So, days passed peacefully for a while.

Well, not that peacefully, since I was focused on physical therapy and being able to move around properly, so Gretchen was even more overbearing than usual, but you know what I mean.

Oh yeah, I guess I did finally see my parents for the “first” time. It was actually kinda anticlimatic. Mom and Dad (I guess that’s kind of a weird thing to call them in this pseudo-medieval era, but I think that’s about as respectful as they deserve) came in while I was in the middle of a couple stretches, and asked Gretchen how my recovery was going. I had tensed up, expecting them to scold me for my idiocy like they had done quite a bit in the past, but after she said I was doing fine, they left, having barely glanced at me.

…Honestly, isn’t this a little ridiculous? It’s not like I was expecting them to show any genuine concern, but even if there was no love between us, surely at least out of pure self-interest they’d care about their heir being alive or not? What was the point of me having tried so hard if they wouldn’t even look at me when I-. No, goddamnit. I promised myself, I swore that I’d stop trying to get their approval. But…

it’s really hard.

Anyways, forget about them. Today was a day I was looking forward to. The physician had come yesterday and declared I was back to normal, with no complications or lingering effects, as far as he could tell. Magic healing wasn’t so OP that it was an instant cure, but it was still a heck of a lot faster and more efficacious than what modern medicine was currently at, back on Earth. The medical procedures in this world seemed pretty robust anyways, more so than I’d expect from a medievalish setting. Maybe it was magic that helped them recognize things like the importance of cleanliness; I remember there being something about spirits in this setting. Or maybe my memory of history was crap. Probably both.

Oh, right, I said I was looking forward to today! Since I was totally healthy, that meant I was allowed to venture out and do something somewhat strenuous. By which I mean, trying out magic!

Now, I had started learning around my 12th birthday, the traditional age for when children were deemed to be mature enough to start using magic without blowing themselves up, so it’s not like this was a totally new experience. I knew the basics: find your inner balance, grasp the pulse within you, and then focus on transferring that out to achieve your desires, with a strong mental image. I hadn’t been very good, before the accident. It was strenuous and tedious and boring and I hated it. Making a cup of water spill over was the height of my accomplishments. If the story continued on its normal path, I’d probably have given up on magic and instead put all my efforts into my studies, and have become the business-savvy but lonely girl that Rosalia befriends.

But as a total nerd from Earth, I had to give magic more of a chance. At the very least I wanted to study whatever nonsense made it so that basically only nobility got it, because democratizing magic sounded like a way better goal than inheriting Dad’s company. Plus, even though I said I was giving up on this, studying magic was probably the only way I would be getting anywhere close to getting answers to how I ended up in this world, because like I said before, God sure didn’t show up to explain shit. It was a super tiny chance that I’d get anywhere, but still.

So that brings us to the present, where I’m sitting in front of a magic tutor (I think his name was Heinrich?) with a slightly strained smile, as he instructs me once more to try and channel the flow within me and blah blah blah. Geez, no wonder I had so much trouble trying to do this. This guy’s explanations are so dense and impenetrable that it’s making my calc lectures sound like a piece of cake. 

“And so, to reiterate, the key, nay, the absolute most important thing in etheric manipulation is considering the exact movement of the phlogiston in your inner void. Now, try and exert that same force onto the water in this vessel.”

Oh, finally, he’s done. 

Alright, let’s try this out. I took a deep breath, and searched for the vessel of magic inside me, to try and release some of it. But what’s this?

The middling amount of mana I remembered having, had suddenly turned into a reservoir tat dwarfed even my teacher’s! I hesitantly prodded at it, to see if this was really happening. Suddenly, I felt red hot nails through my veins, as the mana exploded into a deluge of flow, and I heard the distant screams around me, as a huge ball of water hovered over our heads, filling up the entire room- 

Bwaahahahahaahahahaahhahahaaha! Ahahahahaahahaahaaha! I’m sorry, I’m really truly sorry! Did I get you going for a sec there?

Yeah, the mana amount was actually the same as I remembered it. I did not, in fact, get a cheat when my memories returned to me. I know, I’m disappointed too. Unfortunately, it’s not this isn’t that genre of isekai, and whoever’s pulling the strings didn’t want to make it that easy. Of course, I knew that from the start.

I definitely did not spend 15 minutes in an empty room saying as many variations of “Status Open” as I could think of. Nope, definitely not.

Anyways, trying to work with this magic really was pretty tough. Releasing the seal so it started flowing through my body was the easy part, but trying to bend it to actually do what I wanted took a ton of concentration. You had to try and grasp the rhythm of the flow or else it’d be like trying to divert a river with your bare hands. Supposedly, once you did this a bunch, it became second nature, but actually reaching that point is the hard part. Well unless you’re a natural prodigy like certain people but not everyone’s so lucky, eh?

Even still, having the memories of an adult made it a little easier to try and focus, even if my brain was still that of a kid. I was able to transfer the mana outside my body after a few false starts.

“I see you have finally managed to wield the manaforce, now, create the image and fix it firmly in your mind, and make it a real- Fwooh!”

I had levitated the water out of the cup and dumped it on the teacher. It turns out that having a strong mental image of manipulating water is a lot easier when you were a huge Avatar fan in your past life.

Maybe I do have a cheat?