---

Elena had risen to see another day. The morning was fresh as well. Her parents hadn't returned yet and that was fine by her. There was something new today. A visitor.

Lord Andre had come to the mansion to help Elena study twice a week.

Her father had hired him to teach her the basics of academics and magic since she was thirteen. He was a respectable man with a lot of useless information on minerals. Although the Elena from before bore some kind of admiration toward this man, she wasn't impressed at all.

He was two heads taller than her. His hair was black and a bit gray in some parts. The green eyes somewhat looked like a dead fish due to lack of sleep made his appearance a bit worse than it had already been. She noticed that every single person in this world had a generally good face with a few features here and there. Except for the bandits, they were like a new race or something.

"Lady Elena De Heuser, I have heard of the tragic incident you have been through. The lesson could be on hold for the sake of your recovery."

"I can deal with it in my own way. Thanks for your concern."

"I also heard about yesterday’s assassination. Truly, the gods must be on your side milady."

Funny, if only he knew what he was saying.

She smirked inside but decided not to answer that.

"And by that subject, your use of magic at that time was brilliant! To cut the assassin's neck with a wind blade in that crucial moment. It's a pity that he ran away before the knight captain got in the room."

Yeah, right.

The lies she fed them they ate up like crazy. So she just spun a tale and let them fill out the rest by answering 'I don't know'.

The punishment of the knight captain was delayed until her parents got home. Although the assassin was very skilled, the responsibility of letting him slip by was still there. She foresaw a demotion.

"So today's lesson, if you insist on learning, will be focusing on a magical topic."

The old Elena didn't know a lot about magic. What she got from the memories was that this world focused heavily on elemental magic. Like fire, water, and so on.

"To start with, your wind magic is very good. But your highest aptitude is fire. I recall you haven't learned any fire magic yet. And for good reason. Fire is the strongest offense element. It's very dangerous."

Any element would be dangerous if the caster knew how to use it. To her standard, this world was not very advanced in the way of mana based on how they viewed fire. It also meant that the threat level of this world went down and this discovery made her very happy.

"Let's learn the first fire spell, [Ignite]. This is a basic spell to familiarize with the fire element."

His right hand flared up in pale orange flame. Not that hot but quick on execution, which was meaningless to her by the way.

She demanded him repeat the spell a few times to look like she was learning. His lecture was lengthy but she could understand that basically as 'push your mana out and shake it!'.

It reminded her of the first summoned hero, he wore a pair of glasses but his eyes were actually fine. That guy slung a weirdly condensed [Fireball] at her castle and annihilated the whole region in a flash, including himself.

She was blasted from her bedroom a few castle-length away then dragged back to the center with the rest of her castle. Everything was soon disintegrated except her.

The aftermath left a giant dust cloud that looked like a mushroom piercing through heaven. The whole area was flattened for as far as she could see.

The fight with the first Hero was short but she was the winner. Although she didn't do anything.

That was also the time she started to prepare for Heroes and learned about their way of destroying things. Who could blame her? Any demon who had seen such a [Fireball] would be addicted to it immediately.

Lucky for her that all the summoned Heroes had knowledge about that kind of [Fireball] and more. Asking them was easy when she joined them as a companion. Or was it because she was a female? She wasn't sure but it was alright.

"... and so the element will be stronger when we give it more mana. Now why don't you give it a try too Milady."

"Of course, Lord Andre."

She needed to be careful as after the mana operation yesterday, although it was interrupted for a while, she had attained the magic potential of a greater spirit.

"... [Ignite]."

A candle-size yellow flame burst out of her index finger. It was small but it looked like someone placed a [Hasten] x100 on the flame. Its edge was like a jigsaw that would cut you instead of burning.

"Excellent! Splendid! What exceptional control! If I had realized you had this much potential, I would have let you learn fire magic a long time ago. Please forgive this incompetent me, Milady!"

This guy has been getting worse and worse. He looks kind of crazy now.

Elena was adjusting the mana output with all her mind. She hadn't thought about doing tiny spells until now. So the massive mana pool she had just acquired turned back and stepped on her while she was down!

But she had gained control over it. Seeing the bright yellow color she deemed this as a success. The Heroes used to brag that white-blue color was the hottest flame. So her candle flame was a very good performance of restricting the intensity.

On that matter, she knew the Heroes were wrong because the blue flame that they conjured had a lower temperature than the sun. And she had found a rock that burnt blue but wasn't that hot. Thermal physics was too advanced for her as well as the Heroes, so to each their own.

Elena didn't understand it but she knew her blue flame was hotter than theirs and the fission [Fireball] was hotter than her blue flame even if it was bright yellow. She just assumed that each spell had its own color set.

She stopped the spell to give herself a break. [Ignite] was very informative. She learned that she was actually feeding the lesser fire spirits and injecting her will on them.

This method indeed lessened the cost and burden on the caster. It let the spirits do all the work. Therefore the power of the spell increased many folds with the right aptitude.

These lesser spirits were mindless in every sense. She didn't recognize them until now due to their non-existence will and power.

“Lord Andre, I think I should learn some more mana-consuming spell. It was hard for me to restrain the flow of mana at the moment.”

“Oh, OH! How wonderful! Last year your magic was still weak but it has grown to such potential now. You must be a genius Milady!”

Elena didn’t know if he was jesting, but the overly dramatic language had begun to irk her.

“Please speak more informal with me Lord Andre, I am just a bit better in fire magic is all. Can we continue the lesson?”

“A-ah right. Pardon my rudeness, Lady Elena De Heuser. Let’s move on to the next spell, [Fireball]. This spell was invented by Master Darrel De Stone five hundred years ago in the first era…”

Yeah, yeah keep going. I’m not going to listen to that.

She completely ignored all the history lessons her tutor was so passionately singing. She was so done with this. It took an entire morning to just learn two spells. Most of the lesson was just history and theories that were as boring as a priest's prayer.

Two hours of the lecture could be summed up as: Spin the element into a ball and shoot it forward. In other words, it was just like throwing a rock. She knew that humans had trouble controlling mana so making a ball was also an achievement for a starter mage.

“I will put up a [Wind Barrier] for you to practice in. Just a moment…”

That is the flimsiest barrier I have ever seen. I get that you were supposed to teach an infant mage, but this… seriously?

Although she was having such thoughts, she wasn’t going to blow away the man’s pride by destroying his barrier. Instead of that, she focused on the lesser spirits between her hands.

Making a [Fireball] with spirits would be quite dangerous so she needed two hands for this. Elena’s aptitude with fire was insignificant but the body had been boosted. And her old [Fireball] was not that indoor-friendly either. Plus she had only been playing with spirits since the [Ignite] spell.

With both of her hands in front of her and facing each other, she released the mana.

The two streams from each hand swirled into a vortex, then a ball. If she fed the lesser spirits right at the moment, she would get a pretty-looking fire orb. But it was still just a flame. She fed it anyway.

Elena had gotten a bit used to it. So she decided to do a bit more. The amount of mana increased, the speed of the vortex increased, pressure around her hands increased. Then a bit more. And a bit more. And a bit more.

Then she snapped awake from her trance. The fire orb didn't grow bigger. But it had become light blue. The outside was warm but the inside of the orb was... She had a bad feeling about this.

Mr. Tutor was staring like his soul had already gone from his body. Elena ignored him for the moment. She had been feeling quite good while holding the orb of power between her hands, like a child holding her favorite toy. So she forgot the situation and did something stupid.

Elena looked into the orb. Something was happening.

"I AM-"

She slapped her hands together with all her might of mana. The voice from the orb ceased as it was annihilated along with the orb.

Sweat rolled down her face.  The mana was also quickly reabsorbed back into her body. She had just accidentally created a greater spirit.

What a close call! Oh shit!

She quickly turned over toward the tutor. He was sitting in a chair with a peaceful look while leaning back.

It looks like he has been out cold for a while.

She made a small [Fireball] and let it explode, trashing the room a bit.

After that, she whacked him on the head using a [Force Fist] and then [Confuse].

"Ahh! Ah-, huh?"

"Lord Andre, how are you doing? You hit your head pretty hard."

"Eh? No- what?"

It's looking good.

"My deepest apology, Lord Andre. I lost control of the [Fireball] and injured you."

"No no, the perfectly round flame! The blue! The white! Ah… ah…"

"What are you talking about, Lord Andre? My spell hadn't been completed yet before it exploded. Your barrier saved me. For that, I am deeply grateful to you."

He was very confused. Half-believing in Elena and half-doubting himself.

She didn't dabble in mind magic a lot while she was the Demon King. Or else this would have gone much easier. The best she could do was [Confuse] and it worked every time so she didn't learn more.

"Please have a rest here for today. You must be mixing your vision with my practicing. I will have the maids clean this room in a moment."

She was spewing nonsense at maximum speed without thinking as the man also stopped thinking too. One [Confuse] should be enough. She hoped.

"A-ah, alright. Thank you, Milady."

---

Elena ran away from the magic workshop which was also her classroom.

That was closed. I don't think killing him will be a good idea. His background is too big as a noble.

She had no qualm about killing nobles, but her family would be directly investigated if this man died. That wasn't good as her rich life would be threatened.

In the future, she may perhaps convert some people to follow her. That way there would be no need to be careful or clean the witnesses.

I need to make it look like Elena has been training hard and gaining power. Or my life will be constrained forever!

Of course, she wouldn't do any training herself. She would grow strong as planned. But now she needed to make it look like she became stronger and stronger day by day like a human.

Alright, I will need someone to be the witness of my growth.

She was walking by the training yard where the knight did their thing as she was thinking this. She looked over and saw the knight captain. He was standing in front of the other shouting about the new training program. He looked younger than she expected, maybe in his twenty or so. When meeting her he had always worn a full helmet so this was the first time she really saw him. His golden hair reminded her of the Hero. His eyes were also blue like him but that was where the similarity ended. The captain wasn’t as handsome as the Hero.

But this is perfect!

A smile crept up her face while a plan was forming in her head. She moved quickly toward the yard and called out to the captain.

“Sir… Captain, could I ask of you a favor?”

He jumped up at her calling and bow respectfully. A little bit sad that she didn’t remember his name.

“Lionel Berengar at your service.”

“Well then, Sir Lionel. I want to learn a little self-defense art. Please guide me.”

“T-That is…”

“Is there a problem?”

Asking that was like saying straight to his face that he couldn’t do his job right. As a Lady, she shouldn’t need to learn any of that. But he couldn’t refute her. Because he let an assassin slip in and nearly get her killed.

“The event in the forest is still fresh in my mind. I don’t want to be that helpless anymore. There is no need for you to make me as strong as our knight.”

Throwing in the tragic card was a big attack on him. He couldn’t refuse her now, could he?

“It’s okay, Milady. I will guide you on some basic combat.”

Elena was grinning inside. She could hardly contain herself to not laugh out loud. Her plan worked like butter on a hot pan. Smooth.

“You are more inclined in magic so a dagger should be good. We could add bow combat too if you want, Milady. After all, your performance of wind magic was excellent.”

She was fine with whatever he recommended. Learning combat was just an excuse to her anyway. She wanted to start right away and he complied. His resistance was completely gone at this stage.

In front of Elena was a rack that was full of knives. There were all kinds of lengths for her to choose from. The knight captain, Lionel recommended a short and thin dagger that was only half her forearm in length. It was about stuff related to parties or something. Like she could hide it under the dress and surprise any assailant with a deadly stab.

She was disappointed that he didn’t do some fancy move with the small dagger. But it was alright. She would show some magic moves tomorrow and call it the power of training. By tomorrow, her body would be ready, even for some serious physics mayhem.

Next up is the bow, he gave her a small bow and a few targets near the wall to shoot at. She accepted the practice although she knew he was avoiding giving her any taxing activity.

The shooting wasn’t easy. The bow was too weak to shoot an arrow in a straight line. The arrow kept dropping below the targets. She had been used to firing projectiles in a straight line since the old-time, therefore this was a very hard-to-fix habit.

It needed some power to satisfy her so she applied [Force] to the arrows and started puncturing both the target and the wall. Luckily the arrows were cheap wood, they broke just halfway inside the brick.

“M-Milady, you are incredible! This is the first time I saw this kind of shooting.”

“Huh? Then how do people usually shoot?”

“No no, I mean the magic. The magic archer I know only applying wind magic to guide the arrow to the target.”

“Isn’t that more amazing?”

“It isn’t as good as it sounds. The arrow doesn’t seek out the enemy, the archer is the one moving the arrow using that bit of magic on it. While your arrow on the other hand just flew in a straight line and destroy the target.”

She felt that something wasn’t adding up. Why couldn’t they propel the arrows like her? She tilted her head while looking at the captain. Her question seemingly floating above her head as her fingers held on her chin.

“I, I-I don’t, I mean magic archers are only that good. If they could do as well as you did, they would be wizards, not archers.”

“Hmm, I guess you are right. Thank you for your time, Sir Lionel. May I intrude in here again tomorrow? I think I like your recommendations.”

“O-Of course, Milady is always welcome here.”

The captain was acting weird. He was turning blue, then red, then blue, and then red again. Although she wasn't satisfied with the answer, she had better get out of here fast.

She walked briskly toward the main building. She followed along the hallways aimlessly in hope of finding something to look at.

Why wouldn’t she return to her room and remake her body? Because she had time to spare. She was trying to enjoy her new life to the fullest before some kind of cataclysm went off. Assassin on her back meant some ‘big’ power was in play.

Speaking of the assassin, I think I should send their headquarters something for them to play with and leave me alone for a while.

A big red feather around a short sword in length manifested in Elena’s hand. She blew on it lightly. A small runic diagram was ingrained on the feather briefly before turning invisible. After she was satisfied with the result, she launched it toward the sky like an arrow.

The red feather flew high into the sky and then turned back down. It aimed straight toward the city below.

At the point of impact, seemingly nothing was there before but the feather stabbed deep into that invisible object. The invisible thing silently unveiled itself without anyone noticing.

Then there were screams.

---

A girl was sitting on the bench at the center of the plaza. Behind her was a big fountain with water gushing continuously. Her slightly long, light brown hair that was commonly seen in the county was tied up in a ponytail. Her dark brown eyes were looking like a person who just lost her job.

She was watching a transparent panel in front of her with a depressed face. A lot of people were walking in front of her but no one seemed to take a look at the panel. Some of them even walk right through it like it wasn’t there.

And that was true as she was the only one who could see the panel.

“Even my status is telling me that I am a useless person.”

She was Emily, a commoner. She woke up in this world fourteen years ago on the day she was born. She was confused and cried for days but eventually, the baby’s instinct helped her go through until childhood.

Once she was five, she had started to help out around the neighborhood to earn money. Life was tough but she didn't complain. Her mental faculty had developed just enough for her to think clearly again.

Everything changed when she was working for a general goods store. She heard about the political situation in the capital and a lot of familiar names. It was then that she realized the backwater medieval world she had been living in was a game she had played in her previous life.

The game was a free otome game made in the style of an old-school RPG. Its 8-bits graphics was charming in a way and the total size was only a hundred plus megabytes so she downloaded it.

But what important was that she was the protagonist, the heroine. How did she know for sure? Because the status right in front of her said so.

Only the heroine had the Divine Blessing of holy magic. In the game, the player could name the character but that wasn’t going to happen in real life. The parents had the right to name their child after all.

She was the only one in this world who knew about status as no one could invoke the command. No one knew about level either. She had once asked her mother who had the highest level and she answered it was the Count. Because his mansion had three floors and he stayed on the third floor. In other words, the third level from the ground.

It was enough, her mother didn't know what level she had been talking about. Perhaps only the Blessed could see the status. Or this was a game mechanism in real life? She wasn’t sure but if there was a status, then the game could be reliable. And she could view other people’s status too. Because it was an otome game so she hadn’t been thinking too much about it but now that it was real, this was quite an overpowered ability actually.

Emily should be happy but here she was being sad and depressed. Her childhood had been full of odd jobs. Her family was poor so she couldn’t afford to leech around the house. She also had a beautiful face but living near the slum, she couldn’t really show her face just like that. It needed a bit of makeup to look ill and creepy.

What made her feel down today was the realization that she was too different than the innocent heroine to get picked up by the Count. The game’s heroine made a good impression on the Count and was sent to the academy after being measured the magic aptitude by the local church.

But she was too normal and she was picking works that didn’t go anywhere near the Count. That was bad. So she decided to raise her level to be more special.

In the game, the big level was the total sum of all skill levels. Blessings weren’t counted so she was just level eight, lower than her mother who was level forty-two with only Housework lv.22 and Housewife lv.20.

She remembered the court magician had Fire Magic lv.25 and the general had Sword Skill lv.26. So that ought to be the highest a person could get for a skill in a lifetime. Looking back at her Holy Magic lv.100 made her chilled.

She was contemplating life and how to live without ever entering the academy when she heard screams from the alley.

She, of course, didn’t run toward it. A girl who randomly went into an alley was the recipe for disaster.

When there were a lot of people gathered around to see, she started following them too.

Turn out it was a corpse. She regretted coming here just to see this. Her face started to turn pale. It was the first time in both lives that she had seen a dead person. He had multiple stabbed wounds in the head and a giant red feather impaled him to the ground.

T-This world is too dark! It was supposed to be fluffy! Why is it turning darker and darker as I grow up!

She looked at the red feather and her paleness went to a new level.

---

End of chapter 2