Am I the Villainess of this Story?

Chapter 11: I Got Kidnapped by Accident

There's only two months left before Cousin Li has to go to magic school. I don't remember which school it was though. Because if I did, it would probably save me from suffering such an extreme headache later. But that was a story for another day.

So, in the time we still have, it was decided that we would try to spend more time together with Liam. Therefore, in between my experimentation with Master and Edith, I added reading with my cousin to my schedule. I even managed to convince the others to enact the stories we read using magic. Li uses earth magic to construct miniature dolls to serve as the characters while Edith, Sean and I uses wind magic for sound effects. Leon also helped by using his magic for light shows alongside me. Sean and Leon gave the dolls colors using water magic, as well. And when we find an interesting story, we showed our production to all the adults in the household. Grandpa Ricky was actually stunned by the versatility with which we are utilizing our magic. My parents just gave us bright smiles saying how proud they are of us children. Miss Evelyn even said that we were impressive. Of course, Master simply told us that he expected us to show at least this much effectiveness in applying our lessons.

And, with our egos boosted, we accepted Father's request to perform a show in town for the oncoming Harvest Festival. From his words, I understood that he wishes for children to be able appreciate and enjoy magic more. By showing that different things can be done with magic as long as you have the imagination and motivation to use it, Father is trying to foster an interest in learning magic with the commoners' children who usually only learn enough just to not cause accidents.

Basically, it is a strategy that would hopefully increase both the quantity and quality of mages in the country. From a commercial perspective, it would ensure that trade of goods would go more smoothly. And from a military perspective, it would improve our forces thus increasing our chances of survival should war break out. Then, as a society, an increase in good quality mages would also increase our status in the eyes of the neighboring kingdoms making them least likely to try and cause trouble for the country. All in all, Father is simply doing his duty both as a doting parent and this country's prime minister in one move. Man, Father really is quite the politician. And to think that Sean, who has no interest in politics is supposed to succeed him. It makes me worried for the future.

xxxxx

Focusing our efforts in making the most awesome show we could think of, the five of us made our preparations for the upcoming festival next month. The story we are going to use is simple. It is a tale of a normal villager who, in order to save his beloved from the clutches of an evil dragon, was forced to take arms and become a hero. It is a story entitled the "Dragon Slayer" which is quite popular with children who aspire to become knights. This profession is divided into two: the regular knights who serve to protect the kingdom from internal discord and the Mage Knights who protect this kingdom from external threats. Grandpa is the general heading these Mage Knights and is quite trusted by the king. Whereas the regular knights who rarely use magic to resolve conflicts are led by Marquis Henderson, Grandpa's best known student and Father's once rival for Mother's hand.

We chose the story since our purpose is to encourage children to be eager in learning magic. And since, knights are usually seen as persons to admire, we expect that the show would attract quite an audience. So, in using the popularity of the knight profession, we believe that children will be interested in our show and in turn become intrigued enough to study magic in order to reproduce it. In short, the story itself is our marketing strategy. Although, we're not really getting paid for its production.

In this month of preparation, all five of us really enjoyed ourselves. Liam was able to produce more detailed dolls for him to control later while we experimented with the type of special effects we wish to include. Of course, this time, clothes for the dolls are made to ensure a more colorful feel to the show as well. After all, our target audience this time are children like us and not the adults.