Chapter 7

Taking a deep breath, I drew on the mana flowing within my body and with a mental command distributed it among the various muscles I wished to strengthen.

Through my imagination and mental guidance, the mana was fluidly distributed to the desired areas, such as muscles, joints, and tendons, increasing their concentration and preparing me to strengthen my muscular activity whenever I performed any action.

I squint and stare at the tree in front of me, taking another deep breath while bending my upper body, and run toward it as if my life depended on it.

As I move my legs, I can feel the mana I focused on them being absorbed by the muscles in my thighs, calves, and feet, causing them to release more physical energy and increase my speed.

I was moving so fast now, it seemed I was leaving afterimages behind me that combined like a poorly made frame giving the illusion of a light trail made of images of me.

My heart was beating rapidly at what I was about to do, and the skirt of my blue dress with red ruffles flapped wildly in the intense airflow, happily displaying my white panties to the world.

“Here I come!” he exclaimed with a determination that was somewhat overshadowed by my ingrained habits of naturally expressionless behavior and a voice without much emotion, but I paid him no attention and continued running.

The 26 meters separating me from the small tree in the palace garden quickly shortened, and I leaped toward it, stepping on its trunk as I lowered my upper body forward; curling the soles of my feet or something to propel myself upward, and ran toward the treetop like a ninja, raising my hand; trying to reach my mischievous and rebellious horned rabbit who was looking at me curiously from the branches.

My concentration, reaction time, reflexes, and thought processing were all enhanced by the dense mana in my brain, giving me the ability to perceive the world in slow motion and allowing me to fine-tune my movements and actions while performing this risky maneuver.

Finally, I caught Drudi with my right hand somewhat roughly as I turned around, and with my other hand, I grabbed the branch. The weight of my body pressed against my arm, and I groaned a little, but it wasn't much thanks to the mana.

Furthermore, thanks to my reaction speed, I was able to reduce the possible damage this could cause to my muscles by reacting correctly to the weight they would be subjected to and, finally, I let go of the branch that seemed a little fragile to support my weight and fell to the ground, landing correctly with both feet flexed.

“I did it!” I cried, surprised and happy as I gently hugged Drudi, gently scolding him after calming my breathing and racing heart, “Drupi, you bad boy, you shouldn’t climb trees, you’re not a cat!”

Hearing my scolding, the little horned rabbit looked away while pretending to ignore my existence, looking at other things as if they were more interesting than me. My heart felt a little hurt by that, but I didn't think much of it.

You're mine anyway... That's what I thought as I happily hugged her and stroked her ears, making her show a brief look of delight... Fufufu... You love my caresses, don't you Drupi?!

A smile inevitably spread across my face at that fact, adding more excitement than anything else. Even my previous physical and magical feat paled in comparison to my apparent satisfaction at being able to donate my horned bunny with petting.

By the way, you might be wondering... why did I do something so risky instead of asking a servant for help? How did I do it?... and more importantly, why does a rabbit, horned or not, climb a tree?

Okay... maybe this last bit won't be of interest to anyone but me and other horned rabbit fans (They exist, my soul brethren!), but I'll tell you about it anyway.

Turns out Drupi... Huh? Why am I starting like this? Listen, it's about my cute pet, all right!

You have to learn to listen to others, right?

Anyway, Drupi seems to like the leaves of the few trees in the garden of my huge white house, which makes his adorable little friend use his incredible physical skills on the steepest trees to climb to their tops and eat with pleasure.

That surprised me, okay? He ate carrots so well that I got the mistaken impression that was all he ate. By the way, he also ate bugs. It was disgusting, but he did it with such an adorable look of joy that...

No, forget it. I'll continue explaining my reasons for catching this naughty little boy with my own hands instead of asking for help.

It was to test my Arcane Art, [Body Strengthening], after using two days to study about mana manipulation with the excuse of solidifying my knowledge of mana and arcane arts to my parents (Fragmented Memories, remember?) which they gladly approved of.

I had to accumulate knowledge to prepare myself to face my future magic tutor. I was a difficult target, where reputation and bloodlines mattered nothing compared to intelligence and knowledge.

If I prove to be an uneducated person with little to no knowledge of mana manipulation and other subjects essential to learning the Arcane Arts and Magic, I would certainly abandon any idea of ​​educating myself in the ways of mages no matter the fee offered, and then it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to win that person's heart.

Failing my first mission solely due to a lack of magical knowledge and living the rest of my life as a flat-chested girl... No, no! Besides, Arthur Magno von Jairus was one of the key capture targets for saving this world. Losing him would increase the difficulty to an unprecedented level.

This isn't a joke! That's why he had to study everything he could before asking to be hired while he was here in the Dranalian capital, Solein!

And after about half an hour, I gained the knowledge necessary to use body strengthening and understood it quite easily... Well, I think it's obvious, but before this, I first had to try manipulating the mana in my body.

It was a really strange thing.

In the game, there was no such thing as mana manipulation as you might expect; it was just a matter of giving a voice command or pressing a skill icon, and that was it. However, since it manifested in the real world (I guess, though the IUS thing still confuses me), it was only natural that things wouldn't be the same.

In fact... I had already expected that it would be necessary to manipulate MP (Mana Points) and SP (Spirit Points) to use HAD skills, of course, thanks to the many mangas and animes I read in my short previous life. Still, I had a vague hope that the evil system would help me with that.

Of course it wasn't like that...I should have guessed because of his terrible evilness and of course, the lack of blue and green bars or Skill icons...haha

Anyway, I tried mana strengthening my body… and it was incredible. I felt stronger than I was despite my small frame, and my brain capacity skyrocketed when I increased the density of my mana in that organ, allowing me to read, comprehend, and accumulate knowledge faster than before, as if my brain were a sponge.

Besides allowing me to further prepare for my future magic classes and my attempts to win Arthur's heart (something that makes me want to punch myself for it), using mana turned out to be undeniably fun and exciting—after all... It is magic! (At least, according to me.)

I even performed several small stunts that in my previous life I could barely do more or less correctly with any great degree of success... although my muscles were quite sore afterwards.

¡Pray!

Fortunately, the manna somehow makes the muscle damage recover quickly, and the food I eat at home is quite nutritious, so the muscle pain didn't last long.

How did I manage to manipulate mana in the first place?

Well, it turns out muscle memory can also be more or less applied to manipulating this strange magical energy, you know? The previous Ekaterina already knew how to manipulate mana, obviously, and she was very good at it, so it only took a bit of practice to make up for what she'd lost due to the memory assimilation failure.

Then the next day, this incident happened; my beloved pet climbed this tree on a whim to eat juicy green leaves and some insects and I, very anxious, ordered her to come down... But she blatantly ignored me!

A little upset and sad about it, I thought about asking for help to get him down from there, but suddenly the idea came to me to use body strengthening to do it myself, and so I did.

It was incredible, I tell you. Feeling the wind on my face while perceiving the world with inhuman senses, moving at speeds even faster than a motorcycle while processing everything I do at that speed even better than with normal movements...

I felt like some kind of superhero!

By the way, in order to check Drupi and be able to do it without anyone stopping me, I had to trick my mother and my personal maid (the girl who entered my room that day) by telling them that I was going to the bathroom during my studies.

Leaving aside whether my mother would scold me for this, since she herself was a strong girl despite her nobility, my maid was a very serious girl and would never allow something like this because it is clearly dangerous.

Good thing they're both easy to fool...

"...Ekaterina-sama"

…Or not!?

I trembled in fear at the sudden appearance of the young redhead. Her cold face stared at me seemingly expressionless, but somehow, I could tell she was feeling quite annoyed with me at that moment.

Her mistress, alias me, told her and her Lady a lie that she was going to the library bathroom (Yes, the Duchy's personal library has bathrooms, ha...) to urinate, only to sneak out to the house's garden to play with her favorite horned rabbit while neglecting the studies she herself requested...

Talk about a troubled girl, huh...

—J-Jessica… Hello? —I couldn't help but speak a little nervously at the maid who appeared at my side like a true ninja while I greeted her stupidly. I thought about making a quick excuse, but that was all I could do… How stupid of me!

Nodding in response, the maid spoke in a strict tone.

“Ekaterina-sama, please release Drupi and return to your arcane arts studies. You can’t just ask him to study arcane arts only for him to ignore them and go off playing, can you?”

"….Yeah"

-Then follow me. Let's not waste any time, since the young lady is waiting for you. You have to finish your studies, and then you can do whatever you want.

Without another word, a stone-faced Jessica turned to glare at me, her scarlet ponytail twirling with the movement of her head as I nodded in response, releasing Drupi onto the floor so she could walk freely, and he followed her back into the library with his head bowed in regret.

If you're wondering why a Servant seems to be ordering her young lady around and scolding her at will, it's because Mother wanted to make sure that Claudia and I wouldn't grow up like those nasty Ojou-samas from other noble families who flaunt their noble status and mistreat their servants, giving them a certain authority over us similar to that of an educator or a nanny, to make us give us advice or follow their words.

Of course, as long as they are based on reasonable arguments like the one Jessica highlighted, which can hardly be debated, otherwise they would be fired if any inappropriate action against us is discovered.

It's clear that something like this could be exploited by malicious individuals to try to exert control over us; the princesses of the Dranalian Duchy, using their power and strength. All they would have to do is intimidate us from a young age and gain some control over our mentality... but apparently, no such thing has happened at all.

Well, from the game I knew that Mother, or rather, the Duchess of Dranalian, had made sure to make the servants betray each other in case they noticed such a disgusting act, in exchange for giving them many juicy rewards, so I knew that doing something like that was already too risky in the first place.

Especially considering that if they use that authority to secretly mistreat us and are discovered, chances are they and their families won't know tomorrow. And if they do, it will only be another nightmare...

So, putting that last part aside, I hope you understand that I have no choice but to obey the words of my personal maid, since her argument is quite reasonable, and not because I'm a soft girl who listens to everything she's told...

Oh really!

♦♦♦♦

After finishing my arcane arts studies until the afternoon, I returned to my room in relative peace. There, I was finally able to relax from the long hours of studying and sighed as I climbed into bed and stared at the ceiling.

I was alone, since Claudia had her etiquette lessons scheduled for today, Mother was currently having her duties as a Duchess despite wanting to spend more time with me, and Father had to go out today killing demons left and right like all demon hunters. What was it?

Well, there was no one bothering me at the time except Jessica, who was out there doing who knows what.

But my time of relaxation didn't last long; soon I quickly got out of bed, ran and sat down in a chair near a luxurious table, and looked at the quill and inkwell next to the sheet of paper.

Then I opened my mouth and commanded him imposingly, putting my will into my words as I tried to feel the spiritual energy of my soul to release it onto the pen...

“Write: Morning Glory”

After a while, nothing happened as I expected as I didn't even feel a hint of spiritual energy, and I sighed again, this time in annoyance, while complaining in frustration.

“How can I utilize my unique strengths if I can’t even sense, manipulate, or release my spiritual energy…?”

Although learning to use mana was surprisingly easy due to the experience engraved in Ekaterina's own body, spiritual energy, however, was a completely different matter for me.

She didn't know how to use it at all, which meant that the original Ekaterina had no experience manipulating her own spiritual energy.

This world was strange in that sense; according to the Lorese, the manipulation of mana itself is supposed to be achieved through the unconscious use of the soul's spiritual energy, so not being able to use it easily surprised me, you know?

Is it because we use it so naturally that, like our heartbeat, we can't control it as we wish simply by willing it? Although spiritual energy can be manipulated with training, the analogy I used fits well, at least for me...

Anyway, this was a problem; I had two exceptionally powerful forces in my possession, and I couldn't use them at will to gain an advantage. This is extremely fatal, because exceptional forces are necessary to kill the enemies that appear in the future...

What am I supposed to do now…?

I'll worry about that later. First, I'll finish my studies by reading the basic theory and history of magic, and then I'll ask Father to hire Arthur... although he'd probably prefer to give me a female tutor, but I'll convince him...

Never mind, I'll worry later about how to use my unique strengths, my head hurts... I'll take a nap... (Procrastination!)