[ First Day of the Love Contest (Round 1)
D1 - Veinham Estate
Year 0 ]
"Just remember the training. Remember the training. I can do this."
Jamie stood in front of the mirror once more. She didn’t recognize herself. Her face and body were a rainbow of bruises: yellow, purple, green, and even black. Yes, this world had healing magic, but there's a limit to one’s mana. Jamie mostly used her healing magic to mend broken noses, reconstruct a few stabbed eyeballs (Master Edwards was trying to make a point), and mend her torn-off limbs.
Even her dark brown hair was different. The ends of her hair cascaded down so long that they often met her toes, a result of her unstable mana control. Three months, she’d been in this world for three months, just two clicks from the Center. Or so Benny had excitedly told her, but she was usually too exhausted to keep up with what he was trying to teach her.
She picked up an Elvish hairbrush and traced the intricate grooves of the butterfly and flower carvings with her fingertips. So beautiful, she thought. Despite the existence of magic, they still chose to handcraft things. Jamie started to comb her lush, shiny, raven-black hair. She released a loud sigh, which puffed out her cheeks. She tilted her head down to see the crown of her head. Oh, my white hair, they’re gone too.
With her mind’s eye, she used mana to chop her hair back to shoulder length. I should cut it more. Someone can grab it, she said to herself.
The thought of someone grabbing her hair is the result of consuming "Bad Girls Club," one of her favorite American reality shows. The show centered around “bad girls” who opted for fists instead of words. Confrontations among the “bad girls” often escalated into physical fights, with the instigator typically going for the hair first. The strategy was simple: grab the other bad girl’s hair, and you control where the girl is. But this world is different…
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[ Three days after being kidnapped to Mander
Veinham Training Ground - Portal 6
Year 0 ]
“Today, we test your body’s tolerance to poison,” Master Edwards said as he added three sugar cubes to his English tea cup.
Jamie noticed the man liked to change his looks often. She only knew him for three days, and he already covered the shirtless hip hop boy band look, Shaolin Monk (bald head included), and today. Today he looked like a proper Englishman about to meet a Jane Austin character for tea and gossip.
“Um, I don’t have any poison tolerance.” She swallowed her spit nervously. Her heart started to race and her mind started to speculate...Is he really going to test different poisons on me? He must know by now, that I am useless when it comes to warfare. I was never even in a fight, well besides fighting Noah. But he’s family so that doesn’t count.
“In my world, we’re never exposed to poison. I even take medicine because I have an allergic reaction when exposed to things like ragweed, which is like a weed," Jamie continued, her words tumbling out in a rush, the undertone of anxiety unmistakable. The previous day’s training had not been kind to her.
“Look at me when you talk.”
She looked up but avoided his eyes.
“Look at my eyes Miss Jamie. I am no monster.” He gave her a mischievous half-grin.
She felt an immense urge to swallow, her heart ramped up its pace without her asking, and she felt her cheeks getting hot. I hope he doesn't notice I'm so flustered, she thought.
Unbeknownst to Jamie, those around her had already pegged her as the type to wear her emotions on her sleeve. She took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. She only lasted a second before blushing and looking away from him. This was why she avoided looking at him. This was also why she was a virgin
Master Edwards was beyond handsome, the type of man - that all men can confidently say is gorgeous.
Interestingly enough, she remembered a poem that she loved while looking at the gorgeous man in front of her. Is this what they call muse? she thought. Ohh, how I wished I read and enjoyed more works of literature when I was in my world, instead of worrying all the time. She laughed to herself and spat out some homage lines …
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“Shall I compare him to the breath of spring?
No, he is far hotter,
Shall I compare his green eyes to a bamboo grove?
No, his eyes are far more lovely and enthralling,”
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Jamie smiled to herself. That was pretty good.
“Miss Jamie. Miss Jamie!” Master Edwards yelled.
Jamie woke up from her homage poem writing session and strategically looked at Master Edward’s nose. She just needed to avoid his gaze. As a virgin, Jamie was more sensitive to hot men than most.
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“You have got to stop zoning out. You can be brutally raped, impregnated, and potentially killed by terrible monsters that resemble golems in the Love Contest, which will be held three months from now,” Master Edwards kindly reminded her for the 100th time.
“Yes, sorry about that. I just, I don’t know, being in this new world is still kinda new -oh god, you just chopped both of my feet off,” Jamie said, as she somehow instinctively used her mana to shut off pain receptors to her brain.
However, her instincts failed to tell her to stop the bleeding.
Blood jetted out from her cut legs. Jamie fell to the ground and fainted. In the background, a woman’s voice shrieked, “Again! Again?! You moron!”
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Back in her room, Jamie chuckled and remembered her chopped-off feet. She was taught how to mend it back, which because she had the mind’s eye gift can be done easier than most casters. Yet, her foot kept coming off when she walked, on account of her being new to everything and all. Lisaria ended up patching her up again. Then at this moment, she felt emotional. Today, could it be my last day?
She began to recall the footage of the elite contestants and how powerful they were. The high-ranking contestants might also be gifted with the mind’s eye, along with one or more abilities that normal mages do not possess. She held her hair as if hanging on to her old self. I’ll just keep this length, she thought.
Immediately, she looked up at the ceiling.
“Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Everyone has to die someday, I might go a little sooner is all. I did my best, so I will have no regrets. Focus, get ready, and stop worrying.”
Jamie whispered a braiding spell and her hair started to separate into three parts by itself. She looked over to her vanity table, beside her comb and hair ribbons, and laid a handmade pack of white daisy seeds that Master Adams gifted her last night.
Last night, the night she wanted to give it up for fear of missing out. How childish, yet… She smiled. No doubt, it was a fun night.
“Come,” she tenderly said to the packet of seeds, which levitated into the air and glided over to her. She beckoned the packet to open, which it did, and visualized with her mind’s eye, what she wanted. Within seconds, her hair was neatly braided into two Dutch braids, adorned with a crown of fresh white daisies that wouldn’t wilt unless she was killed today.
Curious, she opened the daisy seed packet and looked inside. It looked practically full. Intriguing, this spell must’ve only needed to grow one plant for my crown of flowers. Then she tucked the seed packet away in her suitcase.
This is one of her gifts, which she is told, she must not tell anybody. Which isn’t a problem, because she has no one to tell it to. Everyone she is in real contact with knows already. Her great power has yet to be harnessed to its full potential. The most she could do now was grow seeds faster than the speed of light, transcending the time plane, just by using her mind’s eye.
“It’s about to start!” someone shouted. Is that Lisaria? I must hurry.
Jamie is 5’1, petite, around 111 pounds, a weakling on Earth compared to any man. But on this planet, in this world, she is special. Special is the reason why she was kidnapped here. She is the chosen one, simply by destiny. They all are. To be a contestant in the Love Contest, one has to be a “chosen one.” Contestants can come from different solar systems, or here on Mander, they call them districts. Jamie might be the only one from the past, but all 78 women will compete with her for the same man.
Hmm, I wonder if anyone would just attack me. Master Edwards did say that is a potential scenario but there is a mission in the first round, so why attack me? Ugh, there are just too many scenarios to worry about now. Stop worrying!
Jamie touched her surprisingly soft white linen dress; it somehow matched her bright yellow knee-high boots made from the underbelly of a dwarf Rain Dragon. A memory of her hunting the dragon with Master Edwards made her shiver. The dragon nearly killed her and the nearby village. It was a selfish act, to hunt down a living dragon and put the village in danger, just so she could make boots that would allow her to travel through space transport tunnels. But the choice was her life or letting the village and dragon be. Her answer is her life. Thus, she won’t hold any grudges if she is taken down.
Oddly enough, she has already accepted death. Yet I fight on, to stay alive at the expense of others. Am I merely instincts of humanity, genes that passed on through the millennia? No different than a worm, driven by the instinct to live. STOP it. When did you become a philosopher?! Focus! Check your things.
She took a deep breath. On her wrist are a few magical bracelets of varying colors for extra mana boosts and effects. Red stripes are poison, red stripes are poison, she reminded herself. Having recently arrived, she is behind the other chosen women in skill and experience, so Master Edwards gives her a few cheap tricks for survival.
Her right hand reached down to her hip. Let’s just double check…there it is. She felt her pocket-size grimoire, yes, it is still glued to her hip. The grimoire is filled with handwritten notes in case she forgot how to cast certain spells. Inside of her, Master Edwards created a small transport portal to keep her other weapons. Lastly, strapped crossbody to her back are two katanas, made of some crazy metal she can’t name, a gift from the General. The swords are a trick, she wondered if anyone would fall for them.
The General had taken an interest in her because Veinhams don’t usually supply their contestants with anything. Yet, Jamie was provided with a master to train her, a place to stay, and even Lisaria as a servant and guide for the big and little rules of this world.
All her life, Jamie from Earth, from 2024, had loved getting lost in fantasy adventures, anime, and adventure stories. How cool would it be to fight demons, have elf friends and be in some fairytale chugging down foaming beer at a hip cavern? All her life, she never thought it would ever come true and now that it has, well, she doesn’t want it. Because this isn’t a fairytale. She doesn’t know what will happen. It’s so unfair. She finally met the guy of her dreams, it was just the first date, but that counts! She finally had a great job, her mom’s health was finally improving, and things were looking up for her.
But now, she has to fight for her life or die.
There is hope, I just need to…
“For the heavens of Gladmora! Hurry up! Master Edwards wants to see you before you meet the other contestants!” Lisaria shrieked from the top of her lungs from the hallway.
Despite being a servant, Lisaria does not act like one. She was from a noble family that fell into ruin after her sister ran off with a servant instead of marrying the King’s Uncle. Their whole family was demoted. Lisaria’s father and mother now run a bakery and she scored a highly sought-after job as a servant for the Veinhams. She is a close friend of the General’s younger sister, the two attended the same etiquette school. This is why, Lisaria doesn’t like Jamie very much, she didn’t have to lift a finger until Jamie entered the picture.
“Sorry! Coming!” Jamie replied and looked at the mirror just one last time. This might be the last time she saw herself. She abruptly looked up at the ceiling and let out a deep controlled sigh to stop herself from crying. It all comes down to this. She closed her eyes. With both arms, she reached behind her back to touch her katanas. She has no choice but to be ready.
I will find my way home. I will kill anyone in my way. I will not be defeated in this cruel world.