If there were just one person in this meeting who wasn’t Katarina Claes, they would be quick to point out that the solution the three Katarinas had arrived at did not amount to very much at all. Unfortunately, there was no other person present to tell Katarina this very important point...
After the first Katarina Claes meeting, I set about my agenda the very next day, starting a special training regimen in swordplay and magic. While my parents were adequately surprised at my sudden request, I claimed that it was for the purposes of self-defense, and so that I would not embarrass myself at the academy. My unfaltering stance eventually led to my parents agreeing, albeit in a somewhat exasperated manner. Come to think of it, their expressions reminded me of a face my previous parents used to make. How nostalgic...
With my concerted efforts, I pestered my blank-eyed father, convincing him to find me swordplay and magic tutors posthaste. While he did manage to find me an instructor for swordplay relatively quickly, a magic tutor was a little more difficult. As a result, I resigned myself to reading books on magic from the manor’s library instead — for now, this would suffice as practice.
In a corner of the garden, I propped up an old, thickly-bound tome on my knees, opening it and reading the very first page. Written on the page were the following words: “To reach great heights in magic, one must first communicate with one’s magical origins.”
To begin with, I did not exactly swing swords around or cast magic in my previous life. As such, there was no way I would suddenly become a magical prodigy in this world — in other words, I was starting from scratch.
Communicate with one’s magical origins... My magical element was earth. To make things worse, it was pathetically weak. For reference, my one and only magical spell could raise the earth’s surface by two or three centimeters. In its current state, it was basically useless to me. In fact... Katarina Claes could not use any other kind of magic in the game — raising the earth by miniscule levels was the best she could do.
This “Raise the earth for two or three centimeters magic” — I suppose we could call it “Earth Raiser” magic — was primarily used to trip the protagonist. Was... Was there anything else? No? Well, “Earth Raiser” could very well be seen as a tool made for the express purposes of tripping someone, as that was all it could do.
Terrible. A truly pathetic kind of magic. If this tiny Earth Raiser was all I could use, how would I escape the doomed fates before me?! I had to somehow improve my magical powers!
Communicate with one’s magical origins... Hmm... Does that mean I have to speak with... the earth itself?
The earth... Communicate... Speak with the earth. OH! I see!
“Um... My lady. What exactly is it that you are doing?” my maid Anne called out to me with a somewhat concerned expression.
“Why, I’m tilling the earth, Anne,” I answered energetically, dressed in a set of overalls I had borrowed from one of the gardeners. On this day, I had decided to plant some crops in the manor’s large garden.
“Umm. I do recall you wishing to practice your magic, my lady. But... why are you tilling the earth?”
“I’m tilling the earth and planting crops to increase my magical power, you see!”
“I sincerely apologize, my lady, but I do not profess to understand any of what you just said,” Anne replied, her expression of concern now replaced by a surprised one. She seemed confused by my cheerful response.
“Umm, you see. In this tome of magic I read, it said... ‘To reach great heights in magic, one must first communicate with one’s magical origins.’ And my magical element is earth, right? So this is it! I’m communicating with the earth! And I’m doing it while planting crops in this field I’m tilling!!”
To tell the truth, my mother’s side of the family in my previous life had a long history of farming. My grandmother used to say that tending to the fields was much like speaking to the earth, and that was that. Truly, I was grateful for her advice — if I succeeded in tilling this field and eventually reaped its harvest, I would have achieved great communication with the earth.
I did, of course, first ask for permission from the gardener, and then borrowed a hoe, shovel, and gardening overalls. I could not possibly be more prepared. Taking all that into consideration, as long as I kept honing my magical powers by tilling the fields, I would successfully avoid a Catastrophic Bad End.
“...I do not think that tilling the fields is ‘communicating with one’s magical origins’... Somehow, something feels... off, about that interpretation...”
Anne seemed to be mumbling to herself now. Leaving her to her own devices, I brought my hoe down onto the ground, renewing my efforts at tilling the earth.
Only seven more years until I would start studying at the academy. During this time, I had to do more than simply strengthen my Earth Raiser spell — I also had to learn other magics, preferably profitable ones. And so I continued working the small field I stood in, shoveling the dirt with a steely focus.
My field work was soon interrupted by Anne, however, who appeared to have suddenly recalled an issue of import. “...Ahh!! This isn’t the time for you to be tilling the earth and working the fields, my lady! You have an important arrangement — the prince... Prince Jeord is paying you a social visit today!!”
“... Eh? Why?” I asked, dropping my hoe in surprise.
“What do you mean why, my lady?! He’s here to pay you a visit, as is customary after a marriage engagement!!”
“Oh... Is that right?” Oops. It had entirely slipped my mind...
“In any case, you mustn’t keep him waiting! Please return to the manor at once!”
“Y-Yes! Let’s do that!” I could not let the prince, of all people, see me in this getup. Even I knew that was a little too much.
Panicking, I turned and tried to head towards the mansion — but it was already too late. Impatient at my apparent absence, Jeord and his entourage of servants had decided to visit me directly in the garden instead. The prince’s servants seemed hesitant as they laid their eyes upon me — probably confused as to why a noble young lady, who was supposed to be practicing her magical skills, was dressed in a farming getup with a hoe at her feet.
What do I do...? Honestly, I had wanted to sneak back into the mansion undetected, change out of my overalls, and return to the garden with a fresh face. But of course, this was no longer possible — my eyes met with Prince Jeord’s.
The prince, for his part, seemed overcome by surprise at first, his eyes wide open. But he soon assumed his usual smile and called out to me. “If it isn’t Lady Katarina. I heard that you were practicing your magic in the garden, and thought I would spectate. What exactly is it that you are doing?” the prince said, his ever-lovely smile plastered across his face.
While I would have likened that smile to that of an angel before, Prince Jeord was the very same twisted and wicked prince from Fortune Lover. He was a true sadist, and his smile now seemed entirely demonic in nature. It was clear that he was laughing at me — a supposedly noble lady, standing in the middle of a field in gardening overalls. This was not the smile of a cute little prince who genuinely wanted to know what I was doing.
I turned to look at the servants of my household, and then to the prince’s entourage. Yep. They were completely frozen, rooted to the ground. In fact, my father, who had been with the prince’s group, was now deathly pale, and seemed like he would pass out at any moment.
Actually, my mother had already passed out, and was currently being supported by her personal maidservants.
Personally, I felt that it was meaningless to dress up in fancy clothing if I was going to be doing field work. I decided to ignore the frozen servants and my petrified parents. Yes, this was my personal form of defiance.
“Good day, Prince Jeord. Thank you for coming all this way — I do apologize for the inconvenience. I am currently communicating with the origins of my magic: the earth.”
“Ahem. Communicating with the earth?”
“Yes. I felt that the fastest and most efficient way to do so was to till the earth and work the fields, and so that was what I did.”
“...So you are tilling the earth... to communicate with it? Working the fields... to talk to the earth?”
I had answered the prince truthfully and cheerfully, and topped it off with a slight smile. In response, the prince looked downwards, his shoulders trembling.
Oh no. Now I’ve gone and done it. Did it make him mad? Don’t tell me I’ll be exiled from the kingdom before I even get enrolled into the academy...! I swallowed hard.
After a while, the prince’s shivering stopped, and he raised his head, staring straight at me. There was a smile on his face. At the very least, he did not seem angry — that was a relief.
“I see. Tilling the earth and working the fields to improve one’s magic... A truly revolutionary way of practicing, no doubt.”
“...Is that so...?” It did not take a genius to understand that the prince really meant to say that I had no idea how magic worked at all. So I gave him a vague response, hoping to smooth it over.
However, Prince Jeord suddenly approached me, stepping into the field I had been working on. With yet another unexpected motion, he knelt down before me, holding out his right hand.
“Lady Katarina — I am here to discuss the matter of our engagement. A formal visit, yes. I hope you will overlook my rudeness for asking in such a place, but do you accept my proposal?”
“Oh... Um. Uh. Yes.”
Jeord promptly took my hand in his, before lowering his head and planting a kiss on it. Just like a scene out of a fairy tale. The fact that one of the two was dressed in gardening overalls, however, didn’t really fit the image in general.