With Becca still sleeping on my shoulder, I turned my head to look at the desk and see what she was spending her day doing.
What I found were serval books on magic. Some of the books were specifically on water magic. Did Becca want to be a mage? That was news to me.
In the first place, I was planning to look for a water mage to create a combination attack with. It would be great if Becca and I could form an unstoppable magic team. However, I didn't understand why she felt so desperate to learn magic that she spent six hours straight studying it.
Maybe I should try to get her a teacher, who can give her some practical training, to make it easier on her? Then, I remembered James told me it takes a few years just to open your mana pores. My enthusiasm died down thinking any chance of forming a combination attack with Becca would probably have to wait a year or two.
As I was thinking about this, my eyes wandered a little to the left of the magic books. What I spotted was an open notebook. I arched my neck to get a better view.
The notebook was a weekly calendar that had a schedule written on it. The schedule was full of alternating days of planning to study magic and planning to do physical training.
From the amount of hours on each task, I could tell that Becca was serious about her training. On the last day of the week, a phrase was written in big and bold letters, "Joining the Royal Mages!!!"
These words were surrounded by little hearts and a smiley face. Becca was planning to join the Royal mages? Her enthusiasm was very cute. However, I was surprised that no one had told me that she was planning to join the Royal mages.
Then, a thought came to my head, 'was this the dream that she was going to tell me in 6 months?'
I quickly flipped through the notebook and found that there was 6 months worth of weekly schedules. Now it made sense why she was working so hard. She must be planning to become an intermediate mage in 6 months time. That way she would reach the minimum for a Royal mage and I can help her join the Royal mages as her dream.
I felt that 6 months was going to be a time crunch, but I wanted to do everything I could to help her. I wondered if there was anything I could buy that speeds up magic training. I would have to asked James later.
As I was lost in thought, a grunt came from my side. I turned my head and Becca had already sat up and was lazily blinking her eyes.
"Hello Becca."
"Hmmm."
After a few seconds, she came to the realization of what was happening. Her eyes opened widened. She pushed me and screamed.
"What are you doing here?!"
She was trying her best to block my view of her books with her body.
I smiled, "I was waiting for the 6 hours to finish so I could talk to you, but you fell asleep."
Becca seemed to understand but she was not relenting, "ok, you go outside and I will clean this stuff up and meet you outside."
I decided to get straight to the point before she kicked me out. "Becca I couldn't help but see what you were working on. Do you want to become a water mage?"
She answered hesitantly with her eyes looking down. "I am actually already an intermediate water mage."
I was shocked at her words. "Wow Becca, you are awesome! You were able to become an intermediate mage all by yourself! How come you are not already a part of the Royal mages? I am the captain, so it should be easy to have you join. We could even team up to work together!"
My mind was full of thoughts of fighting as a team against anyone that stood in our way.
I turned to smile at Becca, but she was glaring at me with her eye twitching…
"What's wrong Becca?" I asked with concern.
Becca exploded, "What's wrong? It's you! It's always you!
Why did I not join the Royal mages already?! Because you said that as my future husband you would never let me be a Royal mage. You said it wasn't a place for a woman and you forbid me from joining! You think it was awesome that I trained by myself to become an intermediate mage? It wasn't awesome! It was miserable!! I worked hard for 10 long lonely years knowing that it would all be in vain.
Even my family told me it was only right that I obediently listen to my future husband. To them, the duty of a wife is to fully submit to their husband. Even the people I thought loved and cared about me the most in the world turned their backs on me. And it was all to appease you.
I knew that even if I became an advanced mage, you would never give me the opportunity that I deserved!! Why? Because you despise me! Well guess what?! I despise you too!
I was so dumb the last two days. To think I almost believed that you might have changed slightly. To think I actually got my hopes up!! But I had to get my hopes up!! It was my very last chance. I had been hopeless for so long, I needed to take any small crumb I could get!
But look at you now, you haven't changed at all. You refuse to take responsibility for the horrible way that you treated me before. You sit here and act all happy go lucky pretending like the reason I'm not already a Royal mage has nothing to do with you.
Thanks for reminding me what I almost forgot. I hate you! You made my life miserable for far too long! So forget about all this talk of being a loving couple. I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!"
Rebecca stormed out of the library and I was left holding my head in my hands.
What am I supposed to do about this…
It looks like the resentment she has for the original Duke is irreversible. I could understand why she felt that way. I also hated the original Duke's personality and I never had to deal with him personally. Especially when that same Duke held your future in their hands. I feel horrible for Rebecca.
I slammed my fist on the desk in frustration. Just when I was able to learn about her dream…
My eyes slowly swept past the many books that were left of the desk. Suddenly, an extreme idea came to mind that could solve all my problems. An idea I could now execute because I had just learned Rebecca's biggest dream as well as the fact that she absolutely loathes the original Duke. An idea that should remove all the animosity between me and Rebecca. It might sound like the perfect plan but the trade off was that it had a lot risk for me and maybe even the Duchy as a whole. Perhaps I was being emotional, but I think the reward outweighed the risks.
My heart was racing as I ran to find Rebecca.