"Please marry me!"
The enthusiastic proposal caused silence over the practice field. Many turned from their sparring partners to stare open mouthed at the handsome young man who smiled while kneeling on the ground. Erin looked on silently for a moment. She would have found the whole situation amusing...
If he hadn't been kneeling in front of her.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Confused, she reached out to help him to his feet. She was fairly tall, usually standing above the boys of the same year, but he towered above her. He gave her a good natured grin and bowed formally, again startling her.
"Forgive me, I should have introduced myself. I am Prince Gerald of the Ellurine Alliance." He reached out to kiss her hand, but she shook it instead.
"Erin."
"Nice to meet you!" He straightened up, looking her in the eye. "So... will you marry me?"
"Umm... no."
Gerald frowned. "Why not?"
"A better way question is why do you want to marry a girl you just met, and know nothing about?" Erin sighed, trying to ignore the piercing stares all around her.
His face lit up, the handsome, cheerful expression causing multiple sighs of admiration in the surrounding crowd. "I know enough!" He was practically bouncing with delight. "My parents told me that I had to marry the strongest woman at this academy to continue on the family line properly. I've been over the entire school, and I'm absolutely certain: You're the strongest person here!"
There were a few moments of stunned silence before everyone in the practice yard broke out in laughter.
"No way!"
"Is he joking?"
"The Worthless Princess? This has to be a prank!"
Erin stared at him in shock, unsure of how to respond. "How..."
"Gerald!" A young, graceful woman walked up and patted him on the shoulder. "You've made a mistake, but I'll help you out!"
Gerald looked disgruntled. "I am the strongest in my family at Insight. I know what I'm talking about."
He had the power to accurately determine people's skills and abilities? Erin raised an eyebrow. The admissions overseer had a Level 3 Insight grade and had not even bat an eye at her. Just how powerful was his Insight ability?
"You don't understand," The "helpful" girl continued, rolling her eyes. Erin recognized her as Wilhemina, the vice president of the student council. She was ranked as the third most powerful student in the school. "We very accurately assess every student's magical ability on arrival to St. Julienne's Academy. You are a new student so you may not be familiar with the process."
Gerald shook his head. "I'm aware. Everyone is given a score based on the Level of each of their magical abilities. The more abilities you have, and the more powerful those abilities are, the higher the score."
"Exactly. For example, I have a score of 87, which is the second highest in this academy." Wilhemina gestured grandly at herself, "This is because I possess higher level fire and wind magic, along with a lower level physical reinforcement magic."
"Two high level magics? That's very impressive." Gerald shrugged. "I myself have three high level magics, including a Level 5 Insight."
The surrounding crowd that had gathered broke out into disturbed chatters. If he was telling the truth, with the highest known level for insight and multiple high level magics, he would be a top contender for strongest student in the school.
Gerald continued, gesturing at Erin. "But even with that, I don't even come close to the power of this young woman." He grinned. "Thus I must somehow convince her to marry me."
"You've got it wrong!" Wilhemina was starting to look annoyed. She had already lost her composure at hearing Gerald rattle off his abilities, but his continued insistence in Erin's capabilities seemed to be too much for her. She pointed directly at Erin's face.
"Do you know what's she's called here? The Worthless Princess. She's the daughter of General Roderick, the strongest warrior magician in the history of the continent, but all she has are some lousy level one abilities, none of them strongly combat oriented. She has lost every single match she has fought since starting here." her grin was malicious. "She's no better off than a damsel in distress, or a princess in a tower. Good blood, but will need to be rescued in the end. If she hadn't gotten perfect scores on the magical theory test, she wouldn't have even qualified to be a student here."
"..." There were a few moments of awkward silence.
"You got a perfect score on your magical theory exam?" Gerald whistled, impressed. "Can you tutor me?"
Erin smiled, continuing to ignore Wilhemina as she had since the beginning. "What would you pay me?"
"A lifetime of love and devotion?"
"I'd prefer cash."
He shrugged. "How about I give you the cash now, and then we can discuss the lifetime of love and devotion at a later time?"
"You're incorrigible." She couldn't help but laugh. "We can work out the specifics..."
"You can't be serious about getting close to her!" Wilhemina had gotten tired of being ignored.
"I'm serious." Gerald looked confused, likely unsure as to why Wilhemina was so concerned for him.
"Fine! I'll just have to prove it to you!" With a flourish, she removed her red sash from around her shoulder, tossing it to the ground in front of Erin.
"Éirinne de Roderick. I challenge you to a match!"
Erin sighed, staring down at the sash silently. By school policy, unless she could prove she was not physically fit to undergo a battle, she was required to accept any and all challenges. These days, due to her reputation, she was often challenged more as a joke or even as a warm up to a more serious duel. But today... Without looking up at her challenger, she reached down and picked up the sash, taking off her own and handing them silently to the nearest teacher, who had been standing at the sidelines watching the students practice. Wilhemina's sash had multiple golden stars sewn into in, a mark for each successful match she had won. Erin's was a completely blank plain sash.
Wilhemina laughed. "See Gerald, even her sash is empty. She has never won a single match. Can you really consider her the strongest?"
"Let's get this over with." Erin stood up, moving toward the center field. She took a tall, firm stance, closing her eyes and focusing on her magical power within. As usual, she was confronted with the stifling feeling of sensing her power but only being able to pull a small portion out.
Wilhemina is primarily a fire mage, so let's start with water magic.
Once she had a basic plan for the fight in her head, Erin opened her eyes to calmly study her opponent.
"Do you need more time?" The girl openly mocked Erin. "Go ahead, take whatever you need, it won't make a difference."
Erin gritted her teeth, her nails digging into the palms of her hands. She wanted, more than anything to stomp the other girl's face in, to stand on top and be admired as strong, as capable.
As worthy of being able to stand before her father.
The teacher standing off to the side nodded, raising the sashes in the air. "Once I have called the match to begin, you may proceed with magical or physical attacks. All must be non-lethal in nature. The first to surrender or be knocked unconscious will lose the match. Are you ready?"
Receiving nods from both competitors, the teacher waved the sashes in her hand through the air.
"BEGIN!"
Wilhemina raised her hands, red white flames forming on her fingers. They blasted towards the spot Erin was standing...
But Erin had already disappeared. Moving as fast as her body would allow, she bent low to the ground, kicking off and throwing herself closer to her opponent. Bringing forth her magic from within her, she shot a spout of water towards Wilhemina, attempting to knock her to the ground. From there she would freeze the water, trapping her in place long enough to knock her out. It was a simple, but decisive plan.
But things didn't go as planned.
Erin pulled on her magic, but it was like sucking a lake up through a clogged straw. Only a small sliver of magic responded to her demand, and the large spout of water that was supposed to strike Wilhemina only came out as a gentle spray.
Dismayed, but not giving up, Erin rolled on the ground, just barely missing another flame blast that went over her head, singing her hair.
"Watch your attacks Wilhemina." The teacher warned. "That last one was borderline lethal."
"Of course!" Wilhemina was smiling cruelly. "I don't need powerful attacks to take down the Worthless Princess."
Erin let out a scream of rage and leapt forward, wrapping her hand in ice and aiming for Wilhemina's head, hoping to knock her out. But with a grin and a few chanted words, the whole field became covered in magical flames.
Overwhelmed by the heat, Erin dropped to her knees.
"This is the difference between us." Wilhemina was speaking in a low voice, pitched so only Erin could hear. "This is Level 4 fire magic, far beyond anything you could ever hope to employ. Just give up and leave this school."
Erin tried to struggle back to her feet. "I'm not..."
"Just fall."
With that, the older girl used her wind powers to steal the breath from Erin's lungs, knocking her out in an instant. A single thought flashed in her mind as her head struck the ground:
I wish I could win.
Erin was six years old again, angry, hurting from every inch of her skin. What wasn't bruised was bleeding, what wasn't bleeding was swollen. "I haven't lost yet." She spit blood on the ground to clear her mouth, glaring forward at her opponent.
Her father was indifferent. "This power is inadequate. Worthless." With a wave of his hand she was knocked back down to the ground, unable to stand up in the face of his overwhelming abilities. Seeing her struggle and cry he only raised an eyebrow. "Are you truly my daughter with such pitiful talent?"
Erin woke up screaming.
Looking around for a moment, it didn't take long for her to recognize her surroundings as the school infirmary. Chuckling with a bitter expression, she placed her face in her hands.
I lost, again.
"I don't get it." A calm voice spoke next to her. Startled, she looked over to see Gerald, the boy from earlier, sitting nearby with a confused expression.
"Don't get what?" Her voice was raspy, her lungs hurt from the final wind attack she took.
Gerald stood up, moving closer and bending over to study her closely. "You are more powerful than that girl. Even if there were ten of her level working together, they wouldn't be a match for you."
Erin didn't deny it. "Your point?"
"Why did you lose?"
She didn't know him nearly well enough to answer that question honestly. She decided on a partial truth.
"Because I'm not yet powerful enough."
He shook his head. "No matter, I will figure it out myself. I'm here to get an answer to my offer."
"The tutoring or the marriage?"
"Both." He grinned. "We can do both."
She laughed. "Yes to the tutoring, still no to the marriage."
"As you wish." He accepted her answer with a serene expression.
"You're not mad?" Erin felt a little put off at how easy he accepted her rejection. What a casual proposal!
He shrugged. "Why should I be mad? It just means that I have to work harder to impress you so that you believe that I will be a proper husband."
She groaned and put her face back in her hands.
They worked out the details of the tutoring session. And finally Gerald left, departing only after proposing one more time and taking the subsequent rejection with a contented expression.
She was alone.
She waited a few hours, unable to move out of the school infirmary just yet. Her body was too injured. The healing spell on the room helped her recover much more quickly. The room darkened as the sun set, and convinced that no one was watching, she turned a large silver ring on her finger, whispering an incantation.
The voice of an older woman spoke in her head.
- What is it?
Erin smiled bitterly. Her Aunt Elsinore never had time for formalities. "Someone saw through your restriction."
- What? Who could do this?
Her aunt's voice grew sharper.
- That is a level 5 restriction spell, no one should even know it exists, much less determine your true power.
"Prince Gerald of the Ellurine Alliance." Erin paused. "I think he has level 5 insight."
- That... that may be enough. Since when do school aged boys have catastrophic level abilities?!!
Erin laughed. "So says the woman who has so much power she's restricted by the government from leaving her home.
- As if such as small thing could prevent me from doing what I feel like. Now tell me, what did the little prince want?
"..." It was a little embarrassing to say out loud. "He's looking for a powerful woman to be his wife."
Aunt Elsinore's mental chuckle echoed in Erin's head.
-The young man has good taste at least. But you have a duty to perform before you can run off to marry a prince.
"I turned him down." Erin was glad her Aunt couldn't see her blushing, but felt that the older woman probably knew. "I know I have a job to do."
... There was no answer immediately. Erin swallowed, but pushed forward with her next question before she could think better of it.
"Is it time yet to remove the restriction on me?"
- No.
There was no hesitation in the negative answer. Erin sighed. "Then when? How much longer do I have to be made fun of, pushed around, beat up, every single day?"
-5 years ago, a thirteen year old girl asked me to make her strong. Strong enough to be the most powerful person in this country. Is that not your goal?
Erin swallowed. "Strong enough to kill that monster who calls himself my father."
-Strong enough to avenge your mother, my sister's death. You have been forcibly restricted to level one in all powers for 5 years now. That has allowed your capacitance and induction speed to grow ten times faster than they normally would.
Her aunt's voice paused. Erin found herself holding her breath.
-You are getting closer. Keep fighting, WITH the restrictions. Keep losing. Each loss, each beating is bringing you closer to completing your revenge.
"... It's hard." Erin felt silly, but tears pricked the corners of her eyes.
-I know child. But in the end, when you will kill him. It will all be worth it. Now don't call me again unless its an emergency. I can't have the government catching on that I can project my consciousness this far. Goodbye dear.
With that, Erin felt her Aunt's presence retract. She laid back in bed with a sigh.
5 years. 5 years of losses, of constant mocking, of being physically beaten down. But in the end, if it made her more powerful... able to face him... She would do anything.
She stared up at the ceiling, her hands clenched so tightly that blood ran down from where her nails dug into her palms. Nothing would stand in the way of her revenge. Not the restrictions on her soul. Not the arrogant student council. Not even the smiling young man who saw through her deception.
She would face her father soon. And she would kill him.
Soon.