Chapter 1- Life of a noble child

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The days passed slowly after that horrible tea party. Only one good thing came from that day, which was the lack of invitations for such social events. At least I wouldn't suffer over the sneering looks of the ladies and the long hours of party preparation. Fanny hadn't shared my happiness over that but said nothing about the incident.

To be honest, no one talked about it either. As if nothing had happened. Whenever I tried to ask someone regarding the Marquis of Rivera and his daughter, all that came out of the people's mouths was vague chit-chat.  In time, I ended up letting the issue go, forgotten in the recess of my mind.

Right after the incident, prince Cedric returned to the Moon Empire with prince Francis and Wolff. Their next year would be passed at Cedric's home. 

Jenni continued to go to the royal palace to visit Princess Odette, however, on none of those occasions was I forced to go as well. I felt relieved since I hated those shit things, yet sad that Jenni was obliged to go anyway. She was a saint to be able to deal with all of that and with Odette in particular. 

On my most boring days (which were almost all of them) I tried to make myself busy by researching about alchemy, which only made Fanny paler and paler.

Even against my new hobby, Fanny has the great personal maid that she was, managed to gather a few books related to alchemy.

My excitement over having a place where to start soon died, as I realized I understood zero shit about what was written in there. I could understand the equations and such (as a true Engineer could after years of torturous studies) but the rest was all but gibberish.

It was written in a language I  knew nothing about. All this time I had thought the Moon Empire used the same language as the Sun Empire, but it seemed I was wrong. And the fact that I needed to learn a new language derailed my plan substantially.

I tried to ask Fanny for some books that could lead me to understand the language, but she refused to go to the black market again, which I understood. The best she could do was to request privately the books on a library, however, that would have for sure reached the Duke's ears.

It felt impossible to accomplish, as I didn't want to push Fanny into a bad situation and I really wanted to avoid the Duke finding out about this hobby of mine. Magic in the Sun Empire was frowned upon, especially in nobility. And it would be worst since the High Priestess was my aunt. For sure I would be sent to Temple's camp if I got caught (in case that existed)!

No, the Duke could never find out. But then an idea formed... I could ask someone from the Moon Empire. They should know about this language. Thankfully, last time I ended up being friends with two Moon citizens!

So I decided it was time to start my correspondence with prince Cedric. I was sure he would help me and it would avoid Fanny going through dangerous situations. Better yet, it would be easier to keep it from the Duke! As long me and Fanny were careful, of course.

Then I started my plan, though as usual Fanny was not pleased about it,  since she couldn't deter me, my maid just went along with it.

"But you must tell your sister, my lady!" Told Fanny with her hands on her waist as if she was talking with a troublemaker.

Maybe she was... nah!

"We cannot!" I retorted. "Not saying I do not trust Jenni, but the fewer people who know about this, the best." I took her hands in mine and gave Fanny my winning smile.

She turned her head and let out a deep sigh. Fanny's had no other way than to be on board, however, she made sure to tell me all of this was a bad idea. This complaint got repeated every single time she went to the boutique to send my letters and to receive the ones from Cedric.

I did not listen much to her complaints as I was right and indeed Prince Cedric was more than glad to help me in my studies. Through him, I was able to understand that the magicians used an ancient language, which neither the Sun nor Moon Empire used in their everyday life. Actually, except for some minor differences, the whole continent shared the same language.

Except for the magicians, who had to be different from all the rest. Such Divas!

At least now I had some help, even if it meant it would go way slower than I had expected. But after a couple of weeks, I was able to read some simple sentences. And after some months I was able to at least gather a general feel of some of the information in the books. Though the knowledge continued to escape me.

Once in while, Cedric would send me some books to help with my studies. Books he said he had used himself, which led Fanny to become horrified by me using books from a boy. I told her to take no notice of such trivial things.

The Sun Empire sure likes to throw etiquette rules everywhere!

Though she complained incessantly about it, I was glad that Fanny was able to act so discreetly when it came to this. No one had any suspicions for months, until one day Jenni raised an eyebrow over why Fanny would go so often outside to do some errands for me.

As we still shared a personal maid it was normal for both to rely on Fanny, which led to questions when she was out of the manor. To dispel suspicions, I decided to slow down my correspondence with Prince Cedric, which in turn slowed, even more, my learning process.

One day, when all was calm and I was going through my studies, Fanny came inside my room with her head fixed on the floor. Her dark countenance scared me.

"What is the problem?" I asked her as I left my desk and closed my book. "Did you fall again on the head maid? Don't worry I will tell her to complain to me instead!" I was now by her side, grabbing her hands to see if she would look at me.

"Oh, my lady!" She looked up and there were tears in her eyes. I noticed she was also shaking, which filled me with rage.

"Who? Who made you cry?!" My voice was grave and commanding.

Who was the shithead that would make Fanny cry? There would be hell to pay!

"Oh, my lady! The Duke..." she started cleaning her tears with the backside of her hand.

Oh, no...

"He found out about the letters, he read the last one I was going to send this afternoon! He was not pleased at all! He... burned it, right in front of me!" Again she shed more tears of misery, while I tried to console Fanny's trembling body with a calm face.

In reality, my body trembled like a jelly...

I was screwed... so fucking screwed!! Fuck!

What do you think is going to happen? And what about this chapter, what did you think?

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What do you think is going to happen? And what about this chapter, what did you think?

I started slowly as to ease the readers in. But I hope is not boring! Magic is starting to become more relevant to the story and hope you like it!

Like before there will two chapters every week. So this Act will take less time to finish.

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