3 My Peaceful Days

I stared at the open floor ahead of me and took a deep breath. One more try. Giving it a running go, I ran forwards and cartwheeled. When that was successful, I tried again in quick succession but pulled my arms in. It worked. I collapsed to the floor in satisfaction having just completed this body's first aerial.

I wasn't on a bad timeline training-wise for a five-year old. Not that I was really training towards anything in the first place. This world didn't have athletic competitions other than male-only military-oriented tournaments.

There was a simple joy though in reclaiming some of my old habits and skills.

I'd have liked to do a couple more aerials now that I had the feeling for them, just to burn the move into my muscle memory but I was pushing it staying out this late. Velma would be entering my room soon to 'wake me up'.

I quickly gathered up my things and exited the abandoned building.

It had been a year ago that Eden and I had been walking through the gardens of the estate and came across the old groundskeeper's house.

It was luck on my part that the current groundskeeper chose to live in the town down the road with his family instead of in the provided housing.

It was a bit tiny, but after cleaning it up, the one-room house made for a pretty okay personal gym.

I noticed with surprise that the sun had risen further up the horizon than I had anticipated and panicked. I'd have to be careful not to not to be spotted on the way back, the manor's servants were probably already up for work.

Outside the mansion's east wall, I glanced up at my room's window on the second floor. I turned to the nearby oak tree and scaled my way up.

Reaching the branch by the window, I carefully crawled down its length and shifted my weight to a sitting position. I reached a leg out and hooked the toe of my boot under the top of the window pane and pushed, slowly jimmying the window open.

I wasted no time after I got in the room to change back into my nightgown and hop into bed.

Mere minutes later there was a rapping at my door and Velma entered, "My lady, it's time to wake up, breakfast is almost ready."

I grinned into my pillow, another perfect crime.

The clock in the dining room ticked in monotonous repetition as our family once again ate breakfast in complete silence. All that could be heard was the occasional clink of silverware, caused most often by me as my little arms were a bit too short to reach the table with ease while 'sitting up properly'. I had always thought that the dinner etiquette lesson scene from Princess Diaries was an exaggeration.

It was not.

"Father," Eden said, "Today I finished reading Epitat's Chronicles."

"Very good," Father nodded, "Your education is progressing nicely."

Eden beamed. This poor kid would probably do anything for a moment's attention from our parents.

I cared a little less. It probably didn't help that they might actually have technically been younger than me. It was a weird feeling TBH. Actually, it was pretty startling just how young my parents were. They had to have been teenagers through Eden's birth. It really drilled home this whole medieval-world scenario. Over these last couple of years, I had learned a lot about the world I lived in.

When I had turned one, I had my first dinner with the family. From then onward, I regularly attended family mealtimes and had a freer reign of the house. It turns out my isolation was a standard thing for noble families. Infant mortality was pretty high in this country since targeted medicines didn't exist for most diseases. The young, old and those with weak immune systems were always at high risk.

Anyone who was rich enough to own a multi-room house tended to quarantine their offspring to increase their chances. A more morbid fact; most parents chose not to get too attached to their kids until after they'd passed the high-risk stage of their lives. I learned that the hard way. Two years ago mother had another son, he did not make it to one. The indifference of my parents to the news was something that has left a chill down my spine since.

"Briar," my father said suddenly, and I glanced up from my food, alert. "Acacia," he said to my mother, she paused eating.

"There was a letter from Duchess Gallagher, have you read it?" He asked.

Mother looked up from her food with tired eyes. She was still in a nightgown, which seemed like a faux-pass but my father had never commented on it. She spent a lot of time bedridden and no matter how much I tried to eavesdrop on gossip, I've never really figured out why. I hoped it wasn't some genetic illness.

"Ah, yes," Mother seemed to shrink. "Her daughter is hosting her first tea party, we were invited."

"Have you written your reply?" He asked.

"N-not yet," my mother said.

"See to it you respond promptly, it is part of your duties as a noble woman of this country," I don't know if he meant for it to sound harsh, but it did. "It will also be Briar's unofficial debut so this must be done correctly."

My mother nodded quietly.

"Is her daughter my age?" I asked innocently.

"She's a year or so older... I think her name was Gwendoline," Mother said.

A shame, not Sakura/Viola.

"Will there be other girls there too?" I asked.

"Most likely she will invite all of the families that have girls of the young lady's age."

"I'm so excited!" I grinned. "I haven't met any other girls before!"

"Be sure to conduct yourself properly, you are representing this household," father said.

"Of course," I agreed. "I won't embarrass you or mother."

He grunted in approval and we ate the rest of our meal in silence.

I clutched my skirt with renewed determination under the table. I had no way of being certain Viola was a noble but this was the first chance I had to leave the mansion and search.

As ridiculous as the whole plot was, I couldn't really afford to pretend much longer that these peaceful days were going to continue. War was coming and only Viola could tell me when, where and how to prepare. More than anything I felt that meeting this world's future saviour would give me some peace of mind.

A week later I learned just how wrong I was.