Hidden Event: Premature Rank Up

It wasn't an everyday occurrence that Maria Theodore smiled as openly as when she lost herself interacting with the water elementals. The trio of aristocrats came to understand her flawless etiquette didn't spread beyond the boundaries of social norms. Her way to follow customs and give respect couldn't be faulted, but that didn't mean she understood how to navigate the complex labyrinth of social interactions that is the world of aristocracy.

And really, it shouldn't have been expected otherwise.

Born a peasant, it wouldn't be fair to expect her to know how to sort out the craftsmanship that nobles put in their social interactions. Lancelot understood this first, but the other two soon came to realize not too late afterwards.

Charlotte voiced her worries about having her in the Royal Palace because of this, though not inviting her didn't come out in the discussion. After all, the progress they made during their first year in the Academy had already surpassed their own houses' expectations. Even if they would not say so.

"How is it, Maria? Did you ever expect to be a guest to the Royal Family at some point?" Lancelot was all smiles and jokes. The boy enjoyed greatly being able to just relax along his friends after the tedious journeys studying and practicing. His posture had broken soon enough. It couldn't have been more casual if he tried.

"Indeed. Though I admit it's a bit premature, even for me." Maria's collected answer didn't betray a thing. On arrival she had taken in the architecture and listened intently to what was explained to her. The history of the castle, the important events that had happened within its halls and even a bit of Arnold's memories in it. She turtled back up once they were in the garden, and didn't attempt to make conversation at all. Limiting herself to respectfully answering when spoken to and drink the tea served to her with the occasional snack.

She still felt the pressure of the difference in social standing, that much was evident. The noble younglings had never interacted with someone of her position, so they didn't know how to approach the subject without looking forceful.

She had never denied them any request. Tried to stall, yes. But never outright went against their whims.

Unless, of course, her patience was exhausted.

"Well, yes." Arnold leaned closer from his seat, like his words were dangerous to be said in the open "She did discover a new magic system, after all."

Charlotte chuckled, Lancelot groaned.

"I know." Said the boy before returning to his tea "I know. Kind of a boorish question." His gaze fell upon the girl again. The elementals danced around her even while her mana stirred not even slightly. Her calmness wasn't a common occurrence either. The girl was, no doubt, an emotional soul. The occasional burst of mana kept the elementals content. Kept them forming patterns around her like a shining veil that encompassed them at all times.

Lancelot doubted anyone could see her as he did. No one could come as close to see how she really looks like, perpetually accompanied by her power like only she was, the sight could become overwhelming like the sun if one stares for too long.

"I am more interested in lord Arnold's advancement." Maria told them as she left her cup on the table "It's important, so do tell, highness."

"Please." The royal smiled sadly "I believe I've asked you many times to call me by my name. I have enough people calling me highness I barely remember them at all."

Oh, right. She did refuse to call them informally from time to time. As if they would forget they asked her not to do it and kept trying to get away with it. It only served to remind them how out of her depth this smart girl is.

Gifted or not, she's only human after all.

"That's…" Maria's hesitation made Charlotte sigh. This back and forth had happened many times, and the young lady didn't become fond of them in the meantime.

She could have interfered, but she knew better than to get in another lady's business.

"As I said, it is fine. How many times do I have to remind you?"

"It is uncourt for someone of my station…" Yeah, yeah. All of them know the rulebook to heart. It didn't help the mood, but the girl didn't seem to realize.

"Ah, enough of this." Arnold scoffed, standing from his seat and startling the maids that had been tending to them in the process "I said it's fine, so it's fine. Is our social standing such a problem? Let us fix that immediately."

Maria's eyes widened. It felt like the air had suddenly gone cold, and it wasn't Maria's doing this time around.

"No, wait." Maria called out. Standing herself but not really knowing how to stop the already walking away royal.

"Why? I don't get you. I really can't understand you. Your behavior makes no sense and it's granting." The prince turned around and faced the girl that had consistently kicked his ass in magic sparring for the past months with the pride only someone of royal blood could "You do all these things, but when faced with the consequences you back away, no matter how beneficial. I know who I am, I know of my position. You saved our lives yet you pushed away our classmates when they praised you for it."

"It is what anyone would have done." The reply came monotonous, practiced. Arnold's frown deepened.

"You discovered, and consequently began training us, in new arts of magic. Yet you shield yourself behind Vincent's capabilities to… I don't know. It doesn't even make sense! All of this. All the things you've done and the achievements you've earned, and you hide behind your status to keep a wall between us and you! Do you hate us? Do you dislike our company so much? Or is it something else? I've heard of the harassment, so if you need help I…"

"I need not his highness' help." Maria's words came like a slap on the face. A particularly disarming one, at that "What lord Arnold speaks of makes no sense to me. I am merely exerting my duties as a subject, and nothing more." Her eyes became sharper "If we're speaking frankly, it is tiring. You say I've done all these things, but anyone could have in the end."

"That's not…"

"Anyone." Maria pressed one, getting fired up by the second "Goodness! Just look at yourselves! I've been unable to use magic for most of my life. You've trained from a young age, you have your etiquette classes and these social gatherings." She waved her hand in the general direction of the tea table. A maid fainted in the distance "Yet you come and tell me you have a hard time grasping the spirits? You come and tell me you can't form a working partnership with the things that have enabled your whole life? You know what these things were to me? They were pain, suffering. They prevented my life from ever being normal by destroying everything around me every morning! They obfuscated my sight when they conglomerated in front of me! I hated them. I don't know if I'll ever stop hating, deep in my heart."

"My accomplishments? I was expected to know magic since a young age. Not grow into the skill, not have specialized teachers because these were all booked for the nobles. Because otherwise I would keep destroying everything. I had to grow so I could have something worth for my name. I had to be smart, because I was a constant drain of money and resources by just living indoors."

Her spirits did not raise to her heightened emotions. It was all the World could do to protect her from herself and leave her enough room to make her own choices. It still needed her, after all.

"I have done nothing more than raise to the challenges of life. Yet you come in here and tell me I've done so many things. You people know nothing. Those who do not work hard have no right to be jealous of the accomplishments of those who do. It feels like I'm being spat on the face."

So close. She was so close from triggering a flag, and yet…

Well, the World could cut her some slack too.

"I… I see." The prince didn't look as poised as before. He looked more like he had been given bad news after bad news until he could only look to the horizon and sigh, for no other emotion would come out.

Then, his crimson red eyes shone with resolution.

"Maids." He called out in a strong tone. The women witnessing the outburst of the unknown girl scrambled to get to their master "Escort Miss Theodore to the King's chambers. I will see to it shortly."

Maria's expression became a determined one. It was almost comical; she didn't understand at all.

"Arnold, what are you doing?" Of course, Lancelot was the first to come to the girl's aid when she left "She didn't do anything!"

"I'm not going to punish Maria, relax." Arnold frowned "It took her spitting it out for me, but now I understand. This girl is not so unlike us, she did not wish for her circumstances and has constructed herself around them." Like any of the teens in the garden. Arnold had never wished to be a prince, but he worked hard nonetheless because that's what he had to do. For the sake of the country, he had to forsake his childhood to become a ruler that would bring prosperity instead of ruin. Lancelot and Charlotte, even Vincent should he inherit in the end. They had to grow into proper heads of their households. Not taking into account the eventual fragmentation of their friendship as the needs and whims of their families engulf them. They had to be good enough for them "Will you help me, my friend? I wish to give her some respite. But I need your voice to join mine in this."

Maria had to grow smart and strong, because otherwise she'd break down and die.

"Of course." Lancelot stated without missing a beat.

"Charlotte?"

"I have an idea of what you're trying to do." The girl nodded, standing up after being stuck to her seat while Arnold and Maria argued "I will follow through, no problem."

To say the king was disheartened would be an understatement. Along his wife, he decided he would not intervene in his son's social circle. After having ignored this part of the aristocratic life for so long, the boy finally began partaking in the custom. He'd not force him to have pompous parties filled with guests until he was ready, he'd let him grow at his own pace.

So imagine his surprise when he sent a commoner to his throne without further notice.

The girl looked resigned too. Resolute, but resigned nonetheless.

"You Highness." Arnold came, the marquis heirs in tow. They all looked stern, and it didn't help the monarch soothe his worries.

"Boy, explain the meaning of this." The king's most trusted subjects were staring, he would not lose face from treating Arnold with a bit more softness, but his education comes first.

"At once." Arnold didn't look particularly worried. The king's curiosity spiked "This one here is Miss Maria Theodore."

"Theodore?" The Knight Commander inquired.

"Indeed. My father is Michael Theodore." The girl replied, eyes closed solemnly and her hands joined behind her.

"Oh? So Michael of the Blazing Hand had a daughter." The man nodded "Though you do not resemble him at all."

"I'm adopted, Sir."

"…Makes sense. If memory serves right, his wife is an earth mage."

The king rose an eyebrow, but didn't inquiry anything. He wouldn't be interested in the story, of course. Maria's father was a freshly enlisted skirmisher. Without a head of command, he managed to drag most of his remaining fellow soldiers into retaking two consecutive frontier cities.

Even the commander didn't know the full story, he had been at the front at the time.

"That's a story for another time, I suppose." Arnold tried hiding his confusion by coughing on his fist "Your highness, I'd not have asked for some of your time if this wasn't important."

"Then, be quick boy." The king nodded. Giving his son the benefit of doubt wouldn't be a stretch, after all.

"Then a demonstration is the way to go." His hand went up in the air. The prince had the whole room's attention "Behold: This is Miss Maria's school of magic!"

He concentrated his sight in the motes of light. He began making circles with his raised hand the spirits began swirling accordingly. He saw Maria do something similar several times. Had asked Lancelot what her elementals did when answering to her emotions. After months of practice, this wasn't too difficult "Come!" He released a burst of mana. As explosively as he could. The spirits answered, rushing to devour it and come momentarily into the physical plain.

A flame ignited on his raised palm. Like a spark of light amidst the king's chambers. Arnold told the spirits to deposit the torch-like flame closer to the king please and they did so. The flame floated at arm's length to the startled monarch. Harmlessly but very pointedly continuing to exist in spite of all the laws the sorcerers of the kingdom knew by heart.

The topic of Maria's origin had no further room in the present people's minds.

"I shall explain further, should my demonstrations not suffice." Arnold smugly looked for the royal mage serving directly under the king. His reaction would make for an amusing memory in the coming vacation days "But I would not try to take Miss Theodore's findings as my own. I also recommend Miss Theodore to be given a place as a magic instructor in the Academy. In light of her discovery, I find the current teacher's materials are lacking."

"This is why you dismissed the tutors." The king realized and looked at his wife, who had been silent so far. She shared the same blue eyes as the girl looking stunned into silence "And you say this girl discovered this?"

"That is indeed the case, your majesty." Arnold gave his dad a shallow nod "Miss Theodore can command what she has labeled "Elemental Spirits" to great extent, and I'm sure her capabilities are on par at least with an Archmage."

The whispers of the servants were silenced once more.

The girl in question looked like a deer caught in the light spot. A particularly nervous, and socially inept deer that was trying to remember the customs for groveling she thought herself too prideful to employ.

More and more she looked like she did not want to be there.

What a curious fellow. Or so the king thought.

In reality, the Chosen was trying to keep the spirits from doing anything at all. She thought her control far from the norm, no matter what others said, and pointedly ignored how she herself talked about her standards being different from those around her. Perhaps that was the only thing that helped her disperse the image of an opportunist from the royal subjects and family.

"Demonstrate." The king spoke firmly. His authority magnitudes different from Arnold's. The Chosen couldn't help but comply.

She rose her hand like the prince had. The queen gasped. Twin rivers began spinning around the length of her arm in a helix that got closer and closer to the chamber's huge roof as she ever so slowly twisted her limb so the spirits knew to keep going.

This cemented not only her standing with the young nobles and the rulers of the kingdom, but the future development of the Plot. As the World understood the Chosen was clearing every obstacle too easily, it decided to finally rise the difficulty instead of sending higher level mobs and events and risk making a mistake.

So in an abandoned fort, not too far away from the capital, evil forces stirred. Yet the whispers of the prodigal black-haired water mage would reach even farther. So when a newly recruited guard made his patrol close by, he'd find nothing unusual. And even if he was a bit more cowardly than usual, he'd report nothing out of the ordinary came to pass, nor would hunters nor travelers find anything unusual for some time.

Back in the Windhill household, a ditzy maid would fail to recognize the tells of a rodent being around the kitchen. And would keep cleaning the place accordingly, until days later its presence would become apparent as the lady marquis of Windhill falls ill for reasons unknown.

The lower caste wouldn't go unaffected either. Rumors about the advancements in a sector of the slums beginning to stir unrest in other areas. Violence, that wasn't uncommon in the slums to begin with, would become more apparent. Maria's request, prompted by the Prince's personal retainer to his fellows in the order, would be taken far harsher than intended. People forced to live by the day would find themselves in dire circumstances as petty vandalism suddenly became a lot tougher.

A little girl would be found stealing an apple far away from the places the Theodore family were working on, and a guard would threaten her to cut her arm if she didn't comply and followed him to the Order's quarters. The knight would have his career irrevocably destroyed by the Wretch. As he reports a monstrous being cutting his limbs and falling short of taking his life altogether. Fear would spread among commoners and knights alike. The night would become infernally quiet after its first appearance, not knowing what to fear anymore.

In Merica, the secret civil war began to settle down. The results would throw the country's reign in disarray as the World loosened its grip so the Plot could continue. Reports of demonic beasts in the southern* borders of the Gran Flamm kingdom would become close to zero with no one the wiser.

Now then.

It took a while. But shall we begin hard mode, Yukinoshita-san?

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*Merica is to the south of the Gran Flamm kingdom.