章節 38: That's A Great Idea!
The book said that magic was rare but not restricted to royalty anymore. But that implied that royalty did still have it. What sort of magic did the royals here have?
Daisy had lived here for years and still didn't know much about this country at all. Or this world in general. She was barely finding out there were multiple types of magic and who might potentially have them.
She doubted Leo was a royal. She didn't know what he had run away from but what sort of prince would run away? Didn't they lead super cushy lives? He was also far too willing to do manual labor to have grown up having everything done for him.
He had to be one of the people whose bloodlines had been "diluted" over time and spread out further. Supposedly, there were a lot of water mages so they couldn't all be royalty. Fire mages were probably the same way.
Living out here in the middle of nowhere, it wasn't likely for her to meet other people with magic but that didn't mean there weren't more of them somewhere else. Everyone here had seemed so normal and boring that she used to think she had gone back in time rather than ended up in a fantasy world before she discovered Leo's secret.
Daisy sighed. Here she was thinking about him again was this was supposed to be distracting her.
Was he doing alright? Had he been hurt? Why hadn't she heard from him at all yet? He did say he would send her a letter as soon as he arrived but she didn't even know where he was going.
She didn't get one for another few weeks but when she did her knees nearly gave out in relief.
'Dear Daisy,
'We just arrived at the military outpost near the border with Aveleen. You can send any letters there for the foreseeable future. I don't know how long we'll be here but I'll update you as soon as I know anything. Take care of yourself and don't worry too much.
'Love, Leo'
Rather short and unsatisfying as far as letters went but she supposed he didn't really have time to write. That was fine. That was perfectly fine! She had wanted to hear that he made it there safely and he had.
The problem was that this had been sent weeks ago and she had no idea how he was actually doing at the moment. Where was a cell phone when you needed one?!
Daisy hurried back to the farm to finish off her series of letters and get them mailed out today so they would arrive as soon as possible. Walking back and forth to town so many times wasn't her favorite thing to do but it wasn't like she had anything more pressing going on.
She got that sent off and slumped back down in her favorite chair at home to carry on with that quilt. At this point, Ira had given up on trying to read aloud since it made his voice go hoarse so she was back to trying to distract herself.
Only a few more weeks then she would be able to do other things to keep her mind off of Leo. She had to hold out that long!
===
Daisy didn't receive another letter from Leo until they had begun the grain harvest. She had been missing him fiercely because it was her first time not having him here for this spinning his sickle around as if it was a sword and thoroughly impressing everyone.
Thomas had offhandedly said something about it before Braedon smacked him upside the head with a glare for daring to bring Leo up and upset her. It didn't matter. She thought about him every day anyway.
Worry creased Ira's face as he watched her open the letter, clearly expecting some bad news. The news wasn't exactly bad though. It was sort of mixed.
'Dear Daisy,
'I hope you're keeping busy and that everything is alright back home. Things here have been tense, to say the least. We've lost a lot of men including both our captain and lieutenant so I've been promoted.
'My monthly pay has gone up but I also have to deal with keeping all of my men safe, which isn't always easy. I made Conrad my lieutenant since he's the trustworthy sort. I'm not sure how much longer we'll be here but I'll send you a letter as soon as we're on our way back to the capital.
'It's much colder here than back home and even the capital so that has slowed things down quite a bit. The Aveleenians were smart to attack in winter when they knew they had the natural advantage. We're managing though so don't worry about me. You know I run warm anyway.
'Please keep the letters coming. I can't write much but I promise I'll always reply somehow so you know I'm alright. Hopefully I'll be back in the capital soon so contact will be less sporadic.
'Love, Leo'
Daisy flipped the letter over and saw that he had indeed been promoted. His rank on the return address had changed but she hadn't noticed that before since she was too preoccupied with hearing from him at all.
She knew he had wanted to be promoted but probably hadn't wanted it to happen like this. Taking over for fallen comrades had to be rough. She had only met his former lieutenant and captain once and her guts were twisting at the thought of them being dead.
Ira noticed the look on her face and hesitantly asked, "Is Mr. Leo okay?"
Daisy reached out to ruffle his hair to reassure him. "He's just fine. Actually, he got promoted. He's a captain now."
"…isn't that a good thing?"
"It is."
"Then why do you seem sad? Did something else happen?"
"Yeah but you don't need to worry about it. Leo's safe and that's what matters," she told him firmly. "Let's go home. I need to get that quilt shipped off for him today since there's a good chance he's still near Aveleen."
Ira frowned. "I didn't know that was where he was. I'm from Aveleen."
"You are?!"
"Yeah. My parents were on their way south when…you know. I think they were going to Zel but I don't know why. They never said anything specific."
Daisy was troubled. Was he bothered by the fact that the war was with Aveleen? She had no idea he wasn't Mirean and he never talked about his parents or anything to do with his past, preferring to focus on the here and now. She could relate to that so she never pried.
"Oh," was all she was able to say.
Ira didn't say anything after that and was as generally hard to read as usual so she had no idea if he was upset or not. He returned to his book with the sort of intensity he always did when he read once they were finally done running errands.
She internally sighed. Parenting was hard. Especially when the child in question never talked about his feelings.
He acted as usual the next several days before finally speaking up. "Is it bad that I'm from Aveleen since I live here now? I don't want it to be a problem at the academy."
This kid! He was far too mature for his age, bothering to worry about something like that. He didn't look much different than the average Mirean. No one would ever know unless he said something first.
"I don't think it's bad but if you aren't comfortable sharing that with people, you don't have to," Daisy informed him. "You can tell people you're from Cloverfield and that will technically be true too. This is your home now."
Ira seemed relieved. "Thanks, Miss Veronica. You're really smart."
Her heart warmed. That meant a lot coming from such a bookish child. He was probably more book smart in this world than she was since she had never so much as touched a Mirean book before he came along. There had been no reason to and it wasn't like she had the time either.
She did now but had other things she would rather do. Ira ended up telling her pretty much everything interesting that came out of his books anyway.
"You're welcome," Daisy said with a smile. "Do you know what you want to study at the academy?"
"I think I might want to become a doctor. I could go anywhere with a job like that."
Ever the practical one. She couldn't help but wonder if part of the reason he wanted to do that was because his parents died of an illness. He might want to prevent any other child from losing their parents in such a way.
That would be more sentimental than she had come to expect from her ward but you could never truly know what people were thinking. Even the most open people had their secrets.
"That's a great idea! You would be really good at that since you're so talented at memorizing things," Daisy encouraged.
Ira smiled and it seemed she had said the right thing. "I think so too. I'm looking forward to it. But um…you'd still write to me, wouldn't you? Like you write to Mr. Leo when he's away. Because we're family."
"Absolutely!"
"Cool," he replied, having picked up on some of her vernacular after being with her for more than half a year. "Thanks."
Ira returned to his book and Daisy relaxed a little. He was going to be fine. She had been worried about the whole Aveleenian thing for nothing. If he was upset about the war, he wasn't going to say anything about it. Looking forward rather than backward was how you survived in this world and it seemed he knew that.
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