Sophia goes back with me to the castle in a carriage and we go straight to our room. Monica is not there as we enter.

I fall on the bed exhausted.

“You still didn’t tell me what happened.” Sophia says to me.

“I don’t know if I even can.” I say with my face almost buried in a pillow.

“There has to be something you can tell me.”

“There is too much hypocrisy and corruption in the world.”

“What do you mean?”

“Too many groups don’t do what they say they do and in fact to the exact opposite. Also there are things in a place they shouldn’t be.”

“The world can’t be perfect.”

“I am not asking it to be but in just a few hours I saw more than I can take without being angry.”

Sophia is just looking at me trying to figure things out for a few minutes when Monica walks in along with some people.

“There she is.” Monica says to the people. All of them are in armor and I think I saw one of them in the intelligence division room they tried to interrogate me.

“You will be coming with us.” One man says.

“What did she do?” Sophias asks worried.

“She attacked us and fled the scene.”

“Are you going to explain the part your boss tried to force me to stay?” I say as I sit on the bed.

“And you should have complied.”

“What is going on? Lucia is not an enemy.” Sophia says a little angry.

“This is above you, soldier Sophia. You may be famous but we have a hierarchy here.”

Sophia stops and bites her lip as she complies.

The man stops and looks at me for a few seconds.

“Get up!” He shouts at me angry.

“Not in the mood.”

He tries to grab me but I put Mira on his shoulder and let go of it. He falls to the ground face first.

“AAAHH! Get this from me.”

“Why should I? I said before, if you try anything I will take that as a declaration of war against me.”

“You did what?” Both Monica and Sophia ask, surprised.

The other soldiers there are kinda in a panic and flee the area.

After a few minutes the man who tried to take me is unconscious and with a broken arm. I take Mira and begin to walk out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Sophia asks me while checking the man.

“Stop this before I actually have to fight someone.” I am pretty much out of mana and I am not really in the mood to drain people.

I walk down the stairs and into the main part of the castle. A big gate made out of gold and gem stones that probably goes to the throne room stands in the middle of a corridor that goes both ways.

Some guards stand there but they don’t do anything as I open a small door that is part of the big gate and enter the place.

“King, Queen, Prince, anyone?” I shout as loud as I can as I enter.

Inside it really is the throne room. A big room with a red carpet going all the way to the end where 3 golden chairs stand on the side of one another. On the sides are various doors that probably lead to stairs or rooms.

At least 20 guards come out of those rooms along with the Prince and King.

“What is the meaning of this?” The King asks in an angry tone. In this room it looks like you can hear at least the king no matter how distant he is.

I walk a little close to the king and the guards.

“I came to ask if you surrender?”

“Surrender what?”

“Everything.”

“I don’t have time for jokes.”

“Neither do I. Your Intelligence Division just declared war in the name of your kingdom against me so I am asking. Do you surrender or we have to fight?”

“Somebody get those people here right now!” The King shouts really angrily and loud.

Some of the guards run out of the room. The King and The Prince sit on the throne and begin to talk with me.

“Someone will be here in a few minutes.”

I just nod my head at the king acknowledging what he just said.

“I was looking for you. Since when you can fly?” The Prince asks me.

“Since yesterday.”

“Is that something you can teach other people?”

“If you find someone who can use magic like me, probably.”

The prince is visibly frustrated.

I sit on the ground as we wait.

A few minutes later the man that started to interrogate me comes into the room, this time dressed in a fancy red knight suit.

“I am here your majesty.” He says while kneeling.

“What is the meaning of this? Who gave you the authority to declare war? Against a single person nonetheless.”

“I did not do such a thing.” he says while we both stand up.

“Then wasn’t you the one who gave the command to fight Lucia here?”

“Yes it was me but I don’t see how that is declaring a war in your name.” He says with a smile like he won something.

“I said loud and clear that if you tried anything I would take that as the kingdom going at war with me.” I say, interrupting them.

“Your words hold no weight here.” he says arrogantly.

“As a matter of fact, they actually do Sir Reginald.” The prince says.

The man who I now know the name shows panic in his face.

“What do you mean?”

“This woman on your side is the top candidate to be my wife.”

He just looks at me asking for confirmation.

“Yes, I am open to that idea at least.”

“I have to say I am against this. We can’t find anything about her anywhere. As far as we know she is a spy sent to destroy our kingdom.”

“Hey, if I wanted to do that I would have done it already. I didn’t fight demons just so I can do what they were trying later on by myself.” I say angrily as I really have no intention as of now to actually do anything with this kingdom as an organization. They are more on the positive than the negative, that is for sure.

“Majesty, please, reconsider this

“Reginald! You are dismissed. Return to your duties and stop this at once, you are a good soldier but just as a military asset this girl is more valuable than you.” The King says.

“Yes your majesty.” He says begrudging.

After that he leaves the room furious.

“I will be going too. You two probably have what to do. Have a good day.” I say while leaving the room.

The Prince was about to say something but he stopped midway so I just left.

As I return to my room I see that the man I knocked out is not there anymore, just Sophia and Monica.

I lie down on my bed again.

“Did you resolve your situation?” Sophia asks me.

“I hope so.” That man is right on some level but I hope he understand that as long they don’t attack first or do something that would fuck me over I will do nothing to the kingdom.

“Monica keep an eye on her.”

“As you wish.”

Sophia then leaves the room. I guess she has to continue doing whatever she was doing as part of the army.

I spend around an hour resting in the room with Monica. My mana comes back a little so I have to concentrate a little more to keep it under control.

As I am doing that a rift in space appears in front of us and from it Maxoiliodas, Jack, Mess and the little elf girl come over.

“I was expecting only the two here to come running after me.” I say surprised, pointing to Mess and Jack.

“By the looks of things you didn’t do anything, I guess I will live another day” Mess says calming down.

“You have a really heavy hand for a girl.” Jack says to me.

I will take that as a compliment.

“They tried to explain to me the situation of all of you but I am not getting everything. Care to explain to me?” Maxoiliodas asks, a little angry. The girl is on his side doing nothing.

“In a way that will not compromise us. All four of us are in the same situation. We can’t tell that situation to anyone that is not one of us.”

“That part I understood. What about the girl? Why was she calling the dog her daddy? And why all of a sudden I don’t feel like I know this girl?”

“I guess a way to put it is that the souls of their parents were in a tree and the dog and they sacrificed everything to remove a curse on the girl that was making you, her and a lot of people around her not question her existence or what she does.”

“Well, that is a better explanation than what those two gave me.”

“What did they tell you?”

“Please don’t say it. I feel dumber now.” Jack says.

“They only told me how to use it, not how it works.” Mess adds. I guess he is talking about magic.

“Well, what are you going to do with this girl?”

“Nothing. If she wants something she should ask. As much as I understand how hard her situation is right now if she comes with me things will probably be worse for her.”

Everyone in the room looks at me like I am a villain for a few moments.

“I want to go home.” She says as everyone is in silence.

“If you want that ask the big elf here to train you in magic so you can go there by yourself in the future.”

“No! I want to go now!” She shouts.

“She also can’t use magic.” Maxoiliodas adds.

“I want to see mom and dad!” She shouts again.

At this point I stand up and pick the girl. I then put her in bed and sit on her side.

“What is your name?”

“It is… What is my name?”

Everyone there freezes for a second. No one, even Maxoiliodas knows this girl's name.

“I guess you never got a name here. What name do you want?”

For several seconds she thinks but nothing comes.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“I can’t remember any names.”

“Can I give you a name then?”

She looks at me for a few more seconds and nods.

“Then I am going to call you Alfina. It is simple, on the nose and you will probably be able to remember it.”

She nods again.

“So what is your name.”

“Alfina…”

“Alfina, I know that you are sad and angry right now but there is nothing you can do right now. If you are sad, cry all you need now. If you are angry, scream and shout until you have nothing left to scream and shout about but after that you will need to make a big decision.”

She nods again looking at the ground.

“Your mom and dad loved you very much, I know you know this. They would want you to be happy so you have to think really hard about what you want right now.”

Everyone in the room takes a seat for a few minutes as Alfina processes everything, this time a little more calm and puts it all out, crying in my arms as I am the closest one to her.

“Lady, I want to go home, I want to see my friends, I want to see my family.”

“You understand that they might not remember you or even be there, right?”

“Why?”

“It is a possibility. You know those complicated things about science and space? By the time you get back home, a lot of time probably will have passed.”

“Then I should stay here?”

“Only if you want. You heard, you are not the only one who lost it’s family, friends or house. There are others out there besides us and they are probably trying their best right now. If you want to go back you need to know that you will have to work harder than everyone in the whole world.”

“I will, I will work really hard and go back home.”

“Then I guess it is time for me to go.” Maxoiliodas says as he stands up.

“Can’t you do something? You are the only adult here with any real power I know.”

“Until she can use magic on her own I can do nothing.”

“Then I will learn magic.” Alfina says.

“I hope you do.”

He then opens a rift again. Ice Cream jumps from the other side going near Alfina and Maxoiliodas goes back to his lab, closing the rift soon after.

“Look, I need to go. My girl is going to kill me if I don’t come back soon.” Jack says to me as he leaves the room.

All of us left there just wave at him as he leaves.

“So, what do I do now?” Mess asks me.

“I am hungry.” Alfina says.

Ice Cream barks.

I look at Monica with puppy eyes.

“Can you bring something for us? Please.”

“I will look for something, but don’t expect anything fancy.”

“Just bring something that the girl can eat.”

“As you wish.” She says as she leaves the room.

After a few minutes of silence I start to talk.

“What will I do with both of you?”

“Jack was smart to bail out when he had the chance.” Mess says.

“He talks strangely.” Alfina says.

“At least we can understand him.”

They both nod.

“Mess, how much mana do you have?”

“If what I was told is true, I have a lot of mana. Top 100 mortal things with mana.”

I can’t help but feel a little bit jealous. My mana is just now returning to it’s original state.

“Can you use any rune?”

“Yes, I know how to read and make new runes.”

“Well then, congratulations. You are now a civil constructor.”

“What?”

“I trust enough people in this world that I can count them in one hand. I have nowhere to put you where someone won’t try to use you, so unless you want that work for me. Sagrada needs some building that can’t be done fast without excessive use of magic. I will pay you and there is probably room in the mansion.”

“What about me?” Alfina asks me.

“Alfina, you are also coming with me. If anything I am responsible for your situation right now. Also I am probably the only person that can make you use magic right now.”

“Eeehhh!” She says happily.

“There is just one thing you need to know. It will hurt a lot and you will not be able to play or do almost anything else until you finish.” I say in a serious, almost scary, tone.

“Alright.” She responds as if it is nothing.

With all that out of the way I just need to tell Sophia. I don’t think she will not let them live with us. That mansion has at least 4 more empty rooms.

Monica comes back a few minutes later with food for everyone, even Ice Cream. Some bread, chicken meat, apple juice for us and water for Ice Cream..

We all eat and I explain the situation for her.

“It’s not my place to tell if you can or cannot do things… Well, most of the time.”

“I am just giving you the information beforehand. Now we just have to wait for Sophia.”

After all that we spend the rest of the night in the room. Monica made Mess take Alfina for a walk so we could have sex before we slept. Due to the fact that they don’t have extra clothes I also cleaned their clothes as much as I could with magic when they took a bath.

Alfina slept with Monica, Mess slept on chair. He said he actually prefer chairs from time to time. During the night I woke up to take Ice Cream for a walk as no one else in that room could clean whatever he did. Sophia didn’t come back.

As morning arrived me and Monica shared a bath to not waste time.

“Monica. Are my breasts bigger?” I ask her while looking at my boobs. They feel heavier for some reason.

“Yes, they are in fact. Also you are a little taller if you didn’t notice.”

I didn’t sleep that much as I was controlling my mana circulation all night so I am not 100%. I managed to maintain my hair blue but I didn’t recover that much mana either due to not really sleeping.

After drying us up I try to put on some clothes and it is true that I am taller and my boobs are bigger. A quick measurement shows that I am 178 cm tall now with D cup size boobs. I don’t really remember which D size, but I am pretty sure it is D now, they are big as hamburgers from that country that loved guns in my old world. If I didn’t grow taller you would see them from my back.

I feel like this is because of my curses. At some point I will have to look for answers, for now I just lost all my fancy dresses.

Before Mess and Alfina wake up I will look for clothes for Mess, he can’t go around dressed as a priest anymore.

Monica starts to clean the rooms and I go check the other rooms on our floor. I find one unlocked at the end of the corridor with some bags still there.

I check the place and it looks like some nobles were here. They also left most of their things as there is a lot of clothes here. I take some commoners clothes that I know are very cheap, more or less, the size of Mess and give them to him when he wakes up. Both him and Alfina notices that I am bigger but leave at that.

After taking a bath we all, besides Monicas, leave the room and go have breakfast in the courtyard. The place is way less crowded than yesterday and with no bodies on the floor. I managed to pick some milk and some fruits for us as well as some leftover meat for Ice Cream the cooks there were kind enough to give.

With food in our stomachs and free time we leave the castle and go find a bench somewhere in the Royal District.

“So, what are we going to do today?” Mess asks me.

“Money.”

“Can you make money with magic?” Alfina asks me, probably thinking I will just materialize money.

“We can earn money with magic. Making it would probably be a crime.” If it isn’t, it should be.

“Ok.”

We walk for several minutes in the main street leading to the castle until we find an area with lots of people walking by.

“Mess, can you make a sign made out of stone with something written on it?”

“It will take a few minutes depending on what you want written.”

“Write ‘Open Challenge. 5 Kir.’ “.

“Ok.”

He then uses runes to create and destroy a piece of white stone he materializes until it looks like a sign that can stay up by itself.

After that he removes just a little of the surface of the stone writing what I asked. I burn the letters to make them more visible.

With all in place I start to shout to the people around us.

“Come on people, this is the chance of your life. For 5 Kir you can gain a lot of money, these beautiful swords or the lady with them.” I say with Yin and Yang in hand. “Show me and everyone you have what it takes.”

It doesn’t take even a minute for some people to come.

“What is this?” A fat rich man with at least 5 people that obviously works for him asks me.

“For 5 kir you can take on the challenge. Hold this sword above your shoulders alone for 30 seconds and you can either get all the money I have, these beautiful sabers or me for a day.” I say while also pointing Mira on my back.

“Hmmm. Here.” He tosses me a coin. “Baros, do it. This girl looks entertaining enough.” The man says with lustful eyes at me. I ignore this and take his money. I stab mira on the ground and take distance.

“Just so you know, this sword is extremely heavy.” I say to Baros, a 2 meters tall wall of a human. He could probably rip his suit by just flexing his muscles.

He tries to pick the sword but can’t move it more than a single centimeter of the ground before he is out of breath.

“What are you doing Baros?” the fat man asks angry.

“Boss, this is too heavy.”

“This is obviously a scam then. Girl give my money back.”

I then pick the sword myself.

“Look, I can pick up this sword, there is bound to be someone who can. If you can't, don't say it is a scam.” I say in a neutral tone.

“Let’s leave this place. I already wasted enough time.” The fat man says less angrily. I think he understands that I am not ripping people off the way he thinks. I am ripping people off as I am pretty sure no one besides me can pick this sword, but that is another thing entirely.

For around an hour a lot of people, from guards, shopkeepers, human, non-humans, even the guards in the castle tried their luck. One random kid, younger than what Alfina looks, managed to hold the sword sideways to his knees. He was the best one so far.

During this time Alfina looked bored so I started to make what I call fire constructs. It is fire in the form of something that I can freely control. I make some animals running, princess dancing and other people on the street.

Some rich people, seeing that, paid me to do that for their children for a few minutes.

Seeing that people were actually paying me just to see something unusual I started to go big. I made constructs my size above me and started to make a show for everyone to see.

Mess started to take care of the people still trying the challenge with Mira and would call me if anything happened.

At first I made some ballet dancers dance what I remember of ballet in the sky. After that I made some animals do tricks. Ice Cream almost became part of the show when I made a dog run in a circle jumping circles of fire.

Until lunch I did it as much as I could. From fights between warriors, monsters and mages to dances, even some cartoon stuff where I made animals explode after doing something stupid. All without burning a single person. I wish I could do more but it seems my limit of constructs that actually have detail in them is 3. More than that they just don’t look good enough, at least for me. Alfina is collecting the money as she wants to be helpful.

When the time arrives I thank everyone still there and take the last of the money from the challengers there. It looks like people were making money out of me, probably betting with people who didn’t know about this more money than they pay to participate.

Using all that mana made my hair not go red even as my mana started to regenerate so I can be a little more calm right now. We all take a carriage for an area less wealthy of the city and count the money as we go.

“We made a lot more money than I was expecting.” I say.

“How much, how much?” Alfina asks excitedly.

“2000 Kir. You probably don’t really know how much it is but trust me, it is a lot.” I don’t make this money working. Rich people throw too much money, not that I am angry right now.

“That is a lot of money. Couldn’t we eat where we were?” Mess asks me.

“Well it is too late now. I didn’t think people would give us that much money. I thought it was all copper coins at best.”

“I see your point.”

We then just enjoy the trip for a few minutes before we are dropped a few kilometers south of where we were. This part of the city is part of the entertainment district but it is just the border so we don’t have to look out for anything really dangerous here. I don’t trust anywhere or anyone in a 10 km radius of a casino.

The houses around here are very diverse. At least to the point you can expect of a medieval building. Most houses only have one floor that is the stone foundation. Some places I can see have up to 3 floors, where from the second forward, they are made out of wood.

After a few minutes of walking the streets we see a place with a restaurant sign on it’s door. We enter commanding Ice Cream to stand guard.

The place has just 5 tables and looks like there is only one person here. I am not surprised, this looks to be a residential area.

Mess and Alfina go to a table and I go to the counter that is in front of the kitchen taking the entire right side of the place.

“Hello, what is on the menu?” I ask a woman, around her twenties by the looks, dark brown hair and eyes, smaller than me, at least 160 cm.

“Helllo, we have soup, fried vegetables and roasted meat.”

“What meat?”

“Cow meat.”

“What is the size of the portion?”

“... The slice of meat is as big as your forearm and a little thick.”

“I will have two and a half of that and two plates of vegetables.”

“... Sure. It will be 30 Kir” She says, a little confused.

I pay and go wait at the table.

“What are we eating?” Mess asks.

“Meat and vegetables.”

“But what exactly.”

“I have no idea.”

He stops and looks at me for a few seconds.

We wait around 15 minutes for the food to be ready and then the cook, an older big black lady, comes to the table along with the woman I talked before with our plates.

3 plates with slices of roasted meat and two plates with a variety of fried vegetables. I divide the vegetables between the three of us and we eat.

Can’t say it is the most tasty thing I have eaten but at least has more sauce than salt.

After we eat they give us water for free.

“I want soda.” Alfina says after drinking the water.

“Alfina, how old are you?” I ask.

“Seven.”

“Then you should know that first, there is no soda, second, soda is bad for you.”

She pouts a little.

We all leave and I clean us with magic so we don’t use the bathrooms here.

We pay a carriage to go back to the palace and when we get back to our room Sophia is there, preparing to leave.

“Welcome back.” I say to her.

“I think it should be me saying that. Who are those people?”

“This is Mess and This is Alfina. Mess will be working for us and Alfina will be living with us until she can use magic.”

“Monica said something about this. What makes you think I will allow it?” She says serious.

“Because if you don’t I leave.”

“... Are you serious?”

“Today I earned more money than you pay me by doing what I feel is nothing.” The mana I used was in no way small but compared to the mental stress I have looking at the documents of that city, this was quite easy.

“Ok, I will allow it.” She says as this is what she was expecting.

“Mess, Alfina, this is Sophia. She is the governor of Sagrada, the city you will be living in. She is stronger than me so don’t do anything bad.”

“Hello lady Pirate.” Alfina says innocently. Sophia is using her eye patch showing half of her face.

“I am not a pirate, I am a knight.”

“But you are using an eye-patch. Only pirates use eye-patches.”

“Not really.”

“I guess we are going, right?” I ask.

“Yes, there is nothing else to do, the worst is past and we all have to go back.”

I quickly put all my clothes in my bags and we start to go down to the floors below where a mage is waiting for us.

“Lady Sophia, this way please” He says to show the area where we should stand. There is only one other group there being teleported away.

We are quickly teleported to inside the mansion. With everything going on I am surprised that the mages have mana left.

Monica shows the rooms that Alfina and Mess will use to them. They are pretty much empty with just an old bed that I clean with magic with some help from Mess. Before night hits I go around the city to buy some clothes and daily necessities for the two as they literally have nothing besides their clothes as well a collar and food bowls for Ice Cream. I also buy some meat to give to him when we return.

After we get back Monica explains our routine as well the rules of the house. The only added rule besides not being a bad person is to not enter anyone else's room, especially mine, at night.

Monica and I had sex earlier than usual as she wanted to give Alfina a bath herself. Probably because our bathroom is really not tailored to children.

As we go to sleep I do something that I was doing without really thinking before, astral projection.

My range still is really small, pretty much only my room, but with this I can actually sleep and control my mana circulation.

During the night my windows open and a dark figure enters the place in complete silence. I get ready for anything.

He leaves a letter on top of me and leaves, vanishing into the darkness of the night.

I wake up and read the letter.

“After you read this letter, burn it. The person sent to deliver this letter is incapable of killing, stealing or anything bad that you might think so you should not worry about how he did it. I am like you and I got paid by another one of us to deliver a message to you. Do not go into demon territory. All the information I can give is that we are both here and he knows about your situation. If you want some answers ask the elf woman that lives with you, she has a really unique power that can be useful. We will send another letter in the future so don’t die or get kidnapped or something.”

I burn the letter and go back to sleeping hoping that everything in that letter is true.