4 Not an Amateur

"This is the third time, Master," the little squirrel said with that cute expressionless face of his. Is he rolling his eyes at me? This little one is asking for a lesson… humph.

We lived a beautiful and peaceful life for three months, yes, it was like a dream come true. The little house with white walls and wooden doors was enough for the two of us. Just some rooms, a little kitchen, a small living room with a comfy couch, a dark creepy attic with dust everywhere, and the best room of the house, perfect for a crazy inventor like me, a wide dark basement.

Go through the main entrance, then turn right and after opening the dark blue wooden door, there it is, just down some old spiral stairs. The room where I hid my little inventory of machines, potions, tricks, and strange things I found in the road, and in the hidden shops in the town, or what the wandering merchant had in his wide storage.

He was quite resourceful, that guy. The way he managed to bring out the most strange items as he was using magic made me kind of suspicious, maybe he was really a magician. Then again, he was a vendor, or how the townspeople liked to call him, merchant Sebastian. He was a man of many talents, with a quick tongue and polished phrases, even with the wise and wit to tell stories and news he had heard on the road. What else do you need to be a trickster? He was the full show.

"Sigh… master, we are wasting a lot of money…"

I looked at the young boy at the top of the basement stairs, he was holding a shield. Something Sebastian told him he will need later. Tch… is that merchant not aware that he is adding more to his identity suspicion? "Go... go look after the shop, you little squirrel, go sell your flowers, and don't come back!"

I wanted to transform this little squirrel, with beautiful caramel eyes and an expressionless face, into a wooden doll, that way he will think before mocking his master again.

Then the people in the town will think that I opened a new shop, other than a flower spot but a toy shop. Then we will give this little squirrel his desired money.

However, these people in the town were making me think something was not right. Although no one knew that I was a magician, well, they had to be wondering that the strange girl in the town was covering something, right? Still, no one asked anything, they were all just too kind. There is a strange suspicion lurking in my heart. From some time I guessed no one in the town had even a little clue about my true abilities because the town was full of klutz, but… were they fooling me?

Well, it was more than evident that something out of the ordinary was happening in my flower shop. The many rabbits I tried to buy from the farmers, the many designs I gave the carpenter to build, even the strange clothes I asked the dressmaker to make, all of that must, at least, gave them a hint, right?

However, they just regarded me as an ordinary florist who had a little shop, so little to be noticed in the town's market. And that became the fattest and worst lie of the year. They should have noticed it by now because what I know about growing, caring, and arranging flowers could amount to only a few words, roses are red, sunflowers are yellow and the others I don't even know their names.

The ones who knew about that amazing art were Marcus, and Jena, and maybe Lily, and Tom. Marcus was the former owner of the flower shop, but he sold it to me after he became desperate for money and medicine. Jena was the one who needed the medicine, she was Marcus's wife, and Lily and Tom were friends of the little squirrel with the name of Matty.

*Boom!*

"This is the fourth time, Master."

"Tch…" I will get my revenge on this little expressionless guy without any remorse for making fun of me.

I knew that with this fragile and delicate body of Jane, my skillful hands will have a hard time remembering the way to create my inventions, my awesome machines, and the right mixes of my potions. It is not my fault that everything blew up when my trembling hand used a bit more powder than was required.

Sigh… I miss my powers so much. Everything was easier with them. That the powders were too strong, then I will create a magical bubble to contain the explosion. That the powders were not that strong, then I will enhance them with my magic and then I will storm an evil village.

However, what I miss more are my machines, they were so funny. Even before I possessed the real magic, the one that any magician dreamed of. Those artifacts, devices, pieces of technology, or machines were considered a wonder.

Master Jerit kept some of them as toys and gifts when he first came to my lab and put the deal on the table, he told me that I won't need them anymore and he better trash them, but I know he stored some of them. He even dared to hide his fruitless attempts to secretly discover the engineering inside my inventions.

I knew he was fascinated, and maybe that is why he chose me to be his disciple in the first place. I wonder what is he doing right now? Is he mourning my death? Or taking revenge? Or raiding my house for my machines and manuals? Yes, I bet for the last one.

Heh… if only he had told me earlier, and if only he had taught me more of his secrets, then I will have helped him. What a shame.

"Master, are you crying?"

"No."

I was crying, but this little chip will never know.

From the manual, I had to start with the basics of the basics. However, who on earth will make me start from the introductory page when I was the one who wrote that? I am not an amateur, I am an expert in designing complicated…

*Boom!*

I am crying.