Finally!

I could hardly sleep last night for the excitement of it all.

Today, my starting stats will be revealed!

As a child, I had to be level one, but whatever those level one stats were would show me my path. Game Lucina one of the hardest bosses, if not the hardest for certain gamers. The way Wiegraffe boss battle is spoken of in Tactics Echnida, a game over twenty years old but still mentioned by modern gamers, is comparable to the notoriety of Game Lucina’s boss battle. It took me nearly an entire year to beat her on Merciless difficulty, and even then it was only because the RNG gods blessed me by having one of her attacks miss in the vital moment. She excelled in both swordcraft and magickcraft. She even held dual elements, ice and dark.

It would be disappointing if my stats were not stellar. Even if genius is 99% perspiration, that 1% being a natural affinity to magick or strength would help a lot!

“Good morning, my lady! How are you feeling today?”

“I can’t wait to see my stats!”

Amelie blinked several times. “You’re excited to learn your stats?”

“Of course! I hope I’m good at magick!”

She smiled. “I’m sure you will be shown to have a natural talent. But my lady, please remember that stats are not indicative of a person’s capability. There are many factors to consider.”

Her reasonable outlook did little to stem my excitement. I could hardly stay still through the dressing and hair braiding. Thankfully, we weren’t wearing capital fashion for the baptism. The religious dress mimicked the natural style of Xete, a light pink dress with delicate silver embroidery in stars and waves, and felt far more comfortable than those dark and moody capital trends.

What will they be? Will I be a prodigy that was talented in multiple stats? In a single stat? Or, horrifically, average at best?

Finally, midday. I entered a sea-colored palanquin that was carried by the castle guards. Though I wasn’t supposed to look outside, I peeked through the edge of the curtain at Xete. The people lined the streets and musicians played songs.

Granted, those were probably for King Yuri and Prince Alexious, rather than myself, but the experience felt pretty cool, like I was some sort of celebrity.

The palanquin went to the back of the church. From there, a nun met me and placed a crown of red and yellow gaillardia blossoms upon my head. “May the Mother bless you with talent,” she said in a warm voice before pointing me through the door.

The hallway was empty and every step I took made a deep echoing noise. Even when I tiptoed to be quiet, it seemed to have a quiet resonance. The air seemed to have an electrical current in it that amplified my excitement.

At the end of the hallway was a simple wooden door that was painted white, though the paint had long began to flake off. I grasped the brass handle and twisted it.

The chapel in Xete had no pews, rather, everyone was expected to stand the entire service. A gentle waterfall fell down the back of the chapel walls, an elaborate fountain setup that wouldn’t be out of place in a chic hotel back in my old world.

“Presenting Lucina Maelle, now seven and of age to be blessed by the Mother of Us All!” Father Sinatre announced.

From here, I had to go stand in the center of the waterfall.

Cold! Cold! Cold! That water is cold!

I fought to keep my teeth from chattering.

Father Sinatre held up his palm and pressed it against my forehead. A soft heat emitted from his palm that turned to a brilliant glow. I shut my eyes and the brightness still shown through, as though I shut my eyes and looked directly at the sun.

“Dearest Mother of Us All, please show us the potential of this beautiful flower, reveal to us the secrets of her talents!”

Is it happening? Are my stats appearing?

The light still blinded me through my closed eyes so I couldn’t risk opening them to check.

The heat subsided and the light vanished.

“Come forth, young duchess.”

I opened my eyes and stepped out of the waterfall. I wiped the stray droplets from my eyes. Where are my stats?

They weren’t in front of me, though the crowd, including my parents, stared with shocked expressions.

Were they above my head? How could I see them?

My father stepped forward and walked towards me. He knelt and straightened the crown on my head and turned my body around.

On the walls, glowing in the waterfall, were my stats.

HP 20 STR 5 MAG 10 AGL 7 ELM ICE

The first thing that struck me as odd was compared to Dragon Fantasy XXIV, there were stats missing. The game had the traditional array of stats, including resistance, defense, luck. MP was also missing. If there was an HP stat, there had to be a MP stat! Did Father Sinatre do some sort of perception spell and the stats that were displayed were the limit of his power?

That strength stat is so low compared to magick! I’ll need to work hard to be a magic knight class! Overall, who wouldn’t be pleased with those stats? Especially magick! Swords and the like still existed in my old life, but magick was something completely foreign and exciting. And even better, I had a natural affinity to it! The ice element wasn't surprising as the Game Lucina had an affinity to ice.

Though that agility score was rather high for a magick user. Maybe there was a better class that could take advantage of that over a knight class that would require making up for a weakness in strength. There was no need to become Game Lucina, after all.

The room was so still you could hear a butterfly's wings.

Then, whispers. Soft rumbling like distant thunder.

Father grasped my shoulders and squeezed, hard, to the point of pain. “Double digits!” he proclaimed in a voice full of pride.

The crackle of his voice created a thunderous eruption from the church. “Double digits!” they gasped, murmuring and pointing at the cloud above my head.

Wait, are double digit starting stats rare? Interesting! I wonder if Alexious also had double digit starting stats. Wouldn’t it be funny if he was worse than I was? Thank you, Mother of Us All, for blessing me with magick! I will not waste Your gift!

King Yuri stood and the entire room became silent. He reached to his side and gestured to Alexious. When Alexious went to his side, King Yuri patted his head.

Father tensed, probably anticipating being congratulated by the king.

“Young Lucina,” he began, voice raspy yet somehow carrying enough power to echo in the church. “Let us thank the Mother for blessing you with a bounty of magic power.”

Everyone raised their hands in the air and looked up to the ceiling. As odd as it sounded to not bow our heads in prayer to my old self, doing it this way did give the spine a nice stretch!

“As my own son, Alexious, has also been granted a stat majority in magic, I deem it thus that your union shall bring prosperity to Oranhail!”

What?

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

Marriage? Me? Alexious?

What to say? What to do? I froze in place, arms still outstretched to the sky, staring at Alexious. His expression, even as a trained noble, reflected mutual surprise.

A soft sigh left my father, just soft enough that only I would hear. He kneeled and bowed his head.

I followed his lead with a curtsy.

“We are honored,” Father said, in a tone that didn’t quite match his glee at my magic stat.

This didn’t happen in the game, did it? Was that why Lucina ended up his right-hand girl? But she was an orphan in the game! Maybe I should just think of this as alternate universe fanfiction. Same characters, different plot.

But if I was married to a prince then there was no way I would ever be able to travel the world! Instead, my entire world would revolve around politics. Not to mention my position would have a big fat target painted on my forehead.

Well, children can’t get married. I had some time to break the engagement. Please, Mother up above, let me travel the world at least once before I have to settle down...

“Let us celebrate this auspicious day!” King Yuri exclaimed.

His words were like a spell. The crowd erupted into applause and chatter. Worse, different families kept coming up to Father and I, introducing themselves, congratulating me on my stats and engagement.

By time we left the church my inner thighs burned from having the curtsy constantly. We returned to our manor, where a typical party spread was setup – food, wine, beer, mead and a glut of servants to ensure no one ever went without. Not exactly a place for children. Now’s the time to slip away unnoticed. “Father, may I please leave to relieve myself?”

“Of course. Take your leave.”

I hugged the walls and slipped around the crowd to the front door.

“Where are you going?”

That sweet, angelic voice may as well have been a Stop Time spell.

My body rotated like I was on a turntable. My movements became stiff and jerky, as though I were a marionette. “Prince Alexious. I’m going to relieve myself.”

“But I was told the restrooms where through the corner doors of this hall.”

“Is that so? Well, I prefer my private chambers, if it suits you.”

He crossed his arms and frowned, though in his current façade it looked more like a puppy attempting to be tough— adorable and totally not threatening.

“It looks like you’re trying to escape to me.”

Any time spent arguing was less time I had to explore Xete while the sun was still up. I held up my arms in surrender. “You got me. Be a good fiancé and don’t tell anyone, okay?”

I opened the door.

He grabbed my arm. “I’ll go with you.”

I removed his hand from my arm. “If you go too, they’ll notice we’re gone that much sooner.”

He shook his head. “They never notice anything once they start drinking wine.”

How could I tell him that I didn’t want to babysit him when he was the elder in age? “I just need a bit of fresh air.”

“Me too.”

Maybe if I turned up my villainess meter he would go away. I furrowed my brows and put a hand on my hip, glowering down at him as though he were an ant. “I want to be alone!”

“As your fiancé, I am personally responsible for your safety.”

It didn’t phase him at all. As expected of the future Emperor Alexious.

“Fine. But if you bug me too much I’m sending you back.”

The setting sun turned the white stairs into gold. The salty air filled my nostrils, setting my heart at ease. Just being able to be outside and walk felt amazing! Especially alone (mostly alone) and without any retainers or guides! Thankfully, the front gates were open because of the nobles and wealthy merchants going to and fro our manor. All we had to do was slip between some carriages to get to the city streets.

“Why did you want to go outside?” Alexious asked.

“Why not? It feels good, doesn’t it?”

He shrugged and kicked an errant pebble.

In the game, running through Xete took a few minutes at most. Xete’s streets were cobblestoned but only the wealthy could afford personal carriages.

“Aren’t you scared?”

“Of what?”

“The people might recognize you. And then they’ll kidnap you and do bad things.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” After all, I was not a normal noble. I had a commoner’s knowledge in me too. “We’re going to stay on the main road through the center, anyway. I want to see the fountain.”

“What’s so special about a fountain?”

I shrugged. He wouldn’t get it if I said I wanted to see the pretty landmark from a game I played. The whitewashed walls and blue-tiled roofs of the homes were sparkling under the golden light. The twin moons were faint in the sky but growing brighter with each passing minute.

Streamers hung between buildings, colorful paper triangles and semicircles hanging from them. The streets were full of people and children were running everywhere, to the point that no one would notice a couple of kids like us taking our time. Commoner children probably didn’t have to be accounted for like noble children.

The center square, where the fountain lay, was crammed with stalls. Some sold street food, something very similar to tacos from my old world, others sold candied fruits dipped in a variety of colored syrups and arranged beautifully on sticks like kebabs. Too bad I only had a handful of sica in my pocket, otherwise I would have bought us some of the candied fruits. There were the usual array of craftspersons selling jewelry, baskets, pottery, and other household essentials like silverware.

“Don’t stare,” I chided Alexious.

He looked at me and pursed his lips. “Was not.”

The fountain didn’t look like much in-game, but in real life it towered as high as a house. An image of the Daughter, goddess of the sea, sat in the center, playing a harp. Water cascaded down from the rock she sat on and caught the light just right to create a beautiful rainbow.

I leaned over the edge and ran my hands through the cold water.

My veins hummed with excitement. For the first time, it truly hit me. I was in Xete! A place I knew well from Dragon Fantasy XXIV! I can’t wait to see all the other places I knew from the game!

I reached into my pocket and took out a single sica.

“What are you going to do with that?” Alexious asked.

“Make a wish.”

“Why do you need a sica to make a wish?”

I shrugged. Tossing a coin into a fountain for wishes to come true didn’t happen in this world, but I still wanted to cover my bases.

I needed to make a pretty strong wish. Hopefully, the fountain fairy that granted wishes would hear mine because it would be the only one to hear in this world. Dear Fairy of the Fountain, listen to my wish! I want to live an ordinary and long life! I do not want to be the commander of an army for the empire and I do not want to die at the hands of the hero’s party! I paused and hesitated for a moment. Could I ask my next wish too? Was that too much for a single copper sica? I may have to come back with a golden sica, but this next one was the biggest wish I had next to, you know, actually living a long life. And please make it possible for me to find Valerian before the hero’s party. I don’t want to fight him! I want him to be with me!

Asking help to unite me with Valerian when my fiancé stood next to me seemed rather cruel, but neither of us asked for that arrangement. Given a choice, I would choose Valerian every time.

Valerian, my favorite character from Dragon Fantasy XXIV. He was voiced by Takui Nakajima, my favorite voice actor too! Not only that, his character design had a mature and beautiful aspect to him that just made me gush from the moment I saw him! The stars aligned for me -- with that voice and looks he would have ended up my favorite character no matter what type of character he was. But he also was one of the quiet and stoic types, the tough nuts that only went soft for that single person they cared for. That type of guy just makes my heart melt! Hearing that velvety deep voice in person may actually kill me with delight, but at least I would die happy!

But the conditions to unlock Valerian were rather specific and it may not be possible for me to do so because they were contingent on the heroine using her special power to unlock the magic seal upon his chambers.

So long as I can get near him, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. My magick stat started off obscenely high, therefore it could be possible that I could unravel the seal myself if I studied magick well enough. What better goal to work towards, right?

I tossed the coin into the water. It hit with a loud thwup and rolled in the current until it settled at the bottom.

Alexious stared at me as though I were an alien from outer space. Well, technically...

“Aren’t you going to get the sica out of the water?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because then my wish won’t come true.”

“But someone else will come take it out anyway.”

“That’s not the point!” I huffed.

He frowned. “I thought you were pretty smart because you beat me so many times playing chess but I guess you’re not.”

My jaw dropped. Did those sour words really come out of that angelic mouth? Granted, what I did was pretty insane in this world, but still!

Wait. Maybe that will work to my advantage. He’ll think I’m so weird he won’t want to marry me!

I lifted my chin in defiance. “You have a weirdo as a fiancée, sorry not sorry.”

He sighed. “I know.”

“What do you mean, you know?”

“From the moment you played chess like a weirdo I could tell. I was worried my father would arrange a marriage between us but then you went and had double digits…”

“Do you have double digits?”

He glared and looked away. “My brother Teo did.”

There’s that name again! He wasn’t mentioned in Dragon Fantasy XXIV at all. Judging from the sad look on his face, he must be compared to that brother of his often. Poor guy. “Well, you know what they say – Hard work can surpass genius!”

“Who says that?”

“Um, everyone?”

“I’ve never heard that before in my life.”

“Yeah, but you’re only seven.”

“I’m older than you!”

“I’m more experienced than you are so I’m older.”

“There you go again, being weird.”

“So? Don’t marry me, then!”

“I can’t go against my father’s wishes!”

I placed my hands on his shoulders. “Then you are going to have a hard life.”

His brows furrowed.

I released him and pointed to the ocean. “Want to take a walk to the beach?”

“Isn’t it dangerous at night?”

“Probably outside city limits. But I don’t see why there would behemoths in the city’s range. So long as we stay in the city’s edge, we’ll be fine.”

“I can’t tell if you have a lot going on in that brain of yours or nothing at all.”

“You know, you’re not the person I imagined either.”

“Let me guess-- I’m not like my brother?”

I stopped. “No. I haven’t heard of your brother at all.”

“Everyone’s heard of my brother.”

“I haven’t.”

He appeared to be on guard, as though he thought I would pull a knife on him at any moment. “Then what did you think of me?”

“That you were a sweet kid.”

“Sweet?” He looked down and away from my gaze.

“I guess you just wait until you’re comfortable to let the noble out.” I continued walked again.

His heavy footsteps thudded behind me as he ran to my side. He grabbed my arm and anchored me down. “What does that mean?”

“Like you’re a typical snooty noble. I thought you weren’t like that.”

“Because I said you were weird?”

I nodded and shrugged at the same time. “That too.”

He gave me a blank stare and stated solemnly, “There’s not a person alive on this planet who wouldn’t think you were weird.”

I twirled out of his grasp and continued walking.

Judging by the footsteps behind me, he still followed, but didn’t care to pursue the subject anymore. He wouldn’t understand; no one would understand. Even if they could believe that I knew of a past life, to understand the depth of despair from a disease that slowly killed you while you were bedbound and at the mercy and pity of those around you, knowing your existence caused suffering, that sort of thing couldn’t be explained in mere words. Especially to a seven year old who lacked the cognitive development to even conceptualize it.

The thuds increased and he was at my side again. But he didn’t say anything else.

We reached the beach a short while later. There were a few people scattered around, but most were at the town center for the festival. Gentle waves crashed against the shore, a thin line of white froth as they slapped against the sand. The white sand appeared gold under the setting sun. Purples and pinks dyed the night sky, and the twin moons had a gentle white light illuminating around them. The sound of the waves calmed my core. I kicked off my shoes and dug my toes into the sand. So, this is what a beach feels like. Crazy that I was less than a thirty-minute walk from the edge and had yet to see it until today.

As much as I’d like to run straight into the cerulean water, I didn’t know how to swim in this life or my past life. “Do you want to wade at the edge?”

“I don’t want my pants to get wet.”

“Roll up the legs, then.”

“You’re not scared of behemoths?”

“They tend to avoid civilian areas.” I didn’t have any definitive proof, but in the game, there weren’t ever any encounters in towns, so it must have a grain of truth. When he made no move to roll up his pant legs, I shrugged and went to the edge by myself. I hissed as the water hit my legs. “Cold!” But it felt good. The water actually had heft to it. As stupid as it sounds, I had never imagined it would. The way my feet sank into the sand also felt really nice. I kicked water in the air, splashing it back to the ocean waters. The edge of my dress became damp, but it didn’t matter. It’ll dry by time we got back anyway. I didn’t plan on spending too much time here, as when it became dark the adults would probably look to put us to bed and discover our secret getaway.

“Ah!” Alexious yelped.

I whirled around to see him hopping out of range of the water.

A giggle bubbled up. “You haven’t been in the sea either?”

"Either?" He shook his head. “You live right next to the ocean.”

“But they never let me go.” I sighed. “Have you ever seen snow?”

“It snows every winter back home.”

“It never snows here.”

“Because it’s so hot!”

“I guess it is. Have you been to the mountains?”

“No.”

“I want to. I want to see everything there is to see in the world.”

“Why?”

“Because I can! What about you? Do you have any dreams?”

“Make my father happy.”

I marched over to him and placed my hands on his shoulders. “When you make a dream, you make it your own goal. Don’t place your value on someone else’s opinion of you.”

He pushed my arms away. “What do you know?”

“Take it as advice from your big sister.” I began walking again.

“First of all, I’m older and second of all we’re supposed to be married!” He huffed from behind me.

I glanced back over my shoulder. “Who says we have to?”

“Our parents!”

He hadn’t hit the rebellion stage yet. I’ll try convincing him again when he’s older. I’m certain he’ll find some noble lady in the capital to fall in love with that will give him a reason and make rebellion simple. In the meantime, I’ll take every opportunity to learn whatever I can to ensure I become a successful rounded fighter.

“What’s that?” he bent over and tried to pick up a sharp looking onyx point in the sand.

That looks familiar—

“No!” I shrieked, dashing to him and diving at his body.

A crabeas thrust its horn in the air, ripping apart my dress. Alexious and I rolled a few feet away.

He coughed and tried to wipe away the sand from his face.

Crabeas usually are level twenty! A series of four-letter curses punctuated my opinion of the situation. I’ve done low-level runs before, but none that had me fighting a level twenty monster at level one. I didn’t have the advantage of knowing my MP or available spells either. Plus, we had no weapons and Alexious probably had no experience (technically I didn’t either). Compared to the adult character models in the game, crabeas were about to their waist. To a child? Crabeas were bigger than them!

Its huge claws clicked together as it mulled over which of us to eat first.

If there was a menu option in front of me, I would be mashing “RUN” ten times over!

“Help!” I yelled, but sometime during our walk we had walked away from the rest of the people at the beach.

Alexious stared at the crabeas, unmoving.

“Do you know any spells?”

Alexious shook his head.

“Can you do any magic at all?”

He shook his head.

Tactically useless. I needed to get him off the field. “I’ll distract him! Get help!” I ordered.

“But—”

“Go!” I boomed with all the evil villainess I could muster.

I tried to summon the same sensation I had with the glass ball. First a small crystal, then a flower.

A tiny ice crystal appeared on the joint of the crabeas leg.

Tears fell down Alexious’ face.

“Now!”

And burst!

The ice crystals shot out and impaled themselves into the exoskeleton of the crab.

The crabeas whirled towards me.

Alexious scampered back to the town.

The ice spell did nothing. Worse, that weird dizzying sensation came back again.

The only decent stat I had was magic. Strength was nothing special. Agility was average. This level twenty monster bested me on everything.

Unless I could do buffs. Mother Goddess, please help me! I tried to visualize the buff effect in the game. First, soft golden light falls upon the recipient, like fat snowflakes of light. Then, the body glows. If I could do that to my feet to make them faster… I pressed my palms against my legs.

A tingling sensation went through my arms. Please, let my legs be lighter than air!

The crabeas lunged at me.

I jumped, intending to leap into a dash.

The crabeas was below me.

From the current vantage point, it appeared about as big as a turtle.

I wasn’t floating. In fact, I reached the point where I wouldn’t rise any further. Which meant now I would be falling!

I didn’t think that spell through. But it was too late now! What comes up must go down! My stomach somersaulted as I fell through the air at a dizzying speed. My body crashed against the back silvery shell of the crabeas, knocking it to the ground.

It wasn’t moving.

Did I kill it?

Did I kill it, I repeated derisively. A level twenty monster with that basic attack? Get real.

The soft spot in between the carapace and the head was right next to my hand.

The tingle in my arms felt half as strong as it usually did. Maybe my MP was at its limit. Nonetheless, I gritted my teeth and tried to force more into it. First a small crystal. A light mist appeared on the creabeas’ neck. Then blossom into a flower. The ice crystals grew in number, filling the small space. And burst!

And burst!

Burst!

Burst!

No matter how I tried to finish the burst, nothing happened. Worse, the shiny shell and onyx head began to spin together like a whirpool in my vision.

My MP is probably at zero and my HP is near it.

I grabbed onto the edge of the carapace and held on. The crabeas moved around, jostling my little body around. My grip slipped and I slid down the carapace.

An arrow whizzed through the air, embedding itself into the crabeas.

As soon as that one hit, a second followed. The crabeas turned to its new enemy.

Relief washed over me. I lay in the damp sand, listening to the crunch of a sword hitting the crabeas and shattering its exoskeleton. Maybe that was why crabeas shells were so hard to get in the game; a single strike could shatter them… My body felt like I laid on top of my soft bed, not the sand. Each muscle ached and burned. Definitely close to 0 HP. What exactly did revives do here? Surely not bring someone to back to life. Maybe it was for being knocked unconscious or concussion treatment.

“Hey, kid! Are you okay?” Warm hands picked me up and slung me over their shoulder. “Go get a potion!”

Thick jasmine-scented liquid wafted to my nose. I drank the liquid. Not even a heartbeat later, my body felt lighter and the muscle aches vanished.

“Do we need a revive?” the man carrying me asked.

“She’s better. Aren’t you little missy?” the second male voice said.

They both wore shorts and loose-fitting shirts without sleeves. Embroidered on their shirts was a wave and sun, the equivalent of my family’s crest. They must be lifeguards or something akin to it.

Once we reached the edge of the city’s shoreline, he set me down. “What were you thinking?” he scolded in a harsh tone. “That crabeas could’ve killed both of you! Where are your parents?”

I toed the sand. “They’re at home.”

“And where is home?”

I bit my lip and pointed to our manor that towered over the edge of the town.

The blond haired man put a hand on his hip and glared down at me. “The truth, little missy.”

“It is the truth! My name is Lucina!”

“You’re the little duchess?” The blonde man raised an eyebrow and looked over at his black-haired colleague, who mirrored his skepticism. “They’re having a big shebang right now for the baptism. Even the king is there!”

“Yes, I know. And that boy is Prince Alexious!” I pointed to Alexious, who cowered behind them.

The two whirled around to look at Alexious, who remained silent and hesitant.

“Tell them!” I prodded. “Do your princely thing.”

His lips jutted out in a pout. “I didn’t want to go! But she made me!”

He had the angel effect going full blast! That cheeky brat! “Excuse me? I was going to go alone but you made me take you along!”

The two men ignored me and stared at Alexious.

The navy suit he wore did look out of place and expensive. Plus, his pale complexion completely clashed with the typical sun and earth-kissed seaside skintones here.

They dropped to their knees. “Forgive us, your highness!”

Hey, what about me? I’m your duchess, you know!

“You’re forgiven,” Alexious said in a small voice. “Please take us back.”

“Y-yes! Right away!”

Thanks to that battle, I went from level one to level three.

Alexious and I were in pretty big trouble, but because I gained levels, they decided that I would be spared punishment due to properly protecting Alexious.

However, they still didn’t break the engagement…