I felt strangely… vulnerable, as Riley stripped me of my armor and hastily dressed me in more “appropriate” attire; a light sundress that hung just past my knees. It was… unnerving how used I had already gotten to wearing my protective gear even without ever being in danger; hell’s I wore it almost religiously at this point even in my own home. It's just… this world, these people are all so carefree with the power they hold, and I am just so… weak. An ant walking among giants quite letterly when one thinks about it, after all what hope do I really have against a fully trained mage without my protections? 

Looking down at my bare arms I shivered as I looked at the door that led to the sitting room. Riley had darted off the moment I was dressed to greet the guests “properly”, probably serving tea or something. I could change again, or grab a few bracelets… but Riley would be mad wouldn’t she…

With a sigh I pushed the knot in my stomach down, it’ll be fine. It’s just some guests, it’s not like I am completely unused to visitors. In my last life I wasn’t exactly a social butterfly, but I had been visited by people before, sure they were few and far between but… it's been what? 4 years in this world since i have actually “visited” anyone outside of the ball… but before that it had been… a long time since anyone visited me in my own home.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard what sounded like a young woman’s voice through the heavy wooden door. “I’ve never seen so many mana crystals in one spot before!”

Whoever she was she was probably talking about the array I put in the table as a hub point. It wasn’t really that impressive, I had just gotten tired of Riley having to run around every night to turn all the lights on or having to lead the kids we hired every month to fill the crystals around the house to all the different enchantments. 

So, I had stolen the idea of a fuse box from my previous life and set an array in the middle of the house to power all the other enchantments. It was really just a power hub, with a dozen or so crystals all strung together then I just ran enchantments to different parts of the house that can be turned on or off by twisting a carved piece of wood to complete the enchantment array. Sure, it means I had to cave enchantments into all the walls but when it’s fully powered it's quite a sight when all the walls light up with that faint bluish glow of mana. 

Now though, instead of having to run and touch every light crystal in the hallway you just have to complete the circuit by the door and boom the whole hall lights up. Sure, that means if I want to turn the lights on in my bedroom I have to turn the light in the hall on first but it’s a work in progress ok.

The real upside is that Riley doesn’t have to gather the crystals at the end of the month for charging, just lead the kids to the sitting room and have them fill all the discarded ones in the basket. Another upside is when one crystal is empty you can just pop it out of the array and slot another one in, which is why whoever that girl is, is surprised. Sitting in the room were probably around twenty or thirty empty crystals and a few spare charged ones for the array. 

“I wonder what this does?” I heard the girl ask as the light in the hall flickered, likely removing one of the crystals from the table much to my annoyance. Removing one of the crystals wouldn’t cause the enchantments to fail but removing any amount of power from the array will weaken the whole thing, the lights dim, and all the heating enchantments cool slightly. If I was still working right now, I would be really pissed off as the forge lost a bit of heat.

Really, who just goes into someone’s house and starts poking at things they don’t understand! I hissed as I twisted the dial next to the door, turning off all the lights to this side of the house. If Riley was using the stove, it would divert the power back into the enchantments in the kitchen so the heating array wouldn’t weaken. 

“If you don’t know what it does you shouldn’t touch it.” I growled, throwing the door open only to freeze as I saw my “guests”.

Standing next to the glowing table was a young girl, no older than myself, who let out a surprised squeak; nearly fumbling the mana crystal in her hands as she turned her wide steely gray eyes to me. Her long silver hair was done up in a braid that haloed her shocked expression before she darted behind a tall man who sat comfortably in my chair at the head of the small table.

“Reinhart.” I clicked my tongue as I locked eyes with my father. “What do you want?” 

He sat there as if it was the most natural thing in the world as the young girl hid behind him, with my mana crystal still in her hands.

“Emillia.” His voice was almost dismissive as he gestured to the chair across from him, “do I need a reason to visit my daughter?”

“You never bothered to honor me with your presence before. How long has it been father?” He had the presence of mind to at least look away as I glared at him. “Or are you here to gawk at my enchantments and destabilize my entire house array.” I quipped, turning my glare at the young girl who I assumed to be Angela, given her silver hair and eyes.

All the McGraves had silvery hair, apparently a staple for our family though I assume it’s just strong genes. Unlike me, however, who was the only one of my parents’ children who inherited our mothers’ green eyes, she had large silver eyes that glimmered slightly as if she was about to cry. Maybe eye color was affected by mana which is why I don’t have dads silver eyes like my siblings, then again someone much smarter than I am to figure out. 

I instantly felt bad as the girl filched away from my words. she… probably didn’t deserve that. if I remember correctly, she’s three or four years younger than myself meaning she’s what… Nine? Ten, maybe. She was just being curious, and it's not like it would hurt the array removing the crystals, and even if she somehow managed to mess up the array they were just low-end mana crystals; destabilizing them would just cause them to crack at worse they would explode and cause a null zone for a few minutes given their size. Not that someone could actually do that by accident… normally. You definitely couldn’t do it by picking one up, that’s for sure.

“I doubt any enchantment you made would be so weak, Emillia.” Rinehart replied, placing a caring hand on Angela’s head, “I remember the wand you had when we went to the capital, the one with the changeable mana crystal in the handle…”

“The one that mysteriously vanished after my fight. Yea, I would like that back if you still have it.” I was still a little annoyed about the fact that the stone shot wand was lost after my duel, sure I didn’t need it, but it was mine.

He sighed, “I told you that I don’t have it, nor do I know where it went after your duel.” 

“Sure, you don’t.” I grumbled, crossing my arms still standing in the doorway. “So not that this hasn’t been nice but if you could tell me why your…” the words caught in my throat as Riley backed into the room carrying a tray with a teapot on it along with three cups.

“Sorry for the wait, Lord McGrave.” She said cheerfully as turned to face us, her smile wavering slightly as she saw me standing in the doorway with my arms crossed. 

Riley didn’t say anything as our eyes met, though she did raise an eyebrow ever so slightly as asking a question.

With a sigh I stomped over to the table and dropped into a chair, Riley had put effort into making them tea after all it would be rude to run them off before they at least drank it. She smiled at me as she made her way to the table, ignoring the missing crystal, she sat the tray down.

Angela’s eyes went wide as she watched Riley carefully thumb the small crystal set in the handle of the tea kettle, the entire thing lighting up as a simple heating array flared to life to keep the tea warm. It wouldn’t be strong enough to actually boil the water, but it would keep it warm. I remembered making it for Riley a while back when she commented on how the tea always got cold before I drank it all… 

I just get so distracted and forget about it, and she hadn’t been complaining but… well I want Riley’s life to be easy, and I know how annoying it is to reheat things in this world. It wasn’t really that hard of an enchantment either, sure carving the stone pot hadn’t been easy but…

The young girl’s eyes tracked Riley’s every movement as she deftly set out three cups and poured the tea. “Is there anything else I can get you?” Riley asked, ignoring the tension in the room.

“No, this will be fine.” Reinhart replied, taking his cup only to stop when he noticed Riley not moving.

“Emillia,” Riley’s voice was barely a whisper in my ear as I looked up at her, “they did come to see you, the least you can do is greet them properly.” From his point of view Reinhart wouldn’t be able to hear Riley though I am sure he could see her lips moving.

With a heavy sigh I nodded, “I think this will be enough for now, thank you Riley.” I said sheepishly. She gave my shoulder a reassuring pat as she walked past me.

“I will return to my duties then, just call if you need anything else.” 

I watched Riley leave as Reinhart watched the interaction with a shocked look on his face. Emillia didn’t know it, but he was actually at a loss for words; he wasn’t used to being ignored least of all by a maid. Even in another lords' houses they would at the minimum acknowledge him, but Riley hadn’t even looked at him before leaving, instead focusing solely on Emillia since she entered. Which if he thought about it made sense, Riley was Emillia’s maid after all but still.

With a sigh I turned back to the two across from me, Reinhert who looked at me with a puzzled expression and Angela who looked… Well I already fucked this up didn’t I? Angela looked down right scared of me as she looked past Reinhart's arm, only occasionally glancing at the table between us.

I grabbed my cup only then noticing that the missing crystal had been replaced. I looked back to Angela who still held the one she had taken… When did she do that?  I looked back to the closed door that Riley had left from once more before shrugging. She really was amazing, and so graceful too, I really need to tell her that more. I think she had complained about her feet hurting, I wonder if I can make some enchanted shoes or something for her, that would be nice.

Tibbit

Hello! It has been a while, feels like forever but I am back! Now happly married and all that jazz, woohoo. Lol, but seriously, i am exited to get back into the swing of things and get these stories going. Some of you may notice that this story revived three chapters where as my main story only got one, and the reason why is simply because i wrote these chapters before i left on hiatus. someone has also asked me why i keep labeling every chapter as "prologue" and there are two reasons, one this whole bit of the story was meant to be an opener to the rest of it that has just drug on for way to long! and two is i started doing it and now it would be awkward to stop. soooo.... book one is named prologue for this story now! as always, thank you for reading!