“What happened to me? Why am I a child again?”
Aurora had not taken notice of her present condition before but she could no longer ignore her physical limit.
[The user is informed that this is a result of the ‘penalty’. The effect of the ‘penalty’ will be lifted off in a weak.
The user is asked to train their mental condition if they want to avoid the effect of ‘Penalty’ in the future.]
Why? Why had Aurora been de-aged like this of all possible scenarios?
“Looks like you lost control of your magic. Do you have any idea when you will be back to normal?”
Ava was the first one to regain her composure. It also made sense why she had come around so quickly.
The abyss was a place full of such tricks. There must be weirder things Ava must have seen in there.
“I knew it was possible for the goddess’s to stop aging with the help of their magic but I have never seen a case like you before. Are you sure it is alright?”
Astoria sounded worried and for good reasons. But Aurora knew a lot of people who could manipulate their ages and bodies at will.
That was not the real issue with Aurora here. She was more worried about her lack of magic and defense capabilities.
“It’s quite common for people to use their magic for body manipulation. But I will be vulnerable for the next week. Now I am thankful that I convinced Rex to take my place as the headmaster now.”
What a stroke of luck that decision had turned out to be.
“Hey, have you seen Aurora anywhere? I want her opinion on something…”
Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Aurora was not sure why Rex chose this place to look for her but his words got stuck in his throat as soon as he saw Aurora.
“I think I had a little too much coffee and healing potions. I am starting to halucinate..”
“Oi, I’m right here. This is an accident and you better keep your mouth shut about it.”
“Alright, what happened?”
“Ava, Astoria, can you give us both a second to be alone? I need to discuss some things with Rex alone.”
To be honest, there was no reason for Ava and Astoria to leave if Aurora just wanted to talk about her present condition.
But there was one more topic she wanted to cover and it was about Lucy.
Although Aurora had already told Astoria a little about Lucy and Karan’s situation, she did not want to air her dirty laundry out in front of an outsider.
As for Ava, they had a business partnership and the less they got involved in each other’s matters, the better.
“Alright. I’ll take my leave then. I have work to do and this place needs more protection embedded inside its space.”
“I should get to work as well. I need to have a look and compile the syllabus I will be teaching to the children.”
Ava and Astoria left without much fuss. They must have realized that Aurora had something personal to talk about.
“Is this talk related to what you wanted to tell me before? Well, you know, after you forced me to take the role of the headmaster.”
“Yes. you might want to sit before you hear the news.”
Aurora felt nervous but she did her best to involve as much detail about Karans’ situation as she could.
But the more she spoke, the more she realized that Aurora knew too little to be of any use.
Surprisingly, Rex heard her through without exploding or asking her any questions. He seemed deep in thoughts.
“I see. He told you all this and you believed him just like that?”
“I did believe him but not just like that. How do I explain it? There was something familiar about him and he also helped me. Maybe you’ll see for yourself once you meet him.”
Rex seemed deep in thoughts but he did not say ‘no’ out of the gate. That gave Aurora some hope that he would think this topic over.
“I will investigate it on my own. So let’s forget about it for now. There is a bigger elephant in the room right now. What should we do with you for now? What age are you even?”
Aurora had not thought about her situation yet but Rex’s question finally made her aware that she should take her condition seriously.
“I think I’m almost nine right now. I need to get through this week and I should be back to normal.”
“Nine, huh? A year too young for the academy’s first batch. We decided on eleven to sixteen years old for our first batch age.”
“I don’t want to enroll in the academy right now anyway. It would be difficult to explain what happened to me once I return to normal.”
Aurora did not have to think over this topic and Rex seemed to agree with her.
“Right. Then, should we introduce you as a relative of mine? No one would question you if we pulled that route.”
That did make sense. Since Rex was the headmaster, no one except the school council would question him.
And they would recognize Aurora’s magic and put two-on-two together.
“Let’s go with this for now. It will also allow us to observe how the academy works for the students and how they get along. Did you screen through the first batch of applications?”
Initially, screening students were supposed to be Aurora’s job. But then things happened and the task has been pushed over to Rex.
“Ah, about that. There were some things I wanted to talk with you about. Here, this is something I think you should be interested in.”
Aurora took the file being handed over to her. But it was a little too heavy for her nine-yeard old body to handle.
So Rex just put the open book on the table in front of Aurora and pointed toward the page.
“I don’t know why she even applied to come here. But we cannot refuse her without making an enemy out of the Northern republic. What should we do now?”
Aurora looked at the page in front of her with a bewildered expression.
Out of everyone who could have applied here, it had to be the princess of the northern republic.
With the exception of the tower, the northern republic had the highest monopoly on the magic users and abyss travelers. They also had the most academies affiliated with the tower.
As such, it was not wrong to say that the northern republic and the tower were close to each other.
“Anyway, we cannot afford to refuse her right now. So invite her here as well. We’ll just have to keep a tight eye on her. She’s currently 12 right?”
“Yes, she is. Why?”
“I have someone who can keep an eye on her.”
Aurora was not sure how good Emilia would be able to act but Joseph was a good actor at least.
He would be able to keep the northern princess occupied and also extract some information she might have.
“I guess we are inviting her now. The council is also in favor of not ignoring the northern republic right now. Our position is not the best in the world.”
Aurora sighed at the upcoming mess she would have to clean up.
She had an idea why the northern republic’s princess was being sent to their academy and who was behind it.
And it was a good opportunity for Aurora to establish friendly connections with the northern republic.
“I guess that Karan is on our side. This is an opportunity and a half.”
Aurora knew that this was an opportunity. She could not afford to mess this up.
===============
“Why do I have to go to such a remote place? That academy is so new it doesn’t even have a record yet.”
No one in the northern republic knew how to handle their princess when she was in such a mood.
“It was Lord Karan who asked this favor from you. Don’t you want to help him out?”
The nanny who had been assigned to the princess tried to calm her down. And surprisingly, it did help.
“Lord Karan? I guess I can do this if he was the one who asked.”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the princess calmed down.
It was just their luck to be stuck with such a brat as their princess. But they had no other choice but to keep her alive for now.
Because even though they were a republic country, they were bound by their royal blood. It was the only thing that could activate their ultimate weapon in case the abyss woke up and tried to devour them all.
“Let’s go, my lady. We have your things packed. We shall leave for our destination now. After all, Rocx valley is far away.”
The princess did stand up but her dull eyes did not seem interested in anything.
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