of practice. “Everyone who has been Gifted, you will be welcomed at the elementary magic school of Swordhold in one month. I hope that you will learn a lot of useful things there and that your future will be bright. Once again, congratulations to all of you who received Gifts. And for those who didn’t, fear not. Plenty of people achieved greatness without the help of a Gift.” She paused to give herself the time to bow. “Thanks to all of you for attending this ceremony under the eyes of our beautiful Goddess Churdilt. The ceremony is now finished.”

Once Helena was back to the carriage with her parents, she checked her status. She was quite frustrated to not be able to meet up with her former classmates, but knew she would meet them soon enough.

[Helena Selenit - Female Human - 5 yo

Gift: ‘Headseeker’ - Aiming toward vital areas with physical projectiles enables you bend the trajectory of said projectiles. The efficiency depends on your knowledge of the laws of physic and their applications. Consumes mana.]

‘Man, that’s pretty great. Though I don’t know yet if I want to fight or not, I should prepare myself just in case I have to defend myself or someone.’ She looked at her mother with puppy eyes. “Mom?”

“Yes?”

“Could you hire a tutor to teach me the bases of marksmanship?”

Her mother was taken aback. “...Is it in relation with your Gift?”

“Yes.”

She looked toward her husband, seeking his opinion. The later smiled. “As long as our little sweetie keeps in mind that safety always comes first, I don’t see a reason to refuse. Having a Gift is rare, and not cultivating it is honestly criminal.”

“...Then fine.” Helena jumped in her parents arms. “Thank you~!”

‘I feel something is amiss… Ah, that’s because I didn’t see Sive and Ciaran at the ceremony. I hope they are doing well on their sides.’ Helena squeezed her parents a little tighter, hoping to make her worries go away.