“Lady Josephine, get back here right now!” Beatrice yelled, stomping one foot on the stone floor.

  Unfortunately for her, I was already running the other way.

  That’s right, I’m one and I’m already running.

  Meridol had made me promise to keep it a secret to stem all the rumors about me being strange and unnatural, which I was, but today I had been stuck in my room for so long getting ready for this birthday thing. My legs pleaded to run free for a little while.

  It was not like I was being irresponsible. I had scouted out the hallway with [Shadow Fingers] to make sure no one was around before I ran off to the storage room.

  There wasn’t much I could do here, but at least there were crates that I could climb over like pretend mountains and pick up and swing broomsticks like make-believe swords.

  I know, I should be more mature than this, but there was a part of this body that wanted to act like a kid, that craved interaction with other children. Maybe a sibling? Ben hadn’t visited me again.

  I climbed to the top of the crates and sat down with a humph. My hand idly pulled at intricate lacework around my sleeve. The maids had picked out a beautiful outfit, and the pampering as they tended to me did feel nice. But it also felt so very wrong as well. I was just a village farm girl for so many lifetimes, and before that, just a teenage boy.

  I don’t belong here.

  “Josephine, I know you can hear me,” Meridol’s even but stern voice spoke in my room. I had left a hidden [Shadow Fingers] in the room to monitor it, and yes, I could hear through those fingers now as well. “You’ve taken your time, and now it’s time to come back. We need to prepare for your birthday. Your father will be there. You want to make a good impression don’t you?”

  I wish I could have shouted I don’t care, but that wasn’t at all true. A part of me deep down cared so much it ached.

  Shaking my head, I pushed myself up off the top crate and then hopped down several stacks. Skipping the final few stacks, I leaped and landed on an expanded shadowy hand, which set me gently on the ground.

  —

  Once I got back, Meridol directed me to a chair and the maids attacked me with vigor. Beatrice brought out a rouge which she said would give some color to my cheeks, while others worked on the waves of my now long bright blue hair.

  I decided to focus elsewhere while they do their work and brought up my status screen.

  My attributes had gone up a bit over the past few months, probably with my development as a growing infant, but my [Willpower] and [Intellect] had gone up the most.

  My [Intellect] was now beyond what Joan usually had, since that had been a dump stat for all but a few runs when I played the game. And I was just one, so I’d assume it’d get higher than that. I still had [Sync Penalty] for that attribute, so I would increase by two each time for a while longer.

  As for what the attribute represented, I had never felt dumb or slow as Joan, in fact I picked up things quickly, and others had called me sharp, so I assumed this just meant my learned knowledge, or maybe how I applied it. Either way, this attribute never increased immediately for me. There was no “aha” moment where it’d pop up instantly, instead it was always an overnight thing where I’d wake up to find that it had increased after a day of listening to Meridol read or experimenting with spell casting.

  The attribute seemed to be tied to several stats on the Josephine side. It wasn’t one to one, but sometimes I’d notice an increase in my [Intellect] corresponded with an increase in either [Magic], [Mental] or [Grace].

  I still wasn't sure what these affected in the game.

  My [Willpower] did improve instantaneously once. I had just finished another chain casting of two [Shadow Fingers] when a message appeared.

  That got me so excited that I tried to cast a third [Shadow Fingers]. I failed on the first two attempts, but was able to push a third set of fingers out of a far off shadow on the third attempt. I was rewarded with a massive headache that nearly knocked me out, and a point of [Willpower] along with the corresponding drop in penalty!

  My physical attributes progressed as well at a much slower pace. At this rate though, I would still be well past the 20 points that The Hundred Years War had set as the baseline for all attributes by the time I was a teen, let alone an adult. I wasn’t sure if that was because of my [God’s Chosen] condition, or the myriad of other possibilities, like me being a demon sword, or just my body developing more as an infant.

  Either way, training does help, my practice using [Shadow Fingers] to catch bugs raised [Agility] and [Quickness] which in turn seemed to raise my [Spd] stat. And my [Strength] went up after I started running around and swinging sticks, which was the first time Beatrice started shooting looks of disapproval at me.

  I guess she didn’t like seeing her angel doing that.

  That left only the final piece of my attributes and stats puzzle: [Charisma] and [Grace]. [Grace] seemed to be tied to both [Intellect] and [Charisma], and it sounded like it was important to my Sorcerer class. But while I knew how to improve [Intellect], [Charisma] was still a mystery to me. Other than the [Dark Gift], it just seemed to go up on its own.

  “There! Oh, that looks fabulous, don’t you think My Lady?” a young maid with honey-colored hair squealed as she held up a small mirror showing the result of their hour-long effort to me.

  More servants were coming into my room now, though all of them were quite young, like Beatrice, probably due to the fact they didn’t know any better.

  They really did work on my hair, twisting the blue wires into braids that entwined around each other like fantastic serpents. They arched over each other forming a heart-shaped loop over my head, pinned by bedazzling jewels.

  It was too much of everything, from sparkles to that metallic shine.

  I had too much hair as a one year old.

  “It… breath… taking…” I could speak now, but even if my mind knew the words, my vocal cords could only do so much.

  That was enough for all the maids to catch their breaths. They had their hands to their lips and all of them were blushing pink.

  Really?!

  “But…” I looked to Meridol for help, surely this would catch way too much attention.

  She had her hands on her hips and heaved a tired sigh. “It can’t be helped. The Duke ordered you be made to look your best. I’m not sure he understands the implications of that. But we have guests tonight.”

  Beatrice stepped in front of Meridol and said briskly. “Okay, girls. Everyone calm down. Let’s select a dress that matches her hair, and sew it to fit. The one she’s wearing is already dirty.”

  Argh, another hour of this! And it’s all my fault!

  I sank back into myself and reminisced about the other developments that had happened. After coming back from the garden that day, I, of course, had to attempt the spell that I saw Winthrop casting at the hay targets.

  The problem was that there were no targets for me to try it on. After what happened with the book, I thought hard about what I should use and came to the realization that anything in the room was a bad idea, especially the ceiling above me.

  So I decided to try something I wasn’t sure was possible: casting the spell through my [Shadow Fingers]. This was different from the way I chained multiple [Shadow Fingers] spells, since I was only using the fingers for targeting and was still casting the spell myself. Here, the new spell would have to be cast from those fingers instead of me. One of the papers that Meridol had read to me was “Using Synthesized Form as Conduit for Casting,” and it mentioned the possibility, but I really had no idea how it’d work.

  I had to gain several skills before I got to that point, the first was the [Multi Casting I], and the second actually just came naturally. After chaining the [Shadow Fingers] over and over again out to the shadows outside windows in my attempts to cast the spell, the skill message appeared.

  That was when I found out I could listen through my shadowy fingers. The other bonuses were nice as well: I could practice more and longer, though the damage boost didn't matter since I wasn't attacking anything… yet.

  Once I figured out how to channel the flow of magic out to my shadowy hand outside the window, the rest was easy. I directed them to converge at the point right in front of the palm, just like Winthrop did, and then released it at a flower pot sitting on the railing. A streak of distorted haze shot toward the pot, and a few seconds later came the sound of shattering pottery.

  I guess we were on the second floor.

  The expected message popped up afterwards:

  Experimenting a little revealed that to cast this spell the usual way, I had to form a mental image of [Mana Bolt] along with a “focus number,” with 10 being the full effect of the spell. It was actually way easier to manually direct the flow myself. Plus, I couldn’t figure out how to cast the spell through my [Shadow Fingers] using the usual method.

  All my precaution with casting the spell outside however, was for naught. After a while of uneventfulness, the watch over me grew complacent. A couple of the new maids were falling asleep on the job. I didn’t blame them since it was pretty boring watching an infant do nothing all the time. But I took advantage of it to start chasing bugs again. One annoying one kept buzzing out of reach at the very last moment. Frustrated, I threw my hand at it, and shockingly one of my writhing dark fingers detached and launched itself at the buzzing dot.

  BOOM!

  Next thing I knew the entire side of my crib caved in and it flipped over, dumping me on the ground. I took a HP of damage, and that stupid fly was still buzzing mockingly over me.

  There was one silver lining.

  Behaving erratically is an understatement.

  Meridol was livid after that. The maid in attendance was immediately demoted and even Beatrice caught an earful. I was forced to sit on her lap while she read the “Safety first guide to casting spells” to me on repeat. Funnily enough, since Beatrice had made good on her promise of teaching me my letters, seeing those words being read out loud to me over and over again, actually helped me start to comprehend them.

  Treat all unknown spells as if they are attack spells.

  Never aim attack spells at anything you are not willing to destroy.

  Do not start the incantation or the spell image until you’re ready to cast.

  Know your target, its surroundings and beyond.

  Know the range, the effects and the impact radius of your spell.

  …

  Those rules felt oddly familiar, but I couldn’t put a finger on where.

  “Alright, we’re done, My Lady. Can you grace us with a display of your dress?” The honey-haired maid before me pleaded. All of them had sparkles in their eyes as they looked at me.

  I feel kind of bad. They had worked so hard and for so long on me, and from their eyes they were clearly expecting something graceful from me. But all I am, was just an unrefined village girl turned soldier.

  I reached back to a few lifetimes back when I had caught the eyes of a noble. I remember being taken to his estate and taught etiquette: how to walk in a line with balanced posture, turn in place, and curtsy with a precise dip.

  Somehow, I managed to do it a lot better this time around, as a one year old no less.

  The sight of it though, seemed to have left everyone stunned.

  “That… was perfect,” several of the maids stammered at once.

  “Where did you learn that from?” Beatrice shot Meridol a questioning glance, but received just a quick shake of the head and another heavy sigh in response.