When Judith was a little girl, her mother told her to never ask questions. Questions were dangerous things that could only get a slave girl into trouble.

Regardless of what happened around her, she was to simply keep her head down, do the chores and never speak unless forced to. It was a philosophy that had served her mother well, and it was one that Judith had stuck to herself, in order to remain a house slave, rather than a field or a mine slave.

But somewhere down the line, she had become the caretaker of the Wright family’s house overlooking the slave camp, her duties revolving around a young Maria Tailor, a girl who had the misfortune to become the target of her heartless master.

Judith had attempted to remain her old neutral self, but Maria had been far too desperate for comfort for that to work and had torn down Judith’s walls in order to seek shelter behind them herself. And with it normally just being the two of them in the house, Judith had let her in and young Maria had become like a child to her.

So she had been as horrified as any mother would have been upon finding out that Jonathan had raped the girl. He raped her every night for two weeks in order to be sure she could become pregnant and had threatened the girl’s family should she try to resist him.

Once she had become pregnant, he left her be again, only forcing her to make her dresses. He then had a doctor confirm her pregnancy, and used that to declare them legally married, as she carried a child of his blood.

After what had happened, Judith believed that Maria would reject the child and refuse to raise it. She supposed that the baby should be glad that it was born a girl and bore no resemblance to her father.

Scarlet had been an odd baby. Quiet more often than not, and well behaved, but going into fits when anyone save for her mother touched her. But Judith noticed how she learned to crawl unusually earlier, and then started to escape from her crib in the night to search the book shelves.

Judith never told her master. Besides it simply going against her code, she despised the man. Whenever she would find the baby out, she would pick her up and return her to her crib. Though even when she did so, the baby always just snuck out again. Even locking the doors didn’t stop the child, as by the time she was a year old, she had started to pick the lock.

Judith was confused about the girl, but Maria didn’t care. She was over the moon about little Scarlet, after finding the girl knitting a sock in the middle of the night. So Judith fell back on her old philosophy; just do the chores and don’t ask questions.

Scarlet grew up fast.

By the time she was two, she was as skilled at weaving as most adult women. By the time she was three, she was learning magic and had enchanted much of her clothes and some of her mothers. At the age of four, she was venturing into the slave camp and performing spells capable of healing hundreds of people, as well as giving her blessings onto them. At the age of five, she was starting to swing around weapons.

That was only just a general overview of her activities. Not going into the millions of little things that she did that would leave the average person’s head spinning.

Judith just accepted it and didn’t ask questions. She figured that regardless of what Scarlet did, she could just accept it. That none of it would ever shock her.

However, after Jonathan had been taken away to be tortured by the Inquisition, Scarlet did do something to shock her.

‘You’re free Judith.’ Scarlet had said, handing her the documents that would be proof of freedom given to a slave.

...Judith hadn’t been able to believe it. She had lived her entire life as a slave. A long 40 years. And for the first time she asked the girl an honest question. ‘What am I supposed to do now?’

‘Well… I was hoping you would still live with us.’

And thus had started the new life of ‘Judith Freeman’.

In truth, very little had changed. She still lived with Maria and Scarlet. She still helped out around the house. But for some reason, everything felt different. She was doing it, but it was her choice.

Then, two months after they had moved in with Maria’s parents, Scarlet called Judith and Maria into the sub basement in order to talk to them about something in private.

“So, what’s the matter?” Maria asked, noticing how uneasy Scarlet was.

“I… I think I’ve found a way to do an Awaken Bond ritual for Judith.” Scarlet said uneasily. 

“You have?” Judith said, not believing her ears. A Bond was one of the things that had always separated her from free people. Even if she was freed, she could be taken by slave hunters and sold back into slavery, as without a Bond, she couldn’t prove she wasn’t a runaway.

“It should work but… If the Church found out about it, we might get into a lot of trouble.” Scarlet said anxiously. “I know how much a Bond means to you as a symbol of freedom, so if you want to do it we’ll do it. We just need to be sure that everyone knows not to ever mention anything about your past as a slave ever again.”

“The Church would be mad? Why would the Church be mad? Isn’t this a really valuable discovery?” Maria asked in confusion.

“...No. In fact, most of what I did was based on the Professor’s research notes. He already did this before, in order to awaken his own Bond.” Scarlet mumbled. “And the Church would be mad, because it would mean that I know their secret.”

“Secret? What secret?” Maria asked.

“That the Awaken Bond ritual is actually a Demon Summoning ritual. That our Bonds are actually a type of Demon Familiar fashioned from our own souls that are connected to us using [Holy Magic].” Scarlet said softly, as if afraid that someone would hear them.

“...Is that so?” Maria said with a tilt of her head, clearly not getting the implications.

The Church claimed that the Awaken Bond ritual was something passed down by Father Sky as humanity’s holy means of defending itself. If people found out that it was actually the Demon Magic that they were all told was inherently evil, it would compromise the Church’s power.

“It doesn’t really change what Bonds are. They are still a part of us and are our lifelong companions. It’s just that the church wouldn’t like that they are a type of demon to get out.” Scarlet said as she started to pet Branwen. “So… would you like to have a Bond?”

Judith thought about it for a few moments, but her heart had already decided the answer. “Yes. I think I would.”

...Her Bond was summoned and turned out to be a cute little hedgehog. 

Her young lady really was a remarkable little girl.

---

 

Four months had passed since they had first moved into Maria’s family’s house and winter was just starting.

Scarlet and her mother were in the sub sub basement that Scarlet had carved out when she noticed that they needed a place to train without disturbing other people.

The underground space was the size of a gymnasium, with several long enchanted cloths lining the ceiling for light and large stone pillars to offer support.

The purely stone room had given Scarlet a place where she could safely practice her [Fire Magic] and [Lightning Magic] for the first time, which she had been neglecting up till now because of the collateral damage it does.

Even now, she doubted she’d ever find a situation where it wouldn’t make things a hundred times worse. Unless she found herself fighting in the middle of a lake or the ocean, and even then, fire isn’t that useful. You didn’t use fire in a forest, or in flammable buildings. Nor do you use it in enclosed areas like caves and stone dungeons where you might quickly burn up all of the available oxygen if you weren't careful, which had limited her in her practices and forced her to make enchantments to turn carbon dioxide into breathable air.

She supposed staying at the mouth of a cave system and closing it off with a fire inside would be a good way of killing everything inside of it, but she didn’t know if she would get EXP for such kills. If she didn’t, then what was the point?

But she wasn’t practicing that kind of magic today. Instead, she and her mother were testing out their latest creation.

Maria lifted the sword and took a few normal practice swings, learning its weight, before moving on to the things that made the sword special. Swinging the blade wide, she used her abilities as a Spirit Weaver to let the Tales Spinning Spider threads hidden within the blade loosen and stretch, causing the blade segments to come apart, turning the sword into a whip blade.

The blade segments lashed about, controlled by Maria’s Class Skills and her high level [Whip User] General Skill. When the bladed edge came into contact with the stone ground, it would leave small gashes in the rock before it bounced off.

Maria continued to swing for a bit before willing the threads to shrink back down, causing the segments to reconnect back together.

“Looks good.” Maria said as she looked at the carbon fiber blade, finding no fractures in its structure.

Scarlet breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad this one worked.” She said, her chest feeling a bit of pride. “Now we just need a name for it. Um… Ah… Hm… Okay, maybe that can wait.”

She’d been so caught up in trying to make the weapon that she had forgotten to think of a name for it. But it had to be named. After all, it was Scarlet’s first true Magic Weapon.

Unlike enchanted items where the enchantment was something layered on top which could be added or removed, a magic item had its magic within its structure, making it significantly stronger.

Magic weapons and armor were incredibly difficult to make, because not only did the maker have to go through all the trouble of learning how to create magically imbued metals, but if the folding, shaping, or even the heat used in the creation of the armor or weapon disrupted that underlying structure, the entire thing would be made worthless and months of effort and hundreds of gold coins could be lost in an instant. 

Because of this, there were only a dozen individuals with the [Magic Equipment Crafting] Skill in the entire country.

...Well, a dozen plus one.

With the process of making magic cloth, folding and molding it being a thousand times more reliable than when dealing with metal, Scarlet had been able to make her first magic weapon by using magic faber plates, earning her the much sought after Super Rare skill.

[General Skill: Magic Equipment Crafting level 5 | +20 Mana, +20 Strength, +10 Dexterity, +20 Finesse, +15 Intelligence, +15 Wisdom, +25 Magic]

Holy hell, those stat boosts!

Well, considering it was like the cross between [Enchanting], [Magic Stone Fabrication] and [Advanced Weapon Crafting], three high tier skills, it was only natural that it gave a shit load of stat points. But still, [Enchanting], [High Speed Invocation] and [Dual Evocation] had only given 8-10 skill points per level. [Magic Equipment Crafting] was giving 25 total stat points every level.

Plus, since the logic of the world saw the creation of the weapons an extension of the understanding of their use, [Magic Equipment Crafting] was connected to the basic combat skills of all weapon types that could be crafted, as well as all magic types that could be imbued, and all of the intelligence and crafting skills used in its production.

[Magic Equipment Crafting] was the perfect target for her next Talent Point.

...Only she was only level 32, and wouldn’t receive another Talent Point until she reached level 40.

GAH! SHE’D BEEN TOO LOOSE WITH THEM WHEN SHE PUT ONE IN [COMBAT SENSE]! AT THE RATE SHE WAS GOING SHE WOULDN’T HIT LEVEL 40 UNTIL SHE WAS 9 YEARS OLD! WHAT WAS SHE THINKING!? SHE NEEDED EXP AND SHE NEEDED IT NOW!!!!!!

“Scarlet, are you alright?” Maria said, seeing her daughter on the verge of pulling out her own hair.

“Ah… I’m fine.” Scarlet said, taking a few deep breaths to calm down and fight the blush that was threatening to take over her face. “The weapon is good and it suits mama and Spindle’s Skills and Class really well. The magic took care of the flaws of carbon fiber plates being too brittle to withstand impacts and not good at holding an edge. Now I think I can make some armor sets for us and a sword and shield set for me too.”

Though it would use up all of her current supply of reagents used in [Magic Stone Fabrication] she received from the Professor, meaning she would have to start searching for more.

In the end, it all came back to the same answer.

“Hey mama, I was wondering… *growl*...” Scarlet stopped and started to blush yet again.

“...Do you want to get some lunch?” Maria chuckled.

“Um… Yes please.”

---

 

Scarlet once again ate as much as three full grown adults and at her usually breakneck speeds, though her mind was somewhere else.

Her mother’s family were starting to get used to the way that Scarlet ate, so they were learning to ignore it. But they took notice when she suddenly paused in her eating.

“Hey mama. Can we go hunting monsters this Winter?” Scarlet asked, causing everyone to freeze.

“Whh… What are you talking about!?” Scarlet’s Grandmother shouted in panic.

“I just unlocked the [Magic Equipment Crafting] skill, but I don’t have any Talent Points to put in it. Without one, training it up is going to be hard and inefficient, so I want to hunt monsters to help get myself to level 40 as soon as possible.” Scarlet explained.

Winter was the best time to go hunting monsters.

Many of the herd and pack type monsters which would be dangerous in large groups would have to spread out as food became more scarious. Cold blooded reptile and insect monsters at the lower level would become extremely lethargic, and the higher on the food chain solo predators would have stocked up on fat and gone into hibernation.

All of them were easy pickings for humans who had the advantage of being able to carry around their supplies instead of being at the whims of nature.

“No! Absolutely not! You are too young to…!” Alice shouted, but was cut off by her daughter.

“Alright. Let’s do it.” Maria said cheerfully.

“WHAT!?” Everyone around the table, save for Scarlet and Judith shouted, the maid casually sipping her tea.

“I knew that Scarlet would want to go sooner or later. It’s why I’ve been training myself so hard to get my strength up, so that we can do it together.” Maria said, doing a bit of an arm pump to show off her determination. “Besides, I wouldn’t mind growing a few levels too. Just 4 more and I can get another Talent Point as well.”

It was true, Maria had trained hard, only ever taking off her training clothes to bathe. Her Skill levels of the Training subtype were all keeping up with her daughter’s, and with her cloth based weaponry, her weapon skills were all high as well.

“You two can’t be serious. Maria, you just came back home.” Adam said, pleading with his sister to reconsider.

“It will just be for the Winter season, after that we’ll come back.” Maria said in an attempt to reassure them.

"But..."

“Just let them go.” Judith said, surprising the family. “Those two won’t listen after they’ve made up their minds. Even if you attempt to lock them in their rooms and bar all the doors and windows, they will still find a way to leave. Best to send them off with a smile than to try to fight them on it.”

“Thank you Judith.” Scarlet said with a warm smile.

“Just make sure you two come back in one piece. I won’t forgive you if either of you gets hurt.”