Me and Sophia along with Monica are enjoying the rare occasion where we don’t have any work to do by eating some chocolate cookies. Chocolate is quite the expensive thing as only one person knows how to do it and by the looks of it not someone like me as it is said to be an old woman who makes these chocolates. The good part is that she makes a lot of it from time to time and we bought a lot, at least 5 kilos for each one of us. I know the effects of chocolate better than anyone so I am holding back a little, those two on the other hand not so much.
“We got really lucky, who would have guessed that one of the chocolate vendors would pass through here today?” Sophias says while eating a chocolate bar.
“The early bird gets the worm.” Monica says eating the same thing as Sophia.
“Yeah… Sophia, I have been thinking about something. Why does the Queen treat you so casually? I just remembered it a few days ago and I can’t find a reason why.”
“Oh, she was my mom’s best friend.” She says casually.
“Your dad was the governor of a city and your mom was best friends with the Queen. You had quite the family.”
“It was suffocating most of the time but I miss them.”
“May I ask what happened?”
“They died due to a sickness that had no cure at the time. Nowadays the sickness itself is so rare that you would wonder if it really existed just a few years ago.”
“At least you had a good family from what it looks like.”
Monica and Sophia stop for a few moments.
“Lady Lucia, we both know you may not be ready to tell us but at least I have to ask. What happened before you came here, besides traveling the forest?”
As she asks me this I remember what happened to me until now and get a little angry, but a few deep breaths later I am calm again.
“I guess I can tell some details.”
“Please, don’t force yourself.” Sophia says.
“I will probably have to talk a little in a few days when the new year party happens in the castle, don’t I? It would be for the better if at least one person there knows a little about me.”
They both stop eating and start to pay attention to me.
“I was born in a unnamed village in the Maka Kingdom. I have no idea where it is as I have no memory of how I ran away from there after being banished by the church. After running from there a few days later, I think, I found the camp that the Purple Dragons were using during their job at the time.”
“Wait, you mean THE Purple Dragons?” Sophia asks.
“Yes, they. They took me in, some things happened and they started to train me and another boy as soldiers from a very young age. At some point a Monster Break happened nearby so we were deployed to deal with that.”
“I remember the news arriving here.” Monica adds.
“After that was over I stayed in that city for an entire year due to another job involving killing a S-Rank Bounty. After that I also fought a demon invasion and about a month after that I was banished again and went into the forest where it took me two years to traverse.”
“You have more military achievements than most people I knew.” Sophia says impressed.
“Wish they would serve for anything.”
“Didn’t you work for the adventure guild as you said something about a bounty? Can’t they vouch for you?” Sophia asks.
“Lady Lucia still is underage. Even if she received permission to work with the guild they can’t officially recognize it.” Monica explains.
“Yeah, that.”
“Lucia, did you buy a new dress?” Sophia asks me.
“Yes, it will arrive tomorrow.”
“I am not looking forward to the party.”
“Why?”
“Too many people try to get in good graces with the Queen via myself.”
“Ask for something impossible instead of refusing.”
“And what if someone actually does what I ask?”
“An impossible task must have a reward equal to it’s difficulty. Ask someone to tame an Elder Dragon and play catch with it in front of you. Anyone who can do that deserves anything.”
“That’s something I would like to see.”
After that we spend a few more minutes in silence.
“Lucia, how strong do you think you are?” Sophia asks.
“If you mean strength wise I am pretty weak. I don’t even have muscles like you do.”
“Really? How do you even use … Mira, is it?”
“Weightless Mastery, A blessing.”
“Ok, but in a fight, how strong do you think you are?”
“... enough to at least draw with anyone I know in a death match.”
“Does that include me?”
“Yes. I may lose to a lot of people including you, but I can’t guarantee you would survive that much longer after that.”
“Lady Lucia is the worst kind of enemy one who is strong can have.” Monica adds.
“What do you mean?” Sophia asks,
“To most people, just being stronger than the enemy is usually enough to win the battle, but in case of Lady Lucia you need overwhelming power that will not let her do anything.”
“Pretty much. I learned a long time ago that if the cost of defeating something is you dying or being heavily damaged, people usually don’t fight.”
“Overwhelming force doesn’t seem to stop the people from the institute to challenge you.” Sophia says.”
“Well, they are not deathmatches. Remove the judges and they will stop in no time.”
“Ok. I think I had enough of doing nothing, let’s train. I think it’s about time I actually trained with someone else.” Sophia says while standing up.
“I see no problem. Monica, can you please store the chocolate?”
“As you wish.”
After that me and Sophia went outside the city to fight. She has training clothes, not something I ever saw. It is just some really tight leather bodysuit. She looks quite beautiful in that as her manly muscles do not show.
“Come with everything you have.” She says to me.
“As you wish.” I respond knowing full well I can’t win against her without killing myself even now.
We are not using training weapons so we have to hold back just a little.
We spend time until lunch fighting where I get just how strong she is. In terms of raw power I am probably stronger, but she has too much battle experience. She can predict every move I make and deal with it as best as she can, usually countering me.
When lunch time arrives, Monica comes to us with a picnic basket and we eat outside. The guards at some point also started mock battles or something after seeing us throw spells and pretty much try to kill each other not so far from the city. It would hurt the pride of a man if a girl was stronger than them. Well, it would have hurt mine.
After that I spent the rest of the day training my magic. I don’t think my mana increased to the point where it is past intermediate level, but unless I use my big spells I can’t really feel that I used mana at all.
I enter a meditative state where I try to make myself become fire. I can make parts of my body become fire or be set ablaze without hurting me but my full body is something hard to do. I have to make sure that the same amount of mana is in every part of my body at the same time which means I have not only to circulate my mana but make it go faster or slower in certains parts of my body. I probably can circumvent this by just circulating mana ultra fast but doing that right now is not viable as I want to become fire in battle and that kind of circulation requires perfect concentration and a calm mind.
Sophia also trains a little magic. She just cast a lot of spells until she is out of mana. Most of them are barriers. After that she leaves me alone as she can’t keep up with me.
Night hits and I go back to have dinner. After that I take a bath and have my way with Monica’s body as I do everyday. At some point I was going to ask if she wanted something from me while in bed but all my danger sensors went straight to red just by thinking about it, so I didn’t.
The next arrives and after my morning bath a group of adventurers arrive in the house with my new dress.
“Thanks for the delivery.” I say to the elf girl who is giving me the package. Almost everyone from the group is some type of scout. They are not the type of group that will fight you head on. Light leather clothes, small bags, knives and bows. They can probably move very fast as a group. There are 5 other people there, 4 men and another woman, this time a black woman, probably in her thirties.
The red haired elf, I have no idea how age works for elfs but she looks young like me. Her eyes are brown and she is probably 160 cm tall as she is just taller than Mira.
“No problem. Just doing my job.”
“Did you guys receive the payment beforehand like I asked to?”
“Yeah, I just wish some of those idiots didn’t spend the money already.” She says while looking at two young men, probably in their early twenties, black short hair, with a hint of anger.
“You look like the party leader. If you don’t want the people with you to do stupid things with money, give then a reason not to.” I say to the elf girl.
“And what do you suggest?”
“Are you single?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Follow my lead.” I then put the package near the door and went outside just a little along with her. “Hello, thanks for the delivery. I heard that some of you don’t know how to handle money so me along with this beautiful elf will give you something to look forward to next time you deliver something for me and not waste all your money.”
“And what would that be?” one of the men she pointed out before asks.
I then pull the elf towards me and start to make out with her in front of everyone. I passionately kiss her for about a minute grabbing every part of her body I can. She also does the same giving quite the show.
“Maybe next time you can see more if you have the money for it.” I say, teasing the two men. “Well, bye. I have stuff to do and so all of you by what it looks like.”
I then return to the house. The elf girl took that surprisingly well. I have to remember to ask the merchant to contract this same group again. I feel bad for the man as they will not get any action, at least from me.
“Quite the show you gave.” Monica says to me as I enter the mansion again.
“Jealous?”
“No. Just a little surprised how you are dealing with your feelings.”
“I have to try something on my own, don’t I?”
“Just mind what you do.”
“Thanks” I say while hugging her. I also give her a kiss on the cheeks. “But I will try to fill this hole, not put a lid on it. I am not that stupid.”
“Breakfast is almost ready, let’s sit down.”
After that Sophia also comes down and we eat breakfast.
I wish chocolate was a little more common so I could make chocolate mix and put it in the milk. But milk as it is is good enough.
I do my morning training, doing the basic motions of my fighting style that I almost don’t use. If I didn’t train everyday like this I would probably just ditch my dancing style.
As of right now I can’t really think of anything else to add to it, just doing the basic steps and feeling the rhythm of things right now.
I also train becoming fire a little not really having much advances due to the amount of time I have.
I do my morning work with Sophia were I calculate how much tax money we should be getting, if someone is trying to not pay what they owe to us and if there is something we should do.
Nothing really happens until after lunch. As we are checking more documents in the office.
“Did your dress arrive?” Sophia asks me.
“Yes, just this morning.”
“We don’t really have anything else to do after these ones. I want to see it.”
“Sure.”
We then finish signing and checking the documents and go to my room where I unpack the dress.
It is a white dress. It is separated in two where the bodice and the skirt are not linked to each other normally where I have to use a belt that connects the two to actually have a dress.
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The dress was made using my measures from just a few weeks ago so it fits me just right.
The bodice is made out of white cotton and only has one shoulder strap on the left side. It comes with a fake white flower that is sewed in the middle of the shoulder strap. The flower in question is a gardenia if I remember right.
The skirt is made of the same material of the bodice so it looks like just one thing. It is a simple skirt that goes all the way to my knees.
The belt is a silver belt with some magic crystals on it. The belt has a spell on it that absorbs a tiny bit of mana to reshape the metal making the parts near the stones look like fangs.
I also have some white low-heel to combine with this outfit. This thing cost me 500 Kir, not really something cheap but not as expensive as some things I heard. This is just enough to show I am not some random girl but also enough to show I am not royalty or don’t have too much money. I actually have more money than most cities but that is besides the point, that money is in a bank for the most part.
I try the dress once with the help of Lucia.
“You look cute.” Sophia says.
“What about your dress?”
“Sorry but it is special so I can only use that on the day.”
“Magic?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I just hope they will let me keep my weapons.”
“Probably not. It is a party.”
“Then we will have a lot more fun.”
“What do you mean?”
“It will be a surprise.”
All this time I kept my weapons with me 24/7. Even when I went full deviant beast mode I still kept my weapons with me. No one around here found about the little curse in my sword that makes everyone around it try to pick it up. I never absorbed it or removed it.
After that we just spend the rest of our days until the 29th of Capricorn where a mage came after breakfast to get us to the castle.
“Did you get everything?” Sophia asks me.
“Dress, shoes, spare clothes, Monica. All Check.”
“If possible I would like to not be grouped with your things.” Monica says.
“You are important, I can’t forget you.”
“If everything is ready let’s go.” The mage says to us as he opens a rift in front of us.
After passing through the rift we are at some sort of big hall. There were some other people there, servants of the castle, nobles and the servants of them. We are probably somewhere inside the castle.
Lots of crates around here, I wonder what are in them.
“This way ladies.” One of the servants of the castle says to us. It is a woman dressed as a stereotypical old maid.
We just follow her in silence. After a few minutes and some stairs we were brought to the floor above where rooms were prepared for some people.
“This will be your room, we ask that if something is needed please call the responsible on this floor as most of the castle is closed off for now.” She says looking at me.
I just nod my head. After that she leaves.
The room has 3 beds fitting of royalty, a sofa near a coffee table, a big wardrobe and there is a private bathroom with a shower and toilet.
“I was not expecting a shower.” I say.
“The castle has a lot of new technology integrated in it every year. These were not here last year.” Sophia explains.
“Ok, so what do we do?”
“Let’s just relax. The party will probably be more stressful than you think.”
“I will keep that in mind.” I know how this type of party can be used for political gain first hand. It would not surprise me if things that will shape this kingdom for a few years are discussed here tomorrow.
For the rest of the day until the evening of the next day we do almost nothing, not even train as the room is not that big for us to actually train. I also didn’t try any magic as I don’t want to accidentally burn this place.
Monica helped me take care of my urges during the middle of the night when Sophia was already sleeping. Her Silent spell is really useful for this kind of situation.
Sophia is very secretive about her dress, even after I already had put on my dress she was still in her normal clothes.
“So, aren’t you going to dress up? The party is starting.” I ask.
“My dress isn’t ready yet, I will probably have to stay here a little.” She says while checking a wooden box with some runes on it. Probably where her dress is doing whatever it does.
“Are you coming Monica? I believe that you can come as a servant.”
“I have to assist Lady Sophia with her dress. You may go, just don’t do anything that would bring shame upon us.”
“I can’t promise that. I will try at least.”
Sophia is looking at me with a somewhat worried face.
“Just don’t begin any fights” She says to me.
“Ok, I will only finish them.” I say with a fake smile on my face while giving a thumbs up.
“Just go before I change my mind.” Sophia says.
I then leave and look for a servant or something similar to point me to where I have to go.
“Lady, where is the party?” I ask a female knight that is pratroling the floor I am in.
“Past the big door on the floor below… Why are you with all these weapons?” She says to me.
“Because they would be lonely if I wasn’t with them.”
“ “ They all say.
“See, they would be very lonely.” I say while hugging all my swords.
“...Have a good night Miss.”
“You too.”
After that I go down the stairs again. The hall I came in is now in full security mode.
I can now see all of it and there is a door to the north, I think. That fits being big. It’s bigger than the gate of Sagrada.
I then proceed to the door where two knights in full metallic armor stop me before I can try to open the door.
“Girl, you can’t go in there with weapons.” One of them says to me in a very rough voice.
Last time I was half joking but now I have to be serious.
“If I leave any of these swords alone people will get hurt.”
“And why would that be?”
“Because they have a curse to make anyone who sees them try to pick them up if I am not holding them.”
“And why would that be a problem?”
“Because no one besides me can hold these blades.”
“HAHAHA. My wife is probably heavier than that sword.” The other guard says.
“Ok, then let’s make a bet. If any of you can hold my greatsword above your heads I will give my weapons to you. If you or anyone else you call can’t, they are coming with me.”
“Sure, sure, just give it.” The first guard says.
I then just give him Mira and see as he fall on the ground and begin to scream as the metal on his gloves begin to press against his hand with the weight of Mira.
“AHHHHHHH!”
“Marcus, what are you doing, get up!” The other guard says.
“This thing is too heavy, help!”
The other guard tries to lift Mira but it will not bulge.
“You, do something.” The second guard says to me.
“So you admit defeat?”
“Yes, just take this stupid thing. If you try anything funny there will be plenty of people there who can kill you.”
“I am just a 14 year old girl, I am not going to do anything.” I say with an evil smile on my face.
I have no plans to make this night a normal night. I will see just how much stress the influential people of this kingdom can take without being unmannered. I want to still be part of this social circle, just a little to the sides.
If any people who seem like they are important are grown-up children I have to find out where they live around so I don’t go there. Kids make bad decisions, I know, I am one right now.
I open the door. It probably has a spell to make it light as I feel like it has no weight.
As I enter I see lots of people in a big party room fitting for royalty. The floor has a red carpet on it except in the middle of it where there is an area to dance. There is no second floor so it is just a big room with some magic lights near the ceiling to illuminate things.
There is a band playing on the corner, probably using a sound charm or spell as I can hear them perfectly if I want to. Right now the music is a very calm music using a violin and flute.
There is a corner to get food with some tables nearby. Looks like you don’t get a table for yourself so you go to any table you want. There are no servants here technically so people should be getting their own food but it took me five minutes to see someone telling what clearly is a maid just in a better dress to get some food.
Drinks are guarded by some bartenders and armed people in fancy clothes. If you ask they will give to you but looks like you need to be an adult to get anything. The adult age here is 16 years old. I can’t get any alcoholic drinks but it’s not like I would get any anyway.
Men are using suits, tuxedos or armor. Women are using all kinds of dresses, even those dresses Sophia once tried to make me use, I get sick just by looking at them. It should be a crime to use something like that.
After walking around I see that some more common people are here, they are a little overwhelmed by all this as they have even more modest clothes than I have. As I have nothing to do for a while as it looks like the really important people like the king and queen are still getting ready, I go talk with some of those people. I find a boy and a girl around my age sitting at a table by themselves eating some fruit.
“Can I sit here?” I ask.
“Sure.” The girl says to me. The boy is a little frozen.
“I wish they could have put table cloth of the same color in all the tables, looking at this rainbow from a distance makes this place uglier.” I say.
“Why would say that? Didn’t the king and the queen personally choose this themselves?” The girl asks in a panic.
“Calm down, I am just kidding, I don’t really care.” I take a deep breath. “Well, hello. My name is Lucia, I am from Sagrada, may I ask who you two are?”
“I am Jackelinne, I am just a farmer from Degrada, the city next to yours.”
“I-I-I-I am Jack, I am also a farmer from the same place. Nice to meet you.” he says in what you would call a Southern accent in my old world.
Jackelinne has short curly orange hair on the height of her chin and green eyes. I can’t see all of her dress but it is a simple white one piece dress with a small red lace around her hips to hold the excess cloth on her body as the dress is a little big to her. She is probably 150 cm tall at maximum.
Jack has black really short hair, as in it just began to grow again before he just cut everything without getting bald. His eyes are brown. He is using an old brown suit with some stealth stitches in it that you can only see when looking up close with a white shirt below.
They are both pretty, a lot of people here are letting themselves go, but the beautiful people here are really beautiful.
“So, how old are you two?” I ask.
“We are both 14 years old, but our birthdays are just in a few days so you could say we are already 15.” Jackelinne says.
“So we are pretty much the same age.”
“Did your parents leave you alone here too?” Jack asks me.
“You could say that.”
“Ma and Pa shouldn’t leave me alone, I can’t deal with these people.” Jack says showing signs of stress.
“Just relax my darling, just enjoy the music and the food.” Jacklinne says to Jack.
“I can’t relax if I am away from my fields.” He says while hugging her.
“So, what are you two? For a second I thought you two were brother and sister due to your names but I guess not.”
“She is my future wife.” Jack says proudly to me.
“About our names is just a custom in our city. Me and Jack were born a few hours apart so we both got ‘Jack’ on our names.”
“Good for you Jack. I will not steal your girl as I wouldn’t feel right doing this to people who will marry each other.”
Jackelinne looks shocked and Jack looks amused.
“So people like you exist even here.” He says in a low voice.
Something clicks in my head. I think he was also reincarnated so I try something.
“Does the world internet sound familiar to you?”
Jackelinne is more confused but Jack looks at me with sparkly eyes.
“Oh, so you are one too? I didn’t think I would find someone like me here of all places.”
“What do you mean?” Jackelinne asks Jack.
“Do you remember that thing I can’t tell even you? She also knows about it.”
“Oh… Well, ok. I will allow it.” She says while looking at me.
“So, how is your life going?” I ask Jack.
“I have never been happier. I have a farm, a girl who I love, a great family, friends and nothing to stress about anymore besides the occasional animal trying to eat my crops.”
“I envy you somewhat.” I say somewhat sad.
“What about your life?” He asks me.
“I could probably beat everyone in this room without my weapons. Does that answer your question?” I say without sound like he just asked the wrong question.
“... I’m sorry, I guess not everyone has stroke luck like me.”
“Don’t apologize for my life. You had nothing to do with it. Just be a good man and pump some kids into the word when you can.”
Jackelinne turns red and Jack begins to laugh a little.
“You too Jackelinne, take care of this man, I can see in his eyes that he loves everything is his life, make sure that spark never goes away.”
She just nods positively at me.
“Come to our farm at some point, we have some really good fruit.” Jack says to me.
“Do you have oranges? I never saw one ever since I arrived in this kingdom.”
“Now that you say, I never even tried to get those.”
“Get oranges and I will be the first in line to buy them.”
“When I get back I will look into it.”
We then spend a few minutes drinking and eating whatever we find. Mostly slices of cooked meat and some juice.
“Hey, if you two don’t mind me asking. How did you two and probably your parents were invited here? I mean no disrespect but you don’t seem like the kind of people who would be here.”
“We got an invite for this party as payment for some of the vegetables I growed.” Jack explains to me.
“Whoever did this must have really liked your crops.”
“He tried to buy the entire city just so Jack could transform it into a big farm.” Jackelinne adds.
“Never trust someone who is willing to dump that amount of money on anything that fast.”
“I will die before selling my land to someone.” Jack says with a serious face.
“I hope everyone near you shares the sentiment.”
“Even if they don’t my parents won’t let them.” Jackelinne says.
“Why would that be?”
“My family has been in charge of the city for generations since it was just a small village. Me and Jack will probably become the next governors.”
“Only in name, I will continue to farm.” Jack adds.
“That will probably be enough to most people. Your city is a farming city, right? Having someone in command who does the same thing as you gives people a sense that everyone is equal on some level.”
“Lucia, we've been talking a lot about us. Why don’t you tell us something you did?” Jackelinne says.
“Like what?”
“You are pretty strong, right? Tell about a fight or something you had. There are not that many strong people in our city, mostly guards and they only fight drunks and small animals. There are no adventurers there for the most part.”
“Let’s see. This one is from when I was still in the Maka Kingdom. When I was really young, probably 6 years old, I went into the forest with a friend of mine, we got lost and had to fight a wolf. We used hit and run tactics where he threw stone at the wolf and I would hit the wolf with a sword I had. After a lot of fighting we won but we almost died. He temporarily lost his arm and we both lost a lot of blood due to bites. It took almost an entire year to recover from that.”
Both of them look at me pale and in shock.
“You are joking, right?” Jack asks me.
“No, the most important moments of my life are pretty much a scaled version of this one.”
“Why didn’t your parents make you do something else?” Jackelinne asks, a little angry.
“Because I am an orphan, more or less. Also it’s not like I don’t want to fight, it is just most of the time I pick the wrong fights.”
“But you are so beautiful, you could do anything you want, why don’t you just marry someone and live a quiet life?” She says a little more agitated.
“Hey calm down. Look, I understand that you probably have your idea of what you think I should do but there are various things in my life that make it impossible for me to have a normal life like you.”
She stops and calms a little, staying in silence.
“Ok then. I will be going now. I have to be ready when my guardians arrive.”
“Take care, we will be here until the final stroke so let’s talk a little more later if we can.” Jackelinne says to me.
“Sure.”
“Bye.” Jack says to me.
I then stand up revealing my swords to them and go walking around again.