Last year the Duchess, I mean, teacher made me her student! I've been having fun learning magic ever since! Today we are practicing spells outside in the big backyard.

“Alright Selene, remember what I’ve taught you. Focus on the mana in your core. Draw it out and guide it through your body and up to your head. Then in your mind visualize as clearly as possible the runes associated with the spell. As I’ve taught you, these are the three steps in manifesting a spell.” Teacher says while pacing about the field with a book in hand.

“Yes, teacher! I’ll do my best!” I say earnestly.

I see Teacher’s stern face loosen for a moment, but it turns back so fast I wonder if I was mistaken.

“The spell we are practicing today is a 2nd tier darkness spell, ‘Shadow Walk.’”

“You can find the runes for this spell on this page here.” She says while pointing to the page she was currently reading.

“I’ll show the activation of it to you once.”

Teacher then walked over to a tree and stood in its shade. Suddenly, her whole body seemed to melt into the ground and then a blur swiftly glided along the shade of the tree up the bark, until finally, she reappeared sitting on top of a large branch.

“Wow! That was amazing!” I praise loudly.

And as always when I compliment her Teacher’s face turns smug.

“Fufu, though this 2nd tier spell can only be used in the shadows, the mana limitations are low, and it is an easy first spell to learn. If you can perform this spell, you will take the first step to becoming a 2nd tier magician.”

“O-kay!”

I run over to the tree that teacher was sitting in and closed my eyes. I remember the basics that teacher has been lecturing me on for the past year. It was tough leaving my papa’s home at first but everyone here was nice. I also get to see Mary every day now instead of once every three days when she came over to teach me various things. However, now Mary is giving me lessons almost every day, I’m happy but I’m not happy… whoops, better focus on the spell.

I don’t really get all the stuff that teacher tells me when she teaches me magic, but when I concentrate and look at the runes, I somehow feel like I know how to do it. I close my eyes and try to remember the image of the rune in the book.

Almost instantly I feel my body start to melt into the ground. It feels strange, but I instinctively understand how to move about with no problem. I make my way up to teacher’s branch and positioned myself to climb on her back before exiting the spell.

“Gotcha!” I say while latched onto her back, my legs wrapped around her waist, covering her eyes with my hands.

“My, what a naughty child. Misbehaving children get punished you know~ Like this!” She says while grabbing me.

“Ah, ahahaha, I give I give!” I giggle while trying to escape her grasp.

Once again, I fell victim to the tickle attack. Truly, a scary move…

After the tickle attack, she jumped down from the tree while holding me, and then gently set me down on the ground.

“Anyway, as expected of my disciple, you learned that spell instantly.” Teacher proudly says while patting my head.

“Ehehe~”

“Well don’t get too cocky, remember, there’s always someone greater.”

“Even you, teacher? There’s someone stronger than you?” I ask my eyes wide.

In response, her face shows slight surprise then she says.

“Ah-hem, well. I’m an exception.”

“I knew it! Teacher is the strongest!” I say with excitement.

“Ohoho! Now then, today we’re going to have a little break. A friend of mine is coming to visit and she’s bringing her child along, it’ll be good for you to play with someone close to your age occasionally.”

“Alright, go with Mary and wash up, we can’t present you in these sweaty clothes.”

“O-kay.”

We walk over to a set of chairs where Mary stood waiting. Once we arrived Mary handed teacher a drink, along with a towel.

“Okay, Mary, I’ll leave the rest to you. I trust you know what I want?” Teacher asks.

“Of course, mistress,” Mary says with a knowing smile.

Teacher and Mary seem to have a weird gleam in their eyes, that usually means that they got me some new clothes! I follow Mary into the mansion and we head for the large bath. The tub in teacher’s residence is huge, it’s like a small lake!

As we enter, I take off my clothes in the dressing room and run into the bathing area. I settle in on a stool and as always Mary softly washes my hair for me. After the washing, I start to run towards the large pool that is the bath, but Mary stops me.

“Hey, what did I tell you, no running in the bath! Also, today we have special guests who will be arriving soon so we need to finish your bath quickly to get you dressed for the meeting.” Mary sternly tells me.

“Awww, okay...” I dejectedly mumble with my lips in a pout.

“Urgh, maybe just a little bit okay? 10 minutes at most.” Mary says while pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

My downcast face instantly turns into a sunny smile

“I love you, Mary!” I say as I hug Mary by the waist.

“A-hem. Just 10 minutes okay?”

“Kayy.”

***

After about 10 minutes later I got out of the bath and follow Mary into a dressing room and sit down on one of the benches as she dresses me in a white blouse and red skirt. It has pretty lacing in a rose pattern that I think is cute. My hair has been getting longer recently, it’s almost halfway down my back like teacher’s!

“Okay, perfect. Now for your shoes.” Mary says with a satisfied expression.

“Mhm! By the way, who is teacher meeting with?” I ask with a curious expression.

“An old friend of the mistress. They frequently meet for tea and to gossip with each other. Usually, she comes alone but today I hear she’s bringing along one of her sons.” Mary says as she finishes putting on my long socks and red colored slippers.

“A boy? I hope we can be friends.” I say somewhat worriedly.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Mary tells me with a confident smile.

Mary’s confidence makes me grin and I reply with.

“If you say so, Mary!”

She grins back at me then taps me on the knee before standing up and offering me her hand.

“Now, let’s go.”

I nod then get up and take her hand.

The two of us exit the dressing room hand in hand and Mary leads me back to the main entrance hall. I see a couple of people I’ve never seen before, about 6 vampires wearing the same kind of uniform as my papa. Are they all knights too? I pull on Mary’s skirt to get her attention.

“Mary, who are those people?” I ask.

“Those are royal knights. They’re here accompanying the mistress’s friend.” She answers as we continue walking.

“Are they different from papa?”

“Kind of. The royal knights serve the royal family of Emrick and are an elite unit of fighters.”

“Emrick? Like the king?!” I excitedly ask.

“That is correct. Now you know who we are meeting today. Make sure you don’t forget your manners, we mustn’t embarrass the mistress.” Mary sternly lectures.

“Mhm, I got it!”

The two of us approach a room on the third floor. If I remember right, this is the room connected to the balcony. Sometimes I see maids looking at me from there as I train with teacher.

When we got to the door I could hear teacher along with the voice of another person I didn’t recognize, although I couldn’t clearly hear what they were saying. Mary proceeded to knock on the door then put her hand down and patiently waited, not long after we clearly heard teacher answer.

“Enter.”

After Mary opened the door, I see teacher sitting on the sofa. Opposite facing her on the other sofa was a very pretty lady. She has silver hair and wore a long white one-piece dress. Moving my eyes across the room, it was then that I saw a boy about my age reading a book by the balcony.

“Perfect! Come over here, Selene. Mary, would you mind serving up some tea?” Teacher says while beckoning me to come sit with her by patting the seat next to her.

I walked over as instructed and climbed on the sofa next to my teacher.

“Aura, this is the one I told you about, my one and only student, Selene.”

“Oh my, I had wondered what kind of person they would be. As expected of you Serah, you’ve got quite the adorable student there, ufufu.” The lady says with a light chuckle making me blush a little.

I felt quite nervous when I heard that we were going to be meeting with someone from the royal family. But that manner of speech and familiar atmosphere, she feels just like the Duchess.

“Well go on, don’t be shy Selene, introduce yourself.” Teacher nudges me.

I hop off the sofa and hastily try to introduce myself.

“H-hello! My name is Selene McDowell. It is very nice to meet you!” I say as I perform a curtsy.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, little Selene. Let’s get along okay? Feel free to call me Aura!” She says with much enthusiasm.

“Yes! I want to be friends with you too!” I answer with the brightest smile I can muster.

For some reason, Mrs. Aura’s expression turns strange after I say that.

“Mmm. I want her. Can I have her Serah? At least for a week.” The lady suddenly says looking intently at me.

Though I’m not sure why I get shivers up my spine from her expression and choice of words, I turn and look nervously at teacher.

“Ahaha, no way, this one’s mine.” She says nicely yet firmly.

I relax and put out a small sigh while holding onto my chest. I love it here where papa, teacher, and Mary are, so I don’t want to leave!

“Aww. All I have at home are 2 stoned-face boys. All the big one does is train with his retainers, while the small one over there does nothing but study. I want someone to dote on!” The lady named Aura starts slightly fussing about.

“Why don’t you ask your husband for a daughter?”

“I already tried that! Do you know what he said?! He told me ‘We already got two excellent children, why would we need another?’ with a completely oblivious face, men don’t get it at all!” Aura complains.

Although she was complaining I felt like she was somehow cute, different from my cool teacher. I found the part where she was mimicking the voice of a man pretty funny, but I tried not to laugh.

“I figured as much. Really, I wonder what you saw in him. Oh well, let’s just enjoy today between us two ladies, shall we?”

“Totally! Hey, the newest cosmetics from Jotum! Those humans are geniuses at making this stuff, I tell you!”

Aura then reached into a small bag that she had beside her and started taking out various things. How does that little bag hold all that stuff? I wonder.

“Oh, before we begin, how about we have the serious boy over there play with Selene in the meantime? She doesn’t have any friends close to her age, so I think this will be a good opportunity.” Teacher suddenly says.

“Ah! That’s a wonderful idea! That little bookworm needs to learn how to play like a child.” She replies with a delighted face.

Aura then stood up and walked over to the balcony, she spoke briefly with the boy and then confiscated his book. The two of them walked back over, although Aura had a delightful smile as always, the little boy, had a displeased expression. I could tell he was unhappy.

“Mary, go ahead and supervise these two, we’ll be okay on our own. Take them out back for them to play.”

“Understood, mistress.”

The three of us, Mary, the boy, and I then exited the room and started heading down to the first floor. I walked next to Mary while the boy followed a little bit behind us. When we reached the first floor, Mary told me to wait a bit while she talked with the royal knights. I take this chance to occasionally peek at the boy around my age, he has silver hair like his mom, it’s pretty. He idly sat on the stairs while staring off into space, I wonder what he’s thinking about?

After a while, Mary came back with two of the knights.

“Alright, let’s go, Selene. Master Alex, if would follow me please.” Mary politely said to the boy.

(So his name is Alex.) I thought.

It seems he was completely distracted because he’s really surprised when Mary calls out to him.

“Uh, yeah.” He answers.

The three of us, now joined by the two knights, exited the mansion and made our way around back.

Once we arrived, the boy started to check out the scenery. I haven’t talked to anyone around my age before so I’m kind of nervous to speak up. It was then that he turned around and walked towards me.

“Uh, sorry, I’m not really used to talking to people, but my mom wanted me to play with you. Well um, what’s your name?” He asked with a slightly awkward tone and facial expression.

“Hehe, you really aren’t good at this” I agree with a chuckle.

He clearly looks confused, so I continue.

“If you want to know someone’s name, you have to tell them yours first! That’s what my papa taught me!” I say confidently.

His confused expression gives way to understanding.

“Oh, uh, I’m Alex. Alexander Emrick.” He says earnestly.

“My name is Selene McDowell, nice to meet you, Alex!” I say with a smile.

“Y-yeah. You too.” He echoes while scratching his cheek.

Papa does the same thing from time to time. I tried asking Mary about it once, but she just told me it’s cause he’s hopeless. I don’t really know what that means but I find it funny that he’s doing the same thing as my papa.

“So, how old are you Selene?” Alex asks.

“I’m 6 years old, what about you Alex?”

“I’m turning 8 soon...I think.” He says slightly unsure.

“Fufu, what’s with that? You don’t know how old you are?” I say with amusement.

“I spend all my time reading books, so I’ve been losing track of time,” Alex responds while scratching his cheek again.

“Oh yeah, you were reading a book earlier too! What was it?” I excitedly ask.

It’s like he turns into a different person because of his drastic change in expression and mood.

“That one was ‘The basics of Trade,’ it’s a great introductory book in a series of economics books written by a famous human in Jotum, it provides detailed personal accounts of how travel traders make money all around the world,” Alex explains passionately.

I don’t really understand anything he’s talking about, but it looks like he’s happy.

(He must really love books) I muse to myself.

“I like to read too; my favorite book is ‘The Legend of Kyran Emrick.’ Have you read it?” I ask.

“Oh! You like that one too? It was my favorite bedtime story! I want to be like my ancestor Kyran one day, he built a large and peaceful city in under 10 years! I really wish they had more books about how he did it.” Alex answers quickly.

“I want to be strong like him, the way he used his spear to defeat all the demons was awesome!” I say while throwing an imaginary spear from my hand.

“You want to be as strong as Kyran Emrick? I think that might be tough for a little girl like you...” He says to me carefully.

“What! No way! My teacher says I’m gonna be super strong one day! I even learned a tier 2 magic spell today!” I say proudly.

“A tier 2 spell? Are you sure you didn’t mistake a tier 1 spell for a tier 2?” He asks me with obvious doubt.

I frown slightly at the unintentional jab at my intelligence then grin and say.

“I’ll show you.”

I quickly close my eyes to concentrate without bothering to wait for a reply or his reaction. Since I’ve already done it successfully not that long ago it doesn’t take long for me to visualize the Rune for ‘Shadow Walk.’

I turn into a blur that circles around Alex then I deactivate the spell while behind him and tap him on the soldier.

“Whoa!” he says as he spins around in complete surprise.

“That was the tier 2 darkness spell ‘Shadow walk!” he says shock written all over his face.

“Who taught you to be able to use that?!”

I say with pride “The Duchess Serah Babylon!”

His face turns even more shocked before it turns into an expression of understanding.

“For someone like her to finally take a disciple...Just who are you? Come to think of it, you don’t look like a vampire...” Alex mumbles.

“That’s rude! My papa just says my fangs won’t grow in till I’m 10 for some reason.” I chided.

“Huh? Can that actually happen?” Alex asks dumbfounded.

“Yeah! My papa would never lie to me.” I answer with folded arms.

“I don’t really know much about biology yet, maybe I should learn more about it.” Alex thinks out loud.

“Selene. I have a request for you.”

Alex took my hands and looked into my eyes with a serious expression. I feel my face getting a little hot for some reason. I look over to Mary for help, but she has an amused expression.

“W-what is it?” I awkwardly ask.

“Please Selene, can you teach me magic?” He says with a serious tone.

“I, I don’t really know how to teach magic.”

“Please! I beg you!”

Alex grips both my hands with a firm grip. I beg Mary with my eyes for help and she gave a sigh and came over.

“Now, master Alex, Selene’s a little young to be taking on disciples. Also, I believe this is something that you have to request from the mistress as well.” Mary says.

“Ah...right.” Alex dejectedly says and then lets go of my hands.

I don’t really know why Alex wants to learn magic so badly but seeing his sad expression somehow makes me feel uneasy.

“Alex, how about we ask my teacher together!”

“Really? You’d do that for me?” Alex responds with hopeful eyes.

“Yeah! I’m sure it’ll work out!”

“...Thank you, Selene.”

Alex gave me a soft smile, I’m happy to be able to help my new friend.

“But you have to promise to come over to play with me more okay?” I add.

“Of course!” He happily says.

“Now, let’s play! How about tag?”

“Sure!”

***

Meanwhile, up on the balcony, Serah Babylon and Aura Emrick were enjoying their afternoon tea. In the corner of their eye, they catch the two children playing tag with each other.

“Oh my, that little bookworm is playing tag? That’s the first time I’ve seen him do anything other than read books in years.” Aura says with a surprised expression.

“Fufu, careful Aura, if young Alex falls for Selene, he’ll be in for a world of disappointment.” Serah chuckles.

“What do you mean?” Aura inquisitively asks.

“Well, I’ll keep that a secret for now,” Serah answers with an amused tone.

“Aww come on, tell me!” Aura whines with a childish tone.

“Noope~”