Dia looked at her room. The curtains were now completely obscured, and the feeling of being spied on had vanished entirely. Lucy, who was milling around and getting every single lifestone in her room right now, shot a few glances at her every so often, clearly worried about the changes in her master.

“Hmm.” Dia looked at the low-ranked lifestone, and then checked her status.

[Name: Dia Lyceria de Lustre

Lifespan: 72 years

Active Skills: Sword Dance (5), Sword Sense (6), Sword Roar (4), Fated Sword (2), Sword Fall (2), Domain of Swords (1)

Passive Skills: Heightened Senses, Fighter’s Instinct, Introspection, Projectile Evasion

Mana Circuit Superimposition: 1.88

Mana Control Proficiency: Intermediate

Comments: May the Salvation Star light the way ahead for the entire world. Do not give up. All life rests on your shoulders.]

Dia took a deep breath. She hadn’t seen such a sad Status for a long time. In another time, this would have been rather impressive, but after seeing Tot’s attacks, that assault on the Moonlit camp and a whole host of other nonsense, the only thing she could think of was that she was at the bottom of the barrel. The comments weren’t helpful either — what was the person who did the comments section thinking? Did that person not see a pathetic 1.88 sitting right above?

Sighing, Dia glanced at the pure-ranked lifestones that Lucy was gathering. Most of them came in little bags that her father or brother had passed her randomly, but she hadn’t bothered to use them, since she had placed more emphasis on her swordplay.

In other words, she felt that being good at killing was more important than actually having more mana circuits. While she still practiced her ability to fight and kill, the her now was also very aware that mana was number one, and actually killing people was number two. After all, no matter how much her swordplay improved, there was no freaking way she could block the Moons’ thunderous blows, or Nero’s overwhelming waves of mana.

Now that she had a second chance to eat as many lifestones as possible, she wasn’t going to miss it for anything in the world. However, she would have to inform her future self when to increase her mana circuits and when not to, just to make sure that nothing weird happened to the history Dia herself knew.

“Milady, are you sure you’re going to eat all these lifestones?” Lucy asked.

“Well, gotta finish them in one day,” Dia replied. “Or else they might disappear tomorrow.”

She tossed a handful of lifestones into her mouth, and then moved to the fifth bag. Dia was beginning to feel a little sick from the sheer sweetness that was roiling inside her mouth, but all this was for her own good. As long as she kept eating and eating, when she returned to the real world…

After emptying all thirty-eight bags and increasing her lifespan by a staggering ninety-eight years, Dia retched once, and then got Lucy to pour her a cup of water to clear her palate.

“Milady…are you alright? You’ve been acting weirdly for some time,” Lucy asked, worried.

“I’m fine,” Dia replied. “I need to clear my palate now…by the way, where’s the small party with Countess Nia held at?”

“In the palace’s tearoom, milady.”

Dia got up. “Help me pick out some clothes, then.”

“Me?” Lucy blinked. “Milady, your taste is better than mine, though. I beg you to reconsider.”

Dia looked at the little maid and frowned. While there was probably a time when that held true, the Dia now was a Dia forged through two years of living as a mercenary. Asking her to pick out clothes now was like asking a noblewoman about social dynamics between baby nobles — completely impossible.

“Trust me,” Dia said. “Anything you pick right now will definitely, definitely be better than my choice. In fact, you’ll need to coordinate my whole outfit, because I think I forgot how to do that too. And I forgot most of my etiquette too.”

“That sounds very serious. Should we call the doctor, milady?”

“That sounds like a perfect plan. After the tea party, I suppose?” Dia replied, trying to maintain the nice smile on her face. Now that she was back here, Dia finally realised that she had completely forgotten about the final parts of noble life. Sure, a few things still remained, but most of her upbringing had probably gone poof by now.

“Yes, milady.”

Dia sighed, before walking over to the expansive wardrobe. Dresses of all kinds dazzled her eyes, but there were a few more sensible outfits. Normally, Dia would have made a beeline for those sensible, easy-to-move-in clothes, but considering that the next event was a tea party…

She turned her eyes to the complex dresses, and then skipped them immediately. There were a few simple ones hanging around, however, and Dia pointed at them. “Pick the best one from this lot here.”

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“Milady, these are casual dresses, though?”

“It’s fine,” Dia replied. “And besides, we won’t need to care about all this too much anyway. Just pick the one that suits me the best. The semi-formal ones are a pain, and I’m not going to wear a dress train for the next month. That’s just nuts.”

“Nuts?”

“Uh…” Dia thought about the corresponding word for that for a moment, and then found herself at a loss. “Never mind.”

She had a bad feeling that the tea party was going to be quite the torture. Not only did she forget about most of the basic etiquette tips, Dia also couldn’t come up with the informal currencies of parties like these, like interesting information and other things she could share with Countess Nia. The social life of noblewomen revolved around events, trends and other value-raising information, and even if she had some leeway by virtue of her age…

“You know what? I suddenly don’t feel very well,” Dia muttered. This was a risk she would have to take. Rather than causing weird changes because she couldn’t deal with a tea party properly, it would be far easier to skip the whole thing entirely.

“That’s what I thought too.” Lucy let out a sigh. “Milady, I’ll pen up a formal letter of apology for you later. I’ll send a missive of absence to the countess first.”

“Yeah, do that.”

Lucy looked at her again. “Milady, your manner of speaking…”

“Not feeling well,” Dia replied again, relying on the same excuse. “I’ll have to trouble you to cover for me, though. I’m…not in my best state now.”

She looked around her room. Lucy’s work was impeccable; even after searching the whole place for randomly placed bags of lifestones, her room looked the same as ever. Now, however, the only thing Dia wanted to look for was her diary. She remembered keeping one before the mess with Tot happened, and while it had nothing that was important to her personally, it might have something like etiquette guidelines and how to speak like a normal noble.

“Milady? What are you looking for now?” Lucy asked.

“My diary,” Dia replied, opening a drawer randomly. “Nope, not here either…”

Before Lucy could offer her help, a set of gentle knocks fell on her door, and the two of them froze.

“It’s me, Dia.”

Dia paused for a moment, and then remembered the voice. It belonged to that of her elder brother, who would be involved in the mess that would occur in a month. Did he pay her a visit back then, when she returned from the Field of Flowers and Fruits? She couldn’t quite remember, which meant that this was probably something of little consequence.

Dia sat down on the bed and adjusted her hands. “…Come in, brother.”

“Pardon my intrusion.” A black-haired young man, lean and muscular, walked into her room. Clad in a black suit of dark, dull armour, all sorts of artefacts hung off his belt, swinging around as he walked inside. He looked around a few times, and then rubbed his nose. “Uh…how have you been?”

“Fine, why?” Dia blinked. “Is there something you need from me, brother?”

“Nothing in particular.” He looked at Dia intently, and Dia forced herself to look back at her older brother. For some reason, she found him very familiar, as if she had seen him quite often for the past two years or so…but this was probably a trick of her mind. Her brother…she hadn’t seen her family for a long time — this was the first time she had seen her older brother for some time. In fact, what had happened to him after Tot happened to the Istrel treasury?

She wasn’t too sure.

Anyway, now that her senses were fully attuned, however, she could sense an immense power radiating from her older brother. Rather than a one-folder, her brother seemed to be a mid-ranked folder somehow — she even had a sneaking suspicion that he was stronger than her father.

She rubbed her eyes once, and then blinked. Dia had a feeling she had superimposed Nero’s aura onto her brother’s, because that illusion of strength was now gone. Her brother was at best a tri or bi-folder, but thanks to Nero’s constant flaunting of his strength, she had subconsciously learned to associate young men with many mana circuits.

Probably, anyway. However, that did explain why she found her brother’s generic looks quite familiar — she was probably superimposing that alcoholic’s face onto her brother’s better-looking one.

Making a mental note to not look at the Holy Son of the Black God whenever he showed off from now on, she asked, “What’s wrong, lord brother?”

“L-lord brother…” He shook himself. “You can call me that a few more times, for starters…I’m just kidding. Anyway, this is for you.”

He pulled out a bag of lifestones.

“More?” Lucy asked. “Milady’s eaten thirty-odd bags today for some reason. This is going to make her lose her appetite.”

“Yikes. Did something happen?” Her brother put on an odd face. “Also, doesn’t it get disgustingly sweet when that happens? I know someone who wants to throw up whenever they eat too many lifestones. Anyway, it seems like you’ve finally seen the importance of strength. Mana circuits are very important, alright?”

“Yes, lord brother.”

The grin on his face grew wider, and Dia found herself somewhat bewildered. Did her brother really like being called in such a manner before?

Before she could press the topic, her brother made a small smile at her and placed the bag of lifestones in her hand. “This one’s special. They’re Pure-Life Gems. Use them only at the last moment, okay? They’ll store up more and more life every day. They’re damn precious, so keep them on you at all times.”

“Brother?”

He grinned, and then flicked her forehead. “Sorry for everything. Now, I have bad news. Father wants to see you.”

“Now?”

“Why else do you think I’m apologising? Put your best face on, Dia.” He winked. “I’ll be leaving first. Gotta do some guard duty at some crappy treasury. See you in a month, Dia.”

“Guard duty…” Dia felt her head throb once. She wanted to say something, anything, but her mouth seemed to be made of lead at that moment. Her body didn’t want to obey her thoughts either, and she remained seated on the bed as her brother turned around and left.

“Milady?” Lucy whispered. “Are you still not feeling well?”

“I…” Dia shook her head. “I never got to say goodbye.”

“Don’t be dramatic, milady.” Lucy touched her forehead. “Gracious, you’re burning up. Go and take a seat.”

“A fever?”

“Yes, yes. Now just lie down in your bed. I’ll inform the duke,” Lucy replied.

Dia watched as the little maid closed the door behind her, before touching her head. It was indeed a bit hot, and now that she thought about it…

“I do feel rather sleepy, hmm.” Dia fiddled with the Pure-Life Gem. If her brother had this back then, all this crap with her being the scapegoat wouldn’t have happened, right?

The fog in her mind cleared up a moment later. If she had given at least one Pure-Life Gem back to her brother, Tot may not have been successful. In that case, she might have been sent back for this very reason, but…

That wouldn’t make that much sense either.

Pouting, she rubbed her temples and flopped onto her back. Why was this Second Tutorial so freaking weird? Muttering under her breath, she flipped onto her chest and reached out for a pillow to hug.

Getting more lifestones could wait. As for this bag of Pure-Life Gems, she definitely wasn’t going to toss it in a corner of her room this time round either. Instead, it would always be on her until the one month passed.

Even if it became a bit cumbersome.

Yawning once, she hugged the pillow tightly and fell asleep.