Chapter 4: Chapter 3: Already?

(Mmh? What happened? I was on my way to the dining room so, why am I in my bed? I’m hungry too…)

[“Oh my, you’re finally awake my Lady!”]

A maid suddenly stood up from her chair when she saw her awake. Her expression was a mix of worry and pure relief from seeing her master finally conscious. 

Even though she was confused, Alice still recognized her. She was a young maid who had probably not been an adult for a long time since she still couldn’t hide her own emotions. She appeared to be about 16 or 17 years old and had long red hair tied into a braid over her right shoulder. She had been fairly recently assigned to Alice, so she was still inexperienced.

Upon suddenly standing up and exiting the room, her braid fell to her back and began swinging left to right as the maid looked in all directions for someone who could call a doctor. This sight amused Alice and it helped her collect herself to appear as stoic as she usually did. As the maid saw no one nearby, she looked at her master again.

[“My head is spinning and I don’t believe I can stand up just yet, but I think I will be fine. Thank you for watching over me, Mia. Is it already the night?]

[You are not fine at all, Lady Alice! It is indeed nighttime, but you fell unconscious days ago! Please do not move while I get the doctor myself, my Lady!”]

Just like that the maid ran as fast as she could, without worrying about flipping her skirt at all. She really was inexperienced.

(I’ve been unconscious for days? Why? I fell immediately after feeling this pain in my head even though I was feeling totally normal a second before. Is there something wrong with my brain? Again?)

Even though she never really experienced first hand the pain of her past self, she still watched every single moment of her last year of life. This woman was sad all day long and had panic attacks almost everyday as she thought about her guaranteed death that could happen at any time.

Because of these anguish-inducing dreams that she had had, Alice was starting to panic as she thought she might also have a brain tumor in this life. There were healing mages in the kingdom, but she doubted they had enough knowledge to perform surgery-like treatments on complex organs such as her brain.

 

As the doctor finished examining the young girl, he smiled when he heard a growl in the direction of Alice’s stomach. The man then asked the maid to bring her soup to appease her hunger. She had been asleep for three whole days, after all.

 

The day after the fever had ended, another doctor came to the mansion to examine Alice in order to know what could have possibly caused said fever. As he was carefully checking his patient’s body in the presence of her parents, the doctor suddenly stopped speaking and even smiling before checking Alice’s arms again and again. After half a minute of awkward silence that interrupted his previous sentence, the doctor looked at the Count in the eyes as he slowly shared his conclusion:

[“L-Lady Alice… is awakened, Lord Edgar. A-after checking her mana veins, I am sure of it.”]

The air suddenly became tense after this announcement. Everyone present in the room harbored a grave look, especially Alice’s parents.

Someone who didn’t know much about magic, like Alice’s little brother, might be confused as to why everyone seemed so displeased and worried.

However, once again, awakening two and a half years before the end of one’s studies was problematic, particularly in the world of nobility. Alice would surely be mocked for having weak and superficial magic, especially in the future as the oldest child of the house.

Also, the awakening was apparently the cause of this severe fever. Although it was said that awakening after the age of 10 was relatively safe, it didn’t mean it would never go wrong. Since Alice still wasn’t as physically developed as other children her age, awakening her magic now had apparently put her life in danger. To begin with, natural awakenings that went well did not come with a fever at all. During artificial awakenings in the temple, a chair where children sat after awakening was enough for the ceremony to take place without any problem.

[“How fast will we know her element? We need to know as fast as possible, or else…]

[Please calm down, Edgar. We cannot no longer change anything. We should just worry about her health for the time being.”]

As the doctor left the room seemingly happy to have survived the Count’s glare, the butler said he would call for a magic tutor specialized in practical training as soon as he could, probably a week from then.

(I understand their worry, but this is all good news to me. No brain cancer in this life!) 

On top of that, Alice felt actually relieved to have awakened while all her knowledge from another world was still fresh in her head. She wasn’t completely sure she would have remembered everything in detail in two or three more years.

Of course, Alice didn’t show her true thoughts about this situation and just feigned a frown on her face, like everyone in this room.

*** 

Exactly two weeks after Alice’s magic awakening, an official instructor recommended by the King arrived in the morning at the Ravendalls’ mansion.

[“My dear daughter… Do not worry too much, alright? Your magic type does not matter. We will not treat you any differently even if others are mean to you. If that happens, please rely on us.]

[Yes? Thank you, Mother. I will go now.”]

(I’m personally not that worried about my magic... But if I had been, what Mother told me would make me even more distressed, huh.)

Alice’s parents were worried she would think they were giving up on her. After all, the successor of the house of Ravendall was already Alistair, her little brother, who inherited the black hair of their father as well as his stature. Even though Alice was three years older than him, she was already smaller. Compared to him, Alice was a weak and small little girl who lived in his shadow. If you added to this an underdeveloped magic type due to an early awakening, her life might be perceived as miserable by others.

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Alice met the instructor called Viktor in the training field just outside the mansion. He had prominent muscles, even more than Edgar de Ravendall, and had a really big voice. However, to Alice, he seemed to be a nice person. 

[“Let’s now begin, young lad. First, sit down on this chair. Close your eyes and breath slowly. Yeah, just like this. Then, I’ll be pouring some mana in your veins in order to help you start the process. If things go well, you should soon start to see a scene, an image or even hear a sound in your head. It should have something to do with your magic type. Keep your eyes closed."]

 

["I… see nothing. I cannot hear a thing either. What should I do?]

[That is strange. Try to concentrate. Maybe you think it’s black but this is actually just very dark? Try to focus on details.]

[Mmh… I will try.”]

(I really see black though… Wait. Aren’t there tiny little dots here and there? Oh, there are! What is this? Mmh…)

While Alice had her eyes closed, she kept her breath under control and tried to understand this image.

(Maybe it could be a constellation? Mmh, now that I think about it, isn’t that Phaethon here? Is it space I see? The more I look at it, the more it looks like Phaethon…)

Phaethon was one of the twenty-five constellations that she had to learn in her curriculum. This one in particular was the easiest to recognize in the night sky because it was composed of the seven brightest stars visible with the naked eye.

[“I… I think I see space. I see a constellation I know.]

[“Space? What would your magic even be?]

[I wonder…”]

Viktor seemed to find it quite funny, but Alice was not so sure about her element anymore. What would it have to do with space? Some kind of gravitation element? This would be nice. Still, a part of her prayed to every god she knew from both of her worlds for her magic not to be related to astrology.

[“We’ll try to find out. I’ll pour some mana in your arms once again, but I want you to open your eyes now. Try to remember the sensation of mana traversing your veins and then I’ll let you do it yourself. Then, you will be able to see what your magic type is about.]

[Alright, please do so.”]

The sensation was weird, but it was something she could get used to. When she had to do it herself, Alice tried to visualize the mana traversing her arms in the direction of her hands as a perfusion flowing in reverse. After all, she had seen this hundreds of times in her dreams. This let her envision it quite efficiently and she was congratulated by her instructor.

[“That is good, kid. Not many children can do it on the first try, and most of them are older than you. You’re a natural.]

[Thank you, Sir. What do I do, now that my mana is around my hands?]

[To be honest, I was counting on what you would see or hear to be able to guess what to do first, but now I have no real plan. If you had seen an animal, I would have put you in a farm to see if you could communicate with animals or something. Just do whatever with your hands. Maybe you’ll launch it in the shape of fire, like most mages."]

Even though she was not really convinced, Alice still tried to shoot her mana by punching the air. What came out… was invisible. No water, no fire, no ice, no electricity.

Nonetheless, Viktor felt a little something more than a simple punch. It was… air. Not much, though.

[“You might be able to transform your mana into wind, kid. However… This might be because you awakened before studying much, but if you think there’s air in space, you’re mistaken. Mages who can fly have confirmed everywhere in the world that there is less and less air as we go higher in the sky. Sorry, young lad.]

[I-I know there’s no air in space! There’s surely another explanation as to why I saw that!”]

Alice was red from embarrassment. She was so disappointed with this weak air magic that she couldn’t even retort to the mockery of her instructor.

(Gaaaaah!! Wind magic is lame! Why do I have this when I’m a huge fan of relativity?! Give me back my time magic! Noooo!!)

Alice was so shocked that, for once, she didn’t realize that everyone could tell she was extremely disappointed just by her facial expressions, even though she was usually so stoic whatever the situation she was in. 

[“Don’t be so depressed, girl. Let us try a few other things.”]

This remark made Alice self-conscious about her behavior and expression, so her face became even redder. 

(I don’t want the instructor to tell Father and Mother that I reacted like a crybaby...)

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