How was I supposed to survive this? I collapsed in my chair as the maids around waved feathered fans at me. It couldn’t come close to an electric fan, but I appreciated the effort. I had never felt so sore in my life. From the soles of my feet to the top of my shoulders, Valkana had worked every inch of my body and then some. Ugh, if I was like this now, tomorrow was going to be hell on my muscles. I was half-expecting that I wouldn’t be able to move tomorrow if at all. Not only that, but I had a magic lesson in a couple of hours. How was I supposed to attend it like this?

The day had started out pretty bad. I got awakened by my maids in the very early morning, so much so that I was practically dead on my feet. The only reason I managed to drag myself out of bed was from the fact that my maids really did drag me out of bed after I wouldn’t get out for half an hour. I only gained some levels of consciousness once they had already switched out my sleeping clothes or training clothes. There was only time to eat  half of the breakfast they brought me before I had to rush to meet up with Valkana in the courtyard.

From there, my day went from bad to worse. I thought it was going to be like those medieval movies, where they were always training by swinging around their swords at training dummies. Had I been more awake, I probably would have remembered that I already saw their real training style when I went touring with Regio and Lisa. That was to say, it was modern military style, which meant I was on the floor, heaving dust with my super poor push-ups and sit-ups. That wasn’t even talking about the numbers of laps I had to run around the courtyard. While I did have enhanced strength—and that helped—it certainly wasn’t enhanced endurance. It certainly didn’t translated to technique or skill either. The amount of times she had to fix up my posture was embarrassing, and I kept messing up even then.

“Your Highness, do you feel better?”

“Not yet. Keep fanning.”

I knew I shouldn’t be taking advantage of them, but they were so convenient that it felt natural. Besides, they would probably be forced into a harder duty if they weren’t attending to me.

Or at least, that was what I kept telling myself.

“Alina, am I taking advantage of you?”

“No, Your Highness.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I am making you do this…”

“It’s an honor to serve you. I’d feel happier if you made more use of us than you do,” Alina said. “Please, use us as you wish.”

And that was that. They wanted it so who was I to deny them that? It wasn’t like I was abusing them or anything; I was just making things a little convenient for myself. While that may not sound much, but it was actually a big deal since there were no technology here.

“What do you know about the new magic teacher, Alina?”

“I only saw him once, Your Highness. He was covered in a black robe so I couldn’t see what he looked like.”

I shrugged my shoulder. “Just as well.”

“Actually,” one of the other maids said, “I heard some rumors about him.”

“Oh? Go on.”

It seemed that my teacher was young. Really young. He was a thirteen year old genius—a super genius, in fact—but he was eccentric enough to be considered an outcast. That was because he was trying to learn all of the different magic instead of focusing on one, believing that it was better to be versatile than to specialize. I could see that would come in handy, but at the same time, it was time-consuming. It was for that reason that he only mastered some of the basic spells of each magic type. I could understand the thought, though I knew the flaws to it too. For a soloist or a duelist, it would be massively helpful, but for party play, specialized was a whole lot better. Because of his eccentricities and stubbornness, there was apparently no sponsors for him. Though, I supposed it paid off since it made him ideal for the teaching position Ranzel had in mind.

Still, being taught by someone younger than me was going to be weird.

“I’m so tired,” I whined. “Can’t we move it to another day?”

“I’ll go inform him, Your Highness.”

“Wait, wait, wait. I didn’t actually mean it.” I had already said that I would attend, and I wasn’t so flaky on my responsibilities that I would actually cancel a meeting this late or ditch it outright. “I wanted to complain just to complain.”

“Your Highness, he’s here for your convenience, not the other way around. I’ll reschedule the lesson for tomorrow.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. First impressions are important,” I said. “Besides, Valkana wants me back here tomorrow so I’ll be tired then too.”

Just thinking about tomorrow made my bones ache. Would I even be able to get up from bed tomorrow? Valkana did tell me that for heroes, they have a higher growth rate and healing rate, but this was a ridiculous exercise regime. Well, that was tomorrow. I yawned and stretched my arms out. Right now, I was just going to relax and let the fans…cool…my…my…

I fell asleep.

~o~

It was more than an hour later that I was forcefully woken up by Alina and sent off on my way. Well, not really sent off, per say, since she and the other maids had to guide me there. They waited outside the library while I entered alone. Unlike the other time that I was here, it was completely empty of people which was a little strange. Oh wait, not so empty. There was one person sitting at a table there, reading a book. He was surrounded by stacks of books that littered both the table and the floor around him.

He was a teen by any standard, but he was short enough that I would have mistaken him for a late elementary student or an early middle school student. It didn’t look like he hit his growth spurt yet, and he was cherubic-looking child with slightly marshmallow-like cheeks and a mop of silvery hair. If I had to guess his age, I would have said nine or ten at most, not thirteen. He was adorable in his own right, especially when he looked up at me with his saucer eyes. However, it was hard to ignore his arrogant expression.

“Library’s reserved. Leave.”

I frowned. That wasn’t very polite. He probably didn’t know who I was, but even if he didn’t know my identity, he shouldn’t treat people like this.

“Are you stupid? I said that the library is reserved. Get out.”

“I’m stupid now, am I?” My smile became strained, and I could feel the blood rushing to my head.

“Yes, you are. Leave now or I’ll have you thrown out.”

I took a deep breath to calm myself down. “Okay, I think you should—”

“Guards!” The boy didn’t even let me finish before he interrupted me. Within moments, a trio of armored guards entered the room. He then pointed at me. “Arrest this woman for trespassing and for harassing a royal magic instructor.”

I looked at the guards. The guards looked me. A moment passed before the front guard bowed his head.

“Your Highness.”

The young boy’s face paled. I had to admit, I took a bit of pleasure in seeing that.

“Y-your Highness, I-I didn’t—”

“Throw him in the dungeon.” The guards immediately complied with my words and surrounded the pale boy. The young child was shaking like a leaf, so much so that it almost seemed like he was about to cry. “Just give him an isolated cell. I don’t want him to get hurt.”

“Your Highness, please! I didn’t know!”

“Oh, don’t worry,” I replied lightly. “It’s only for a night. Kids like you need to be disciplined early on or else you’ll become arrogant, you know.”

“Y-y-your Highness!” The boy was lifted up by his arms. He was carried easily to the exit of library.

“Are you stupid? I said: don’t worry. You’ll be fine. Trust me, you’ll thank me in the future for this!”

As I watched him get carried out of sight, I smiled. I should feel bad about this, but I really, really didn’t.

It wasn’t long before I saw Alina enter the library.

“That little boy… Was that your magic teacher?”

“Yep,” I said cheerfully. “Want to go eat lunch?”

~o~

After dinner, I was actually feeling pretty bad. More than six hours had already went by before I finally decided to check up on my wayward magic instructor. In all honesty, if he had been older, I probably wouldn’t worry so much, but he was thirteen so I couldn’t discard that nagging feeling at the back of my head that I was committing child abuse. Still, you had to get these children on the right path or they’d turn into spoiled brats who would threaten to call child services if you raised your voice in the slightest. Hm, maybe that was a little too specific.

It was for that reason that I was now walking down a flight of stairs with my posse of maids. The path was only lit by torches; there was no windows of any kind here. The guard that led us down into the foreboding depths kept glancing back at us, as if to make sure we were still here. The walls echoed deeply, letting me hear the cries and moans of those imprisoned deeper still. Just a glance to my side told me that the maids weren’t faring any better; in fact, they were doing worse. The looks of fear, mixed in with a terrible sense of curiosity, was plain to see.

The bottom of the stairs couldn’t have come any sooner. Yet, this time, our guard led us through corridors instead. On each side was a line of prison cells, some empty while others occupied by men and women in manacles. A few of them scrambled to the bars with a plea on their lips, but most simply stared or not at all. It was pretty appalling, honestly, but I didn’t know their crimes so I couldn’t really say if it was morally right or not. No, I couldn’t just believe that; Ranzel would have had his hand in shaping this so they were probably in there for a good reason, and not for something stupid like stealing a piece of bread.

I couldn’t keep my eyes off of them, but I was silent for the entire trip through. Luckily, none of my personal maids were in any mood to talk either. The guard silently motioned for us to keep up, so we rushed a little onward. It wasn’t long before we reached a lone cell a little out of the way, one that was guarded by no one nearby. The reason was probably because it wasn’t a serious punishment or perhaps it was simply how they did isolation punishments. In any case, I approached the bars and looked in.

He sat there with his head in his arms with a tear stained face. His eyes were closed, and his lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. The clothes he wore were dirtier than they were this morning, but he looked unharmed. Just traumatized. Maybe I had went too far.

“Open it,” I said.

“Your Highness?” The guard looked confused.

“I said: open it.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” The guard fumbled with the ring of keys on his belt before coming to the right one. With a click and a turn, the cell door was soon open. I wasted no time in making my way in.

Even as I made my way over to him, the young boy didn’t seem to notice my footsteps. That fact only made me feel worse. Did I really traumatize him to this extent? I bit lightly on my lower lip as I crouched down in front of him. It was only now that I could hear what he was saying in his mumbles. The color drained from my face. I reached forward and pulled him into a hug. He stiffened at my touch, freezing as if petrified.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” I spoke those words as I gently put a hand behind his head, pulling him further in.

“Y-your Highness…?”

“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t be here.” What was I thinking? I sent a child to a prison! This did more than scare him stiff, and it was my fault.

“N-no, Your Highness. I was at fault. I was too conceit, just because I became a royal instructor. If it was anyone else but Your Highness, I could’ve been executed.”

“Don’t make excuses for my mistakes.” I could have done so many things instead. I could have just spanked him, for god sake. Instead, I wanted to have him have a taste of their own medicine. I pushed him away gently to hold him at half an arm’s length and stared into his teary eyes. “I won’t excuses for yours either. This is what you wanted to do to me, do you understand?”

He stared at me with confusion and tears in his eyes.

“If I had been a servant or a worker, I’d have been tossed in here. Now you know how it feels.” I put my hands on his cheeks. “Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want done to yourself. Do you understand now?”

He nodded his head.

“Good. What’s your name?”

“Daren.”

“Just Daren?”

“I was raised in an orphanage.”

“I see.” I slowly dropped my hands from his cheeks. “My name is Jennifer, but my friends call me Jen. Or Jenny.”

I took his hand and slowly rose to my feet, bringing him with me. He was a bit unsteady on his feet, but I took care to get him used to standing again. Seriously, it had only been six or seven hours. His legs couldn’t have fallen asleep. Well, actually, if he had been sitting all this time, I guess it could. I looked at him as he massaged his leg with his free hand. Way to self-punish yourself.

“Come on. One step at a time,” I said as we slowly made our way to the cell’s entrance. By the time we reached it, he was walking normally. It didn’t take long for us to leave the dungeons, though the flight of stairs proved a little bit of a trial. I was tempted to just pick him up and carry him, but I knew that men had their pride, even when they were just little boys like him. I looked down at him. “Pride?”

“What do you mean?” he asked as he looked up at me nervously.

Screw it. I picked him up, ignoring his cry of surprise. Normally, that would be an impossible task, but this heroic strength was really convenient. He was a little too big to big to put on my shoulder so I carried him, bridal style. His face went through a series of emotions, but I didn’t deign to pay attention. We were only a quarter through the stairs, and if I allowed him to walk on, it would take forever to get out of here. There were a couple of maids that giggled, making my cheeks turn red a little, but Alina quickly put a stop to that with a stern glance.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“I can walk, I can walk,” he said.

“I’m the Queen Mother. Just shut up and deal with it.”

Of course, he went quiet after that. I didn’t like using my authority like this, but I wasn’t going to waste time trying to convince a stubborn child. Besides, I wasn’t in the mood. My muscles were still sore—wait a minute, how am I carrying him in the first place?

I stopped and blinked. The maids stopped as well and looked at me curiously, but I ignored them and started moving my arms and legs a bit. I even hopped a little bit, yet I felt nothing. None of that soreness that had plagued me the whole day. When exactly did that go away?

“Alina,” I said, catching the woman’s attention. “I feel fine now. No soreness at all.”

Alina clapped her hands. “That must be your heroic regeneration. I heard that the King was the same way.”

“Is that so? Don’t tell Valkana about this.” As much as I liked my fangirl of a granddaughter, I just knew in my heart that she would work me to death if she found out about this. I could imagine her arranging another shift of her torturous exercise regime during the evening. That made me almost shiver in fright.

With that out of the way, we continued up the stairs. It wasn’t long before we reached the end. I allowed Daren to walk on his own feet and had one of the guards escort him to his own room. As for the rest, I dismissed the maids, but Alina and a couple of guards insisted on escorting me. It wasn’t like I had any real objections, especially since I didn’t know how to get to my own room, so I let them come along.

“What do you think about him?” I asked Alina. When she glanced questioningly at me as we walked, I elaborated. “Daren.”

“He is…” Alina looked a bit conflicted, but I could guess why. She was still trying to be careful with her words around me, which made me a little sad. It was reasonable though, since she was just a worker and I was her employer. However, her next words surprised me. “I’d not trust him.”

“I think the same way. His personality changed way too fast and way too easily. Do you think the first or the second is the real one?”

“You must be careful, Your Highness,” Alina said. “Those of low birth will use scrupulous—”

“This has nothing to do with blood,” I interrupted. I already knew prejudices exist here because of the caste system, and that I couldn’t do anything about it, but it annoyed me just to listen to it. “I’d be wary of anyone who makes such a big personality change, but if it makes things easier for me, then I don’t mind.”

“Your Highness?”

“I’m just saying that it would be better if we had a friendly relationship. I mean, he is my magic teacher after all.”

“Is it wise to let this go?”

“He’s just a kid. I remember when I was his age, I did some pretending too. Playing around at being someone unique.” I wasn’t proud of it, but I had quite a bit of experience with pretenses in middle school. It wasn’t that I was dissatisfied with my life; it was just that it was easier to imagine myself as someone unique. The things that I did with black cape and a spear prop was enough to make me blush. I was sure that some of those pictures were still circulating the forums. Thankfully, I had more updated photos, otherwise they would have used that for…for…

I stopped mid-step. I had forgotten. Through all the events and just living, I simply put it out of my mind. My family.

Were they still looking for me? I have read these types of stories of regular people being summoned to different worlds, but most of them avoided the subject about the people they left behind. I guess that was because it wasn’t as interesting or it would distract from the plot, but I couldn’t do the same. I couldn’t forget them. I had to move on; they had to move on as well, but how long would it take them? Days, weeks, months, years? How long would it take me?

“Your Highness…are you crying…?”

“No.” I wiped my forearm across my face. “It’s nothing.”

“Is there anything I can…”

“Can you get me some warm milk?” I didn’t really want any, but I didn’t want to answer any more questions.

“Yes, Your Highness.” Alina bowed her head before heading off, leaving me with just my guards.

It was only then that I remembered one important thing. I turned to the guards following me.

“Do you remember where my room is?”

“We do,” one of the guards said. However, he looked as if he wanted to say something more. Finally, he reached into one of the gaps between his armor and pulled out a handkerchief, which he then held out to me.

I was confused.

“Your eyes,” he prompted.

It was only then that I realized that I was still crying.

~o~

Sleep didn’t come easy to me that night, but I felt better in the morning. I didn’t even complain when Alina woke me up at the first light of dawn. I had wanted to be alone, but she stayed over last night, sleeping in a chair. I had offered one side of my bed her once, but she had vehemently refused. Honestly, at the time, I didn’t have the will in myself to offer a second time; I hadn’t wanted to be close to anyone. The farthest away I could get away from her was having her sleep at the other side of the room. Maybe she didn’t sleep at all. I had barely gotten a few winks myself, but it seemed like my body could handle it since I didn’t feel tired after stretching a little.

“I have sent some of my subordinates to bring your breakfast here.”

I simply nodded.

“Are you feeling alright, Your Highness?”

“Do you have family?”

“My mother, father, and three younger brothers.”

“How often do you get to see them?”

“Once a year.”

“Do you miss them?”

“I am wholly devoted to the royal family.”

“I wasn’t asking about,” I said. “If it’s private, you don’t need to answer.”

“…yes, I do.”

“That’s good,” I stated, for lack of anything better to say.

What followed was an awkward silence as she helped me dress. I was starting to regret my spur of the moment questions until she said, “I send most of the money that I earn home.”

“You don’t keep anything for yourself?”

“The palace provides everything I need,” Alina said. “I’m from a minor noble house.”

“I understand.” I really did. Even if they were nobles, they could still be poor. That would be a tough situation between dignity and livability.

“Yes, my brothers have a hard time keeping their mistresses happy.”

Wait, what?

“I keep telling them in my letters to reduce their spendings, but they’re just too incorrigible.” There was a wispy little smile on Alina’s face, which sorely didn’t match her words or her tone.

“You…you…”

“Your Highness?”

“Give back my sympathy!”

~o~

Sleep didn’t come easily. I woke up tired and angry, but it was hard to stay that way after Valkana’s morning regime. Mostly because I was dead tired by the end of it, so much so that it felt like I was a flopping fish. If Alina hadn’t brought along a pitcher of water, I probably would have licked the sweat off her hands. That was just how wasted and dehydrated I felt. When the time came around for my magic lesson, I unwillingly dragged myself to the library.

Just like yesterday, it was empty of people. In fact, Daren was sitting in the same spot as yesterday, surrounded by books. I walked to the chair across from him, pulled it out, and slumped into it. The young boy looked up with a cold glance.

“You’re early by five minutes.” He looked back down at his book.

I was taken aback by that. “Your personality…isn’t this too big of a change…?”

He didn’t respond as he turned the page in the book he was reading.

Did his personality revert? This was just too weird. If it was to suck up to me, then his second personality would be better for that. It didn’t make sense. While I was contemplating this, time passed by. Before I knew it, Daren placed a bookmark into his book and set it aside.

“The lesson will begin now.” Despite being younger than me, his strangely authoritative voice made me straight up in my seat. “The library is reserved for our lesson, so we won’t be disturbed. Are there any questions before we start?”

I raised my hand.

“Don’t waste time with that. Just say it.”

“Weren’t you timid and meek?”

“Hah? Don’t be stupid! I just had a moment of weakness, that’s all.” His mouth was held in a tight frown. “If you have time to ask stupid questions, then you have time to learn. Now listen up.”

I was in shock. Did he really have no fear? I was lost in the thought that I missed the beginning of his lecture. Still, I managed to infer enough to get caught up. For the rest of it, I listened intently. His style of lecturing was strange, though not so much if you considered his age. During his lecturing, he tended to use analogy instead of straight definitions. He also occasionally went off-track to go on tirades that were more like personal grumblings than anything else. Generally speaking, he actually sounded like he hated his peers, making snide insults against them every so often. It was honestly a hard lecture to listen to, but it basically went like this.

To use magic, you had to have enough mana or spiritual power. You had a inborn mana supply that could be increased with age and training, but you could also siphon mana from the environment to supplement. Of course, there were different degrees for both of them like amount you were born with through genetics or how sensitive you were to sense mana in the environment. Both of these combined dictated your overall mana capacity.

By using incantations, hand symbols, drawings, writing, or such, you could cast spells. In reality, those methods simply facilitated the process by focusing your magic into the right channels. If you were experienced enough to be able to channel your magic without those casting methods, you could pretty much instantaneously cast your spell. However, that was left to only the most experienced or reckless geniuses because casting methods had built-in safety precautions for mistakes. Without these safety precautions, you could easily blow out your limb by channeling magic just a bit wrong, even for the simplest of spells. And when I say blow out, I meant the body part actually exploding into a gory mess.

That was magic in a nutshell. This, of course, didn’t contain the rest of nuisances like concentrating under fire or aiming, things that were very necessary to effectively use in combat.

“Any questions?”

“I heard that you could do spells from all the magic types.”

“I learned some of the basic spells from every school of magic.”

“Why? I mean, isn’t it better to specialize?”

Daren sneered at me.

“It’s a valid question!”

“Whatever. I don’t need to tell you.”

Was this the same child I saw in the dungeon yesterday? I was tempted to send him back there just to verify it.

“Stop looking at me like that. It’s disgusting.”

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to send him to the dungeon. He needed to be disciplined. It was much worse than I thought.

“If I wanted an old maid staring at me, I’d go find a real one.”

I was going to do it. I was going to do it. I opened my mouth, and then I closed it.

Just what was I thinking of doing? This was a child. An arrogant, snotty brat of a child, but still a child.

“Gross. I think I need a bath.”

“Guards!”

~o~

Ah. I did it again.

As I stood in front of the prison cell, staring at my openly weeping magic instructor kneeling on the dirty floor, I couldn’t help but feel that I did something bad. Three hours. That was how long it took before my conscience finally kicked in and forced me to go check up on him. Looking at him now, I wouldn’t have believed he had an ounce of arrogance in him. This was absolutely and utterly strange. It was best if I got a second opinion so I consulted with a close aide and told her the whole story.

“So Alina, what do you think?”

“Spirit possession? I thought they were simply folklore, but it may have some truth to it.”

“Possibly. Maybe we should take him to an exorcist.”

“What’s an exorcist?”

“Well, a specialized priest. He puts a hand on your forehead and says something like: ‘Let the power of God compel you’.”

“What does that do, Your Highness?”

“It makes the spirit jump right out. After doing some creepy stuff, of course.” I really was influenced by movies too much.

“Oh, I think a paladin can do that.”

“Not quite what I was thinking, but close enough,” I said. “Bring a priest and a nun. Just in case.”

~o~

In the end, none of the three were able to find anything wrong with Daren.

So we let him go.

…well, that was what I would like to say, but I wasn’t so forgiving.

So, I left him in the dungeon overnight.

~o~

Author’s Note: Sorry for the long wait. Stuff happened. But I’ll try to get the next chapter out within a couple of days.