It seems the story is coming along a bit faster than I had expected. Well, it is a pleasant pace. At least I got this one finished before bed time.

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Now that Laura was away, training, the visits had ground to a halt. They spoke through letters now.

But, even those letters only came around once a month, since Laura was training in the vast forests of the Fladian Mountain Range on Grayell’s border.

Thera wondered what sort of training she was getting, but Laura wrote nothing about it except that Thera would see it for herself in a few years.

Margie came home for another rare holiday visit, before returning to school with renewed fervor.

And so, the fall gave way into winter, and the winter into spring. Thera was now a third rank Blue Class.

Already, her movements were much stronger, and faster than she had been, even in her previous life.

But, she was not concentrating on making breakthroughs in martial spirit for now. She was busy reading a magic book, while swinging absentmindedly on the swing. Breakthroughs in Martial spirit were easy to acquire, but breakthroughs in magic were less easy to acquire.

If any martial practitioner had heard her thoughts on the matter, they would have spit blood. Thera's martial capacity was simply too big.

In order to breakthrough into the Magic realm, there needed to be a sufficient amount of power, yes; but, even more importantly, you had to understand fully the forces behind the spells before even attempting the spell.

Thera was stuck at Second Rank, Apprentice level, which frustrated her. Sure, she knew some advanced barrier spells, but the majority of spells in this rank were hard for her to understand. Thera sighed and put her book down, massaging the area around her forehead. This had become insufferably slow.

Her barrier sounded the alarm, and she placed the book inside her bottomless bag just in time before Martha opened the door. “It’s dinner time, Thera. Time to go now~”

“Okay~” She answered in the same sing-song way that Martha had spoken. Maybe she would breakthrough another rank by tomorrow.

Yukikaze jumped up and draped herself upon Thera’s shoulders. She enjoyed the rides that this slightly smaller human was willing to give her. Already Thera had taken out the ribbon in her hair so that Yukikaze wouldn’t play with it.

The flowers were all in bloom as they walked to the house. Thera looked towards the drive.

Soon it will be my sixth birthday…I wonder if Laura will come…She pondered.

But she soon left her pondering as she came into the dining room to see two travel-worn, cloaked and hooded people sitting at the table, with their backs to her.

She tensed up. Yukikaze, feeling Thera tense up, also sent out a hiss towards the intruders, a warning to keep out of the reach of her claws. Yukikaze then jumped off Thera’s shoulders to go eat her dinner.

Then Thera looked at Helen and Sir Maverick, who were relaxed and smiling, before calming down, and moving to her place on the other side of the table.

She stared at the two, whose silhouettes seemed familiar to her…she recognized the smaller one, first, due to the basket in her arms which held a rather familiar looking white cat with black stripes, who hissed back at Yukikage. Then both cats turned their noses away from each other, huffily.

“LAURA!” She exclaimed, moving around the table to hug her good friend. “And Master Thales, I see.” She nodded a greeting towards the taller cloaked figure, who tossed back his hood.

“So much for a disguise. You saw through is right away!” Laura complained.

“You just be glad I did, or else we aren’t the best of friends that I thought we were!” Thera retorted. “Are you back because you finished whatever you were doing in the mountains? How long will you be staying? Oh, have some tea!” She babbled, happy at seeing her friend again.

Laura smiled a small, troubled smile. “We’ll be staying for two weeks. No we didn’t finish. I followed Master Thales here, since there’s something which he wishes to confirm. We should be leaving soon after your birthday, though.” She looked a bit guilty about something. “Sorry.” She said.

“Whatever for? If you’re here for my birthday, then that’s all that matters! Are you going to stay at your parents’ estate during your stay?” Thera asked, passing her a plate of pastries and another with fried chicken on it.

Laura shook her head. “Nope. I’m not going home until I am finished with training. And don’t you tell my mother either! I can just imagine her and father making a huge fuss over it, and then I’d not get to leave for a whole month: that’s a whole month I could be training, you know!”

Master Thales chuckled. “Indeed, it seems we’ll have to steer clear of the Murlough estate for our stay.” He accepted a cup of tea from Martha.

“Thank you. So, is there anywhere close by which would have a room for two weary travelers? We’ve already checked the inn, but, surprisingly, it’s full up.”

Sir Maverick shook his head. “Nope. I’m afraid that the inns for several leagues have been filled by a huge influx of tourists. I can’t tell why, though. All I know is that, if you’re looking for a place, then you’re better off staying with us.”

Thera’s eyes brightened as she turned to Sir Maverick. “Really, father? Do you mean it?!”

Looking at Thera, he realized he couldn’t back out now. He thumped his chest. “Of course! Let it never be said that Rose Manor is unhospitable, or that Sir Maverick here goes back on his word. Master Thales can have the guest room, and Laura can share your room with you. You will stay with us, won’t you, Master Thales?” He asked.

“It seems I have no choice…” He replied, looking at Thera, thoughtfully, a small smile on his face, then he turned to nod his head towards Sir Maverick. “I thank you for your generous offer. We shall accept.”

“Yipee!” Thera cried, hugging Laura.

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The next two weeks passed by in a blur. Every day, Master Thales would ride his horse out of the manor, sometimes arriving late at night. Thera could tell when he got home because of his footsteps in the hallway.

They weren’t loud at all. Thera just had really good hearing. She doubted if any normal person could hear Master Thales’s footsteps, or even a few martial practitioners.

By the time Thera’s birthday came around, Margie had also arrive home, elated. Margie was now a fourth rank Craftsman, which meant she finally knew enough to make her own magic items.

She gave Thera a magic scarf that could change her voice. It was a gag party item, but it was the very first thing that Margie had made. Thera immediately wrapped it around her neck and mouth and said in a spooky voice.

“Maaargie~MaaarRggie~! I am grateful for you giving me this nice human’s voice. Now I can speak from beyond the grave.”

Margie shuddered. “Stop that!” She replied with a frown. “I didn’t give it to you so you could scare the living daylights out of me or Ruth! Now I’m regretting it…” She looked so bothered by it, that Thera agreed not to use it to play pranks…much.

“Now it’s my turn!” Laura said, taking a small packet out of her hands.

Thera was surprised. “What? You have another present for me? Lucky~! And here I thought your present was just being here!” But she accepted the present, nonetheless.

It was a carved wooden locket on a cord. Thera looked at it, admiring it. “Wooow! It’s beautiful! Where’d you get it?” She asked.

Laura laughed confidently with a look of pride. “I made it. The whole thing! It’s large enough to put a portrait in, and round enough to place a gem or a medicine pill.”

“Eeh? Really?” Thera smiled and gave Laura a hug. “Thank you very much! I’ll treasure it!”

At that point, Master Thales walked in, back from his day’s outing. “Eh, what’s this?...Oh, right. It’s your birthday today, right?” He said, realizing. “I also have a present for you. I’ll give it to you before the day is over.”

Laura looked absentmindedly at Master Thales, bothered and preoccupied about something.

“What’s wrong, Laura?” Thera asked.

“Eh? Ah, um-it’s nothing, really, I suppose.” She replied, then snuck peeks at Master Thales as he walked down the hallway to his room.

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It seemed Master Thales had forgotten about her present, for even when the festivities had died down around bed time, he didn’t come out of his room.

That night, just after Thera had gone to sleep, she awoke to find Laura sneaking out of bed, quietly, trying not to wake her up.

Thera pretended to be asleep, keeping her breathing soft and even as she watched Laura get into her travel clothes and ease the door open.

Once Laura was out of the room, Thera sat up, and grabbed a dark-colored dress from under the bed.

She had hidden away a dress like this out of habit. All the buttons except for the two top ones were buttoned up, so that she could just easily slip it on over her head.

Grabbing her boots, she was about to sneak after Laura, when she saw her silhouette out the window. She eased open the shutters and put her boots on.

Then, she vaulted over the windowsill, landing catlike on the soft moss that she had asked the gardener to place there. The moss cushioned her boots so that she made no noise. Then Thera commenced following Laura.

Laura didn’t go very far. Just to Thera’s bamboo-structure. Surprisingly, the door had been opened. She peeked inside. Laura was heading up to the second story.

Then Thera stayed quiet for a bit, observing, but she could sense no one’s presence on the first floor. Seeing there was no one there, Thera headed up towards the second floor, stopping before she reached the top of the steps.

She could hear Laura speaking with someone.

“But what if she doesn’t come? When I left her, she was still sound asleep, you know!”

“She’s a very perceptive child. I’m sure she’ll make her way here. You left the message, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

Thera grinned. Laura was a terrible liar.

“Then there’s nothing to worry about. If she comes, then I win. If she doesn’t, then you win. Isn’t that so?”

“Yes, it is so.”

“Ah, then what is that letter peeking out of your pocket? Isn’t that the one I instructed you to leave with Thera?”

“What! No this, um, I, Uuuuuuu!”

“Trying to make things difficult?”

Thera had already recognized the other person as Master Thales. Figuring Laura was fine, she turned around to leave.

“Well, never mind then. She’s already here, right, Thera?”

Thera froze, staying quiet. There was no way she would betray her location that easily!

“Must you make things difficult? You can see everything that happens outside the house from the window, here, you know? Someone sneaking across the lawn isn’t that easy to miss.”

He began walking towards the staircase. Thera jumped up and clung to the woven bamboo branch ceiling, flattening herself against it.

Master Thales poked his head into the stairwell. “Hmm? Perhaps she’s still on the first floor?” He asked.

His mask of surprise fell, and he frowned.

No longer playing the fool, he glanceed up at Thera, a sarcastic expression on his face. “Do you think I’d fall for something like that? I’ll give you points for creativity, but get down from there, already.”

Thera landed lightly on the steps, and entered the second floor. A lantern with a weak flame illuminated the room.

“Sorry. I was caught.” She told Laura, who looked exceedingly guilty about something.

“Well, now that we’re all here, we can start.” Master Thales said. “First of all, do you know what I’ve been doing for the past two weeks?” Thera shook her head.

He continued. “I’ve been going to all the families who have children around the age of reason to test their martial spirit capacity because of what your friend, here, said last year. It ended up interesting quite a lot of people-including the king, I might add-as well as many who are not from this country. There were also people bothering Laura too, so that I had to take her into the mountains to throw them off the trail.

“The news of a prodigy among prodigies is good news for any kingdom that has it, but bad news for any kingdom that doesn’t. If they have their chance, they will either try to snatch the Prodigy away, or destroy them, so that others cannot use such a great power against them."

Thera nodded. She had already surmised that such a thing would happen.

“Therefore, the king ordered me to find the prodigy, first, before the ceremony, and hide them far away so that they would not be killed."

Thera made a slight face. She wanted nothing to do with the government at this moment.

"Pardon me, but what does all this have to do with me?" Thera asked politely.

Master Thales smiled. “Laura said that in a few years we’d see a prodigy, which I surmised to mean that the prodigy among prodigies was actually younger than Laura. Couple that together with the fact that she was forever praising you for no reason this whole year, and I managed to piece it together. I told her about my guess a few days ago.”

He paused, and looked pointedly at Laura. “And now the time has come for Laura to give her answer. I made a bet with her. If she won, and you didn’t follow her, then I wouldn’t ask any more about the matter, regardless of my orders. But if I won, and you did follow her, then she would tell me if my guess was true. Well, Laura? Is it true?”

Laura’s face turned red as she looked away.

"You do realize if I can figure this out, others also can put the pieces together. There are too many vipers out there ready to kill off the talented while they are young. You would do well to consider the future of that person, for their own sake." Master Thales pressed.

"What would you do if you found them? That prodigy of prodigies, that is." Thera asked.

Master Thales blinked. "Why, I'd try to recruit them for my apprentice, of course."

"And if they said no?" Thera asked.

"What?" Master Thales asked, slightly surprised. As the strongest Black Class in the kingdom, he had never thought of the idea of anyone refusing to become his apprentice.

"Well, then I'd try to persuade them, I suppose." Master Thales replied.

"By using blackmail and forcing it to happen?" Thera asked.

Master Thales blinked. "Not really. I don't like doing such thing."

Thera stared long and hard at him the whole time she was asking questions, testing his character, looking for lies. But it looked like he was telling the truth as he saw it. Master Thales turned back to Laura. "So? Your answer?"

“No need for her to answer.” Thera replied. “It’s me, I’ll admit it.”