A week went by after the day I found my silver magic. The cause of my fainting seemed to be mana exhaustion which, from what I was told, could be very dangerous if kept happening, so I ended up having the old mage helping me directly to avoid it. It was now two days since I last saw the old guy who vowed to find the secrets of my magic, though.

Legends say he went on an adventure at the underground libraries of someplace I couldn’t bother to pay attention to, so it's a mystery if he'll ever come back. It could very well mean that he was only another one who gave up on teaching me either way... A whole week with one of the best mages around and I was yet to go anywhere.

Still, you won’t be forgotten, archmage Raoul? Ronald? Renault? Whatever.

At least he vanished after having processed most of my requests for amenities, so that was fine. I now had some clothes, make-up, and a hell lot of books. All the materials needed to get me in a safe position if something went wrong.

Either way, since I wasn’t in the same class as Mr. Hero and no one knew what I could do (I couldn’t even manage a repeat of last week), I was a little too free now. More even since, after having her follow me around relentlessly for the first two days, I started to flee from Eve.

She wasn’t a bad person and it was her job, but having someone that would only accept walking by my back in silence didn’t feel good at all. I wouldn’t be against having a cute maid around if she wasn’t so stiff, even if she was a kuudere at best, but I needed some rest too.

If she wouldn’t listen to my requests at all, then I wouldn't accept it! And that was said.

Also, no. I don’t care that I’m asking for something that may very well be culturally unacceptable. I’m not having someone follow me silently from outside my line of sight and that’s final!

She could put up more of a fight, though. For some unknown reason, my quiet maid would always leave an hour or two before noon and only come back when it was time to call me to eat. All it took to escape every single time was to wake up at the right timeframe and sneak outside my room.

It was too easy to escape in this situation since, for good or bad, most wouldn't even notice me leaving. I'm pretty much a master at sneaking around, you know?

Well, master is a little too much considering I once knew a person who was pretty much a ninja, but that’s beyond the point...

Still, my inner clock was saying that I woke up a little later than I should have today, so I had to move on.

I fixed my clothes, a silver-colored short dress with darker lining, a wine jacket, long boots, and white gloves to top it all, and then started to work on my minimal make-up.

Working with powder and whatever I could wriggle around wasn’t perfect, but I was working with what I had. There were things that I had to cover and not working in my appearance would go against my character.

My only worry was if the few cosmetics I managed to request were safe or the lead-based venomous things medieval people used in my world… And then, for how long my hair would hold without more work. There was little I could do about either thing for now, but I had ideas to work with. I needed more time then.

“Good enough… I really don’t like good enough...” I remarked to myself as I would usually do when at home, and then took the closest book from the pile at the corner of the room. “Time to get something to eat, I guess.”

Knowing the time wasn’t something I could be sure, but if I pretended that this planet was the same as Earth, I could make a very good estimate. Close to midday, if my guess was right, meaning it was almost time for dinner.

Seeing this world's two-meal system and its naming conventions so similar to Earth’s medieval ages was fun.

I was running a little too close to it, though, so I shook these thoughts off and hurried ahead to avoid causing trouble to the staff. So, with my preparations ready, I left my room and started to make my way to the kitchen. It wasn't exactly the easiest path due to how gargantuan this castle was, but I got used to it after a few days, so it wasn't a problem.

A perk of having a very good memory.

I was even starting to memorize the faces of the people who crossed paths with me during this time of the day. Most didn't seem to know much about me or even notice me at first, but I was always sure to greet them all. It was fun to see that a good number of them were still getting spooked when I spoke and how some were getting used to it.

I was getting an overall amiable reaction from them too, which was unusual for me but very nice.

The maids, butlers, and lower-ranked knights, in special, seemed to like me. A few others would compare me with the more useful Mr. Hero when they thought I couldn't hear, though. He was making quite a name for himself from what I heard, and that was only by training and helping around.

Meanwhile, I had a nickname too, a very fun one even, but I never saw someone look at me in a too negative way. Not perfect but more than good enough to me considering that, even if they didn't see me in a positive light, I still had the king and Hayato to protect me.

The wonders of being an absolute eye-catching beauty with good safety nets, I say.

And so, with these thoughts in mind, I reached my first goal before actually starting my day and went on as usual.

“Good morning, everyone.” I greeted the working staff of the kitchen with my eyes focused on the chief cook. The others were too occupied around this time to do more than a simple greeting in answer, and I would hate to trouble them, so the chief was always the target. “Are you making any pasta today, Keith? Or maybe that pizza thing I explained to you the other day… Lasagna would fit well too.”

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The food here was very good, that was a fact. More than I expected from a medieval world. I still had some things I missed eating, though, and if they made them, I would be very grateful.

It's as they say: the wolf loses its fur, but not its habits. I can’t just give up on eating what I’m used to only because I’m in some isekai. Very sad that the people around here aren’t used to eating these kinds of things too much… Or almost at all. No pasta at all…

“The menu is the same one I showed you at the beginning of the week, young lady.” The leader of the kitchen answered without sparing a glance at me, at least until he turned with a sly smile. “But who knows what I’ll prepare next time we get some ingredients…”

Keith was a very cliched middle-aged guy for his role. A rotund body, but not massively so, with a round face with no beard but a nice and long mustache. And all that inside the same kind of chef attire I knew in the normal world.

He was quite the good guy too, and bothering him for a week seemed to have got me a positive impression somehow. In his words 'someone that could enjoy his food like that couldn't be a bad person', but maybe there was more there. My real theory was that he was taking me as some mascot character by now, just like most people who didn't find me a bother or a leech...

I thank the gods of tropes for this one still. They shall hear my prayers over this well-deserved food when the time arrives.

“I’ll be waiting for it then…” I put on my best smile and then went on to hover around the cook until he sighed and picked on a covered plate set close by. “But in the meanwhile, do you have a little treat for me?”

“Pig cheek tart, cheese casserole, and green beans, young lady. It got a little messy since I had to set everything on a single plate, but the taste should work fine.”

“You know you rock, right?”

“I have no idea what it means, but I’ll take it as a compliment…” He answered before going back to the finishing touches of the bigger portions for dinner. “What about waiting to eat with everyone today? Some are asking for you in the dining room, your friend in special. Getting excuses on why I’m feeding you like this is getting hard…”

“I’m not very good with these events, you see? Too much pressure for a meaningless figure like me… Would make the food taste worse.” I took the plate and hurried away with some not-so-interesting memories lingering around. “I’ll leave you to your work now, though. See you later, everyone!”

I then hurried away as fast as I could before Keith could try to argue against me. Explaining these kinds of things was a pain, but I would have to keep on bothering him with the trouble of explaining my weirdness.

To begin with, sitting at a huge table surrounded by more important people is an incredible way to waste your food, you know? Imagine if they start asking me about how my magic training is going or something. They always do this kind of thing, I know it!

I’m not going to waste good food due to something avoidable like this.

Then, with my food in hand and no troubles for now, I headed to my next goal. Or to be more specific, to the quiet place hidden in the castle’s garden I found yesterday. A small gazebo surrounded by flowerbeds with a table and some chairs carved in stone.

It was a very out-of-the-way place and I had yet to see anyone use it, but again, this castle, and its gardens, were massive. This one garden alone could easily be a whole forest with trails and cabins. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were dozens of these places around and I was simply lucky until now.

“Anyway, where was I…?” I asked myself as I set my food and my book on the stone table, and then took a seat.

I was currently almost halfway through the third book of the ones I borrowed from the castle’s library. One of the many this place had on magic theory and whatnot, and the best way I could think of studying now that I had no teacher.

I wasn't expecting to find the magic I could use here, though. Two days of study with Randoul (have you actually thought that I forgot his name?) taught me how the elemental part of the magic worked, and also that I couldn’t use a single one of their basic spells. This fact was set in stone already, but there could be more, I feel it... And all that because this system seemed full of holes in my mind.

It simply couldn’t work like they say it does.

To explain in more gamey words to make it easier: each element is something similar to a skill tree and a mage needs levels to unlock it. These are a sum of body, mind, and, for lack of a better word, training stats, so they start somewhere (with your natural aptitude and mana) and grow with time and training.

Very simple, even if not exactly right.

From that, I understand that, although I have an element instead of the all-rounder magic with unique skills like our Mr. Hero, I couldn’t use it. And if that was the case, I am either working without a skill tree or my skills have a different trigger I can’t figure out.

Both things I have a chance of solving it if I get enough information and try enough things.

The process for it is simple: take a book, try all the spells and methods in there, and then keep going until something works. Very easy to do since these books all had the translation of the runes and spells added to them. By now, I could even feel my mana without much work on it and, with some work, I could easily read and even write spells.

Not that it solved the fact that I couldn’t activate a single one of them by myself. Even when I started to think that this whole system was weird and went deeper on the theory instead of spells, I couldn’t cast a single spell.

All it got me until now was the feeling that there was something weird in this ‘elemental’ system. Abnormal things like gravity and alchemy existed on the same wheel as the usual four plus light and shadow. Life and death were there as elements too, and then lighting and ice for some reason. And all that without considering the many people that had dual elements and how some of them could interact with each other.

This whole system was a mess if you considered they were nothing but elements, so my theory was that the classification was wrong. Doubly so when I started to read the spells and so many of them had similar meanings in their runes and symbols.

I was sure that I could get the real system behind this, but I was lacking in knowledge right now. It was even the first time that I cursed not going deeper into sciences back in my world...

For now, though, all I could do was study and then study a little more until the missing gears clicked together. Still, a few hours went by on this process without any worthwhile results like usual.

All it managed was to get me progressively more tired as the pages went by and, if I got it right, it meant that my mana was running low. But that wasn’t enough to make me not notice the eyes glued on me from somewhere close by.

“Am I occupying your place?” I called out in the general direction of the person (probably) watching me. “If so, I’ll move right away…”

“There’s no need for such…” A melodic voice called out while a silver beauty slowly walked closer from a nearby patch of woods. “In fact, I was more looking at you than at this place. I’m at it for some days even, but you’re a hard girl to find, you know?”

You took a lot of time to find me, didn’t you? I’m kinda hidden in an out-of-way place, sure, but taking some days to find me? That’s a lot. More importantly, though, from what she was saying, there was only one conclusion I could get from this girl...

She is bad news!

Sneaking around, hunting people, and wearing clothes that seemed to be some sort of fantasy jungle camo. It would only be more obvious if she had some weapons lying around, but this didn’t mean much in a world of magic.

I was seeing ‘bad news’ emanating from her even though I somehow felt that she wasn’t a problem or even someone I didn’t know... Bad news is bad news still, so I ignored these feelings saying all was fine, and turned to my instinct for help.

“Looking for me, eh?” I closed my book and watched the approaching girl with as much composure as I could pretend to have while slowly moving my hands. “If that’s the case…”

Then, without even finishing my phrase and with my ‘pursuer’ closing in, I sprung my trap by throwing the empty plate by my side on her face and jumping away from the gazebo before legging it with all I had.