I wake up the next morning and head downstairs to find Liz sitting at the table in the kitchen. I was too tired to look around last night, but she lives by herself in a three-bedroom townhouse. She offers me breakfast, and I gladly accept. While eating, she begins to talk.

“Is there anything you wanted to do today? I just need to finish this report this morning, and then we have the rest of the day free. Although, I’m not entirely sure what to write.”

“Oh, is it a report about me?” I ask between mouthfuls of food.

“Yes, I’m trying to report the events that occurred at the Mage’s Association yesterday, but frankly I don’t even understand most of it myself.”

“Well, just leave out the difficult parts then. Wouldn’t it be worse to send a confusing report and possibly complicate things? Plus, it’s not like I understand everything either, so I’d like to keep it quiet until I can actually answer some of the questions they’ll have for me.

Also, for today I’d like to find a way to start learning the language here if that’s possible. And I also want to learn a little more about magic. Oh, and I’d really like to take a shower.”

“What’s a shower?” Liz replies, entirely puzzled.

“Well, I guess you only have baths here then? A shower is used to clean yourself like a bath, but instead of being in the water, it pours down from above, kind of like rain.”

Liz still looks confused, but a little bit less than before. “We mostly use magic to clean ourselves, baths are pretty much a luxury reserved for the nobles. We don’t really have an abundance of water to use like that.”

“Oh well, I don’t really know any magic yet. And I can’t speak your language, so I’m not sure that any spells would work anyways.”

“I mean, you could just try it in your language. It’s a pretty low-level water spell. It’s also categorized as utility spell, since almost everyone can use it. Even me.”

Liz says [Sanitize] while looking at her breakfast plate, and it suddenly becomes clean before my eyes. I try it on my plate now that I’ve finished my eggs, and the same thing happens. I guess magic doesn’t care what language you use. I use it on myself afterwards and I feel clean, but it’s not quite the same and I show a bit of disappointment on my face.

“Not what you were expecting?” Liz asks me.

“I guess I’m clean now, but it’s just not the same as what I’m used to. You said there’s not a lot of water here, but why don’t people just use magic to make water?”

“It’s more about the quantity. Water mages can do it themselves, but to supply the entire city with more water than the river can would be exhausting.”

“I guess I’ll just have to get used to it then.”

“Well, it’s only nine in the morning and you’ve already learned more about magic, and even used it yourself. We’re making good progress on your goals for today already.” Liz says with a chuckle.

“I guess that’s true. I wonder if I can use that spell from yesterday as well.” I try to cast [Display Data] on Liz.

A light projection emits out of my hand like yesterday but since I casted it in English, it displays in English. This is very helpful, I think to myself as I look it over. It gives me some basic information, such as her name and occupation, as well as her age, blood type, and other miscellaneous information.

[Lizette Clawthorn] [Race: Human (Altrian/Terrian)]

[Age: 27] [Sex: F] [Blood: B]

[Occupation: Defense Guard (Rank: Sergeant)]

[Faction: (Altrian Military)]

[Titles: (Sergeant) (Weapons Master) (The Horror of Terria)]

[STATUS] [LVL: 113]

[PWR: 870] [REP: 100 (+/-1,000,000)]

I make a mental note to ask her about ‘Terria’ and her dubious title. Some of the magical symbols don’t translate into English at all, but it’s a lot more information than I had before. Looking at the scientific diagrams, her composition contains very little magical elements and also only seem to be attached to a few water molecules. I interpret this as probably a low affinity for water magic alone.

I cancel the spell and use it on myself again. It looks similar to yesterday but in English. While looking at mine, I notice that there’s a lot more information compared to Liz. A lot of it is incomprehensible as well. It also seems if there is no data for a certain section, it doesn’t include it at all.

[Mia Sawyer] [Race: Human (American)]

[Age: 20] [Sex: F] [Blood: A+] [&: 1]

[Occupation: World Traveler (Rank: N/A)] [#:127] [%: X]

[Secondary Occupation: ~& (Rank: Novice)]

[STATUS] [LVL: 3]

[PWR: 020%] [REP: 4]

[PHY: 045%] [MEN: 167%] [MAG: 146%]

[ACTIVE EFFECTS]

[Realm Travel Fatigue] – STATUS is currently weakened from excessive travel across realms. The effects will weaken over time; current STATUS is representative of this effect.

[Magical Awakening] – Magic is currently integrating with the body. The effects will reach completion over time; current STATUS[MAG] is representative of this effect. Completion: 13%.

I cancel the spell again with a somewhat concerned look on my face and Liz looks at me with concern. “Did it work? Or was there something wrong?”

“There’s just some weird data. Also, I probably should have asked you before looking at your data. I think I saw some things that you might not have wanted me to see.”

“Like what?” Liz asks, seemingly genuine confused.

“What is ‘Terria’?”

“Oh… I’m guessing you saw my odd title. That’s related to my military experience. Terria is the country to the west of here. I’ve been told that my father was Terrian, but I’ve never knowingly met him. You could say we share a border, but realistically it’s just expansive wilderness between us, which usually acts a pretty strong war deterrent.

When I was much younger and first joined the army, there was a territorial dispute between our countries. Of course, since no definitive boundaries existed at the time due to the wilderness, it got complicated quickly. A series of mines containing Iricite variants and other magical ores was discovered in the mountains in the northern part of the forest. Both countries made a claim to the mines, and we tried to resolve it with a treaty that established that area as a free area, which allowed both countries to prosper for some time.

The mines seemed never-ending and even led into some new dungeons, and both countries profited even more through adventurers. Unfortunately, there was a major incident a couple years into the treaty. The crown prince at the time announced that he and his party, as well as a small reserve of royal soldiers were going to explore one of the dungeons.

One night while they were sleeping in the dungeon, the prince was assassinated and his party was slaughtered except for one soldier who was sent as a messenger. He said he was told that the prince’s assassination was at the request of Terrian officials before he died from his mortal wounds. There was a conspiracy theory that they did this to cancel the prince’s arranged marriage with one of the princesses of Terria. After receiving the news however, she was found dead in her room the next morning, an apparent suicide.

Looking back now, the assassins were likely a third party trying to instigate war between the countries, but I digress. Both countries sent armies on campaigns. Some were sent to establish borders, there were a lot of fights in the forest and the areas surrounding the mines, and some were to sent into the other country to force them into surrender.

I was initially assigned to the mines, and my company was there to maintain peace and provide security for our country’s miners. It was a relatively peaceful assignment until a Terrian company claimed that they had claim to the specific mine we were safeguarding one day. They were basically looking for a fight and we gave it to them.

The squad I was assigned to was mostly new recruits, and we were told to stay back and defend the miners while the veterans fought. Unfortunately, it turned into a massacre and almost everyone in my company was killed aside from my squad and some wounded soldiers.

I readied my sword and steeled myself for my first real fight, and also likely my death. About half of their soldiers were still in fighting condition. I can’t use much magic, but I have a few spells in my repertoire. Most of them are useless, but I did inherit a small portion of my mother’s unique eye magic.

So to improve my chances of survival, I cast [Eye of Water] and [Eye of Ice]. I can’t maintain them for long periods of time but not many people know them or can use them effectively. Both of them are actually time spells. [Eye of Water] shows the flow of magicules and kinetic energy. When I use it, I can see a few seconds ahead. [Eye of Ice] slows the perception of time.

With my advantage of time manipulation and future sight, I slaughtered the rest of the Terrian soldiers. All of the miners survived and were very grateful to me. I definitely had conflicted emotions about the entire incident, but about 12 soldiers survived, including myself.

After the battle, the highest ranking soldier took command, and gave me a battlefield promotion to Corporal. When reinforcements arrived and heard the story, the commander of that battalion had me reassigned to his unit for their campaign into Terria. I couldn’t really refuse, so I marched into Terria with the rest of them a few days later.

After a few months and several difficult fights, the commander promoted me to a Lieutenant Commander position due to my achievements. I also developed my skills and the eye magic I could use, and even learned a few new ones. Our death toll disappeared almost entirely after I joined the unit and my kill count probably rivaled some of the most veteran soldiers in the unit at that point. I was leveraged as an advance scout when we were planning to mobilize and lost my entire squad to an ambush by a much larger Terrian guerilla unit. We never saw it coming.

One of my squad members was a girl a couple years younger than me who was like my younger sister. When I saw her body with all those arrows bleeding her out and our healer had already fallen, I went into a rage. I hunted over a hundred soldiers through a dangerous and unfamiliar forest, killing them all and retrieving their tags as mementos. You haven’t seen it, but I have a ceremonial sword mounted on my bedroom wall that’s made out of those tags so I never forget.

I killed a queen demon spider in the forest that had been terrorizing some of the local village folks in the area as well. I buried my squad members where they fell and returned to our encampment covered in blood. No one believed my story when I got back until I showed them all the tags.

After that, I was selected for almost every special duty or position and was always out in front as an advance scout whenever we moved. I also refused to bring a squad with me. I didn’t want to see any more of my friends die.

We made it all the way to the coast where the Terrian capital city, Lusteria was located. The city was beautiful until it turned into the bloodiest battlefield I had ever seen. After weeks of fighting, our forces were run down and eventually slaughtered or captured.

I stood alone surrounded by the gore of indistinguishable allies, enemies, and civilians alike. Something in me broke at that moment, and I found myself mentally and emotionally exhausted from it all. So I fought my way into the royal sector and eventually the castle. I headed straight for the throne room, only fighting those that resisted. A lot of soldiers saw how I fought their allies and retreated. Once in the throne room, I slaughtered the king’s elite royal guards and royal mages.

‘You’ve lost this war.’ I declared to the king. ‘I can either take your life or an unconditional surrender. Those are your options.’

The king wisely chose to surrender. All the Terrian troops suddenly retreated from Altria, including the mines in the mountains. Representatives from both countries later met and the Altrian Officials dictated the borders that you now see on maps today.

The story of how a single woman soldier fought her way into the royal castle and demanded complete surrender then spread throughout both countries like wildfire. I became known as ‘The Horror of Terria’. The Altrian military leaders and advisors didn’t know what to do with me after that, either. Our king requested an audience with me and praised me and tried to reward me.

That wasn’t a fun conversation either. His attendants were very upset with me for my disrespect when I told him that if he saw the bloodbath I was part of, he wouldn’t be praising me. As for a reward, I asked for what you see of my life today. I asked for silence on my identity and to never again be mobilized for a foreign war. I also asked for this house and a low ranking position within the Defense Guard, stating that I have no quarrels with using my abilities for the defense and protection of my home but I had no intentions of being used as a conqueror.

And so here I am, living the quiet peaceful life you see today.

Ahh that was a rather long story. My apologies.”

I sit there in silence as I have no idea what to say in response to hearing such a story so early in the morning. I was not prepared for it at all.

“Anyways, my past aside, you said you wanted to learn the Altrian language? I know a teacher who works at a school nearby. He might be able to help you or at least point us in the right direction. I think that’s the best place to start.”

I agree and we head out to visit the school. Along the way, Liz explains the education system in this country.

Most students in the school are the children of successful merchants, soldiers, government officials, and nobles. Most commoners home school their children since they can’t afford to send them to school and it’s more useful having them at home to help out the family.

The usual curriculums include language, geography, the arts, physical/combat training, and magic courses. There are no real science courses, which depresses me a little bit. It appears that the closest they get to science are a few courses on animals and monsters, and a pseudo-geology course (mostly on magical ores and their applications).

Liz apparently knows the language teacher at this school from her childhood but doesn’t elaborate on it at all. Shortly after, we arrive at the Altrian Capital Academy.