“There we go!” I said as I hopped down from the top of a big tree. Needless to say, I didn’t forget to create a breeze to soften my fall. At my feet was a large primate monster, a Peylon baboon. It was my biggest catch that day.
“Heh heh, now Lord Peylon is definitely going to recognize my talents!”
After all, I had slain a Peylon baboon all by myself. Those monsters usually took a group of people, but I’d killed it solo. How could my skills not be acknowledged after this?
“Nope.”
“Huh?!”
In front of me was a large man, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow. He was Lord Kend, Earl of Peylon. He was overall an angular man—even his haircut had a sharp outline. His face was stern too, fitting for the ruler of a unique domain like Peylon.
When I had returned to his residence, Castle Varchudar, to report my successful hunt I was shown directly to his office. I was a hundred percent certain he would’ve already heard what I’d done and would finally see things my way! No luck. But I wasn’t ready to give up just yet!
“C’mon! It’s a Peylon baboon. And I soloed—uh, slew it without any assistance!”
Not many people can take down a monster like that. That’s why there was such a fuss when I dragged it through the plaza. But in spite of my protests, Lord Peylon wouldn’t give in.
“I’ll give you permission to enter Layer Five some time in the near future,” he said. “But not now.”
“Why not now?”
I glared at Lord Peylon and he shrank back a little. If that was all it took to intimidate him, I wished he would just hurry up and give me permission. By which I mean, permission to enter Layer Five of the Mystic Forest. In the near future was pretty vague.
But the next time Lord Peylon spoke, he changed the subject on me.
“Lera, how old are you?”
“Hm? Twelve? But I’ll be thirteen not long from now.”
“I guessed as much.”
It was May at the time. My birthday would be at the end of July, the month after the next. If he knew the answer, then why’d he bother asking me about it?
Oh, by the way, Lera is my name. My full name is pretty darn long: Tafelina Lowell Lera Duval. But in Peylon, everyone knew me as Lera.
“Lera, you’re a daughter of House Duval.”
“Pretty much.”
I didn’t actually feel like a daughter of House Duval. I was raised out here with Lord Peylon, and his domain made me the person I am.
Peylon was in the northernmost part of the Kingdom of Ozeria. In Peylon’s eastern end was the monster-inhabited Mystic Forest, which was a constant source of danger and what set it apart from the rest of the kingdom. Maybe that was why everyone in the region was so dedicated to getting stronger. This was a land of hot-blooded warriors...or to put it another way, a community of meatheads.
There were many people who put their developed muscles to use and slaughtered monsters. They were known as monster hunters and made a living by killing monsters in the Mystic Forest and selling their parts.
I had been pleading with the earl over a matter related to the Mystic Forest. Around the entrance was Layer One, and as you went farther in you’d pass through Layer Two and Layer Three. I was only allowed to go to Layer Four. To go deeper—that is, to Layer Five—required permission directly from Lord Peylon.
So I took down a Peylon baboon all by myself. Even killing one as a group was enough to get you permission to enter Layer Five, but Lord Peylon just had to drag his feet...
“As the daughter of an earl, you’ll have to enter the royal capital’s noble academy once you turn thirteen,” he went on.
“What’s that?”
Is it tasty?
“It’s an academy attended by the children of Ozerian nobles. Withdrawal isn’t permitted except under the most extraordinary circumstances. Louie, my successor, went there.”
That doesn’t sound tasty.
That “Louie” that Lord Peylon mentioned was the earl’s adopted son and like an older brother to me. At the moment he was in another domain, studying for the day when he would succeed his father’s position. In Peylon you could learn all sorts of things about monsters, but next to nothing about running a domain.
So Louie went there, huh? Now that you mention it, he was only around during the summer because he was always in the royal capital or wherever. So that was because he was attending the academy. Still, every child of the nobility? Ooh, that doesn’t sound good at all.
“So let’s make some extraordinary circumstances,” I suggested. “I’m too busy hunting in the Mystic Forest, so I must withdraw.”
Now it was my turn to get glared at.
“Jokes won’t do you any good here, Lera.”
I wasn’t joking.
“I’ve already got your enrollment certificate. Good thing I changed your address.”
I never asked him to do that.
But if Lord Peylon told me to go, then I guess I had to go.
I was born in the royal capital. My birth parents were from House Duval. Their domain bordered Peylon to the west and was famous for producing wares made with monster materials.
Why was I in Peylon then? See, when I was three years old I came down with a really nasty fever. Once I recovered, I was sent away to be raised in Peylon. They took a young child coming back from a deadly illness and strapped her to the first horse that could take her out of town. They didn’t even bother with a carriage.
I can vaguely recall flying along at an absurd speed. I can definitely recall throwing up a few times and generally being miserable. My birth family never said a word to me after that. They didn’t even bother to make sure I survived the trip, so I guess I could have died for all they cared.
It wasn’t because of my fever that I had been disowned, however. It was because my hair and eyes suddenly changed during it. So the story goes, at least. I’ve been told that before my fever I had chestnut hair and hazel eyes.
This was called “pigment shift” and was a rare phenomenon among noble children. It involved a sudden increase in mana accompanied by a change in hair and eye color. Apparently my birth parents couldn’t accept a daughter like that and cast me off to a place that could handle my buffed mana capacity.
At the time, Peylon had already established a magic research facility in the name of exterminating monsters more efficiently with magic. The facility was the undisputed leader when it came to researching magic and mana. It just so happened that my father and the earl of Peylon were also related, albeit distantly.
If I was just gonna get sent out to Peylon anyway, then I wish I had been born into Lord Peylon’s family from the start. The earl was surprised when a toddler suddenly showed up on his doorstep, but he accepted me warmly. Just like he’d said earlier, he did a nice, thorough job changing my address and dealing with all those other formalities. Buuut...it’s also because he did all that that I found myself having to go to that academy.
“You don’t look happy.”
“Well of course I’m not!”
The two of us were bouncing down the road in a carriage. We had hit the road the moment Peylon’s annual hunting festival in August had finished up. I tried to protest, but do you know what Lord Peylon did? He threw me into the carriage! Can you believe it? He said that, as my guardian, he was going to see me off to the academy personally.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
I have a secret I’ve never shared with anyone. I have memories from before I was born. Memories from a past life. I was a woman born in a small island nation known as Japan, where I lived a normal life. I don’t even remember what my name was back then, but I remember what a convenient world it was. But I realized I could use magic to make this world a convenient one.
If nothing else, I was proud of my mana pool. After all, it was enough to have caused the pigment shift in me. Working with the institute, I’ve invented new technologies and unprecedented magic tools!
Oh, magic tools. Those are any sort of tool imbued with magic. I’d say they’re a lot like the electric appliances of my past life, except they’re powered by mana instead of electricity.
Also, it’s in part thanks to my past memories that I was able to grow up happy and healthy even though my parents disowned me. In my past life I had a nice, normal family. Thank you, mom and dad of that world. It’s thanks to the love you showed me back then that I’m here now.