Despite all of the excitement, the day ended without incident. With Kedra reading through the books lent to her by Rae, Lionel and Naoya training intensely, and the three maids visiting the capital.
The days quickly passed for Kedra as she was swamped with things to do. Between her academic revisions, her study of channeling magic, and her physical training routine that she was now maintaining in secret, she had very little time to herself.
Two days before her departure to the academy, Kedra had finished reading the lengthy book on channeling magic and wished to progress to the next step: casting spells.
In order to hide her progress from the curious eyes of the servants, Kedra made her way to Rae's room, hoping that he would also be able to speed up her progress.
Once she had reached Rae's room, the two cleared a small area, and Rae lent Kedra his wand after a lengthy explanation of the inner workings of channeling magic.
"Alright, Kedra, in order to not make too much of a mess, let's just cast the beginner spell 'light' alright?" Rae instructed.
"Understood."
Kedra closed her eyes and began concentrating on the flow of mana around her; it was a feeling that should have been completely foreign to her, but her previous experience with engraving magic had already developed her magic perception to a novice's level.
She steadily began imagining the spell's effect in accordance with the procedure shown in the book; first she thought of the vague effect of the spell, then the amount of mana to put into it.
After that, she thought of the brightness of the light, its color, its shape, and finally its location—right at the tip of the wand.
Finally, after trying to channel mana into herself, she waved the wand forward, yet nothing happened.
She tried again and again, yet no matter how hard she tried, not a single spell left the wand.
"I don't understand why it's not working; I should be doing everything right." She grumbled.
With an empathetic look on his face, Rae stepped forward and put his hand on Kedra's shoulder.
"Listen, Kedra, there are some people that just can't use channeling magic because their bodies don't conduct magic well enough; you might be one of those people."
"But fret not! The path of engraving magic is still open to you; I'll even teach you if you want."
Kedra looked down at the wand, a mix of irritation and disappointment welling up within her.
'That doesn't make sense though; my blood conducts magic just fine; the rest of my body should too, right?'
'As much as I'd like to ask Rae, I doubt telling him that I've been drawing circuits with my own blood is a good idea; I'd hate to make him worry.'
Quickly, she calmed herself down, took a deep breath, and handed the wand back to Rae.
"You're right, I shouldn't let this get me down. And thanks for the offer, Rae, but I think I'll focus on my studies for the time being."
"Of course, remember, I'm always happy to help."
'He's such a nice kid; why can't anyone else in this damned family be like him?'
With a sigh, Kedra walked out of Rae's room and returned to her quarters.
As she sat at her desk and began thinking of what she should revise, she quickly realized that she had already gone through everything that she needed to study.
This realization, paired with a growing boredom due to her lack of physical activity, made her completely give up on studying for the day.
Instead, she thought back to her first few months after she had arrived in her new body and on the training drills that she would practice in her room.
While training Kas'vark with Lionel taught her an immense amount about the swordsmanship of this world, the HEMA forms that she had learned previously were beginning to eclipse themselves from her mind.
Though she would never forget them, she feared that she was beginning to grow rusty.
'Kas'vark is fine and all, and the wilder movements are definitely something I haven't tried yet, but it's just incomparable to the efficiency of what I had learned before.'
'Alright, I guess I'll just spend the rest of the day practicing my previous style; I mean, it's not like there's anything else to do.'
As she grabbed her sabre and cleared a small area in her room, she was quickly stopped by Maria, who had been preparing various suitcases for Kedra's departure to the academy.
"My lady? Can you not practice that outdoors in the training area? It's dangerous to swing around weapons indoors." Maria said in a concerned tone.
"I don't need the soldiers knowing how proficient I am with the blade; I don't plan on hiding anything when I get to the academy, but for the time being, I don't wish to incite unnecessary jealousy within my family."
"It'd be fine by me if they kept perceiving me as merely a slightly smarter than average child; in order for that to happen, I must keep all of them in the dark to the best of my ability."
"Very well, my lady, just be careful of where you're swinging your sword."
"Of course, who do you think I am?"
As Kedra began her drill, she soon became fully focused on her own movements; the world around her began blurring more and more, until she could hardly perceive anything other than the feeling of swinging her sword.
Had she been more aware, perhaps she would have noticed that outside of the room, a young servant who had heard the sounds of her sabre slashing through the air was taken by curiosity and decided to peek through her keyhole.
The servant sat there for minutes on end simply watching Kedra's graceful motions; she had been completely enamored by them.
After some time had passed, however, she heard people walking down the hall towards her and decided to quickly get back to work, eager to tell the other maids what she had just seen.