Chapter 30: A storm on the horizon
The rest of the day continued in a similar way to how the morning had started. In addition to helping her with her every need, Bessie continued to instruct Dahlia on how to use her magic. The lessons didn't become too advanced considering Dahlia was a beginner, couldn't see Bessie demonstrate, and couldn't even practise anything other than cantrips until she got her schema.
However, while the lessons never became advanced, they certainly were thorough. With so much time on her hands and so much excitement built up for learning magic, Dahlia barraged the maid with never ending questions. Plenty of the more technical ones Bessie couldn't answer, but she always tried her best. Seeing the enthusiasm of her mistress brought a smile to her face and she happily supplied her with every drop of knowledge she could muster.
They had stayed true to Bessie's original plan and focussed purely on defensive and mobility based spells. Bessie would explain how she would make a literal 'barrier' reef as a shield, wall, or alternative form of cover, or how she might propel herself forward by rapidly growing coral beneath her feet. Then, they would spend time finding the best ways to adapt that to Dahlia's aspect.
The process ended up being a fairly enjoyable back and forth where they would throw ideas around until something finally seemed good. On quite a few occasions, Dahlia even pointed out how things Bessie was doing could be made better. Despite taking a blow to her pride because of it, the maid typically enjoyed those moments quite a bit and seeing the analytical side of Dahlia's mind was a glorious thing to behold.
Issues really only began forming when Dahlia would ask theory or physics based questions. 'How much mana does this require?' 'How rapidly do you need to form this for it to have the proper force and density?' So on and so forth. One of the biggest examples was for the case where Bessie suggested propelling yourself forward by rapidly growing things beneath your feet.
The big question on Dahlia's mind was, with the amount of force needed to throw yourself in the way she described, how are you not breaking your feet or legs? It was a very valid question! There were tall tales of casters doing impossible feats, and clearly magic had a supporting role in that, but there were always things that confused her.
How are the casters seeming to defy certain forces? There are stories of people digging their feet into the ground and, after a bit of sliding backwards, they'd manage to stop an earth shattering attack. How??? If anything, the pressure of that brutal attack would become even higher when the surface area was reduced to their feet, so it should be even *more* earth shattering than normal. 'Digging your feet in' or 'sliding backward' isn't just going to spontaneously remove physics!
This was a hill that Dahlia would die on but even when she asked, Bessie couldn't really give an answer. There were tricks, of course. You could strengthen the ground under your feet or create a counter force to prevent you from being pressed into a crater from an enemy's attack. For the case of launching herself, using non-attributed mana to reinforce body strength was the typical go-to, but Bessie had long ago reinforced her entire skeleton with her extra resistant coral.
Unfortunately for Dahlia, the minotaur-kin did almost everything by instinct and truly had a hard time explaining the intricacies of what she did. It was like explaining how to move each muscle individually to make a certain pose. How are you supposed to know? Just do the pose! Easy!
This more instinctual means of spellcasting is how Bessie learned to cast while she was still on the street and it worked wonders for her, however it led to moments of frustration between the two during their lessons from time to time. Their brains were wired differently and while Bessie did her best to adapt to Dahlia's style, there was only so much she could do.
Eventually Dahlia relented and accepted that some things would need to be learned by herself directly. She would still have moments of asking questions too difficult for the maid, but over time their conversations became more and more productive. By the end of the day, not only had the healers caused her sight to get substantially better, but she went to sleep with a vast new set of knowledge swirling around in her brain.
Not only were all of Bessie's spells going through her head, but she was also theory crafting her own ideas based on what they talked about as well as battle tactics she might apply in the future. Although she was never interested in combat, now that she saw it as a part of her future, she began to rigorously study it in the same obsessive manner she always did for anything else.
Although reading books was still off the table, Dahlia was nothing if not brilliant. Despite her lack of actual combat experience, she was able to construct a basis that she hoped to expand off of in the future. She was also thankful that she had something to keep her mind busy because she was having a dreadful time falling asleep.
Valentina had left early in the morning and still hadn't returned, despite the dark having long since arrived. Occasionally throughout the day, servants would show up with food, gifts, or messages from the Archduchess, but the woman herself never made an appearance. By this point, if it weren't for Dahlia distracting herself she believed that she'd be going insane as she waited for the precious warmth to return and hold her.
Although the castle was welcoming enough, it was still a foreign location that she had yet to even explore or see properly. Combining that with the cold and empty bed, and suddenly Dahlia felt lost and alone. It may not have been that different from her previous life but, now that she's had a taste of companionship, returning to her isolation felt suffocating and made her chest throb in pain.
It was well past midnight and she was restlessly shifting around in bed, trying to get comfortable and finally be accepted by sleep when she heard the faintest sound of a door click shut. Quickly, her head shot out of the covers like a prairie dog.
Valentina, who was trying to be as stealthy as possible, froze in shock at how immediate Dahlia's reaction was, but after a moment she just chuckled to herself and approached. Sighing as she tossed her clothes aside, she softly crawled into the bed and immediately drew Dahlia close.
"How was your day love? I'm sorry I couldn't stay with you this whole time but trust me when I say if I could, I would."
As Dahlia snuggled in close, she breathed deep and a comforting and familiar scent of the Archduchess greeted her. Between that, the soft voice, and the warmth pressing against her, she could already feel sleep beginning to take her. It really was that easy. Like flipping a switch, Dahlia no longer struggled to sleep but instead struggled to stay awake and enjoy Valentina for as long as she could.
"Mmh, my day? It was fine. I learned magic, met Bessie, learned more magic… Bessie's nice."
Her responses were kurt and a little slurred. As Valentina looked down and petted her, she enjoyed the cute little sight. It turned out that when she was on the edge of consciousness Dahlia just turned into a puddle of cuteness and nonsense. She let out little mumbles here and there, all while nuzzling her head into her chest.
"Yeah, you learned some magic? You'll have to show it to me once things finally slow down. I'll probably be busy for the next few days, but I'm rushing so that I can spare some more time with you once your eyesight is a bit better. Once it is, I'll give you a tour and we can be together more often."
She laid a kiss on the girl's forehead, but it was hard to tell if she was even aware of it. She kept making little mumbling responses to everything the Archduchess said but her eyes kept fluttering until eventually they closed altogether. Valentina just continued to pet and hold her in her arms, comforted by her mere presence.
In all honesty, she was having a rough time of things. It was too early to include Dahlia in on these talks, but eventually she would have to be open with everything. Not only were there countless issues piled up simply due to her absence for the last week, but the grand duchy was experiencing a strange surge of problems.
Despite being in a continuous war with the northern republic, the Kalisto Empire was theoretically in a very stable position. If anything, the current war was actually reaping benefits rather than losses. The citizens loved it, plenty of nobles were being kept in check due to the war taxes, and war hawks were making a killing off of it all.
Despite this hypothetical stability though, the Lukresh grand duchy was suffering from an unknown source. There were plenty of different issues that were detectable. Bandits, increased beasts and monsters, environmental concerns, and more. But the cause for all of these things were completely unknown.
Plenty of monsters were roaming through and were well outside of their migratory patterns. Some were even so far from their origin that it made no sense for them to be in the Empire at all. The only real solution that Valentina or her advisors could come up with is that this was intentional, at least to some degree.
While assassination and political plots were common for the Lukresh family, it was unheard of for such a large scale and long term assault to be performed. The amount of uncertainty was to the degree that Valentina feared that getting Dahlia involved may have doomed her. It was largely for this reason that she emphasised the need to do combat training.
She would have requested it regardless and the justification she had used earlier was correct. However, if this looming unknown threat wasn't around, Valentina likely wouldn't have cared too much. So long as Dahlia could sustain herself and get out of say… a bandit raid, then she would have had enough skill. Now though, the Archduchess wouldn't be satisfied with that.
Now that all these threats were present with no cause or end in sight, imagining Dahlia being unable to protect herself or fight back was truly frightening. The difference between someone with little to no magic and combat experience was like an ant to an elephant when compared to professionals.
If the comparison between mortal fighters without magic already showed how great the disparity of ability could be, once you add on magic everything just multiplies; except rather than multiply, it was closer to view it as exponential. Those who were particularly proficient could even approach something akin to godhood. Although that was far from the norm, people like this actually exist and it should simply demonstrate how helpless someone like Dahlia would be in the face of a true threat.
So going forward, Valentina had decided that Dahlia would need to be able to fend for herself. Even if the girl didn't wish for conflict, it could very well find her and so both Lilli and Bessie were instructed to do their absolute best to turn the girl into something that would be feared by her enemies.
How long that would take, she truly had no idea, but with Dahlia's aspect, magic proficiency, and overall intellect, the Archduchess knew that eventually she would be able to be someone to be reckoned with. Though, looking at the girl in her arms, it was hard to imagine that being the case.
Despite all of her horrid experiences, Dahlia was simply so soft, gentle, and kind to imagine as a warrior and Valentina couldn't help but fear for her future just a little bit. How is she going to handle it when some day she takes a life? What about when an ally dies? Will she even be able to inflict pain on others, or will she be adverse to even that? As much as the vampiress' sadistic brain may love to think about 'breaking' her, she had no desire to actually have the girl experience trauma.
In spite of her anxieties, Dahlia remained strong even after overcoming countless tortures of her parents and so Valentina could only pray that she would have the same resilience moving forward. Because even if she didn't know when it would arrive, there was a storm on the horizon for the grand duchy and she couldn't see any way to avoid it.
Soon she too fell asleep, and the two of them passed the rest of the night in a calm and harmonious slumber.
In the remaining couple of days, Dahlia's recovery went by with a strange combination of blinding speed and dragging sluggishness. Studying magic and enjoying her time with Bessie led to the days flying by. She was kept busy, entertained, and in good company so there was really nothing to fear.
The nights however were dreadful. Valentina would get up at 5 in the morning where they would talk and then bathe for a short while, but then they would separate soon after. The evenings then ended with Dahlia waiting restless and alone until at least 1 AM for the Archduchess to return so that she could finally feel safe and comfortable going to sleep.
In the future this dependence would hopefully reduce, but for now there was nothing she could do. On the last day her vision was so much better than before that she tried to squint and press her face against a book to read it and pass time, but that only resulted in a searing headache and she quickly discarded the idea.
Her eyesight was now just blurry and didn't adjust well to extremes in light, but it was about as good as it would get. Now she'd just have to wait for glasses or something in order to read. Honestly, she had been looking forward to getting her eyesight repaired in large part because she wanted to see the Archduchess in all her glory but… with how blurry everything was, that didn't seem possible. Especially so considering they almost exclusively saw each other when it was still dark out.
That was about to change though. It was now the morning of her fourth day at the castle and this was the day she both was expected to start her lessons with her combat instructor as well as being shown around the castle by Valentina. Although no one ever said it, both almost thought of the mundane activity as something akin to a date which made both of them flustered.
Valentina had always skipped the 'date' portion of relationships and Dahlia hadn't had any relationships to begin with, so much to the amusement of Bessie who watched on the sidelines, both women were freaking out and trying to make the best impression they could in their own way.
Thankfully, that tour wasn't first thing in the morning. Valentina still had meetings to attend for the first half of the day so Dahlia would distract herself with training before finally the two would have a moment to themselves. It was a morning brimming with anticipation and when Dahlia opened her eyes, despite things still being blurred, she couldn't help but smile.
'From this day forward, recovery is behind me and now it's time I get busy. I guess it's time things finally start for real!'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
AngelAsphodel
AngelAsphodel I had to take the day off work today, but I still was fine writing so... here's a new chapter! Tada~
Also! It's chapter 30! I don't know why but that seems significant to me for some reason?
I don't have much to say about this chapter to I'd just like to put out a thankyou to those who have supported me so far. The powerstones always make me happy like little gifts when I get their notifications and I just recieved my first couple reviews the other day and it was a lovely surprise. So again, with all my sincerety, thankyou.
I'd also like to thank the comments saying not to overwork myself. Don't worry, I might not be great at taking care of myself, but I'll do my best! Luckily a major stressor has been figured out today so I'm already on the road to taking care of myself better! Thank you very much for your concern though. You better take care of yourselves too, ya hear?
Anyways... As always, I hope you're having a wonderful day.
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