I’ve been feeling great since my Appraisal Ceremony.

As if my soul was restrained by something and that skill was able to cut off all the restraints.

Although there’s no way to prove it for now, but I still feel that not only are the skill and the mermaid scale bracelet related to each other but also related to Tomoko.

This world’s game-like system was connected to me after I was reborn, so in order for such a skill to show up in my Appraisal results can only mean that both sides of it have been connected to the system.

Me, the soul marked, and the person who marked me, I’ll assume its Tomoko until proven otherwise.

Although I don’t know what she did and how she did it, but a part of her soul mixed in with mine.

The induction between the bracelet and the skill indicates that this scale belongs to Tomoko or someone close to her, meaning that the probability of her being reborn here as a mermaid is very high.

I was living in a spectator mode up until now, but now I have a goal.

My goal is to become strong enough to find her and then either fight by her side or protect her!

I also need to search for Aiko, Segawa, and Wakaba, then bring them to her.

We four were her closest friends so I bet they also have a mark on them.

How am I sure the others reincarnated as well, you say?

Since Tomoko’s here, then this reincarnation thing must have something to do with our entire class, I lost consciousness in class before waking up here after all.

And Tomoko’s soul mark actually gave me the tools required for this upcoming challenge.

There are the words +Correction to Spatial & Heretic Magic proficiencies in there, meaning they are now very cheap to obtain with skill points and level up much faster than normal.

Normally, getting one of those two would be troublesome in its own way, a space magic user will always be bound to some kingdom or serve humanity as a whole while a heretic magic user would be hunted down by the church because well, they’re considered heretics...

But I have the option of hiding my skill names, they are completely hidden from Appraisal below level 10 and appear as garbled text otherwise.

So even if there will be some delays due to the need to practice secretly, I believe I’ll have those skills and their evolutions in less than 5 years.

However, strength is useless without combat experience, this was a fact I learned the hard way when Tomoko saved us back in elementary school.

She fought with no care for the enemy or her own body, yet she was able to beat up all the child predators who were larger than her in size with nothing but a single wound in her thigh.

It was as if she had fought numerous battles before, like a true Valkyrie.

I need to compensate for my lack of combat experience and maturity by putting myself in life and death situations.

Leveling up is also a must, I can easily be killed by an enemy with higher stats even if my techniques and skills are better, that's just how game systems work.

Space magic must have teleportation somewhere in there so both sneaking out and escaping from dire situations are covered.

For now, I’ll pick up the prerequisite skills for using magic and both of my chosen magic skills.

 

{Number of skill points currently in possession: 149,500. Number of skill points required to acquire skill [Magic Power Perception LV 1]: 500. Acquire skill?}

{[Magic Power Perception LV 1] acquired. Remaining skill points: 149,000}

 

{Number of skill points currently in possession: 149,000. Number of skill points required to acquire skill [Magic Power Operation LV 1]: 500. Acquire skill?}

[Magic Power Operation LV 1] acquired. Remaining skill points: 148,500}

 

{Number of skill points currently in possession: 148,500. Number of skill points required to acquire skill [Heretic Magic LV 1]: 100. Acquire skill?}

{[Heretic Magic LV 1] acquired. Remaining skill points: 148,400}

 

{Number of skill points currently in possession: 148,400. Number of skill points required to acquire skill [Spatial Magic LV 1]: 100. Acquire skill?}

{[Spatial Magic LV 1] acquired. Remaining skill points: 148,300.}

 

...Hmm let’s see here...Hmm Oh!... So that’s how it works, huh?

I can see magical power around me with perception, I feel like I can manipulate it using operation and then I need to trace the system’s rune circuits according to the type of magic to use it.

Something’s off about this... If runes are equated to language, then those spells are like the little booklet tourists read commonly used phrases from when visiting foreign countries.

Magic shouldn’t be like that right? It’s always been hailed as a power with infinite possibilities.

“Karnatia, check your outfit one last time then head for the carriage! Hurry up or we’ll be late for the Ceremony.”

“Ah! My preparations for the occasion are all complete, mother dearest.”

My private magic self-study session is cut off by my mother’s call, I wrap a shawl suitable for my size around my shoulders and head out for our carriage in the mansion’s runway.

Today is the Appraisal Ceremony of the fourth prince, Schlain Zagan Analeit and the second princess, Suelecia Analeit.

The fourth prince’s mother is the king’s concubine and his turn in line for the throne is far away, so this Appraisal Ceremony can be considered his only chance to achieve anything in life.

As I said before, Appraisal Ceremonies were made up to determine a noble child's worth in a polite way, if the prince doesn’t have any redeeming qualities in his Appraisal results, then he’s surely going to be abandoned.

The second princess’s situation is different though as she was born to the king’s wife, removing any chance of being abandoned, her future however, is doomed to be a wedding to another nation’s royalty in a political marriage.

...They’re both pitiful people if you ask my opinion.

My recent reputation as a genius makes the situation even more demanding for them, as they need to at least match the status of me, the duke’s daughter or be better.

My Ceremony results just raised the bar too high, and now, they're forced to compete even if they don’t want to.

I’m pulled back to reality by the sound of the carriage door closing.

Looking up and around, I see mother seated to by my side while father is on the opposite side.

“What’s on your mind these days, Karnatia?”

Even though my father’s voice is loud and stern, I can still feel the warmth hidden in his words.

“I’ve been thinking about magic, father. I feel very interested in such a wonderful power.”

His face showed an unnoticeable smile as he started talking about this world’s magic.

“Magic is actually considered a rare talent among us humans while demons are the ones with high affinity for it.’

I intently listen to his small lecture as learning all I could about this world’s people’s interpretation of magic could solve my doubts and help me in my upcoming endeavors.

“Each type of magic is divided into three stages, with each stage being the evolved form of the previous one. For example, Fire Magic is the first stage with Flame magic being the second stage and Inferno Magic being the highest one.”

What a weird way to classify magic... Isn’t fire the base element anyways? As long as you’re good enough with fire, you should be able to use it as flame or inferno, right?

 “In fact, a human reaching the third stage in magic is very rare and they’re always the highest-ranking magicians in any country. We knew about most of the third stage magics through records left of past sages with the rest being known from our years of war with the demons.”

Human’s affinity for magic must be pretty low, huh? I wonder how demons look like and why their affinity is higher than us.

Still, I really want to get more detailed information about the topic... this isn’t nearly enough to answer my doubts.

“You’re going to study magic in the Royal Academy in a few years, Karnatia, but we could get you a private tutor before that as long as your other studies are finished.”

Mother seems to have read my mind as she said those words right after I had the thought.

“It’s a promise then, mother dearest.”

Giving her a bright smile, I dive back into my thoughts.

Her condition’s easy to satisfy, especially with my brain being smarter ever since I was reborn.

I don’t actually know the reason for that, but you won’t see me complaining about extra brain cells, y’know?

Is this how Tomoko felt? Being able to comprehend everything easily is such an amazing feeling.

“We have arrived, Lord Duke, Madam Duchess.”

Our carriage horses come to a halt with the sound of the coachman calling out to my parents from the front.

The fourth prince and the second princess, hmmm.

Come to think of it, their Ceremony being now means that they’re the same age as me, huh.

They could be reincarnations as well, but the chance for that’s pretty low as far as I can imagine.

Our class had just over 25 people in total, making it near impossible to be reincarnated this close to each other.

The probability is further lowered when you consider the possibility of non-human reincarnation, Tomoko’s reincarnation as mermaid is proof of such possibility.

Having a corrupted text skill and a huge number of skill points could be used as an easy method to identify reincarnations though.

 I’ll have to wait until the Appraisal results are made public to be able to judge anyways, I don't need to wait too much.

Let’s see what children my age are normally like in this world...

 

 

“To think that scales could actually be used in such a way... Human imagination really is an amazing thing. Now I can watch those scenes through Katia’s eyes while laying down comfortably faraway in the safety of my dwelling. I’ll be like the secret hidden boss that’s controlling everything behind the scenes, wahahaha!”

In an unknown cavern filled with shiny treasures and sci-fi items, a girl—loli? Was seated on a comfy sofa holding a shiny purple metallic scale like the one Katia’s bracelet was made from.

Unbeknownst to Katia, her beloved bracelet was functioning as a monitoring device that allowed a child with a delusional mind to peek into her life without her consent.