Hello, Readers! I am celebrating my birthday with extra chapter updates, so please enjoy this special chapter release of 4 bonus chapters! 🥳

(Lurelia’s Birthday Bonus – Update 2/4 🎉)

♡ To all readers who purchased these chapters before my Birthday: I can’t express this enough – Thank you for your support. (*ˊᗜˋ*)/ᵗᑋᵃᐢᵏ ᵞᵒᵘ*

“…Yes, I’ll say I manifested metal magic! I’ll claim that I can only summon keys for now.”

But there was one problem with this.

Whether it was because she wasn’t yet proficient in handling the key, whenever she summoned the magic key, the blue book would float up and appear as a set.

“If the book and key are summoned together like usual, it’s over.”

If someone were to see the book, they might discover the secret of the key.

Moreover, since the book wasn’t made of metal, it would be difficult to deceive about it.

“I guess I’ll have to practice summoning the book and key separately.”

The room was unsafe because maids might come in, and the magic training ground was even worse as other children came and went there.

Was there no suitable place where she could freely take out the magic key alone?

Looking at Kiki, Liria said, “We need to go outside. You’ll help me, right?”

“Beep beep!”

When thinking of a place where she wouldn’t encounter anyone, there was one that came to mind.

If it’s the source of a ghost story rumor, there shouldn’t be anyone there.

Among the children, there had been a rumor circulating for a long time.

They say that on the hill in the northern forest of the castle lives a cabin keeper who eats children.

“In the cabin keeper’s hut, there’s a huge cauldron with boiling water, and they say a foot was seen briefly, and it was… a child’s. Or something like that.”

It was quite a terrifying story for children, but most of such rumors were usually exaggerated.

Anyway, since it meant that the northern forest area was rarely visited, she should practice a bit at the entrance.

“Kiki, how about hunting for food in the wild after a long time?”

“Coo coo!”

“You like it that much?”

Liria, with the excited creature on her shoulder, made an excuse to the maids about catching bugs in the nearby garden and slipped out of the room.

The Duke’s castle was incredibly vast, so it took quite a while to walk from the east wing to the north gate.

But for proper training, she had to endure this much.

Just then, Ralph, the coachman who drove the heir children from the east wing, spotted Liria and asked.

“Oh my, Miss Liria, where shall I take you?”

“Ah, well. The eas… no, the east gate, please.”

At least if she went that far, the distance she had to walk would be reduced by more than half.

Not long after getting on the carriage, they arrived at the east gate.

“We’ve arrived.”

“Yes, thank you, Mr. Coachman.”

“It’s nothing. Shall I see you here again later?”

“Oh, really? That would be very helpful!”

So, agreeing to meet again in 2 hours, she parted ways with Ralph. Thanks to him, she came comfortably.

Pitter-patter.

While walking and sweating from the east gate to the north gate, Liria inwardly repeated.

‘Someday, I must definitely obtain the teleportation key that grandmother had.’

Before she knew it, she looked up and saw the north gate.

However, there was a soldier guarding the gate.

After watching for a few minutes and realizing it wouldn’t work, Liria put Kiki down on the ground.

“Kiki, can you draw some attention?”

Kiki nodded, its black eyes shining as if to say ‘Just trust me’.

As Kiki approached the gate and made a “beep beep” sound, the soldier looked down. Kiki stuck out its pink tongue, grooming itself to entice the soldier.

“Ahem, where did you come from?”

At the soldier’s question, Kiki lay down on the ground, exposing its luscious light pink belly as if flirting. While waving its front paws in the air.

The soldier, as if enchanted by the cuteness, reached out his hand. But Kiki quickly rolled away, dodging it, and moved slightly to the side, showing its belly again.

With a firm determination to touch Kiki’s soft belly just once, he left his post and went far away.

“Tsk!”

While he was distracted, Liria, who had been hiding, quickly passed through the castle gate.

Kiki, after letting the soldier pet it once, scurried after Liria to where she was.

“Hehe, thanks to you, I made it outside the castle!”

It was her first time coming out of the castle gate alone.

A lush forest and a stream spread out before her.

Walking under the warm sunlight, her mood soared.

A low hill was also visible beyond the forest.

So there really was a hill.

Just in front of the stream, there were plenty of luscious wild strawberries.

Liria’s eyes sparkled.

“Wow, they look so delicious.”

Liria, swallowing her saliva, looked around.

Then she picked three strawberries, rinsed them in the stream, and popped them into her mouth.

The tangy juice bursting in her mouth was a delicacy.

Kiki, seemingly uninterested, lay down on the grass showing its belly.

Liria, seeing this as her chance, started to pick lots of strawberries and put them in her bag.

“It would be delicious to make strawberry jam with these. Or eat them with whipped cream, right?”

As she was engrossed in picking strawberries while imagining happy thoughts, her once slim bear bag became plump and full.

It seemed there was still space to fit a few more.

Liria, smiling broadly, turned her bag to the front, picked a few more strawberries, and filled the bag to the brim.

Just then, there was a rustling sound from behind a tree.

She felt someone’s presence.

‘W-who could it be?’

She thought no one was there.

Reflexively startled, Liria hunched her body.

Thud.

With that sound, a piece of clothing fluttered in the wind beside a large tree.

Did someone fall?

Half worried, half curious.

Liria, rolling her eyes wide, carefully held her breath and approached.

Meanwhile, Kiki, with ears perked up, also sprang up and followed closely behind Liria.

However, she didn’t have the courage to actually look behind the tree.

‘I’ll look after I count to three!’

With that decision, she started counting.

‘One, twoo—’

Suddenly, the other person darted out first.

Swish.

In an instant, a small wooden sword was pointed at Liria.

“Threee! Oh, w-who are you? Eeek!”

At the same time, the boy also seemed startled and froze.

An attitude filled with wariness, like a wild animal.

The wooden sword poked Liria’s backpack even more.

Then, a red juice dripped onto the grass like blood.

“Kyaah…!”

Momentarily reminded of the past, a startled Liria fell backward.

Her heart pounded, and her breathing became rough.

It seemed the strawberries in her backpack had been thoroughly crushed.

Because a sweet and intense strawberry scent wafted through the air.

‘No. That’s not blood. It’s just the strawberries that burst.’

Before being reincarnated into the original story.

Ye-na from her previous life had died after being stabbed by an assailant.

Since then, in Liria’s body, she hadn’t seen blood, so she didn’t know…

It seemed that the incident from long ago had remained as trauma.

She shook her head vigorously, trying hard to forget that memory, but her whole body reflexively trembled.

“……”

The startled boy tossed aside his wooden sword and dropped to his knees.

After a moment’s hesitation, he approached the fallen Liria, leaning in cautiously.

“Hey, …you. A-are you okay?”

He certainly had no intention of hurting the child.

Though he did intend to scare her.

If she could be hurt by such a thin wooden sword, she might be an extremely fragile child.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit startled. Oh, and this isn’t my blood. Look, it’s strawberries.”

The child’s voice was very young and clear, like a bird chirping.

Nevertheless, there was a slight tremor in her breath and voice.

“…I, I wasn’t trying to attack you.”

The boy hung his head low.

“I know. I’m not hurt at all, just a little surprised. Because your wooden sword did this to my backpack.”

“……”

The boy’s head remained lowered.

“Silly. At times like this, you’re supposed to say ‘I’m sorry’ and apologize.”

With a small sigh, Liria got up first and extended her hand to the boy.

“Come on, let’s get up.”

However, instead of taking Liria’s hand, the boy got up on his own, pushing off the ground.

Withdrawing her hand, Liria finally came to her senses and looked at the boy properly.

The boy was in terrible shape.

His brown hair, covering half his face, was disheveled.

His old clothes were pitch black as if they hadn’t been washed for a year, looking like rags picked up from somewhere.

There were small wounds on his thin, small body.

Seven years old? Or eight?

He was a young boy who looked just a year or two older than Liria herself.

Meanwhile, as the wind blew, his forehead, which had been half-covered by his hair, was fully revealed along with his face.

The most striking thing was that his eyes were closed and that the boy was incredibly pretty.

Almost to the point of being disconcerting.