Chapter 10:
Ambition

I was sitting on one of the dinner table chairs. No one was home aside from the babies, Lilia, and I. Lilia was sitting in front of me, with her hands on her lap.

"Mistress Lumina, I suppose it's the time for this discussion. I apologize in advance for any discomfort you may experience." I raised an eyebrow. What discussion?

"As every person does, you have reproductive organs. People call them all sorts of things, but for the sake of this discussion, I'll be referring to them as 'private parts.'" This discussion? I widened my eyes. Was this really happening?

"If anyone ever tries to touch you down there, or asks to see your private parts, tell me or your parents as quickly as possible, since you could be hurt." Lilia explained. My face flushed red, as hearing such a discussion coming from the calm and collected face of Lilia was completely unexpected.

"However, there will come a time when you're older, and you meet someone you fall in love with. If you believe they are trustworthy, and won't do anything rash like abandon you or hurt you, you can choose to engage in intercourse with them. Please, make sure you fully trust this person, as many bad people use this method to hurt women." Lilia continued.

You know, despite none of this being anything new to me, I really was thinking. This world wasn't nearly as safe as Japan in terms of law enforcement, and things that happen in the dark here usually don't come to light unless someone has undeniable proof. Back in my old world, that proof was easy to come by. Used condoms, surveillance footage, witnesses, etc. But here, most of those methods were not present. If I wasn't careful, I could be assaulted, or worse.

I needed to play the act of an uneducated child, so I decided to inquire further. "Lilia, what does intercourse mean?" I said, in the most innocent tone I could.

Lilia averted her eyes, and hesitantly began. "...Intercourse is when two people come together and become one in their passion. It's a somewhat sacred act, so you shouldn't be going around doing it anytime soon. It's important to treasure your body, especially while you're young." Lilia nodded her head to her own words.

I pressed further. "Why do people do it if you said it could hurt me?" I was even getting embarrassed by how awkward these questions were. "Well, intercourse usually causes both people intense pleasure, but sometimes people focus on the pleasure aspect of intercourse, and if it's done too often, one person could end up being hurt instead of pleased." I nodded, and decided to stop with the questions.

"If you ever have any more questions, and you're too embarrassed to ask your parents, please come to me." Lilia finished. I nodded, and said, "Thanks, Lilia." I guess this meant I could rely on her. But why had she decided to pick now of all times to tell me all of this? It was kind of funny, but I appreciated it at the very least.

Lilia rose to her feet, and bowed. She went off to hang my parents' laundry to dry.

That was… something. I chuckled, and decided to go back to my room.

I decided it was time to present Sylphie's wand to her. She had recently turned 7, so I wanted this to be something like a birthday present. People sometimes gave people smaller gifts for the annual birthdays, so that would work in my favor.

But for today, we were sparring. It was cold out, but we would get sweaty, so we decided to forgo any jackets. I could cure any potential colds or fevers, and I could heal even severed arms, so we were fine.

"And… Start!" I blasted off of the ground with a Wind Blast. Sylphie raced towards me and attempted to hinder me with Wind Bind. I dodged it, and cast a wind slice to cut her off. She stumbled back to dodge it. I used the opportunity to try to keep her in one place by freezing the ground with ice.

"I've got you now!" I exclaimed, as I released a Wind Bind and attempted to catch her legs. She dodged at the last second, propelling herself to the right by casting a blast. She grunted in frustration, and sent a Water Cannon in my direction. I couldn't dodge this, and I needed to do something to avoid being blown off my feet. I cast Burn in Place to cover the air surrounding me in flames, evaporating the water around me.

When I dispelled it, Sylphie was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, I heard a groan from above. Tons of large chunks of ice were dropping all around me. I cast a flamethrower so I could try to melt the ice, but my arm was caught by a shard. I yelped in pain, and aimed a sonic blast at the sky, blowing away any ice chunks still in the air.

Before I could heal my arm, an earth wall began to materialize under my feet. Sylphie was grinning, and she yelled, "Bet you weren't expecting that!" I wasn't, but I also wasn't caught off guard. While she was speaking, I had healed my arm, so I was free to cast a spell. The way I wanted to win this spar needed me to not be seen by Sylphie.

I cast a dust storm to conceal myself. While she was busy covering her face, I would sneak up behind her. I jumped off the piller, and skulked through the dust. I was casting wind magic around my eyes so I wouldn't be blinded. When I got to the area where she was before the dust, I couldn't find her. Welp, there went my plan.
I dispelled the dust storm, and I was about to search for Sylphie when my vision went black.

Sylphiette

Lumi was lying on the ground. I had shot a stone cannon at her, to knock her down, but I think I put a little too much force into it. She wasn't dead, right? Lumi wouldn't die that easily.

"Psst! Lumi! Wake up!" I poked at her face. I confirmed that she was really breathing. I bonked her on the head. "Lumi! Lu! Lumina!" She wasn't waking up. I knew what needed to be done. She had told me to do this if this situation ever happened, but I had never beaten her in a sparring match before. I was supposed to cast a Water Ball at her face. But, I decided to keep her like this for a little longer.

She wouldn't wake up no matter how loud I was, right? Maybe I could prank her, or something. Hehe.

Hmm. Maybe I could… I grabbed her hair, and started caressing it. She always did this to me, so I wondered what the deal was. Lumi's hair was a light tan, almost blonde but not quite. It was made into a ponytail. It was soft, and felt nice to the touch. She was still not waking up.

"Uhh…" I still wasn't satisfied. I crouched down, and began looking at her face close up. She had a really odd mole just under her left eye. I touched it, and it felt a little strange. I remember her insisting it was called "A beauty mark." I don't know where she got that name from, but it was funny. In doing so, I brought my face even closer. The sight of her lips so close to mine reminded me of what my parents did everytime they were feeling happy.

I had asked what it was, and they explained it was a "kiss", and should only be done with someone you really like. Well, I really liked Lumi, but I was just too embarrassed to bring it up. My face flushed. I wanted to kiss her on the cheek. I brought my face closer, and–

"Sylphie, what are you doing?" I reflexively stumbled backwards, and cast a waterball at Lumi's face. I was extremely embarrassed. Lumi coughed a bunch, and got up. "You're supposed to cast a waterball at me when I'm out cold, remember?" she scolded. "I'm really sorry." I timidly said. I hope she didn't see what I was about to do.

"It's fine, Phi. Anyways, if I was out cold, that means you finally won a match against me!" She raced towards me, and pulled me into a hug. "I'm so proud of you!" Her words felt so warm. I had sparred against her many times, but I was always beaten.

"Okay, Phi. I have a surprise for you, so wait here." Hmm? A surprise? She ran off before I could ask anything.

She came back before long with a box in hand. "What is that?" I asked gingerly. "Well, it's a gift. For you!" A gift? "Really? What is it?" She thrust it in front of me. I took it from her, making sure I didn't drop it. I opened it, and inside of it was a shimmering wand. "This is… For me?" I looked up and looked at Lumi. She grinned, and said, "Of course it is!" I picked up the wand, and held it. It had a rough design, and had a magic stone that was the same shade of color as my hair. "Thank you, Lumi! I'll cherish it for as long as I live!" I threw my arms around her, and gave her a tight hug. She's such an amazing friend…

Lumina

A few months passed, and spring was reaching its end. My siblings finally learned how to crawl, and yet were not willing to stray any more than ten feet away from my parents willingly. Honestly, they should be exploring the house more.

In other news, I was completely done with my etiquette education. It had been nearly two and a half years since Lilia began to teach me, and the lessons had finally come to a close. It shouldn't have taken this long, but I was really bad at learning the intricacies. But! I pulled through.

I brought out my diary. I hadn't been writing in it much, just smaller logs about Sylphie's improvements and my day-to-day life. It had been around a year since I started it, so I wanted to start a yearly tradition. Every year, I wanted to write down my magical progress. I wonder how long it's going to be until I forget a year. I began to write.

K414 - Late Spring. Age 7: Skill log.

Swordplay - No skill, along with no Touki

Offensive Magic - Fire: Advanced; Water: Advanced; Wind: Saint; Earth: Advanced (All Incantationless)

Recovery Magic - Healing: Advanced. Detoxification: Saint. (All Incantationless up until Advanced tier)

My mother was no longer teaching me any further healing magic, because she didn't know any other spells than the ones she had taught me. I'd recently become an official helper at my mother's clinic, and I was being paid a salary. It was pretty hefty, being 5 large copper coins per week. My mother said a majority of it had come from tips, since the clinic had boosted its sales of various medical-based products ever since I began working there. It stroked my ego a little, if I had to be honest.

Sylphie had reached Advanced-tier in everything other than fire magic, and I had begun to teach her a bit of Healing magic on the side, too. My lesson planning suggested that she was on track to graduate some time three or so years from now. That was, if I didn't learn any more.

One day, My father had offered to spar with me. We moved out to a somewhat empty field. "Lumi, one day you might seriously be in danger up against a swordsman. I want to prepare you for that day. So, give me all you've got!" I sighed. Even though he had a point, I hesitated. "You sure? I won't hold back." Paul chuckled and grinned at me. "Go crazy, sweetie."

Alright. With my sparring sessions with Sylphie, I had to always make sure to dial back my attacks to make sure I didn't blow her torso or head clean off with a boulder. But Paul was strong. I was certain he could tank five of the hits that would most certainly kill someone who was defenseless. This was going to be a test. A test of how far I'd come.

I cast magma gush to create an area where Paul could cross over, then created a large stone wall. I propelled myself up 10 meters or so. When I looked over the edge, I saw Paul hacking away at the wall, which I originally thought wasn't going to accomplish anything. However, when the wall began to shake, I had a second thought. I cast a bunch of rapidly spinning wind attacks at him, and jumped off the wall.

I caught myself with some wind magic, and then I turned around. Paul was on four legs, and was approaching me extremely fast. What a terrifying sight, I thought to myself, as I began to cast a particularly strong stone cannon. It made a fwam sound as I released it from my wand. When he dodged it, I ran. He was speedy as hell, and I could do a number of things to slow him down.

I lifted a ton of earth spikes from under the ground, and Paul grunted as he collided into one of them. I cast a deep mist, and ran as fast as I could towards Paul. When I came up to him, I conjured an ice blade and put all of my mana into propelling it through Paul. However, what I wasn't expecting was for it to be parried. I'd practiced that move several times, and I could cut all sorts of metal with it.

He cracked my sword, and stepped forward. I was caught so off guard that I lost my footing. The mist dispersed, and I was on the ground. Paul's sword was right at my neck. "That was a really great effort. You really made me grasp at straws with some of those moves you pulled. You did good, Lumi." Paul was a lot stronger than he let on. Sure, I had acknowledged him as particularly tough, but it wasn't until now that I realized that he was this skilled.

"Well, father. I'll make it a point of growing strong enough to beat you in a fight one day." He nodded. "I'll look forward to it, then. Work hard, alright?" He patted my head.

I now had an ambitious goal. Before this, it was always vague things I was striving to achieve. Stuff like "get stronger" and "learn more." Here in front of me stood a wall.

A wall that I was going to make sure I one day scaled, no matter what.

End of Volume One.

Author's Note!

I want to thank you for reading and sticking to this fanfiction. I'd like to thank a few people for helping me with ideas, and how to work out scenes:

Monsoon, Isomery, One Inch Of Ash (known as Yuujiki here), and RJWritingInk.

The Lumina artwork will take some time, due to some artblock. I refuse to pressure artists, so please take your time.

Before moving onto Volume 2, I will be writing an additional add-on chapter similar to what the LN of Mushoku Tensei did.

The chapter is titled: Extra Chapter: Ares Boreas Greyrat

We still have a long way to go, so please continue reading! Thank you!