Noble Lady Reformation Guide

The corpse of a wild dog, covered in flies, lay discarded in a secluded corner of the slums.

Passersby glanced sidelong at the horribly mangled body and, frowning, continued on their way.

However, a girl who was sitting in that very corner, hugging her knees, covered in all kinds of wounds watched the corpse with shining eyes.

Life and death.

The borderline moment in which everything has been lived and only remnants of flesh remain.

That animal, once born with an adorable appearance, that at times wandered through the fields, hunted prey, suffered great injuries, or devoured other beings had brought that turbulent life to an end and was now being silently devoured by crows at the roadside.

That scene was beautiful and, at the same time, solemn.

The first thing the girl, who was barely beginning to know the world, understood was precisely the value of death.

The girl had been born at the very bottom of the slum district.

She did not know who her parents were.

Sometimes she stole, other times she begged, and occasionally she made a living using a small amount of magical power she knew how to handle.

In that ancient era, when even the Empire was fragmented into pieces, being able to use magic was a relatively valuable skill.

Always dirty and in rags, chewing hard bread with dry sounds, she walked through the alleyways of the slums, filled with people whose lives were already ruined.

Dressed in an old scrap of cloth, a worn skirt torn from some corpse, and a miserable tunic bought with all her savings, she wandered through the corners of the southeastern port of Rebelten.

There was no one to teach her magic.

It was the era it was, and the environment was what it was.

She was never fortunate enough to encounter a slum beggar versed in magic, nor the compassionate wife of a once-great noble family fallen into decline passing through the city, nor a famous Archmage who came looking for her.

The blessing of finding a master who guides the way is not granted to everyone.

Even so, the girl dreamed.

She looked at the starry sky visible between the gloomy and ominous buildings of the slum district and wished to catch it with her own hands.

There are those who, even being born at the very bottom, raise their eyes to the farthest heights and dream.

The dream engraved in the girl’s eyes was the bright stars that formed the Great Bear.

Lublien.

That was how the girl at the bottom of the world decided her own name.

It was then that she saw the only daughter of the noble who governed the port of Rebelten descend to the market under escort to buy a musical instrument.

Upon seeing the jewel that shone set in her earrings, the girl from the slums thought about it.

She wanted to become that beautiful and refined woman, adorned with such splendid jewels, with elegant movements, capable of making everyone blush with a smile and of making everyone laugh during a conversation.

She wanted to live like those noble ladies, bathed in the love of the world, shining with splendor to use magic, walk through high society, and radiate magnificence.

And at the end of that path, she wanted to catch a star.

To reach the limit of mastery over magic and be able to say that her life had had value.

To become one more star shining alongside the others in the night sky.

Thus, in an era when even the magical system was not properly established the girl advanced, pursuing magic.

The following year, she devised methods to materialize elements through magical power and to manifest the most basic defensive formulas.

She took on minor monster-hunting requests in the tavern districts on the outskirts of Rebelten to gain real experience, and in her free time she trained magic alone.

Sometimes pretty accessories or blouses caught her eye, but with that money she preferred to buy magical tools and gather study materials.

Locked in a ruined basement in the slum district, she lit candles and devoured magic books.

Without anyone’s help, without the instruction of any master she sank alone into the darkness, obsessing over the system of magic.

Even a life blessed by talent from heaven is not free from storms.

The girl’s life was also filled with trials.

She went three consecutive days without eating when commissions ran out, or was attacked by thieves in the street and nearly lost her life.

On the day she committed a killing by mistake while resisting an assault, she gasped in a corner of a bloodstained alley while staring at the criminal’s corpse.

Under the torrential rain, as she observed that dead face with pupils dilated to their limit she once again felt the overwhelming weight of death.

Life and death.

The curiosity about human existence itself, which advances struggling between both, struck her brain like a storm, and then she understood.

Heaven had granted her talent for necromantic magic.

However, talent that does not come to bloom improves no one’s life.

Her magical level was better than that of a common plebeian, but nowhere near enough to fundamentally change her existence.

In winter, she trembled until her lips turned purple beneath a cold that cut the skin.

She kept chewing cheap bread, drinking water with herbs floating in it, and turning the pages of books with trembling hands.

From time to time she again became entangled in attacks by thieves, committed killings, walked bleeding until collapsing exhausted along the way.

‘…’

When a life repeats itself between pain and struggle, one begins to confuse death with an escape.

And the girl, who was only just beginning to be stained by the storms of the world, was no different.

She had once dreamed greatly, but reality was cruel.

No matter how much a plebeian from the slums yearns for the power of magic, the world is as merciless as an eternal winter.

She wanted to live shining like those radiant noble ladies, but the reality was shivering collapsed upon frozen pavement.

If a person’s value is decided from birth, what is the point of striving and struggling in this way?

Vast ideals and sharp dreams seemed to pierce the girl’s chest like daggers.

An unattainable goal only served to further highlight her misery.

Thus, amid a cold that cut into the flesh, the girl quietly closed her eyes.

She had the premonition that, if she did not at least return to her shelter to rest, she would not open them again.

Even so, she remained with her eyes closed, reviewing her life.

She had dreamed greatly.

She had tried to catch the stars in the sky.

Was that not enough?

Just when she was about to become one more among the countless lives that fade without leaving a trace.

Tap.

“If you fall asleep here, you will freeze to death.”

In a corner of the slum district, while a fine sleet was falling, someone called out to the girl who, barely wrapped in a rag over her shoulders, was silently losing strength.

When she opened her eyes with difficulty, she saw a tall man, his robe pulled low to cover his face, calling to her.

For someone to treat a slum orphan with respect was already suspicious in itself.

Even so, the girl replied in a low voice, without strength even to raise her tone.

“I am fine.”

“How can you be fine?”

“That an ignorant plebeian freeze to death in the street… what importance does it have?”

“Does it truly not matter to you?”

“Even if I keep living… it has no meaning.”

When the girl barely lifted her eyelids and looked at him, she could not help but startle.

For someone who had just begun to understand the mysteries of magic, the level of magical power that man harbored was something impossible even to read.

Not even when, some time ago, she had seen the head of the Leel family from afar had she felt anything like this.

Six stars or even more?

An absurd level, a sensation that seemed to transcend humanity.

The girl’s pupils trembled, and the man calmly crouched down.

Amid the sleet falling like feathers, his robe swayed gently.

With a dry, emotionless gesture, he placed several gold coins in the girl’s hand and spoke.

“Those kinds of things are not judged now. Consider it good fortune and, at least, try to keep living until you celebrate your coming-of-age ceremony.”

“…”

“Are you not going to accept them?”

“As I said, what is the point? There is nothing more foolish than investing in a life without value.”

“Meaning and value those rigid things, think about them when you are an adult.”

The man pressed the coins into her hand again and gently patted the head of the girl covered with the rag.

“There is no need to become an adult so soon.”

“…”

“Even if the world urges you to grow up quickly, live a little more carefree.”

Having said that, he shook the accumulated snow from his shoulders, stood up, and disappeared into the crowd.

The girl remained staring, stunned, at the back of the man who walked away after leaving her a sum enough to survive for several years.

Thus, the gear of life continued to turn.

Understanding the mysteries of magic, achieving dazzling accomplishments, and advancing along the path of a great mage.

By sheer fortune, after saving a border noble during a monster hunt, she caught the eye of a baron and was adopted as his daughter.

There she enjoyed a time of happiness sometimes she went out to cut flowers in the field, and at night she continued researching magic.

Each time she closed and opened her eyes, the memories of those days seemed to engrave themselves like lightning in her mind.

Life, where light and darkness alternate, does not lean entirely toward either happiness or misfortune.

Light comes.

In the border barony she eats vegetable soup and bread with butter, laughs with her family, and becomes an elegant young lady while cutting flowers in the field.

Darkness comes.

Upon first awakening to magic that manipulates corpses, her power runs wild and her only younger sister falls to the ground screaming.

Light comes.

Though she has awakened to a cursed power, her family embraces her and accepts her.

Darkness comes.

The rumor of necromantic magic reaches the ears of a duke, the entire family is massacred, and the girl sheds tears of blood amid the flames of the burning barony.

Light comes.

Upon finally reaching the summit of necromantic magic, she consummates her revenge and stains her hands with blood.

Darkness comes.

A hero, burning with justice, appears and cuts her throat.

Light comes.

The girl reincarnates for the first time and awakens as the second daughter of a viscount.

In that second life, she ends up cutting the throat of the hero who had defeated her.

Darkness comes.

Before the bloodthirsty power she possesses, the head of the family decides to execute her.

Light comes.

Once again, she awakens in a new body, with a new status, in a new place.

Darkness comes.

Once more she is hated as a cursed one, and the shadow of death looms over her.

Fragrance of flowers and stench of blood.

On that life path that goes back and forth between both, there was undoubtedly value.

Sometimes, while walking through the night streets and looking up at the sky, she always sees it filled with stars.

As she contemplates them, she wonders when she will be able to reach them.

She has reached the summit of necromantic magic and has tasted countless happinesses and misfortunes across innumerable reincarnations.

However, that dream she once held while looking at the night sky from a corner of the slum district of Rebelten seems to have been fulfilled only halfway.

She always lives as a beautiful noble lady of a distinguished house.

But she does not feel that she has caught the stars in the sky.

That point beyond even the sixth star, that domain surely does not belong to the human realm.

After living hundreds of human lives, she finally feels that those stars were never meant to be grasped by hand.

Thus, at last, attachment to life disappears.

Those who have lived with all their strength can remain serene even before death.

Thus, as one who strolls along a path, she continues observing the world.

As if walking along an endless road, her life, now without meaning, continues forward.

The emperors of the Empire change again and again, and crises that threaten the world arrive repeatedly.

With time, the great monster Noir covers the northern snows, and the heroes of the era, Kalimford and Melverot, come before her and bow their heads.

Those young Kalimford and Melverot, burning with duty and altruism even within their short lives.

At that memory, she smiles cynically and then calmly closes and opens her eyes.

The county of Elvester, covered in corpses.

In the fields before it, Archmage Melverot charges at the front alongside his personal guard.

— Charge!

— Protect Lord Melverot!

— Do not break formation until entering the count’s mansion!

— Waaah!

From atop the wall, as she contemplates them, she finally realizes how large all of this has become.

Public enemy of the Empire.

The great evil that must be exterminated.

The name Lublien already belongs to the past.

The one who now stands there is Fina Raffaella Tigris, daughter of the baron.

Silently watching Melverot, who rode at the head of the army toward the count’s mansion, Fina finally covered her body in magical power and herself leapt into the battlefield.

Fwoosh!

From atop an immeasurably high wall, a figure lands, the hem of a dress laden with frills fluttering.

With the bright moon as a backdrop, the demon descends upon the battlefield.

Even so, Melverot’s personal guard continued to cheer.

The man advancing at the forefront of them all was Melverot, regarded as the most powerful mage of the Empire.

Morale rose to the heavens.

The shouts, which did not cease, were about to completely cover the night plain.

Fwoooosh!

Boooooom!

The instant Fina touched the ground, a wave of magical power spread out and swept across the battlefield.

The sensation was like a single drop falling upon the tranquil surface of a calm lake.

And then, as if awakening from a dream, all the cheers that filled the place vanished in an instant.

As if they had agreed beforehand, every shout ceased at the same time.

It could not have been otherwise.

All the lives that had entered her field of vision were extinguished at once.

Crack-crack! Thud-thud!

Hiiiin! Craaack!

Six-star necromantic magic, Instant Death.

A spell that snatches all lives reached by her consciousness in a single act, the ultimate expression of the irrational.

The members of the personal guard who followed Melverot fell from their mounts and rolled upon the ground, while the horses that carried them collapsed spilling blood.

To withstand magic as absurd as this, there was no option but to reach the same level.

In the blink of an eye, the only one left standing on the battlefield was Melverot, who had advanced in the front line.

The horse he rode also died instantly and collapsed, but Melverot wrapped his body in magical power and landed nimbly.

The battlefield, which only seconds before had been filled with shouts, fell into absolute silence. The moonlight shone brightly.

Amid a sea of corpses, two figures observed each other from a distance.

“Hello, Melverot. It has been a long time since I have seen you. You acted as if you would never age, but now you look a bit more gaunt than before.”

Bats emerged from the dark crimson magical aura, dispersing Fina’s overwhelming magic throughout the battlefield.

Melverot shook off the necromantic energy coursing through his body in one motion and tightly gripped the hilt of his sword.

“You, on the other hand, have not changed at all.”

“I suppose not. By the way, they said you would never leave the territory of Rochester, shut away in the north but look how quickly you came when the situation became like this.”

“Your existence is a debt from my past. It is for me to resolve it personally.”

“Do you think so? How unfortunate, but the one I am waiting for is not you. You are merely an unwanted guest.”

Atop the spire of the mansion of Count Elvester, the enormous bone dragon that had nested there spread its worn wings and roared.

With that shockwave alone, the entire area trembled and a colossal gale erupted.

Fina’s pale violet hair, as well as the collar of her clothing and Melverot’s cloak, billowed violently.

“Unwanted guests… must be eliminated as soon as possible.”

A battle between six-star mages is, in itself, a disaster that devours everything.

It often reaches such magnitude that it forces maps to be redrawn.

As if to prove it, a gigantic explosion began to spread.

***

“They report that the count’s house of Renuel, led by Countess Rodelia, has already sent reinforcements. Other influential families from the southwest have also mobilized their private troops, and apparently the Orel mercenary group of the Beltus family has set out in full.”

“And the situation at the front?”

“It seems the battle is already in full swing. It is said that Lord Melverot, of the Duchy of Rochester, has already entered combat.”

Riding at full speed, Dereck received the report from the front from Delbriton.

The absolute priority was to ride without distinguishing day from night and arrive at the site as soon as possible.

Behind Dereck, Kalimford and Delbriton followed closely.

The imperial forces were also heading there. They would probably meet Princess Roselin and Kohella at the front.

Dereck tightened his grip on the reins and galloped through the night forest.