(6) Classes Start

Her father had shattered a glass with his hand and her older brother had dropped the fork of food about to reach his mouth.

"Hayes!" Her mother shouted as her father's hand was bleeding from the crushed glass. She got up from her chair and rushed over with a handkerchief to stop the bleeding.

"M...M..Married?! My little princess is not allowed to marry!"

"But father, if I can't protect myself shouldn't I focus on finding someone who can?"

"You do have someone, you have me and your brothers."

"Right you have us. Or do you not think we are not good enough?" Oswald added sounding betrayed--- only when he knew that just Meadow was looking at him did he let out a smirk.

'That sly snake' Meadow thought as she saw Leopold's and her father's eyes asking her if it was true. 'Oswald could at least pretend he doesn't know what I am doing, or help me.' But that gave her an idea.

"Oswald, it's not that I don't trust you. I just didn't know you wanted to be by my side ALL the time protecting me. I didn't think it would be fair of me to always have you guys following me around to protect me. Like each time mom and I want to go shopping you will be there with us."

"Or when we are older and at the academy, you will be watching out for my EVERY move since Leopold will graduate before you. You will also go with me to all the tea parties as my loyal KNIGHT."

The moment Meadow said knight she looked at Oswald and smirked back at him. Oswald saw what word she really meant when she said knight as her eyes were shouting it at him. 'My loyal DOG.'

"Father, Meadow has a point. We can't always be there, so would it hurt to give her a sword."

Meadow smiled at Oswald after he spoke in her defense. 'Good dog.' She thought.

"Tsk…" Oswald grumbled under his breath and spoke back with his eyes. 'You win this time.'

"Meadow, stop trying to manipulate your brothers and father to get your way. Now eat your food."

Her mother said catching her daughter smirking at Oswald. Meadow quickly sunk in her seat on hearing her mother reprimanding her.

"Now Honey, I understand your true reasons, but I don't think it would hurt to let Meadow do some sword training. She may have magic, but that won't always be enough. We can't protect her from everything and she should be strong enough to be able to do it herself when we can't."

Madam Lark whispered into Hayes's ears so Meadow wouldn't hear. Hayes pouted but knew that his wife was right, and the meal continued in silence.

****************

The Lark family continued to eat their meals in silence until it was Meadow's birthday party.

The cold war between Meadow and her parents was about to come to an end, as her father and mother gave her a wooden sword.

"I will only give you this sword if you promise not to bring up that nonsense on marriage again."

"Okay, Daddy I promise!" Meadow said excitedly, taking the sword from her dad and hugging him.

"And…" Her mother glared at her daughter pushing her to say more.

"I am sorry for being stubborn and ignoring you because of this."

Her mother nodded her approval and let her husband continue.

"I will also give you permission to train with the others when you finish your other classes."

"Really!? Thank you so much!" Meadow said happily jumping around.

Hayes, who was questioning whether or not he was right to let Meadow train, finally felt it was alright seeing how happy it made her. 'Maybe this isn't such a bad idea.'

Meadow received gifts from the rest of the family and workers. Leopold gave her some gloves to protect her hand when training. Oswald gave her some seeds of some flower. When she asked him what flower he shrugged and so he couldn't remember.

Harriet's gift was her most recent story that she had written. Meadow happily accepted it with a big grin.

Hornsby brought her grandfather's present again as she still hasn't seen her grandfather since she was a baby. However, Meadow is convinced she saw him again through the windows of the banquet hall.

Her grandfather always sends his grandchildren gifts through Hornsby on their birthdays, and most of the gifts have been useful or well thought. The year Meadow had just started going into the garden, her grandfather gifted her some seeds and a gardening shovel.

And last fall for Leopold's birthday after Leopold had just hurt himself training, grandfather sent him some of the best ointments.

For Meadow's birthday this year, she received the same ointments along with a note saying 'for if you get hurt training.'

Even though her grandfather hasn't shown himself, Meadow could tell that he really cared for his family.

After her grandfather's gift it is time for bed. She says her goodbye's and leaves the banquet hall with her maid, Harriet.

Meadow convinces Harriet that she is a big girl and can bathe and dress herself. Harriet tries to fight back, but Meadow can't help but find it weird to always have someone helping her bathe and get dressed. Harriet finally agrees because she knows how stubborn Meadow is.

After Meadow bathes and dresses herself for the first time, she goes to bed excitedly thinking about next week. She would finally get started taking classes with the home tutors her family hired.

The class she was least looking forward to was a class about etiquette of a lady. She was most excited to start taking classes on magic, but less excited that she would be taking it with Oswald. And then she also had to take the history of Grandeur and basic mathematics with her brother as well.

Until classes start Meadow decided that she would practice with the sword by herself for a bit, plant Oswald's flowers, and read Harriet's writing.

**********************

Meadow has started taking classes and she absolutely hates her etiquette class. She is almost positive that her teacher, Gladys Snider, is picking on her and treating her badly on purpose. Gladys also teaches her and Oswald's history lesson.

The history class wasn't as bad as the etiquette class, but Oswald has a low attention span and started to evade the class. Ever since Oswald started ditching the lessons her teacher became more verbally abusive.

Meadow for the most part enjoyed her other two classes that were taught by different teachers. Her mathematics teacher, Tucker Braham, was a cute slow old man, who had lots of patience. He didn't seem to mind that Oswald kept ditching his class and taught Meadow on her own.

Her brother only showed up for the magic lessons religiously. Now whether or not he paid attention was another story. They were tested for their magic affinity which came as no surprise that they had plant magic affinity. The teacher also tested their current magic level.

Meadow hates to admit it but her brother held a greater magic level than herself. The part that made it even worse is that she was almost positive her brother wasn't even trying when they were tested.

Her magic teacher, Samuel Grayweather, was a wind and water mage with blond hair and green eyes. He was fairly young and pretty good looking to Meadow. He was also very kind, but Meadow could feel that he slightly favored her brother due to his outstanding magic capabilities.

Meadow still remembered her teacher's face when she followed up her brother when testing their magic level. After she placed her hand on the orb trying super hard to send all her magic into it, her teacher's face fell in disappointed.

"Average magic level." His voice announced.

'She is so bright and knows so much about magic already. It's a shame her magic level is just average.' Samuel thought.

Her brother sent a smirk at Meadow that seemed to say. 'I won and I didn't even try.'

The only other other thing that Meadow looked forward to was training. However her father had been especially doting on her. He was super protective and had yet let her spar with anyone.

In all honesty, it was hard for her to train seriously with her father watching her and glaring at Mathew and Graham when they tried to give her directions. Her father would step in and say things like, "That is too much for my little princess." or "Can't you think of something easier for her to start with?"

However, Meadow still enjoyed the training she was provided when her father was too busy to dote on her.

After a month of classes and training, Meadow felt that she was finally getting a hang of classes. That was until Gladys had hit her for the first time.

Meadow at first doubted and question whether that what had just happened was normal. She tried to recall from her past life if she could think that such behavior is expected of a teacher.

However she couldn't think of anything. Also this was a different world from her past world. So, she felt that even if she did think of anything, it could be a different standard in this world. Not wanting to make a fuss over nothing --- especially after just barely making a scene to get a sword--- Meadow let it go, especially when she saw her teacher's expression.

Meadow was so shocked from the initial hit that she didn't see her teacher's first expression. Gladys had first felt fear after hitting Meadow, but soon recomposed herself after thinking.

'I don't need to be scared of this brat's family. I am Gladys Snider from a Viscount family. They are just a Baron family with a bit of money. They aren't true nobles since they bought their position. Plus these brats have the filthy blood of some random mercenary. They should be grateful I took the time to knock some sense into their child."

By the time Meadow looked into Gladys's face, Gladys showed no doubt or remorse for her actions. She had full confidence in her actions, which made Meadow think that such actions were normal in this world.

Meadow had some doubts whether Gladys's' action was normal discipline for a teacher. She thought the easiest way to figure this out without making a big scene was to ask Oswald to come to class with her.

Meadow was still bitter about her brother's superiority in magic capabilities, so it took all of Meadow's pride to knock on his door early one morning before the start of their history class.

"Oswald, are you in there? Could you please come out?"

Oswald grudgingly opens his door asking. "What do you want?"

"Do you think you could go to the history of Grandeur class with me?"

"Why?" Oswald suspiciously wondered what Meadow's game was.

"Because I don't want to go alone. Please, can't you do this for me just this one time." Meadow asked, giving her brother pleading eyes.

Oswald stared at Meadow trying to figure her out, but gave up and shut the door in her face.

"No, I don't want to, it's too boring. Go by yourself."

Meadow stood in front of his door for a couple seconds before giving up and heading to class. 'That was weird.' Oswald thought as he peaked through the door and watched his usually mischievous sister leave silently.