6-7

''So...'' I speak up after devouring my third slice of cake. Sweets are the best. ''What do you want to do in the future, Emy?''

The girl diverts her gaze from the cake she is eating, finishes chewing her bite, gulps it down, and looks at me with an expressionless face. ''I want to be a Swordmaster.''

''Sword, huh.''

I have very little interest in swordplay or martial arts and such. I've never really imagined myself holding a melee weapon or doing CQC before.

''That's admirable, how's your practice going?''

''Last time I got tested I was at 5-star Novice.'' The girl says before taking another slice of cake, her seventh slice so far. What a monster.

For your information, there are 3 major roles in the world of fighting: Supporters, Defenders, and Damage Dealers, or DPS for short, although I'm the only one who uses this. And what are we fighting against? Monsters and demons.

Demons have sentience and are quite intelligent as well, they control monsters with dark magic and invade the territories of other races. Unlike in Anime where you can walk into a forest and monsters would just randomly attack you, there are just normal beasts there.

Most of the monsters are fighting armies at the border of the Empire and several other countries. Yes, we are at war with the demons right now, and we have lost quite a lot of land already. It will be much worse when the demon king resurrects in a few decades apparently, according to the goofy goddess.

If the elven territory is in the northernmost of the continent, then the demon territory is at the southernmost, sandwiched between the two is the Empire.

Anyway, back to the roles. Supporters are mainly just healers, occasionally, some mages join them to support other roles. Defenders are basically anyone who can protect themselves and their teammates against attacks. And finally DPS, this role is the most popular one, who doesn't like to stand out, right? Anybody who can significantly deal damage to the enemies is considered a DPS.

Emy's goal of Swordmaster is the end goal of most Sword users. Every class regardless of their role has the same ranking system: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master. Each rank has stars, going from one to five. Her being a 5-star Novice at that age is very unusual already, normally children at 9 or 10 are at most 2-star Novice.

I told my dad that I wanted to test my rank before, but he just laughed it off saying don't bother. So was it because I'm too weak or I'm too strong? I'm starting to question my dad's capability as an Archmage at this point after the book blunder.

''That's impressive, Emy, and you're like, 9? Or 10? This year, right?''

''...No, I just turned 6 this year.'' The girl stops eating for a second and answers me.

''...That's got to be a joke, how are you this tall already??'' The girl is like 1.25 heads taller than me, how the hell is she supposed to be 6 and I'm 5?? And she's a 5-star Novice at that age??

''...Twat I wo vot jow.''1 Emy replies while chewing the final bite of her ninth slice of cake. Stop talking while eating, it's unsettling with your stone face.

''...''

I'm speechless.

knock knock

The door opens after two knocks. I can see Sophia holding a chessboard, accompanied by my dad and another dude I don't recognize. He's quite handsome, looking at his white hair... I'm assuming he's Emy's dad, but I could be wrong, who knows?

''I've brought you the chessboard here, Your Highness. Please enjoy the game.'' Sophia places the chessboard down while I and Emy set the dishes aside.

I look at my dad and the man intently. It seems like Dad does notice my curious gaze. He turns to the man and says: ''This is Duke Campbell, my old friend, and your friend's father as well.''

''It's an honor to meet you, Your Highness, I'm Albert Campbell, Emilia's father.'' The dude bows lightly then turns to Emy ''I hope you and Emilia enjoyed yourselves.''

''Right, nice to meet you. Your daughter is very impressive, a 5-star Novice at that age.'' I reply calmly.

The man has an expression of surprise for a bit. ''You are really as incredible as Louis said, Your Highness.''

''Told ya.'' My dad chimes in. 

''What.''

What the hell did you tell him?

''Well, enough of that, old Abe here said he wanted to see your chess skill because I said you beat me before.'' My dad changes the topic, while Sophia has already retreated to stand near the door.

And I did beat my dad before, he was pretty good, actually.

With my dad sitting down on my side and Albert sitting on Emy's side, I start to arrange the pieces. ''Then let me have a game with Emy first, I'll play you later.''

''Emy? Seems like your two got along, huh.'' My dad smiles while patting my head.

Stop that, old geezer.

''Mhmm, I'm not very good, I've never beaten my dad before, but I'll try my best.'' Emy moves first with the white pieces while I got the black pieces.

''That's natural, Abe here is one of the best when it comes to chess. He immediately got addicted 300 years ago when chess was introduced by a Saint.''

Bet that's the case, another person from Earth. They call us Saints because apparently, the goddess told the world that she personally blessed us the Earthers.

''But I'll keep silent for now to let you two play first.''

 ''...And that's checkmate.'' I let out a little sigh after moving my queen to the back rank, my rook in the second rank. She got ladder mated2.

''...You're good.'' Says Emy, her face still neutral.

''You're not bad yourself. I enjoyed that.'' I reply while rearranging the pieces for the next game. It was very close actually, I had to channel my inner Magnus Carlsen energy to beat her. I reckon she's around 1100~1200 ELO.

''You're up next? Mister Abe'' I turn to Abe.

''Oh please, not you too.'' Abe has a resigned face, don't resign before you play the game, dude. ''Then, please.''

This time I got the white pieces.

 This is bad, really bad. It's only been 15 moves and I'm already down a bishop, I'm getting my cheeks slapped here, this guy's the real deal. This cannot go on, I need to protect my dignity as a princess.

''...It looks like I can't play around anymore.'' I mutter a cool line before closing my eyes.

Help me Stockfish!3

I begin to enter my current position on the digital board and proceed to play the best moves according to the engine.

And 37 moves later-

''I lost'' Abe says while reaching his hand out, I take it and shake his hand. He resigned, heh. Skill issue.

''That was insane, somehow you clutched out of the losing position.'' Abe's golden eyes spark. ''It's rare to meet a prodigy this strong, can we go again?''

''Sure thing.'' I said with my smuggest face. I can see Emy and Dad looking at me with admiration as well.

And with the help of my friend and savior Stockfish, I managed to beat him 3 more times before the door burst open.

''The great lady Seymour is here!''

''The great lady Seymour is here!'' A little girl, a cute one at that, kicks the door open and shouts.

She has light green hair tied in a twin tail flowing to her shoulder, and a pair of golden irises just like Emy's, albeit lighter, almost like the pale vanilla color of my hair. That, accompanied by a smug face gives her an impression of an utter brat.

''Energetic as usual.'' Says my dad with a grin, dude Abe has the same expression as well.

The little girl in question confidently walks towards us, bows down, and greets: ''Nice to see you again, Your Majesty and Your Excellency, lady Campbell as well.'' She then turns towards me: ''It's an honor to meet you, Your Highness, I am Raeliana Seymour.''

I thought she was a brat, but turns out she just has a really unique greeting, huh.

''Right, nice to meet you, just treat me casually, I'm more comfortable that way.''

''Great. I hate formalities as well. I'll call you Sylvie then, is that alright?''

''Sure thing, Liana. By the way, what in the world was that greeting you did before?'' That was weird.

''Heheh, I see you already made a nickname for me as well. And that greeting before was His Majesty's idea, he said that I could make a deep impression if I do that.'' Little Liana replies, giggling.

So the culprit was Dad all along.

''Dad, don't inject strange ideas into children, please. I'll tell Mom about this.''

My dad immediately switches from grinning stupidly to freaking out, let's ignore that.

''I'm not a child anymore, Sylvie. I'm 9 already.'' Liana puts her hands on her hip, puffing out her cutting board. 

Yes, you are. ''You look more like a 5-year-old than I do, Liana.''

That's actually true, her height is similar to mine.

''W-Well, I have a lot of room to grow, I'm sure I'll be taller than you and even Lady Campbell later.'' 

Don't sweat it, girl, you're beautiful as you are. LOL.

''Just call me by my name, I'll call you Raeliana too.'' Says Emy. ''I don't like being too stiff either.''

''That's fine by me, Emilia. By the way, I got here because of Her Majesty's request, but... What are we doing here?''

''We're playing chess, wanna join?''

New victim spotted.

''Sure, I only know the rule, but I'm sure I can beat you, I'm confident in using my brain.''

Heheh, gottem.

''Checkmate.'' Get Scholar mated1, idiot.

I can see her little face crumble in real time, this is so fun! Trolling and bullying children are two of my favorite things to do. Maybe I should troll more often, this is great.

I don't want to go overboard though.

''Well, should we do a little exercise outside now? Sitting down too long is not good for your health.'' I declare with a nonchalant face.

''Right, I'm also good at moving my body!'' Little Liana seems to be very competitive, well, that's not a bad mindset, I guess.

''Said the one who sleeps for almost 18 hours a day.'' My dad looks unconvinced, I'm telling the truth though, and I only sleep 10 hours a day, the remaining 8 hours I use to go on the Internet and practice controlling mana.

''I don't sleep for 18 hours, Dad, it's just that I was meditating to improve my mana control.'' I state while slowly getting out of the chair.

''The maids said you were closing your eyes, unmoving the whole time though.''

My maids, including Sophia, are apparently not mana users, so they couldn't see me control mana in my room. My nanny Isabella got an 'important' job to do so she went out 2 years ago as well, my parents didn't even bother to hire a new nanny for me cause they thought it was unnecessary. So everybody thought I was just sleeping, then?

''But I'm not lying.''

At some point, I think it was when I was 3 years old, I was able to move my mana even when closing my eyes. I tried and it was harder than normal, mainly because I can 'see' mana with my eyes, but I also felt like my control was getting better, so I just kept doing that. Before that I did sleep a lot though, maybe that was because of my young body.

''Sylvia, my daughter, controlling mana with your eyes closed is in the territory of Intermediate mages already.'' Dad tells me with a raised eyebrow.

I shrug. ''Well, guess I'm an Intermediate mage then. I've been doing that for 2 years, by the way.''

''...Unbelievable, even the first princess of the empire was only able to control mana with her eyes closed when she turned 9!'' Abe is apparently flabbergasted, actually, everyone here is. I guess the difference is because I'm doing it more consistently and earlier than most kids do, and some talent I guess, if I were to believe Miss DarkLordOfTheFlame or whatever.

''Enough of that, what does everyone want to do outside?''

''Why don't we try fighting monsters then? I think Louis can recreate some from his memory.'' Abe dude speaks up. Looks like nobody opposes the idea either.

''Let me get my mom here then, I bet she also wants to see the princess fight.'' Says Liana.

We just arrived at the training field in our castle, it is pretty spacious, the floor is made out of cobble, and I can see the weapon racks in the corner also.

My mom and another lady joined us halfway, she is Liana's mom, one of her moms, to be exact. Green hair green eyes, overall pretty and friendly. Actually, I think every elf is just straight-up beautiful, I've never seen an ugly one before, even my maids are insanely pretty. But I've never seen any elf with a pair of milkers bigger than C cup, so I'll be the first one to surpass that, hopefully.

''So you're going to summon fake monsters, Dad?'' I send my dad a questioning gaze.

''That's right, don't underestimate me, my princess. I am a 4-star Archmage, and I've been to the frontline fighting demons before. Using illusion magic to make 1 or 2 dragons is well within my capabilities.'' He says that with a confident smile, I guess my dad is really strong, huh, his writing skill is horrendous though.

''So who wants to go first?''

''...I'll go.'' Emy speaks up, her eyebrows are a tiny bit lower than usual, and her mouth slightly curls up. I guess she likes fighting.

''Sure, you're a 5-star Novice, so a Werewolf should be a good opponent.'' Dad flicks his finger, and I see mana gather on the ground a bit away from us, gradually forming into the shape of a werewolf, this one... Feels kinda 'bluer' than the one I saw in books, the color of mana, probably because it's fake.

Still, two meters tall, humanoid but has fur and its head is a wolf's, long hands with sharp claws, pretty intimidating, if you ask me.

Emy trots back from the corner of the field where she just ran to, with a two-handed sword.

With her legs slightly spread, two hands holding the sword pointing at the monster and activating her mana coating on her sword, which makes the sword more durable and sharper, she signals my dad. ''I'm ready.''

''Go.'' The werewolf immediately bursts into a run, heading straight towards the girl, ready to pounce on her. All the while growling, that's pretty scary.

Emy dodges the claws coming horizontally from left to right by ducking down, slashing at the wolf's right thigh, making it falter a bit before it goes back to attacking again.

This time, the werewolf uses both of its hands, going from top to bottom diagonally, forming an X. Emy instantly falls back, rendering the attack null. After that, she charges in with a high jump and cleanly cuts the monster's head before landing very gracefully on the ground. A trail of gold made from her sword's mana remains for a few seconds in the air.

clap clap clap

That was pretty clean. Deserves a round of applause.

''Well done, lady Campbell, I think at that level you should be in the range of Intermediate already.'' My dad smiles. Old Abe dude almost cries, it seems he's very proud of her, why are you two, wait three so similar to each other?

''Thank you, your Majesty.'' Emy bows with a small smile. She did a good job, really.

'''ll go next then, can I trouble you, Your Majesty?''

It's Liana's turn this time, well, let's see her strength then.