Felicity: The Sixteenth Life

Chapter Two: Birthday Girl

APPROXIMATELY THREE YEARS AFTER DALIA’S DEATH

Waking up at five in the morning was as routine as clockwork to Felicity. Her mother always emphasized rising early to have a good start on a productive day but even without Dalia raising Felicity with that kind of perspective, she would’ve done the same. Life had not been lax on her past lives; all the previous fifteen children were lowborn and thus were educated that he who would not work would not get to eat. It was common for them to work from the early morning until dusk.

The past years had been tough but it wasn’t the first time that Felicity had to survive without an adult’s help. Actually, the situation was by far the best out of all the circumstances she had previously faced. She had a roof over her head, a lot of clothes, resources for food and even money. There was no one bossing her around, no one treating her like a slave nor taking advantage of her. She had the liberty to treat herself to three meals a day and a full night’s rest and sleep.

She had all the freedom in the world thus it was quite a luxurious life compared to anything she had experienced before. Felicity knew that everything that she had been enjoying would not be possible if not for her mother’s efforts. Dalia really laid out the foundation for her daughter’s livelihood considerably well.

When she was still healthy, Dalia did not rely alone on what amount of money she had received from the Count. She did all sorts of odd jobs in town, mostly sewing and selling food she made herself. Felicity thought that her mother spent all the Count’s money on the renovation of the caretaker’s cabin and the foundation for the impressive vegetable and herb garden out front but apparently, she had enough to stash away and give to her daughter as a future secret fund.

After memorizing the contents of the pages on the back of the red notebook that her mother left, Felicity had torn away and burned the pages. As long as she knew the details, it would not be necessary to keep records regarding money and assets on a piece of paper. It wouldn’t be funny at all if someone learns of the money through the notes and take it for themselves. It was better for Felicity to be at least that cautious with such vital information.

Through the years, the town nearby had been a great help for Felicity to survive. However, she did not tell anyone about her mother’s death. She just told Dalia’s acquaintances that her mother had to be confined to their home because of health issues and thus, Felicity would be running all the errands so that Dalia would not need to go to town herself.

Exposing herself as an orphan at such a young age would not lead to favorable circumstances and would just complicate her simple way of life. She might even face the danger of getting taken in by an orphanage or something similar to that. Her mother’s death must remain secret until she reaches an age where she didn’t have to rely on a guardian. Fortunately, no one was nosy enough to pry and ask questions to learn more about Dalia and Felicity. To the townspeople, the mother and daughter duo were not more than just good neighbors. They had enough on their plates working for their own livelihood thus it was common courtesy for the townspeople to give each other their own privacy.

For her everyday routine, Felicity used the money that Dalia saved from her odd jobs, the ones stashed under the bed cushion in a tin container. Feeding one little girl and one dog certainly did not amount to much since they already had help on food stock with the plants in the garden. Felicity took care of the cottage well so that it would not require major fix-ups that would require the help of adults. It was certainly a good thing that the cottage was small. She could reach the ceiling just by attaching a stick to a small broom. Because cleaning was the majority of what she could do in the house, the place was in tip-top shape even if its caretaker was merely five-years-old.

After clearing the first obstacle of living past age six, Felicity started going to town and accepting odd jobs for her ‘mother’, which of course she completed herself. They were simple tasks like sewing rags and oven mitts from old, leftover fabrics, putting eye buttons on toys and crocheting small clothing articles like gloves and kid scarves.

Felicity had been observing her mother, who had been good with her hands, ever since before she could walk, and being the daughter of a tailor on one of her lives and the daughter of a seamstress on another, such work was not complicated even if she was only six years old. She used the money she earned to add onto the expenditures for her necessities and for maintaining the small cottage. She even occasionally sells some of the crops from the vegetable garden for extra income.

She continued on this routine, spending her days comfortably working, eating and sleeping, and before she could realize it, almost three years had passed.

The sun had not been completely out yet when she finished sweeping the front yard. After she wrapped up the yard duty, it was time to make breakfast. She whipped up what she always had, pancakes with honey, fried sunny-side up eggs and a refreshing glass of cucumber-water that she cooled off the brook for a whole night. She had Kenley fetch the container for her while she was sweeping. Training the dog to do menial tasks had been hard but it was worth every effort. Kenley was not only her companion but her partner as well.

After breakfast, Felicity went right to business. Yesterday, she got the pay from the ten pairs of oven mitts that the madam from the bakery ordered. It’s time to add that onto the money that she had been eagerly saving for the past four months.

“Seven hundred calcite coins, five hundred fluorite coins and a hundred apatite coins…” Felicity counted as she lay out the money on the table, setting aside the excess coins that didn’t add up to ten of each kind. “Geez, this kingdom uses such a tiring system of currency… Can’t they be like the Rosenite Kingdom who uses just two kinds of coins and five paper bills?” she complained for the millionth time under her breath as she started converting the money to apatite.

Giovanni Kingdom had eight types of coins used for currency – gypsum, calcite, fluorite, apatite, feldspar, quartz, topaz and corundum. Five gypsum coins make one calcite coin; two calcite coins make one fluorite coin, ten fluorite coins make one apatite coin, five apatite coins make one feldspar coin, two feldspar coins make one quartz coin, two quartz coins make one topaz coin and five topaz coins make one corundum coin.

Felicity’s savings amounted to a total of a hundred and eighty-five apatite coins. This made the corner of Felicity’s usually stiff lips to turn up on one corner. The price of the spellbook she had been saving for was exactly a hundred and eighty-five apatite coins.

With the corner-smile still plastered on her face, she picked up her mother’s ore card, tapped the stacked coins onto the face of the card and watched them disappear.

“Kenley, I’m gonna head out to the bookstore. Watch the house for me,” she said as she readied herself for the trip. Kenley gave two barks as response and Felicity directed a fierce blue-eyed glare at his direction. “What do you mean ‘No’? You don’t have a choice, I ain’t taking you,” she told him.

Felicity trained Kenley to be able to answer questions properly with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in order for her to decipher how much the dog could understand. One bark means yes, two barks means no.

Kenley responded with whimpers at his master’s words, went to her feet and stayed there as if begging to be taken to town as well.

“You know that a lot of shops don’t let dogs in; don’t be like that… I’ll buy you some beef jerky on the way home to make up for not taking you, okay?” Felicity told the still whimpering Kenley.

At the mention of beef jerky, the white dog conceded, getting up energetically with its tail wagging. He barked once.

“Sheesh, you little schemer… You just wanted extra snacks,” Felicity said with a hint of exasperation.

Kenley barked once again, happily pleading guilty to the accusation.

Shaking her head, Felicity went out of the cottage. Kenley also went out and watched his master lock the front door. He knew that he would be standing guard near the gate and thus made himself comfortable near the spot.

The trip to town was a short one, a ten-minute walk across the forest boundary and a five-minute walk uphill towards the road directly leading to the town entrance.

As soon as Felicity entered the vicinity, she was welcomed with scattered greetings.

“Out to town early, little Lissy? Want some bread?” came the voice of the baker from the window of the bakery’s rest area.

“Nah, I just ate breakfast. Are you taking your coffee break, Mr. Tom?” Felicity answered.

“Yea. Just finished with another set of dough, gotta leave ‘em a bit to rise,” Mr. Tom answered.

“Easy on the caffeine. You know your heart needs extra care,” Felicity reminded him.

“Yea, yea, I know, Lissy… Cut this old man a bit of slack… ‘Tis the first coffee cup I had for a whole week, a week I tell ya,” Mr. Tom replied with a hearty tone. “That reminds me, I’m outta that ginger tea your Mom made. Can you tell her to make some more? I just can’t drink the kind available in the market. Taste too strong… Your Mom make ‘em just right,” he added.

“Okay. I’ll bring over one bag as usual in three-day’s time,” Felicity answered.

“Lissy, can you bring one bag for me as well?” Ms. Sally from the flower shop interjected.

“Sure, but we need more time for another bag. Maybe in four days?” Felicity shouted in her direction.

“No problem, I can wait that long,” Ms. Sally shouted back and waved before going back to her shop.

“Where you going this early Lissy?” Mr. Harvey, the butcher asked as Felicity passed by him.

“To the bookstore. I finally got enough money to buy the book I want,” Felicity answered.

“Ahh, you’re such a bookworm. Books are mighty expensive. I’m surprised your Mom supports your buying of so many books,” Mr. Harvey commented.

“I’m her only daughter so she spoils me a lot,” Felicity said before waving goodbye and turning the corner towards her destination.

Felicity entered the bookstore with a tinkling of the shop bell attached at the very top of the door. “Morning Mr. Andersen,” she greeted.

An elderly man with rounded spectacles and a well-trimmed white beard sat at the counter arranging postcards. His face lifted towards Felicity and glowed into a grandfatherly smile upon her greeting.

“Ahh, look who we got visiting so early… Are you here to finally claim that spellbook you made me reserve for you?” he remarked.

“You know me so well…” Felicity said with a raise of her full, brown brows. She got the ore card out from her pocket. “A hundred and eighty-five apatite coins, paid in full,” she added proudly, placing the ore card on the counter.

“It took you four months to raise this much ei?” Mr. Andersen commented as he rung up the book.

“It should’ve been just three but I spent fifty apatite coins on buying a new crocheting set. Mom’s old hooks and needles are falling apart. It can’t be helped since we use crocheting to make more money…” Felicity told him.

“Yes, of course, your livelihood must come first,” Mr. Andersen said with an understanding nod. “Why is it that you are so fixated on spellbooks though? I doubt an eight-year-old like you have much need for such books,” he told her as he started wrapping up the purchased book.

“Let’s just say I’m reading in advance. After all, I might consider being an adventurer once I’m fully grown. It wouldn’t hurt for me to prepare for my future,” Felicity answered.

“Well, well, that sounds exciting,” Mr. Andersen commented. He recounted how many spellbooks he had sold to little Lissy since she started asking for them two years ago. There was that fairytale book on the foundation of mana, one on the basic theory of magic, a basic spellbook for mana control, one basic spellbook each for the water, fire and light attribute and an introduction to intermediary magic. This time, she bought a spellbook on intermediary magic control.

It might be a coincidence but the arrangement to which the books were purchased matched to that of the curriculum of academies providing magic education.

Mr. Andersen may seem like an ordinary old man but he was actually a retired mage, of low aristocratic status, a Baron of the Giovanni Kingdom who once served as a knight of the Emerald Legion. He found life in the capital too bustling for his retirement and thus left his mansion and assets to his heir and went to live in the countryside as a bookstore owner. He chose a town near the Acker Countdom for he was a friend of the current Duke’s deceased grandfather. It would be easy to get some help from a fellow aristocrat ifever he needs it.

Mr. Andersen had been acquainted with little Lissy ever since she was a wee three-year-old, passing by with that young pretty mother of hers and walking around town once a week or so. He had heard that Dalia, Felicity’s mother, fell ill two years ago and that’s why her young daughter goes to town in her stead to get a few handicraft jobs for additional income.

An ordinary person may look at little Felicity and see a good-looking, smart, level-headed young lady quite mature for her age but Mr. Andersen actually sees more than that. Somehow, the little lady posed a curious aura, as if she had been hiding much more than what the eye could see. He even suspected that her arrangement of buying magic-related books and its uncanny similarity to a magic facility’s curriculum might not be a mere coincidence.

“If I may ask, little Felicity… How old are you this year?” he asked as he wrapped the book properly.

“I just turned eight today,” Felicity answered.

“Goodness me, your birthday is today?” Mr. Andersen exclaimed. “You should have said so, child, then I would have given the book to you free of charge!”

Felicity gave a small laugh. “That sounds lovely, Mr. Andersen but you don’t have to do that… I like it more when I buy books from my own pocket. It makes me feel like I’ve earned it,” she told the old man.

“Why, that’s a very mature mindset but tell you what, I still want to give you something for your birthday,” Mr. Andersen said with his back disappearing for a while as he buried himself in a mountain of books behind the counter. “Ahh, there it is…” came his muffled voice after unearthing a particularly thick, hard-bound book.

“Here you go, I’ll give this one as your birthday present,” he said as he handed the book to the birthday girl.

Felicity took the book which was heavier than it looked and skimmed over the contents on the counter.

“Why, this is a geography book…” she murmured and scanned more pages. “With colored pictures even…” she added in surprise before looking up at the bookstore owner. “I can’t take this. This must cost a fortune,” she told him.

“Don’t worry, that one’s my personal property. It’s not for sale. An old man like me can’t travel so I indulge myself in learning about faraway places inside the pages of geography picture books… It’s time for it to have a new owner. I really want you to accept it,” the old man said good-naturedly.

“Are you sure, Mr. Andersen? It seemed to be quite precious to you though…” Felicity said, still hesitant at receiving the present.

“It is precious to me thus I want it to have a brand new purpose. What would be more honorable than being a birthday gift to a diligent girl like little Lissy… I know you’ll take good care of it for me…” Mr. Andersen answered.

“Gee, thanks Mr. Andersen… I’ll treasure this well…” Felicity finally conceded.

After Felicity’s parcels were packed for convenient travel, she donned the package strings over her shoulders like a backpack and went on her way home. She still had to dig up some ginger roots to make the tea bag orders she just got that morning.

“Dig up the ginger roots, clean, chop ‘em and dry under the sun. Then some lemons – do I still have lemons at home – yes I do… Prepare that for drying too… And mint, I still have plenty of mint… Do I have to grab something from the market?” she mentally asked herself.

Finally, she decided to buy more filter paper and thus went towards the town’s coffee shop.

Felicity’s birthday was turning out to be quite a busy day. “If I have some more time left over, I’ll get started on my new spellbook…” she told herself as a tingle of slow-burning anticipation blossomed over her chest.

~~~

Meanwhile, as Felicity got occupied with chores, the main house of the Acker Countdom was also in quite a busy whirl.

It was official. Finally, the Count would be returning for good after the six-year-long war with the Persius Empire and the scuffle with Rosenite Kingdom. He would be arriving in three-day’s time and thus everything in the Acker Countdom and its surrounding fiefs must be in perfect shape.

The Acker children found themselves in the middle of the fussy preparations and couldn’t help but be exasperated. They were fitted for new outfits to wear on the homecoming ceremony. As the preparations for the Count’s return had to be prioritized, their usual lessons were cancelled and they were made to stay and ‘behave’ in the sitting room as instructed by the Head Maid and Butler.

“Geez, is this so-called ‘preparation’ really necessary? It’s just Father going back home,” Hazel, the second-eldest and the only girl among the five children, grumbled in complaint.

“This time is different of course… He would be staying for good,” her twin brother, Liam, older by five minutes thus earning the title of first-born, interjected as he placed a single sugar cube in his cup of tea.

“You don’t seem to be glad that Father is returning,” Ryder, the second-born and only one without a twin told his sister as he rolled to his back and laid spread-eagled on the carpet.

“Sure I am… But I hate this much fussing… You don’t know it because you’re all boys but getting dresses fitted is about two hundred and ninety-nine times more tiring than having measurements taken for men’s formal suits. There’s also shoes with heels and hair ornaments and jewelries and make up – augh! You guys will never understand the agony I go through. Why do I have to be born as a girl?” Hazel complained and flopped belly-first onto the soft sofa cushion.

“It’s alright, Haize. You don’t look like a girl anyway,” Chase, one of the youngest identical twins said with a grin.

“Gasp! Aren’t all five of us boys?” Carter, the other twin added and turned a fake surprised face at his sister. “Haize, you were a girl all this time?”

“Ha ha ha, very funny…” Hazel said as she rolled her eyes. She sighed afterwards. “It wouldn’t be this hard for me if there’s another girl in the family. If only Mom had another daughter before she died…” she commented and directed a glare at Chase and Carter. “In place of an adorable little sister, she had to leave these things behind,” she added.

“Well, you just have to live with what the gods gave you, older sis…” Chase replied with a nonchalant shrug. Neither he nor Chase were hurt nor offended by their sister’s words. Apparently, that was the normal way the Acker siblings treat each other.

“Anyways, I’m bored,” Carter announced. “Can’t we play a game or something?”

Liam took a look at the grandfather clock at the corner of the room. “It’s just almost one. With the lessons out of the way, we have a lot of free time in our hands,” he commented.

“In that case, I might have something that could entertain us until dinnertime…” Ryder suddenly said with an air of mystery.

His siblings recognized the cheekiness in his tone and quickly gave him their full attention.

“What do you have for us this time, oh Ryder, master of mischief?” Liam remarked with a grin.

Among the five children, Ryder had the most rebellious personality. Unlike his siblings, he did not share a womb with a twin brother or sister. As he witnessed his siblings grow up, he realized that there was some sort of special bond between the two sets of twins that somehow separates him from them.

Because he had no ‘buddy’, he had always felt more alone compared to his siblings and thus made up for that feeling of emptiness by going on his own little adventures. Those included skipping lessons to make his own ‘base’ somewhere inside the Countdom’s properties, visiting the lush greeneries surrounding the main house and pretending that it was an undiscovered forest, and sneaking off into town to sightsee and make the people in the house lose their minds trying to find him.

Later on, his siblings caught his sense of mischief and they asked him to let them in on his adventures. He happily agreed and from then on, Ryder felt a sense of obligation to always find something interesting to share with his siblings. Their latest mission up to date was only last week – a reconnaissance mission to explore the attic of the Emerald Mansion which was the oldest building in the whole Countdom, even older than Sapphire Mansion which served as the main house.

With a mysterious cheeky smirk, Ryder rose up from the cozy carpeted floor and went to fetch something from their play room next door. When he went back, he was holding a cylindrical ancient-looking receptacle that was as long as his own arm.

“Have a look at this thing I found in the attic last week,” he said as he sat down on the carpet and started opening the container. His siblings huddled around him and watched with curiosity.

The object inside the receptacle was a long, rolled-up piece of parchment paper. It was quite yellowed in the edges thus emphasizing that it’s very old. Ryder flattened it up on the floor for everyone to see and the two sets of twins leaned in for a closer look.

“Why, it’s only a map of the Countdom… What’s so exciting about it?” Hazel commented.

“No, no, no… That’s not it,” Liam suddenly said and pushed his twin sister aside to sit closer to the parchment. He scanned the whole thing and finally found what he was looking for. “It’s a map of the Countdom from fifteen years ago,” he said, pointing at the year at one corner of the map.

“And so?” Chase and Carter said, tilting their identical blonde heads to the side.

“I still can’t see the excitement in that…” Carter added.

“Me too…” Chase seconded.

“Me three…” Hazel agreed.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk… They’re still novice adventurers Brother Liam… Can you please enlighten these blockheads for me?” Ryder said as he met his older brother’s silver eyes which were already twinkling in anticipation.

Liam got up and procured a current map of their Countdom. He placed it right next to the old map.

“Look carefully and compare the two maps,” Liam told Hazel and the identical twins.

The three did as they were told and finally got what their brothers were trying to say.

“Whoa, it’s different,” Hazel remarked in surprise.

“Of course it’ll be different. A lot of things happened in fifteen years, there would’ve been a lot of renovations and stuff…” Ryder said matter-of-factly. He pointed at one area of the old map. “Like in here for example… There was a pond right in front of Emerald Mansion before…”

“There’s a flower path there now and a labyrinth of rose shrubs,” Carter commented.

“Hey look! There was a greenhouse before where the observatory stands now,” Chase pointed out.

As the siblings started discovering the differences between the two maps one by one, Ryder could not hold his tongue anymore and pointed out his own discovery.

“Those minor things aren’t really very exciting but look at this part of the map,” Ryder said, making his siblings pay attention to where his index finger pointed. He was pointing at the very boundary of the Countdom’s properties. What they saw made their eyes widen.

“The boundary of the Countdom was supposed to be the land where Ruby Mansion is located… What’s that extra building at the far west?” Liam murmured, quite confused.

“Right? The Acker’s lands were only up to there, but the old map said that there’s another mansion at the very west end of the Countdom,” Ryder remarked in an excited tone.

“Opal Mansion,” the youngest twins read the label under the said building.

“Maybe it was demolished?” Hazel suggested.

“I thought so as well…” Ryder said with a nod. “But I went to Ruby Mansion yesterday and went up the rooftop. Then I used a telescope to scan the area where that Opal Mansion stood and I saw its roof,” he told them and smirked. “It’s still intact,” he declared.

“Whoa,” Chase and Carter breathed out in unison then looked at each other with their silver eyes widening.

An idea struck Liam and he looked at his younger brother with an eyebrow raised. “Hey, Ryde, you don’t mean to say… that for today’s adventure…”

Hazel got the hint in that and gave a delighted gasp.

“Exactly,” Ryder told his siblings and smirked devilishly. “Don’t you think it’ll be fun to sneak out and go exploring there?”