As I received the message of the pod letting me know I’m free to log back in, I closed my eyes and with a magic phrase marked my departure for the other side.

“Open Sesame.”

I woke up in the somewhat comfortable bed with dark sheets in a small room on the 2nd floor of a cosy house, in the town of Kopfer, not that far from the crafter’s district, in the Phoenix province, in the east region of the Eastern Empire (or just The Empire), on the east continent, in the bed I went to sleep.

Through the open window I could hear the growing clamor in the mid-summer morning. Once I got up and changed in some everyday clothes from the white one piece night dress I was wearing, I went to look for my mother.

I found her in front of some freshly prepared food.

“Morning, honey. Did you have a nice rest?” asked my mom.

“Un.” is all I managed not feeling fully awake yet.

I sat down on a chair next to a small square table and started eating.

‘Delicious!’ I thought.

“Delicious!” I said.

‘Never miss to appreciate the good things in life.’ I thought to myself.

“Hehe. Glad you like it.” my mom said and an image of what the breakfast contained and where and how the ingredients were procured and prepared flashed in my mind.

At the beginning it was very peculiar feeling, whenever this power(ability) activated, but by now I was getting used to it and it was even starting to feel natural.

‘I shouldn’t get too comfortable with it or I might never be able to actually develop it once the character creation is over.’

My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Hello?” could be heard a youthful boy through the wooden door.

The voice belonged to Blyn. He was an apprentice at Griffith’s place. Being here early in the morning could mean one of two things. Either he had a free day or…

“Mr. Mend, are you home?” the voice on the other side of the door inquired.

“Coming!” my mother raised her voice across the house.

“What is it Blyn? And no, Mend had to leave early in the morning for something scarring a couple of horses causing two waggon going opposite directions wheels to get caught with each other and breaking. Anything you’d like me to relay to him when he gets back? Also would you like to join Memory for breakfast?” asked my mom.

“The boss received a lot of scrap metal, swords and armor today and would like to borrow Memory’s father when he’s free. Please let him know.” Blyn said in a somewhat silly attempt to sound manly, while peering past my mom inside the house where he caught the sight of me inching in on the side of the table trying to listen in on the conversation while having breakfast.

His face instantly stretched in a wide smile. He turned to my mom and said.

“Thank you Mrs. Aleya, but I have already eaten and have to go back or I might get yelled at.” then he turned back to me and with the same wide wide smile said “Good morning, Memory. Stop by at the blacksmith's later, I have something to show you!” And without waiting for an answer waved back at me and mom and with a goodbye skittered the way he came from.

My mom looked at me just now attempting to wave back and attempted to hide a snicker. It wasn’t very effective. I looked at her quizzically.

“You have some jam on the tip of your nose.” she laughed.

I gathered my eyes on the above-mentioned location and it was true. I felt the urge to attempt and lick it away, but from high school classes I remembered the teacher making a joke out of it and how it is not humanly possible. So I simply used my hand to remove the skin maks before I continued my breakfast.

By the time I was done my mom was also finishing up preparing something for my dad and sent me with it to let him know about the blacksmith's request while making the delivery at the same time.

Kopfer was set on two hills between the two arms of a forked river. And was surrounded on three sides by the trees of the Dawnwood forest, home of many medicinal herbs. If you depart on the road going out of west gate you’ll eventually reach the capital. On the east side, fields stretched all the way to the Sea of Vor and the big port city of Bashir.

The hill next to the west gate and closer to the river fork housed a small military fort. Between the two hills was the town plaza, north-west from it was the crafting district and right after that was the smaller pf the two river channels. south-east from the plaza was the market and various other shops. The other hill contained the residential district. The higher you got up the hill, the bigger the houses were.

Memory’s house was sitting on the north north-east side, halfway to the highest point of the hill hill. When she left the house a single bell resounded from faraway and the sun greeted her from the right. Even though only half of the binary star was visible it was already starting to get warm. It was summer after all.

‘Hmm, what should I do today?’ I thought while skipping through town to the north gate where according to my mother the accident has occurred.

On the way there I crossed paths with a few people I had acquainted myself with during the last few years. The pharmacy mister and his wife were heading out early today. When I greeted them I saw a memory of the last time I helped out the shop and got taught how to make some simple medicine in return.

When I was at the gate I greeted the guards and asked if they’ve seen my father or if they know something about the waggons accident.

“Ah. Morn’ Memory. Yeah, your pops` went out earlier. From wha’ I gather’d he should be just before the river.” said one of them. This particular guard had a son that similarly ate letters while speaking and inspired to become a soldier when he grows up.

The gate I passed was more like the town backdoor. Compared to the other two it was pretty small, there was barely enough space for two big carts to pass each other. The wall going around the town wasn’t really high, but its purpose wasn’t to repel invaders, but just to keep beasts and monsters from the forest away from the general populace.

After nearly forgetting where I was headed by getting distracted by one thing or another I finally managed to make my way to where my dad was working.

“Hey, dad. Mom sent with food for you, because Blyn stopped by with a request from Mr. Griffith.”

“Hey, sweetie. Thank you. Also, guess whom one of the waggons belonged to.” said my dad.

I looked around and quickly located the familiar face.

“Grandpa!” I shouted and started running towards him.

A bit startled an old man with silvery hair, looked over his shoulder at the direction of the loud sound. When he located the source of it he turned his whole body to face me and opened his arms wide and smiled brightly.

This particular old man always brought interesting things over whenever he visited us. He was my mom’s dad and everyone called him Gramps even though he looked nothing like an old man. It was to the point you would actually expect him to be called Armstrong or Hayato. Therefore my attempted tackle was rewarded with ultimate failure. Instead I was thrown at the sky and fell back in his opened arms giggling.

“Whaa, my granddaughter has grown so much! The next time you might even succeed with the tackle!” he happily exclaimed.

‘Not happening. Nothing smaller than a lesser dragon can tackle my grandpa!’ I thought.

Even though years have passed, since this body entered the world for the first time, it feels just like a few hours. And in fact is around that much. But even with that short of a time frame This old man became family to me. Maybe because I was used being spoiled by my grandparents almost every summer on the other side. Or maybe this gramps was just that much more entertaining. But in either case I was glad to see him again.

“What did you bring this time, grandpa?” I asked from below his chest with stars in my eyes.

“Hehe, comer over here. Let me show you.” he led me to a cage I hadn’t realized was there,

hidden by the broken waggons.

There was a huge two-headed half lizard, half something resembling a dog there.

“We found this unusual hound up north. I’m to train it and transport it to the Capital, some of the pigs over there are already showing interest in it even though it just got caught. I don’t even know where they get their intel from so quickly.” yes, my grandpa is a beast tamer. How awesome is that, right!

“We could’ve headed straight over there, but I thought you’d probably like to see it, so here we are!” He laughed while putting his hands on the waist eventually making the letter Φ.

“It was actually this one’s fault we even crashed. It startled the horse of the farmers over there.” he pointed to the owners of the other waggon sitting on the ground not far from me.

“How long are you going to stay with us this time?” I inquired.

“Hmm. Probably until I teach this one some basic things. Not to bite unless told to. Stuff like that.” I got my answer.

A thought occurred to me.

‘Maybe I could have my parents let me accompany gramps to the Capital and have him drop me back home afterwards.’

“Will you be coming back here after you send the doggy to the city?” I asked with a glint in my eyes.

“I haven’t thought about that yes. Maybe. Why?” Gramps asked.

“Can you take me with you to sightsee?” I asked hopefully.

Gramps brows furrowed just ever so slightly.

“Hm. Hafta talk to your mom and dad first. Maybe we could make it a birthday present.” he winked back at me in a conspiratory manner.

I then realized it was just about time for tenth birthday!

My grandpa seems to have caught wind of the fact I had completely forgotten.

“Haha. You had completely forgotten it is your birthday soon, hadn’t you! And here I thought I’d come visit especially for it, but it turns out the birthday girl’s mind is somewhere else!”

“Is he reliable?” he asked jokingly.

“Who? Dad?” I asked automatically.

Gramps started laughing and couldn’t stop for a while. Until my father came over asked what’s so funny. He seem to have finished repairing the waggons. When Gramps repeated the conversation he started laughing too. Just then did I realize what he meant and started blushing slightly.

‘Looks like I’m not completely used to this body yet…’ I thought.

After Gramps put the cage back inside the back of the waggon, we loaded ourselves on it and started on the way back to the gate.

Dad remembered I mentioned a job at the blacksmith so a bit after passing the guard's post at the gates he turned right and headed for the blacksmith.

A bit further down the road grandpa tugged the reins and the waggon went up the hill towards our house.

On the way there I told him about all the places I’ve been helping out at. And asked him about how and where did they catch the two-headed dog. There wasn’t enough time to make extensive plans about how to get my parents to allow me to go with him before we managed to get home, but he promised he’ll do something about it if I really wanted to go.

When we got home my mom was equally surprised to see him as I was just earlier. I let them catch up while I asked for some pocket money and ran over to the market to buy some ingredients so I could show off the cooking skill I’ve been training lately.

After we ate and I received a praise for the food I prepared, I let gramps and and mom to catch up and went outside onto my daily routine.

‘Go visit the guilds for something interesting. Check. Nothing to report.’

‘Check out the market for something novel. Check. Nothing to report.’

‘Roam around the crafter’s district. Check. Acquired a few more tips how to do things.’

About the late afternoon I remembered Blyn wanted me to stop by. When I arrived at the blacksmith and entered through the door I could feel the hot air rushing inside all the way from the workshop in the backyard.

I walked around the counter and headed for the backdoor.

The moment I put my hand on the handle it turned and the door swung open. In the frame of the door stood a burly man with a somewhat surprised expression on his face. After a second he greeted me.

“Hello, Memory. Your dad and Blyn are in the back.” he said.

“Thank you Mr. Griffith.” I said and walked past him after he stepped out of the door to let me pass through.

“Hi, again dad!” I laughed. “Is there a lot of work?” I asked.

“I’m nearly done. We should be able to go back together.” he said.

“Blyn?” I questioned.

“In the workshop.” he pointed with his chin to the building with a big chimney looking like it’ll bake you alive if you step inside.

“Blyn?” I asked while stepping in through the Hell gate.

He turned sharply around a bit startled and nearly dropped the metal sword he was about to throw in the furnace to melt.

“Hey, Memory. Wait just a bit please, it’s nearly done.” he said.

“Sure, but I’m going to do that outside. I haven’t sinned enough to be sent to Hell yet.” I said and turned around.

“Sorry. Be right there!” he aimed enthusiastically to the rivers flowing on my back.

After a bit of waiting and helping my dad Blyn emerged from the workshop.

“Memory!” he waved. And I headed over.

“I was left you want to show me something?” I started.

“Yup! It’s this.” and just like a real life magician he procured a simple looking armband. Of course it didn’t come out of thin air it was just so sudden it looked like it.

“This is?” I questioned.

On more careful observation I noticed a small pale blue stone in the middle of it. If this is what I think it is the value of this armband just jumped quite a bit.

“In the last batch of ore we got there was a small hidden mana stone” he explained. “I asked master if I could make a gift for you out of it and he agreed saying you’ve helped quite a bit around without getting your money’s worth anyway, so might as well give it to you, because according to him you have more spark for magic than everyday life.” Blyn said.

‘No way, did I trigger some hidden quest along the way? I’m already getting equipment and its not even my birthday yet! Oh, right…’

“Also me and master will have to go to the capital for a while, so I won’t be able to give it to you on your birthday” he said dejectedly, but quickly brightened up again and said. “So happy tenth birthday, Memory!” and presented me with the armband. “I made it myself.” he added.

A memory of the making process flashed my mind and I decided to keep this one, focusing on it and adding it to my memory. It was a pleasant surprise.

‘I definitely didn’t expect presents when I came here today.’ I laughed internally.

‘So, if I put a bit more effort in learning smithing I should be able to make things like that too’ I thought.

‘Or is that more jewelcrafting than smithing?’

I received the armband and tried it on. It fit pretty well and it was looking nice. A bit after I put it on the gemstone started turning from pale blue to the color of pale thistle.

‘It’s beautiful. Even though it’s simple.’

“Thank you!” I said and hugged him.

His cheeks still hadn’t had enough time to return to their normal coloring from the heat in the furnace he exited earlier and they had already started getting redder again.

“You’re welcome.” he mumbled.

I distanced myself an arm length away and said “I should be going to the Capital soon too, maybe we’ll see each other there!” still excited about my gramps arrival in town and the present I just received.

“Whats this about going to the Capital, sweetie?” my dad who had just reentered the backyard after letting know Mr. Griffith he has finished working asked.

I turned around somewhat slowly. Looked him in the eyes. Prepared my best puppy eyed face. And asked him.

“Dad, can I go with gramps to the Capital for my birthday?” I kept looking at him.

And he looked at me. And I looked at him. But he looks at me. And I look at him. In the end he seemed to give up and sigh.

“Me and your mother knew the question is eventually coming, but definitely didn’t expect you to ask before you even turn ten.” he said. “You can go, but we’ll discuss it at length when we get home.”

“Yay!” I squeaked. “Thanks, daddy!” and jumped at him and hugged him.

He noticed the armband and said “Nice armband.”

“I know! It’s pretty!” I said and quickly explained where it’s from.

He looked at Blyn and said. “So, you’ll be also going to the Capital? Training?”

“Yes. That and some shopping and work.” Blyn asked.

Blyn was actually a bit bigger than me about 12 years old. He and my dad went through the same staring contest. When they broke off eye contact I was certain one of them had managed to put a curse on the other one or something. Then my dad said.

“Take care of my daughter while over there, will ya?”

“Dad!” I shouted.

“I will, Mr. Mend!” answered energetically Blyn.

“Blyn!” I shouted back at the other man!

I didn’t want to say anything bad after just receiving a very nice present so I shut up and attempted to awaken a skill that would allow me to kill with a stare.

===

AN: master or Master when talking about him/her? Also if everything goes well another one tomorrow.