Aspirations of a Magician girl 5

“Regina, look over there, the sky looks extremely beautiful, don’t you think?”

My mom, the Queen of this kingdom, pointed at the clear blue sky.

This is a memory I will never forget.

My mom and I, and my dad (the King of this kingdom) right by my side.

We were lying in the sunflower field. On a sunny day, with a light wind breezing through.

“Not that they are going anywhere soon though,” I wake up. It’s about 6 AM. I pat my disheveled hair, Ryle would make fun of my own hair if he was here.

“Ryle…” my heart beats a bit as I say his name.

I feel a little bad as my mind recalls the scene, of him dying right before me.

“It’s okay, me. I have rewound the past after all.”

Calling it ‘rewinding’ is still amiss, technically.

“Are you ready?” “Yeah.”

I, alongside many other magicians, performed the grandest magical ritual possible. It took sooner than expected, only 20 years of gathering the blue shards. With the Hollow Core we got from the Eastern kingdom, it worked.

That was how my pre-rewound world ended. With me in the future returned to my own body of 40 years ago.

Now here I am, reliving my own past.

Time rewinding is not all it does. It tries to retrieve the souls of the bodies who have died in the pre-rewound world. I mean, you can’t just expect time rewinding to resurrect everybody, whose souls must have departed their own bodies after their death, and reincarnating to some alternate worlds.

“The Hollow Core is still here.”

It doesn’t disappear after the ritual, even though everything is rewound into the past, which is to say every single object returns to where it used to be.

Thanks to it, the magical power of the kingdom has been enhanced, and my parents have gotten much healthier (not illness-ridden like in the pre-rewound world). It’s a bizarre object I still don’t know well about, but the Eastern kingdom used to regard it as their source of power.

I suspect this object only exists as one, and so in this rewound past, it shouldn’t exist in the Eastern kingdom.

“Which means…”

Well, the reports seem to say as much as I have guessed.

The Eastern kingdom is on the verge of collapse now.

“Come on, come on, no need to call me your highness,” my dad smiles happily at the friend he is having. “I have no more words to thank you,” the man says. Just many days ago I told my dad to let him retain the official job he has been holding. When my dad asked why, I bluffed that I just happened to find him doing a competent job nobody else can do. “So well, I have something to ask from you,” the man proceeds.

I know where this is going.

The man, whose name is Richard, will tell about how his son is a good-for-nothing, who needs somebody to take care of him.

My dad, who wants to put me through trials, will tell me to help Richard and pretend to be an orphan to come and live with his son.

“So… I guess that’s it for today.”

Huh?

Shouldn’t Richard be complaining about how his son is failing magic and sword training and studies and all that stuff?

“Ah… maybe you shouldn’t go home so soon? I don’t think my dad has gotten bored yet ahaha.”

“Oh, what a lovely and hospitable Princess you have here,” he smiles at me as he talks to my dad.

“Say, do you want to talk about your family?” I suggest. Richard proceeds to go on and on about his wife and son (Ryle, of course). Hmm… he doesn’t seem to have a lot of bad things to say about Ryle, although he does mention how Ryle doesn’t seem to be able to get good at magic.

“If so… how about I come to your house and live as a family member?”

Wow, didn’t expect that I have to put out the initiatives myself.

“So cold…”

In any case, my dad thought it seemed to be a good idea, so he told me to go (although he doesn’t seem to really be convinced that I need to).

What a stark contrast to what he told me in the pre-rewound world.

But anyway… I can’t wait to see Ryle. My face forms a smile in waiting.

Sorry… for everything… Ryle.

But this time, I’m gonna make it all up for you.

Then the familiar figure appears.

My heart skips a beat. And my body runs toward him, hugging him tightly.

This is just like the first time we met. Except this time I’m hugging him.

He does stare at me a lot on our way to his house though~.

So, we are sleeping together now~.

Hmm… his face doesn’t seem to be as flustered as I remember.

Am I grinning too much though? I guess it’s just because I happen to know much more adult stuff than the young and innocent Ryle happens to know~.

“Do you have anything you want to talk about?” he asks.

Well, a lot. At least I feel like I have a lot of things I want to say.

But well… I don’t think I can really talk about them…

Especially what happened in the pre-rewound world.

Then again, it’s a world that no longer exists anyway.

Perhaps there’s just no need to talk about all that stuff.

Let’s just focus on the future.

I ask him what he has been doing, he says, “Practicing sword-wielding and magic, reading books.”

Huh? Hah? What? Since when did Ryle become such a diligent kid though?

I remember him being a lazy potato before time-rewinding. Did something just happen?

Maybe something did? I guess not putting Richard out of his job induced him to provide more for his own son than he did in the pre-rewound world.

Not really talkative hmm? Ryle is. Maybe it’s because he is just a kid, and deep down I’m not really his peer.

But still, I do remember him having much more interest in talking to me in the pre-rewound world, than he does now.

He really is diligent now.

I wonder what incentivized him to hone himself so much.

But when I asked him, his answer was a weird one, “Well, it’s my obligation anyway.”

Hmm? Is he saying he’s trying to please his parents?

But, the weird thing is… as days pass… I find myself to be the one who converses with his parents more than he does with them.

He doesn’t seem to have the eyes of a kid who is looking for adult approval.

Even when I praise him, he only says “Thank you”, even though his expression doesn’t suggest he cares much about it.

He doesn’t seem to particularly care for sword fighting, or magic, or academic studies (his interests seem fleeting, never specific, all over).

The weirdest of them all, is how he doesn’t seem to know what his supposed ‘obligations’ are, even. As if he’s trying to search for them.

But well, not that any of it matters anyway.

We go to school together. Sharing the same class (in the Basic school).

When we have some free time, we share our fun time together.

We ran around everywhere we could, frolicking.

That much should be enough… nothing to fret about…

“Ryle…”

I cuddle him while he’s sleeping.

This reminds me of how I used to hate doing this a lot… I was just trying to put out an over-the-top act. I wasn’t really trying to please him then. I was trying to fulfill my mission as impeccably as possible. Therefore, I didn’t mind the methods I used.

“How could I not find this face extremely cute though?”

Well… easy to say that once you are honest to yourself.

And no longer under burdens.

I widen my eyes as I check the board for graduation scores of the Basic school.

Ryle ranks right behind me as the 2nd person with the highest total score of the exam.

…of Academic subjects at least. I haven’t checked the other boards.

But this is really impressive. Although I’m not sure this is thanks to my getting him interested in books, he doesn’t seem to need outside recommendations. Some books I read he seems to have read as well (whether we share the same appreciation is another matter however). Nor does his dad seem to talk much to him, let alone interest him in any book.

Well, I have never seen his dad being abusive to him in this rewound world. A score to Regina’s efforts!

Advanced school isn’t much busy given my mostly thorough knowledge of the areas (I have studied in all these schools after all). Well, I guess some more learning and magical training is always a good thing.

My magical capacity seems to carry over from the pre-rewound world before time-rewinding. I get much much stronger now than before.

I see at least weekly a librarian whose name is Alina. She seems to be pretty meek. We seem to be pretty compatible however, given our shared hobbies. Didn’t know she loves reading romantic novels too.

Life in Advanced school is quite normal. Although, I have begun to take a more active part in deciding the governance affairs.

My dad widens his eyes over my suggestion at first. Then he widens his eyes when he finds how knowledgeable I am.

It’s tiresome to go back and forth from Ryle’s house to the palace however. So I visit my personal house to the north of the capital to have Puppet- I mean my maid Dorothy, to inform me of the matters and to bring back my solutions to my dad. I should be able to go back to the palace during the later years of Advanced school, when it’s permissible to skip the classes.

Why should I keep attending these schools though? Of course the diploma has some values, especially when dealing with some people in the royal court who might at some point decide to use my lack of diploma against me. But I doubt that should pose any issue.

It’s pretty soon to make some plans of what to do after graduation.

But well, if Ryle doesn’t intend to have fun through all the years and summers, then well… I do have some silly plans.

It’s pretty childish, but I can make use of the Artifacts. Yes, the ones that have been manufactured by the kingdom. Why were they a thing in the first place? Well, the Artifacts were conceived as a ploy to sabotage the Eastern kingdom’s combat capacity.

Basically you trick the enemies into thinking what they got into their own hands gave them some advantages in combat. However, those very Artifacts also shaped your enemies into fighting in a certain very predictable way. Also, they aren’t even omnipotent, there are definitely loopholes (which the military has researched well enough beforehand). They are like tracking devices, the information of where it is held shall be sent back to the military through magical reaction. Kind of more than needed given that the Artifacts mostly look distinguishable. Also, some of them could have hard to decipher curses too, and the effects a Magician in general manages to decipher could deviate greatly from its actual effects; these should be harder for an Eastern magician due to the difference in our and their kind of magic that could lead to different magical reactions.

But anyway, given that the efforts have been mostly a failure (other than for some niche usage). Actually this very much depends on who you are talking to. The military generally says it fails to make the enemies any weaker during some skirmishes, as far as we could gauge. The Security Ministry on the other hand seems to like it, although the number of successes (countable on one hand) doesn’t seem to justify the kingdom’s budget. I told my dad to ditch the plan, even though I don’t think I really needed to.

Oh right, the plan. I intend to make use of the Artifacts to play some game of treasure hunting with him.

Much better than having him join the military or get involved with the wars in any way possible.

I have heard some horrifying news, the security reported news of killings across the kingdom. Not just that, Ryle got involved with one such case, as a victim.

“Ryle! Are you okay?”

I pour all my magic to heal him.

Given the current state of the kingdom, how can I just let him go to school just like this though?

In the first place, how come these incidents have been happening right under my nose? And before time-rewinding, they didn’t even exist.

Yet here they are…

I (through my dad) put a lot of pressure on the Security Ministry. They seem to be doing a bad job however. But I doubt incompetence is the issue here.

How can I let Ryle keep attending school at this rate?

Then again, I can’t deny Ryle of his youth either.

“So… you are the only person, other than me of course, who still retains the memories before time-rewinding?”

I ask Rick. He was one of the knights of the kingdoms, before the time-rewinding, I mean.

“Of course, your highness.”

“Very well, I have some missions to assign to you.”

One is to watch over Ryle, whenever he could. Two is to eliminat- no, capture the Eastern Queen whenever he could. Three is to help me after graduation with the Artifacts planting plan for the treasure hunting game.

Pretty convenient to have somebody like him. I trust him enough.

Wow, Ryle seems to be having a friend now. …although his friend seems to be somewhat eccentric. (But then again in this time-rewound world, Ryle also does seem to be more eccentric too.)

That’s something I have never seen before time-rewin- oh wait, there was another girl wasn’t there? Roselyn isn’t she?

I actually did talk to her on the first day coming to school. She dropped something and I picked it up for her. An eccentric girl.

…Ryle’s circle of friends does seem to be composed of weird people.

Wow, didn’t expect to see this today. Ryle got bullied by yet another two people.

One is Paul. This guy brings back a lot of memories. Why do I forget about him though? If I remember he shared a class with Ryle, I would have tried to get rid of him in this time-rewound world somehow.

Another is Rick. Why the heck is he beating Ryle?

First thing first. I tried to bring Paul to my personal house to the north of the capital.

I thought about killing him, because why not?

Well, actually… I’m not really that heartless though.

…not that I’m not really heartless even… but for some reasons… it makes me feel comfortable…

Ryle’s face flashes to my mind. I sigh and shake my head.

“Well, I don’t want to make you lose consciousness indefinitely anyway, so how about you help me?”

Besides, it’s not exactly Paul is all bad. What he did on a certain day before time-rewinding gave me a chance to reflect on my own feelings deeply.

I was such an idiot. If I truly hated Ryle that much, I wouldn’t have…

Speaking of which, his birthday is coming soon, right? Although recently he just doesn’t seem to appreciate all the efforts I spent on making a cake for him. Well he did say “Thank you, I appreciated it a lot”. But his expression seems pretty unfazed, like he was just being formal.

Act more appreciative, come on~~~.

I hate Ryle.

…no… I love him, to the point I just feel like hating him.

“I guess there’s no escape from my hate for him hah?”

Though a different kind of hate this time.

A random memory of what he said on birthday crosses my mind for no reason. I think I may have heard him saying something like ‘this reminds me of my own birthday in the past world [sic], it wasn’t really much different from any other day’. Richard and Diana don’t seem to neglect him that much (did they)? Besides, you can’t really complain about something you didn’t look like you appreciate a lot. Never saw him expect the birthday, although he does remember mine which is still sweet enough.

Urghh… thinking more and more makes me feel more tempted to pinch his cheeks. Maybe I should once I come home. Yeah.

I shoot several sharp pieces of ice toward Rick.

He wipes the blood and calmly apologizes, “I’m sorry your highness. I just happened to find Ryle a little bit defenseless. I thought some of what I did could have prepared him for…”

“That’s none of your business at all!”

Why does it matter?

I don’t even want him to be involved with any kind of combat in this world at all.

Although… he’s right. It wouldn’t teach Ryle much actual combat experience, if he didn’t experience it directly.

It’s not easy to protect him. I can’t always stay by his side, nor do I think he would always want me by him constantly all the time.

I once told Levenbar and Audiever that perhaps they could help me by watching over Ryle from a distance.

“That’s ridiculous, Regina! Our top most elite knights aren’t your toys to play with!” my dad screams at me.

“You think I’m playing around here?! Hah?! The guy I love could almost get killed any day, and I’m supposed to do nothing?!”

My scream is even louder than his throughout the back and forth. He seems to be shaken as well. Unlike in the pre-rewound world, my words have more value here. I know a lot after all, enough to take charge of the royal court.

I apologize to my dad. He does the same, saying he didn’t mean what he said.

As I leave the palace, Levenbar follows after me, “Princess. As far as I have heard from your exchange with your father… Honestly, doing what you said is a little bit beyond me. But what if we bring more guards around the capital? Oh wait, we have already been doing that… Personally, I think I can occasionally pass by the capital, and the southern region, and your school sometimes. I can’t promise anything, however, the number of tasks on my hand is pretty high if I’m allowed to say.”

“Ryle, I like you, do you want to date?”

That’s not coming from my mouth. But from a girl who is facing Ryle, a distant away from my view. I remember her name is Roselyn.

My face must look really aghast right now.

She has gall! Maybe I should come over there to show her the person she is talking to has already had a-

Does he?

Now come to think of which, I have never asked this question myself, taking for granted his feelings for me in this rewound world are the same as before. Back in the pre-rewound world, his feelings for me were obvious on his face. Unlike the current him.

I feel anxious now.

I shouldn’t be the only one who feels something for him. He’s a guy with some charms, after all. Even I had to admit that to myself deep down.

And it’s not like he was the same Ryle as the one who loves being a lazy potato who prefers playing to studying.

Even if the girls aren’t idiots like me, they may still want to approach him, for who he is.

What I am thinking…?

I should always fight, to claim him for myself.

Not trying to make him more charming to anybody else.

Paul has been really careless recently.

“If he knew about our relationship, that would be the end of my mission.”

“Worry not, I will never let him know.”

Of course you won’t. A bunch of thorns are gonna pierce you inside out, if you decide to do that. I mean, telling anybody about my own identity.

Actually, it’s not really a crucial issue. I just put a curse on Paul for convenience sake. It would just get much harder to do things from now on.

Not just the Artifacts actually, I have always wanted to plan some ambushes targeting the highest ranking rulers of the Eastern kingdom. Say, if any of them happen to pass by the kingdom of Hope, a lot of infiltrated troops are gonna capture them alive if possible.

It’s gonna get harder to pull my shenanigans, if my identity gets exposed.

And also, I would no longer have the excuse to stay with Ryle under the same roof. Although, maybe I can make some others in that case? Actually, maybe just jail his parents if he refuses to keep sharing the bedroom. Yeah.

I’m really a worrywart.

The sight before my eyes horrified me. I almost feel like fainting. But if I did, then I can’t save Ryle at all.

His hand is severed. Blood splurting a lot from his wound.

I should have been firmer. Maybe should have knocked him unconscious right as he went outside the house.

Not just that, I did something truly stupid: contacting a guard to run to the gate and open it for him.

I thought if the serial killer was truly gonna meet Ryle as promised in the letter, I could have the troops ambush the killer.

But he was too strong.

Although, the killer seems to be dead now.

“Ryle seems to be talking a lot to Alina recently,” I throw my coat to the floor, impatiently wait for Paul to take out his own maps from some pocket. In my own case, I was really hasty since I heard from Ryle’s parents that he was going on the Artifacts search before me, that’s why I put the maps under my shirt and ran frantically toward the Southern dock. But what are Paul’s excuses for doing the same? He definitely didn’t board the same ship we did.

Paul made a sheepish expression as he heard what I said, “Well, I don’t really know what you are saying to even say anything to that.”

Anyway, we bring out the maps and cross check information. “Have you come to check this spot yet?”

“I just came back from there some hours ago, somebody discovered the Artifact.”

“Hah?”

We ended up having to try some makeshift ways.

“Waste of time I told the disguised troops to bury the puzzle-chest… Hey! Dig carefully, don’t hurl any dirt toward me.” “Sorry sorry.”

It’s gonna be a very lame game for Ryle tomorrow. But better this than nothing.

Academician diploma?

In the pre-rewound world, Ryle decided to follow the Swordsman path, and even fought on the battlefield though.

I thought… he would want to pursue the same path just like he did.

What’s the point of trying to distract him with this game then?

Oh well, I guess I can relax for a little bit more.

It’s fun being here though.

Given that he’s not gonna be a Swordsman anymore, perhaps, the only issue remaining is… the Eastern Queen.

Ryle wouldn’t fall in love with her, in this rewound world, would he?

I wonder if I should confess to him soon. Which is something I should have done for a long while already.

But why though…?

Then I recall that, I actually did think about it, years ago.

We were still too young in Basic school, he wouldn’t have taken my confession seriously.

But if I did in Advanced school, would he have…? I have misgiving about this.

Then… Now? If not now, then when?