Kira reached for Mirin's hand as she disembarked from her carriage. It wasn't even a week since she was allowed to leave their estate, and yet here she was, planning to stroll in the Capital. The place was bustling; there were many people from different stages of life and some peddlers on the side of the street. It was her first time going here since she was too young to travel before, even with servants.

The girl scanned the crowd; it seemed too easy to get lost in the group of people. The funny thing was, the mob had yet to increase. If they arrived later than the time they were supposed to, they wouldn't be able to reach the other side of the road. It makes sense. The Capital was the center of commerce in Yves. People were going in and out of here, whether it was day or night. Having a store here means you would have a guaranteed booming business. It would also prove you have the capability as an entrepreneur since stores - whether rented or owned - were hard to snatch from willing sellers. It even came to the point where people would start a bidding contest just to exhibit fairness.

Whereas that fairness perhaps came from a capitalistic move to gain more money.

Alicia stood beside her, and the girl remembered that when she insisted she wanted to visit the Capital, the woman said she would 'put her battle face on.' That was not needed though, some stores had nobles as their target customers, and there was a whole street of them. The price would be higher than usual, so as a result, the crowd would be more dispersed. But people still had to get off at the gates and walk to their destination. The only carriages that were allowed were owned by royalty or by guests they invited.

Kira felt amused; she was no stranger to this amount of people. When she was in high school, she had a best friend who was too willing for her own good to check bargain sales. She was there for moral support. They had to fight tooth and nail against the veteran aunties that wouldn't even hesitate to step on you if you became distracted for a second.

The market in front of her was no different; it seemed as long as there were humans, this kind of culture would never cease to exist. Of course, thieves and muggers would also be present. It was like a proper predator and prey situation, so people needed to be careful.

Alicia and Mirin stood before her while her guards were behind. People were staring at them. It appears their group stood out like a sore thumb, so people unconsciously distanced themselves, trying not to get involved in case anything wrong happened. The girl could not blame them; there were too many cases of nobles getting hurt and would vent their anger by blaming innocent bystanders.

It turned out to be more convenient for her when they showed their power since it made things easier for them. They soon arrived at the nobility-biased street safely. There she noticed Alicia finally looked relieved after they stopped to catch their breath. Mirin, on the contrary, was still wearing the same facial expression she always had.

"Young miss, where do you want to go?" Alicia asked jovially as she placed a hat she brought earlier on top of her head as a way to shield her from the sun.

As if on cue, Mirin intervened right after to adjust her headwear when she noticed her eyes were covered.

They were wearing usual noble clothes. Surprisingly, it was relatively unadorned even to Mirin's liking – considering she was the kind of woman undaunted with everything – so it would mean their clothes must have really looked improper by their Duchy's standard.

Something that she was aiming for exactly. Kira had even ordered them to bring a carriage without the Roelf family's logo to go with it. It would be better if they were to be a wallflower for a day; it would be easier to navigate the place without the people that would try to greet her left and right. She also considered the merchants that habitually adjusted the goods' price depending on the buyer's standing. She would hate to lose money more than necessary; she was only relying on her allowance after all.

"Can we visit a cafe? I want to check their pastries. I heard they have some kind of a dessert special here every day," she mentioned, then curiously examined the place. Mirin then indifferently handed her some sort of brochure of the stores available.

Alicia raised her hand politely to hide her smile when what happened. "Then maybe there's a store in the leaflet you'd like."

Kira thought it was pretty neat they have a catalog she could refer to. "Maybe we could try to visit the newly opened cafe-slash-library at the corner?"

"What do you think, Mirin?"

Mirin's eyes sparkled, which did suit her stoic expression. "I heard they have a lot of books," she could not help but whisper the last part in her excitement.

The silver-haired girl felt it would not be too bad. Good books and tea usually go with each other anyway.

"Then let's go there."

Compared to the center of the Capital, this nobility-centered street had fewer people, not to mention they had better-quality roads as well as superior-looking stores. There were no beggars, and most people were accompanied by at least a guard or a maid. The girl then mentally noted she should bring fewer people if she ever came back; she underestimated the number of people present.

Kira could even see some people looking at her while whispering discreetly.

It must be her clothes or the number of people she brought with her. It doesn't matter – she somehow expected the situation. Nobles outright shame others if they have had ever done something, not etiquette-conforming. This does not mean she would not bend; she was still a member of society, and whether she liked it or not, she needed to adapt.

Not today, though.

Considering the girl would not receive any backlash since people did not know her, she had yet to make her social debut. Madame Gazette had also been insistent on making her join social events. Even if she loved to make the old woman proud of her, she would need to wait until she reached 18. At any rate, Kira would like to enjoy anonymity even for a while.

Shortly, they arrived at their destination. Ahead of them was a two-story building decorated with both fake and fresh flowers. The store was pretty noticeable, seeing it follows the aspect of some stores in her past life. They displayed their food in a display case, and a copy of the menu was attached to the door. Private rooms were also available for people who would need them. Lastly, they have some sort of a mascot.

Not the mascot-wearing costume per se, instead they have a handsome man giving out flyers to the people passing by – who were effortlessly convinced by the man, by the way. Kira even thought that if it was possible, they would have stars in their eyes. She assumed that if they continued to advertise this way, the store would be full soon. It was a good thing they arrived early.

"My dear ladies, what are you looking for?" The mascot quickly noticed them when they approached. He greeted them with a dashing smile on his face.

It was a pity; her maids were a different league overall. Both of them were attractive (even in nobility standards), and the most essential part – none of them were interested in men – something she gathered after listening to their conversations.

Alicia was quick to react and went to the forefront to shield the little girl. "Please observe your distance, Sir." She held out her hand in front of him, seemingly irritated. "We are here to visit the place. There's no need to further increase the interaction between you and our group."

"Oh," the man disappointingly muttered then silently examined their group. "Then you could enter through the door. A servant will guide you to your seats right after."

The change to his tone was surprisingly quick, it turned from flirtatious to apathetic in a short while. Kira could not help but feel it would be a waste if he continued to hand out flyers, this man was too good at acting.

"Then we will excuse ourselves."

"May the Goddess of Light bless you," he respectfully bowed as he bid his farewell.

Alicia nodded and returned the greeting. "May the Goddess of Light bless you."

They did as they were told and a maid welcomed them right after they entered the door. The place was large and the garlands were not too gaudy. The walls of the café were painted with white and accented with some pastel colors. There were no flowers on sight, unlike the outside. Piles of books were used as décor instead while seats were divided by screens to provide some sort of privacy to the customers.

"Nice to meet you, I will be the attendant assigned with you for today." The young woman brightly introduced herself as she smartly turned to the six-year-old instead of the two maids.

The girl had no intention to exchange niceties, she wanted to save her group and the attendant the hassle. "We want a private room."

"Sadly –" the attendant did not even seem bothered by her rudeness as she answered, "– we do not have available rooms on the upper floor. What we do have are seats from this floor. Please do not worry, if you wanted a larger space, we would try to accommodate you."

The customer service was impressive. Kira was about to agree to the woman's suggestion when Mirin suddenly stepped out from behind her. The movement was so sudden as if she was pushed forward, but then she managed to regain her balance and blankly glanced at Alicia.

There was silence while they continued to have a staring contest.

Mirin was the first to give up. "If you would spare me a moment, I would like to talk to you about something," she helplessly sighed as if forced to do something against her will then added, "It would be better if it's in private."

The attendant was silent for a moment thinking if she should agree to her request. "Sure, please go this way." Then she leads her maid upstairs.

It took some time for them to go back, but the attendant informed them that there was already an available room when they did. Kira did not say anything else and only wore a small smile as she followed the attendant directing them to their room.

Mirin would like to humbly resign if she would still need to work with Alicia in the future. Although it was an honest job and had many perks – including having access to the rare books in her mistress' library –her patience would soon wear thin if a certain woman continued to test her limits.

She even had to show her badge to the attendant – it was such a hassle. Although she had to admit that she was pretty fond of the place, she knew it was used to lure her out. It was something she wouldn't usually fall for, but since the big-breasted idiot was with her, all her efforts for the previous years had gone down the drain. If people started to swarm her tomorrow, she would make sure to take Alicia down with her.

Mirin would need to say goodbye to her paradise in the Duchy.

The store was owned by the Church of Darkness, it was not uncommon for organizations like them to open up gathering places specifically to collect information. It allowed them to gain resources if they ever decided to sell them and look after their people at the same time. It was the easiest way to earn quick bucks, but it would surely be a scandal if their followers knew. However, from what she knew, the Church was pretty careful; they even had under-the-table agreements so the people who were aware of what they did would be tight-lipped.

Regarding what happened earlier, members would need to show a badge to have access to their reserved rooms.

Mirin was a member.

Not anymore. She had already served her time and she would like to respectfully bow out to people younger than her. Despite that, she would still prefer to keep her badge as a memento since it would come in handy for times like these.

"Young miss, where do you want to go after?" The 'big-breasted' brunette wiped the crumbs on the little girl's face.

Alicia was tasked to take care of their mistress while she undertook the job of standing behind the two of them. Mirin would always choose easier duties rather than more difficult ones, but she was not the type to shy away from those tasks either… she only preferred to take the opportunities handed to her. In this case, the particular opportunity was staring into space. Granted, she also liked serving the girl as she was easy to take care of, nonetheless being an attendant of a noble was still no easy task.

Anyway, the bubbly woman must have been doing her a favor after what she did to her earlier.

Mirin entered the Grand Duke's estate back before her mistress was born. She was a hard-labor maid because she had no background, no one had also been present to introduce her to a higher position. Then a chance presented itself – the duke's daughter was kidnapped, an accomplice was one of the staff since they were not sure who it was, they removed all personnel. Coincidentally, since they lack people, maids stationed outside were transferred inside of the mansion to help.

She was assigned to take care of the girl along with a few more.

Alicia arrived a few months after her transfer, she was referred to by the First Princess.

"Mirin, the young miss said she would like to stroll outside for a while." The brunette carried their mistress in her arms as she worriedly asked for her advice. "I'm afraid there would only be a few stores she would like."

She agreed, there were only a handful of stores for children. Moreover, visiting another food place was out of the question since they were already full. "Then let's go back, she seems a little sleepy." As she said that, Kira yawned on cue then sleepily wrapped her hands around Alicia's neck.

"The 'young miss,' not 'she.'"

Mirin only rolled her eyes, not bothering to argue with her.

"I'd give you a nasty look, but you've already got one." Alicia proudly smirked at her comeback.

"This nasty face had a good head on her shoulders, unlike some woman who only had lumps of fat on her chest."

Alicia did not hide her scowl as she heard some guards behind them laugh, but when she turned around, all of them were wearing serious faces, so she only glared at her co-worker.

It was just a few hours after lunchtime and their charge was already tired. Mirin doubted it was because of their stroll, the girl might still be unwell. She already had a good time considering she browsed a few books earlier while watching over Alicia and her young miss.

"Then let's take the young miss home," she replied with a hint of sarcasm then took the bags they bought earlier off the brunette's hands.

"Blaaargh."

Kira went straight to the restroom right after she found a way to excuse herself after training. She had just finished practicing her sword skills, her instructor was still on the training grounds waiting for her to come back. He needed to tell her what she needed to improve on, or she would still make the same mistakes tomorrow.

These days she would have to spend her mornings improving her stamina and toning her muscles. Not that she needed to see some significant change, but she was desperate to be even slightly competent in fighting with an adult, even she loses at the least she held out. Her afternoons would be spent with her burly instructor, who loves to laugh at his jokes.

Was that a musclehead trait? Was she like that before?

Kira was in a dilemma as she stared at her vomit inside the ceramic toilet in front of her. She was like that before; she confirmed a little embarrassed as she recalled some of her memories.

The girl felt worse than waking up the next day of the night spent on drinking. The problem was, this time she was not intoxicated with alcohol, instead it was self-inflicted. What she was doing strained her body more than she thought it would – something she would need to keep from her maids or else they would scold her, or at least Alicia would. Truthfully, it was much more burdensome the first time, now she was getting good at using her small body during sword fights so it was less taxing. Furthermore, it was exhilarating to fight against someone much older, needless to say, she was pleased with herself.

If only she would stop this goddamn vomiting spree, then everything would be perfect.

The six-year-old girl would never admit she was pushing herself, which was also accepting she could not handle that much, which was way too embarrassing for her. Her swordsmanship skills were not even up to par with her brother's so she needed to fill the gap with hard work.

If she wanted to win though, she could employ petty tricks.

Touching her neck while coughing a little, she could feel her throat was sore. Kira estimated she would not eat a proper meal for a few days until it gets better. It might also be because of consuming way too many sweets. If this continues she might need to decrease the frequency of her training. And even if her mind could handle it, her body might not. Unless she could find a miracle medicine that could heal all her pain without side effects, it would be better for her to stay put.

Now that she thought about it, compared to before, her training seemed to be longer.

It might be because of the absence of her magic teacher – who notified her he would not be able to supervise her for a few weeks – so she had to fill in the gaps in her free time.

Speaking of free time, the Duke must have a lot since he frequently visited her nowadays; they also got closer, making her believe the man wasn't that inept with taking care of his family. Though, it was still an inadequacy on his part; if she was an average child, she might have held a grudge a long time ago.

He visited her one time where he had accidentally seen her mother's journal on her bedside table. Thankfully, he did not pry, though she could see he was curious. Well, there was no way in hell she would let him in on her secret – even though her mother had held out until her death, there must be a reason why it was not safe.

Kira's training with ice magic was going well, albeit she kept it a secret from others, but if she would guess her mana level would be on the yellow stage, which means she's now just one step away from having the firepower of an official magus.

It was common knowledge that mana reserves would automatically increase as you reach adulthood, the speed and quality of mana uptake would depend on two things: the person's talent, and their hard work. Of course, having skill could not be treated as a substitute for the latter, nor it would also be true vice versa.

The levels of power were typically categorized by colors. It was red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, and white, respectively. Initiates from the academy would have red, acolytes usually have orange, apprentices have yellow, and finally, a magician would need to be green before graduating. That was the last qualification before someone would be added to the Magician Registry; people also have to take a written exam to go along with that. A magus who was going around the place causing problems for having no proper knowledge to go with their credentials was something embarrassing to see after all.

Speaking of that, she knew plenty of people who were like that in her previous life.

Going back, a High Magus and a Swordmaster would need to have a blue power level – people say they have power compared to a hundred people. Consequently, Grand Magi and Great Swordsmasters should have purple and could go against a thousand people, while Arch Magi and Swordmaster Emperors would need a power level of black so they could go against an entire nation.

Some say you would ascend to godhood if you attained the power level white but no one had confirmed it yet – or at least no one could.

Kira was never really someone who believed in Gods and she doubted she would meet them any time soon.

Furthermore, their family never emphasized faith in their teachings. They would mention it from time to time but none of them were devout believers. It was not for the reason that the Gods don't create miracles (they actually do, with a proper donation to the chosen Church of course) but because the Grand Duke of the North belongs to the Empire faction, and their side was always known to go head to head with the Church.

Nevertheless, they treat each other amiably on the surface.

Supposedly, the Empire was built using the Goddess of Light's power while the Goddess of Darkness and her believers arrived much later than that. It was why most of the people of Yves believed in the Light Goddess, their enormous population does not even include the magicians who willingly joined the Church to gain divine power. Divinity was rather interesting for her since the citizens here had real interactions with their Gods compared to her previous one.

But then again, as much as she was curious about how divinity works, Kira was not the type to favor an omnipotent being from above. Additionally, she doubts she would be their favorite either, seeing she was stubborn, so being a Saintess or a Priestess would be out of the question.

There was a knock on her bathroom door as the silver-haired girl wiped the corner of her mouth. "Young miss, are you there?"

"Just give me a moment," she replied in haste, then looked at her body to find if some of the discharge had transferred to her clothes. "I'm coming!"

Next time, maybe she should try to research some magic concerning turning off the gag reflex. That would be way more helpful than it should be.