“What in the world!?”

“Hiya!”

“What’s happening?!”

Many such cries came out from the surrounding houses, as the sun rose that morning.

Thera used wind to dissipated the remaining sleeping powder, before carefully taking a blue bead out of her mouth. This, she tossed into the air, and hit with a spine needle. The resulting bang sounded louder than a hundred balloons popping at once.

The bead had been a ball of condensed air that magicians used in travelling or searching underwater. If left to slowly dissipate in the mouth, then it would take four or five days to disappear completely. 

The only problem is that, if it’s penetrated, then it will definitely explode.

Thera had had this bead in her mouth the whole night long, in order to not breath in the sleeping powder that she had spread in the air. Then she moved the General to a sitting position, leaning against one of the Martial hall pillars.

As a result of the sudden noise, many people began gathering at Martial hall to see what the matter was. Thera cleared her throat, and used magic to enhance her voice so that everyone in town could hear it.

“Ahem, testing, testing. Please do not be alarmed about the state of your residences. Due to a rare space-time fluctuation caused by an ancient device, you have all been transported one month into the future.

The device has been dealt with. However, certain things may be out of place, or different than you remember them. Please do not be alarmed. Everything will be explained today at a later date.”

Thera checked on the condition of the General. While the sleeping powder was quick-acting, it didn't have a long activation period. It seemed he would wake up in a few minutes.

After that, Thera frowned at the ward stone. This should not remain in this spot. She grabbed a book from her bag, and flipped through to the section on ward stones. 

After glancing through the section, she sighed. Of course the ward stone would have some sort of password action necessary in order to move it.

After trying a few of them out, she snapped her fingers and the ward stone, which had previously stubbornly remained in place, obediently shrunk to the size of a pebble. 

Placing it into her personal magic bag, she made her way to Pear-Haven Inn.

The owner and the chef were already wracking their heads over the sudden large disappearance of food and drink.

“Excuse me, I have a message for the owner and chef?” She said. “It concerns the disappearance of food and alcohol.” This got their attention.

“The message is this: Please calculate the costs for the missing amount of food and lodging for three people, send this bill to Rose Manor. Also, please calculate the costs for the consumed alcohol and make the bill out to the General. That is all.”

While Thera would indeed pay them back for the food she had used, she was not going to take responsibility for a certain martial practitioner’s drinking bill. 

After dealing with things in town, she left down the road leading towards Rose Manor.

While walking back, she reflected upon everything that had happened that week. If but one of the factors had been wrong, then things would have turned out quite bad indeed. If she hadn't learned magic, she would not have been able to capture and subdue the murderer. If she had not learned how to cultivate martial spirit, she would not have the strength or the stamina to set the stage. If she had not known how to read faces, she would never have known who the true culprit of all this was.

This incident had only made her more convinced that her decision to continue down both magic, and martial arts, was not wrong.

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

The first to spot her, of course, was James the gardener, who was cutting the grass. When he saw Thera, he dropped his shears and ran as fast as he could towards the familiar house yelling.

“She’s back! She’s back! Thera is back!”

----------

As one might expect, everyone dropped what they were doing and came out to meet Thera. As such, after side-stepping Papa’s bear hug attack, she was immediately bombarded with tons of questions from the maids, her parents, and Margie-who was home on holiday. James just stood off to the side, grinning his ears off.

Thera held up her hands to ward off their questions, laughing.

“Hold on! One at a time, please! Why don’t we go inside first? I’ve been gone for five years, now, so I want to know everything that I’ve missed!”

They were only too happy to oblige.

Margie had graduated from magic school with top honors, and now boasted of having broken through all the way up to first rank, Master class.

Thera was surprised that she was only two ranks below Margie. She was only beginning to realize how much of a cheat advantage cultivating from infanthood had given her.

Margie was considered one of the top prodigies, being able to breakthrough into the realm of true magicians by the early age of twenty-one. Most didn’t reach that stage until they were at least 25 years old. It seems her obsession spurred her improvement by enormous leaps and bounds.

Speaking of which…she sure had gotten tall, and was wearing a rather early-stage pair of glasses. Well, it couldn’t be helped, since technology hadn’t yet developed very far yet.

But…dang. She sure grew up quickly. Thera thought to herself, feeling rather old, despite the fact that her physical body was ten years younger than Margie. Mother was also sporting grey hairs in her hair that hadn’t been there before. And Father's hair had toned down from a bright red, to a calmer auburn. His eyes that twinkled, had many more wrinkles about them. 

She felt regret that she hadn’t been home for the past five years. Perhaps she could negotiate to return home every month or so from now on.

It was her Mother who came out with the question that was probably on everyone’s mind.

“So? What ranks are you at now? How many classes have you advanced?”

Thera grinned and gave a ‘v’ for victory.

“What! You’ve only advanced two ranks? Despite the fact that you’re a genius?” Margie exclaimed disappointedly.

“Who said I only advanced two measly ranks you magic-obsessed airhead!” Thera retorted, smacking Margie in the head. “I’ve advanced two whole classes! I’m 2nd rank red class right now!”

“Tehee~ I knew it! That’s my little sister~.” Margie pulled a perfect tehepero. 

Imediately afterwards, Thera realized that she had been manipulated. How can such a talkative airhead be so clever!? She stared at Margie's face.

Then, she commenced plotting to ambush Margie that night with the voice-changing scarf. Thera smiled when she thought about Margie’s future panicked face.

“Eh? Why does your smile seem scary?” Margie asked. Thera didn’t answer the question.

“Hey, now! UP until now, we've only heard of your Martial ranking. What about your magic ranking?”

Mother Helen seemed to notice that Thera hadn't revealed her magic class yet. How astute of her.

Thera pulled a fake disappointed face. “Well…the thing is…I’m currently…”

She watched as everyone leaned in.

“At 8th rank Journeyman.” Thera said with a shake of her head.

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“““WHAT!””” everyone exclaimed.

“It’s true. And I was already hoping to be at first rank, Master class, already.” She pouted and looked helplessly at Margie. “You beat me to it, older sister.”

Margie was rendered speechless. Sure, she was two ranks above Thera, but Thera was ten years younger than her. 

If Thera continued to rise in ranks at her current pace, then Margie’s new record would soon be surpassed by a near impossible margin.

Then Margie laughed. “Good, good! I’m burning with anticipation now! Let’s see which of us reaches Magi first, okay? Last one there becomes the support for the other one~!”

“I accept!” Thera replied, grinning in rivalry.

“Time limit is nine years from now. You better not feel bad when you lose-” (Margie)

“Girls, please! Calm down!” (Helen)

“That’s right! Leave the competition for later. More importantly, I’ve reached 6th rank, Brown class! Beat that!” Sir Maverick bragged, adding fire to the flames.

“Grr! Just you wait! Thera will beat you in no time, and wipe that smirk off of your face!” (Margie)

“Yeah! I’ll reach black class before you!” (Thera)

“Hah hah hah! You need to get to where I am first~” (Sir Maverick)

“ENOUGH!” Helen finally exclaimed, smacking the back of Sir Maverick’s head. “You’re a knight in the King’s service, and you’re no better than the children. You should be ashamed of yourself!”

“Eheheheh. Darling, surely I’m not that bad?” He replied, rubbing the back of his head, then glanced towards the two girls and winked. The three of them knew that the contest had officially started then.

“No, you’re even worse!” She affirmed.

Thera and Margie laughed at his scolding.

“8th rank, Journeyman class, huh? I assume, since you’ve gotten so far, that you have a proper teacher, right?” Mother asked Thera.

“Yep! Madame Rothema is a wonderful teacher!” Thera replied cheerfully.

“WHAT. YOUR TEACHER IS MADAME ROTHEMA!” It seemed it was Mother Helen’s turn to be over-excited. She grabbed Thera by the shoulders, her fingers digging into them. While it wouldn't cause any wounds, it wasn't very comfortable, either.

“Y-yeah. Why?” Thera was surprised to see mother so worked up. “Mama, it hurts!”

Mother Helen realized what she was doing and quickly let go.

“Do you know who Madame Rothema is?” She asked, intently.

“um…my teacher? And a very knowledgeable magician?” Thera replied. Come to think of it, she had never really mentioned her past very often. Most of Thera’s time had been spent reading books and exploring instead of talking, after all.

“It seems you don’t know anything.” Mother sighed. “Madame Rothema is one of the top three most powerful Magi in the kingdom. There were millions of people were dying to become her apprentice.”

“Surely it wasn’t that bad?” Thera said, surprised.

“I’m afraid not. It got so bad at one point, that there was a veritable magic war fought among her admirers. Several magicians even died from sapping their life force away as a replacement for magic power. It got so bad that, finally, Madame Rothema couldn’t stand it anymore and vanished from the capitol. No one has seen her since then, but every magician who’s worth his magic admires Madame Rothema.”

Helen had a glow of adoration on her face as she spoke. Sir Maverick grinned.

“And that’s where I met your mother, girls: in the middle of a marketplace turned into a magic battleground.”

Mother Helen blushed, and pinched his arm. “Hush! I wasn’t that bad. I only used protective barrier magic.”

“And ye were at the front of the lines, fighting with the best of them.” He added, teasingly, earning himself another smack to his head.

While Mother Helen and Sir Maverick were busy reminiscing in a lovey dovey atmosphere which consisted very much of him teasing, and her slapping him, Martha, the maid, asked.

“Excuse me, Miss Thera, but precisely how long are you going to stay here?”

Thera calculated. “Well, let’s see…today’s the eighth day since I left…I can stay for-at most-three days, if we include today.”

“Three days! That’s far too short a time!” Helen gasped, breaking out of the lovey-dovey atmosphere.

Thera smiled sadly. “It can’t be helped. I left in the middle of training, so I need to return soon-”

Just then, Rebecca came in the room. “Excuse me, there is a man here looking for Thera? He said he’s the General.”

“Oh him? It’s okay, Rebecca, you may let him inside.” Thera replied, calmly sipping at her tea.

“Ho? How do you know that old Ox?” Sir Maverick asked, intrigued.

“I simply helped him on a small case, recently.” She replied nonchalantly.

“The General, and Master Thales-who just arrived.” Rebecca announced. Thera twitched an eyebrow. But Master Thales was certainly like that. You would never know when he decided to suddenly show up, and he would leave just as suddenly.

Sir Maverick stood up to greet the two men. “Welcome, gentlemen. To what do we owe the honor of this visit? I heard you were looking for my daughter, Thera?”

Master Thales smiled slyly. “Just a bit of official business, Sir Maverick. All good things, I assure you.” The General cleared his throat before taking out some official papers bearing the king’s seal.

“Thera of Rose Manor, for your exemplary service to the kingdom in apprehending and defeating not only the village eraser, but also a group consisting of thirty emperor-class vampire spiders, you are to appear before the king to recount your tale, and to receive a suitable reward for your bravery. That is all.”

The first thing that Thera thought after that announcement was: I am in so much trouble.

And sure enough, after everyone recovered from their temporary brain shutdowns, Thera heard.

“Thera, did I hear that right?”

Thera shuddered and slowly turned to look over at her mother, who was smiling amiably, but somehow there was a rather thick and dark miasma materializing behind her, comparable to the demon king. 

“You not only went up against the village eraser, but, moreover, you also faced off against thirty emperor-class vampire spiders?”

 “I c-can explain!” Thera stammered. But, it was apparent that Helen was not in a mood conducive to listening. 

Thera made a split-second decision. Suddenly, without warning, Thera dashed out of the parlor, trying to escape.

Mother was close behind her, a splendid resemblance of an oni, long hair whipping in the wind.

“YOU’LL EXPLAIN, ALL RIGHT!!”(Mother Helen)

“AAAAAAAHHHHH! SOMEBODY HELP ME!” (Thera)

“COME BACK HERE! WHEN I CATCH YOU, YOU’LL WISH I HADN’T!!” (Mother)

The General burst out laughing. Master Thales sat down calmly, and reached for the tea. Sir Maverick sighed. 

In the ensuing chase, no one made a single motion to help.