Chapter 5:

"Royal Knights. To join the 10th Knight Order, one must be able to handle at least Mid Expert level Sword Aura. Eliana, you..."

Milliena paused briefly.

Could she really say such a cold and cruel thing to this young child—that she "doesn't possess any mana"?

She had thought her daughter simply wanted to become a knight due to childish impulses, having received no attention from her family. But after hearing her story, I became even more determined.

I would join the Royal Knights and make something of myself without any help from the family.

Zexitt? That guy still had a long way to go before rampaging across the continent and causing multiple nations to form an alliance and wage war.

I would safely guard the royal family in the kingdom, get promoted repeatedly to a high position, live abundantly, and enjoy my retirement.

"Don't worry and go back to sleep. Well, I'll have to adjust my plan of joining the guard at age 10, though."

"I see... Could we at least have breakfast together tomorrow morning?"

"Not in the dining hall. I don't really want to eat with those people, and I might throw up if I did."

Milliena nodded with a bitter smile at my words.

When she had ignored Eliana, she tried to forget about her while taking care of her two young sons. Now those sons were already 12 and 16 years old.

In contrast, Eliana, who was only 6 years old, had spent two years... no, almost her entire life without proper parental love. The weight of needing to apologize and atone to her daughter pressed heavily on Milliena's chest.

"Then I'll come to your bedroom."

"...Do as you please."

I nodded with a deep sigh.

And as I watched Milliena leave my bedroom, I grinned. I hadn't uttered a single word about having a meal with her. I had planned to wake up at dawn and escape, but I realized how foolish my thinking was the very next day.

Milliena brought a tray with a simple breakfast and pudding for dessert. What? They had pudding? When I was in the dining hall, I always got up early and never knew there was dessert.

As I raised my upper body, my black hair, which reached my waist, flowed softly over my shoulders, and I gazed steadily at Milliena with bright blue eyes.

"Good morning."

"...Yes. Good morning."

Thanks to the appearance change, my hair was glossy and silky. But wait, is it morning already? It's still dawn, and the sun hasn't even risen yet. Looking at the clock, it was just past 5 AM. In Galeios, the Small Kingdom, where four seasons exist.

It's early summer now, so the sun rises earlier, but 5 AM is too much, isn't it?

I looked at Milliena with a blank expression, and she placed the tray on the table and sat down. I don't know when she woke up, but she was already dressed in a one-piece dress, fully made up.

I sighed and entered the bathroom. The bathtub was brightly lit with lanterns and filled with warm water, with white steam rising from it.

*I wonder how long she's been preparing this?*

Since Milliena's three dedicated maids work in 8-hour shifts for night duty, one of them must have heated the water and prepared the meal from early dawn.

Night duty is usually boring, but today's maid had driven away her drowsiness by heating water and preparing a simple meal, following Milliena's orders.

I slowly dipped my right foot into the bathtub.

Splash...

As the warm water of the bathtub rippled and my body was completely submerged...

"Whew... This makes me feel lazy. I feel like I'm about to fall asleep."

It felt like it had been a really long time since I soaked in a warm bath.

On Earth, I always washed with warm water, but here, you need to heat the water yourself to use it warm.

From that perspective, this world lagged behind Earth's civilization and was difficult to get used to. Magical artifacts for storing and generating large amounts of water are too expensive.

For example, a Subspace Pouch with just a 10kg capacity costs one gold coin. I dozed off comfortably for 30 minutes. Falling asleep in the bathtub... it was something I hadn't experienced in a long time.

My eyes snapped open when someone touched my wet hair.

"Oh... You were taking so long, I thought you might have fallen asleep, so I came in."

"Ah, yes. I'll be out soon."

"O-okay, then..."

With an awkward smile, Milliena left the bathroom.

I got up, stepped out of the bathtub, and dried myself with a towel. They say women have separate towels for drying their hair and body... but I just dried my body with the towel I had used for my hair, put on the light casual clothes I had prepared, and left the changing room to return to the bedroom.

Milliena approached me holding something round and green.

"What's that...?"

"It's called a wind stone, a type of spirit stone. When you infuse it with mana, it produces wind. You can use it to dry the moisture left in your hair."

Oh, so it's used like a hair dryer? I heard most nobles own one.

Spirit stones are certainly expensive, but a mild breeze-level spirit stone like that could be purchased for 5 silver coins.

That's still about 50 million won in Korean currency, but it's pocket change for her as the daughter of a count's family. Even though we're a baronial family in the frontier, we weren't in financial difficulty.

That's why these were almost essential fixtures in my father's and two brothers' bedrooms. Except for my bedroom, of course. Well, as a father, he probably just didn't want to spend money on me.

Still, I should be grateful that he consistently gives me 1 copper coin as weekly allowance. Children of commoners at the age of six receive at most 50 iron coins per week. I'm getting almost twice that amount.

Milliena moved behind me with the wind stone and sat me down in a chair in front of the vanity.

It was too modest and old to be called a vanity, with just three old cosmetics and a pile of dust. Milliena's expression turned grim when she saw it.

Taking a deep breath to regain her composure, she touched my silky, flowing hair and began drying it with a gentle breeze.

*Yes, this is exactly the ideal mother-daughter relationship I wanted.*

Milliena thought as she fiddled with her daughter's beautiful hair, then soon began twisting it up with a hair tie.

Ooh~

This will make it comfortable to train.

Lately, I've been considering cutting my hair because it sticks to my neck when sweaty...

Milliena smiled as she looked at the pretty girl in the mirror.

She wanted to apply makeup to her daughter's fair skin, but I firmly refused. The reason was that it would be ruined by sweat anyway.

Unable to break my stubbornness, Milliena finally sat down across from me with the table between us.

Clink...

Without a word of conversation, my bedroom was filled only with the sound of dishes colliding. The current time was 6:20 AM. It took some time to dry and put up my hair, but it was still early for breakfast.

Normally, I would have eaten the meal brought by the maid at 7:30 AM, or had cup noodles on the hill, but thanks to Milliena, I was having breakfast at this early hour.

I couldn't really taste anything. Still, it's better than leaving food. After emptying my plate, I got up first.

"Whew... I'll be taking my leave now."

Milliena wiped her mouth as she watched me.

"...Can you tell me where you're going?"

"I'm planning to go to the city."

Milliena slightly furrowed her brow at my answer. The city? Does that mean outside these castle walls?

Do the guards know that this child is going to the city? If they knew and let her out, I plan to severely punish them. Just like Anilla, Eliana's dedicated maid.

But right now, stopping my daughter is the priority.

"I cannot allow that. If you want to learn swordsmanship, there's the soldiers' training ground and the family knights' training field. If you really want to go to the city, I'll assign a knight to escort you."

I silently listened to her and then jumped onto the windowsill toward a tree branch.

"Eliana?!!!"

Assign escorts to your sons, I'll be excusing myself!

I quickly descended to the ground and passed through a small hole located in a corner of the castle wall. A hole hidden by bushes. I hurriedly moved away from the wall and headed toward the hill. I took out the sword buried in the dirt and began running around a large tree.

◆◆◆◆◆

When Eliana quickly jumped out the window, Milliena approached the window with a dumbfounded expression.

"Luke. Find out where Eliana is and what she's doing right now."

"As you command."

Luke, who had been Milliena's guard knight since she was a count's daughter.

Luke, a High Expert knight, disappeared in a flash and began following Eliana.

The place Luke arrived at was a small hill located in a corner of the city. Under the huge tree growing on that hill, the young lady took out a small iron sword buried in the dirt, leaned it against the tree, and began slowly running and doing basic warm-up exercises around the giant tree.

After about 30 minutes of warm-up, she picked up the small iron sword about 1 meter in length that she had leaned against the tree earlier and began swinging it in semicircles up and down.

It's a heavy sword for a 9-year-old girl to wield. Nevertheless...

*She swings it quite skillfully.*

Indeed, Luke was slightly impressed, not knowing that she had been swinging that iron sword every day without fail for two years.

But after swinging the sword about 30 times, Eliana pointed it forward. And a familiar energy was detected from her body.

When Luke saw the blade of the sword Eliana was holding, he looked with wide eyes at the aura rising from her sword.

He almost let out a cry of astonishment involuntarily but suppressed it.

*What is this?! Low Expert Sword Aura..? Ah... So the young lady is a Low Expert swordswoman...?*

Astonishment continued to swirl in his mind.

This mere 9-year-old girl began swinging her sword, displaying various movements while handling Low Expert Sword Aura.

Swoosh! Slash! Tap-tap-tap...! Swish!

The technique itself was too messy to be considered a swordswoman handling Low Expert Sword Aura.

She was jumping high and swinging her sword like a child playing around. And after about 30 minutes, the sword aura gradually dispersed, and the young lady who had displayed strange martial arts curled up the corners of her mouth as if proud and satisfied.

Yes, it was a scene that would make children clap and say it was cool. But how could she handle Low Expert Sword Aura with such crude swordsmanship...

Moreover, the mana she possessed was similar to that of a Mid Expert's mana pool. She had maintained Sword Aura for 30 minutes.

Well, as she grows, that mana pool might expand, or it might remain as it is, but currently, Eliana B. Terres possessed the qualities of a genius in swordsmanship.

Of course, in terms of technique, she was still like a child.

"Hyaah..!"

But Eliana was already immersed in her swordsmanship.

Luke couldn't help but burst into laughter at the young lady's comical battle cry and exaggerated movements, turning his head away.

"Pfft..!"

Fortunately, Luke had moved just below the hill and hidden between wooden buildings used as small warehouses.

And Luke, who was laughing while holding his stomach, soon returned to the mansion and reported this fact to Milliena.