Prologue 1-1 (Zoe)

Outside the Maximilim Orphanage stand two elder women waiting for Royal Academy's Magic testers and teachers. Even if barely anybody wants to adopt kids from their run-down orphanage, the magic testers still come every year to all orphanages over their kingdom, this one is no exception.

When a child reaches nine years old, they can be tested for magic, if they have it or not and if they do, what kind of elements could they utilize, and how strong they could hope to be when they grow up.

And those with exceptional abilities from a young age could get the magnificent opportunity of getting their own magic teacher, which is why the testers always come with teachers. But the best part is that if a teacher chooses a youngun to teach, they are to adopt them if they come from orphanages, so the two elderly women hope that at least one or two children could get this chance.

In the last four years, not one child was chosen. Both of them and everybody else from the orphanage was sad because of it. If not for these magic tests, the children would be forgotten here entirely, so they pray that today somebody gets a place they could call home.

And in several minutes of waiting, the two women see about fourteen individuals walk in tandem with one another, all adorned with expensive and fancy clothing. Middle-aged and old-aged people, only one of them could be called a 'young' person, with calm and cautious looks on their faces, none smiling.

"Lady Takni, we meet again" The lead tester says to one of the elder women, with a blank face.

"Oh, no need to flatter me by calling me Lady, Sir Bark" Noelle Takni, the caretaker of the Maximilim Orphanage says with a kind smile, but behind that smile, her thoughts are less than kind.

She doesn't like this pompous stuck-up know-it-all, who only cares for himself or for the strong. If the orphanage were to burn down right now, with the children inside, he wouldn't even bat an eye or put the effort to save them if none of them had the power to do so themselves. He makes her sick. But she has to keep up appearances and treat them kindly in hopes that it may sway some of the people behind him when it comes to taking a child. if only she could make this 'Sir Bark' bark for her just like his last name suggests, if only.

"Well, we've done this countless times, so shall we get to it?" Bark states and doesn't wait for an answer and moves past the two elderly women, the group behind follows after him with a small nod when passing the two women.

Noelle's smile almost breaks when this happens, but she manages to hold it because of years of experience from kissing up to this asshole's asshole. If she were to step out of line, the orphanage might get shut down if he puts in a word for it, a high ranking country's cunt that nobody would pay to even see let alone touch. She still has a hope that one day he will get his comeuppance, that hope diminished over the weary years, but it's still there.

While Takni's thoughts go off in her head, her eyes register one of the people inside Bark's group that just passed her, no expensive or fancy clothes, hair not kept in perfect condition, in fact, if she were to go out into town, she'd see men like these everywhere. Wearing commoner clothes and not good ones either, tears in random places, uneven beard, bloodshot eyes with dark circles below them. Why is he with this group? He sticks out like a sore thumb.

Never mind, Noelle shakes her head to get out of her daze and follows after Bark and his group. If this untidy man is alongside Bark, then he must not be a good influence too. The woman near Noelle follows silently right after her, if she could speak she would do so happily and shit-talk these nobles without mercy.

Now with everybody inside, Noelle takes the lead and leads them to the biggest room of the orphanage, which isn't the kitchen and cafeteria. The room has three entrances, the main one, the one they came in from. The other two lead to two smaller rooms, one is for boys, the other one is for girls.

The children have already been instructed on what's going to happen, yes, all of them knew that this day is coming, since some of them have been here for long enough to remember some of these people from prior years, but they still went over the basics, because it's their turn now, not their older brothers and sisters.

This year, the Maximilim Orphanage has twelve nine-year-olds, three more than last year, so there's a higher percent chance for one to be picked by a teacher.

In the room there are two chairs, they test two children at a time. The testers quickly set up the whole mechanism, they took out two metal helmets from their briefcases and attached them to the chairs, with a height adjuster for those smaller/taller.

These helmets tell the testers pretty much everything that revolves around magic. Their magical grade level, the possible elements one could conjure, and the approximate age where they would hit their peak, it's not the most accurate statistic, but it is surely less wonky than in the past, now it has around seventy percent to be correct and in the future, it may be perfected, of course, nothing has a guarantee, but the closer you get to it, the better. And many other little details about the person's ability they can see.

"Lady Takni, we are ready, you can see them in" Bark states after checking up on the equipment, to see if it's okay.

"Mhm" comes out as a noncommittal agreement from Noelle, she dislikes when she's called a lady, particularly by him, she's a full-blown woman, not some spoiled, hissy fit-throwing hussy. Of course, all of her thoughts are hidden behind a perfect smile as she goes to open the doors to let one boy and one girl come and take their tests.

Two young but cheerful children come out in poor clothes, rags is what the rich would call them, but to these young lads it's enough, it gives them warmth and if it were to tear apart in some place or another, the orphanage nannies would resew them, making them better than new.

"The boy on the right chair, the girl on the left, sit down" Bark says with a blank face, not showing any goodwill towards these peasants. The faster he finishes his business here, the earlier he can move on towards the nobility where actual talent is, as this is the last place to visit where these filthy oxygen-wasting wastes lay.

"Y-yes Sir!" The boy meekly but respectfully answers while the girl throws a side away silent glare at the man and both of them sit down. The girl heard the head caretaker complain yesterday in secret about these 'higher-ups', so there's no way she will show any kind feelings towards them, as she sees Noelle as her own mother, she doesn't need anybody else.

"Sir Bark, we are ready" One of the testers says to their leader.

Bark simply nods not interested and so the magic testing begins.

"Girl, age nine with two months and ten days, mother unknown, father deceased. real name unknown, pseudo-name Elise" The tester for the girl speaks out loud, for their leader to hear.

Bark isn't listening whatsoever, the only thing he heard was the word 'girl' and he shut off the rest. However the information made the girl's eyes go wide, it's all new to her, especially the fact that her dad is dead, she always thought that he just left her along with her birther, it made her shed a silent tear, at least now she knows that she shouldn't blame him.

What the girl however didn't think of is the fact that her so-called father could've died way after he gave her away, which is what happened, he died only two years ago, which she'll never know, thus now when she will think about her dad it will be with happy thoughts instead of negative ones... Which is both a good thing and an extremely sad thing.

While the girls' thoughts go haywire, the tester continues on reading the results "Grade one, potential elements: Water, Light, peak at age thirty-five with grade two bordering grade three"

"That's about it, want her?" The reading tester directs the question to the nine teachers.

"Hmm, there's a lot of water magic casters, Light isn't that bad. If only Estella would be here today, she might take her, should we take her for her? She likes them healers after all" One of the teachers said with a chuckle when he mentioned his colleague.

"No, you're right about her obsession with healers and the light element is the most versatile when it comes to that, but she's only Grade one and Estella told us that she only cares for grade twos and up. And even if her peak can be grade three, that peak is way too far away to be even considered for nurturing" Another one answers with a thoughtful expression.

"She's right, a Grade two that peaks at grade three is a hundred times better than the grade one that peaks at three after all. Less time to nurture is all so faster to be effective... Not to mention she might not even survive before she hits her peak, so why bother"

"Okay then, she is checked off" The reading tester says after hearing the teachers talk and quickly takes the helmet off of the girl's head "Young lady, you can go, thank you for your time" He says with a smile, however that smile isn't kind at all, it's not even malicious... It's just blank as if he wasn't looking at anything worthwhile. and the 'kind' words were just instinctive and year-trained manner talk.

The girl's hands clenched into fists, she clenches them so hard that it's almost drawing blood. The way they talked about her, the way they evaluated her... The way they neglected her as if she was a mere thing, not a person, not a human... Like an absolute nothing. She has to hold it in... her tears, she has to hold them in, she promised the nannies that she won't cry if she won't get picked, she promised, then why is her face already wet, she doesn't want to be seen like this by anybody, she's a tough human, she's almost an adult, only kids cry...

Elise quickly goes back to the door she came from, almost running even, but it was more or less just fast walking.

Her orphan brother who's sitting in his own seat waiting for his evaluation looks in her direction with sympathy, in fact, his sympathy is so strong that he doesn't even want to be here and wants to just run away to comfort her. But he knows that he shouldn't disrupt the process of magic testing, it could damage the Orphanage. So he stops himself from moving by secretly pinching his thigh so that the pain could keep him occupied.

Of course, none of the adults paid any attention to the kids, in their eyes it's just dramatic antics, it will be over soon with candy or something. But none of their brains even think of the notion that even a single candy is a delicacy akin to a small treasure for these children.

Only Takni and her subordinate look at the door that the girl disappeared off to with pity, both of them cursing the group of testers and teachers in their hearts, wishing them nothing but hell, pain, torture, and hell again and in that order too, the order is also put on repeat to never end.

The second tester starts reading out the information about the boy.

"Boy, age nine and three weeks. mother Gvena, and father Pariee, both deceased. real and only name John. Grade two, potential element is only Earth, peak at age twenty-two with grade three... And it shows here that he already had used some magic before"

When the boy hears that, he blinks in surprise, when did that happen?

The teachers that see the boy's stupid expression realize that he did it unconsciously before, so their impressed impression was short-lived.

Two of the teachers state "I'll take him" at the same time and then glare at each other.

One of them starts "Why do you want him, you already have an earth caster in your ranks"

"Yeah? More couldn't hurt, it's not my fault that you can't procure an earth magician" The other one says with a gloating smirk.

"Well it's not my fault that earth magicians can only be found in rat-houses like these, outside of us highborn"

Noelle wishes she could strangle the one that said that with her own hands right now. These single virgin fucks have no idea how awesome parenting is, she hopes that they are as infertile as they are insufferable, as they don't deserve kids of their own, no, no, she hopes that their microscopic dicks are dysfunctional so that they can't even function in that department whatsoever.

"If you weren't stupid, you'd know why that is"

"Shut your mouth, those old farts and their textbook explanations are a hoax"

"HA! Spoken like a true idiot, if their explanation is not up to your standards, then please, come up with your own and get it approved by thousands, ya heckin' poser. It's not because they are commoners and we are nobles, it's because we nobles have no time, patience, or interest in playing with the trees and nature right from our birth, we have more important things to do. That's why earth particles don't like us and only... Mostly bless those of common birth, ya nimwit. Besides you only want him because he's an earth caster, I want him because he's grade two, the earth control is just a bonus"

The one that got berated logically by his pier grits his teeth in anger as he struggles to find a based argument. But before he could, Bark interferes.

"Valet, take it and move on"

Hearing their leader speak, the one gritting his teeth relents, even if he curses his pier for getting the one he wanted.

"Yes, sir Bark" Valet, the one with sound logic behind his words and neutrality towards commoners, will be adopting John and teaching him his ways.

Takni hearing that at least one of her children got chosen is ecstatic, even more so because the piece of shit she wanted to strangle didn't get little Johnny.

"Valet, take the lady beside Lady Takni and go register the boy as your own, while we continue" Bark states.

With a nod Valet comes up to the boy "Let's go, from now on I will be your teacher and your father, just know that the former comes before the latter, so I will be strict most of the time, but as long as you're good I will be good too"

John meekly nods, but doesn't voice out his opinions at all and just silently follows after the man and one of the nannies.

"Lady Takni" Bark calls out.

Noelle, understanding what he means, goes to the two-door to send in the next pair of kids.

During the hour that it took to test everybody else, every other pair after the first one was less and less impressive, with grades zero and ones, no twos or threes to be seen, not even any interesting elements, one of them had ice, but unfortunately, the child was grade zero.

The testers, teachers, and Bark at this point stopped paying any attention to the children and just started talking between themselves, mostly about academic and/or noble shenanigans.

The two reading the information and statistics about the children also stopped reading out most of it, only half-heartedly did they say the grade and element, no names, full age, or anything else was told for the last four.

And now there are only two left, and Noelle prays that the last two would at least get back these snobs' attention, as they are completely disregarding everybody but themselves. She doesn't even want to show them the two that are left and wants them to leave, so she could comfort and spend a nice evening with the disheartened children.

But unfortunately, she can't be selfish and has to go through the procedures from start to finish, just like these selfish bastards.

And so, she goes to the two-door for the last time and she brings out the two children, who are girls, they had five boys and seven girls for this year.

"Sir Bark, the last two are girls, hope that's not a problem" Takni speaks out.

"It isn't" Bark simply states and continues to talk to his comrades, not sparing the girls a second look.

The two girls follow behind Noelle, they are also holding hands. Noelle knows that these two are inseparable, always together and never apart, wake up together, sleep together and even walk together. So for this particular pair, she hopes that either they both get lucky, or both get unlucky. Wishing unlucky happenings on one of your children might be a bad thing as a mother, but as a 'mother' she doesn't want to see them separated, it could scar them emotionally to be left here when one goes away.

The two coming up to the chairs nod at each other and finally stop holding hands, they sit down and wait for them to be tested.

The information about one of them comes incredibly faster than the other.

"Ah... Sir Bark?" The reading tester calls out confused after looking at the results.

"What is it?" He says, slightly peeved because of yet another interruption and it can be heard in his voice, as everybody else shuts up at the same time and the reader that spoke to him would try to apologize, but this time he has no time for it due to the extreme confusion he's feeling.

"Could the test apparatus be broken by any chance?"

Bark blinks a few times in silence at the question due to its unnatural nature of it, but then shortly answers "No"

"Umm... Then..." The reading tester mumbles while scratching his cheek with his index.

"Come on, just say it, what's wrong?" Bark questions impatiently, not wanting to deal with this amateur. If there's one thing he hates more than the weak, it's when his time is wasted by others.

"I don't know how to say it, I-I think it would be best to see it with your eyes, sir!"

Bark sighs while he pinches the nose bridge between his eyes "Fine"

With that, he walks over to the chair of the testee and checks what's got this tester so confused.

Only for his eyes to widen as his own confusion starts appearing.

"Unknown?" He mutters to himself, but it was loud enough for everybody to hear as the room was dead silent.

"S-sir?" One of the teachers calls out.

"What do you mean unknown?" Another one questions.

"This girl's information... All of it is unknown, her grade, her potential element, even her parental figures... All but her name, it's all unknown" Bark answers the two who asked and the rest who wanted to ask.

Now all of the testers and teachers try to move in closer to check up on the helmet apparatus, Bark lets them just because he doesn't want to be touched by them for more than necessary.

"No way, it's actually unknown"

"Of course, it is, what? Did you doubt Sir Bark?"

"W-what, no, you know what I mean"

"We all do, it's just funny to see you sweat for no reason"

"So... I get why we are making fun of him, but shouldn't we talk about... Ya know, this?" The one saying this points towards the information window.

As he throws that question all of them go silent again.

"Maybe it crashed?"

"What do you mean crashed? This is the top-notch quality product here, designed by mas="

"I know, we all know, but never has this happened before, so I'm just saying that an error, a bug was 'bout to happen someday and I think this is it, not to mention that this is old equipment, you know that we don't use the best for these lowlives" Says the one that wanted John, but didn't get,

"Hmm... Maybe"

"There's no maybe, of course, it was faulty equipment"

While teachers and testers argue about it between each other, the girl sitting on the chair hears none of it, as she concentrates on something else entirely.

However, the other two, the friend of the girl, sitting on the other chair waiting for her turn, is looking at the scene with scared eyes, she doesn't understand this situation, nor does she know what's going to happen. As for the head caretaker of the Orphanage, Noelle Takni, she has no idea what's going on but she's shocked more than anything, she never thought she'd see these annoying group of people argue between themselves with anger around a topic that concerns them and actual real anger, not some joke between each other. She has a feeling of wanting to snack on something right now but doesn't get why.

"Okay, enough" Sir Bark says calmly but seriously, effectively shutting up everybody.

"Requip the helmet and redo the process"

"Sir!" The reading tester follows the orders.

In a minute or so, it is redone and all they get is the same thing. nothing changed.

After seeing this, sir Bark gives another order, but not before asking a question first "What is the name of this one?"

"Real name, Lemmillie. Pseudo-name, Lemie"

"Right. Take the helmet off of the other one and put it on Lemie, then do it again" When the second girl hears this stuck-up man call her friend by her username, her blood boils, how dare he do that, that name is reserved for those close to her, but before she could snap at him, she sees from the corner of her eyes Noelle shaking her head at her, so she stops herself, with great difficulty.

The reason why Bark said the pseudo-name instead of the real name is simple. Weaklings, peasants, and those that annoy him don't deserve the honor of his mouth uttering their full names. In his eyes, anybody called by their pseudo-name by him should be honored, as it shows that he actually has some interest in them, otherwise he wouldn't even refer to them by names at all.

"Sir!" The second reading tester that was waiting in place, well he was on tiptoes trying to see through the heads on the information screen about the other girl, but now he's standing in place.

He takes the apparatus off the girl's head. The first reader already there, started the process immediately the moment they got everything running.

Lemmillie during all of this was out of it, not paying attention to anything that was happening, the only thing on her mind was prayers... Prayers for a happy family, prayers for a family that would love her and not abandon her and she kept on repeating them over and over.

With the last prayer being 'I want to have a kind family'.

And just as the process started and that final thought arrived at the young girl's head, something incredible happened.

The whole room, no, the whole building and the immediate area around it started shaking, the windows shattering, the walls cracking, the doors coming off their hinges, several teachers and testers falling to the ground out of balance, the second girl toppling over along with the chair.

Magic cracked through the air, with intense pressure, there was so much pressure that most had a hard time breathing, only three people were okay-ish.

Sir Bark, and Lady Takni were two of those, but their breath could be seen getting harsher from the effects that the magic eruption is exerting. The only one that's truly okay is the unclean man, whose eyes are on the girl with the helmet and the area around her, that's absolutely unaffected by all of what's happening.

And just like it started, it stopped abruptly.

What lasted for only a few seconds, seemed to have lasted for several minutes.

Finally, everybody gets back up on their feet, panting and holding their hands to their hearts as they try to stabilize their entire existence.

There's only silence as all of them look around at the damage caused by this never seen before phenomenon, but it's finally broken by sir Bark issuing an order with the least calm voice he has ever let out as it cracked at the end, it was so unlike him that all of his colleagues and followers stare at him surprised without acting.

Bark himself seeing the expressions of his subordinates after his mess up, he quickly calms himself and after a cough, he repeats the order "Check what the information says now"

"Uhh... O-okay. Sir!" The reader awkwardly replies and walks back to the chair that still holds the girl, but what none of them noticed is that the girl has changed slightly, only her friend and Noelle did. The group of magicians didn't pay any attention to her before, so of course, they missed it.

But Lemmillie's hair had changed color before this phenomenon happened, her hair contained only one color and that was light blue, cyan. Now there are two... No three, the top part is still cyan, the bottom part turned red, the color of blood, and the third color, there's a little, barely noticeable nub of black, as dark as the night would be if there was no moon to moonlight the surroundings.

"S-s-s-sir" The reader stutters out.

"What? What is it? Why are you stuttering?" Bark questions, feeling that there's something wrong. And his feeling gets answered instantly and his heart sinks.

"T-the girl, she's a grade four and her magic element is gravity"

The room explodes with furious shouts from the magicians.

"WHAT?! A grade four? This commoner? THIS RAT?"

"NO way! Only the highest blooded nobles and the Royals have grade fours"

"Yeah yeah, check again, there's no way, it took four decades for Sir Bark to get to his peak of Grade Four and you're telling us that this unwanted miscreant has the talent of a king who united the human lands?"

"He's right, something's wrong, check again, maybe you need glasses"

"B-b-but" The reader who's already wearing glasses stutters from the pressure that the others are excluding onto him.

"Whatever, move, let me see" The second reader quickly shoves him away, the first one almost falling to the ground from the force.

And the eyes and the mouth of the second reader get stuck in place, in wide open motion as he sees the girl's information.

The ones furiously shouting at the first reader, shut up as they see the flabbergasted expression of the second one and they gulp in silence.

Sir Bark pushes through the group of people, not caring for his image and he sticks his head down to check the information.

After a moment of silence, he cranes his head back up to look at his colleagues and their uncertain and questioning eyes.

Bark swallows the knot he didn't know was in his throat and finally opens his mouth to speak.

"Sex: Female, Age: Nine years, not a day more, not a day less. Parents: Unknown, Grade: Four, Potential Elements: Gravity" After that, he stops himself for a moment, which isn't a good sign for the others, as their leader always speaks fluently without problems, so this is unprecedented.

"Age of Peak: Random"

Random? RANDOM?! What the fuck does that even mean? Everybody stares at their leader in baffled confusion. This is the first time such a description appeared, hell they didn't even know it existed beforehand, whoever even programmed it to do so?

But they see Sir Bark opening his mouth again and they realize that he is not done... There's still one crucial piece of information missing from all of this... The peak grade, that in most cases would mean something, but when it comes to grade fours, it's always graded four, which is why nobody pays attention to it when some gifted noble like the King's second son has gotten, only the age matters because that way they know when the grade four will be at their strongest. But all of them have this foreboding feeling that this isn't the case with this particular girl.

And they were right, as the next words of their leader cripple half of them as their knees go weak, most of them out of fear, the others out of how unbelievable this all seems.

"Grade Peak: Immeasurable"

Noelle's expression changed a bajillion times, but it finally settled on ecstatic with tears coming out of her eyes. Her grandmother's Maximilim's orphanage was built to help children without a home, the one she and her mom took over to preserve her memory, it nurtured such an amazing child, maybe there's still a chance for the orphanage to survive in the future. And for Lemie to get a home, which she always wished for, almost every night for the last few weeks after knowing that the day the magicians will come will be her ninth birthday, she would hear her pray silently by her bed for a family. And she will finally get her wish fulfilled, Noelle couldn't be happier, of course, that happiness gets overshadowed by another emotion.

Worry, she worries that the family that she gets will not be up to the standards that a loving family should be, that what she will get is not a family, but a prison. And her worry isn't for nothing, she knows all of the magicians here, more or less personally, none of them has what it takes to parent a child and most of them are disgusting noble elitists.

But still, she can't do anything about it, she just prays that she can survive and with that thought, she focuses on the happy feeling as she looks at her child with a proud expression.

However, that expression quickly turns sour, it turns into dread as she hears the words she never thought she'd hear in her orphanage, especially spoken about an innocent child.

??? Pov:

What's happening? Where am I? And why can't I hear anything? Why can't I see? What are these smells? What is this that I am feeling? Something's extremely wrong, really, really wrong. My body, it's not responding to anything and at the same time, it feels like it's not mine.

What's happening...

And most importantly, why... Just why is my head in such immeasurable pain, it hurts so much.

I clutch my head in pain, trying to numb some of it...

Wait...

My hands, they are on my head, they moved.

My brain seems to be catching up on something, I see why I didn't see anything, my eyes were closed.

I open them and quickly shut them down, it's too bright, I opened them too suddenly, let's try slower this time.

I blink several times each time faster, getting used to the colors again, it's as if I'm seeing them again for the first time, which is a strange feeling.

"Kill her"

Huh? Kill who? What is this about killing somebody? Don't you know that there are laws? Not to mention what would your mother think if she heard you speak like that. You might get a spanking and those don't feel good.

Wait, more importantly, that was a voice. I shake my head or at least try, but something hard and metally? On my head doesn't let me.

My hands reach up towards whatever it is and my fingers slightly poke it, yes, indeed, it's some sort of hat made of out metal.

Alright, another strategy then, let's use my eyes. Instead of spinning my head.

Huh? Who are these people and why are they dressed so weirdly? Is this a costume drama or something? Maybe it's cosplay? I think that I've seen something like this before.

All of their eyes met mine at the same time, as one of them whispered something.

No, no, something's majorly wrong here. No matter if it was an act for a drama or cosplay... Or whatever else it could be, nobody would look at me like that, with so much hatred and something else? Is that murderous intent?

How can I even have such a thought? Pretty sure having such feelings is fiction, to begin with, I don't think any human could actually exude so much pressure which would get picked up as killing intent by another human.

But maybe that's just me and it is actually real, I didn't use the internet to search up on it, after all, I wasn't interested before.

Wait, something touching me, I gaze at whatever it is and see a small hand timidly clutching onto... Who?

I blink again several times and raise my hand towards my eyes, my eyes go wide.

Me? These small hands are clutching onto me? but why are my hands even tinier than these ones? What is happening?

I move my hand out of my way and see tearful and big cute eyes staring back at me.

It's a girl... A little girl... A slightly dirty and freshly bruised? Girl.

I have no idea what's happening, but I know one thing.

I can't bear seeing such scared and sad eyes for too long, my sister would look at me like that back in the day and I always did whatever she wanted to cheer her up... Of course, she started abusing that power and using it more and more, which somewhat raised my tolerance towards it.

But something about these particular eyes resonates with me and I can't stand it any longer.

My hands move by themselves as both of my palms touch the dry face of the girl, my fingers softly slide over her unmatured bottom eyelashes clearing out the unshed tears.

My face muscles seem to move on their own as my face breaks out in a smile.

And by the response that I see on the girl's face, it seems that my expression succeeded. This girl's face got slightly red and a beautiful smile appeared on it.

Good, it seems it worked overall.

"Come on, we need to kill her. A commoner shouldn't be a grade four, to begin with, but with these new and insane peak details, there's no way we can let her live"

"I agree, besides, seeing as only nobles and Royals can get grade four and this girl's parents' information was unknown, who's to say that she's not some bastard child that was thrown away? If she was thrown away and reappeared, it could spell doom to some families. So overall, I agree with killing her"

Again, with this killing somebody talk. Seriously your mother would be so sad to hear you talk like that, how can you pain her so much?

I look around the room once more, now that the girl holding me has calmed down slightly. Her hold also feels nice, my sister would hold me like this, but it's different in a way. My sister would hold me as tight as she could, while this girl seemed to only hold me weakly as if she was the one who wanted to be held.

On the matter of my sister, sometimes I had a strange feeling when it came to her holding onto me, it's as if she wanted to never let me go and hold on forever.

As my eyes see the surroundings and set that information to the brain, I see that there are around sixteen or seventeen people here.

"But she's only a little girl"

I hear one of the men from the tightly grouped group speak out.

And from those sixteen people or so, there's only one girl here and she's clutching onto me right now... Do they want to kill her? These beasts, what has such a cute girl done to them for them to warrant killing her?

"So what if she is a little girl? It's better this way, her magic is untrained, and it will be easy to do it, besides it's not like she has parents and if she does, they don't want her, she's at this run-down and pathetic orphanage after all"

"Yes, yes, exactly. And if we let her grow up and learn how to use magic, who knows what atrocities will follow, maybe she will take revenge because she was abandoned. I say we kill her now"

"Sir Bark, please, we must kill her, there are too many reasons to not do it"

Bark? That's pretty funny, but I shouldn't laugh at it, maybe he had an unpleasant time in school. Some kids are really bad during their younger days after all and any 'funny' word would get used by them in mean and bullying ways.

Wait, this is not the problem right now, I need to protect this kid, killing somebody is already inhumane, everybody deserves a chance to live. But killing a child is super duper inhumane, they haven't even got a chance to live yet, so why would somebody want to take it away?

But wait... this girl's eyes and her clutch on me... This doesn't feel right. I know that she's not that young. To not understand anything that's happening, she should be around eight, and kids around that age are smarter than they first would seem. So why is it that she was looking at me like that...

My hand, I see it in the corner of my eye, sitting on my lap. My hand... My hand... So small.

My eyes go wide.

Because this girl isn't the only child around here, that's why she was looking at me like that, she was worried and scared for me.

But what's going on here? Why am I a child again, no, no, no, what even is this place, who are these people, and what is this about magic and killing?

This is seriously bad, all of the alarms in my head finally go off. This is not only wrong or bad.

This is straight-up insane.

Me. I'm their target. But why? I don't understand anything. My arm, it's shaking, my legs, they are quivering, my lips, trembling.

No, don't be scared, don't panic, calm down. First, listen, take everything in, and understand your situation. That's what your amazing mom taught little old you when dealing with new things and situations.

'Some of them may be scary, some may be funny and some may be beyond your understanding, but you should always think it through first and then act. If a person that may seem 'bad' at first tries to talk to you, don't judge them instantly, they might need help in directions first. And if somebody's sexual preferences, thoughts, and opinions may seem unethical and disturbing at first thought, don't abandon them, learn and educate yourself. As long as you think it through, all is possible.'

My mom's soothing voice sounds in my mind.

I breathe out and breathe in. Okay, okay, it seems I am okay again.

Now then, what is this situation? This is obviously no act or dream, this seems way too real to be anything but fake. So what might've happened? Did I die? How though? I know that I was always healthy, barely any time was spent sick in bed, it was my sister that would get sick a lot and I had to nurse her. I also know that after reading fifteen pages of a book, I went to sleep, as I do every day. So no accident happened.

Could it have been a death in sleep? Those are rare, but they do happen... Huh, was I that unlucky? Maybe I did something bad without knowing? And because I didn't know, the karma got me?

"Okay, we are killing this child" A rough voice breaks my thoughts about what could've happened to me.

My eyes landed on whoever spoke, seeing a middle-aged man, who's quite handsome despite the years. He could be an actor, or maybe even a super male model in my time.

But the words that came out of his mouth were disgraceful, how dare he think of taking the life of another. He needs a spanking, preferably from his mom, don't want to make it sexual... Unless he's into that sort of thing, in which case, no spanking would be better.

Most of the people from the group sigh out in relief, but only a few of them have uncertainty in their eyes.

"But, we aren't only killing the child"

The group of people blinks in confusion.

"No witnesses, we are burning down the whole orphanage, it's old anyways, so it catching fire in an accident isn't that improbable"

They go wide-eyed, but shortly thereafter they praise the man's genius.

An elderly woman that I saw when I looked around the place looked horrified at the words she was hearing.

According to the information that I've got, this is an orphanage and I am... Or this body was an orphan, then that woman must be one of the employees here, or maybe even the owner by the expression on her face.

But what an idiotic plan, these people are actually praising it?

"None of that will happen, Dark" A manly... The manliest voice I've heard in person, it's so ridiculously deep, I almost let out a snort.

One of the men in the group goes stiff, the handsome one that is yet to get his bottom spanked.

The group separates and turns around, giving way for my sight to catch the one that probably spoke just now.

And wait... Dark? That's his name? Dark Bark?

I coughed into my hand, that was a close one, I might've hurt somebody's feelings just now if they heard me laugh out loud at what I would assume was a child's callsign in call of duty or something, just add a 'funny' number at the end and voila!

My cough only gets two pairs of eyes worth of attention on me, the girl that's still holding onto me and the elderly woman.

"And why is that?" I look at the call of duty wannabe player speak towards the man, who really doesn't fit into their crowd, his clothes are worse than some of the homeless people I've seen outside, which is saying something... But what that is I don't know. Either whatever time period this place is at, barely has clothes for people. Or, the more plausible scenario, all of it is for show. And now that I examine it further, my thoughts seem to be true.

The man's unevenly cut beard and the open patches on his clothes... All of it seems man-made. He most likely tore it himself, as natural tears happen way differently, I'd know, I had to sew back my sister's clothes so many times from the unsafe way she played outside.

"Simple. Do you honestly think that anybody would believe anything that these people of this orphanage would say about the child's death? Not to mention these hard-to-believe even now details about her? Grade four commoner, an orphan? And her having Gravity as her magic? Seriously old friend, you're not that dense, are you?"

EXACTLY. Not sure about all of the information he said, but EXACTLY, preach!

"And if we actually burn down the place, that will be even more suspicious, seeing as this place isn't all that hidden from the public eye, so many people would know that we have been here, yet we couldn't save even one life from a fire? When we have three grade four magicians, nine grade threes, and one grade two to stop it? No matter how you look at it, that plan of yours would only throw suspicion towards us and even if nobody would come to the conclusion that we did it, they would still shame us for being useless"

EXACTLY my thoughts, this manly acting dude knows his stuff and this Dark Bark has the brain of a peanut. Do more deaths equal better results? That's just not what you'd want from a leader. No matter how 'lucky' you may be, those deaths would eventually catch up to you. And if not to you, to your descendants, your friends, and even the people that follow you. Karma's a real thing, no matter how you see her existence.

I see the previously handsome face, now it's just dull to my eyes, as the beauty was beaten away by his naughty mouth, gritting his teeth at his plan being logically destroyed by another individual.

"Fine. Then we just kill the child, nobody will miss her anyways"

Seriously, if his mom doesn't show up, I myself will stand up, go up to him and spank him... Coincidentally I am the perfect size for it.

"You won't be doing that either"

Before Bark could bark out an order to his followers, he gets shut down again by the man I still don't know the name of.

Now that I think about it, what's my name... Well I know my name, it's Zoe, but this body's name and for that matter, how does my voice even sound now? Questions for later.

"And why is that?" Bark again asks, gritting his teeth.

Nobody from the group seems to like this fake act of a man and now that I look at it, they actually seem to fear him. I mean even the leader of the group seems to be apprehensive and less straightforward with his actions.

Is it his voice? I too might be intimidated by it if it were any other situation. I mean he sounds like one would imagine the devil to sound like. That grizzly deep voice is just ridiculous. What did he eat to get it like that? Maybe a pinecone is stuck there making his voice perpetually deep. No, who am I kidding, probably like eighteen pinecones up there instead.

"You could definitely kill the child, make it seem that it was an accident, and get away with it, unlike the plan with the fire, the death of one parentless child wouldn't rise that much suspicion and your excellent reputation would save you from any trouble that could be made by the truth spoken by Noelle here. But... You see, unlike you, who is narrow-minded and can only see 'the now', I think for the future"

"What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Heh, simple" The man walks by the group of people, getting closer and closer to me... Huh?

"Lemmillie, from now on, you belong to me. I am your father, teacher, your entire existence"

Sorry, what? Who are you to own me, ya dork? This is the 21st century, ya human equivalent of a grizzly bear!

"WHAT?" The callsign calls out in anger.

"What?" The Bear man repeats.

But before anybody else could say anything, I couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.

And I feel everybody's eyes on me, but I don't pay much attention to it... Because my own new voice stops my laughter... It is as ridiculous as the man before me, except in a completely different direction.

It's way too feminine, aren't I a child? What is this? If I didn't know any better, I thought the most beautiful adult woman was speaking into my ear. I seem to have gotten the voice of an angel, a voice blessed by the heavens. What kind of magic is this? This voice seems less real than this whole ridiculous situation that I seem to have found myself in.

Anyways there will be time to swoon over my own voice later.

I need to say something, as everybody's eyes are still looking at me.

"Why'd you laugh, little lady?" The deep voice man says.

"..." Do I want to say anything? I feel like that if I do, I won't stop talking just to hear my own voice more... Ah, whatever, that's a problem for me in the future.

"It's because your voice sounds even more ridiculous up close"

I see the man's right eye visibly twitch.

He coughs, to regain composure "You don't like my voice?"

"Oh no, I don't have anything against it, but we both can agree that it doesn't hold up to mine, right?"

"... Right" He says with some shock in his eyes, I can already see his thoughts. He probably didn't see the conversation going this way at all.

"But don't worry, your voice is okay, just not used to it"

"Good, you will have time to get used to it then, as I will be your father from this day on"

Yeah, no, having one father was enough.

"I refuse"

He blinks in confusion, clearly not expecting to be refused.

The other people in the room also don't seem to look better.

"I mean, I don't even know your name and you want to take me somewhere where I haven't been before? Hello? Stranger Danger?"

But I do need information... And a lot of it, I have no idea about anything in this... I guess it's a new world. So I might as well play along for a while.

Something clicks inside the man's head and he chuckles himself "Yeah, that's my bad, I seem to have forgotten my manners. The name's Merlin Gold"

"What are you, some kind of prince?"

Something flashes in his eyes, but it was too fast for me to even have the time to figure out what it could've been.

With a smile, he says to me "Why would you ask that?"

"With a name like that, you're either somebody high up or a jester acting as a wizard"

If fantasy books have taught me anything, it's that a person with the name 'Merlin' is probably going to be some big hat wizard. Like, come on, Merlin? Isn't that the most generic fantasy big-shot wizard name out there?

"A prince, me? With clothes and an appearance like that?" He gestures to himself with his hands.

"Well, then a jester? Seeing as one would have a motive to tear his own clothes like that for an act. And that beard and unclean face? Maybe his act wasn't good, so the watcher of said act pushed him into the mud face first?"

After my words, the man actually breaks out a laugh.

I blink, was what I said that funny? Is the humor of these people in this world that small? But I am happy nonetheless. My straightforward dry 'jokes' would only get a chuckle at best and it was a pity one at that. Just blank faces from everybody else.

"Dark, I see that you're silent" Merlin turns around, ending our conversation "Then I will continue with what I was saying. I think for the future, I'm going to adopt this child, Lemmilie, and train her, teach her everything that I know. So she could be the King's shield, sword, and spell hand"

"..." I witness Dark's eye twitch in pure annoyance at the words that Merlin just spoke "That's insane, I can't allow you to do that" He says after a moment of pause.

"Uh-huh and who's going to stop me?" Merlin asks, trying to sound innocent, but with the deepness of his voice it still comes out sounding like a threat.

It works exactly like that, as Dark Bark subconsciously puts his left foot back.

But to my surprise he regains his composure rather quickly, he steps forward and with a calm face states two words.

"The King"

"..." There's only silence from Merlin.

The man, seemingly thinking he has the upper hand, opens his mouth to say something, but Merlin gets to it before him.

"Dark, my friend. Do you really think that it would go as you want it if you talked with the king?" Merlin shakes his head "The current King? We both know that he's a softie in heart, be it even if he's the strongest individual on the continent. He would reject your request without missing a heartbeat. He would not allow you to kill somebody gifted that in the future could protect him, work for him and be a force to be reckoned with in battles if there's a need to be, do you really believe what you're implying?"

Merlin steps up towards him, now both of them standing face to face, both of them are the same height, plus and minus a centimeter or two.

"Or is it your complex talking again? Can't handle somebody else being stronger than you, especially if you think that they don't deserve it, hmm?"

I see that previously handsome, then dull face morph into a completely new one again, this time it's red, veins bulging on his forehead and all of it is most likely from anger and something is hidden in his past that just resurfaced while also gritting his teeth. Oh, and he also seems to be growling, just like a puppy... I wonder if he lives up to his last name, maybe he can actually bark like a professional animal imitator.

I see the behind of Merlin's head, but there's still enough of his side face to see his muscles turning up, he smiles.

"That's settled then, I'm taking this child and training her up to be useful for the King" As he says that, he turns around to face me.

But I don't meet his eyes as I look at the girl who is still holding onto me and seeing this I realize that the girl wasn't scared for me... Well, she was, but she's actually close with this body that I embody at the moment, by what I see she's a friend, a really close one.

Without me seeing though, I hear Merlin speak out "That's right, we haven't completed our job yet, put the girl that's holding Lemmilie through the process"

What process? The girl's hold tightens a little bit, it's minuscule, but I still feel the change. But shortly after that, she released me for the first time since I've woken up here. I don't understand either of these moves by the girl.

She turns around and puts her little foot in front seemingly trying to walk away, but she pauses midstep, I see her head craned to the side looking at something, so I follow her gaze and see a chair, a broken chair, missing two of its legs and the whole top part scattered at the other end of the room.

I tilt my head in confusion, I didn't pay attention before, but the whole room is messed up, cracks everywhere, it's like an earthquake hit this place.

The other people and Merlin also look where I was looking just a moment ago and Merlin speaks out again, this time directing toward me.

"Lemmillie could you move out of the way, so your friend could take your place in your chair?"

I blink, then nod and step away from the chair, but nearly fall over, but manage to catch myself, I look at the ground and see that the floor there is uneven, yet where I just stood was perfectly okay.

Hmm... If I got this right, it seems that this body is powerful somehow, everywhere but where it stood is practically destroyed, people want it dead and apparently, it's going to be trained as a weapon for some cuddly panda king.

Well not if I can help it, if the said king is an actual kind-hearted individual, I will help him, if not, then I will decide what to do when I have to. But one thing's for sure, nobody is making me into a weapon for anybody, I don't like people that hurt others, so I won't hurt others by the orders of others and I'll do it only when one would need a spanking.

The girl that I don't know the name of yet sits down on the chair that this body had sat before and I gotta say, this girl, even with all the dirt and dry skin, obviously from not having enough care as we are at an orphanage, she's still pretty cute... Now she's got me wondering how this body looks and if it's anything like the voice... Then, my various gods, I have struck the lottery of reincarnation.

Though, is it really reincarnation? I mean, I remember everything from my last life and I always thought of reincarnation as you get a clean slate, not to mention rebirthing as a toddler, yet here I am as a ten-year-old. The last owner of this body, where did she go? Maybe instead of me dying, she was the one to perish and I just got here as a replacement because this body seems important way beyond my understanding for now... This whole scenario is just messy.

However, magic exists in this world if I were to believe these people talking and screaming about it, so maybe an outside source interfered and transferred me here? Or... Maybe it was this body's magic that did it? I will need information about the magic in this world and the magic in me for me to come up with a conclusion. For now, I will roll with the idea that I died in my sleep and just woke up here.

So first, last, and indefinite quest: Get information about everything.

Starting with whatever's going on here in front of my eyes, one of the men put the helmet that I took off on the girl's head. The man's eyes glaze over and his expression turns blank, but it lasts only for a few moments and he opens his mouth.

"Girl. Age, nine years ten months and four days" Ah, so she's not eight, but nine, close to ten, okay "Mother Lilliana Lillien, Father Bob" Seriously, what is up with these names? The mother gets something extravagant and then there's just Bob? "Real name, Esmyna, Pseudo-name, Esmie" Pseudo name? It sounds like a pet name to me, but at least I know the name of this girl, the original's good friend, Esmyna. I like it.

I hear the group of people whispering to each other and I catch a few words from the few louder ones that don't seem to care too much.

"Lillien... Isn't that the name of a noble family?"

"Yes, it's a Baron family... So we've got another bastard child, huh?"

So Esmyna is a child between a commoner and a noble... Quite outdated if you ask me, I suppose it's frowned upon... But another? Was there somebody before us here that was deduced as a 'bastard' son or daughter?

Anyway, to me, none of that matters. This helmet magic thingy is quite convenient, but personal information is definitely not the end of it, as I wore it before Esmyna, which means that it should show magical capabilities or something like that, otherwise why would these 'nobles' regard me as a bad girl that needs not to live for she has sinned.

And my thoughts get answered correctly with the next words from the one reading something near the helmet.

"Grade Zero, Potential element wind, Age grade peak at sixteen, grade peak is one"`

So it can even tell when one would be at their strongest? That's quite interesting, I wonder how it works. Is grade one good? I guess not if Esmyna's sad expression suggests it.

"So, she's just like the rest, well whatever, our job here is done" One of the men in the group says out loud, getting nods from most of them.

"Sir Bark, we can move on"

"Okay, let's go, take the equipment and leave. Lady Takni good day" Dark Bark answers and turns around to leave while saying a farewell to the elderly woman who says a farewell back at him, but clearly without any kindness behind it, she seems quite annoyed with him. I can understand, leisurely talking about child genocide in front of what I assume is the orphanage's big head, it must really drive her wild.

Clearly, he and his group don't want to be in this place any longer and so they follow after him rather quickly. Now only me, the disheartened Esmyna, this Lady 'Takni', and Merlin are left standing in the broken room.

Esmyna came up to me and immediately latched onto my arm, the poor girl probably couldn't handle the fact that I am not this 'Lemmilie' girl and am my own person.

"Okay, Lemmilie let's go, we need to procure the documents of the adoption, the earlier we do it, the faster we can get to my home and talk" Merlin speaks to me.

I look into his eyes and casually reply with a "No"

"Why reject me this time? Didn't I introduce myself?" He says after a sigh.

I don't know what's going on with the helmet magic assessment thingy, but if I had my guess, adoption in this particular situation is in cohesion with the helmet. So... As I am strong, I got chosen and Esmyna who's apparently so weak that nobody even said a word about it, didn't. Quite a messed up and extreme scenario we got here.

Well, time to play the act of a cute and wholesome child.

"Sorry Mister, but I am not going anywhere without my friend Esmy-" I don't think that Lemmilie calls her by her actual name, so let's use this 'pseudo-name' "Esmie, where I go, she goes with me, where she goes, I go with her. So you have to adopt her too"

As I say this, I feel Esmie's hold on me tighten and in the corner of her eye I see that her expression has changed slightly, now it isn't as sad anymore, but unlike my expectations, it isn't a happy one either, I wonder what's going on in her little head.

Merlin also doesn't seem to be impressed with my words.

"The answer's no, you're the only one I am taking and it's not like you can do much about it"

Okay, so that didn't work and I don't think it will... Time to play as a rebellious teenager.

"Oh yeah? Then when we get to YOUR home" I put emphasis on the 'your' to subtly indicate that it's not my or our home "I will do everything in my power to escape that home and either come back here or live alone for a while until I can get back with Esmie"

Merlin's eyes squint at me before he chuckles "You wouldn't survive alone out in the real world"

"I am not your typical child, mister, so don't underestimate me, I am an orphan, not a noble who's pampered all of their life, I am more independent than you think, so trust me, I would be okay"

I say with certainty, well of course the orphan part is just an act and only applicable to this body alone and not my mind. I myself have some knowledge that none of the people in this world should have, so I should be fine, of course, I wouldn't leave Merlin's home unprepared, I'd take as much as I could and read up on some things before going out. Though that plan is not feasible, I am just haggling for another adoption at this point, if at the end of it all he still won't budge, then I won't be able to do much about it.

And if that case does happen, then at least I will have to play my cards right and demand that Merlin pays and sponsors this orphanage so it could become better and livelier.

"I guess no, you're not a typical child" He states mysteriously.

I'm pretty sure that he means something else entirely from what my words were supposed to mean.

"But my answer is still no, she's not useful for me"

Ah, so that's how it is. Well, he just gave me leeway into a surefire to get Esmyna on board with me, thank you, kind mister. Time to settle this like adults then.

"Is that so?"

"Indeed it is" Merlin says to my musings.

"Well, so that means that I am useful if you're trying to adopt me, right?"

"That should be a given, yes"

"Then there you go, Esmie has to go with me because she's useful to me and by being a useful existence in my life, it makes my usefulness to you ten times more than I would have when she wasn't with me. Thus, you have to adopt her too, if you want the utmost top results for whatever it is that you have planned for me"

Merlin's eyes again squint at me, then travel along my arm that's being held by Esmyna's hand and then to the girl's face. Then quickly back at me, meeting my eyes.

I've got him hooked, now I just have to reel it in.

"As I said previously, we are always together, one without another cannot exist at their best, without her I won't have the potential I could have and for a long time, until I would have to get used to her not being around me, I would probably be out of it for a long time. So if you need me, I need her, thus you also need her, so she isn't useless to you at all, in fact, in my eyes, she's more useful to you than I am"

And I am done... But there is one magic word that even non-magicians can use and it should help a lot.

"Please" I add, moving my second arm that's not being held by Esmyna and putting it on top of her palm. Her skin is so soft and warm.

Merlin's eyes jump a few times between me, Esmyna, and our linked hands, and after tiredly sighing he seems to accept his fate and just says "Fine, I'll adopt her too"

Immediately I feel the change in Esmyna beside me, her hold tightens even more, before it was meek and timid, now it's almost identical to my sister, tight and seemingly not wanting to let go.

I smile at Merlin "Good, wasn't that hard to agree, now was it?"

"No... I suppose it wasn't, besides I think I might have a plan for her too" He leaves it off mysteriously and then turns around to walk back to Lady Takni who was standing nearby listening to our conversation.

"Noelle Takni, I am adopting Lemmillie and Esmyna Lillien together to be my daughters, I will need documents to sign, could you prepare them?"

"Yes, of course" She answers as her eyes meet with mine instead, there's a kind and a worried smile on her face at the same time. I don't know her, but she knows Lemmilie, so I smile back, trying to indicate that everything's fine and it seems to work because after that she nods and turns around to go out.

I walk closer to Merlin, with Esmyna in tow. "So mister, what do I call you?"

"Whatever you want, even dad" He answers without a care.

"Merlin it is then" I simply say

"Hmm, Merlin it is" He comments.

"Also, when you were talking about the King, were you serious about me being a... Weapon for him?"

When Merlin hears my question he snorts coldly, turns to face me, meets my eyes, and says "Absolutely not, in this world, Power means everything, there's nothing one can't do when they have enough power. And you? You are promising in that regard, so no, my plan for you is simple. Tain you up, teach you as much as I can, so you could forge your own path in life. Screw the King and everybody else. For you see, the thing I value the most in life... Freedom. Freedom to do whatever it is that I imagine and power breeds freedom the easiest"

I blink at his heartfelt speech, I want to say something to agree with his statements, but when my mouth opens, something entirely different comes out.

"Is that why you didn't agree with adopting Esmie at first? Because I was messing up your freedom of choice?"

Merlin breaks out a quick smile and walks off in the direction of the elderly woman.

It seems he's too proud to admit it, well, doesn't matter, I've got what I wanted, so it's fine.

I turn around and look at Esmyna, her eyes meet with mine, but unlike me, she can't hold eye contact and her head droops down to look at the ground and my feet.

I roll my eyes, what a shy kid.

With my fingers, I put them on her chin and raise her head again to meet with my eyes.

"Well, Esmie, shall we go to our new home?"

She blinks cutely at me and finally says "Yes" softly and that word was the very first time I've heard this girl's voice.

And I gotta say, what is up with the voices in this world... Just like mine, her own voice seems to be blessed by the heavens, the only difference is that her demeanor and her voice bring out more of a cute feeling than the sultry feeling my voice does.

I nod at her agreement and turn around and we walk after Merlin and Noelle while holding hands.