It was only after the morning “exercise” conducted by my fervent granddaughter, Valkana, and the subsequent rest that I finally found time to visit the dungeon. I actually felt bad about it, once my anger wore off. I did put a ten—oh wait, he was thirteen years old—child in a prison cell for an entire night. Even if he was an evil abomination.

No, no, I shouldn’t think like that. Even though his words had a way of getting under my skin, I understood that the environment that children grew up in often had a very distinct effect on their adulthood. If I grew up in a slum orphanage, I probably would resent the world too, especially if the caretakers were horrible. Even back on Earth, it wasn’t easy for governments to make sure the orphanages were properly taken care of, so I had no doubt that in this medieval fantasy type setting, it would be much worse. I could just imagine Draven holding up an empty bowl to the caretakers and saying, “Please Sir, I want some more.”

I made my way down the dungeon’s stairs with Alina by my side. Of course, I still had my two bodyguard hanger-ons. None of the guards impeded us as we traveled down the steps and through the dungeon. They still stared at me in awe when I passed by even though it was already my third time visiting the place. As for the prisoners I passed, many of whom were simply languishing in their cells, their reactions were varied, but I mostly ignored them.

It wasn’t because I was calloused or cold-hearted, but I wasn’t naive to trust the words coming out of their mouths. They were basically variations of the same two lines: “I’m innocent” and “I’ll murder you.” More of the former than the latter, but that was to be expected from a dungeon located within the palace; it was probably for political or important prisoners than any of the really violent type. They called out to me as their last hope, but if I could tell the truth from the lies, I would be a politician. No, I would rather leave this to the experts.

The moment I stepped in front of Daren’s prison cell, I blinked in surprise.

That was because…

~o~

“And that is how this happened.” I sighed. This was getting to be troublesome. Standing in the courtyard, I related my troubles to Regio. Except for our attendants consisting of guards and servants who stood a distance away from us, the courtyard was empty. That was because this was a private area reserved exclusively to royalty. I had thought about asking Valkana about this problem, but I had serious doubts about her brainpower in regards to anything other than muscle power. As for Ranzel, he was never in the running; bothering a king with something like this would never turn out well, even if he was my semi-pseudo son.

“I see,” Regio replied plainly. His gaze lowered. “Has he been like that the whole time?”

“Yeah.” I looked down as well. Keeping a hold of the bottom of my shirt with one clenched hand was the short figure of my magic instructor. Noticing my gaze, he looked back at me with hollow eyes.

“This is a problem…”

“Yeah…” I sighed once again. His personality changing from rude to shy was pretty strange, but this was completely out of expectation. It seemed letting him stay in the dungeon overnight had rendered him catatonic.

In fact, he had become completely silent as well. No matter what questions I had asked him, he never responded; he would simply stare at me with those lifeless eyes. This wouldn’t normally be a problem since it would probably be fine to let him sleep it off. However, the problem was that…

He wouldn’t let go of my shirt.

“It looks like he has a death grip on it.” Regio lowered himself to one knee and gently held up the small hand gripping my shirt. He lightly tried to pry the fingers off to no avail. “It’s best just to break his fingers.”

“No!” I immediately rejected it. “I’m not going to hurt him just because of a little inconvenience.”

“The healers will take care of the damage. There won’t be any lasting effect.”

“On his body, yeah, but his mind is a different matter. I’m not going to give some kind of trauma from the pain.” Especially since I probably gave him a different kind of trauma already.

“Then you’ll have to wait it out,” Regio said.

I frowned. “That’s not exactly the answer I was looking for.”

“There’s not much I can do if I can’t injury him, grandmother.” Regio snapped his fingers a couple of times in front of Daren, but there was no reaction. “Talking to him is impossible while he’s like this.”

“I guess I should have expected as much.” I really should have. All the signs were there already. With Daren’s mind like this, it wasn’t like I could convince him or threaten him. It was a bit of an inconvenience, but it would probably only take a few hours for him to snap out of it. I could handle that.

What was the worst that could happen?

~o~

I just had to ask that. It was like tempting fate. What happened was…

Just kidding, nothing happened. After I parted with Regio, I pretty much headed the dining hall to get some food. It was a simple enough affair, except for the fact that I had to feed the child attached to my waist. I literally had to spoon-feed him, though at least he still had enough mental capacity to chew. Alina did try to do the work instead, but I felt it was a bit awkward since he was still holding onto my shirt the whole time, making it more difficult to position him in such a way that Alina wouldn’t have to stay on her feet and bending over.

After that, since there was probably not going to be a magic lesson today with my instructor being practically brain-dead, I decided to take care of something now that I was planning for later in the day. That was why, at the moment, I was sitting on a couch within a spacious room. It was actually a bit like a lounge type of room with lots of sofas and tables, though the one I was at with Daren was in the center of the room.

For now, with the exception of Alina, my entourage was gone. Even the guards, I kept them outside the room. Sure, I had a harrowing near-death experience, but having to be followed around all the time was starting to annoy me. I mean, the palace was pretty safe so it wasn’t like there were any reason for me to keep bodyguards around. Even the gaggle of maids were dumped on me; I was pretty sure the reason for that was because some of them had combat training. I would have to talk to Ranzel about it later just to get some space.

“Your Highness, they have arrived.” Alina inclined her head towards the door.

I was just about to ask how she knew that when the doors opened. A single brown-haired woman walked into the room, looking nervously around her. Upon spotting me, she slowly made her way towards me, nearly stumbling twice in the process. The woman was a rather plain looking woman who didn’t seemed comfortable in the expensive clothes she was wearing, but that was understandable; she had been forced through a thorough cleaning and dressing before she was even allowed to appear before me. I would say that I wouldn’t have minded if she was dirty, but I doubted that daily showers were a thing for lower income working families.

“Don’t be shy. Take any seat you want,” I said as I beckoned her over with a wave of my hand. The woman timidly took a seat across from me, though she hands in her lap. It was only because I was paying attention, but I noticed that there was a slight trembling in her figure.

“They…they told me you had information about my husband.”

Huh? She hadn’t been told? I glanced over at Alina who stood off at the side and tried to convey the question with my eyes. She merely stared back in confusion. I held back my sigh. It looked like I was going to be the one that would have to tell her. For a moment, I thought about foisting it over to Alina, but I quickly banished the thought. The man—her husband—saved my life. He was the driver who freed me and distracted my kidnappers to allow me to escape. This was my duty and responsibility.

“Well,” I started. I didn’t quite know how to do this. “What do you know so far?”

“My husband has been missing for a few days,” she said. “He left to drive customers to a nearby town a week ago, but he should have been back by now.”

“Yeah, about that…” I took a deep breath. My heart was beating in my chest. It was now or never. “Ahem. He’s dead.”

There was complete silence in the room, but I spotted Alina quietly palming her face. That was actually surprising since I didn’t know they use that expression here. In fact, where did—

What was I doing? I was supposed to be telling someone that she had become a widow, but here I was, letting my mind run off. I turned my gaze back to the woman in question. There were a series of expressions that appeared on her face, some that I didn’t even recognize, but I watched silently; it was the least I could do.

“…how?” She didn’t wail or cry out like I expected her to. Instead, she had a stony expression. She was a strong woman, but I didn’t feel any admiration; all I felt was pity for her. I doubted she would do so even if I asked.

“Protecting me.”

“I see.” Some of the tension left her face.

“You and your family are under my protection now,” I told her. “Is there anything you need?”

“I wish to see my husband’s body.”

“We never found him.” It wasn’t for lack of trying. From what I had heard, the trail had been messy and led into a river. After that, the trail was lost.

There was a glint in her eyes. “Did you see him die?”

“No…”

“Then he might still be alive.”

“That’s…well…” I couldn’t say that was impossible; I had read and seen plenty of stories where the main character survived those kind of things. Besides, drowning in a river was hardly the most dangerous of situations. “The chances of that is low.”

“But not impossible?”

“Well, yes, but you have children, don’t you?” I asked. “If you run off, what will happen to them? They need a mother.”

“You’re mistaken, Your Highness,” she said. “I intend to wait for my husband to return.”

“I’m not questioning your choice, but it might be better just to move on with your life.”

“I believe in my husband.”

Seeing the determination in her eyes, I couldn’t really argue anymore against it. I merely nodded my head.

After that, I answered a few more questions before she left the room. They were trivial in nature, most pertaining to her new placement in the social strata. I answered them the best that I could, but it essentially was just me talking about being their silent benefactor. Besides providing them with financial aid and some amounts of support, I was pretty much leaving them alone. Publicly acknowledging them was out of the question; even if that were known to be under my support, differing organizations that had an interest in me would probably drag them in so it would be dangerous in the long run. Not to mention I was suppose to keep the fact that there was a kidnapping attempt under wraps. With what happened at the marketplace with Valkana, it would be like icing on a cake. Actually, that reminded me.

Once I made sure that the widow had left the room, I turned to Alina. Whereas before, she was standing there stoically; now, she had an exasperated look on her face.

“Your Highness, you could have lied to her,” Alina said. “Now, she’s going to harbor false hope.”

“It’s not good to start a relationship off with a lie,” I said. “It may be easier, but if the truth gets out, she’ll start doubting everything else I say, and regaining trust isn’t easy. Besides that, I wouldn’t want to be lied to, not for something like this.”

“I didn’t think that far, Your Highness.” Alina bowed her head slightly.

I didn’t bother to continue the subject. There was a more important matter on my mind. “Did you get the list?”

“Yes, Your Highness.” Out of her uniform, she pulled out a rolled up a white envelope. Sealing that envelope was a wax seal with an emblem that I didn’t recognized. She handed it over to me.

I ran my finger over the wax emblem. It was a bit messy with it practically being a glob of wax with an medallion in the center. With a slight pull, I broke it off. Pulling out the paper inside, I unfolded it. My eyes skimmed over its content before I slowly closed my eyes.

It was a list of names. Not just any names, but the ones that had perished in the marketplace massacre. At the very bottom, there was a smaller section for the ones that were severely wounded, and by that, I meant crippling injuries like the loss of a limb or worse. When I opened my eyes, I stared at the names with the same eyes that I had from the start.

Indifferent eyes.

I thought that seeing this would make it feel more real, but I still felt nothing.

“Alina, you know this world better than me. What will happen to the survivors? The maimed and crippled ones.” This wasn’t like modern society where a disabled person could a full life with medical technology and modern conveniences to help.

“The wealthy will hire a healing mage to restore any damaged or lost parts.”

“And the poor?”

“They will have to live with it.”

“And if they can’t?”

“For the comely ones, there is prostitution. For the rest, death or slavery is common.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I frowned. “Slavery?”

“Selling oneself into slavery in order for a wealthy noble to finance their restoration.”

I dropped the paper in disgust and leaned back against the sofa. I didn’t like feeling powerless like this. It had been more than a week so all the relief effort had already been committed. That meant that if anyone were to take care of those seriously wounded, they would have done it by now. I wasn’t so naive to think something like limb regeneration was easy; the cost would usually have a direct relation with the difficulty. Since it was expensive enough that people would sell themselves, it wasn’t something that could be given for free. I imagined that it would be like making brain surgery free.

“Let me go!” I glanced in the direction of the shout to see Alina holding Daren by his wrist.

Huh? Wasn’t he just right here? I looked to the spot next to me on the sofa to find that it was empty. I looked back at the two and saw Daren mumbling something under his breath. Alina put her other hand on his throat.

“If you finish casting that, it it’ll be considered an attempt on Her Highness’s life.”

Daren shut his mouth, but he still stared defiantly at Alina.

“Just what is going on here?” I asked warily.

“The royal magic instructor was attempting to flee the premise, so I apprehended him.”

“Um, good work.” I raised an eyebrow. There was a lot of police terminology in there. Just from looking at the scene and hearing those words, I had a feeling that Alina’s profession was probably not actually a maid. Well, it wasn’t like it was a new concept or anything, so it was easy to imagine her as an assassin maid or something.

“What do you wish to do with him, Your Highness?”

“Just bring him over here.”

Alina nodded and dragged the strangely non-resisting boy over to me.

“Why were you trying to run?”

He stared at me with a deadpan expression.

“I won’t know if you don’t tell me.” Even though I said that, I could probably guess. It wasn’t hard at all, especially considering that I only known for a few days.

“I don’t like how you’re treating me.”

“Respect is a two-way road,” I said calmly.

“I’m your magic instructor!”

“Then act like it,” I said coldly.

“I don’t need to take this. I’m leaving.” Daren started to walk toward the exit. Alina looked at me, but I ignored her and focused my gaze on Daren instead.

“Before you leave, let me ask you something,” I said. “After you walk out that door, who will you be?”

Daren stopped mid-step.

“Now, tell me. Who am I?”

“The Queen Mother…”

“Right,” I said. “Do you understand?”

I felt scummy. It felt like I was bullying a child. Actually, that was exactly what was happening. However, I wanted to learn magic, and I didn’t want to wait while another suitable instructor was found. It was selfish and impatient of me, I know, but I didn’t care.

“I understand.” There was a resigned look on Daren’s face as he made his way back to the sofa. He took a seat next to me. Taking a glance at him, he looked like a beaten down puppy.

I sighed. Damn my conscious.

“Look, Daren,” I began. “I know I said some harsh things, but this is important to me. You said it yourself that it’s only for a few weeks, and you’re being paid pretty well, right?”

He nodded his head.

“The sooner we start, the faster we can finish, right?”

“Might as well. You need all the time you can get,” Daren said, regaining a bit of his arrogant tone.

Damn it, this guy just wouldn’t stop. I had the urge to smack him on the head, but I didn’t want to waste all the progress I made so far.

“Since this is the first lesson, we will start with the basics.” Daren took out a small slip of paper. “This is affinity paper. Affinity to a type of magic is not something you’re born with or inherit. It is based on the decisions you made in your past and your upbringing. Your disposition and history is key to what type of magic is more suitable for you. For that reason, people with harsher lives tend to gravitate more to the more offensive magic.”

“So an affinity to a magic makes it easier to learn it?”

“Somewhat. You’re more inclined and motivated to learn that type of magic. Though, you’re not strictly stuck with it. I have an affinity toward wind magic, but I was able to learn all magic types anyways. Earth magic has an opposite disposition so it is harder to get into the mode of thinking, but it is just a little bit of added-on difficulty.” He handed the affinity paper over to me. “It’s harder to change affinity as you get older, but it is not impossible. Go ahead and inject some of your mana into it.”

“Er, how do I do that?” I looked at the paper, rubbing my fingers on it. It seemed like regular paper to me.

Daren sighed. “Do I have to teach you everything?”

“Well, that’s what we hired you for, right?”

“Imagine a swirling pool. Now, imagine that pool dripping into a stream down into the paper.”

“That makes no sense to me.”

“Imagine a monograph—”

“That’s even worse!”

“What would you suggest then?” Daren looked annoyed.

“Sea horse.”

“A sea horse,” Daren said in a deadpan tone. He turned to Alina. “What’s a sea horse?”

Alina shrugged, though she looked smug now that Daren was annoyed.

“It’s a animal that lives in—actually, never mind.” Now that I think about it, this world probably didn’t have underwater exploration. “What about a snake?”

“A snake? Fine,” Daren said. “Okay, imagine a pile of snakes. Imagine one of those snakes moving out of the pile. Imagine another snake biting and holding onto that snake’s tail. Then imagine another snake biting and holding onto the next snake’s tail. Keep imagining more snakes doing that until—”

“Actually, the pool explanation was easier.”

“Will you make up your mind?!”

~o~

Daren tried several more analogy, but those didn’t quite worked. In the end, when he finally just used the plain textbook explanation, I was actually able use it. It wasn’t too different of a concept from what I read in fiction, so I understood that just fine. His analogies left something to be desired anyways, but you couldn’t have a ten year old teacher without any consequences.

“Thirteen,” Daren said, his eye twitching.

Did I say that out loud?

“Yes.” He held out his hand. “Now if you can give me the affinity paper, I can read your result.”

I handed it over to him. He took a single glance at it and frowned.

“You have no affinities,” he said. “Normally, that kind of result would be impossible, but it’s you so whatever.”

I slapped him lightly on the back of his head.

“Ow!” He rubbed his head as he glared at me.

“Remember, respect is a two-way road.”

“That doesn’t mean you can—ow! Quit it!” I had slapped him lightly again.

When it looked like he was about to argue again, I raised my hand threateningly, at which point he shrunk back from me.

“Fine. In any case, it means you have no particular leaning. You don’t have any advantages, nor disadvantages. You can choose whatever magic you want. I’ll name off some magic types.” He held out a closed fist in front of him and started to uncurl each finger one by one as he listed the names off. “Fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, ice, acid, light, shadow, healing, time, summoning, necromancy, puppet, companion, alchemy, anatomy, nullification, archival—”

“Wait, wait, wait! This is way too much. Just how many different magic types are there?”

“There are more,” he said vaguely. “These are just the general magic categories. There are also hybrid magic as well as the specializations within each magic type.”

Too many. I was all for character customization, but it was a bit too much to consider. It was like when I got so many face sliders; I would play around for it for awhile, but I would get tired of it fast. Honestly, it was best to research earnestly before choosing, yet I was not the type to look at a strategy guide to find the best skill build before actually playing the game. However, just from that selection, there were actually two that interested me.

The first was time. If I thought about it in MMORPG terms, it wasn’t anything but utility skills for a support class, but that was fine. I had always had a fascination with time. Every time I would be caught up in an anime series or a good webnovel only to realize that it was five in the morning. There were only so many hours in the day. If I had time magic back then, I would have probably cleared out my backlog of anime and movies to watch, which was far too extensive to complete normally unless I became a shut-in or something. That actually made me a bit sad since the entertainment in this place was severely lacking. Sure, they had plenty of medieval fantasy adventure novels, but I would prefer more variety. It made me miss things like Space Marines, bolters, and chainswords.

The second was healing. It had far less of a lead in terms of my interest, but I supposed that was fair since that interest was only recent. More specifically, it was the massacre that brought out my desire. I hated feeling powerless to do anything, and I wasn’t quite willing to force someone else to do something about it. Just because I wanted the sidewalk to be clean doesn’t mean I should yell at a random bystander to do it for me.

As for the others, they were pretty simple. Elemental magic was standard so that didn’t really peak my interest. Summoning, necromancy, and the other two magic type I forgot were basically just creating or having a minion to do stuff for you. If I needed that, I would just ask for one of the palace servants or guards. Alchemy was probably like blacksmithing in that it’s one of those merchant and creator classes so that was off the table. As for the last three, I couldn’t exactly quite tell what they were; nullification at least sounded like it would make magic useless, but anatomy and archival just sounded plain weird.

I explained my choices to Daren.

“Time is a magic type that is mostly studied by researchers,” Daren said, beginning his lecture. “It is very difficult to use in battle. The reason for this is because it is a reaction style magic. It involves predicting your opponent to provide ample casting time because the magic has a smaller area of effect and a lower duration than other magic types. If you aren’t precise enough in your prediction, you will miss with the magic. Even then, the outcome usually just involves slowing down time in that small area or reversing time.

“The reason that it has lower specifications than other magic types while requiring the same amount of mana is because it is a spell that imposes its will on the natural world. It goes against the basic order of the world so naturally, there is some resistance.”

I slowly nodded my head.

“Time magic will always granted research funding so it attracts scientists. The reason for this is because reversing time far enough to reduce age has never been done, but in theory, it is possible. You can imagine how important this is, even to Immortals. However, at the moment, nobody has figured out a method to do it.”

“I see.” I nodded my head in understanding.

He glanced at me skeptically, but he continued nonetheless. “As for healing, that is a field with good money and prospect. Limb replacement is possible at higher ranks. Ultimately though, most healers never reach that rank. That is because it is a support role that often never sees combat so it’s one of the more difficult ones to rank up, though it’s nowhere as difficult as time magic,” Daren said. “Unlike with healers, not many will want to form a group with a time mage, and that magic is a difficult prospect to solo with.”

“So basically, you’re saying that…”

“Give up on time magic,” Daren said. “Unless you plan to work in a research lab, making steady wages, it’s not an ideal magic to study.”

“For someone that learned the basic spells of all magic types, you have some hard biases.”

“It’s because I have studied them that I know the flaws. Even the utility of it outside of combat is limited,” he said.

“The problem with it is the slow cast time, right? Why not do it circulate the mana manually?” I remembered back when Regio explained magic to me. He said that it was possible to cast magic without chants or casting time if you could circulate mana properly through your body.

“That would get rid of the problems for the reaction style, but there is reason that is never done. Chants, symbols, and the entire casting process has safety mechanics in it to make it very safe. If you screw up without them, pain will be the least of your worries; you could blow off an arm or a leg.”

Oh right, I almost forgot that. Regio did say something about that, about how it was extremely dangerous, but I had an advantage that only the wealthiest had.

“There are plenty of healers in the palace. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

~o~

Author's note: The guilt is strong in me~.