I rolled my eyes at my father. I knew what he was trying to do. “Father, are you crazy? You want me to cast a spell that takes up more mana than grand fall ten times?”

“Who are you trying to kid! Faith, I have watched you cast spells willy-nilly as if it did not matter how much mana you used. Now you want to play the I only have so much mana card? Let me tell you, you may be able to trick your mother, but you can not trick your father, who has watched you cast more spells than anything. I mean, how many dispels have you cast in just a short time. You are even still casting them!” I could only purse my lips. Okay, he had a point! So what! Every girl needs to have their own secrets!

“I will cast it once!” I snorted and cast another dispel. I was not going to entertain him this time around. He made this sound argument that he was worried the spell might bounce back on me, but here he goes telling me to make the magic circle ten times! It costs a lot of mana, you know! Not that it mattered to me, but that is beside the point!

“Three times.” My father’s words were firm. I could only concede. The entire time we were bickering, we had already caught the two commanders of the enemy army.

After the commanders were caught, the rest of the Norian army, what was left of it, finally surrendered. They no longer had a will to fight. It seemed the basic fusion spell really caused their will to fight to disappear. Not that I could blame them, I mean, their entire army was almost completely wiped out, and this was done by an outnumbered and surrounded enemy.

When we did catch their commanders, my father had blinded them so they couldn’t see anything before quickly casting a binding spell on them so they couldn’t take their own lives. With the commanders and other prisoners in tow, we took them back to our base camp. The Norian Soldiers were put into temporary tents with strict guard and binding spells on each one of them.-.

The commanders were taken to another tent and tied up to the pole in the middle of the tent. My father kept them blinded and bound but made it so one of them could talk. For some reason, it seemed he was very used to these kinds of things. I had a feeling my father and mother were not speaking the truth about their pasts. Whatever the case, I still love them no matter what. Even if I were to find out my father was nicknamed the devil of some battlefield in the past.To start, he only removed the spell, mute, from one of the commanders. It was the spell that kept the commanders from speaking. “You will never get a word out of me! I will never betray my kingdom!”

“Yeah yeah, shut up!” My father yelled out before turning to me. “Do it. Three times.”

I pursed my lips and brought up the confusion spell from memory, and began writing it in the air. The entire spell was not one I was used to, and had only tried creating the magic circle a few times, so I could not write it as quickly as my others. But even still, within four seconds, I still had the entire thing written out and hovering in the air. I watched as my father crouched down and studied the magic circle in front of him while rubbing his chin. “Hmmm, you were pretty slow in writing it.”

I stomped my feet and kicked my father’s shin as I crossed my arms in front of me. This was all he had to say!? I just casted a spell that so many court mages would find impossible to cast! And I haven’t even practiced it much! And he says I was slow!? “Haha! Your temper is not small! I was just joking with you. Not bad, but you made a mistake here.”

I looked at where my father was pointing, feeling a bit surprised. I could have sworn that I wrote the entire thing right. I studied the runic equation from top to bottom, but I couldn’t find a single thing wrong with it. That was when I realized I fell for my father’s trap. I felt a sharp pain on my forehead.

“Ouch!”I gazed up with an aggrieved expression looking at my father, who had a big grin on his face and wanted to yell! He was so petty! He would even take revenge on his daughter! “Humph! I’m telling Mother you hit me.”

“Wait, Faith, don’t!” When I saw my father’s panicked expression, I couldn’t help but laugh. I knew my father’s achilles heel, my mother! “Wait!? Why do I have to be afraid if you tell your mother!?”

“Took you long enough.” I jabbed before rereading my entire magic circle from start to finish. Just in case I did miss something. I then wrote it two more times.

“So?” I asked as my father went through each magic circle. I was even able to cast the last one in three seconds. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to create a magic circle that I had barely practiced creating.

“Each one is perfect. How is your mana?” My father finally asked after all this time. I could only sigh and give up on this man. He knew me more than I did, it seemed.“I’m fine. I can cast this spell a few more times with ease.” I replied. There was no sense in hiding any of it after all. Not like I will need to cast the spell ten more times. Just two, and I will be done for the night. So as long as my father doesn’t ask me to start bombarding the area with magic spells, I should get away without having to act as if I ran out of mana.

“No matter what you do, you will never get a word out of me!” The one commander who could speak yelled out.

“Mhmm… Confusion.” I quickly cast the spell, not wanting to waste any time. This was where the spell really became hard. I now had to manipulate the commander into thinking I was his king. The main trick when casting confusion was to have an idea in mind of what you wanted your victim to see. This meant the stronger the mental image you had, the better the chance of success. I was hoping my overpowered stats would come in handy at this time.

Luckily the commander’s expression was enough to tell me he was under my spell. While I had never actually used the spell on anyone before, I could just feel that my magic had taken effect. “I heard you failed.”

“Your majesty! I know I have failed, but they used some strange tactic! Your Majesty, if you could just send more troops!” The commander was currently kneeling on the floor in front of me, begging me for more troops. My father had to remove the restrictions on him, or the confusion spell would not be as real. So right now, the commander thought he was speaking to his king. As the image in my head was that of the commander facing the king, I did not ask anything as a king would not come right out and ask questions he would first talk about the failures.

“What were my orders to you when you first set out?” Because the commander mentioned wanting his king to send more troops, it made sense to ask a question like this as it was as if the commander was going against his king’s wishes.

“That three hundred thousand soldiers was enough… If we could not take the kingdom of Gavos to at least take as much land as we could.” The commander’s voice trembled as he spoke. But this meant that there were still around three armies the size of the last in gravos territory. I looked up at my father, and he shook his head. “I will restrain him again and hand him over to Silminian. Our job is now done.”

I nodded. I also felt we had done enough, there was no point in asking for more information if the king never intended to send more men. Just getting the number of troops still in Gravos was good enough. The Gravos military could handle the rest.

We wiped out three of the six armies that had come across the border. If this was not enough merit to get into the royal magic academy, then I don’t know what is.

—

Silminian was crying tears that streamed down his old face as he held my shoulders, thanking me for my help. Now, this would be no problem if it was not for the fact that he had globes of snot leaking out of his beard. “Young Miss! This old man will never forget this! You have done a great deed to this kingdom! I will make sure to report it to the king!”

“I just did what needed to be done. I can not allow our kingdom to get overrun by another, especially one who hates demi humans.” I said with a forced smile.

“Silminian, we will be taking our leave. My wife must be worried by now.” My father spoke up as he pulled me away from Silminian and lifted me up into his arms. “I expect to hear back from the capital soon. Make sure you tell them everything.”

“Haha! No worries, you have my word.” Silminian replied with a firm nod. After saying our goodbyes, we left the command tent and headed back towards our home. I really could not wait to sink into my bed and get a good night’s sleep. I never thought my first experience with war would actually give me a new goal in life.