Part Title 14

This chapter's song is: high hopes!

I'm so excited for today! I've invited Monique and Violetta over to discuss my plans. Just imagine me holding an actual weapon! I'm just working on creating swords to be first but I'm hoping to be working on actual guns after.

Lilian helps me change for today and I make sure to have all my plans ready.

(Her outfit)

I head down to breakfast and when I sit down, my mother talks about my business idea.

"I've heard that the last experiment on magical weapons ended up in flames, literally. No one's ever been able to control the messy behaviour of mana and combine it into weapons yet. Just imagine if my sweet silverdrop succeeds, you'll be the genius of the century!"

"And if you fail, you'll be known as the laughingstock of nobility," my father added. Thanks, dad, really needed that.

"None sense, she's a Scilla, of course she'll succeed," my mother defended. Let's hope momma. I gotta say, speaking informally is sooooo much better than speaking like I'm sipping tea with the queen. Whenever I speak out loud, it has to be formal or these gossip bloodhounds will talk about it till next year.

"Mother, my friends will be over soon, I need to prepare, may I be excused?"

"Of course silverdrop, " with that I leave the dining room and head to the garden where I waited for monique and violetta to arrive. They came after ten minutes and we started business.

"Hi Monique, hi Violet," I say.

"Hello Sylvia," Monique greeted.

"Thank you for inviting us to this tea party," Violet said, "but is Rin coming?"

"Actually, I only invited you two because I wanted to talk about a business plan."

"Business plan? But aren't you the fiancée of prince Ace? Why would you need to do business?" Violet asks.

"Well I've just been thinking about the kingdom since I might become the queen one day and I thought of a good way to strengthen this kingdom." Of course, I wasn't going to say cuz I ain't planning to be the queen and I wanna make money so I can live me a good life.

"Strengthen the kingdom, how?" Monique asks.

"Well, I've been thinking, our military is very weak in terms of weapons. The swords are useful but they're useless against mages who use magic. And the mages can't be everywhere at once so their power is limited. So I was hoping that we could make a sort of magic weapon, a sword that lets someone use magic even if they don't have an affinity for it," I explain.

"That's really risky, these weapons could cause wars!" Monique exclaimed.

"I've thought of that, this specific rune can account for all of our weapons. If it is ever stolen, we can activate the rune and the weapon will be destroyed." I show them the rune that I found in one of the books in the library.

"This rune will make sure that the weapons can be destroyed if we want it to. I'll need Florence to actually activate the rune but it should work out. All I need is people who have the right affinities to make the weapons."

"Like the metal affinity..." Violet finished.

"And all of the basic elements," I look to Monique and she looks back.

"With this... We'll be rich. The royal family would pay anything for the weapons..." Violet said.

"And we'll also be treated like geniuses," Monique added.

"I agree," Violet said.

"Me too, it's not like an opportunity like this will come again, my elements are at your disposal," Monique said.

"Well then, looks like we're going to make history," I smile.

The rest of the tea party was discussion of the design of the sword and its magic. Violetta is a very good artist. She made a draft of the swirls and all of its details. The rune will have to be at the hilt in order for the magical compartment to be destroyed first. Right now, I'm walking to my father's room to talk about the first product.

"Father..." I say as I knock on the door.

"Come in," he answers with a deep voice. Like always, my father is swamped under his work. That's the life of a duke I guess.

"Father, I have designed the first prototype of my weapon. It's going to be a water dagger. I thought that starting small is best." I say as I show him the design. Father looks over the design and we talk about it for ten minutes before he allows me to continue with my plan.

"You're allowed to go outside to explore where you wish to set up your workshop," Father says.

"Thank you father," I reply as I leave the office. (A/N: I know this part is kind of vague but I just wanna write the good parts already and I don't really have ideas on how to expand this part)

It's been a week since father gave me the thumbs up so now I'm in a carriage with Monique and Violetta, looking at all the good spots to set up our workshop. There were some beautiful places but I wanted to get a closer look so we got off the carriage and met up with the people who were looking to sell their properties.

The properties were very impressive but none were really eye catching. We were about to give up when I saw an old building right in the middle of town where business was at its best.

"How about we check out there?" I point to the abandoned place.

"I don't know Sylvia... That building is supposedly filled with homeless people and drunks," Violet says.

"Well... It couldn't hurt to just check it out..." Niki says as she examines the foundation of the building, "it looks like it could be a perfect place for the workshop."

"Okay then, let's go," I say as we head towards the abandoned building. As soon as we got close to it, I could smell the disgusting stench of alcohol and dead rats. It was enough to make me gag as I look into the alleyway and find skeletons for people, slowly dying.

"What the hell is this?!" I yell. These people looked like they had one foot into their graves.

"You should ignore it, mistress, this place is full of peasants," one of the guards says.

"What did you say?" I glare at the guard. I then proceeded to walk through the alleyway, taking in the unpleasant sight. Babies were crying and adults were slowly reduced to nothing but bones.

"Sylvia... This place doesn't seem safe..." Violet says as she walks through the alleyway.

I turn around to face the entourage behind me. "Niki, Vio, you go and check out the building. I am going to do a bit of... Researching..." I say.

"What?" Niki questions.

"That's way too dangerous Sylvia! Gods know what these people might do!" Violet worries.

"They can't do much since I know how to use magic. Trust me, I'm Sylviana De Crystal Scilla, I'll be fine on my own. I'll meet you in half an hour." I reassure them as we part ways.

"So, what are you going to do?" Astro says as he appears out of nowhere.

"I'm thinking. Stop annoying me," I say quietly.

"Tsk, this bunch is a poor sight to see," Luna sucks her teeth as she looks into the alleyway.

"Theif, straight ahead," Luna points out as a boy bumps into me. I immediately grabbed his hand and turned him towards me.

"Give back what you stole," I say icily. The boy looks up in fear, his right hand shaking. He then bites his lip and starts struggling.

"Lemme go, I din' take nuffin of yours. Lemme be!" The boy says as he tries to free his hand. I use a bit of dark magic to strenghten myself so I could keep my grip and soon, a frail girl who looks about 13 rushes toward me and hits the boy. She then grabs him by the back of his neck and forces him to bow down beside her.

"I'm really sorry miss! Squirrel didn't mean it! Squirrel, give it back to her!" The girl bows down 90 degrees and forces the boy to bow down lower. She then quickly takes something from the boy and hands it to me. It was my embroidered handkerchief.

"Why would you steal this?" I ask.

"I could sell it for some grub! It's gold that is!" The boy who was apparently named squirrel beams. He was hit again by the girl who made him face the ground. Oh, by gold he meant the gold thread.

"You won't even get a loaf of bread for this. It's not real gold, it's just golden coloured thread," I say.

"We're really sorry! Squirrel didn't mean no harm! Please excuse us!" The girl pleads.

"How old are you?" I ask.

"I-I'm 15 miss," the girl stammers. Fifteen?! She looks so young but then again, she's highly malnourished... Matter of fact, all these kids look like they haven't eaten in days.

"Where are your parents?"

"They're a bunch a' bastards! Left us all t' die, that's what they did!" Squirrel fumes and receives another smack from the girl.

"What's your name? You speak very well for a commoner."

"My- my name is Emily miss," Emily says.

"Well Emily, are there any other kids here?" I look around and see no other kid here.

Emily turns pale as she answers: "Not here... Not here anymore... They're all gone except the ones who hid. The boys got taken and the girls got stolen by rich people. No one here cares about the kids... They're all willing to sell one of em for a copper."

Oh yeah... Slavery is still a thing until Ace turns 14... Frankly I couldn't care less for the adults who gamble what they don't have and drink away their lives but... Kids are innocent... That's my one rule: don't involve kids.

"Take me to them," I order. Sure I may seems scary, but I can't really help it when I hear that people are selling kids. Emily hesitates for a minute. "I'm not going to harm them, I want to help them," I say.

"Yea right! Don't do it, Emmy! She's a noble! She's a rotten one!" Squirrel protests. Emily tells squirrel to shut up and faces me, her green eyes locking on mine.

"Are you going to help us?" She asks. I look back into those emerald eyes and say yes.

After a few seconds, Emily agrees and leads me further inside the alley. She takes two rights and a left and soon, we're in a narrower alleyway where bony kids now laid, waiting for death to greet them. There were also some men and women who were pregnant or were mothers.

"Em! Who's that!" A boy with brown hair walks up to us. He looks as young as 13 but he was as skinny as Emily and Squirrel.

"Don't, Jake! She's a good one!" Emily says as she stops the boy in his tracks.

"Don't talk rubbish, she's a noble! She'll alert 'er guards or ev'n sell us, we can't take the risk!" Jake says as he takes out a jagged piece of glass. I sigh and use a bit of my magic to send the glass flying into the building,

"Don't you think I would've done something bad already if I had bad intentions? I'm stronger than all of you combined so I don't even need my guards. I suggest you heel or I may be forced to send that weapon somewhere else," I threaten.

Ok, I may be threatening to stab the dude but he was the one who pulled out the glass piece first. Jake glared at me before backing up. I take in the sight in front of me and let out another sigh."Do any of you know magic?"

"What?" Jake says.

"Magic, do any of you have a magical attribute?" I repeat.

"Only a few... I can use a bit of wind magic..." Emily replies.

"Why? Ar' you gonna sell us?!" Squirrel accuses very loudly, catching the attention of everyone else in the alleyway.

"I have no need for selling you, my wealth is not that little. I'm looking to recruit you all," I explain. This brought everyone's attention to me as I continue speaking.

"I am planning a business, and I need workers. I can provide three meals a day, shelter and all the other necessities. All I need is loyalty and your magic."

"Who ar' you missy?" A girl asks as she shows herself. I look at the crowd and introduce myself.

"My name is Sylviana De Crystal Scilla, daughter of Duke Scilla and if you want, your boss. What I am proposing is a much better life than this. You won't go hungry or be left out in the cold. All I need is your loyalty and hard work."

All the people looked at me and soon, people were starting to nod. I smile as I lead them all out of the alley and into the workshop where everyone else was waiting...