Liviana didn't open her eyes when she felt the presence of her mother's magic, instead, she focused on the mana inside her body. She tried moving it around. It didn't work. Then she tried to separate a bit of that mana and tried to move that around. The small orb of mana left her body and a strange weariness seized her. Liviana opened her eyes. 

An orange orb floated on the palm of her hand. It looked similar but different from her mother's magic. The color was more uniform and the orb didn't look like it was made of flames. Liviana knew why. Her mother had imbued her magic with the fire attribute, while Liviana's magic wasn't imbued with any attribute. She simply didn't know how to imbue her magic with an attribute nor did she know what her attributes were.

Her mother gazed at her daughter's magic in amazement. She realized quickly that although her daughter's magic looked like fire attribute magic it was in reality non-attribute magic. Her daughter had to have a high affinity to the fire attribute if her non-attribute magic looked like this. Liviana's mother couldn't be sure but it seemed like her daughter had a higher affinity than herself. A least rank VI. or VII. 

"Mother, how do you imbue magic with an attribute?" 

"It's mostly instinct but imagining the effect helps. You have read about the various affects that you can imbue, right? Try the fire attribute first. You have seen my fire magic, so you know how it's supposed to look and I think you have a high affinity to the fire attribute. The color of your non-attribute magic shows that. Be careful, you probably don't have much mana. That is one of the reasons why children usually learn magic when they are older."

Liviana closed her eyes to concentrate. She imagined that the orb was a small ball of fire. Glowing and emitting heat, it floated a few centimetres above the palm of her hand. Her hand grew hot and she knew that it had worked. A few seconds later however, the spell broke apart. She was tired and her head began to hurt. It felt like her head was split. Tears filled her eyes.

"Shh, everything is alright." Her mother was now embracing her and caressed the back of her head. "That was only your body warning you that you are low on mana. See? The headache is already gone, isn't it?" 

Liviana realized that her mother was right. The headache had disappeared. Then she realized that she had cried her eyes out in front of her mother. Even worse, in her mother's arms. Embarrassed, Liviana freed herself from the embrace and wiped her eyes. 

"I think it would be better if you put off learning magic for now. Wait until you are older and you have more mana."

Liviana nodded. She didn't want to experience that splitting headache anytime soon.

 

***

 

["Thank you, $&§#@."

Elizabeth brought the cup of tea to her lips and took a sip. Her personal maid had done a perfect job. The tea was exactly as the Princess liked it. 

"What would I do without you, $&§#@?" Elizabeth sighed. 

Today hadn't been a good day. Her mother had shot down any §$%&%&$ proposals. They weren't %$&# &§§#@ for her. That was what she had told Elizabeth. She sighed again. It wasn't like she §%$&$§#$ §%$%§ to §$%&%, but whenever her mother said that they weren't %$&# &§§#@ for her, Elizabeth wondered if the Queen cared %$%& &%&$ $"$% #@§$%& §%$&...]

Liviana opened her eyes. A quick glance to the curtain covered windows told her that it was still dark outside. It had been one of those dreams again. Those dreams of her past life. Like the last time she had had such a dream, anxiety made its way to her consciousness. Something was very wrong. This time, however, it didn't take long for Liviana to find out what. She didn't remember the name of her personal maid. It was like the name was cut from her memory. Everything else remained. She knew that she had had a personal maid. She knew that her maid had been good at her job. She knew that she had liked her. She knew that she had trusted her. She knew that she would never forget her name. 

'What else did I forget? And what else will I forget?" These questions filled her mind. 

It was mostly the second question that filled her with fear and anxiety. If she forgot everything of her past life, would she still be the same person? Would she remember that she had been reincarnated or would she forget that too? 

'Thinking about it will not change anything. It cannot be worse than dying, right?' 

That thought calmed her. She had been through something like this before. Just before her execution, she had wondered what it was like to die. That time, too, anxiety had filled her mind. The unknown had scared her and still did. At that time she had come to the conclusion that she couldn't change her fate even if she knew what it was like to die.

'I cannot do anything but wait.'

For a moment, she considered asking her parents for advice, but something told her that it wasn't a good idea. She simply knew that it was unavoidable. 

'Maybe I was not supposed to remember and the gods simply corrected their mistake.'

Liviana wasn't really religious, but after her reincarnation, she couldn't really deny the possibility that gods existed. She still laid in her bed, philosophizing about her missing memories, gods, and her reincarnation, when the sun began to rise over the horizon. Finally she decided that it was time to get out of her bed, and rang the bell to call a maid.

 

While the maid prepared her for the day, Liviana thought about how nice it would be to have a personal maid. The maids around her changed nearly everyday. The personal maid of her past life had known all her preferences but the maids of her present life didn't. It seriously irritated her. It was even more annoying because she was only five years old. The maids thought that all those overly cute dresses looked great on her and Liviana had to tell them over and over again that she didn't like them. All these maids clearly had no sense for fashion. Pink didn't look good on her tan skin. 

 

On her way to breakfast, an idea formed in her mind. Having different maids around her every morning annoyed her, so she would just ask her mother for a personal maid. Yesterday her mother had thought about her request seriously. Maybe she would grant Liviana's request for a personal maid. 

Liviana laid down her cutlery. She was the last one to finish her breakfast. After her father had dragged her brother out for his training, Liviana asked her mother for a personal maid.

"Mother, I would like a personal maid." 

Her mother nodded slowly, seemingly in deep thought. "I will send her to you when I find someone suitable." In truth, she already had someone in mind. 

"Thank you, Mother." Liviana gave her mother a quick hug. She had not forgotten what her mother had told her yesterday. She would try to be less formal with her family and she would try to treat her family like a family.

Her mother's startled expression quickly changed into a gentle smile. 

 

***

 

After her little conversation with her daughter, the Marchioness went to her study. The walls of her study were lined with bookshelves. The Marchioness sat down behind the massive oak desk.

"Jane, your daughter is twelve, right? Would she not be a great personal maid for Liviana?" The Marchioness asked Jane, her personal maid. 

"Yes, Mistress. It would be an honour to have Mary as Young Mistress's personal maid." Jane replied with a rare smile.

"Then please bring your daughter here. To be honest, I cannot think of a better choice for my daughter's personal maid." A smile appeared on the Marchioness's face. 

 

About a a quarter of an hour later, a twelve year old girl arrived at the study. Liviana's mother inspected the girl with great interest. She noted that the girl was the spitting image of her mother. 

"You can sit down, Mary." The Marchioness motioned to an empty chair. "As you have surely heard from your mother, I offer you the position of my daughter's personal maid." 

Mary nodded and took a quick glance towards her mother who now stood right besides the door. 

"My daughter is more mature than one would expect from someone her age. This is one of the reasons why she does not have any friends her age." Liviana's mother continued as if she was talking with her self. "Sometimes I seriously worry about Livia. She never played with dolls. With her, I never had any of the problems that I had with Deron, but because of that, she worries me more than her brother. Unlike her bother, she takes manners and etiquette seriously, but she is always so formal. She speaks to me as the Marchioness of Verrondyl and not as her mother..."

When Mary took another glance at her mother, Jane only shrugged as if to say that this happened from time to time. 

"...Mary, please try to befriend my daughter. Livia has no one to talk to."

The smile on Mary's face was a bit forced. She would try to respect her Mistress's wishes, but she doubted that she would be able to befriend a small child that was half her age. 

"Yes, Mistress. I will gladly accept the position of Young Mistress's personal maid."

 

***

 

Liviana's gaze was fixed on the violet-eyed, brown-haired maid. The girl was around twelve, but her mature demeanor made her seem reliable. She resembled the personal maid of Liviana's mother. Liviana guessed that it was the personal maid's daughter. That girl, dressed in a classic black and white maid-attire, now stood before her and introduced herself.

"Pleased to meet you, Young Mistress. I am Mary. The Mistress has appointed me to be your personal maid." Mary said in a calm and collected tone. 

Liviana got the feeling that she had heard the name Mary before but couldn't remember where. She quickly dismissed the feeling and closed the book in her hands. 

"Ah, yes, Mother found someone faster than expected." Liviana handed Mary the book and pointed at an empty spot on the bookshelf. "Put that back on the shelf."

After Mary placed the book back on its place, Liviana left for her lessons. Mary followed right behind her.

 

***

 

In the two months since she had become Liviana's personal maid, Mary proved to be a competent maid and Liviana had come to trust her. She was also a very pleasant person to converse with. Liviana hadn't even noticed how lonely she had been with nearly no one to talk to, until she met Mary. One afternoon, during one of these occasional conversations, Liviana complained about the Vaymoure family's traditions.

Liviana took a sip of the tea that Mary had brewed and sighed.

"Thank you, Mary. Your tea is truly the best."

Today hadn't been a good day. After lunch, her father had talked about a party that would be held on her sixth birthday in celebration of the beginning of her training. That had reminded Liviana of her training again.

Another sigh escaped her lips.

"Do you know of the Vaymoure family tradition?" Liviana asked Mary but didn't wait for an answer. "Since before the founding of the Empire the Vaymoure family has been a family of warriors. When our family conquered this territory, the head of the family had been a woman. She had been a brilliant warrior and commander. Since then, even the girls were trained in combat. This means that I too will be trained in combat when I turn six." 

Mary remained silent. Liviana took another sip of tea and continued.

"I understand the reason, but I do not want to learn how to fight. I do not want to become some brawny tomboy who will never get married. Even if I do not end up this way, I will have no time for social events."

"The Vaymoure family is inactive in social circles. No one would expect the Young Mistress to participate in social events."

"But I want to participate in social events." Liviana said and emptied her cup of tea. In her past life, she had been executed before her social debut, so she absolutely wanted to attend social events in this life. 

"Maybe you can convince your father, the Marquess, to cancel your training or at least shorten it." said Mary, who now understood Liviana's problem.

Liviana considered Mary's words. "I think it is impossible to convince Father to cancel the training completely, but it might be possible to convince him to shorten it..." She trailed off, thinking. "If I get engaged-"

"Let us think about another way." Mary quickly intervened before Liviana finished her sentence.

"Do not interrupt me." Liviana glared at Mary, then her expression grew softer. "But you are right. Let us not be hasty... Just telling him that I do not want to learn how to fight would not work..." She trailed off again, this time sinking into thoughts for several minutes.

"Young Mistress, your afternoon lessons begin soon." Mary reminded her.

"Oh, right... Thank you, Mary."

She would think about how to dissuade her father another time. 

'I will find a way to convince Father."