Three tall windows with white frames, stood side by side shining the suns bright light into a luxurious room. Hanging on the walls there were many fine paintings of boats at sea, castles, towns, happy people and a singular map that held mostly the central parts of Europe in it with all else being shrouded in darkness.
The sight of the map had immediately caught Lilis eye, but sadly it had not yet been time for her to learn of such things. Instead Grandma Linn, as Lili liked to secretly call her in her own head, had ordered Lili to grab a certain set of books from the rooms many bookshelfs to read.
Indeed the luxurious room, with its smooth floor of wood, a large carpet upon it, with a large table on it, with three fine, cushioned chairs stood around it had also many bookshelfs built into one side of the room. Sadly Lili just couldn't read any of them, so when asked to take a certain few of them out. Lili had immediately been caught.
With great shame and embarrassment, Lili could do nothing but lower her head and speak the truth. She was an illiterate person and totally uneducated in this world.
To this Grandma Linn had acted a bit shocked, but she didn't mock or ridicule Lili. Instead she had acted surprisingly understandingly towards Lili.
Linn merely let out a small chuckle and patted Lili upon her head as she said it to be nothing to feel ashamed of, as she had then picked a few books from the bookshelf herself. Then like a granny teaching her little grandchild to read and write for the first time they had sat down at the table and began to study.
Luckily Lili did know of the numbers here as they were the same here as they were in her past, so that part they were able to skip. And so Lili was left with the task of learning her ABCs all over again.
Thankfully Lili was quite a fast learner so when she was taught how to spell out the strange looking letters, she had learned fast and Grandma Linn hadn't lost patience with her.
And so after learning this Lili had been given the task of writing all the letters down a hundred times. She would need to write them down as she spelled them out, so that she would become familiar with them.
What an easy task one might think, but it wasn't. The problem here was that these letters were like, some form of Elvish. These were no mere lines made to resemble words. No these letters were a work of real art, that was made to resemble words.
Looking at them written there in the book in front of her. Lili couldn't understand what type of an man would even come up with such an writing style. Whoever came up with this must have been quite the lover of fantasy.
And honestly they might have looked appealing to the eye, but they were not really all that efficient. writing them down by hand would take at least three times longer than writing down normal English letters.
And so the simple sounding task had turned into a really boring task. This in turn had quickly sent Grandma Linn laying down on the window couch, where she quickly fell asleep.
So, with an ink bottle to her side and a quill pen in hand she carefully had started writing the letters upon a blank piece of paper. As she did this her eyes took short glances at a book that held the very letters that she simply copied and to the paper as she wrote.
Tediously she wrote and spelled and then wrote again as Grandma Linn snored loudly in the background. Slowly morning turned into mid day and Lili couldn't help but let out a yawn out of sheer mental exhaustion as she worked on this task. Thoughts of lying down, or simply closing her eyes flooded her mind constantly. Oh how she would have just wanted to fall asleep just like Grandma Linn.
Just looking at her sleeping on that long, luxurious and comfortable looking window couch made her so tempted to do the same and sleep, but no she couldn't. Lili was not a quitter, she was a fighter. And so she fought on all the while listening to that freaking loud snoring in the background. Damn she was loud.
Then with a final stroke of her pen she finished the task and said the final letter out loud.
"Z, like Zoro."
Lili places the quill gently upon the table and breath a big sigh of relief. She had done it. Her second lesson was complete and now she felt confident that she could possibly read a book or two. But then again that was not something that she had really ever done in her past, so she instead looked to the snoring Grandma.
Just then Lilis eyes lit up with an idea. She remembered that, just a while ago when they had been brought some soup by the maids, Lili had noticed that this granny didn't chew, no, she swallowed. From what little she had managed to see, the granny's teeth were few and far between, with a rotten colour to them.
Lili had also noticed that Granny Linn wasn't just sometimes doing that grumpy sounding voice of hers. No, she seemed not capable of doing any other voice. At first she thought this to just be her thing, but surely not. Grandma Linn seemed tough, but not mean or grumpy like that, she was actually quite kind, well at least towards her.
From these two things and the snoring, she could surmise that Linn most likely had something bad within her throat. Sure she wasn't no doctor or anything like that, but thinking of it logically, she surmised it to be possible that there was an infection, or maybe a blockage of some kind caused by Granny Linn's arched back. Nonetheless something was causing her to snore and sound grumpy.
Lili realising this and knowing that she could heal the old granny with relative ease just couldn't stand back and not do anything. She did feel a bit hesitant not knowing how Linn might react to seeing Lili using her powers.
After all these were the medieval ages or something similar to that and didn't women get accused of witchcraft here. Sure she hadn't seen anyone getting killed for being a witch and the people who had seen a small portion of her powers had reacted quite positively to wards her, but still to be on the safe side Lili would try and keep it a secret the best she could.
So with this in mind, Lili took off her high heels, revealing her white stocking covered feet and then she carefully tiptoed to Linn's side. Then she got to her knees, reached out her hands and lightly took a hold of the Granny's bare right hand.
The room went silent, the snoring stopped and Lili froze. Grandma Linn kept her eyes shut, a smile came to her old face and she mumbled out saying.
"Mmm, leave some for me. You don't need to go to war to be my hero, just say that you don't like pie when you see there isn't enough to go around. Hahaha, mmm, tasty pie."
Then the snoring continued and Lili was able to breathe a sigh of relief as she then went to work.
Grandma Linn, like the Queen was in a relatively good condition on the outside. It seemed that Linn had a mostly healthy exterior to herself, but once more there was damage further inside.
It almost looked like someone had already healed the two women, but done an extremely crappy job at it. Just thinking of it Lili couldn't help but frown at the thought as she then found the foulness within the granny's body and most of all the throat and began the healing process.
Slowly as not to create too bright of a light, Lili started to heal Linn and quickly started to hear a difference. Linn's breathing became steadier and the snoring ended.
For a while she focused on Linn's throat, mouth, lungs and internal organs. Lili wanted to make sure that whatever it was that had caused the snoring within Linn would be gone for good, plus it wasn't a huge deal for her to heal a bit more and so she did.
Only once the exhaustion and sweat began to accumulate on her body did she then decide to end the healing session. She figured that she could always continue Linn's healing treatment some other time.
For now Lili could find comfort in seeing that Linn's snoring had subsided and now Linn could sleep in peace.
Thinking of which, Lili got to her feet and took note of the faint noises outside the windows. Climbing a top an empty spot on the long window couch, Lili peered outside.
Down below was the inner courtyard with a lot of hustle and bustle of people going about. Some were through the gates with all carts and wagons full of all sorts of goods and supplies. While others were moving towards the town, which Lili knew to be beyond the gatehouse.
But more interesting to her was the sight of what looked like a running track and a sort of outdoor gym. While some were running along the track or tossing spears in the middle of the grassy field in the middle of the track. Others were occupied with a medieval gym of wood, next to the track.
The gym had big men doing all sorts of lifting exercises with logs, they had wooden pull-up bars, dip bars and there was even things related to practicing fighting. Overall the gym was quite wooden and simple, but the interesting thing to Lili was the wooden weapons and dummies that they used to train. There was even people training martial arts.
Looking at them she noted that most men were quite young looking, while others not so much, but they all were in quite good physical conditions. Although there was quite an oddity amongst them.
On a field of grass with a singular wooden dummy, an old man was teaching a young girl, with golden shoulder length blonde hair and a toned physique how to fight. The girl didn't seem all that much older than her, by Lilis own estimates she might have been 14 or maybe 16 at best. She also wore a simple, but nice training outfit, with a long sleeved white shirt on top, leather shoulder pads and bracelets, a wide leather waist belt, a leather skirt that left her front open, pants and leather boots.
Seeing this Lili couldn't help but feel a sting of jealousy. Not because of her clothes, beauty or skill in fighting against the old man, but the fact that she was a bit taller than the old man.
Lili couldn't understand how this girl was so tall? Even Aileen, a girl who was the same age as her was so much taller than her. How was this possible, what were these golden blonde haired girls eating?
But as Lili kept on looking at the girls swift movements and the surprising amount of strength, she couldn't help but feel admiration towards her. Never once had she seen a warrior girl in this world. So maybe if this girl was doing such things then didn't that mean that she could do them too? Maybe her dreams of becoming some kind of warrior hero weren't actually impossible.
Once she had failed to kill a feral werewolf and gotten really hurt because of her foolish attempt, but with some training she might be able to do it the next time she saw one.
Lilis heart beat like crazy as she thought of the idea, she felt excited, but also afraid of facing such an scary beast again. Nonetheless she now felt that she had to learn how to use the sword and other weapons, maybe not to hunt monsters, but at least to defend herself if need be.
So with this in mind Lili seeing Grandma Linn still asleep decided not to disturb her and instead she started heading for the outside. Hopping off the couch, putting on her high heels and then opening the door. She was met with the sight of a surprised looking Jack who said.
"Huh, you done already?"
With a smile Lili nodded her head and said yep, after which she excitedly told Jack to follow as she headed outside.
Seeing her go, Jack sounded distressed as he yelled to her.
"Wait miss Lili you can't go outside like that. You're not dressed for the occasion."
Running through the halls and down a set of stairs Lili merely laughed at the comment and said.
"Hihihi, oh come on Jack, no-one cares about such things. Besides I'm just going to have a quick look around, that's all."
Pushing open a set of double doors, Lili emerged from a side room into the yard. Then without much thought she immediately ran across a small dirt road, and straight to the outdoor gym.
Running to the muscular men's side to look at all their exercises, Lili was amazed. Even though these were the medieval times, these people were doing effective full body workouts.
The men's muscles were bulging and quite noticeable with their glittering layers of sweat on top. Especially the younger men had amazingly toned bodies with very little fat on top, which made their muscles and abs standout even more.
Not only was the sight of it all amazing and nostalgic for her, but the smell of sweat and masculinity was as well. And here all those things were amplified by many times as all the men here were in peak physical conditions and quite juicy. This for sure wasn't no regular gym with all sorts of people, no this was more like an army special forces training area or something, or that's what it felt like to Lili.
She also couldn't help but notice how many of the men's eyes were upon her. They seemed to be looking her up and down almost as if checking her out in a lustful manner. Noticing this Lili immediately felt a bit creeped out, she couldn't understand why they were all looking at her like so. Didn't these people feel even a bit ashamed about themselves or was this just a normal thing here, or did she just miss understand their intentions?
While thinking of this her eyes then went to the ones doing pull-ups and there she immediately took note of a peculiar looking young man. He was probably the tallest and most muscular amongst their pull-up group. He seemed to be maybe 16 to 18 years of age, with shoulder length light blonde hair, a wide and strong looking jaw, plus a handsome face.
Then the young man's blue eyes met Lilis deep blue eyes. For some reason unknown to her, she froze in place.
The man stopped doing pull-ups and turned his half naked body towards her with a confident smile spread upon his face. Then he lifted up his big arms and flexed his big biceps at Lili. After which his pectoral muscles started to dance in a hypnotic rhythm.
Lili was immediately caught, she felt herself unable to look away, her body started heating up and her breathing became heavy. The feeling was strange, but not knew to her. She was sure that she had felt this way before because of something, but what.
She couldn't quite remember what it was and so she came to the next logical conclusion in her head. She figured that she must have been getting angry. Was the man mocking her, was this a challenge, she thought.
Thinking of this Lili also wanted to show off her pectoral muscles dancing as well. After all she was quite used to doing it in her past life, but sadly in this life her chest had a lot of fat and so it just wouldn't look the same. She could not beat this man in such a competition and this made her feel a bit depressed.
Then a white cloak was suddenly placed upon her shoulders. Strong hands grabbed a hold of her and attempted to pull her away from the gym as Jacks voice could be heard saying.
"Miss Lili, please come with me. You should not be out here dressed like this, it's highly inappropriate."
Hearing this Lili was about to just comply with Jack's words, but then she noticed the golden blonde haired girl looking at her. The girls chin was pointed up, face full of distain and mockery towards Lili as their eyes met.
Seeing this Lili couldn't quite understand it. Why was this bitch looking down on her, like she were shit under her heels? Was he challenging her?
Once again in this life Lili felt her pride being challenged, and this time it was not by some man or beast, but a young girl. Quite an unacceptable thing to Lili, especially since the challenge had something to do with doing physical exercises. Or well that's what she thought that this girl was going on about.
And so Lili shook Jack's hands away, took off the white cloak and tossed it to him as she said.
"No way Jack. I'm not going anywhere, not until I have shown these men that I ain't no average girl."
With that said Lili smirked at the tall girl in the distance and confidently marched towards the young, shirtless pull-up man. The young man seemed a bit taken aback as Lili pointed at him and confidently said.
"I challenge you to a pull-up competition, The one who does more pull-ups in a minute wins."
The man seemed stunned, clearly not having expected Lilis words as he stood in silence. Then all of a sudden all the people who heard Lilis words bursted into laughter.
Lili pouted her face fiercely as she challenged the man by saying.
"What, you scared of a girl or something?"
The young mans laughter seized as he said.
"You wot?"
Walking right in front of the lean but muscular young man Lili could smell him so clearly. He smelled so good, so strong and manly. Her mind suddenly became a bit hazy for a moment and her body felt hot. Lili didn't know what was going on as she fought past the momentary feeling and confidently said.
"You heard me. Now, what do you say? Do you accept my challenge or not?"
Still seemingly a bit baffled by this, the young man looked around for confirmation in his friends and then back at Lili. He smirked once more and said.
"Yeah you're on girl, but if I win then you're going to have to kiss me on the cheek. Hehehe."
Jack hearing this seemed horrified as he crouched down next to Lili and pleadingly said.
"No, Lili you musnt do this."
Lili unswayed by Jack merely smirked back at the young man and said.
"Fine, but if I win then you're going to have to kiss me on both of my cheeks."
After saying this Lili crossed her arms and huffed confidentially at the young man. The man simply raised a questioning eyebrow at Lili for a second before offering Lili his hand saying.
"Deal."
Jack looked furiously towards the young man and said.
"Absolutely not."
But Lili didn't care as she grabbed the mans hand and shook it saying.
"Deal."
Men all around laughed at the scene before them, Jack was speechless as the young man then smilingly said.
"I'm Sir Chad Armstrong, pleased to make you're acquaintance miss beautiful."
Feeling his strong, firm grip, smelling his musk and hearing that voice made something within Lili stir. Her heart beat like crazy, voice began trembling and she could feel her face redden as she looked upon his handsome face as she said.
"Oh, mmm, ni ni nice to me m meet yo you, Sir Chad A a a Armstrong. I'm Lili, nice to meet you too."