During the long winter, Shel taught Hilna a lot of magic.

None of it was overwhelming, domineering attack spells though; most of it leaned toward everyday use.

Besides simple divination and fortune-telling, there were spells that let her read subtle shifts in other people’s emotions, spells that could suppress wounds and ease pain, spells that made others feel respect and awe through her words, spells that restored clarity to confused minds, spells that let her hear the whispers of the dead…

On the surface these spells looked ordinary, even a bit plain, but they were all high-level fate-type magic.

Because compared to simple destruction and blasting things apart, these demanded far more patience and self-control from the caster.

Hilna thought they were kind of boring, but it was still Teacher Charles’ training plan. So she studied them properly, went through each one carefully, and managed to master them all.

Shel was very satisfied with her performance.

When the ice and snow melted, when the frozen rivers started flowing again, when fresh green buds appeared amid the dark green forests, when muddy roads hardened over once more, and farmers could be seen in the fields preparing for spring plowing—that was when spring finally arrived in Ipoli.

Shel borrowed a sturdy, spacious carriage from the king. He repainted the coachwork, hung a crest bearing the name “Hilna von Ipoli” on the side, and hitched up two of the tallest, strongest horses.

Once everything was ready, he took the reins, and with Lofna and Hilna aboard, they began their tour of Ipoli.

“This is training for you, Hilna. We’ll be going back and forth between the towns and manors of Ipoli. I want you to learn how to deal with those lords and nobles. Use the spells I taught you over the winter to solve their problems, and earn their admiration and allegiance.”

Originally, Lofna didn’t have to come along. But she didn’t want to miss out on the journey’s “adventures,” and she also wanted to broaden her horizons by staying at Teacher Charles’ side. Hilna, too, wanted her big sister with her.

As always, Shel didn’t want to disappoint the two kids, so he granted their request.

Their first commission came in a small town where they stopped to rest: helping a plump lady of a manor find her lost ring.

On paper, it looked very simple.

Hilna used the divination Shel had only just taught her over the winter. She held her breath, focused, and when she opened her eyes again, she’d already seen where the ring was.

It turned out the lady’s maid had been careless. While attending her mistress in the bath, she’d accidentally swept the ring the lady had casually taken off into the gap under the wardrobe. It had rolled along the cracks in the bathroom floor and ended up in a dusty corner underneath the house.

Hilna found the ring and explained how it had gone missing. As expected, she won the manor lady’s heartfelt gratitude.

But then the woman turned right around and furiously scolded the maid who’d made the mistake. She ignored the girl’s desperate pleading and kicked her out of the house on the spot.

From start to finish, Shel didn’t say a word.

After they left the manor, a gloomy Hilna sat in the carriage and turned to him.

“Teacher Charles, I don’t think I did very well today… Did I get that maid in trouble?”

“You had a lot of options, Hilna. You could’ve told a little lie at the start and said she only lost the ring by accident, that it had nothing to do with anyone else. You could’ve spoken up for the maid when she was being scolded. You could’ve gone to comfort her after she was thrown out and given her some charity in exchange for her gratitude. Or you could do what you did now—stay out of it completely… It’s all up to you.

“After all, your status and your power put you firmly above them. Any casual decision you make can change someone’s whole life. So you have to be very, very careful with what you do and say.”

Hilna made a small sound of acknowledgment, as if she’d just understood something.

Soon, they ran into a second challenge.

Farmers from two villages, led by their respective local officials, were lined up on either side of a small stream, brandishing farm tools and shouting insults at each other, ready to explode into a full-blown brawl over the right to divert the water.

Fights like this broke out every spring when the plowing began. People were used to it by now.

When the farmers in the standoff saw Shel’s carriage and recognized the royal crest on it, they rushed over to block the road, clamoring over each other as they begged Shel to judge fairly for them.

The two town heads were both staunch loyalists of House Ipoli.

Facing two sides who both had their own reasons and refused to back down, Hilna was at a loss again.

This time, Shel didn’t stay out of it. Instead, he told Hilna exactly what to do.

First, he had her use elemental magic to gather the light element into a radiance that formed the holy emblem of the Church, glittering high above everyone’s heads. This flashy, grand miracle of magic cowed both sides.

Then he set up a makeshift court by the river with great ceremony. He had Hilna stand on a dirt mound as the arbiter, listening patiently as both sides spoke, soothing their conflict with her words.

When she answered the villagers’ demands, she had to mix in her own low, magic-laced whispers, calming the hotheads and reining in their emotions.

In the end, after a long, drawn-out round of arguments and shouting, the villagers from both sides finally cooled down and agreed to accept Hilna’s proposed water-sharing plan.

Later, as she thought over her choice again, Hilna still felt uneasy.

“Teacher, my judgment today really wasn’t fair. They both had their own reasons. All I could do was give a distribution plan that looked fair on the surface and rely on the magic in my words to make them accept it. I didn’t actually solve anything.”

Shel said, “That’s your second lesson. Hilna, when something touches on people’s core interests, there usually isn’t any absolute right or wrong. For both sides, whoever wins the water can farm better and fill their stomachs. That’s all that matters to them.

“As a judge, no matter how you split the benefits, you’re going to upset someone. At times like that, the point isn’t to pursue justice or fairness. It’s how to make people obey your decision, and how to stop the conflict from escalating.

“You can use religious authority to cow them. You can drag things out with long procedures until their patience runs dry. You can use magic-laced words to push them toward compromise… Whatever it takes to keep their resentment from turning toward you, and to keep their conflict from blowing up. Stirring the pot and smoothing it over—that’s something every ruler has to learn.”

Hilna nodded. “I understand, Teacher.”

So they drove on.

The third task Shel gave Hilna was to help the old priest of the Ipoli Church repair the chapel and attract new believers.

The Ipoli Church owned its own land and manor, which were usually managed by several of the priest’s assistants.

The harvest from those lands, plus donations from the faithful, made up the Church’s income.

But that was only enough for day-to-day expenses. The priest wanted to expand the chapel and bring in more believers, and for that he needed help.

So, under Shel’s guidance, Hilna used magic to create enough wood and bricks as building materials. She helped Shel paint a solemn, imposing mural on the chapel walls. During the priest’s mass and sermon, she used fate-type magic to stir the hearts of the congregation, making them more moved, more willing to donate generously.

After all of this, the priest looked at the donation box and was smiling so wide he could barely close his mouth. He praised Hilna again and again as “the Saintess bestowed upon Ipoli by the Eternal God.”

He even stood before all the believers and lauded her at length.

After a whole day of this, Hilna felt like she’d done nothing but boring chores. She’d had to act polite and dignified with all those adults putting on airs all day. It was exhausting and annoying.

“Hilna, winning over religious figures who hold the power to speak is important. You need to build a mutually beneficial relationship with them. With all these clergy who go around preaching every day, your name can spread far and wide.

“And later, when you need help, you’ll be able to rely on them to win over commoners and believers.”

…

The jobs that followed were all similar.

At a banquet held by a big landowner, she offered prayers for peace to him and his wife.

At the bedside of a respected old lord, she used magic to grant him a moment of calm.

At the entrance of a village, she set up a makeshift stand that handed out drinks, bought old grain, and used magic to brew huge batches of cheap, filling liquor for the farmers who toiled all day.

She even had to leave Ipoli and visit neighboring countries, meeting foreign nobles and building connections with them.

Lofna was a little disappointed. She’d thought that by traveling with Teacher Charles, she’d get to see all kinds of exciting things, just like the stories in that book, The Marvelous Adventures of Witch Lofna:

Running into a forest spirit that granted wishes, discovering treasure abandoned by some ancient explorer in a cave, taking down a vicious, cruel landlord, or defeating humanoid monsters guarding a castle manor…

None of that happened.

Shel just led them around doing ordinary social calls, dealing with hypocritical, polite adults, taking on commissions that felt more like daily chores, and handing out small favors to people at the bottom…

Boring, and ordinary.

Shel noticed her disappointment and explained, “Lofna, this is what everyday life looks like for most people in times of peace. There aren’t many surprises or shocks. But it’s in these daily interactions that relationships are built. Trust and reverence grow from there. Then, when you really run into danger, people will answer your call.”

“But it’s just so boring.”

Lofna wasn’t just bored by the chores themselves. In the middle of all this trivial everyday stuff, she, as an ordinary girl, couldn’t really do anything at all. She could only wait on the sidelines, restless and useless.

She was used to being the one who couldn’t help, but it was still hard to bear.

She couldn’t help asking, “Teacher, have you really never had any truly interesting adventures? If all you ever did were these normal chores, how did you come up with so many fun stories?”

Shel hesitated for a moment, then answered:

“A lot of those stories, I heard from other people. I’ve never gone through fairy-tale adventures myself, but I do really like those stories. That’s why I edited them into picture books, so you and Hilna could read them. But I have gone through some… very challenging adventures.”

“What kind of adventures?” Lofna and Hilna both perked up.

Shel didn’t really like talking about his past. The girls only knew a vague outline: a mysterious Mage who’d awakened his magic by accident, wandered for a long time, then settled in Ipoli.

Not just the two of them—many residents of Ipoli had guessed at his origins.

Everyone felt that someone as young as Shel, yet so learned and refined, with such calm, steady ways, had to be from some ancient, wealthy noble family.

Maybe he’d even been raised as an heir to a title since he was small, until disaster struck his family and he was forced to carry some grand feud on his back, leave his homeland, and drift all the way to Ipoli.

“All those rumors are fake. I’m just an ordinary person. Ever since I came to this world, most of my memories have been hazy. I don’t even remember who my parents are. Most of my magic and knowledge is self-taught.”

Everything he said was true.

“Before I came to Ipoli, I crossed more than half the continent. On the way, I did run into adventures you two can’t even imagine. But they weren’t fun. Adventure means danger. A lot of people showed me completely baseless malice and didn’t treat me like a human being at all. Only with luck, hard work, and the help of divination did I dodge death time and again and make it here to Ipoli.

“So to me, being able to live like this—with only normal human interactions, without having to bet my life every day—is already pretty great. Lofna, those adventure stories are fine to read, but don’t let them give you unrealistic expectations about real-life ‘adventures.’ You have to know the difference between fiction and reality.”

As he spoke, Shel lifted his shirt, baring the crisscrossing scars running from his abdomen up to his chest.

“These are what those adventures left me: lunatics who wanted to stab me just because, cultists who tried to dig out my organs, mountain bandits who liked eating people… Dealing with that is not a good thing.”

The two girls stared at the horrible scars, a little shaken.

Once they got used to the sight though, their attention shifted to Teacher Charles’ abs and the pale skin he usually kept hidden under his clothes.

Both girls’ eyes went wide as they tried to burn the image into their memories.

Lofna’s mind even started to wander: those wounds looked pretty serious. If she lightly brushed against one of them… what would Teacher Charles feel?

If I rested my head on him… would something… happen?

The moment that thought popped up, she shook her head hard, as if she could rattle that dirty idea right out of her skull.

But after all that shaking, she happened to catch sight of her younger sister, whose face was just as red, ears and all. She even seemed to be swallowing nervously—whatever was running through Hilna’s mind was probably even filthier.

The two girls met each other’s eyes, then both lowered their heads at the exact same time, praying Teacher Charles hadn’t noticed their little slip.

Shel really hadn’t paid them much mind.

He was thinking about something else right now.

After all the running around these past few days, Hilna’s name had indeed grown louder and louder.

The nobles around Ipoli were all deeply impressed by this extraordinarily gifted girl Mage. Many older, distinguished lords treated this young girl with genuine respect.

Hilna herself was skilled at dealing with people. With all those strange and wonderful spells backing her up, she picked up the ways of the world incredibly fast while traveling with Shel.

When she stood in the center of everyone’s attention and calmly showed off her talents, that inborn, noble air she carried really did make people accept her from the bottom of their hearts.

Shel was convinced Hilna had the talent to become a ruler.

For the future her, playing at politics and pulling the strings of people’s hearts should be easy.

And judging from the calm reason and gentle nature she was showing now, she seemed like someone who held goodwill in her heart, someone who knew her limits and her bottom line.

During her growth, Shel had never put any pressure or malice on her. He’d protected her carefully all along.

I should’ve taught Hilna well.

I should be able to raise her into a proper queen.

That was what he thought.