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Chapter 6
I wrote <Preparation for Independence> largely on a piece of paper and thought about the things needed for it.
“First of all, the most important thing is money.”
Without money, nothing can be done.
Buying food or finding a place to sleep wasn’t possible.
Even when moving somewhere, money was necessary.
“Of course, money isn’t everything.
It’s easy to be taken advantage of if I don’t have knowledge and power.”
Money wasn’t the only thing that mattered.
In fact, ‘only’ possessing money posed a danger because there was a risk of falling victim to scams or having money stolen by robbers.
Even on this planet where they claimed to have good public security, crime was still prevalent, but this place was even a hierarchical society and a fantasy world with demons and magic.
‘Sylvia’s memories don’t help much when it comes to standing on my own outside.
She has never left the aristocratic residential area nor has she ever bargained when buying things.’
Sylvia was a typical caged young lady from a noble family.
Her memories from the five years, which she had left behind, were useful in their own way, but they didn’t provide much help when it came to leaving this mansion.
I let out a small sigh and continued to write my plan on the paper.
‘I need to gather some funds for independence and collect information as well.
I don’t want to start from scratch.’
And most importantly…
‘I need to become stronger and gain power.’
In order to stand against criminals targeting me or to deal with the swarming demons outside the city, it was necessary.
And I also needed the power that would allow me to do what I wanted and keep others from forcing me into anything.
‘Fortunately, Sylvia has that power.’
To be more precise, she had the ‘potential’ to gain that power.
“Still, it’s worth trying enough.”
I got up with a creak to unleash and bloom that potential.
“Ugh!”
My whole body felt as if it had been beaten.
Seriously, was it because I’d just moved a bit today?
‘It’s really a frustrating body.’
I rubbed my stiff limbs as if my blood wasn’t circulating properly.
After my blood circulation improved, and my once-hard muscles became soft, I released my hand.
I closed my eyes and recalled Sylvia’s memories.
She was a spiritualist.
Not now, but in five years, she would be.
Of course, she wasn’t an outstanding spiritualist, but a run-of-the-mill one with average talents that were nothing incomparable to her younger sister Eileen, who was called the Genius.
Still, being a spiritualist itself was rare, so even with her average talent, Sylvia was able to enroll in a prestigious academy, the Central Academy, where only the geniuses of the continent gathered.
If Sylvia was not a spiritualist, she wouldn’t have even dreamed of it.
‘Perhaps it would have been better if she wasn’t a spiritualist and couldn’t go to the academy.’
The Duke’s despised ugly daughter discovered that she was well-suited for a career as a spiritualist and enrolled in the Central Academy.
Nobody expected it to happen.
As she received admiration from others, Sylvia grew haughty because she finally had something to be proud of, after always being compared to her more successful siblings.
It would have been great if she only felt proud, but Sylvia’s euphoria led her to commit all sorts of misdeeds.
Harassing the servants was just the beginning.
She received disciplinary punishment for tormenting the children from minor noble families and also commoner students, and even for trying to screw up her younger sister Eileen, who was admitted earlier than her, with dirty tricks only to backfire on her.
As such things continued, it wasn’t even a year after enrolling that Sylvia had no one around her.
No friends and no one to talk to.
People didn’t even want to approach her due to her infamous reputation, which included not only the students and the servants but even the professors who taught her.
‘I didn’t do those things, but why do I feel ashamed?’
When I recalled the memories at the academy, my face flushed, so I quickly thought of something else.
‘There are countless things that even a low-ranking spiritualist can do.’
Sylvia caused many misdeeds at the academy, but she didn’t gain absolutely nothing.
Although her progress was slow due to her lack of practice, Sylvia would become a low-ranking spiritualist after five years.
A low-ranking spiritualist was at a level where they could do their fair share.
It might be difficult to get a job at the royal court, but it was possible to join mercenaries or noble families, so living in this world as a low-ranking spiritualist would be fairly good and acceptable.
‘Of course, it would be nice to achieve a higher rank, though.’
However, even reaching the low-ranking spiritualist was possible only after five years; Sylvia right now wasn’t even able to summon the lowest-ranking spirit.
In order to control spirits, the first thing to do was ‘awakening.’ After collecting enough natural energy within oneself, an individual could ‘awaken’ and achieve the status of a true spiritualist.
In my memories, Sylvia awakened and became a spiritualist when she was seventeen years old.
‘That was also possible because she was lucky.’
Envious of her sister Eileen, Sylvia wanted to become a mage and somehow found a way, which led her to awaken by chance.
‘But I can’t just sit and wait for the lucky opportunity that will come in two years.’
Fortunately, I had the memories of the past five years.
Most of them were Sylvia’s embarrassing misdeeds, but a few useful things were among them.
One of them was ‘mana breathing.’ The most basic skill for mages––no, it was difficult to label as a skill either since it was literally nothing more than just breathing.
“Hah, whoosh––”
Taking a deep breath, I absorbed the natural energy.
This energy drawn into the body turned into mana as it passed through the heart.
By gathering mana through mana breathing, ‘awakening’ could be achieved much faster.
At least, more than half the time could be reduced.
I began mana breathing.
A familiar yet awkward sensation spread throughout my body––the feeling of natural energy transforming into mana and flowing through within me.
It was familiar because I had experienced this feeling before, but awkward since it was my first time actually experiencing it.
“Eh?”
As I moved mana, a strange thing occurred.
‘Is it supposed to be like this?’
The sensation of the mana moving was excessively vivid, which felt like it was examining the inside of my body with a microscopic camera.
In my memories, Sylvia’s mana breathing didn’t feel something like this, which raised some questions, but it didn’t seem like a bad thing, so I continued with my mana breathing.
Being able to examine the body was a fascinating experience.
But the fascination was short-lived.
‘This is serious.’
Sylvia’s physical condition was dire, causing me to sigh.
As someone who enjoyed greasy food, engaged in binge eating when annoyed, and never exercised, her health was bound to be poor.
‘But this is too severe.’
Everywhere in the body, the blood vessels were nearly half-clogged with waste.
The reason she felt dizzy when trying to move her body properly and why her limbs easily became numb were due to this issue.
If left untreated this way, this body would undoubtedly continue to hurt.
‘I think I need to do something about this…’
I pondered for a moment and changed the form of mana.
It was to sharpen the end of it to scrape off the waste gently, like using a toothpick.
At first, it didn’t work well, but as I continued to focus, I eventually succeeded.
“Phew.”
Maybe because I had become so absorbed in the process, sweat streamed down my face.
‘Is it because I removed all the waste from the body?
I feel refreshed.’
I finished my mana breathing and opened my eyes in a good mood.
But…
“Eh?”
Before I started mana breathing, the sun was still up, but now, outside the window was pitch black.
“Has it been that long?”
It seemed like only a few minutes had passed, but I might have been too focused on mana breathing to notice the passage of time.
“I better wash up and go to bed.”
I stood up to wash off my sweaty body, but then––
Thud- A thick, murky liquid that was half-solidified oozed from her body and fell to the floor.
“What?!”
Startled, she looked down at her body and saw the same murky liquid clinging to her skin.
Could it be…?
Splat––
A thick, murky liquid that was half-solidified oozed from my body and fell to the floor.
“What?!”
Startled, I looked down at my body and found the same murky liquid adhering to every inch of my skin.
No way…
“Did this come out of my body?”
It wasn’t dead skin, then what was this?!
Amid the shock, I suddenly remembered the information Sylvia had read in a book before.
<Those who can freely control mana accumulated over a long time through mana breathing will have their murky energies cleansed and fill their bodies with pure energies, allowing them to be in harmony with nature.>
If that part of the book was correct, then this viscous liquid was definitely all the murky energy, in other words, the waste that had been inside Sylvia’s body. This chapter was copied from novelping dot com without permission.
“But the book clearly said only those who have accumulated mana over a long time can do this.
This is my first time, though?”
What was going on?
I frowned and tried to figure out what on earth had happened.
But those worries didn’t last long.
“I’ll think about that later, for now, I need to wash up.”
The stench from the waste-like liquid was too strong.
It smelled like rotting food that had been left out for days––a horrible smell.
“I must wash my body thoroughly during the bath.
Otherwise, the stench won’t go away.”
Determined to lather away the smell with soap, I reached for the bell pull next to the bed.
However, no matter how long I waited, nobody came, even when a maid should have come to attend to me immediately when I pulled it.
When I first entered the west wing, I couldn’t help but notice the emptiness and absence of any signs of human presence, so it did make me wonder if there was nobody around.
But seriously, there might be someone here, no?
“What should I do?
Should I go down and look for someone?
But the west wing was bigger than I thought…”
While I was hesitating, I heard someone quickly walking outside toward this place.
The footsteps came closer and stopped near the door.
Knock knock!
“Come in.”
“Did you call for me, my lady?”
Belle entered the room and greeted me.
Her face was red, and she was breathing heavily as if she had hurried.
Feeling a tinge of sympathy for her, I was about to give her a moment to catch her breath––until I noticed a sudden change in Belle’s expression.
‘What’s the matter with her?’
Unable to understand, I tilted my head in wonder, then when I saw Belle desperately covering her nose, I realized the reason.
‘Ah… the smell is that bad.
Even Belle, who is usually scared of me, is openly pinching her nose.’
I should hurry washing up.
“Can you prepare a bath for me?”
Belle vigorously nodded and hurriedly left the room.
Her attitude couldn’t hide her desire to get out of the room as soon as possible.
“Is it really that bad?”
Sniff sniff.
I lifted my arm to smell it.
And then…
“Ew!”
I regretted it.
There was a sound reason Belle had fled the room.
***
I went into the bathroom that Belle had prepared and took a bath.
I was exhausted, using all my strength to wipe away the waste, but my body felt cleaner and smoother than before, which made me happy.
‘Wait a moment.
It’s not just a feeling.’
Sylvia’s skin was fair.
However, due to her skin condition, the body was covered in uneven colors and hives, so the fair complexion didn’t show.
But now, at a glance, the skin looked smooth and clean.
The red hives had disappeared without a trace.
“Can you bring me a mirror?”
Belle hesitated at my request but didn’t question it with astonishment like she had in the morning.
She soon brought a mirror, and I looked at it.
The moment I saw my reflection, I couldn’t help but shout in excitement, “Awesome!”
I had no choice but to react that way.
The skin had become as smooth and clean as a baby’s, and I had even lost weight.
All because of practicing some mana breathing!