It is morning already, sunrise came some time ago, the sun is in fun power right now. Aria is the one waking me up. She is already in another medical suit, this one a purple and light armored one, she is probably going to leave the camp soon.
“Good morning Lucia” Says Aria while shaking me lightly.
“Good morning” I say while stretching myself.
“Can you come to my tent in a few minutes?”
I nod my head positively.
“Good, I will be waiting” And then she walks away.
I leave bed and go to the toilet before heading there. While walking to and from there I see that a lot of the soldiers are gearing up. My estimated guess of how many people are in this camp is around 1500 people, looks like half of them are going this time. I can’t do anything right now for them so I just head to Aria’s Tent.
“Good morning, ahh… Lucia! Good morning Lucia.” Says the Boss.
“Good morning Boss!” I say with a smile.
Looks like my breakfast is here, we will be eating together again. Well I will at least eat with them, I think they already have breakfast, there is only food for me here.
Boss is also in full gear, strangely he doesn't have a single piece of metal armor on him, Looks like he is using some type of body suit under his normal clothes, but besides that he is using his usual black leather pants and a purple jacket that I can’t identify the material. He has with him 3 swords, one great-sword and two normal swords, all of them really shiny and I can even feel some strange energy from them.
They let me sit on the table and start to eat while we talk a little.
“So, Lucia, I checked what you did yesterday with Aria a little earlier today, what do you think about that?”
Without really thinking about it I say the first thing that comes to my mind.
“People are spending too much money on things”
“That is correct” Says the Boss.
“But it’s not like we have a choice, this is not the home base, we can’t start a farm here” Says Aria
“Why?” I ask
Boss stops for a second and also asks.
“Yeah, why? I never even thought of that, the kingdom said that we could buy food at a discount while here so it never even crossed my mind.”
“What? Didn’t you yourself say we couldn’t start a farm? I remember a few months ago the word being passed to the commanders that we couldn’t.”
“I am pretty sure I never said that” Says the Boss with a confused look.
I take this time to eat my breakfast while they ponder on their exchange. By the time I finish they start to talk again.
“Let’s put this to the side until we come back. It seems you can’t really understand what I asked you so let’s leave it at that.”
I am a little confused, there really was nothing in those reports that is suspicious, besides the amount of food and goods we buy.
“So kid, how did you learn to do that?”
“Do what?”
“You know, read, write, do math”
… I have no idea on how to answer that, the second I learned how to read the letters I just went head first into learning how to write in this new language. Math is the same as my old world. Let’s hope my bullshit passes this conversation.
“In a book.”
“If there is a book to make kids this smart I want a copy” Says Aria half-joking.
“Do you remember the name of the book?” The Boss asks me.
“It was a big red book with no pictures, someone took the book away after a while so I didn’t finish it.” This is all lies, but I really hope they don’t find it out. My con skills were really good in my past life but I don’t know how much of it I can use in a child body.
They just look at each other and seem to accept this explanation and I thank the gods for that in silence.
“Ok Lucia, I will be going now, Aria will explain things to you so be a good girl and listen carefully”
Then the Boss leaves the tent.
“Lucia, we are going out to the fields for at least a month. I had a word with the people in the kitchen and some of my friends in the medical team. They will take care of you while I am not here so don’t worry. Also one of the girls in the medical team will bathe with you everyday. You are a smart girl so I know you know you have something other girls don’t between your legs. It’s best if you don’t tell this to other people or show it.”
I just nod my head in agreement.
“Also, take this, I finished this earlier” She gives a cup to me, it has a rune on it.
After you eat, put water on it then put the water in your mouth but don’t drink it. After a few seconds just spit on the ground. This will help keep your mouth clean and your teeth clean. A woman must have a beautiful smile, and for that you need to take care of yourself.”
I accept the cup.
Aria takes me out of her tent and closes it. She then just hugs me and waves as a signal that she is going too. I guess she doesn’t want to say bye.
After she leaves my field of vision the first thing I do is rush to the river where I clean my mouth for the first time in my life here. The people in this world have a really resistant body for some things, the mouth is a good exemple. Even without brushing your teeth once, people can still have really clean teeth. They are not all that white, but they don’t go yellow. Until now I never saw someone with yellow teeth.
After I finish cleaning up I go back to my tent and put some pants and a shirt. The dress I am using is better used for sleeping. I wonder who gave those clothes to me. After I finish changing I leave my tent and to my surprise Barley of all people is outside waiting for me.
“Girl I need to talk with you”.
I kinda have to accept.
Barley picks some small chairs and we sit near my tent. As we sit I am looking at him with kid sparkly eyes and he looks like he is in a pickle.
“I can’t believe I am here.” Says Barley while shaking his head in negation.
“I do, I can see you.”
“That’s not what I mea… Forget it!” He says a little angry.
“What is wrong?” I ask genuinely worried about him.
“You, you, you… You found something we didn’t and we can’t fix the situation.”
I look confused at him and he just started to rant.
“We found that we are losing 5 to 10% of our money and we have no idea to who. Sometimes it looks like someone in my team is cooking the reports but other times looks like the marketing team is, other times it’s the people we buy from that are taking more money and to top it all off we have too much paper, too much to read, too much write, Ahhh!”
“Why not use a blank book for the money we use and another one of the money we get?” I say without really thinking
“That is… Actually a good idea” He calms down and begins to talk with himself.
“Yeah, with that we can just note how the money was used and who used it, the entries will be done in chronological order so we can check the dates without having to read a wall of text. Yes that’s it, it’s genius!”
Then he just walks away from me. I stay seated for a few minutes processing what happened.
After that I just go around the Camp looking for things to do. The soldiers had already left when I left my tent so the camp was a little more empty. I played a little with other kids, tag seems to be the game of choice here, I played a little and made the mistake of putting away my sword. 3 people lost their hands temporarily during the time I was playing. Good thing a healer can put your body together if it's been a really recent cut.
I discovered a library, there is almost no one here. But the place is really clean so I think it is used enough. Good to know that the people here at least try to be smarter. I spent all morning there till lunch time. During this time I discovered some interestings things, what separates animals from monsters.
In one of the books I read in the Aria’s Tent there was a report of two wolves, both were identical but one was an animal and the other a monster. Monsters different from animals don’t have normal internal organs, if you open a monster they are pretty much filled with nothing but muscle meat most of the time, the only “organs” they have are their Core that can either be a Crystal of some sort or in the case of some “unique” monsters can be anything, the example in the book is that a dragon had a sword as it’s core. The other organ is a reproductive organ that changes depending on the monster. Monsters don’t need food to survive but they need Magic Energy, they can absorb magic energy from anything they kill and eat and they reproduce faster the weaker they are. Monster wolves only need 3 weeks to have puppies and those only take another month to become adults, varying from region to region, but only a little.
I also finally saw the calendar of this world in the library, the year has 12 months, all with 30 days. The name of each month strangely are the names of the 12 zodiac signs in my old world starting from Aries. Today is the 3rd of Gemini, so that means my birthday is around the Start of the month of Taurus, since it’s been a little less than 30 days since my birthday. I wonder if holidays exist? Mom and dad never did anything special on any day, and I never saw anything that even looked like a festival from the house.
The other thing I was able to find before the gong of lunch sung, is more about the geography of this world. People know the planet is round so that is good. There are a total of 5 continents on this planet but only 4 have people living in them. The Strip Continent, The Beast Continent, The Sky Continent and the Fallen Continent. The last one is just called Death-Trap, looks like the monster activity there is so high that monsters who usually don't attack each other normally are at each other’s throat there. The strip continent, at least on the map, is a Line that cut the word in half for the most part. The east side of the continent is 90% mountains so it doesn't look like there are many port towns on that side, the Maka Kingdom seems to be one of the few places with a port town on the east.
The closest kingdom from here is the Cruxadia Kingdom, they are to the north of here, they are the kingdom that borders the Demon Territory that is all the way to the north, near the pole. To reach this kingdom you need to take a boat on the west since the only other way would be traversing the Giant Forest that serves as a border between kingdoms. The forest official name is Green Drake Forest, but looks like the common name for it is Sure-Death Forest. Unless you are crazy strong or dumb, trying to walk in that forest is suicide by what it seems.
During lunch I was asked to go with the other kids. Looks like there are some tables set not so far from the kitchen tent where some kids and a few adults are eating. Saying my table manners where good would be an understatement if compared to the other kids, the adults there praised me for not making a mess of things like the other kids.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
By having some small talk with the kids I discovered that most of them had at least one of their parents go in the last group, some had both gone so the adults here are in charge of them.
Seems like if you are a kid here you need to have an adult take care of you most of the time. I am somewhat an exception as it looks like to them I will not go kill myself if they leave me for too long.
The kids here are gung-ho in the fact they want to train. They all talk high about their mother’s or father’s skills with a multitude of weapons or magic and some heated discussions happened, at least for kids, the older one here is only 7 years old and he is kinda the leader of some of the kids. Probably because of age.
After we finish eating the adults let us go as they will clean things up. I leave the table and go back to my tent to get that cup and some of the kids are following me, it’s the group of the older boy. I ignore him for the time being and wash my mouth on the river and put the cup back at my tent. All this time not one of the kids said a word but after all that the boy speaks up.
“Hey, why they let you walk with that sword?”
In a really snarky voice I respond.
“It’s because I am the only one who can pick it up.”
“I don’t believe in you. You are smaller than me and a girl, if you can hold that sword so do I.”
By kid logic that would not be wrong, I know I am taller than normal, most kids here, even the ones around my age are shorter than me, going by the knowledge I acquire until now i must have around 110 cm, this kid is two years older than me and is only 5 to 10 cm taller than me. My sword is 150 cm long for comparison.
“Well you can try to pick it up” I say as I put it on the ground. I make sure to lie it down not stab it like I usually do so there is no risk of the sword crushing his hand.
“Alright, watch me!” the boy say with the utmost confidence. But that confidence soon goes away as he can’t move even a millimeter of that blade.
“Help me here!” Scream the boy. All the other kids try to help him but the result is the same. After a few minutes they surrender.
“Ok, I admit defeat.”
I pick up the sword and give a blank stare to the group of kids.
“So, do you know how to use that sword?” The Boy ask.
“Probably.” I am not sure myself. The mastery blessing I earned should have given me knowledge of the basics of fighting with this sword but the only thing I earned was knowledge on how to take care of my sword and it looks like this one will not need care for the foreseeable future. My knowledge from my old life probably is the same as what I would have earned from the blessing, which is a shame since I never really fought someone with a sword even though I have some idea how.
“Then let’s go to the training field, it’s probably empty right now so we can use it. By the way my name's Arnold, one of the future commanders here, be sure to remember that.”
I just nod my head and follow him and his group.
In the training area there were a few people training with each other so all the dummies were free. We all gathered around a wooden dummy.
“Hey try to hit this one, we are all curious to see your power.”
“Sure, just give me some space”
The kids all go a little behind just enough to be away from the range of my sword.
The hit I did to that bloody guy when I got here probably was a fluke so I too want to know how strong I am.
I prepare myself by taking a deep breath and do a jump cut where I vertically swing the sword from my head to the ground while falling so I use gravity for more damage. What happened was a surprise for everyone, including me.
The dummy pretty much explodes with the impact. If the kids weren’t clustered together behind me, wood would have flown in their face. Some of them are in shock, some are crying. It doesn’t take much time for the adults in the area to arrive.
“What the Fuck happened here?” One of the soldiers who was training nearby asked while approaching.
In my most adorable and innocent voice I respond.
“I killed the dummy.”
More adults are closing in.
“I don’t know who gave you an exploding sword but” The soldier says while trying to pick my sword. “Ahhh”.
As he pick it up and I let go he falls to the ground sword in hand. He is screaming in pain cursing me with words I don’t recognize. The adults gather around to see the scene as I begin to tear up a little. Then one of the women in the group approaches me while addressing the man on the ground.
“If you are so strong you can keep saying those things to a little girl I guess you are good with just one hand.”
This woman is part of the medical team. She is using the same uniform as Aria. She has blonde hair and brown eyes. She is really young and really petite, probably is not taller than 160 cm.
“I am sorry, help me.” Says the man on the ground crying a little.
“Say sorry to Lucia, not me!” Scream the lady.
“I am sorry Lucia, I should not have called you those things, help me.” He says with a painful voice.
I ask the medical lady after hearing that.
“Did he say something bad to me?”
I know he was definitely swearing at me in some form, but I don't recognize the words.
She looks at me with a blank face.
“Please pick the sword, he already had enough.” And so I did. After that one of the older woman approached me and the medical lady.
“If it’s you who are in charge of this girl, keep an eye on her, what if her shenanigans had hurt one of the kids. Besta, you are already 20 years old, you are not a kid anymore, even if you look like one.”
“Hey, Arnold asked me to do it.” I say while looking at the lady.
The woman looked around locking-on Arnold and asked.
“Is this true?”
Him and the other kids just nodded positively. I was pretty sure they would just lie, I guess they have some honor here, even between kids.
“Well, even if it is true they asked you, you can’t just go exploding things.” Says the older lady. She is probably 50 years old and the years were not kind to her. She doesn’t look like she is really old, but her hair is already white and she has a lot of marks in her face from her age. If not for her voice I would say she was way older.
With this I turn my brat mode on. Even I didn’t know I had one.
“This is only the second time I use this sword, how would I know that it exploded things if the first time it just sliced a guy in half.”
“What!?” Screams the older lady.
“What you heard! I don’t like you, Bye.” I show her my tongue and start to run from there.
With the shock and confusion I left the people there I was able to hide near the kitchen for a while where after that I went back to the library.
After what I think was an hour of people looking for me someone found me in the library but I decided I didn’t care. A few minutes later Besta was there.
“Lucia you shouldn’t do that.” Says Besta while walking towards the table I am seated next to.
“Why? I didn’t do anything wrong and she is angry with me. If I stay near people who don’t like me they will send me away so I will run from them.”
She just sighs as she sits next to me.
“Just promise me to not hit things with your sword unless they try to hurt you.”
I nod my head positively as I continue to read.
A little later Arnold shows up alone while we are still both there.
“Hey Lucia, I am sorry for that, that lady knows my mom so she probably was thinking you did something to me since you are new here.”
“Ok.” I say while reading.
“I see you tomorrow, let’s play again.” Says Arnold while waving at me.
Besta stays with me for the rest of the day. She even help me study. We eat dinner at the library and a little later she goes to the bath with me. During this time she sees my penis for the first time but ignores it not long afterwards. She even read a story for me to sleep.
The rest of the month goes mostly the same way this day went. Except by the fact I didn’t explode anything and I didn’t have to do anything in the way of fiscal reports. Looks like they gave me a month's worth of work and I finished it in one day.
I did read a lot more books, I played with Arnold and the other kids, I even helped in the kitchen once where all the kids made a simple soup. It was horrible but we ate it anyway.
During this time I became somewhat good friends with Arnold, out of all the kids in the camp he really stands out, more than me overall. He really wants to be a commander in the future and trains everyday as much as he can. I am the only other kid who can keep up with him. He is not doing kid training, he is doing actual training, this boy must have a lot of stamina. Not more than me, besides hunger, thirst and sleepiness, I don’t actually get tired doing anything. The only thing we don’t do is weapon training because we were banned from the training area until someone willing to train me comes forward.
On the 4th of Cancer some news and letters arrived from the deployed soldiers early in the morning.Even I received one from Aria.
“Dear Lucia, I hope you are doing alright and getting to know the people in the camp better, even making some friends. We will be coming back soon, we would be back sooner but something happened, but don’t worry, almost everyone is safe, Boss is here so there is no way we will lose. When we get back I will buy you a beautiful new dress so look forward to it.”
Shame there are no dates so I don’t know when they wrote this. And I also don’t know where they are fighting so that makes it even hard to pinpoint when this was written.
After reading my letter and trying to hear what the courier said for no results I went to look for Arnold, we usually train around this time after we eat our breakfast.
I walked around for several minutes and didn’t find him anywhere. So I asked where his tent was and the other kids pointed me there but they told me he didn’t want to play today. What we were doing was not really playing so I think we are good.
I approach the tent, it’s closed off from the inside so I shout for him.
“Arnold, let’s train.”
“GO AWAY!” He screams angrily.
“Arnold are you alright?”
“GO AWAY!” He shouts again.
“Why are you screaming at me?I didn’t do anything!” I Shout back.
Then he opens his tent and just punch me in the face while screaming.
“GO AWAY! I DON’T WANT TO PLAY!”
I drop my sword and start fighting with him. I don’t care what happened, I didn’t hit him even once during all those days and now he just punch me? No, that’s not how this works.
We fight as well as two angry children would. Lucia anger is not letting us use our knowledge of fighting so we are pretty much just hitting each other as much as we can wherever we can. After a few minutes of fighting we stop and he says again, but his time in a weak voice.
“Go away, I want to be alone”. He also throw a piece of paper at me while I am leaving. I pick it up and it’s a letter, I start to read it to see if this is the cause of all of this.
“Dear Arnold, I am sorry that it’s me writing this letter but I have to tell you that your family fell in battle, they became heroes, they saved us from a surprise attack from the enemies but they sacrificed themselves in the process. I truly wish I could give you their wills but they were lost in battle, so all I can say is that they love you very much and want you to be happy”
As I look at this letter everything clicks together and I walk back to Arnold.
“I’m sorry…”
“Go away, I don’t need you pity.”
“Your family… I’m sorry…”
“They became heroes, they saved everyone, they will be in history” He says while on his knees while forcing a smile.
I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t say anything looking at that forced face with a sad smile. I just gave him a tight hug.
After that he hugged me too and started to cry his eyes out in my chest. All that anger was probably pent up sadness. I don’t know how much time I spend there with him but it seemed like an eternity. I could sense some people watching us but I ignored them. After that when Arnold calmed down he asked me something.
“What should I do?”
“Be happy.”
He laughs a little.
“Easy for you to say.”
“Then at least try, if you don’t even try to be happy it’s the same as being dead.”
He stands up and wipes his tears now with the confident face he always had.
“Yeah, the future biggest command of the Purple Dragons can’t stay crying forever. Come on we need to be healed so we can train” he says while grabbing me by the hand and taking me to what I believe is the Hospital area.
There Besta find us.
“What happened?” While she heals our bruises.
“We tried to see who was stronger and ended in a draw.” Arnold said.
“Don’t hit girls Arnold, they are usually weaker than boys” She says as she finally gets that I was just as strong as him.
After she finish patching us up with magic she makes us promise to not fight again like that. We kindly lie to her saying we won’t and go our way.
From that day forward we increased our training, we even stole some wooden swords to train with. He even started to go to the library with me where I teached him how to read a little more.
Two weeks go by in a flash, and the troops return. Arnolds gets a little sad again when he sees the coffins but keeps his cool while everyone is cheering on the returning soldiers for successfully winning from another battle.