Anastasia de Libellule woke up to the faces of worried maids and no husband. There was a villager woman up front and close to her that she had seen only twice before, but she had no idea why she was here.
She was in a state of disarray as she tried to figure out what was happening.
Where was Earl? Fir? Why was she laying down? What had she been doing today? Heck, what was the date today?
She couldn't remember.
Anastasia tried to sit up while grimacing at the unknown pain coursing through her.
The maids immediately forced her down, chanting "nonononono."
She looked at them confusedly, eyes scrunching as her memory kicked in and the shock she had, returned. Anastasia jolted where she lay, the white light of the light magic casted over her fading when the villager noticed she was fine.
"I suggest at least three full days of rest. At least. No less than that, no matter what, or she'll have a relapse and collapse. Please make her abide by these words, I don't want to have to come here because a patient took my skills for granted." Her eyes narrowed as she looked out the window, sighing. She was remembering all of the little children in the village that loved to play adventurer and then come back with broken everything.
And the thing was, they never stopped. The villager's medical clinic was always full.
The villager could tell by feeling her lady's mana flow and looking at her trail that she was a very eccentric and energetic person, much like the children she met everyday. Except, this was an adult. She should at least have some self-restraint.
When all of her memories came back to her, the half naked Anastasia hopped out of bed and ran for the door, exclaiming, "Firea!"
The droopy eyed medical practitioner looked at the spot her patient had been a second before with mild surprise showing on her face. However, her insides were frozen.
I stand corrected. Even adults can be children sometimes, was what ran through her head.
She bolted, clothe-less save for her undergarments, for the open door a few dozen feet away.
Anastasia slid in front of the door while coming to a sliding stop, ignoring the blushing Frederick. He covered his face, particularly his eyes and cheeks, to keep from looking or being seen.
"Earl! Where's my daughter?!" She shouted, marching up to him. The room was empty and he was simply sitting on the couch, hands clasped with his head down.
The minute the village healer had marched through the door, she had demanded for a private room and for some necessary things.
They moved the child to the next room without much fuss, because she had finally started breathing again after a maid went and literally did mouth to mouth.
The shock had been too great for the little body and nobody knew, but her HP had all but dropped to zero. If they had [Appraisal] like she did, they would noticed that her MP had gone down 300 on the numerical value because of the redirected damage. If she had let all of her damage be to the HP, there was no doubt, she would have ceased to exist on the spot.
It was the luckiest thing ever that she had read about some life preserving cheat spells in her father's magic library when no one was looking. She learned that you can redirect damage done to your life or body to other stats if you could get the spell right or blur the boundaries of "HP," "MP," and everything that separates them to work in certain directions. So, when the lightning strike hit her the first time, she had lost most of her HP, but not quite everything. She was fine by then and would have only gotten off with burns to her hands and arms.
The problem was the second lightning strike. When Firea had assumed the form of her past self, Itsuki Kaya, and confronted Margaret in the room. Then, the lightning master unleashed a certain high level spell to get rid of what she thought was a sliver of someone else's soul stuck to the child, Firea-Madeline. That was a highly wrong assumption.
It's like getting rust off metal, is what the cardinal had thought. You need to work hard at it the first time.
So, she used a spell that took up half of her MP...273 points of a lightning purification spell.
She directed it at a close range and fired at the consciousness of the girl. And then, for fun, kicked the lightning ball she had made, farther into the apparatus. It drove such a high level spell into the barely defended and weak consciousness, making the last domino of Firea's life finally tip over-
-not.
Her HP may have dropped to zero, but once that was gone the damage went to her MP. It switched the stats as one of the four main types of spells.
Her MP of 7,997 became her HP, and her thirty something HP became her then 0 MP. Minus the three hundred "MPs" from the 7,997, she still has lots of life left from the temporary spell.
Earl looked at his barely dressed wife, got up, and shrugged off his outer layer. He covered her with it and nonchalantly caught her as she wobbled and fell.
"You're tiring yourself out. You received quite a bit of damage, too, you know? Please don't worry me anymore and rest." His voice was sweet, caring, and more concerned compared to earlier's outburst.
Anastasia tugged on her husband's shirt tiredly, wanting to know, "What happened to my little girl? Where's my little Fir?" Her voice cracked desperately, tears rising to her eyes while threatening to spill over.
She was weak, her bout of energy gone as she slowly swayed herself back into sleep. Her grip loosened and eventually dropped as she nodded off, unable to stay awake.
"She's going to be safe, hopefully. Sleep for now, dearest. I'll wake you when it's time," he spoke to her once he was sure she was really sleeping. There were maids at the door that readily took her back, guiding her limply to her room where she was welcomed back again.
She didn't wake up again till the next day. But Fir didn't wake up even longer than that.
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Seven months later...
"Kaya. Hey, Kaya. It's time to wake up. You are completely healed now...or at least, your wound is under control, and you can't be lazing around here any longer. Your family is worried about you. Kaya. Hey. Kaya~" Takuya was prodding my shoulder, tapping me at regular intervals, which I hated.
I grabbed my cover and turned over, reluctant to get up.
Since when has that garbage family of mine been worried about me? Sumika went and trashed my room again and I was not looking forward to cleaning it.
But wait. When's the last time Takuya came to my house...?
He's never been to my house before. I never let him in. So what was he doing here now?
You died. What's your problem, Kaya? Get up.
Hold up! Where did that thought come from?! When did I-
Everything came flooding back.
The cardinal, the invasion, Mother, the electric shock, fainting...
Holy crap.
Takuya! I yelled, bolting up right in my bed.
"Yeah?" He answered, leaning against my desk.
I was dressed as if I had never gone to school on a tiring day, slipping on my uniform but going back to bed. There was a large missing portion in the middle of my chest, like a black hole. It was eerie to look at because my beige scarf was missing. I pulled the part where it was by my neck and it appeared, disappeared when I put it back in the dark hole's place.
Fascinating...
Not important right now!
How long have I been out?!
"Here? Oh, about a year."
Excuse me?
He must've noticed that I put on my you-have-to-be-joking face, because he elaborated.
"Here, I said. Time flows differently in the outside world. It depends on how fast you want it to go, and since you wanted to sleep for a long time, you did."
I...I was at a loss for words. How badly did I mess up this time? I was still inside my consciousness, so that means I was still alive. But...how old was I now?
"You gotta go. I know. I came here once I was sure you were back to one hundred percent and didn't wake you up before that. Well, I've been hearing loud crashes every once in a while outside, so Mother's probably flipping out right now. Come on, it's time to get up."
I nodded vigorously and stood from my bed, forgetting about the gaping hole in my chest.
I was in my knee high socks, so I stepped onto the clean floor easily.
I slipped on my shoes at the front door with Takuya and stepped out of the Japanese house. I marched out the gate and closed it, going somewhere into the field while leaving Takuya behind. He waved at me and smiled casually. I did the same back as I fell out of my innermost consciousness, back into my barrier. I sat on the bed and let my consciousness wake up, the apparatus laying still as I joined reality again.
And thus, I woke up to the realm of a fire breathing Dragon.
Not literally. It was just mother storming around while setting things on fire. Father was dousing everything with a water can frantically, trying to get her under control. I watched all of this from my place in bed, completely understanding the situation after watching it for a few moments.
I think now is a good time to announce my presence.
"Mama," I said nonchalantly. Not going the extra length to make sure I was heard.
But somehow, through all of the ruckus...
They heard me.
They stopped their game of reverse cat and mouse, shutting up immediately to look at each other skeptically.
"Did you say that?" Mother asked of Father as he held her arms behind her back.
"Do you think I can make a voice so high pitched?"
"Well, if you tried."
"Please don't think of me as so little of a man..."
She didn't seem to notice that his pride was wounded again.
"Papa."
Silence again. It was like I didn't exist, they ignored me.
"Was that you this time?" He asked.
"Is my voice that childish to you?"
He countered the same way she did. "Well, if you tried."
I was tired of this game. "Good night."
I snuggled back under my covers, yawning.
"WAIT!" They both yelled in unison. Too bad, I was already asleep. I guess you shouldn't have kept me waiting so long, huh?