6th of March, the Year 1202
12:21
Auster Manor, Cordelia's Study

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For the next few days, the Auster House was in a rush. Preparations were being made for the departure of the Young Miss which was coming up on the 10th of March. The written and practical entrance exams for the Cheiss Academy would be held on the 22nd of March, giving her a week at max to arrive. She was referenced to a city where a teleporter to the Cheiss Academy had been set up as well as where the exams would be taken, as its location was purposely kept a secret to prevent spies and attacks. To be specific, the city was towards the north in the Laeon Federation and was actually its capital city of Alexandria. 

      Dominated by year-long winter winds, the Laeon Federation relied on its abundance of metals other resources mined from their famed Horn Mountain Range which acted as not only a barrier for the country but also as a treasure trove. It spanned almost 6000 kilometres when put in a straight line and was curved in an almost full circle around the Laeon Federation, leaving a tiny, tiny entry point towards the south of the country. Used as a chokepoint, it was heavily defended by their armies and the country had a history of resisting attacks over the centuries; only once had it ever been successfully invaded which was during the Demon Wars where it bore the brunt of the Demons over their mountain range at the north. 

      "Kuro."

"Here, Mistress."

Cordelia stood in her study with her arms crossed, staring out of her back window. Filled with the air of stateliness, the room was neat and organised as cupboards and bookshelves lined the walls, jam-packed with documents, parchment and books. She had been bedridden for a week already as going into mana debt could be potentially fatal for the victim. If it wasn't for Walker's fast reaction, she would've died.

      Above the door was a wide map of the world. There were three main continents; the first, the Wanae Continent, was situated smack-bang in the middle and had the greatest landmass. Being the centre of trade, the Wanae Continent was the most diverse of the continents as it was the travel hub for foreigners and was where the Escadan Empire was situated, near the east coast. It also had the biggest percentage of humans and the largest headcount of any continent in the world. Not only that, but it was also plagued by continuous conflict due to human greed and nature.

      On the east was the Penoic Continent and was sitting on the bottom right of the map. Although it was called a continent, it was actually more of a huge chain of islands which separated country borders and as a result, was the least unified continent. On the other hand, the people born there were very strong as they grew up fighting local beasts so any attempts to take over the Penoic Continent was thwarted with a combination of environmental and natural factors. Luckily, due to the late Duke Auster's attempts to bridge out to these indigenous people, the Escadan Empire has maintained a neutral trade agreement with the majority of the factions and countries there.

      Finally, to the right, was the Crescent Continent. As the name suggested, it was in the shape of a crescent with its inner arc facing the right and could be considered the most powerful continent. This was due to the numerous amounts of dragons who had made it their homes and as a result, had unified the continent into the Alliance. Several races such as mermen, beastmen and even the elusive fairies had joined this Alliance. The only other major races which hadn't joined were the elves, humans and spirits, the first because their nation was isolationist and the second because they were generally hated by the non-human communities. This reflected in the Alliance which had severe anti-human laws and was seen as a great threat by the Foundation Council of the Wanae Continent which most countries there had already joined. On the other hand, spirits were completely separate from worldly affairs and were not to be provoked on any occasion.

      It was true that there were many undocumented islands and countries that had not yet been discovered but the biggest one was the Dark Continent, situated in the north. It was an open secret among powerful people and although very small in size, it was the home and supposed birthplace of the Demons. During the Demon Wars, the current Magi, Duke, performed a World Contract with the System, exchanging all his limbs, one eye and 500 years of lifespan, which sapped most of his magic capabilities, to seal the Dark Continent off from the rest of the world. Cordelia ruefully stared at the map, remembering how her father had told her war stories. She chuckled inwardly. Is that really something you should be telling a child?

      "Miss?"

Her daze dispersed as she turned around to look at the young woman who was looking at her perplexedly. She wore a black dress with white and grey highlights, being form-fitting and tight on her evidently toned body. Her skirt stretched down to her knees with stockings covering the rest. The woman had no hint of pigmentation as her long, snowy hair bristled and colourless eyes stared blankly as if nothing was there. That's right, Kuro was blind. Yet, her perception stat was at 632; she utilised her sensitive senses and high level of Mana Perception to gain awareness of all things in a wide range, so wide that the naked eye would never be able to see what she could.

      Kuro was an orphan alongside her twin brother, Shiro, found by Cordelia's father when he was on a diplomatic trip to the Island of the Rising Sun and gained permission to take them home from the authorities there. The siblings were trained from 3 years old to be the personal aide and confidante to Duke Auster's children, the youngest having just been born; that meant that they were both now 16.

      It's quite ironic that she has white hair and was named 'black' while her twin was the complete opposite, Cordelia idly thought. 

"How much longer until I can set off?"

"According to my estimations, we shall be done by dawn, Mistress. Your final orders and implementations in High Command have been relayed; use of Protocol 3 has been activated and command of all official military operations and workings have been handed over to the Division Leaders Arkham, Lennon and Takezawa."

Kuro spoke tonelessly, though Cordelia was long used to it now.

"Have you prepared as well, Kuro?"

"Of course, Mistress. My worldly possessions are scant and thus, time expended was minimal." Cordelia would be taking Kuro with her as the Cheiss Academy allowed for one servant per student only.

In all of Cordelia's years of knowing her, she still found it difficult to read Kuro. She had a constant poker face and her blindness meant that emotions didn't show through her eyes either. Additionally, she was simply too good at controlling herself; all traces of desire and sentiments were suppressed thoroughly. Each time Kuro changed expression, Cordelia made sure to burn it in her mind but despite that, she only remembered two instances. The first was when she hugged her after the Duke and Duchess were killed and the second was when Kuro found her on the edge of death after encountering a dragon.

            "Did any of those elves die under brother's hands?"

"No, Mistress. They were fed regenerants and managed to live with no crippling injury."

"Using regenerants? Hm..."

The elves captured by Auster were thoroughly tortured and interrogated for days on end but sadly, they were just background characters. The only one of notice was their captain who, apart from his name and military rank, was completely unknown. Cordelia was surprised that Galia was a rebellious chess piece in the Elven Epoch which was being suppressed by higher authorities because of his status and most of his team members were spies from these people. As such, they were quite weak and their will crumbled without resistance but no information of importance was found. Her brother was the only one who ever bothered with them now as he was training new operatives for the Intelligence Department.

      "Dismissed."

Kuro vanished from the room, only the faint disturbance of ambient mana being the sign of her presence. Cordelia clenched her fist and took a quick glance at her status. As expected, her mana wasn't full yet and she had only gotten out of mana debt a day ago so she was clear from treatment. Exhausting all of her mana for that space-time attack was a last resort made her realise how weak she really was and smiled bitterly on that thought. She had panicked despite still having different options of escape and attack even after all of her training, it still didn't amount much with her young age. She didn't dare push herself harder as it would just be detrimental to her future physical development but couldn't help but be tempted to do so. 

     All for the sake of getting stronger...

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