Strongest Noble's Daughter Uses Water Magic

Freedom Regained Pt. 2 *Mindy*

After a nice, relaxing bath, the human girl had lent the harpy a nice, clean change of clothes, consisting of a light green, sleeveless dress, much to the latter's surprise, for she had assumed that she would still be wearing the rag. Once she changed into her new clothes, the human had allowed the girl to do as she wished while she got to work on lunch. The harpy assumed it to be a test of sort and stood by her caretaker's side to assist her. As the human worked, however, she made no gesture of needing any sort of assistance. In fact, the dish the human was making seemed simple enough for one person to make.

“Can you help me set the table?” the human then requested.

The harpy looked at her for a few moments, noticing the pure smile on her face, before nodding in confirmation.

“That's great! There are plates in the upper cabinet over there, where the stool is. And forks are in the drawer where the sink is.”

With another nod, the harpy went to retrieve the tableware and utensils, and prepped the table. 

Once the table was all set up, the human and harpy both sat at the table, the latter on the former's insistence, and ate the salad. During all her time being a slave, the purebreed had never had any fresh, healthy, delicious meal before. All she had eaten were hard bread and cold soup. Never something as good as this.

“Is it good?” she heard the human ask.

“Mmm! It'sh good!” the harpy answered with her mouth full.

“There's more if you still want any. Also...” The purebreed watched as she saw the girl stand from her seat and make her way to the fridge. From there, she saw the human take out a jar and return to the table with it. “Try it with this. Just a spoonful, though.”

The harpy did as told and removed the lid from the jar. She scooped up some of the contents within it and spread it out all over what was left of her salad. One bite, and she found herself liking the additional flavor.

“Delicious!” she said happily, stuffing her face with more of the salad.

“I'm glad the salad dressing suit your taste,” she heard the human say, a soft smile still on her face.

The harpy stole some glances at the human, whose demeanor did not change at all towards her. And from what she could see, the girl was not faking her expressions, as she scooped some of the 'salad dressing' onto her own salad. 

A slight scraping sound reached the harpy's ears, as she looked down and found her plate empty. Tilting her head upwards, she noticed a big bowl of salad between them, and she was still quite hungry...

“Um... Can I... really have more?” she dared ask.

“I can't finish all that by myself. Have as much as you like,” the human allowed.

A smile spread out across her face, and the harpy scooped up more salad on her plate, along with some of the dressing, her ears lightly flapping in joy.

******

After lunch,  the harpy took a nap on the couch. It had been a while since she last had a full stomach, she had felt a little sleepy, an action the human had noticed and led her to the couch to rest. While it was not a bed, it was better than all those time sleeping on the hard floor or wooden carriage. As she slept, however, she had a very unpleasant dream.

******

It was night time. The child was out practicing her flying, when she was shot down by something. Once she hit the ground, she found herself surrounded by humans, as they dragged her to a cage. Their faces were shadowed, but she remembered fearing them horribly.

“M-... Mama! Papa!” she cried out.

The second she let out those cries, a pair of adult harpies flew down and attacked the humans. Unfortunately, try as they might, the humans managed to hold them back with their wits, magic, and monsters siding with them. Not only that, but while they held the harpies back, some other humans dragged the carriage the child was in away, separating the crying harpy from her parents. 

To say she was saddened would be an understatement. For after all, what child would not be saddened to be forcibly taken away from their family like that? Especially as she watched her family doing everything they could to get her back, only to still fail. As she silently cried, she felt a comforting hand rest on her head, slowly making her feel at ease. The hand slowly moved to her ears, giving her some really good rubs, so good that she was drifting away from the dream, wanting to go closer to the hand petting her.

As the harpy opened her eyes, to her shock, she saw the human sitting by her side on the couch, her hand resting on the purebreed's head.

“... Hi there,” she nervously greeted.

Instantly, the harpy shot off the couch with a shriek and hid from her. She did not know what the human was planning, despite the kindness she had shown. For all she knew, it could have been some kind of trick to get her guards down so she could a***e her later, quite like her previous masters had. 

“... I'm going to go train for a bit. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask,” the human only said, making her way to the door and left with her cloak.

Once she left, the harpy could not help but find the human to be... quite odd. She truly was not like any of her previous masters. Not in tone, action, or otherwise. Even though the purebreed clearly showed some forms of disrespect, the human did nothing in retaliation. Instead, she only left the harpy be. It could not be that she was going to let the head of the house decide the punishment, especially not when it did not seem like there were anyone else living in this big house. She could not say why that is, but from the human's actions, it truly looked like she had been living here alone. 

The harpy felt another breeze brush by, as she turned to an open window, one with a good view of the lake. She made her way towards the opening and saw the human practicing her magic, just as she had said. Only, there was something off about the way the human was doing it.

Purebreeds were taught how magic works as soon as they could speak and fend for themselves. From what the harpy was taught, it was all about the muscles. If the muscles were tensed, it would disrupt the mana flow in the body. The calmer the person, the better mana control they have. With the way the human was doing it, she was way too tense, to the point where she was getting exhausted way too quickly.

“Um...” she called out, getting her caretaker's attention.

“O-Oh! Sorry. Did I disturb you in any way?” the human asked, in which the harpy only shook her head no. “Then... Is there anything you need?” Cue in another head shake. “You know, I can't do anything for you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

The purebreed looked down at those words, her ears drooping as she was now starting to reconsider talking to the human about her muscle control. But, since she already spoke up, it would be even more rude if she did not say anything now.

“You're doing it wrong,” she softly muttered out.

“Hm? What was that?” the human asked.

“Y-You're doing it wrong...” she repeated. “Your muscles are... t-t-too tense... It disrupts the mana flowing...”

“Huh? They do?”

The harpy nodded in confirmation. “Mana is suppose to flow easily throughout one's body, especially as a spell is being cast. However, depending on one's muscles, the flow can be disrupted, and the spell can backfire in some way.”

From the look the human gave her, the purebreed knew she did not believe it. “Are you sure it isn't just for harpies, or monsters in general? It could be different for you, especially considering your affinity.”

Those words confused the girl, for she did not remember anything in her lessons about affinity playing any part in mana control. “Um... What does my affinity have to do with mana flow?” she asked.

“Well, your affinity is wind, right? Maybe the thing with muscles is only for wind users. Me? ... There are no books for my affinity, so I can't say for sure if I'm even doing it right,” the human explained.

“But... muscle control is the most basic and important thing to using any element. If they're tense, you would use up more mana than necessary, oftentimes even lose control of it. If they're too loose, not much mana would be used, and whatever spell that has been casted would not be as effective as it should be. This is especially true to humans, since compared to other races, they have the lowest amount of mana.”

The human only stared at her upon hearing this piece of information, an information the harpy was sure that was not known to her kind. 

“Can you come out for a moment?” the human asked, much to the purebreed's fright, as she slowly cowered under the window.  “I'm not going to hurt you, if that's what you're assuming. I just need a bit of support." 

The harpy hesitated still, as she stared at her caretaker in the eyes. From what she could see, the human did not seem to be lying, but she was not so sure if she could be trusted. Then again... it also did not look like she was scheming something. 

“If you give me support, I'll make something delicious for tonight," the human offered, piquing the purebreed's interest a little, as well as increasing her confusion even more. “Do you want to make a request instead? Or is there something harpies don't eat?”

“Why...?” she dared ask. “Why are you being nice to me? You know I'm a harpy, that I'm... a monster... to you humans..."

As she said all that, the purebreed thought back to all her former masters, as well as the slave traders she was sold to. Not once had she met a human treat a purebreed as a person. She had seen some humans treat crossbreeds as equals, but never to a purebreed. Heck, even some crossbreeds treat the pures as monsters. So why was she different?

“If you are a monster, you sure don't act like one," the human began. "I imagine monsters as creatures who would attack people without reason, aside from taking pleasure in seeing people's pain or death. Either that or creatures who would eat people alive. ... You don't do either of that, do you?”

“No! Of course not!” the harpy answered strongly as she shook her head. Upon realizing she answered with a raised voice, she covered her mouth. “S-S-Sorry... But I really don't do that. No harpies I know of do.”

“So you don't kill anyone who trespasses into your home?”

The harpy shook her head in response. “There have been people or animal that walk into our territory, but those people are usually lost or exhausted. We harpies tried to bring them to our nest to help them recover and bring them back to their home. But for some reason, while animals are more calm and willing to have our assistance, humans instantly panic the moment we pick them up, or even when they see us.”

The human had a small, nervous smile as she listened to her explanation, confusing the purebreed, before regaining her composure. “Well, so long as we are in agreement that you won't do anything to harm me, I don't see why I shouldn't be nice to you."

The harpy only silently stared at her, before finally jumping out the window and joining her caretaker in her training.

“W-What do you want me to do?” she asked nervously.

“Just put your hand on my shoulder. That's all I'm asking you to do.” 

Though a little puzzled by the request, the harpy did as told, and placed her hand on the human's shoulder. As she did, the girl took in some calming breaths, relaxing her muscles. As she did so, the girl attempted to conjure up her water ball once more. At first, she seemed to be having a good control over it, but as seconds passed, the ball was reacting quite strangely. The harpy was worried at this, and looked to the human to see an expression that was just as strange.

“Milady?" the harpy called as she shook her shoulder, only to get no response. "Milady?" She tried again, only to receive no answer once more. "Milady!” At that shout, the human snapped out of her daze, and dropped the water ball again, taking in some breaths as she went down to her knees.

“Um... What happened? I've... never seen anyone act the way you did. Not even first-timers reacted that way,” the harpy asked, nervous that the human may do or say something for the shout.

The human girl was silent at the question, an expression that told the purebreed she was feeling quite uncomfortable with the topic. Before the harpy could say anything, though, the human spoke. “A few years back, before my affinity was realized, I was playing by a pond and accidentally fell in. Because I didn’t awaken to my element at the time, much less have much training in magic, I almost drowned. Since then, whenever I see a body of water close by, I get this panic attack. Same thing happened when I tried to use my magic... the flow was quite similar to that of water flowing through me. I just couldn't help but go into a panic...”

Hearing this saddened the purebreed. She did not think her caretaker had such a traumatic experience with her own affinity. If that was the reason for her not being able to control her magic, then it was more than just reasonable. No one can get over their fears and traumas that easily.

The realization of that made the harpy droop her ears, a saddened expression on her face. “S-S-... Sorry... I'm so sorry for making you remember something so terrible...” she stuttered.

“N-No! It's not your fault, really!” the human exclaimed. “Besides... It's better to talk things out rather than keep it in, wouldn't you say?”

“But...”

A gentle hand was placed on her head, silencing the purebreed. “Like I said, don't worry about it. All this training is making me a bit hungry. I'm going to get started on that dinner. Is there anything you can't have?” The harpy shook her head in response. “Okay. Then tonight is pizza toast! Got a bunch of extra groceries today from the market owners as birthday gifts, and the ice magic stone isn't going to keep them fresh or preserved for long. It saddens me how similar it is to a refrigerator, and yet is less effective than it...”

At the unfamiliar words being used, the harpy tilted her head in great confusion. “'Pizza toast'? 'Refrigerator'?”

“Ah! Don't worry about it. I'm just mumbling to myself. Oh yeah, we never got each other's names, do we? My name is Levi. What's your name?”

At the mention of her name, the harpy looked down with a saddened expression on her face. She had been made a slave for so long, been called nothing but 'Slave', 'You', and 'Monster' for so long, she did not remember what her name was. “... I don't remember... I've been a slave for so long...”

The human seemed baffled upon hearing that, before regaining her composure. “Nameless, huh... Well, we can't have that. Let's see... what name fits a harpy...”

That took the purebreed by surprise. She was going to be given a name? A proper name? “Y-You don't need to give me a name! I'm fine being nameless."

“No way. Every living thing needs to have a name to be referred to. And I am not just going to keep calling you 'You' or 'Hey'. And just calling you 'Harpy' or 'Bird' will also be disrespectful, too.”

“B-But...”

“Again, it’s okay.” As the girl said that, she picked up a stick from the ground and started listing out some names.

“You don't have to come up with the names now...” the harpy tried to say, still quite baffled that the girl was being serious about it.

“Nope. I refuse to let you be nameless any longer than needed,” she retorted, staring at the list she had written down so far. 

The harpy became more and more clueless with this human. She had never seen a human be so thoughtful towards a purebreed before. For as long as she knew, to humans, purebreeds were monsters. But...

“If you are a monster, you sure don't act like one.I imagine monsters as creatures who would attack people without reason, aside from taking pleasure in seeing people's pain or death. Either that or creatures who would eat people alive. So long as we are in agreement that you won't do anything to harm me, I don't see why I shouldn't be nice to you."

She truly did not sound nor act like any human she knew and that... That made her very happy. 

“Oh, this sounds like a good one," the human suddenly spoke, surprising the purebreed. "What do you think of the name 'Mindy'?” 

“M-... 'Mindy'?”

“Well, look. The letters 'M' and 'W' are practically mirrored versions of each other. Turn the 'W' in 'windy' over, and you get 'Mindy'. It's also a cute name. What do you think?”

The harpy looked at the two letters the human- Levi- spoke of, and saw the two mirrored zigzags. As for the name as a whole, though...

“I... I can't read. But... I like the name...”

A smile formed on the human's face at those words. “Well then, tomorrow, we can work on teaching you how to read and write. Aside from training, cooking, and occasional cleaning, I have more than enough time to spare in teaching you however I can.”

“Is it... really okay?”

“Of course it is. Now then, to get started on dinner. Think you can help me out? Pizza toast is fairly easy to make, and it's really delicious.” Upon hearing that the food they will be having will be both easy and delicious, the harpy- Mindy- enthusiastically nodded her head. “Then let's go, Mindy.”