As usual, I woke up to find that Violett had pushed the covers and half of our pillows away from the bed. Her legs were resting over my stomach. She moved quite a lot while sleeping, but it didn’t bother me enough to wake me up. Trying to not wake her up just yet, I moved her to a side carefully, and slid off the bed. I started my daily routine with a few stretches and warm ups, but I was interrupted before I was done.

—Mamaaaa… —I heard a sleepy voice coming from behind me.

Violet was waving her arms in the air, as if trying to find me. Her eyes were still closed.

—Good morning, Mama is right here —I said, sitting on the bed—, are you awake already?

—No… —she said—, pick me up.

This kid.

She was already five years old, but she was as demanding as always. I knew I needed to be a bit stricter, but, well… she was still very young. I couldn’t just suddenly give her the cold shoulder. And she was doing fine in her etiquette classes, her teacher didn’t have anything but praises for her.

Besides, seeing her like that made me want to spoil her just a bit.

So I picked her up in my arms and took her to the bathroom, we washed our faces and our teeth, and kept getting ready for the day. She was only fully awake about 5 minutes after that, when she was already clean and dressed. Coincidentally, it was around that time when we heard a knock on the door.

—Good morning, Madame, Young Lady —Sophie said as she entered the room —I see that once again you were faster than us.

—Yes, we are independent and capable —Violett said, inflating her chest, as if she had made her look decent on her own.

—Go-good morning, my ladies —the rose nymph behind Sophie added timidly.

Eve was now almost as tall as Violett, and just as smart as her. She had started to mimic whatever words Violett learnt and what the rest of us said, she was even more talkative than my daughter. But at first we thought she was just repeating noises, it was only a year or so after that it became obvious she was trying to communicate. At that moment, she could talk perfectly clearly.

Lately she has been insisting on becoming one of our attendants. I suppose she always looked interested in them and the chores they would perform. I didn’t quite feel comfortable with that idea, and I told her it wasn’t necessary, but she kept insisting. I had to cave eventually, and she had started training under Sophie, though for the most part, she was still Violett’s playmate and companion.

—Good morning to the two of you —I said.

Their arrival almost always was a sign that breakfast was ready to be served, so we moved to the first floor of the mansion.

—Do you like my dress? I picked it up myself! —Violett said, omitting the fact that she had picked it before going to sleep.

—I-It is beautiful, and… it really makes your own loveliness more noticeable —Eve replied, following the lessons she had learned from the other attendants.

My daughter grinned. She knew that answer was a bit forced, Eve was reciting what she has been taught, but nonetheless, Violett was happy to be complimented. We greeted almost everyone on our way to the dining room, but Alyssa only appeared after we had sat down. She entered the room almost as if she was dragging her own body against her own will.

—Coffee —she said, as she slumped into the chair.

I cleared my throat.

—Coffee, please —she repeated slightly annoyed, and Eve soon brought the coffee pot to her, along with her favorite mug.

Alyssa looked as if she hadn’t slept at all last night, and I suspected that probably was the case. It was, after all, not the first time I had seen her in that state, and that it coincided with each delivery from the bookstore just confirmed my suspicions.

—Did you enjoy “Romance at midnight, volume 3”?

—Shut up —she said, and plopped down.

I smiled a bit, but I also felt a bit guilty. I was the one who had introduced her to the cheesy romantic genre, after finding one at a library that Erzi had recommended to me. Nowadays we were regular customers, and they sent us the new volumes without us having to order them. They weren’t otome games, but it was still a decent substitute to calm the itch that I have been feeling since I remembered my past life. I enjoyed reading some, and enjoyed criticizing more. Alyssa was unexpectedly quite the romantic, and she devoured those books once she got a new one.

—So you too want to be swept off your feet by a gallant hero, or a charming thief? — I had asked her once.

—Pfft, of course not. That sort of thing never happens in real life —she replied, yet she kept reading them.

I can’t say I didn’t understand her. I wasn’t looking for love myself, even less the kind depicted in those books, but it was still pretty interesting to read about fantasized romances.

—It is safe to assume we’ll skip this morning’s training, then? —I asked, and the only response I got was a slightly positive groan.

We had been trying to awaken my draconic powers for the last 5 years, but the results were less than promising. I was still on square one, without being able to do anything remotely magical. On the other hand, Violett was already a prodigy. She had learned how to shatter things just with a touch. Granted, she could only break fragile things like glass, but for someone of her age, it was impressive. She was even learning how to fix the things she had broken. Draconic magic is quite versatile, apparently.

I don’t think she had those kind of skills in the game, she never was shown to be able to use them. Teaching her to use her full potential might turn out to be a bad thing… but she looked so proud when she got it right after so many attempts. I couldn’t NOT support her. On the matter of why I was able to use my powers that one time… it was still up to debate.

—You were severely hurt and seeing someone take Violett away, perhaps it was a rush of adrenaline combined with some self preservation instincts? —Maxwell once said while we were discussing the topic. We had planned to have a picnic, but it had started raining suddenly, so we were stuck inside.

—Hmmm, we could try to replicate those conditions and see if it happens again —Alyssa chimed in, but only got a scowl from the doctor as a response.

—Even if that was the case, I don’t think I can train to awaken such instincts on my own —I said, but hearing it made me remember a story I had read, and that gave me an idea for another project I was working on. At that moment I just made a small note to not forget about it, and continued the conversation—. Is there any other possibility?

—You said the last thing you remember was hearing Violett calling for you? There are legends that say Lilith was able to command an army of dragons and made them obey all of her commands. Some of your ancestors claimed to do similar but smaller feats. Maybe Violett inherited that skill?

—It’s not impossible —the doctor said—but again, we have no method of testing if it is true.

—No method that might be approved, at least —Alyssa added with a grin.

That wouldn’t be the final discussion we would have on the topic, but they all ended in similar inconclusive conclusions. I had more or less given up to that point. After breakfast, we let Alyssa rest, and moved to the greenhouse. It was almost a dream come true to be able to tend to the plants and flowers alongside my daughter, though the amount of monster plants that Victor had gifted to me through the years separated it from my idyllic fantasy. I still found most of them adorable. The weeping mandrake was quite attention demanding whenever it woke up, though.

—Can I turn the radio on, mother? —Violett asked, pointing to the receptor over the table.

That was a recent development in this world, not even two years old. Ours was a gift from Christopher, who had invested in their development and production. He was now reaping the benefits, as everyone wanted one. I find it amusing, the leaps in technology that this world could make thanks to the use of magic. They skipped the gramophones and other similar record players to go directly to radio stations and receptors. For what I heard, it was only now that they were developing turntables, since it was too costly to have a band playing live all the time. They used a cylindrical record, not a disc.

—S-sure —was my answer, and she skipped towards the mechanisms.

I did miss the convenience of being able to listen to music whenever I wanted, and I liked the styles of music that were in vogue at the time, it reminded me of electro swing, but a bit more… analog? I’m not sure I can explain it properly, I was never too educated in music, I just knew what I liked when I heard it. The problem was that this radio caused me slight headaches if I listened to it for too long. Maybe the quality or frequency was different from what I was accustomed to. It was quite the jump from hearing it from a computer.

Eve came to bring us some pastry and tea, but Violett soon grabbed her by the hand and “persuaded” the Nymph into dancing with her. I tried to join them, but I had absolutely no coordination. We continued to tend to the plants while swaying to the tune, but eventually the girls went to play in the garden, and I settled to work on my most recent hobby, creating new magic spells. I have learned enough theory on magic from Maxwell and Marcus to give it a try, though it was pretty difficult at first. I had to come up with the structure of the spell on my own, but it helped that I knew a bit about coding from my past life. Nothing too complex though. My first spell was a flashlight one, since I have been thinking the glowing crystals we use as lamps weren’t good enough. I even added several custom options on it, like a stroboscope function for emergencies, several colors, and even a blinding function.

At that moment I was trying to make one that was maybe too ambitious for my limited knowledge, based on that story that I mentioned remembering early on. The crux of it was to use someone’s magic to increase their physical abilities. I was surprised to find there were no spells with similar effects already, only rumors from foreign lands and some mysterious berserker warriors that might or might not use it subconsciously. Anna and Nora have been testing it, and the former was really excited with its development, but I still felt it was far from complete.As I was thinking about that, Carmila knocked on the already opened door of the greenhouse.

—Madame, you received a letter from the palace.

—Oh! Is it from Erzi?

—I’m afraid it is not. It’s from his Majesty.

—Oh…

That wasn’t the first time the King would summon my presence, but it was certainly the first in which we were to meet in a different place than the palace. At first, I didn’t recognize the location; it seemed to me only as an empty patch of land on the outskirts of the capital. But as we approached it, I instantly recognized it. The buildings were still being worked on, some weren’t even at their half stage, but the arc at the entrance was engraved on my memory. Every time you played Promises of an Enchanted Heart, you will see it on the intro screen, right behind the title. This was the Academy of sciences and magic, the place where the story would take place.