Mischievous Alice: The Eyes Of Hermes

After earning 90 million gil in a night, the family decided to, finally, renovate their house. Cygnus hired many helpers for the renovation while Aquila offered their old servants to come back to the mansion. Since the house started to decline a few years back, they regrettably had to reduce their servants until they only had a few left. It was all thanks to Alice who gave half of the earnings to her mother and father. Her parents tried to refuse since it was hers to begin with so she offered them to use the money for renovations and other household stuffs since they'll all benefit from it. Her parents couldn't decline more, so they did as she suggested.

It will take a couple of weeks for the whole mansion to be fully renovated. Hiring magicians to help the construction will be too costly so they settled with physical workers instead. While their house restoration is in place, Aquila thought of hiring a tutor for Alice since she's already three, to teach her magic and other academic stuff like Alex before going to school once she's seven. And so Aquila went and looked for the best tutor for Alice. There, she found "Anne", a cute girl in her 20s who just graduated from the mage's academy with flying colors. She had a small face, brown eyes, and dark green hair in pigtails. She wore a green dress that matches with her hair with reddish brown ribbons on top and covered herself with a dark green cloak and a mage's hat for her head. After a few talks and negotiations, she hired her to be her daughter's tutor.

On the next day, Anne came to the Caeles mansion and began their lesson.

"Hmm… so you're little Alice? How cute you are!", she said with a face of amazement when she finally saw Aquila's daughter. She didn't realize she was already staring at the small child who stared back at her.

"Hey! Its rude to stare!", Alex reprimanded her.

"Ohh ~ ...this must be your older brother? Alex was it?" she replied turning to Alex. "What an overprotective little brother. Hahahahaha! Don't worry sweetie, I won't harm your sister. She's so adorable! How could I?"

Alice stepped closer to Anne. And with all the excitement, she asked, "So..you're gonna teach me magic?"

Anne smiled widely and nodded. "Yes!" Lifting her forefinger she continued, "But before that, I need to teach you how to read and write first. You need to be able to read books and magical scrolls and grimoires for you to understand them and absorb its knowledge. Okay?"

"Can't we skip that?", Alice pouted and her face became more adorably cute.

"Aww~ no, stop… don't use that on me" Anne exaggeratedly looked away from Alice for she was being tempted.

"Pretty pleeease?"

"B-b-but… you need to know how to.."

"Its okay, I already know how to read and write! I've already read all the books in our library."

"What?!" Alex and Anne chorused then, looked at each other in disbelief.

"It's true. I can demonstrate if you want."

And so, Alice demonstrated her skills. Anne couldn't believe what she saw. How could a 3 year old teach herself how to read and write? Alex thought he never knew his sister.

"So that's why you can already speak fluently without, you know, jumbling words or mispronouncing them."

"Yes!"

~ Monologue ~

Yes and yes. After arriving in this world and realizing the situation I'm in, of course, what I need to do most is to gain knowledge of this world. So, as soon as this little body of mine learned to walk, I've been sneaking out to the library to read books. At first, I thought it would be impossible for me since duh, this is a whole new planet, whom may have a whole lot of languages and writings I never knew but luckily...or more accurate to say, for some reason, I can understand them. As soon as I opened a book, the weird characters in front of me doesn't look weird anymore and I was able to comprehend them and read them!. That's where I learned most of my knowledge so far along with this planet's history, civilization, monarchy, etc. The maid's gossip helped but books gave facts. So I made it a habit to read, plus, I love reading.

But there were things that I couldn't get from a book. And that is the practice of magic. I've watched and watched and tried chanting the words same as my current father and mother whenever I watch them, and my brother too. But for some reason, nothing happens. So right now, I'm really excited to learn magic! So please Anne, I know I may look like a kid now but we're actually at the same age group! So pleeeeaseee.. Teach me magic!

~ End of Monologue ~

"Okay, given that fact, I'll skip the reading and writing part." she said as she sighed. "Then, off we go! Let's learn some magic!"

"Yes! Finally!" Alice thought.

The three went to the backyard since they needed a vacant place to try various things out. Alex went along with them to help her beloved sister.

"So Alice, since you've read a lot of books, are you familiar with the different elements?"

"Yes!"

"Can you cite them for me?"

"Yes!" Alice answered excitedly. "The four main elements of magic are fire, water, wind, and earth. The sub elements are ice, wood, metal, sand, and thunder. We also have non elemental magic known as void. And there are celestial magic which are the strongest, known as light and dark magic. And there was also ...what was that again… time and space? Ah! Aether! Yeah, it was named like that. And there's currently a debate around it if it should be under the "void" category or "celestial" since its non elemental but is as powerful as light and dark magic. Or maybe have it own category?"

"Woooow...you really know a lot. And that's all correct!" Anne replied. "In that case, let's begin."

She drew out twelve crystal orbs with different colors each representing each elements and non elements mentioned.

"What you need to do is touch each of these orbs one by one and whichever lights up or reacts to your touch is the type of magic you have an affinity for."

"Got it."

"Okay. Then let's start with fire."

Alice touched the red orbs but nothing happened.

"Then, water."

She then, touched the blue orbs but nothing happened.

"Wind"

She touched the green orb next but still no reaction.

"Earth"

It was the brown one. No reaction.

"Ice"

The silvery blue one and no reaction. Alice was beginning to lose hope.

"Am I not...capable of magic?"

"Wood ...metal ...sand… thunder...."

And she touched the dark green, dark silver, light brown, and light yellow orbs in that sequence. Unfortunately none of them reacted.

"Light and dark?" Anne's voice is starting to whimper.

It was the golden yellow orb and bright violet orb. But still, nothing happened.

Alice was so sad now. All that's left is void, a non elemental magic ...basically, not magic at all but a physical skill instead and requires no mana.

"Hey, Alice. Don't be so sad. Maybe your magic hasn't developed yet." Alex tried to comfort her little sister.

Anne began to feel sad for her as well. But she had to continue. "Would you like to try the last one?"

This time, it was an onyx black orb with a few specs of golden dust. Alice reached out her tiny hands and as she got closer and closer, the black orb started shining.

The moment her hands grasped the orb, it started reacting too violently. It kept on vibrating as if something was boiling inside.

It also glowed a mixture of dark and golden lights, too bright that it enlightened the whole backyard in broad daylight.

Then after a few seconds, the black orb couldn't take it and eventually...

Crack...crack ...BOOHOOGGSSSHHHHHHH!!!!

The black orb exploded. Nothing was left of it except for dust.