Chapter 4:

Birthday

I was now five.

Here in this world, you don't have a birthday party every single year. It was one extravagant party every 5 years. Who knows who came up with that custom. Anyways, since I had no real friends aside from Roxas, the celebration was on the small side. It reminded me of birthday parties in my previous life.

That aside, for my birthday my father gifted me a… dress. Not a super poofy frilly one that princesses wore. But a nice, plain dress with white and tan stripes. I'm not one of those super girly girls, far from it. But upon receiving this gift, I was overjoyed. I had been wearing shorts and plain t-shirts all this life, after all.

"Can I try this on now?" I asked my father, who was beaming. "Of course you can, sweetie." I raced upstairs and put it on. I came back as fast as I could run in a dress. My mother covered her mouth and said, "You're beautiful!" Seeing them all smiling at me, I actually started to tear up. A loving family, all staring at me with joy in their eyes. The scene itself felt so unreal that I had to remind myself that this was in fact my new reality.

I was so happy.

Zenith came up to me and handed me a book. "Because you love reading." It was a botanical encyclopedia. I wonder if my assumption that books were expensive was right. Even if they were dirt cheap, I still appreciated this gift with everything I had. I set it down and gave my mother a hug. "Thank you so much, mama."

It was the first time I had called her my mother out loud. I had felt like I still had some attachment to my old parents this whole time. But at this moment, I had finally been set free. That life was in the past now. These are my parents now. And I loved them oh so much.

Roxas gifted me a wand. I had completely forgotten about magical tools and the like that I used to see in fiction all the time, thanks to my use of incantationless magic. It didn't look like anything I was familiar with, but it was beautiful. The gem on top encased in a metal cage of sorts was so captivating.

"I've spent a while saving up enough money to buy the ingredients for this. You're supposed to give a wand to your pupil once they master Elementary-tier magic. But since you were past that point already, I'd forgotten. I hope you can use this wand to the best of your ability."

It had been a whole year since Roxas came to live with us. Time really flew, didn't it. "Thank you, Mister. I'll hold on to it."

Lilia stepped forward. She gave me an embroidered handkerchief. "This handkerchief was made from the finest pieces of cloth I could find. Please accept this gift." It was pretty, and I had more than one use for a handkerchief. It was handy. "Thank you, Miss Lilia. I really appreciate it." Just as I thought we were about to eat, Lilia spoke up again.

"As per request of your mother, I will be teaching you Asuran etiquette every afternoon from now on." Etiquette? That might come in handy if I ever find myself somewhere in the capital city or a town near it. Why not? It wouldn't hurt anything besides from my training with Roxas, which was beginning to turn into just reviews and conversation since I had mastered every spell under Saint-tier that Roxas knew.

"Thank you!" I directed a warm smile towards Lilia. And so, we began to eat.

The day following my birthday celebration, Lilia began to teach me etiquette. "Draw back your left foot. That's it. Lift up your left hand above your shoulders, and then extend it and bow just slightly."

She started with the very basics. A proper greeting. As a former Japanese, all I knew was just the typical bow. Although, I kind of sucked at this.
"No, you make a circle with your left hand." Lilia reprimanded. "Like this?" I simply raised it. "That's not it. Watch me." She elegantly pulled off the greeting that I couldn't grasp. I tried to mimic her movements. "Uh, is this right?" Lilia nodded. "That's quite alright."

She then proceeded to teach me the basics of table manners, most of which I already knew. She told me how to interact with royalty and nobles. She also told me to avoid people who looked at me with upturned eyes and creepy grins. I didn't need to be told this, but to Lilia it was probably something important.

Anyways, she sat me down and began recounting her story.

Lilia used to be a royal maid of sorts a few years back. Not only was she a maid, but she was one of those kickass maids who looked gentle but could pull off crazy stuff. She was hired to be a bodyguard. I didn't know until now, but Lilia in her prime had some decent skill with the sword. However, decent didn't cut it when an assassin tried to kill the newborn princess.

Lilia managed to save the infant, but was gashed in the leg. The catch was that the blade held by the assassin was poisoned. The poison was a real nasty kind, one that wouldn't go away even when purified. Thankfully, they did manage to neutralize the poison somewhat. Even still, Her run was reduced to a limping stagger. As a result, Lilia's days of being a bodyguard were over.

They kicked her out, and she was forced to live the next few months in fear of being killed or tortured by people who wanted to know about the royal family's inner workings. She liked the capital, sure. But she wasn't going to risk her life staying, so she ran away as far as she could.

Her destination was the Fittoa region, with tons of farmland and fields. Plus, it was at the edge of the kingdom, so she would be safe. However, problems arose when she began looking for work. Finding a place to work where she was both paid well and was safe proved to be a daunting challenge.

One month later, she finally happened across a job that caught her eye. It was a job listing, specifically for a housekeeper and someone with experience with small children. The employer was a knight, so she would probably make decent money. But the employer's name really caught her attention: Paul Greyrat.

Paul had been a student training with Lilia long ago. He had appeared in Lilia's training hall out of nowhere and blew away the competition. Despite that, he was gone after a few months, declaring, "I'm going to become an adventurer." My father was all over the place in his youth, apparently.

It had been seven years since then, and Lilia could scarcely believe that man was married with children. If anything, she knew he was somewhat trustworthy, so he'd probably help Lilia out. And so she departed, and eventually got to know Zenith and the modern day Paul.

After she finished, we went to the yard. I decided to say something that I couldn't help but ask. "Lilia, have you ever thought of having a child?" I blurted out. She looked flustered. "No, I haven't. I plan on serving this household at least until you're all grown up, so I don't think I have time for something like that." Hmm. Lilia's children would probably be cute, so that's a shame.

Although, I've caught Lilia looking at Paul training more than once, so I hope that nothing happens there. That might seriously destroy the family.

"Lumi, back to the topic at hand here. I brought you outside to educate you on the basics of the sword." No way. I'm not gonna be swinging swords around like a madman. She promptly sat me down. Guess not.

She gave me a run down of different sword arts. In this world, there were three main sword styles.

The North God Style: Allowed the user to adapt to most situations and get out unscathed. It was mostly trickery and misdirection to fool your opponent.

The Water God Style: Focused on defensive maneuvers, and then taking advantage of openings in your opponent to counter with force.

The Sword God Style: Basically the opposite of the Water God style. It was based around high-speed moves and cutting down your opponent–ideally with a single blow.

Similarly to magic, the more proficient you were at any given sword style, your title rose. It used the same titles for mages, being Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Saint, King, Emperor, and God. Also, it was typical when referring to swordsmen to address them as "Water God" or "Water Saint" or whatever their level of proficiency was.

Anyways, soon after that we finished with the lesson. I don't plan on using swords, considering my small frame. It was a fun day.

While my magic itself was plateauing, my practical use was not. "What would happen if you cast Ice Pillar and Fireball aimed at it?" Roxas quizzed. "You'd get a gust of scalding hot air!" I responded. Roxas nodded, and moved on.

By combining two different schools of magic in one fell swoop, you used what was known as Melded Magic. I tried using what I knew from my previous life to help me out here, with stuff like the fundamentals of a raincloud.

Roxas told me that while mages themselves weren't rare, finding a capable one was. "Only one in a hundred magicians are able to properly learn the art and graduate from magic school, becoming Advanced-tier magicians." I didn't care enough to do the math on that, but I knew how scarcely you'd find an Advanced-tier magician.

Wait. Magic school? With the head principal having a long beard and there being a long dead evil mage out to get him? "So, there's magic schools?" I said, my eyes surely gleaming. "Yes, there are. I myself graduated from the Ranoa University of Magic. The facilities there are gorgeous, and I made tons of good friends there, not to mention how much I improved back in the day. If you ever find yourself interested in furthering your magical studies, I'd advise you to go there."

As much as the thought of a prestigious magic university excited me, I couldn't help but think it was a little too early to be thinking about school. The concept of school really didn't appeal to me much. I'd made terrible memories there, and who knows if the kids in this world are worse than on Earth? I'd have to really want to go there for me to attend.

"Mister Roxas, we're talking about things far off from now, aren't we? How come?" I asked. "Well, very soon I'll run out of things to teach you." Roxas looked down sullenly. Well, that's fine, wasn't it? "Your graduation is coming up pretty soon, kid. So maybe talking about this now isn't so much a bad idea."

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Graduation? How come I never heard about this?

Authors Note:

Thanks for reading! This chapter was a little short but I decided to plop the Lilia backstory here. Anyways, In 4 or so chapters I'll be introducing an entirely new character, so look forward to that!