Eris's POV

Leonora Monique Paulette Rosseue Claude Claude Croiss, it took me a little work but finally I have discovered in full the life of that girl, which only generated me many more questions.

She was born as the only legitimate daughter of the Croiss, they used to top my list of the worst regents, until a few years ago inexplicably their territory became the envy of the whole Kingdom, I always wondered what had happened, but I never gave much importance to investigate thoroughly, but now I know the truth.

After researching and questioning former workers of the Croiss mansion, I have come to discover surprising things.

Leonora learned to speak since she was one year old, something quite surprising for a child, but what is truly amazing is that at the age of two she was running the territory from the shadows and was responsible for its success.

Recently, taking advantage of my son's visits to Leonora's mansion, I took a mana detector with me, I was very relieved to discover that her mana was so low that the detector didn't even move, if she has achieved so much without magic I don't even want to think what she would be capable of if she had it.

Any way you slice it, I who thought I had seen it all during my youth wandering the world, can't help but be amazed at every single thing I found out about that girl.

----------------------

I'm Eris, just Eris, the titles are annoying so I never used them, I am the mother of 3 wonderful children of whom I am extremely proud, they are my greatest treasure and I don't know what would become of me if I were to lose them, plus I'm the wife of Marquis Johansen, but back to talking about my children, they are wonderful and so adorable, I have a room full of all the little games and little clothes that my little ones have worn over the years and I usually spend hours waxing on remembering.... I think I'm getting away from it.

A few years ago, during the celebration of the 61st birthday of His Highness, the youngest of the three was kidnapped, I must admit that I slightly lost my composure, and swept with every criminal group I found, hoping to find the one who took my little one, but my other little ones found me and informed me that he was found in Quarel, and a certain Count Lazaruz had rescued him while rescuing his own son, despite how anxious I was, they convinced me to travel together to Quarel to go to look for Johan.

Already arriving at the mansion, I could not contain myself and ran to see my little one, but a servant intercepted me, and almost managed to stop me, not many people are able to stop me when it comes to my little ones, but she almost did, in perspective that was my first warning sign.

After meeting again with my little one, I wanted to thank the count personally, but I found it quite strange that he forced his daughter to dress like a child and I wanted to check what kind of person he was, that's when my little one confirmed me that actually his rescue was thanks to his son and that the count arrived later, I again could not contain my euphoria, I wanted to thank that little girl and ask her why she was dressed like a boy, but that maid stopped me, she stopped me... I say it a third time to emphasize that, she stopped me!

It was then that I noticed that something must be terribly wrong when I saw the eyes of that little girl, those cold eyes of someone who has lost the fear of death, I have seen those eyes before, but I never thought I would see them in a girl who should not be more than 6 years old, those eyes, few things in the world have managed to scare me, but those eyes left me frozen.

When I returned home, I dedicated myself completely to look for everything I could about Count Lazaruz, but I was not able to find anything that was not in the public domain, I only found information about his fortune, his inventions, his origin but nothing else, the more dead ends I found, the idea that there was no count and everything was the work of that girl grew more and more.

In our second meeting, I was completely defeated, I thought I would have her cornered after exposing what I had discovered, but she was not only completely calm, but it also seemed that she was waiting for me.

As I walked home, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of life that poor girl had had to end up like that.

My little Johan wanted to continue to meet her, I had obtained her promise that she wouldn't involve him in anything, and that also gave me an excuse to continue having occasional visits, so I allowed it while I continued to investigate.

Discovering that she was the witch, was more surprising than I thought, I knew the previous witch, I regretted every time I remember the poor Kiara and how they destroyed her life, I swore that if I knew the next witch, I would take care of protecting her from the world, but who should I protect? her or the world?

As I followed step by step her years at the Croiss mansion, I got to know a happy couple of bakers who tell sweetly how a little girl helped them end up together, in a small town, I saw a memorial built for a former butler of the Croiss house, and as I found out from a coachman, Leonora went to take care of him in his final hours.

Again I didn't know what to think, I investigated it expecting to find a monster, the personification of the hatred and resentment that the original witch had accumulated over the centuries, but I only found a girl, another victim of the curse of the witch's mark, or at least I thought so until I found out that she massacred the inquisitorial squad that had gone after her.

I think at least I am able to understand that about her, she is extremely kind to people who reach out to her, but she is ruthless with her enemies.

That gave me hope, if she is like that, that means she is not really bad, she must just be confused, she must be mowed down by her hatred of a world that wants her dead, and I want to help her, I owe it to Kiara.

Over the next few years I watched her, not only she created wonders beyond my comprehension, but also show pinpoint precision in carrying out her plans, I slightly messed up a couple to see what she was going to do, and was surprised to see her frozen and unable to act, being more concerned with what had gone wrong, rather than what to do next, it made me laugh, she seems to be a child after all.

I wanted to keep getting closer to her, to get to know her, to understand her, she was not at all the monster I thought at first, once I thought she would look adorable asleep and I wanted to sneak into her house to see her, but that woman stopped me.

That woman, a mystery almost as big as Leonora herself, no matter how hard I look I can't find anything, no family, no titles, no past, she is only Irma, I am only Eris, so I can get an idea of the kind of life she must have had.

For a long time I thought I was the last living user of time magic, but it was a surprise to discover that in the end I was not alone and that woman was a user too.

That woman... Irma, our little games are just the tip of the iceberg, I am sure she is capable of more things than I can imagine, the only thing I have been able to verify about her, is her absolute loyalty to Leonora, not even the people of the mansion know where she came from, one day she just arrived at the mansion and Leonora made her the head maid, I am sure those two must have a story that I am not able to imagine, but another thing I can confirm about her, is that if once I try to do something against Leonora, she will defend her and I don't want to face her, there was a time when I wouldn't have cared, but now I am a mother and I don't want to leave my little ones, besides Leonora herself is not defenseless, if they threaten her she will defend herself tooth and nail, before two such formidable opponents I am at a clear disadvantage.

The more I observed her, the more and more mysteries I discovered, once almost by accident I checked the skills of the man I had brought to teach her to use the sword, at first I thought he was some kind of buffoon that Leonora kept close because he thought it was funny, but that man Luztukru, is also an extraordinary case.

Investigating him was easier, but what I discovered was no less surprising, after much research I discovered a long list of towns, villages and even small nations, which were plagued by monsters and were saved by a mysterious figure, well actually a man with the appearance of a clown attributed the achievements, but no one believed him.

After questioning the man and asking him where he had met Leonora, the only thing I managed to get out of him was "I met her in another life."

One would expect that being trained by someone like that Leonora would improve at a great speed, but it was much worse, observing her I could notice that she had nothing to learn, it is as if she already knew, but she was very rusty and will need a partner to get back in shape.

Day by day, Leonora gets stronger, closing the gap between us, at this rate before I know it I will only be a minor annoyance that she can get rid of whenever she wants, for my part I don't know how to do it.

I strongly believe that Leonora is not really bad, but her hatred blinds her and makes her a danger, but in the face of all this I have found a little hope.

I have found another little girl quite peculiar, if I didn't know Leonora this girl would be awesome but she falls short when compared to Leonora.

This girl Celes, the legitimate daughter of the arch duke of Kinner, was raised as a commoner by her mother but when her mother became ill, she sent a letter to the girl's father to take over, and the duke accepted her without problems, this girl, not only has a ridiculous amount of mana and the most potential I have ever seen, but she also has a charisma and a kindness like I have never seen before.

I want to bring them both together and see what happens, maybe I can't save Leonora, but maybe this strange girl will be able to do it.

Anyway, Leonora is the most mysterious person I have ever met, I don't know where she gets her inventions from, where she gets her allies from, or where she gets her determination from and I have no idea what she is planning, but what I do know, that poor girl needs me and I want to save her from herself.

~~I sincerely hope that this time you can save Leonora.~~