"Happy birthday!"
Maria looked at the beaming faces just in front of her.
In the blink of an eye, 5 years had passed. Today was exactly May 5th, the memorial of the day she was born into this world.
"Quick! Blow the candles and make a wish!" The voice of the rudely red-haired boy mixed with his father's and her mother also nodded her on.
She took her eyes off the group and looked at the towering cake. A marvel of workmanship; having four layers of white frosting, and a final helm topped off with strawberries. Finally, was the five candles that stood erect at the top with their flames wavering in the air.
Maria smiled and brought her face closer, taking a deep breath, then exhaled.
As the flames flickered before fading she said her wish.
'I wish for our happiness.'
***
The girl walked through the well-kept halls of the castle as her feet shuffled across the blue rug that spanned the length. Her peach-colored hair cascaded down her back and reached just above her hips and her attire of a simple but well decorated white dress of flowers served to aid in her beauty. All in all, if anyone was to catch her figure, they would surely think she had received a blessing of sorts from the heavens themselves.
From the time she had entered into this world and to this point felt nothing short of, well-short.
However, without her knowledge, the world had already revolved around the sun for a total of thirteen times. Thirteen years had elapsed since her arrival.
That amount of time was neither short nor long, yet it left much to be desired.
All this time, there had been a calling from within the depts, she didn't really know when it started. Maybe it was when she saw the training of the royal knights? Or maybe it was when she saw her father's prized sword?
Yes, she wanted to train in the arts of swordsmanship.
Maria had just returned from having a talk with her parents for that sole purpose. She figured, since she had turned thirteen a week ago, it was about time to finally push to rest the calling that came from deep within her soul.
However, not surprising in the least, a princess couldn't do such crude things.
"How can I let my cute daughter do such boyish things!? If you need to beat someone up, just call your dear father! I'll pounce on whoever made you angry or sad!" The man had roared and her mother had smacked him behind his head.
'Sadly, it looks like I won't be able to pick up swords anytime soon.' She thought as she continued in unhurried steps.
However, although she could not wield a sword at this time, there was something Maria was more than allowed to partake in. This was not only a world of swords after all; there was still the form of power known as magic.
Right now, she was headed towards the library to find the person who would teach her how to wield magic.
Located at the recreational side of the castle innards, the library was only a short walk from her parent's office. Well, in terms of her physical quality of A rank. If any other person had tried to walk that length in a short amount of time, it wouldn't be at all possible and they would have surely started to complain.
Soon, she reached the doors of copper brown at her right and pushed it open. And, as she entered, she met the gaze of a person who lifted his sights from the book within his hand.
"Still trying to learn swordsmanship again?" He smirked as he placed his book down and began to walk in her direction.
Maria's crimson eyes faintly turned a trace of gold as she smiled at the boy before her.
[Name: Arthur Springfield
Strength: C+
Speed: C+
Mana: A+
Skills: Instant Cast (U)
Overall: A-]
She reached over with her right hand as she ruffled his red hair before saying in a teasing voice "Still shorter than me?"
She had once heard that girls matured faster than boys. Not knowing if it was true or not, she had always remained skeptical. However, looking at this older brother of her's, she was beginning to waver in her thinking.
"Men have a later growth period than women." Arthur waved her away as he retorted.
Maria smiled at his antics before removing her hand, then she asked her question in a straightforward manner.
"I need you to teach me magic."
Indeed, within this castle, this brother of her's was the only person she would find to teach her magic.
Her father, the muscle head, knew naught of the first step of such a system of power.
"What's the need of magic?" He would say proudly with his bearded chin raised high "If you need someone beaten up, just use your fists!!"
Her mother was the opposite, she didn't study magic because she wasn't willing but because she lacked the talent for it. In fact, she wasn't born with talent in any particular area so she found no need to develop towards magic specifically.
"Please, I don't know how to wield magic" She would retort "I'm just a *cough* youthful *cough* maiden."
Sure, one might think, why don't you just hire a magic tutor from the Mage Guild?
However...
"That blockhead doesn't know what's right from wrong! You would think my long-time rival would show some appreciation!" Her father sneered.
Yup, Maria's blockheaded father seemed to have made enemies with the leader of the Mage Guild and is banned in hiring mages for personal reasons.
She couldn't understand the full story, but it seemed her father and the master of the mage guild were longtime rivals since birth. One was born a prince with inherent physical prowess, while the other was born a duke's second son with inherent magic prowess. One grew up to take the throne as king and the other grew powerful enough to found an organization within the kingdom.
Ever since they were small children, they had been butting heads left and right.
All in all, the thought of hiring a mage to train her was out of the question.
And, in the end, the last option was Arthur.
Although he was only 15 years of age, he was more than qualified, being crowned a genius in magic arts.
Not only was he a member of the mage guild himself, which is quite an ironic situation, he also held the unique grade skill known as
To recognize why that was so, one would have to fully understand the value of a skill such as
In this world, mana was an energy each person had at various quantities. There were officially two ways it could be utilized and given a physical presence within the world, the first was through magic circles and the next was using it to cast magic.
Magic was an action of taking mana and giving it a shape or command. However, this could only be fully achieved through the use and chanting of scriptures of magic. Some could take only a single second to finish and others could take minutes to chant, basically dependent on the speed a person can perform all required components prior and their speed of chant.
However, if one could forgo the need to chant, then that person would have an obvious advantage in learning and applying magic. Imagine being able to cast magic with nothing but an image within your head, in the end, you would basically be able to beat any mage on the same level at you who couldn't do the same. And there were an extremely small amount of mages who could do so, mages who held the skill
"First was swords, now magic?" Arthur raised his brows.
"Yes." Maria stated plainly.
"Fine," he seemed to sigh "come with me."