[5]

The Kingdom of Angelise is in the Southeastern continent among the other four major continents. The Kingdom of Angelise consists of large islands and small islands separated by vast ocean straits. And one of the largest islands in the Southeastern continent is the location of the government of the Angelise kingdom, one of which is the palace and capital of Angelise. Even so, there are areas on the big island that have a small population, or even not touched at all.

Far from the bustling outskirts of the capital, there are villages scattered among the vast forests. One of them is not too far from the border of the Southeastern kingdom with the Southern kingdom. The tall fortress blocking the interconnected plains had small towns and villages standing there. The territory was administered by a Count under direct royal control. The conditions there can be said to look good but also not for the area near the coast, to be precise in the swamp forest which is quite extensive located there.

The existence of strange monsters was indeed rare in this world, but the existence of wild beasts was another story. There are many species of beasts scattered across continents and oceans. Not a few terror attacks wild animals hit small villages or even big cities. The government has indeed tried to suppress all these things well. But as time went on, the beasts seemed to learn to change their strategy every year.

In one of the villages, there is an orphanage with a big enough name near the swamp forest. La Delcas, the trading center of the Delcas tribe, founded an orphanage named Delfanto in the middle of the village. Delfanto was founded with the aim of minimizing the level of neglected children which is quite common in cities and villages around the orphanage. The establishment of the large orphanage was authorized by the kingdom 42 years ago, by the previous king and queen to be precise. You could say this place has been around for a long time.

Bearing a very good name there, not a few nobles or commoners visited that place. Either to adopt a child, looking for a servant or also a soldier. And not a few explorer traders who take children from orphanages to be slave workers. No one cared about what they would become in the future because while they were there, they would not have any family titles. They are only said to be in the category of unregistered people until a family comes to them and finally gets the surname of that family. Because most of them are people who were abandoned by their own families.

Its location in a dangerous area, which is the territory of wild animals, has resulted in many bloody cases being recorded every year regarding the Delfanto orphanage. Sometimes the number of orphanage children will decrease dramatically when the security on the coast is broken. There are several seasons that can anticipate their arrival, but sometimes the beasts just get smarter than ever. The kings and queens of the past built forts to protect the place, it's just that sometimes there are unusual cases that occur there.

Sometimes what appears on the outside can be very different from what is on the inside.

"Wake up if you are serious about getting strong."

I looked at someone who was sitting listlessly, holding a wooden handle trembling. I decided to train myself a bit and also train someone who would work for me in the future. My current body isn't as strong as an adult when wielding a sword, but a child's body is agile enough to make up for that shortcoming. I saw that gap while trying to fight the boy in front of me.

The boy tried to get up and attack me back. To be honest in my opinion, his moves are pretty good if he's included among people who have never wielded a sword. Whether it was the survival instinct he had awakened long ago or something, he was strong enough to go head-to-head with a novice swordsman.

"By the way, I want to know. You really don't know who I am?"

I asked while parrying all of the boy's attacks. When he chose to step back, I rushed back at him and attacked him. The boy's arms crossed meant to block my wooden sword.

"Your hand will be chopped off if this is a real sword! Bad parry!" I shouted.

I kicked the boy in the stomach to back away. If someone says I'm being too rough on this boy, I'd say there's a misunderstanding here. The first time I threw the wooden sword I was carrying at him, the boy just didn't move to look at me. But when I told him to look at me by imagining the person he hates, he turned to attack me blindly. I'd say I was a bit overwhelmed by his perfunctory sharp sword moves.

"What? That's all?" I asked coldly.

"I.. won't be able to focus if you talk to me.." said the boy slowly.

From the beginning I was a little curious because the boy called me 'miss'. Previously I suspected that he knew that I was part of the royal family for sending his alack to the palace.

"So you don't know who I am?" I asked once again attacking him.

"No, miss.."

The kid is now parrying my sword with his sword. I smiled faintly as he shifted the blade to interrupt my sword movement. Little by little the boy seemed to be learning and following the few attacks I pointed at him. He ran away by spinning around me. And with a swift motion slashed his sword, aiming it at my head.

"When you spin around like that, your opponent will have time to rest, idiot."

Raising my sword to the face, the boy's attack was parried. But his left hand forms a fist aimed at my face. The surprise attack can indeed deceive the opponent, but who is the opponent you face first.

"Good plan. But you're still too slow."

I slashed my left hand hitting the boy's waist hard. And of course that made the boy raise both hands intending to give up this fight.

"I give up.."

"Tch while it's fun," I replied, sighing annoyed.

"You are too strong for me."

"Of course because I will make you strong."

The boy chuckled softly, still holding the waist that I attacked earlier. I looked back and found Lily who was sitting looking up at the tree. On the branch of the tree was a red alack that was flapping its wings as if it was communicating with Lily. I'm sure Lily understood what the bird was talking about and it just made me shake my head in astonishment.

"How about your visit?" I asked.

"Nothing has changed there.. still as scary as before.."

"It's really scary or are you really scared?"

The boy chose to remain silent and looked down.

"Raise your eyes and meet your interlocutor. You haven't forgotten that, have you, Carl?"

Carl looked away briefly before looking back at me with his resigned gaze. His long white hair shifted slightly so I could see his eyes. Dark red eyes almost close to black seemed to stare at me intently even with her innocent face. For a few seconds it gave me a little goosebumps.

"I think you should cut your hair son, or at least put it in a ponytail. You look like a ghost," I said while taking out a rubber rope.

"Ah I'm fine with this," said Carl.

"Other people who are not fine look at it, it's scary."

I walked behind the boy's back and started tying the elastic in his hair. If I'm being honest, her hair feels thin and light. It's just that it feels disheveled and dirty because a moment ago this kid had rolled on the ground because he fell or was hit by my attack.

"Next time, come to the hairdresser's in the capital," I said after I finished tying the boy's hair.

"You know you get paid for your mission," I continued.

"..alright."

"So what did you find there?" I asked again.

"According to your order, I tried to disguise myself by covering my hair and face when I came there. Everything happened safely like the usual days when I was there. There are new orphanage kids that I see more and more. Some of them are in very good condition but some are not. there's even been a few orphanage caretakers replaced, I think."

"You used to that incident?"

"Sure. I lived there for five years so I am quite familiar with their activities."

"How long were you working with people that night?" "..I think two years."

If I reckon from what I'm hearing right now, I think Carl was thrown into an orphanage when he was five years old. And he was taken to be a slave on his tenth birthday. Two years ago, a year after the attempted assassination attack on the palace.

"For several days I contemplated myself around there, I decided to make a floor plan of the area around the orphanage and also the layout of the orphanage's rooms that I at least remember," Carl said as he took out two crumpled papers and gave them to me.

"There are several question marks in several rooms of the orphanage. It was a room that was always locked during my stay there," he continued.

"Are you sure these are the rooms inside and outside the orphanage?" I asked.

"I think there must be something missing from what I know."

I studied the two crumpled papers. The description is quite neat and detailed, it makes it a little easier for me to estimate some of the accesses that can be entered if one day you need it.

"You are talented in drawing huh?" I asked while chuckling.

"Just think of it as my hobby."

"Then, why did you feel before that something would be missed? What made you say that?"

"Because I also feel that there is something with the orphanage."

"Also feel? I don't feel it, who else feels that way besides you?"

"That.. my brother.." Carl said softly.

"Older brother? You have an older brother?"

"Not a biological brother, he is my senior brother at the orphanage."

"Is he still in the orphanage?"

Carl was silent and chose to look away. I think I kinda understand why he was acting like that to me. I let out a breath for a moment and picked up the two swords lying on the ground.

"..they..they killed..him.."

Hiss with a heavy intonation that signaled anger made me look back at the boy in front of me. His shoulders seemed to shake with his hands tightly clenched at his sides. It's someone's grudge. Even now I can see his magic aura moving erratically because of his anger.

Lily who felt it also ran and jumped in front of me and took a guard position, intending to protect me. I restrained Lily while pressing my magic aura to dominate the air around us. And that way managed to make Carl surprised and looked down, looking like he was scared.

"You know that's bad, right?" I asked curtly.

"..Sorry."

I let out a tired sigh and neutralized my aura pressure again. It could be dangerous if it summoned a beast that basically liked the magic aura of its quarry.

"There will be times when you fight, there will be times when you give in. Your current position is to give in, be strong until you can fight him."

"Fine, understood."

I nodded and released the magical air in my hand, taking out a pouch containing five gold coins, ten silver coins, and one hundred bronze coins.

"Alright, I received this paper. And here's your salary," I said as I handed Carl the coin purse and one of the wooden swords.

Carl nodded obediently and accepted the money. He peeked into the bag and seemed surprised by how many coins there were. It might not seem like much, but in this world, three gold coins could buy a medium-sized house in an expensive capital. One gold coin is worth a thousand silver coins, and one silver coin is worth a thousand bronze coins. Even an imperial soldier was paid five silver coins every month.

"..this, isn't it too much?" Carl asked confused.

"Why? How much is your salary usually?"

"Mm.. that.. a hundred coppers-"

"What?!"

It quite surprised me. Such a tough job that I saw in the narrow alley only paid for a hundred copper coins. Copper is the smallest currency under bronze. One bronze is worth a thousand coppers. The price of bread in the capital alone was five hundred coppers, and he only earned one hundred coppers.

"Where do you eat from?" I asked trying to neutralize my surprise.

"They give some food every day. Even if it's only twice, at least it's better than being stranded outside…" he explained.

"Then don't you feel better at the orphanage?"

"Yeah sometimes I feel that way.. but I don't think it's much different."

"Why?"

"If in the orphanage I work without pay and don't see the outside world, then I become a slave to earn my salary by seeing the outside world."

"But don't you feel tormented?"

"That's right, I always make the thought that it's my fee to be able to breathe fresh air."

It's sad…

Carl told me all that with a bitter smile. Even so, I can see there is a certain satisfaction from his blank stare when he thinks about the plot of his life. Therefore I chose to remain silent and thought about changing the subject.

"Mm, Miss.. I think this is too much.." said Carl.

"No. I have a second mission for you," I said while looking back at Carl.

"Find a guardian, then buy a house with a large field in the capital. That will be your next training ground. You have to be careful when looking for a guardian, don't be easily fooled because your coins could be stolen," I explained.

"Guardians.. where should I find him?"

"Be social in the capital, find friends or anyone who can be your partner."

"I will try it."

I nodded with Lily who had started pushing her head into my arms. Since earlier Lily had started bothering me a bit because she asked me to immediately return to the palace. He didn't speak directly, but we had the conversation with inner telepathy. I stroked the wolf's head to ask him to wait a little longer.

"I think that's all for today's meeting. Good job," I said as I pulled back the hood of my robe.

"Understandable. Thank you very much, miss."

"Oh yes, before leaving I have a question that you haven't answered yet."

"What's that?"

"Is it true you don't recognize who I am?"

"To be honest no.. I just assumed you were a young lady living in the capital.."

"Then how did you manage to send your alack right where I am?"

"When it comes to that, Poo can indeed follow the scent that someone leaves behind. At that time I just asked Poo to follow the scent of the clothes you gave me, and I think Poo can find your residence. Sorry if that looks presumptuous.." Carl explained a little scared.

Is that so? A bird that can track someone's whereabouts by smell alone.. that sounds like a bloodhound, doesn't it?

"I just found out about it. I've never even seen an alack bird that big," I said honestly.

"I found it when I just came to the orphanage. He has been a friend who accompanies me since then, "said Carl.

"Okay, I understand. New knowledge for me, thank you," I replied with a thin smile.

"I should be thanking you, miss."

I said goodbye to Carl and left him to return to the palace with Lily. I let him not know who Valencia really is because I have a feeling that eventually one day he will find out on his own. So I don't have to bother explaining it. Before actually entering the castle grounds, I asked Lily to turn around for a bit above the capital's beautiful sky. To enjoy for a while the cool but soothing night breeze, with the sparkling starlight accompanying the dark night.

✼⊷♛⊶✼

It's been a month with the peace that accompanies this year's summer. Now it's time to enter autumn for the next two months. The things that used to happen kept happening and there were also some new things that happened. A month ago was when I started to enter the kingdom studies. Maybe if in my world I would say it's the first semester of school. In my opinion, the activity was very, very boring because Aldrich and Freya brought a special teacher to the palace, only to teach me alone. Even so, from there I can find out many things about this world deeper.

Three weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised by Carl when I saw him again. The boy had indeed managed to rent a modest house in the center of the capital. All the criteria I asked him to fulfill well, he even said if it was his guardian's recommendation. It's just that, who would have thought that the child's guardian to buy the house was Kris, the palace butler. Carl told me that he accidentally met Kris when the old man visited a clothing store, which happened to be that at that time Kris was monitoring the distribution of clothes in one of the shops.

Looking back, it was pretty ridiculous to me when Kris called me princess in front of Carl. I still remember clearly enough his petrified surprised expression that makes me laugh when I remember it.

Then for three weeks in between history and manners lessons, I visited Carl's house to teach him some sword techniques. I intended to hire someone to train the boy when I couldn't, but Kris offered to visit there often too and train Carl. He just said that he always wanted to have a disciple. To be honest even now I don't know how that old man became skilled in martial arts and an aura user. Me and the old man are already like a grandson and a grandfather keeping a secret. Even though I don't know his secret, he understands to keep my secret.

Since the royal studies have started, I've been visiting the great library in the palace more and more often. It was the second most amazing place besides the sword training grounds. Tall bookcases with various books arranged according to their respective themes and volumes. I quite like this place because besides being quiet, the library is a repository of stories from various places and perceptions. In my world, the library is a highly respected place with heavy guard. Because indeed without that place, we will not find any information.

In one of the books I found in this library, and I think it's quite interesting. This world is thick with magic aura as well as rare artifacts. And also various kinds of gemstones with unique magic powers that come from nature. Previously, I had a stone that I took from a narrow alley at that time. My system circle had indeed named it the Fallen Star Stone, and the book I found was titled 'The Great Gem in Find III' in roman numerals, it had the same stone name. I guess the system worked fine then.

The book has a more detailed explanation of the stone's uses. Like stones that come from underground mining that is done on a small island east of the Angelise kingdom. They do use this stone apart from being jewelry and magic artifacts, they can make it into health potions. It's just that this very rare stone makes a very high sale value anywhere, whether domestically or abroad. Apart from that information, there was one piece of information that was not found in the book. Namely its use in unsealing magic.

The current existence of my soul and Ruu is indeed sealed somewhere I don't know where it is. But the fact that my enemy also sealed most of Lily's power is the story I'm currently stumped on. So if I conclude my system is trying to rearrange the information thinking that the yellow stone can break the seal on Lily.

"I'm not sure this is going to work..what do you think Lily?"

I'm currently in my room with Lily sitting right in front of me. I've also brought a few books from the library including the dark blue book called The Great Gem in Find III along with other books. Instead of me having to point out Lily's whereabouts in the library where the windows can't be opened, I'd rather do it in my room in case someone will come looking for me.

I tried to observe the Fallen Star Stone in front of me carefully. And a moment later a system chime rang out, bringing out a spiraling circle beneath the rock with a transparent white screen above the rock. The words on the screen were still the same as before, still with a question mark that seemed to be mocking me.

"Are there no other details that you know?"

The system chime appeared several times as several other white screens spun in front of me. And what I saw right now were lots of random letters with question marks filling up the screen. Even on one of the screens it looked like the system's numbers were calculating something endless. I sighed in resignation when one of them wrote that this system was synchronizing with the new world.

"Does it take ten years to sync huh?"

The translucent white screen began to rotate again and then disappeared quickly, and a screen clink that was quite difficult to understand appeared.

[ Kjsdiqwd??"d 867862-Br34k 7h3-s70n3s=44d sc4773r>7h3m?? ]

"Hah? What do you mean?"

[ ??? ]

I know that the system can hear me clearly, but popping up random letters and numbers won't make anyone understand. Even now it was showing me a question mark as if it was also confused by the results it was showing me.

[ Repeat loading.. ]

"Well.. you know that I spent a lot of my magic aura and my time on you, system?"

[ Loading Complete! ]

[ ??????????–break the stones and scatter them ]

Finally, after waiting a few minutes a readable message appeared.

"You sure that's the way?"

[ !!! ]

[ ????????????????????--- ]

"Alright, alright pause the system! Gosh.." I said shocked.

The system clink that appeared excitedly earlier started spinning again and disappeared from my sight. I sighed tiredly because of the behavior of the system which is still trying to justify its own settings. It would probably still take some more time until he could function properly. Usually when arriving in a new world, the system only takes a few minutes to synchronize. But I didn't know that it would be that bad if my soul separated from my original body.

"Then there will be a way if it is necessary to destroy and spread it."

I take out wind magic aura by shaping it into a sharp blade. I used the swirling wind current to injure one of my fingers. Then I dripped Valencia's blood flowing onto the yellow stone in front of me. I honestly wasn't sure if this would work or not since it didn't use my blood. But immediately after that the drops of blood spread in the air by circling me and Lily. The wheel spiraled downwards and a magic circle spun below us.

"Haha, I didn't think this would work.."

This is sacrificial magic. I sacrificed the stone at the cost of a drop of Valencia's blood to open the sacrificial magic circle. Anything related to magic and objects except living things can be used this way. It didn't require a lot of magic aura, but it still left a ten year old girl's body with a large amount of magic aura if performed too often.

A smaller magic circle appeared between me and Lily who was sitting across from each other. The moment I said 'open', the fallen star rock started to crack and the dust grains from the shards swirled around Lily gently but quickly. Looking like the wind was swirling, smoke started billowing there and covered Lily's body.

I waved my hand to get rid of the smoke in front of me. The magic circle surrounding me and Lily started to fade and disappear. Lily flapped her wings several times to help me dispel the smoke that filled my room. And now I can see Lily whose body size is slightly bigger than before.

"Wow! Look at this Lily! We did it!!"

I'm quite happy and satisfied with what I see. Lily approached me and I hugged the wolf while ruffling Lily's hair which was starting to grow thick on her head. But it wasn't only her size that had increased, I felt a lump begin to form on Lily's head. It looked like little horns were starting to grow between his ears.

"Slowly you will be more and more like your original form, Lily,"

I said proudly. Lily seemed to snort and stuck out her tongue at me. It was a cute look and I started to play a little prank on the white wolf. I guess right now if Lily stood up, she would be about the same height as a 15 year old teenager. Yes he is twice the height of Valencia at this point. And as long as the seals continued to open, Lily's size and shape would change to her original form.

✼⊷♛⊶✼