Seeing all my friends around me laughing is one of those memories I want to keep for the rest of my life. You never know when moments like these will happen again. Everyone here is extremely important—most likely, in the future, our free time won’t align anymore.
Brendu is sitting on my lap, wearing a purple dress that matches my eyes. “Charles just arrived,” she whispers in my ear. I lift my gaze to see the prince looking around, searching for our group.
He notices my stare when I focus on him more intensely. I smile and wink at him—he understands my gesture and quickly approaches. I can notice a bit of nervousness in his movements, something strange for a prince.
Everyone notices him when he’s just a few steps away. Ogine subtly stands up to give him the seat next to Areci. She naturally moves to a seat beside me, now sitting between Shawu and me.
“Hello everyone, I’m glad to see you’re all in good health.” He greets each person in the group. “It’s a pleasure to officially meet you, Maki.” He extends his hand, and I accept his greeting immediately.
Was it rude to wink at him before even meeting him? The alcohol is affecting my senses a bit. My mother and grandmother would hit me on the head if they knew how I was behaving.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Prince Charles.” I can see his gaze shift toward Brendu; his eyes look away a moment later—he seems a bit intimidated by her.
“You can just call me Charles. We’re in a friendly setting—formality isn’t necessary, and soon you’ll be married to Brendu.” After saying that, the prince continues greeting everyone and ends up sitting next to Areci.
Areci grabs him by the neck. “No hard feelings, right?” Her attitude freezes all of us—even Brendu, who can remain composed in any situation, is completely still. We’ve never seen Areci be so friendly with someone outside the group, and we all know there’s something complicated between them.
The alcohol must be affecting her behavior—she seems much freer, as if she had no restraints at all right now. That new attitude has even caught Charles off guard—he’s staring at her with wide eyes.
“I lost fair and square.” He simply smiles at the girl with sky-blue hair and red eyes in front of him. Charles seems completely captivated by Areci—she also has a different look, softer and more feminine.
I hold a glass of wine with my Imra and move it toward Charles—he takes it. He seems thirsty because he drinks it in a single gulp. I’ve been practicing controlling my Imra by serving wine just like Susan does. I’m nowhere near her level of delicacy—I feel like a baby compared to an adult with decades of experience serving guests.
Charles drinks several glasses in a row to get in sync with the group—we’re at that perfect point where we’re neither drunk nor sober.
“I remember when I first met Brendu. My father always told me: Treat her like family, she’s like a cousin to you. At first, there was no problem, but at some point Brendu developed a habit of hitting me over anything.” Charles lets out a sigh.
“At gatherings, I was scared. I could never predict when her hits would come—she was always discreet. Now I see it as my first training to improve my reflexes, although she still scares me a bit.” Charles recalls his past in a mix of amusement and pain.
“So, you’ve always had that habit of hitting people.” I whisper to Brendu.
“Only if I consider them close and feel comfortable doing it.” She whispers back.
The conversations start jumping from person to person, each one recalling what their childhood was like. We all grew up in different environments—each of us lived our own reality and faced certain struggles.
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“And you, Maki? Tell us a bit about your childhood. You’ve become this strong while being younger than us—if no one told me your age, I’d never think there was a difference between us.” Charles asks with clear curiosity. Even my friends don’t really know much about my past—only superficial things. Only Brendu knows almost everything.
It makes me a bit embarrassed to remember how my grandmother and mother once started talking about my past—they only told embarrassing stories and how they thought I had become crazy from training so much.
Brendu lets out a small laugh and answers before I can. “He was a training maniac—even more than now. He spent hours and hours training every day, doing nothing else. His mind was completely focused on one goal: train and level up.”
“After awakening his core much earlier than anyone else, he had a huge advantage. Can you believe he was fighting monsters before he was ten? He could already fight several grade 1 monsters just weeks after awakening.” Everyone’s gaze hurts a little—they look at me with a hint of pity.
“His grandmother still doesn’t understand how he learned to use dual swords so quickly. His swordsmanship was always abnormal, and his brain always processed everything instantly.” She turns to look at me and squeezes my cheeks. “He really was always a genius.”
“Don’t look at me like that—I enjoyed my childhood.” When I say that, everyone relaxes a bit. “Ever since I can remember, I liked training. It became even more exciting when I started practicing with magic and Imra—it opened a world of possibilities I couldn’t ignore in any way.” Remembering my past makes me smile with happiness.
“I was never interested in the kind of fun kids my age had. Thinking about it more, kids my age in my village were already helping their families somehow. I didn’t have many chances to make friends, and even if I had, I would’ve still chosen training.” I say everything sincerely from the heart.
“Magic and Imra are something fascinating.” I create several figures of ice mana in my free hand while holding my glass with my Imra. The figures shatter and are replaced by others made of lightning mana.
I’m still fascinated by the infinite possibilities this world offers. No matter how much I train or explore, there will always be millions more possibilities. I feel like I’ll never get bored of using the resources available to me.
I tell them some stories about my first experiences fighting monsters near my home. Like the time a grade 2 monster appeared and I defeated it together with a boy from the village guard.
I also include stories from when I was stronger—like when I stopped a monster stampede on my own and ended up in a life-or-death situation because an idiot showed up. Luckily, my grandmother was nearby at the time.
Stories about how during my training I always found something new that I liked more. At those moments, I would doubt whether to continue the same path, incorporate the new discovery, or make a complete change—a bit of everything.
Over the years, I’ve become a good storyteller. I know how to keep people engaged—everyone seems entertained, no one looks bored.
“And I thought my life had been exciting…” Humyr sighs after I finish telling several stories.
“From my point of view, the most impressive thing is your mindset. You’ve always been someone focused—not only in training, but you’ve handled all kinds of situations in the best way possible.” Charles strokes his chin as he speaks.
“If someone came and told me a baronet’s son from a remote part of the empire was this strong, had a will of steel, and such refined manners, I’m sure I would’ve laughed and not believed it.” I’m grateful for his comment—it feels like one of the best compliments I’ve heard in a long time.
The conversation then shifts to the twins. Surprisingly, both of them speak fluently—it seems alcohol makes them talkative.
They had lives very similar to Shawu, Humyr, Charles, Brendu, and Areci—all born into powerful families. Their upbringing followed a similar foundation, with all kinds of tutors since they were very young.
The only person with a different life besides me was Ogine. You could say she had a stable life. Her parents always had money like a small noble family—she never had to worry about working. She dedicated herself to studying almost at the same level I did in all areas; after all, her father deals with many nobles.
We keep talking until late at night. The alcohol rises and falls—we try to keep it at an ideal level.
“It was a pleasure meeting you, Maki. I’m happy for you and Brendu—you make a beautiful couple. I hope one day I can see you together with Arisa, Sol, and Marga.” Charles says goodbye to us.
“The pleasure is mine, Charles. I hope we can meet again soon.” I look at Brendu with a big smile. “We’ll also be happy to meet with you again in the future.”
I say goodbye quickly—Areci is waiting to accompany him to the door. We all give them privacy so they can talk in peace.