Strongest Noble's Daughter Uses Water Magic

Monthly Meeting

Weeks had passed since Mindy became a part of my little family. In that time, I managed to teach Mindy how to read and write, as well as some basic mathematics. The harpy slowly grew used to my presence and slightly opened up to me over time. She had not called me by name yet, but we managed to have some small talks. And thanks to Mindy, not only did I learn more about harpies that was never written in books, but I was finally able to get some decent training in with my magic.

Before, I had always felt like I was being engulfed in water, and feared that I would drown. Nowadays, as I trained, I had Mindy send a light breeze of wind my way, making it easier for me to concentrate, as the breeze helped me forget the watery feeling of my mana. Winds don't exist underwater, after all. Of course, I knew I could not always lean on her for assistance in my magic, so I also did some practice late at night.

At least... I had attempted to. Unfortunately, without Mindy's wind, whenever I attempted to practice alone, I ended up re-experiencing the final moments of the former me instead. No matter how hard I tried to suppress the terrible memory, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that I was not drowning, that I was on dry land, away from the raging ocean, in the end, fear overtook me, and thus I could not make any further progress with my magic alone. I had to have Mindy with me during training.

Speaking of Mindy, as for what I had learned about harpies from her, one of the things I had learned about them was that they were not truly monsters, as written in books, and it was not just in character. From what Mindy had told me, of what she knew before she became a slave, before she was separated from her family, there was actually a race of people who were mistaken as monsters. This race of people is known as purebreds. Unlike crossbreeds, where the people have their ears or tail revealed to show their race, purebreds are people with more animal parts than crossbreeds, and are much superior to many race in terms of strength and magic power. Because of this difference, many people, humans especially, feared the purebreds more than they do crossbreeds. Harpies are one of the breeds amongst this race.

Currently, I am at my usual training area with Mindy by my side. My harpy friend fanned her wings my way, sending a light breeze that caused my cloak to flutter about on my body, as I concentrate on the water orb I was forming. I gently moved my arms around, causing the orb to follow the movement of either arm.

“You're doing good so far,” Mindy commented. Aside from the green dress I had given her, the harpy also had on a pair of green loose sleeves on her wings, quite like that of a kimono, not that there is a kimono here.

The other day, when I brought her out to do some grocery shopping with me, a lot of people were staring at her due to her race, especially her wings. It was making her feel uncomfortable and self-conscious of her harpy parts. While the ears and legs could be hidden, the wings were a problem, especially since there were no clothes in this world that could help conceal her wings. Unfortunately, I was not much of a seamstress, so even if I wanted to, I could not make any clothes for her. Fortunately, there was a clothing store at the market, and I managed to convince the owner to make a set of the sleeves for Mindy. The payment costed some gold coins I had saved up over the years, but it was worth it. Besides, I was not going to make much use of those gold coins in the first place, living in isolation like so.

“Yeah,” I spoke, enchanted with my accomplishment. “I can't believe it. After all this time, I'm finally controlling my magic.” I gently bounced the orb upwards and made it burst, causing the water to rain down on the field.

“Now if only you can do this without my assistance...” Mindy sighed, as she ceased the fanning, causing me to let out a weak laugh at her statement.

“Sorry, Mindy. I'm not sure if I can ever get over my fear.”

Those words caused Mindy to panic, upon realizing that I had heard her mumbling. “O-Oh! Th-That's not what I was insinuating at all! Honest!”

I stifled a laugh at her reaction. Honestly, this harpy is so adorable when she gets flustered. “Relax. I'm not accusing you of anything. Unless... if you really did mean something by that mumbling of yours.”

Mindy flinched at my tone and stuttered. “I-I-I... Uh... T-That is... Um...”

“So you did. That is not good. Guess a certain birdie is getting some punishment.” At that, she then froze, knowing so well what came next, as I approached the child. “Don't try to escape~”

“N-N-Noooo!” She lifted her arms up to fly, when I tackled her down.

“Punishment~!”

My sudden pounce caused her to perk her harpy ears up, as Mindy let out a squeal upon feeling my hands pet her feathery ears. One of the many things I learned about harpies during her stay was that they were sensitive around the ears, quite similar to a dog's sweet spot. That, and they usually allow the person they love pet their ears.

Mindy let out stammers and whines as I continued to pet her ears. Soon enough, she succumbed to my touch and leaned against me for more. Although I called this a punishment, I knew how much she liked being petted at the ears. If anything, the harpy was just embarrassed from being so close to me like so.

“P-P-Please... stop... milady...” she whimpered, her face blushing as she tried to hold back a smile forming on her face.

Her begging combined with her adorable blushing face and soft ears only made me pet her even more. I even rubbed my face against her soft, feathery ears. “Oh, but I don't wanna~” I told her. “Mindy, you are just too adorable~” My comment only made the girl blush darker and stammered more, making her even more adorable.

Just then, a faint neigh was heard, ceasing the punishment fun. 

“U-Um... Was that a horse...?” Mindy asked as she panted. “Were we... expecting someone?”

I could not blame her for being confused. If anything, ever since she relieved me of my lonely life, I had forgotten of a certain thing that happens each month. And today just happened to be one of those days.

“... Yeah. Come on. Let's go greet them,” I weakly told her, leading her to the entrance.

******

Once we arrived at the front of the house, a familiar carriage awaited, as well as a familiar maid.

“Good afternoon, Celis...” I greeted with a weak smile.

The woman who was once my close maid did not bother greeting me back, just looked at me ever so heartlessly. Ever since I got kicked out of the family, Celis started to treat me so coldly, as though I was nothing but a stranger who had nothing to do with their lives. Cruel as it may sound, it was the truth. Well, not like I could blame her. After all, in the world of rich people, commoners are but bugs in their eyes, pebbles on the road, worms crawling out the ground. The many servants in the Anberibca family are all lower-ranked nobles with little magic, and they too only see commoners as such. To the eyes of the servants from my family's household, ever since my affinity was revealed, I was no different from those commoners. 

Celis broke eye contact from me, noticing Mindy by my side. “So it was true. You now have a monster residing with you,” she stated. “Not only do you have a magic unbefitting a noble, but you also befriended one of mankind's enemies. My... how far you have gone.”

I looked down at those words in shame, reminded of how much my family and our servants despised me.

“In any case, as usual, your monthly necessities.” Celis tossed a pouch by my feet.

“Thank you...” I weakly said, picking up the pouch, and opened it to see it filled with copper coins, silver coins, and even a few gold coins.

“I assume you still wish for books on magic, as usual? Honestly, I question why you still bother. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you will never be accepted back into the great Anberibca household. Not while you have such weak and useless magic. Understandable as it is that my lord disowned you, I question why he bothers wasting such things on you. Not just the money, but even the precious books and... They are all too good for mere commoners like you. Lord Lennox should've just left you at an orphanage in a distant village rather than leave you here. In all honesty, I am quite shocked that you are still trying for nothing.”

I wanted to shout at her, to tell her that she was wrong, and I finally got somewhere with my training. However, the words got stuck in my throat. An adult I may be mentally, in this physical child's body, to be looked down upon so coldly, wanting to retaliate was easier said than done.

“Take that back,” Mindy suddenly spoke up. “You take that back, right now! You don't know anything about her to say such horrible things!”

Celis and I turned to her, the maid indifferent while I was shocked to hear her raise her voice. She had never raised her voice before.

“What was that, harpy?” 

“I said you don't know anything about her to say such horrible things! You don't know how hard she practiced to control her magic, how much she trained with her magic, all so she could be accepted by her family again!”

I widened my eyes at those words, for I had never told her of my family situation.

“Everyday, she spends her time training her magic, practicing her control over it, just to prove that she's worthy of being a noble's daughter! When she isn't spending her time doing that, she would be out buying groceries or doing chores in this big house! She... Lady Levi saved me from being a slave! I don't know what it means to be a noble, but she is my savior! If you don't understand that, then you're better off not saying anything at all!”

I was even more baffled at those words. Not the speech as a whole, but the fact that she called me by name for the first time, and how she saw me. I would understand if she saw Edward as her savior, but me?

“You dare call this disgrace of a noble child your savior? If I recall, it was Lord Edward who brought justice to those slave traders and broke your binds; it was he who saved you from your fate. Knowing this, you still call this weak commoner child your savior instead of a strong and just noble?” Celis retorted.

“That's true, he did. And I am thankful for that. But Lady Levi was the one who saved my soul! She took care of me and taught me how to live a normal life amongst humans! I have heard of how great the Anberibca family is, but if I had to choose to serve them or Lady Levi, I will choose Lady Levi and always choose Lady Levi! At least she did not decide to leave me after seeing what I really am! At least she has a heart to keep me rather than just abandon me!”

It was silent right then and there. I was completely touched by Mindy's words. At first, I had thought she was still frightened of me, that she was still scarred by her time of s*****y. I never knew she had thought so highly of me.

I stared back at Celis, wondering if she was going to refute to the harpy's claim. Instead, the maid just sighed, and walked back to the carriage.

“If you don't need anything, I will just be on my way,” she simply said as she entered. As soon as she closed the door, the horseman snapped the reins, and the horse trotted away from my home.

As they left, I turned back to Mindy, puzzlement still plastered on my face. The harpy flinched upon making eye contact with me, and looked down, trembling and ears drooping.

“S-S-Sorry, if I said anything out of line...” she apologized.

Snapped out of my stupor, I approached and hugged Mindy. “Far from it,” I told her. “If anything, I should thank you for sticking up for me. And here I thought you were still scared of me this whole time.”

“I was not scared; I was just... shy.”

I couldn't see her face, but I could tell she was being adorable. Honestly, crossbreeds and purebreds can be so unfair.

“Alrighty then. What do you say we have pizza toast for dinner tonight?” I suggested as I broke out of the hug.

Mindy's ears perked up as she widened her sparkling eyes at the suggestion. The harpy then looked down and fidgeted quite slightly. “Can... can we have some fish, too?” she asked.

“Of course, we can.”

A bright smile formed on her face upon hearing my answer. “I will go fetch some right now!”

Just as she got ready to take off, I grabbed her by a wing. “Hold it. I need to get ingredients for the pizza toast first. You can get the fish when we get back. They'll be fresher and even more delicious for tonight that way.” 

“Okay! Then I'll fly us to the market now!” With that, she got her wing out of my grip and took it to the air, grabbing me by the shoulders with her bird feet, and flew straight to the markets.

As she flew us there, I could not help but think how glad I was to have Mindy as a friend.