- Rich Lady skips a few years

Bodie returned to Adelynn's bedroom. The doctor, Mr.Myi, was already inside. He had an old book in his hands, reading as he stood over her crib.

Bodie quickly dismissed his daughter's maids, then took a stand beside his friend.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell the council? So far my research has turned up dry; I cannot discover the magic used to curse this child, nor at what time it must have been cast. Spells this permanent can only be premeditated."

Mr.Myi was straightforward with his concerns. Whatever happened to Adelynn was a mystery. Therefore, it must've been magic. Magic could do crazy, unimaginable things. Rewriting a child's DNA, yet not, was completely possible.

However, was it possible to reverse it? Bodie had been putting aside much of his council work to look into it himself. When the work started piling up after two months, he spoke with Mr.Myi, whom he entrusted the duty.

There was still no answer. Sure, magic could be somewhat reversed, but not by anybody. In addition, this isn't a simple spell to reverse.

If Grecira's council became aware that something this abnormal happened, they would work to solve it. However, the council isn't small. There is no telling how many people on it would be curious in other aspects.

Bodie didn't trust them not to want something or not to push some sort of agenda. Anyone could say anything because she's his weakness.

He couldn't let something happen to his child, to Emil's child.

Mr.Myi didn't ask again after reading the answer from Bodie's tired face. He sighed to himself, then spoke up again.

"This spell isn't a solution, but it is impossible to see through." He moved the book he was reading into Bodie's view.

The words were in old elvish, which was difficult to completely understand, but enough were recognizable.

Mr.Myi continued, "It will take me a few years to discern a potion equivalent, but it should be possible."

Bodie took that in; a 'few years' might not be too long... "Until then?" He questioned.

"Until then, I will have to repeat the spell as often as able. Your princess will be seeing a lot of me." Mr.Myi chuckled slightly, getting the sleeping baby's cheek a light pinch.

"Keep your dusty hands away, Myi." Bodie flicked his hand, earning an 'ow'.

***

A bush of lavender and rose-colored common hibiscus swayed. Both colors were slightly discolored in the center, having a distinctively white color. The surrounding leaves were mostly yellow, occasionally green.

The child hiding behind the 5-foot tall bush shivered a bit. It's a cool evening, yet she came out wearing a sundress, coming just above her knees. The spaghetti strips certainly didn't make her feel any warmer.

Nevertheless, Adelynn refused to go inside.

It's been a few years since her reincarnation.

Naturally, she discovered many things she didn't when she was turning 1 year old. Today is her 6th birthday.

Over the past 5 years, Adelynn realized the world was bigger, more diverse, and more developed than she thought.

Firstly, there aren't only 3 kingdoms: Grecira, the Elf Kingdom, Shartana, the Human Kingdom, and Arcanum, the Fairy Kingdom. There was one she didn't know back then: Latico, the Dwarf Kingdom.

She discovered this fourth kingdom when she was learning to read basic words. Mya bought several baby books about animals, shapes, colors, and most importantly, the kingdoms.

Adelynn couldn't have been more thankful. Although the elven language and hers seem extremely similar, there were many inconsistencies past informal and formal speech.

The books summarized information about each kingdom, or, country, as they consider themselves.

As expected, Adelynn didn't need to change her guesses about Grecira or Shartana; Grecira is peaceful with elves being connected to animals, Shartana is impoverished with humans having no spiritual connections to anything.

Arcanum, on the other hand, isn't as closed-off or secretive as she assumed. Fairies tend to be humble and study magic only because it's the most abundant in their region. Other races could experience severe side effects being around their concentrated magic. In turn, lesser side effects may happen around them.

While learning that, Adelynn felt the urge to travel to Arcanum anyway. Surely those side effects wouldn't be anything much, seeing magic up close had to be worth it.

Magic is too rare, or completely passive, in Grecira.

However, this is where her curiosity turned to Latico. In the books, it was described as an 'equal power' to Arcanum.

If Arcanum is a world power due to magical prowess, Latico is a world power due to production prowess.

Fairies are born with the lucky connection to magic, while Dwarfs are born with a connection to nature in a completely physical way; their hands work magic.

Most of the architecture in Grecira and Shartana is based on Latico churches and schools. A picture of a famous statue (though Adelynn doesn't remember what/who the status was) credited Latico as the first country to build a realistic animal structure.

In addition, the country is the most advanced technology-wise, being famous for creating this world's first printing press and mobile clock.

She originally thought growing up in this world would be a nightmare. None of her era's technology existed, and she couldn't see anything suggesting the century was one of the most ancient; the 20th century.

If she searched her memory she would remember earlier centuries mentioned in history, but that would consume too much energy. Either way, the development of this world was far too behind hers.

Learning about the existence of Latico and the fact only a few of their inventions, such as the printing press or clock, become international, while others are kept within the country's borders for their use, Adelynn had hope.

Magic would be amazing, but she could live a long life without it. On the other hand, how long would she survive the withdrawal of a world without technology?

Imagine doing every task yourself; without robots, nanotechnology, or electromagnetic solar run servants to keep your day lively.

Experiencing it for 5 years, Adelynn was determined to mix in with Dwarf society one day.

Something else she learned was that it's more accurate to call Elves, Humans, Fairies, and Dwarfs, "species". Similar to how the humans of her world used to be called the "Human race", but have 'races' depending on genetics, changed to "Human species" when the galaxy opened up.

The basic elf heritage classes were already started and taught personally by Bodie's doctor friend. He was more of a doctor these days, but still a chattering nuisance.

For now, she doesn't know too much about the topic. However, that's not too surprising. Plus, she wasn't bent on memorizing every race in Grecira, which, surprise surprise, is a lot bigger than she assumed.

The earth Adelynn reincarnated on is a good 2x the size of hers, with landmass making up 60% of the surface currently, 2x the landmass on her smaller earth.

Grecira is the third biggest country/continent, only larger than Shartana. It takes up 9% of the landmass. With that knowledge, Adelynn did the math and estimated the country must be approximately 21.6 million sq mi! How could she not be surprised?

However, the surprise didn't last long, considering the vast number of planets Adelynn traveled to and researched with her father.

In a way, this earth and its kingdoms can be called small.

Of course, these basic facts aren't the only things Adelynn learned in the past five years. She had to admit Bodie's early education was helpful, it was much easier to get accustomed to the country.

Speaking of—Adelynn's plan to become a protege was momentarily put on hold.

She believed she was learning at an accelerated pace since she quickly perfected the language and could recall everything taught without any effort.

Alphabet? Pah! She had memorized all 30! Yes, 30. Two are letters used in unique situations that normally only show up in formal writing, while the other two are used in the opposite situation; in the most informal conversations.

A noble only uses 28 letters, since no matter who they were with they had to be somewhat formal, even in families.

The other 26 were hardly different from English.

Numbers? Don't joke! She could count up to 1,000 without any hesitation the moment she realized numbers here were more-or-less spoken the same way as in her country.

Addition and subtraction? There wasn't a need to ask; at one point in life she could do the lost method of calculus in her mind!

She should've been the smartest baby, however, she underestimated elven genes.

Bodie would often praise her as intelligent, but shortly after her 5th birthday, Adelynn discovered the truth. She was brilliant for human babies. Elf babies? Only above average.

It was incredibly frustrating at first. Honestly, she couldn't bear her intellect being on par with literal babies. What kind of joke is that?

Luckily, she was 'above average' back then. Now, after nearly a year's worth of practicing her past life's skills she abandoned for over a decade, she was renewed.

Although she has no idea how intelligent she was on paper now, it should definitely surpass many. Her years as the daughter of a highly intelligent man could not fail her!

At this moment though, Adelynn was more focused on... other things.

Laas moved in shortly after the day they met and has been living with her and Bodie since. This year she's 11, so she's gotten much bigger and can no longer be contained in a room for hours.

Adelynn was also happy to be able to wander around now, instead of poorly crawling. As such, most of their playtime was spent together in the gardens.

This time was the same, with a surprise in store.

It was a simple game of "hide and seek", as Laas called it. She explained the rules a few minutes ago inside the mansion:

One person is the seeker, the one who counts to 20, then looks for the hider. One person is the hider, the one who hides and runs from the seeker. When the seeker touches the hider, they switch roles and play another round.

Naturally, Laas wanted to be the seeker. As the older person, and someone new to the game, Adelynn shrugged and agreed to be the hider.

Of course, none of this was known to Bodie or her maids.

Bodie was busy today with guests for some family tradition thing tonight, which she presumes is a surprise.

Mya was sent on an errand with the fairy butler, Alroy, a few hours ago. Mia was supposed to be watching them, but the housekeeper suddenly fainted on duty. As the one with the next highest servant rank, she went off to pick up the work.

There wasn't a moment for her to tell Bodie, or to ask him who should watch the children in her stead, so she left Laas in charge.

Laas is rather mature for 11, making Adelynn wonder if her nieces and nephews would've been too.

She knew when to be serious when to play, and how to listen. In her 5 years of living with Adelynn and Bodie, she hasn't broken a single rule or been in trouble.

The same couldn't be said for Adelynn.

However, she wouldn't fuss with a kid. In the eyes of the staff, little Adelynn looks up to Laas, hence, she listens to her.

With that in mind, Mia fed Laas a few words, warned Adelynn a bit, and went off.

Laas, as well, warned Adelynn. She said where they could and where they could not hide; the garden was a no-no.

Yet, here Adelynn is.

She leaned against the off-colored bush and glanced at the way she came in. She waited for a few seconds, then sighed in relief. No one saw her.

Adelynn wanted to play the game, but when roaming the mansion for a place to hide, she got distracted.

A long, large, hairless thing rushed past her at some point. She was bewildered, even a little frightened. However, more than anything, she was curious.

Were there 'monsters' in this world? If so, would a monster be able to sneak onto a noble's property, especially one of that size?

She noticed it from a window, then saw nothing a second later. A gust of wind followed, denoting its speed and size to be extreme.

Normally, she may do the opposite of hiding, and finding someone to warn about this monster.

But, when she ran over to the window to get a better look at it, it was gone. It completely disappeared, not leaving a trace of its existence.

Could monsters use magic? Was it her imagination? No, it couldn't be—Adelynn never once hallucinated in her life, there was no reason to now—so, if this was a magical monster, should she let it run away?

Her curiosity told her not to, leading her to quickly head in the direction the monster ran–the garden.

Now that she was here, and no one noticed her, it was time to investigate.

The bush she hid behind was her favorite, as it was flowers she recognized from her father's garden. The style of her father's and Bodie's gardens were very different, but this similarity was something she was pleased by.

Unsurprisingly, she came to the garden often because of that, just to be reminiscent and smell the hibiscus.

Although she hadn't explored all areas, Adelynn forged a map in her mind of the garden to never get lost. As long as she thought about it correctly, there was no way she wouldn't find the monster.

She slipped away from the common hibiscus bush, then started down a path with other 5-foot bushes. Most shared a lavender-blue color scheme, 5+ petals, and another, lighter, tint somewhere, either the petal tips, the flower stems, or the flowers' center.

They towered above Adelynn who, much to her dismay, was small for 6yrs old. She's a well-rounded 1 yard in height.

She didn't take the time to admire the bushes like always, instead looking at the ground for any signs of something running by.

To her luck, there were many broken yellow leaves and branches pushed away from their original position. She smiled proudly, then continued following the trail of smashed leaves.

Not long after, Adelynn dropped to the dirt in exhaustion.

"ugh.. If I stay out here.. will I catch a cold?" She asked herself. She was tired of walking, cold, and sweating, a part of her even dared to want to sleep in the dirt.

At this point, there was a rustling behind her, followed by a half-baked howl.