A month passed in a blink of an eye, and I finally turned 5 years old. We had a small feast for the whole Duchy and its servants, the Willoughby family remains very private, and this tradition is passed down from generation to generation to avoid any conflicts and rumors that might damage the family name
That is the reason why they do not invite any visitors and rarely attends celebrations held by nobles except if it's an Imperial Decree which they obviously cannot disobey
The day of departing to the Capital finally arrived and we prepared to leave early in the morning to avoid traffic and demonic beasts
Big Brother Shion is carrying me as we walked towards the luxurious big carriage, when we entered, I was surprised because the inside is as big as a house it has bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. I threw Big Brother Shion a questioning look which he replied with a chuckle
"How?" he said amused
I quietly nodded at Big Brother him which made him smile
"The carriage is expanded by space magic, using magic runes, that is why it's bigger than it looks," he said
Space magic? Eh? There's magic like that? Then I thought of a good idea
I looked at Big Brother Shion and asked
"Umm… Big Brother Shion, can you tell me more about space magic?"
I said which made him flinch
"Uh… y-yeah sure…"
I smiled at him in satisfaction and inwardly rolled my eyes, the reason he flinched was that I talked. In the past, I tried talking to the maids assigned to me and they made a rumor saying that my voice was extremely soft, and my family made a fuss about it saying that I should speak more which made me super embarrassed, that's the reason I rarely speak and only nodded in response or with a simple 'Yes & No'
We walked inside and arrived at the living room where Big Brother Shion and I talked about space magic, well basically he's the one talking and I'm the listener
This continued until Father, Mother, and Big Brother Schlain finally arrived and the carriage finally move, the trip was comfortable and peaceful until we were blocked by a herd of monsters, orcs, and goblins at that, a fantasy world indeed
The guards accompanying us unleashed their swords to prepare for an attack, but we didn't expect more monsters to overwhelm the guards that are with us, Father and my two Older Brothers went out of the carriage which made me confused but immediately understood what they were going to do when I felt the mana surging around their bodies
I looked at mother who was comfortably sitting with me while drinking a cup of tea, I looked at her with disbelief hidden in my eyes, 'how can you stay so calm?!' but when I secretly looked at the window to see what was happening, my eyes sparkled in amazement at what I saw
There was my two Older Brothers confronting a bunch of monsters using the 2nd Phase of magic, they controlled the water and formed it as a blade before unleashing it towards the orcs and goblins which sliced, their bodies apart, before forming Ice spikes using the 3rd Phase to rain down upon the enemy which became unavoidable because their feet was frozen to the ground by Ice magic
I sighed in relief and my gaze went to where Father is, I saw Sebastian with him, our Head Butler holding two daggers while tearing apart the enemies which surprised me 'even our Head Butler can fight?!' I focused my attention on Father who was currently confronting the Ogre and Goblin, Leaders
I felt incredibly dense mana surrounding Father which gave me goosebumps, his two enemies felt it too, but continued to persevere and let out a roar and screech
The two enemy leaders readied their weapons and a dark violent liquid flowed from it which looked like a very potent poison, the two pointed it to Father and started to charge. I looked at Father whose expression remained stoic before he raised one finger that turned pure white and deflected the sword and ax of the two enemy leaders
My eyes became wide when Father's arm turned into a blade of pure white ice and slashed the orc's arm
The orc let a loud painful roar and started to charge at Father at a berserk state his remaining arm holding the ax which dripped out the lethal poison
He ran towards Father and slashed his ax, accidentally, Father's white robe was torn but before Father could go away, the enemy goblin thrust his sword to Father in an attempt to stab him, but Father already dodged with precise speed
Father looked at the two monsters with an irritated expression before his body was suddenly surrounded by snow, the two monster's expressions changed from perseverance to fear and their body trembled, but Father didn't seem to care as he surrounded the two with snow
The snow circulated like a tornado in the monster's body before disappearing, leaving a big chunk of ice as the monsters' bodies inside it looked torn, Father approached the frozen bodies before slicing it in half using his arm that turned into a blade of pure white ice
After he did that, he looked in the direction of the carriage where Mother and I were, and his eyes widened in surprise. I frowned at his expression but before I could even think why he looked surprised, the door of the carriage suddenly opened wide revealing two Bandits with daggers and ax
"Ah…" I said in surprise, so that's why Father looked like that
I looked at the two Bandits and they suddenly smiled, their eyes filled with lust
"Look what we have here, a beautiful woman and a child, they'll surely sell a fortune!" said the bandit with a bulky body
"Boss will need to compensate us kekeke"
"Not until we have some fun first HAHAHA!" the second bandit said while looking at mother as he licks his lips
My expression remained stoic and turned my gaze to Mother who stopped drinking her tea, she suddenly went in front of me and hid me behind her
I looked at Mother who was currently trembling slightly, but her eyes were filled with determination to protect. Mother raised her hands and a golden light glowed from it as she started chanting
"Oh, Power of light, protect us from the evils with your power, Barrier!" she said
A golden light flashed in front of us, and a thick golden sphere of gold mana surrounded us like a shield
I looked at the two Bandits who readied their weapons as they approached us, the bulky Bandit ran towards mother and used his ax to slam the Barrier mother conjured, it was blocked but a slight crack appeared, and Mother staggered
The bulky Bandit noticed this and repeated what he did earlier but with stronger force, Mother was sweating profusely as she tried to strengthen the barrier, but it was getting destroyed by the Bandit
"Tsk this may take a while, the monsters we led here might get annihilated so help me destroy this thing!" he said as he continued to smash the barrier mother conjured
I suddenly realized why there were so many monsters that attacked us, I felt my anger boiling within me, but my expression remained calm
The other Bandit went behind us and started his attacks using his daggers, Mother noticed this and started to chant again
"Goddess of light, Arielle, help me extinguish the enemies before me…!" she said, and golden light flashed again before she continued her last words
"Holy Javelin!" 6 spears of light formed around her as it splits towards the two Bandits, unfortunately, it only scratched the bandits because of the armor they were wearing
"Hey Miss, why don't you stop defending? We promise won't hurt you hehe" the bandit with daggers said
Mother remained silent but she seems to be struggling to maintain the barrier, I looked worriedly looked at her and I finally snapped when I saw her horrible complexion, I stood in front of her which surprised Mother
"That's enough you two…" I said emotionlessly
The two Bandits looked at me and snickered
"Hey brat, don't meddle with adults' affairs," they said simultaneously
I sighed and suddenly a freezing mist exploded from my body, the corners of the carriage started to freeze, I looked at the two Bandits confused expression and smiled
"Fuck!" the bulky Bandit said and looked at me with rage, he tried to open his mouth to talk but I used my mana to make the mist thicker to the point where you can't see anything anymore
I burst my magic power to its strongest and the mist froze the two Bandits to death, when I was sure that they were dead, I dispersed the mist with a snap of my finger and it immediately disappeared leaving the frozen bodies of the Bandits and a layer of thick frost inside the whole carriage
Mother looked at me with a surprised expression and I suddenly remembered what I just did, I went to Mother and gave her an embrace which made her snap out of her daze, she warmly embraced me back and I comfortably snuggled up to her neck
I heard several footsteps nearing the carriage and turned my head only to see the worried expression of Father and my two Older Brothers, they immediately went to check our condition before turning their heads to the frozen bodies of the two Bandits, they looked back at me and Mother with a confused expression, Mother broke the silence
"Well, you see…" Mother explained what happened making my Father and two Older Brothers to be shocked, after that the guards were scolded by Father before they were treated with potions for their injuries
When everything was finally alright, we continued our travel and after a week, we finally arrived at the Capital City. We will be staying at the Willoughby territory built at the Capital before preparing for the banquet the Emperor will be hosting in two days
At that time Mother was recuperating because she exhausted her magic power protecting me which made me feel guilty, I should have helped her sooner dealing with the bandits. Big Brother Shion and Schlain went to the academy to handle something while Father was currently training me for the 2nd Phase which is Water.
And the day of the banquet finally arrived!