“Mum, aren´t you supposed to act more composed than me?” Mary was frantically trying to pack her stuff into a lot of suitcases while I already did so. In fact, I laid relaxed on her bed and watched her amusing actions.

“It´s not that easy to pack all the things I need! Do I take these shoes or these with me? And you are much older than me, no matter how cute you act.” I pouted and returned my gaze to the economics book.

“I´m only 210 … oh, come to think of it, my birthday is tomorrow.” Mary stopped packing to look at me. I kept looking at my book, although her gaze was slightly distracting.

“And you couldn’t have told me that sooner? How am I supposed to buy a gift for you now?” She ran her fingers through her hair and bit her lower lip.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. It´s not the first time I wasn’t given any gifts.” She looked at me even more astonished than before, which incentivised me to turn my head. “Uhm, Aska grew quite lazy in the end and forgot my birthday more often than not … so don’t worry, I´m fine.”

She sighed heavily and proceeded to massage her temple, probably brainstorming about gifts. She came up with no solution and simply sat down beside me to caress my cheek.

“I´m sorry, I don’t know what to gift you.” I simply shrugged and touched her hand on my cheek with the palm of my hand.

“Like I said, it´s fine. Don’t worry about me and rather pack your clothing before the sun rises.”

She stared out of the window and swiftly continued to pack her things up. The amount of stuff she wanted to carry with her was astonishing, even though I wasn’t an exception to this. I just had fewer things than her which made it a bit easier to throw the most hated stuff out.

“What do you think, this one or this one?” She presented me with two almost identical pairs of trousers, even though she rarely wore them. I simply shrugged, turned back to my book and thought about my money laundering scheme once more.

“Hey, mum, you do want to bring prosperity to your domain, don’t you?” I asked.

“Sure, who doesn’t?” Well, I could certainly imagine quite a few types of humans who didn´t care.

“How about you start to plant some Cali flowers? I heard they are delicious, I´m willing to buy them in bulks.”

“With what money?” Right, a money-laundering scheme needed money to work … but I hoped Tom was already dealing with this issue.

“Don’t worry about that.” I stated proudly.

“Alright … just hypothetically, what would you do with them?” She asked and raised an eyebrow as she put a black mourning dress inside another suitcase.

“Sell them to a few bakeries?” I answered and looked away from her.

“Hmm … you don’t have the plan of producing drugs with them?” So she did know … they could be used in certain dishes or as a main ingredient in a certain drug.

“I will neither deny nor approve this accusation.” I said.

“My answer is no.” It seemed as if I had to think of a different plan. I already had thought of one, but it would be a hassle to pull off. I rather wanted others to plant a few Cali flowers, buy them at a high price and use the money we would generate through taxes on the orphanage. If Mary really didn’t want to give their citizens a stable income in a shady field of work, I had no qualms of funding orphanages differently.

“Hmm …” And so I left it at that as I respected her will to keep clear of any of my illegal or questionable legal activities. “Hey, can I have an art tutor?”

“Oh, that’s one of the tutors you will have. We cannot have the other nobles think you are uneducated after all.” I opened my eyes wide and stared at her in shock.

“Multiple …” It sounded like a chore. I doubted I would learn anything new after all. These tutors would be at best fifty to sixty years old which meant they were still younger than me. Sure, they could teach me very specific knowledge about Solaris, but I was already attaining everything through reading countless books.

I stood up, horrified about the prospect of playing dumb in front of a human for hours and staggered out of the room, leaving Mary who didn’t even notice my disappearance alone to pack her things. I supported myself at the wall, running my fingers along the stones and soon found myself outside again. As I already had my sunglasses with me, I didn’t hesitate to go outside this late, or rather this early. I stumbled towards the old mansion, regretting to have taken up the name of Lucy White.

I shook my head once and cleared it of any weird thoughts. I could just sneak away from these lessons, no problem there. I was Lucinda, a monster who fought bravely in the past, even during my battle with the Devourer during the day … I had no chance to escape this one, did I? In any case, I would still try.

Feeling a bit better, I walked down the stairs and soon opened the hidden chamber. I retrieved two soft gloves out of a shelf and continued to stroll into the next room. The sword still stuck in the ground, gave off a gentle blue light as it did for centuries.

“Am I worthy?” I pulled out the sword with ease. “I am! May queen Lucinda rule these lands forever!” I chuckled and soon walked out of the room again, the blue sword still in hand. As I was in front of the stairs, I already had to use both of my hands to carry the sword and decided that it was probably the best time now to wear my sunglasses. My strength was draining quite fast, a light dagger was still possible to use, but a heavy sword like this magical one here would be impossible. I already struggled with lifting it up as I stepped out of the mansion and rather dragged it behind me than to actually carry it properly, all under the curious gazes of the first few servants who arrived here and the guards who could now see me.

“Milady, can I help you with carrying this heavy sword?” One particularly friendly guard asked. Annoyed, but also a bit thankful, I nodded and gave him the hilt of the sword. He lifted it up with ease … what a braggart.