Kira guided the mana from her core to her hand, slowly tracing the path they usually take when performing chants, then unclenched her hand when the attempt was proven unsuccessful.

The girl had continuously tried to perform countless magic and had expended great efforts to deconstruct the process for the past few weeks. Typically, the higher the difficulty of the magic, the tougher it was to perform them without the spell. She was not even at the stage where she could master the easier ones; it would be impossible to try her luck with the harder ones. She should practice more, she thought. Truthfully, the process required resilience more than talent; if she took notes on her trial and error, it would go over a hundred.

Magicians who could perform the magic nonverbally were few and far between. However, those who could have a higher level since that was the only time they could focus on mastering their magic, for they had nothing to do, and it was hard to advance to the next level.

The silver-haired girl had an option to wait until she was at that stage, but she just refused to.

It just sounds so stupid; she plans to be a swordsman, and shouting the name of the magic while wielding the sword feels like something a chuunibyou would do.

Trying to forget the mental image in her mind, she crossed her arms while she sat cross-legged in the Roelf training grounds. This world might not have a concept of eighth grader's syndrome, but then again, they were also far from believing everyone should have democratic rights. Based on that, that's not something she should trust blindly.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Kira thought it might be better if she could practice the teleportation magic more and, in the meantime, follow the instructions of her magic instructor for her ice magic. The girl stretched out both of her legs as she lazily stared at the sky. It had been a while since Kira spent her time alone like this. She managed to get her maids off her back, and her brother was in the palace. Arthur also went back to school to get his research, saying he plans to show her the results.

On the other hand, her father was still caught up with work, and even though he would still find time to be with her, the six-year-old would feel bad since it meant he would have to do twice the amount of work the next day. The duke had a lot of complaints about his workload, but as a single person raising his children and providing for them – he had no time to dawdle. She was even impressed with his work ethic; it was something she did not have. It was a good thing she was not the heir, or they would go bankrupt before they realized it.

It was also not helping that she would have frequent nightmares about her past life. At this point, she was way past the phase of waking up in the middle of the night full of sweat and was on the border of desensitization and lack of apathy – although it had left much to be desired, at least she was handling it pretty well for a child.

At her estimate, if this continues, she would have some screwed-up mental health – if it does not make her insane just yet – and would at some point affect how she channels the mana outside of her body. Of course, she would not let herself reach that point considering her weird-ass teleportation power might also drag some unfortunate souls with her when she goes mental. It'd be best to deal with her problems in her own time, but the situation prevents her otherwise.

Kira might visit the temple soon; some high-ranking priests or possibly, the Saintess herself would know how to help her.

Fuck this life.

Regarding her training, either with swords or with magic, it was going pretty well. Granted, it gave her some problems along the way. Swordsmanship needed a good foundation, and that included a strong mind and body. From her point of view, she could cross the 'mind' off the list of the things she could do (since she's currently unwell because of the nightmares). On the other hand, she could handle the 'training the body' part – well, pretty much.

The girl might have vomited a few times when she overexerted herself during physical exercises, and it might have given her a concussion that one time, where she fainted because of fatigue, but other than that, everything seems pretty chill.

Going back, the magic study she had been focusing on for the previous months was improving leaps and bounds. Even her instructor said she could enter the Academy at this age if the Academy would let her. That was under the assumption that they would, for other people had also tried, and the youngest person they could send was a ten-year-old. Academy would forbid anyone younger than that since they prioritize peer relationships and the overall academy experience likewise.

Anyway, Kira was in no hurry to study. She had enough of it in her past life. If she could take her time, she would.

The girl stood up as she dusted off her pants and decided to find her mother's journal first. The memento was buried at the foot of the largest tree in the Grand Duchy based on the letter. It would not take long for her to go to that place since it was just a few meters away from the main mansion. Meanwhile, it might give her a hassle considering she would need to sneak off some spade or shovel to dig that out. She also needed to hurry to see that it would be nighttime soon.

Even if Esternon doesn't want it, he would need to go back to their estate before attending the Academy. He had spent enough time in the palace, and his dear sister was probably missing him a lot. Not that she would admit it, he thought. He knows the girl enough that she would rather prioritize her family's decision over herself.

Which reminds him, Arthur should be staying at the Grand Duchy currently. The boy should find the time to talk to him since conversing in school was not possible; the teen was busy and elusive at the same time.

He was currently inside a large bedroom, adorned with patterned wallpapers with a few pieces of furniture placed at the corners. The room looked like any other bedroom he had already visited, except this place was extra lavish, which would mean extremely blinding and hard to look at in his sister's words. If any other person owned this place, they would be scorned for being extravagant, but since this was the Royal Palace where the prince resides, everything would be forgiven.

The boy mentally reminded himself to discreetly point out to his friend that he needed to add additional furniture for guests or else people would think he lacked hospitality.

"I passed by to bid my goodbyes, your highness. I will see you in the Academy." Esternon nodded as a farewell as he carefully studied the visage of the boy sitting on the bed.

The boy nodded coolly as his eyes showed appreciation. "Please keep what I said in mind. And, I might need to retrieve the apparatus from you once we go back."

The duke's heir paused mid-nod as he glanced at the boy ruefully. He decided to stop himself from asking additional questions then saluted to the prince jokingly as he made his way outside the room. In return, the boy only rolled his eyes sluggishly as he waved his hands, signaling him to go out.

As opposed to what others thought, the Roelf boy had not met the prince in the Academy. Instead, he had encountered him way earlier than that.

The Emperor was the oldest of the siblings, and he was also the most capable. Usually, there would be a battle for the throne amongst the previous Emperor's children, but the princes and princesses had an excellent relationship contrary to popular belief. It was to the point they would still be in contact from time to time even though they were not born from the same mother. It also helped that the previous Empress was forgiving, and as long as the last Emperor maintained his respect for her, she would not protest.

Esternon's concubine grandmother had died at an early age, so his mother was treated as the ward by the previous Empress. By then, the current Emperor was 20 years old while his mother was ten; this did not prevent them from getting inseparable that both of them treated each other as full siblings. As a result, the firstborn of the Grand Duchy was habitually brought to the palace to be playmates with the First Prince.

They were childhood friends, but they would need to stage their first meeting in the Academy for political reasons. Else people would think using the 11-year-old prince as a chess piece for having the relationship with the duke's heir would also mean he would have the Grand Duchy's support making him an eligible candidate to fight for the throne.

Although that would not be a problem since he heard from the Emperor, he did not intend to take any concubines at all and had no plans to expose his children to political machinery while they were young.

Even Kira had not met her brother's friend, but she was aware of the relationship.

First Prince Augustus was born earlier than him, and they were opposites of each other. Despite that, they get along pretty well still, that does not mean they had not gotten into any fights. Since he was the firstborn, the pressure from his position was immense, but Esternon doubts the boy had noticed it. He was very dedicated to his duties and would take constructive criticism seriously, which made him look cold and astute. It does not matter, though, because he garnered the praise of the citizens as a result.

Albeit from the silver-haired boy who was not very particular with technicalities, that was a lot of work for the boy not yet of age.

Thankfully, entering the Academy would also separate them from prying eyes. Noble titles inside the institution were unimportant, and nobility and commoners were treated equally. It would mean it would also relieve the boy of the burden of being a prince and could enjoy simplicity for at least eight years. It would be the same for other heirs – like Esternon – and would give them the chance to focus on swordsmanship or magic, whichever they pursued.

With the click of his tongue, the silver-haired boy felt he should be grateful that he nor his siblings were needed to be exposed to the battle for power.

Damn it.

The six-year-old huffed as she used the spade to remove the dirt at the base of the large tree in their manor. She had been there for quite a while; digging gave her a hard time as it had not rained for a couple of weeks, so the soil was dry and hard. Even for her, who's used to swinging a heavy sword, she would still feel pangs of pain from time to time. It could be that she was overreacting to it, but it had been almost an hour since she started digging around the tree, and she had not found anything.

Kira rested her back against the tree trunk while she placed the spade beside her. She felt tired, considering the temperature was pretty high, and the spade was heavy; each time she lifted it, there was a stinging pain in her biceps. Around her were some recently dug pits. Some were shallow, while some were deep. As she observed her surroundings, she could not help but sneeze when some dust entered her airways.

The silver-haired girl readied herself; she slumped her shoulders and stood up. She lazily grabbed the handle of the spade to continue digging once again. It had been her habit to rest for a short time whenever she felt tired. Sleeping for prolonged periods would instead make her think she should stop working, and it would just make her lose motivation. Mainly, these days it seemed where her workload was not decreasing and was instead continuously piling up.

It took a while before she heard a hollow sound when the tip of the gardening tool hit the ground. Silently thanking someone from above, she dropped the spade and squatted in front of the pit. Using her hand to remove the dirt carefully, she saw a metal box not larger than her head. The girl rotated the box to find the latch that was placed on the left side. On the place where a lock should be, there was a twine tied to the metal.

Kira lifted the metal and opened the box; she saw inside a dark-colored journal with leather as its cover. The whole thing was wrapped with plastic, and there was no written text on the leather as opposed to the books she had seen inside their library. Instead, it was just lined with gold and had a flap on the side so that it could be opened or closed.

Surrendering to her curiosity, she cautiously removed the cover to look at its contents.

The five-year-old was impressed when she saw the journal was full of entries from cover to cover; even if there were a few pages, it was still half an inch thick. Her mother wrote the entries with ink since printers were still unavailable commercially and only a few publishing companies had them.

The paper that her mother used looked quite old, showing that the notebook was written a long time ago, maybe before she was even born.

There was no introduction; the first page was directly Entry Number 1

Year, XXXX. Entry No. 1

Before my mother died, she said it would help me keep a journal by my side.

I would like to say that I am glad that I saw her journal when I cleaned her room after her death.

Although it would be better if she was here with me and told these revelations herself.

Kira had felt that her grandmother's death was peculiar, way before she read the first few sentences on the log. And why do they have to make a journal? Was it so the next generation would find it after their death? The girl thought it was odd; she might need to finish reading the entries to confirm her suspicions.

She settled with finishing the first entry first. The rest she would browse in her quarters.

There was not much content, and the only important one was that her mother had found her grandmother's journal. The written logs were about her daily life as a princess and how the Empress became her foster parent after her mother died.

The girl was about to close it when the notes below caught her attention. It was relatively easy to figure out that it was written much later because the ink was darker than the text written above it.

Kira, if you ever find this, please heed my advice. I can feel my death approaching although your brother was not born yet, and although you might doubt my claims, you have a power that only the women of our family have.

Hide it, and do not show it unless necessary.

You are young and susceptible to their magic. Some people would hunt you for it.

Take care, my love.