“Mama! I’m heading off to the forest to train!” A young girl both eager and full of energy shouted out at the top of her voice. She already had one foot out the door as she waited impatiently for her mother’s response.

Her mother was a woman with grey hair tied up in a bun with the same, brown-colored eyes as her daughter. She had on her flower-patterned apron that fit her nicely as she stepped out of a room with a tray full of freshly baked cookies, oven mitts on both her hands.

She was frowning, causing the wrinkles on her forehead to visibly crease which showed her old age.

“Laura! How many times do I have to tell you to have breakfast first? You’ll get hungry!”

“All right Mama! I’ll be back before breakfast!” With no concern over her mother’s warning, the young girl ran out and slammed the door closed,

“My God! All that girl does is train! Will it kill her to spare some time for family?”

Even though she said that, deep down, she could not really be mad at her. She knew that the reason why her daughter trained so much was so that she could pass the entrance exams and enter Solus Academy. Once she graduated, she would be able to chase her dreams to work in the capital and earn enough money for them to live a better life.

Her daughter’s name was Laura. Laura Scarlette. Together, they lived in a rural village situated in what was pretty much the middle of nowhere. The closest city to them was Dragonsteel, yet that was still a three-days horse ride away.

Now that she thought about it, the entrance exams for the academy were beginning soon. In two weeks to be exact. If her daughter wanted to make it there in time, she was going to have to leave home, at the latest, in three days.

She felt a slight twinge in her heart, the very same pain that all mothers feel when the baby bird begins to leave the nest. She would no longer be able to see her daughter’s smiling face every day from then on, and it’s not like she could just demand her daughter to stay…

“I’ll make the best farewell feast ever!” she decided, nodding to herself. There was no point brooding about it, and she wanted these next few days to be happy, not sad.

“It’s the least I can do…”

With a smile on her face, she set the cookies down and began preparing breakfast.

***

Laura’s flitted about her small village as she made her way toward the forest. She greeted the farmers, the shopkeepers, the playing children, essentially everyone she met along the way, giving them a bright smile and wave as she quickly zoomed by.

A layer of strong wind covered her knees, all the way down to her toes, allowing her to sprint at great speeds with little to no effort. With each hop she made, she could lift her body a few feet off the ground, and each time she dropped, she landed with grace.

She knew just about everybody in the village and her heart was warmed whenever they responded to her greetings. There was Auntie Helen, Uncle Roger, Farmer Joe… all sorts of people that had grown up with. After waving goodbye to the village guard, the last person she came across, she stepped onto the path that led her into the deep forest.

In order to make sure that she passes the entrance exam, Laura couldn’t slack off on her training, no matter what. She needed to pass, not just for her sake, but for her mother, and the village as well. The village wasn’t poor… or at least, not anymore, but they were still considered peasants living in the middle of nowhere, and she wanted to change that.

With the techniques she will learn in the academy, she was sure that she could earn a lot of gold in the future. With that gold, she would lift her village from their peasant way of life into the hospitable lives of the commoners! Her goal wasn’t that lofty… right?

“First I’ll buy Mama a better home, then, I’ll build a school for the children! Oh oh, I can also help buy livestock for the farmers! We haven’t had pork since three years ago!”

She giggled to herself as she fantasized about her future. This was her dream, and already, she was taking big leaps toward it. Laura felt invincible.

With her Blessing of the Winds, she could fight monsters and hunt them down quite easily, and the carcasses can always be sold for money. Her village used to be far, far poorer, and it was thanks to her that they could live so care-free. It was no wonder they were all happy to see her.

Right now, she was looking for monsters to fight in the forest. They weren’t particularly strong, nor were they so common, so the village never really had to worry about her being overwhelmed. Should Laura be unable to find one, she would then simply practice her spells against some trees.

Thump!

‘Hmm?’

Laura stopped in her tracks. A faint thumping sound came somewhere distant to her left and her interest peaked. Perhaps it was a monster? Only one way to find out.

She began sprinting towards the source of the noise, the winds around her legs were now blasting out air behind her at full throttle. Even with the trees blocking her way, she never slowed down, and instead weaved through them with great familiarity. In just a short span of time, she had traveled a great distance, and immediately she could see what the source of the noise was. She planted her feet on the ground, killing her momentum, and quickly hid behind a tree.

There were two men in black cloaks, each with a sword in hand, and their hoods were pulled down, giving Laura a full view of their faces. One had black hair, while the other was blonde, and there was nothing out of the ordinary about their looks.

However, there was one thing about them that made Laura a hundred percent sure that they were not from the village, and that was the black mark on their left cheeks. Upon closer observation, it looked like a black rose with sharp thorns surrounding it. She didn’t recognize the symbol, but whatever it was, it certainly couldn’t be anything good.

These two men had malicious smirks on their faces as they stood over an unconscious little girl, and Laura could feel her blood boiling. These men were harming children!

“Okay, Bonehead. Take out the anti-magic cuffs. This one’s a feisty one.” The man with black hair said.

“Eh? Bonehead thought the cuffs were with you, Clown.” replied the blonde.

The black-haired man, Clown, gave Bonehead a cold stare.

“You idiot! I passed it to you just now!”

“Nuh-uh, you didn’t. You never let Bonehead do the cuffing—”

“Hey! You poor excuses for human beings! Let the girl go right now!”

The two men stopped their argument and stared at the intruder.

“Bonehead, you idiot! We were followed because of you!”

“Nuh-uh. Bonehead thinks it was because of your screaming.”

Laura gritted her teeth in anger. Not only did they harm a child, but they were also so guiltless about it too! She was going to save the girl and teach them a lesson they will never forget!

She began chanting her most powerful spell.

“Spirits of the wind! Heed my request! Send—”

“Hey, Bonehead! The girl’s chanting a spell!”

“Heh heh heh, even Bonehead knows that—”

With a flourish of their black cloaks, the two men disappeared from her sight in an instant and reappeared behind her. The next moment, she heard the sound of flesh tearing, and a sharp pain dug into her back.

“—you should never chant a spell when in close range.”

As Bonehead finished his sentence, Laura dropped to the floor, screaming. Her blood spilled out in copious amounts all over the grassy floor as she stared weakly at her assailants. That was all she could do.

“Sigh, Bonehead got a little too excited and used too much force. Sorry, Clown.”

“Eh, it’s fine. We already got our target. Let’s just go back.”

“What about the body?”

“Eh, leave it. Come on, take the nymph and go. We’ll cuff her later.”

With Clown’s final declaration, Bonehead picked up the unconscious girl and they started walking away, leaving the dying Laura alone.

It was all she could do to stay awake, and she couldn’t even muster her strength to scream. She wanted so badly to save the girl, to help her mum, to help her village. Unfortunately… it all ends today.

‘P-please… at least… allow me… to save… the girl…'

She reached out her arm to the two cloaked figures and tried gathering mana in her palm, but it was no use. As she took her final breath, her arm fell limp, and her vision blurred. Her brain shut down, her heart stopped beating, and the light in her eyes completely disappeared.

And that was the end of Laura’s story…

And the beginning, of something new.

Her wounds suddenly closed, her eyes fluttered open, and she quickly picked herself off the ground. Laura rubbed the side of her head, confused.

“Where am I? Where’s all this blood coming from?”

Clown and Bonehead slowly turned their heads in confusion. They hadn’t even left the vicinity yet, and they were slightly shocked to see Laura stand up like she was perfectly fine.

“What the hell? How is she still alive?” Clown frowned as he pulled out his sword.

“I don’t know. Bonehead was sure she was dead. Do we kidnap her too?”

“Nah… I’ll quickly go put her down again. You stay here.”

With sword in hand, he charged at the revived girl, aiming at her heart. If her heart was destroyed, there was no way she’ll live. This time, he was going to end her life for sure.

But Clown never reached it. With the grace and speed of a trained expert, the girl sidestepped his sword and grabbed onto his wrist. She planted her other hand on his shoulder blade, exerting force and slamming him onto the ground, breaking his arm in the process.

He let out an agonizing scream as he clutched his broken arm.

“Ah! My bad! How’s this body so strong? Or maybe… you’re just weak?”

Laura casually bent over and picked up the sword Clown dropped. When fighting someone with a weapon, she was taught to first disarm the assailant, and that was what she did.

She felt a rush of wind at her side and instinctively took a step back.

Clang!

The sound of swords clashing reverberated through the forest as Bonehead’s blade met hers. His face contorted in surprise.

“How?!”

A series of flashes sparked between the both of them as steel crashed against steel. Bonehead was met with surprise again and jumped backward.

“How?” he asked again, “Bonehead is a C-ranked swordsman! You couldn’t even defend yourself earlier!”

“C rank?” Laura tilted her head. “Is that supposed to be high?”

His face contorted into fury.

“Do not mock me!”

He swung at Laura again, but it was skillfully deflected, causing his eye to twitch.

“Eh? You aren’t referring to yourself in the third person anymore?” Laura asked, but she received no reply. The blonde man was intensely focused on landing a killing blow on her, but each time he got close, Laura either dodged it or reflected it with ease.

Seeing that Bonehead wasn’t going to be able to break through her guard anytime soon, she decided to try something new.

“Let’s see how this magic thing works. Okay, here goes! Spirits of the wind! Heed my request!”

His eyes twitched once more when he realized what she was doing. Casting a spell while defending against his attacks! The nerve of this girl!

With a battle cry, he increased the speed of his attacks, going for speed over power, but Laura quite easily matched it. It only made him lose stamina faster than before, and throughout this entire time, Laura was still chanting.

“—Blast my foes all away! Squall!”

Like a sonic boom, a strong gust of wind blew and sent both Clown and Bonehead spiraling away, falling unconscious as they both landed on their heads against the tree. After witnessing that, Laura looked at her own hands in surprise.

“So that was magic… Hmm?”

Laura stared into the empty space beside her.

“Level up? Stat points? What is this? A video game?” she paused for a while, “Okay then… I’ll deal with it later.”

After making sure that the two men were fully unconscious, she first found some cuffs inside Clown’s pocket and then cuffed them together. Those were anti-magic cuffs, or so she was told, which meant that she didn’t have to worry about them attacking her anymore.

The next thing she did was to wake up the little girl she saved. Upon closer inspection, she discovered that the girl had a slight green tinge to her skin, and was apparently a nymph! Or so she was told…

“Wow… this truly is a fantasy world…” Laura wondered aloud to herself.

She stood there for a moment, staring into space. She was completely lost on where to start. Although there was a mission assigned to her that she needed to do, she had no idea how to go about it.

‘Guess I’ll have to first ask for directions…'

And so she gently shook the nymph awake. Rubbing her eyes and groaning in pain, the nymph squinted at her, clearly still befuddled.

“Hey, you! Are you okay?”

“H-hmm? Ah, thank you for saving me… I-I’m okay…”

Laura smiled in relief and proceeded to ask her question.

“So… Do you know where this ‘Solus Academy’ is?”