Chapter III

The next time that she woke up, her mother is still beside her.

"Airla...? Are you alright? Are you feeling well?! The doctor said that your body was suddenly overcame with so much magic! It must feel so awful to you!" Her mother, frantic with worry about her, looked like she had not slept or left her side at all. She's seen children whose body was overdriven by the sudden unlocking of their magic before, and she knows that it must have been between a week or a month.

'This lady really loves her daughter... and unfortunately, I am not she.' But, though she is not their precious daughter, she promise that she will be as loving as she is to them and reflect her true nature.

Speaking of true nature... when she was sent into an overdrive because of the sudden influx of magic, the Goddess have given her information and the memories of the late Lady Airla and what have happened to her. She is not pretending to be sick like what the doctor have said, she really is sick.

Looking back at her memories, she was villainized because the royal family have grown so fond of her, and other nobles have tried to destroy her reputation to keep them away from her. It didn't work much but... the seed of doubt has been planted on the first and third prince. The second prince and the king and queen, on the other hand, have caught on what is happening to Airla.

But... they could not do anything but send them a warning. They have no solid evidence of what they are doing, and honestly, the king and queen have too much problem on their hand to even start an actual investigation.

'Speaking of problems... that bastard king really makes my blood boil. Who is he to threaten war to other kingdoms?!' With the use of her spells, rituals, and other things that she have made and discovered, he is now threatening war to all other kingdoms.

Thankfully, all of the other powerful and professionally trained magicians that they have are now out of his hold. It is hard to master all of the things that she have done, and the possibility of it firing back to them is rather high.

'He's going to lose all of his magicians before he could even think of using any of those.' She thought with a smirk.

Which she shouldn't have done since her mother, or rather Airla's mother, is beside her.

"Ah! You must have been feeling quite good now. I have never seen you smile like this before." Her mother said, reaching out to pat her head. She leaned into the touch, never really feeling anything like this before since her mother died giving birth to her, and her father left her on the orphanage.

She never knew the loving care and touch of a parent...

'Thank you, Goddess.' She thought, knowing that the Goddess would hear her. She heard a slight tinkling of the bell, and a quiet giggle.

'You're welcome.'

"Oh Airla, at last your wish has been answered. You now have magic, and because of that, your body is not as weak as before." Ah, on that matter...

The original Airla has been, unfortunately, born without magic. It was a one in a million case that could be life-ending for any person. Magic has been working hand-in-hand with the body to protect people from diseases and sickness. Even the poorest of the poor is born with the slightest of magic, because the body only needs even just a sliver of it to protect the person.

But... poor Airla was born with none. The Goddess told her that it was a mistake on her part, she has forgotten to bestow Airla with magic.

'I wonder... where is her soul right now?' She hoped that this time, her soul will be given the magic that she was denied to.

"Because of this, your father and I have decided to throw you a special party. An announcement that you have now gotten your magic from the Goddess." Oh, a party... yay. She doesn't bode well with parties, she has had enough of sniveling businessmen and noble ladies that is trying to convince her to train their children.

And this time, she is not looking forward to the judgmental stares and gossips that she is going to face. Really, destroying a child's future just because of selfish reasons, she abhor that.

'I'm going to make them pay.' Poor, poor, Airla. She especially hated Jilliana, which according to the information given by the Goddess, is the favored young lady of the court and the rest of the nobles. She is a sweetheart actually, with her big blue eyes, and her golden blonde hair.

"Mother... when will this be happening?" She doesn't want to face people unprepared. She is going to train this body to be one with her soul.

The comeback of the great Ethereal Mage.

"Since you are still recovering, we have decided to do it exactly one month from now." Score! She can do that, she already know all the drills and such (thank you Fernando), the only thing that she needs to watch is her body.

"Thank you for the consideration mother, but I am fine now. Actually, I can run around now if I want to." which is not a lie since she does feel energized and quite ready for anything. But the look from her mother says something else.

"I prefer if you rest for today... You can do whatever you want tomorrow, but today? I don't think so." Understandable. She can rest for today.

"Yes, mother." Her mother smiled, standing up and moving forward to kiss her on her forehead.

"Have a good rest. Your father will be visiting you later when he gets home." She left after that, muttering about handling the estate and such.

Ah, to be a noble.

Now... to note everything that she knows about Airla.

Looking around, she saw on her desk a notebook and a pen, which she needed right now. Using her magic, she summoned the two to her lap, which shows that she still has full control of magic. What she really needs right now is to train her body.

'Now Airla is seen as a villain...' A bratty and snotty daughter of a duke, she was made out to be a vile girl. At the age of ten, she was accused of pushing Jilliana towards a thorny bush. Jilliana cried and pointed at her, saying that she isn't doing anything wrong to her when in reality, she was the one antagonizing the poor Airla.

'I fucking hate this girl.' All of her worst memories, and the most reason as to why she was branded as a villain is because of this girl.

Airla, on the other hand, was trying to dispel the rumors about her, often going out to the common people to donate, or even just do anything to make up for her almost villainous reputation. Of course, this was a stupid decision on her part since the common people's opinions are nothing to the nobility.

'You poor girl... I promise you that they are going to regret everything that they've done to you.' Spreading rumors about her, antagonizing her on purpose so that she would retaliate, her so-called friends even pushed her to do something to Jilliana so that they would appear good and innocent while she would turn out as the mastermind on their plans.

In other words...

"I am going to make them eat dirt." She is different from Airla, she has all the resources that she needs to reveal the truth about the precious lady that the people are worshipping her to be. Behind her blue doe eyes is a sign of a true villain in the making.

"Not to mention the third prince..." The third prince, who was her supposed fiancé, have been recently listening to the rumors. She was thankful that at least she has the second prince but... the poor prince was seen as her 'puppy' when he is far from that.

"I am going to force them to break our engagement up. I don't want to marry a small-minded guy like him." All looks, no use of the brain.

And the only way to do that...

"I need someone who will agree to marry me."