Lilith POV

Winter year 1606

It has been 1 year from then, I am now officially 13 years old. Everyone who had left the village to go to other places has returned early; not only to celebrate the New Year but also the wedding of Leena and Nicholas.

They dated for a year. While they did have some rough moments, with me acting as the cupid their relationship had a smooth sailing. Nicholas and Leena make a good match; just like Roderick and Alysha. Looking at them brings out the memories of when I was still young… Damn it! I’m depressed now!

But this time Leena will have a small part of her heart reserved for me. I’m satisfied with that much for now.

After I destroyed the prince and his entourage’s reputation among commoners, while they had managed to salvage the situation; the damaged had already been done. Nobles with nothing better to do than gossip have started turning their eyes back on the Leena vs Mary battle. This time they were sympathizing with their fellow fallen Noble and blaming Mary for sleeping her way to the upper echelons.

Mary’s engagement with the prince was once supported by everyone except the King and Queen. It was during the time of Leena’s banishment. She wanted to ride the big wave and finalize her position as future queen; that was why she came to the village to trap Leena. But by doing so, she ended up taking one step forward and three steps back.

Relying on the masses is like building a castle on sand. Poor thing could have done it other ways, but her limited intelligence and high pride made her blind to them. Idiot.

Leena’s family also visited a few times to check on her and see the person who she was ‘friendly’ terms with. In reality, it was just an overprotective father threatening Nicholas with all sorts of pain and torture if he made Leena cry. They later bonded over alcohol, mostly because Nicholas was a better choice than the prince to them and the engagement was once made forcefully by the king.

The wedding is tomorrow, Nick intends to stay here till after the New Years, and take Leena back to the Magical city of Aera. Tower mages are very busy people; he already has lot of work accumulated, apparently. Leena intends to open a dojo there to spread their house’s swordsmanship.

Since tower mages can use the teleportation rings in towns and cities for free; Reina, Ed and I are going to hitch a ride with them to the royal capital where we will be joining the Adventurer Academy.

Right now, Leena and I are having our last training session.

Over the year I managed to raise it till Lv 8.

Now I just need to fine tune it to match my style and voila! I’m a swordsmaster again!

We clash with each other, sending out a flurry of attacks and the other responding the same way; we practiced all postures and subskills till we finally separated breathing heavily.

“You really did it! In just one year! You really did manage to learn and perfect everything. You have monstrous talent to be a swordswoman. Why play the weak healer?” Leena said looking at me with pure amazement.

Others would have been afraid knowing what I just did or at least have some envy or resentment towards me; but there is only admiration and awe in her eyes. It’s one of the reasons why I love her.

“I don’t want to take the center stage now; being the pretty and gentle healer makes everyone drop their guards against me. It will help in the long run.”

She looked at me before sighing and shrugging, “Your wish. Though you really are the best warrior I have ever known.”

Hehe. She's still shy to praise someone openly.

She came closer to me. “It’s been one full year now. It passed by so fast.”

“Hehehe, it happens when you are enjoying it.” I placed my hand on her cheek to pull her in for a kiss. We do it quite naturally now. She used to be afraid of anyone seeing at first; over time she has come to put faith in detection abilities.

We head over to the hot spring to clean ourselves as usual. I sat on her lap, our naked bodies embracing each other; enjoying the warmth of each other while forgetting everything else.

It was our last bath together, but there were few words involved, both of us were never really the type to express what was in our heart with words, our actions spoke enough. 

When it was time to end it, I told her about wanting to place defences on her to prevent anyone from reading through her memories or attacking her mind when in Aera. It is very dangerous to leave your mind exposed to others, while few people know how to use mind magic, it is stupid not to consider all scenarios.

A lesson you learn when you had lived long enough.

Letting me place defences on her mind speaks of how much she trusts in me now. I could do whatever I want to the individual named Leena with my mind magic. But she knows that I won’t do anything to harm her. It’s stupid, but being able to have faith in others is what makes us humans… or well, what makes her a human.

I had already placed the defences on mother while we were sleeping. As of now they are both safe from any attacks on their mindscape.

On the way back to the village, I kept giving her advices for her wedding the next day. It is a very special day for her and I will make sure it would be perfect.

I retired for sleep with my mother. Knowing the day of my departure from the village is drawing near, she had become clingier. I did my best to satisfy her desires as she had become a little dependent on me over the years.

The village life really is too peaceful…

 

I wake up the next the hearing a commotion coming from the church. It felt different than the excitement due to preparing for the wedding.

There was a strange tension in the air… something I was very familiar with; but never experienced in my new life.

A feeling that something had gone horribly wrong.

I kept my mind calm and made my way to the place of commotion.

There was a crowd outside Leena’s room; I could see a sister from the orphanage crying while leaning on the wall. Despite my long life spent seeing all sorts of horrors, a sense of dread crept into my heart.

I pushed my way through the crowd and into the room.

There I saw the lifeless corpse of Leena who had hanged herself, her body swaying from the slight wind coming into the room from the open window…

I woke up covered in sweat and breathing hard. I immediately put all sorts of barriers and wards around me; an instinctual action for any mage experienced in live combat.

I looked around trying to assess the situation while keeping my breathing and heartbeats steady.

Mother had woken up from her sleep due to the disturbance I caused.

I’ve never had nightmares before; nightmares are for weaklings without any confidence in their own abilities. She lit the candle immediately to see what was wrong. She was worried, I never act without reason. She was right; this time also it was no mere nightmare.

Skill Evil Eyes of Clairvoyance is now level 4.

 

I looked through the walls and spotted the three assassins already nearing the church with their stealth on. From the movements they made, it seems to be an adept team, something nobles have access to.

I had little magic left after placing the barriers around me.

Being low level sucks!

But it was not like there was nothing I could do.

“Lily what’s wrong? ...You’ve got wings and-“

I tuned out what my mother was saying and focused on the leading assassin, specifically into the pouch he was carrying on his belt. Inside I spotted the high explosive I was looking for.

Assassins are needed to be prepared for all sorts of unexpected situations. They are risking their lives in every mission they do. As such most of them carry a high explosive on their bodies for when they run into a strong enemy like a high level mage; they cast dimensional lock immediately, making the assassins space storage devices obsolete.

This time they seemed to be prepared for combat with Nicholas while their target is Leena.

I focused on the bomb and chanted the most basic of fire magic.

Spark.

*BOOM*

The explosion had killed one and knocked another one unconscious. The third one freaked out a bit but decided to withdraw. He would succeed in escaping considering the defences of the village.

“LILY! What’s happening!?”

Mother was shaking me worried if something had happened to me.

“It’s alright now mommy, there were some assassins after Leena.”

“WHAT!? Assassins!? Is she alright!?”

I held her hand to calm her, “It’s alright I took care of them.”

I smiled at her; it succeeded in calming her down.

“I want an explanation later, for now hide your wings and horns; also your eye color.”

…Huh?

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuuuuck!

I dispelled the disguise accidently! I put it back on immediately.

The peaceful village life had made me careless!

She saw it! Mom saw it!

What if she becomes scared? What if she rejects me?!

I need to erase her memor-

“It’s alright, everyone has their secrets. No matter what you are hiding, Lily will always be my daughter. This truth will never change.” I felt her hand patting my head like she always did…

…She saw through me again, didn’t she?

Tears came to my eyes as I hugged her tightly. “I’ll tell you everything mommy.*hick* I’ve never lied to you, mommy. You are special.*hick* I love you.”

“I know. I love you too.”She said as she planted a kiss on my forehead, “For now we need to see if Leena is alright. C’mon.”

We left our room, my hand still holding onto mom’s tightly. Hmm... crying like that was not me, it was just my kid's body affecting my mind okay!?  I'm not a crybaby!

But... this does feel good. My hand squeezing moms a little more tightly.

A mother’s love really is special.