The day after tomorrow, I found Safira in my room, crying. A letter from her father had arrived, instructing her to visit him at the border town of Slane territory. Of course, the principal didn't permit her to leave without her guardians. Even if the letter was legitimate, which he wasn't sure of, he could not allow a child, especially a high-level mage, to travel so far without proper supervision.

I tilted my head at their behavior. I had been allowed to go home to my county with a few knights. Still, the academy here forbade Safira from doing practically the same? When I pondered it, the country's intention became clear. They purposely prevented Safira from leaving the country. It was nasty, but I supposed our goals were aligned in this case. Now, how should I persuade Safira not to leave?

"Lady Safira, are you okay?"

"Lady Eli, what should I do? Father said I should leave this country because it is not safe. The letter says he asked me to go to the border town and then to the Theocracy of Mana."

"He asked you to leave without assigning even a single knight? How irresponsible! I thought your father simply made some bad decisions when he asked you to marry some nouveau riche count. But this has crossed the line! You should just stay in the dorm or with us. It would be safer for you that way!" Alicia said what I was thinking exactly. I had entertained the thought of inviting Safira to our county, but Alicia went ahead and said it.

"He said I should go incognito. A rather powerful reaper apparently went after his life yesterday when he was about to pick me up. His guard was almost dead because of him."

I rolled my eyes when I heard her confession. That Baron was such a compulsive liar. If I weren't there in person, I wouldn't even know where he lied and where he was being honest. Maybe his head was banged by something in the past, and he had some problem there? Perhaps he lacked a healthy diet, and that's why his brain was malfunctioning? I didn't know. The worst part was that I didn't even know where to begin to correct her without revealing that I was a reaper.

"That's even more reason you should not go outside! You should stay with us, together with our knights, or in the academy where knights and teachers would always be with you! We were attacked on the streets and almost lost our lives! Two of our knights died. These reapers always aim when we are most vulnerable! If you go out alone, you will surely be attacked!"

"But what about my father?" Safira asked Alicia. I merely looked at her with worry. I couldn't say anything without spoiling any information. Moreover, Alicia had already stolen all of my lines.

"Your father is safe, right? You should stay with us until the situation calms down. Maybe until you graduate. After you graduate, you could hire several knights to escort you to your father!"

"What about my daily necessities, my food?" I tilted my head at her question, looking inquisitively toward Alicia. She also tilted her head, indicating she didn't know.

"Um… Lady Safira, weren't you taught how to fill feystones by your tutor?"

"Yes, of course. I was asked to fill 100 feystones weekly as my noble mage duty."

"100 per week? That means over 20 gold per month or four times the normal wage of commoners!" I exclaimed. Well, we also did more than that amount. But not getting paid at all from that... I facepalmed. Even Alicia's face turned stiff.

"Well, I guess it was admirable for you to help out your family by donating mana. Even Lady Eli also helps our county's finances by donating feystones. But this concerns your safety. Baron Kharn shouldn't cheap out like that..."

"Eh, wasn't it mandatory to donate feystones to the empire? You guys got paid for that?"

"It was five silver per feystone! Didn't your tutor for high-level mage tell you that?" I almost shouted at this point.

Alex, my magic tutor. I thought he was an arrogant nasty teacher. But I was mistaken. Thank you for being honest with us. I don't regret paying you 2 gold now. I clapped my hands as I prayed for his well-being and hoped the gods above would erase my previous curses to him.

"N-n-no. My tutor said that feystone shops were only made for poor mages, so they should not worry about their livelihood. Noble mages should donate feystone daily to the empire as proof of their loyalty and duty… You guys didn't donate feystones? All of our friends donated to some extent!"

"W-well. We certainly donate. B-but, if you donate, you should receive a certificate which updated everytime you donated feystones… by the way Lady Elidranthia has 1500 while I has 800 in this past three years…" Alicia had more mana than me. But she had more necessities, and thus she sold most of her work, thus the lower donations. We never talked about this, but apparently, this donation certificate was akin to bragging rights in most noble mage meetings. I did it to alleviate my county's finances, though.

"Eh? They keep count?" Safira exclaimed.

"Of course. The first page was filled with congratulations and thanks, while the second page was about how much you contribute."

"All these years… My dad only said he forgot to bring the second page…" Safira went pale at the realization that her dad tricked her.

"Well, helping out in the family was also okay. It would be nice to sell feystone and give it to your family rather than giving it to the empire. Family is more important after all. If you still have it…" Alicia turned her head as she whispered that hurtful words. Safira clenched her hands at that. Tears started flowing again.

"What will happen to me now?" Safira mourned. But R25B chose this exact moment to tell me some unfunny news.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Whoa. The kill commission for Baron Kharn shot up to 800 Points! What a shame the bastard is now outside the country. Well, this jackpot was never meant for us. R666, consider Safira's father dead now. If someone put this much money, they needed to be some kind of royal family to deter the greedy reapers."

"Hm? Why did the kill commission shoot up?" I whispered a little further back while Alicia attended to Safira during our lunch at the cafeteria.

"He must have pissed off his debtors in this country by fleeing. Thus, the debtors put a huge bounty on his head."

"But they still won't get any money that way… why won't they issue a kidnapping quest instead?"

"It is not about the money. It is to send a message. It was impossible for Baron Kharn to pay the debt without Safira anyway, and if he returned to this country's nobility to marry Safira to another count, he might be killed by another commissioner. I am talking about you. It was pretty similar to Alicia's father. Though in Alicia's case, we are the assholes," he replied coldly. I gasped as I looked at what I had done to Safira and Alicia. I gathered my resolve and quit my pretentious mask.

"Lady Safira, you have two choices now: either stay at the dorm or go together with us," I said as I held her hands with a forlorn gaze. I didn't want to be tough, but she needed to know. "I am afraid your father will meet the same fate as Alicia's father."

Alicia gasped as she looked at me. I then looked at her while nodding. "Please send letters to your father to return. Otherwise—"

"Alicia, it's already too late. You know how your father met his end. They might use Safira's father to enslave Safira. I couldn't let that happen either."

The lunch ended with a heavy mood, and Safira was out of focus the entire lesson. Two days later, a letter arrived, and R25 B's words were realized. Safira's father had perished. Unlike Alicia's father, there were too many vested interests in Safira. On one hand, we had the neighboring country that wanted to extract Safira.

On the other hand, we had greedy nobles here who also wanted the same. So, it was better to kill Baron Kharn outside and then ask Safira to choose whichever noble she wanted to get along with. At least Safira still got to stay inside the country.

----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------

For my whole life, I lived by the advice of my father. I was the only mage in the entire family, and I felt joy seeing him so proud during my magical exam. His happiness only grew when it became known that I was a high-level mage. As a mage, I enjoyed more lavish meals, but in exchange, I was expected to fill feystones. This duty was in accordance with the mana religion we practiced, a tradition that predates the founding of our empire two hundred years ago.

My father made decisions for me when I was a child, guiding me through my education. However, my siblings were harsh, insisting that, as a mage, I had the duty to feed the family. I did my best, tirelessly filling feystones day and night until my mana ran out. Yet, they never seemed satisfied. While I wasn't physically bullied, the cold treatment from my brothers still persist. If my father knew I was harmed physically, he would scold my brothers. He would say that was unbecoming of honorable nobles. One day, he informed me that I would be married to a count's son, and I realized he never truly saw me as his daughter. His focus was solely on the glory of our family. Hurt and frustrated, I had a heated argument with him. But i couldn't change his mind about the engagement.

As I attended tea parties and school, I discovered that this situation was unfortunately common. Many of my friends were also engaged with individuals not of their choosing. Since then, I have accepted and forgiven my father's selfish decisions. However, that changed when I met Lady Elidranthia.

Lady Elidranthia was unique in many aspects. As a new noble and the youngest daughter, she held a mage level even higher than mine. Her fame preceded her arrival at the academy due to a failed assassination or kidnapping attempt on her life. What set her apart was not just the fact that she repelled her attackers but that she killed all of her assassins. The scuffle resulted in the death of a knight and a maid, and countless houses were destroyed in the process. Despite her fame, she wasn't popular among us upon her arrival, given her status as a dark mage.

Additionally, her magical impression was intimidation. However, she never seemed bothered by that. As a high-ranking mage, I was taught how to control our emotions, as an uncontrolled magical impression could run wild. I assumed she was taught too, but she seemed to lack training as her magic impression often leaked out. However, the detail about this leaking negative magic impression and how to control them was only known by a few individuals. Not many could reach a magic level beyond 6 and developed a negative magic impression. Personally, I struggled with maintaining a warm body and often fell ill due to this condition. Maybe she thought it was okay not to train seriously since her impression was only intimidation and thus, not life threatening?

I initially befriended her on a surface level, merely acting polite due to her higher noble rank and advanced mage level. However, her words and demeanor set her apart from other children. Unlike them, she never looked down on me or displayed any sense of insecurity that might lead to mockery. There was a depth to her words, a double meaning that intrigued me. While most children spoke of making friends for personal gain, as taught in my family, Eli didn't adhere to that. Conversations with her felt enjoyable, and despite my family's warnings about her possible affiliation with the anti-mage faction, I couldn't help but be curious.

Eli's situation puzzled me. How could she align herself with the anti-mage faction when she herself was a mage? Furthermore, her assailants were commoners, which struck me as odd. She had been ambushed in the slums, an area densely populated by poor commoners.

I gained deeper insights into her mindset when she hosted a party at her villa during our holiday. The event seemed bizarre, as she asked us, high-level mages, to mingle with commoner soldiers. My father had warned me about the dangers of interacting with them, emphasizing the potential risk of being kidnapped and manipulated to serve their agenda. Given my value to the empire, losing me to commoners would be a disgrace to the Kharn family.

She had a profound understanding of how the relationship between mages and commoners should progress, a comprehension I only started to grasp as I delved into our history a year later in class. While we nobles idled in our chairs, crafting tools and perfecting our magical abilities, commoners sacrificed their lives in droves to defend our empire. Lady Eli had already internalized this truth before even entering the academy, causing me to reevaluate my perspective on commoners.

Yet, the letters from my father this time were deeply troubling. He urged me to desert the country, sever ties with all my friends, and relocate to the eastern kingdom. When I sought counsel from Lady Eli, she skillfully evaded the issue, providing superficial answers. It was evident she knew something was amiss—the involvement of the reapers, the empire, and my father. Why didn't she share this information with me? Was it something she had learned from her father or Duke Bron?

Now faced with a critical decision, I questioned whether I should trust Lady Eli's words. Leaving the academy might result in my demise, as hinted by her cryptic responses. With my entire family having already left the country, I grappled with abandoning my noble privileges to live under Lady Eli's protection. Alternatively, I considered following in my father's footsteps, adhering to the path I had always known. Joining an orphanage was out of the question; I still had a family, and the idea of relinquishing control over my destiny didn't sit well with me.

"Lady Eli's territory does seem appealing. Perhaps I should consider a change... I wonder if I could open a patisserie in her domain," I mused aloud from my bed.