"Aria!"
"On it!"
As Ren shouted, Aria clung to his neck without hesitation, her other hand holding her staff that emitted wind element, forming a wind spell.
With focused eyes, she pointed the spell downwards,
[Gust]
The wind spell surrounding them created drag, but their expressions were far from relieved,
"My magic isn't enough!"
"We need to lose weight!"
The fact was apparent to the two. If it were only Aria, then it would be a different story, but with Ren's added weight, she didn't have enough power to make the landing safely.
Ren unbuckled his sword, shoving it into his bag. He then took off his leather armor, shoving it into the bag as well, before tossing the bag into the air.
But even that wasn't enough.
Ren had thought of using a fire spell, but unfortunately, the only spells that allowed him to fly were tier 3 and higher.
"Aria, take my mana!"
Since there wasn't much more Ren could do, he decided it was best to send Aria his mana.
'She'll figure it out!'
'He's pushing this on me, isn't he!?'
The thought made Aria laugh with a smile as she started to focus on her spell.
'We'll reach the ground soon; there is only grass at the bottom. I'm not high enough rank to fly, so I should instead…'
Pointing her staff towards the ground, she continued to cast [Gust] to create more drag, but she also started to cast a new spell.
[Tier 1 Wind Barrier]
Compared to the other basic elements, Wind was the most mana efficient, costing less mana than spells of different elements but of a similar tier.
But this came with some problems, and that was the immense control required to use the element, of course, for someone on Aria's skill that wasn't an issue; it was instead the other problem.
Its defense was absolutely terrible!
Obviously, in defense, the Earth element was the strongest, Water element second, and the Fire element, although just as bad as wind, at least damaged the enemy when they attacked.
'But what about wind? There isn't anything special about its defenses. So why is she using that spell?'
It was a thought that Ren had, but since he had an affinity towards the Fire element, an element just as bad, he wasn't really in a position to lecture her.
'No… she knows what she's doing and her job isn't to defend against an attack but to soften our landing!'
He also trusted her, yet his eyes could only glow in confusion at what she did next.
The [Wind Barrier] surrounding both of them began to break apart, splitting in two, indicating it was being dispelled.
But it didn't disperse like a regular spell would. The [Wind Barrier] still retained its existence instead of becoming mana and started to be formed and shaped into a blanket of wind under them.
'A parachute? But why is it under us?'
Mana started as formless, then turned gaseous, liquid, and lastly solid. This principle applies to spells as well. The [Gust] spell was a gas spell, and Aria had been using it to push air against them so they would fall more slowly.
'I... can't control it!'
Aria grit her teeth. Spells were a highly structured phenomenon; breaking them apart required delicate control, especially since wind magic was already hard to control.
'I'm at my limit, I need to change the element into a more solid form.'
Her plan was simple: she was going to make the [Wind Barrier] into a cushion for their landing, but casting [Gust] then [Wind Barrier] on top of splitting the wind barrier and forming it into a cushion was already too much for her mind.
"Ren, help me solidify it!"
"Got it!"
Ren had just grasped what she was trying to do and started to change the gas like [Wind Barrier] to a more solid substance, but that was far from an easy task.
Firstly, the spell was Aria's, so he couldn't control it. This problem was solved since Aria willingly let him control her mana.
The main problem was that changing mana into a more solid form was difficult!
Back in the forest, where they had fought the Gorge Devourer's offspring, Aria had turned a small amount of mana solid to create a crack in the rank 3 mana crystal. Now, Ren had to change the entire spell and compress it.
'I'll have to try.'
Due to the Spell's delicate nature, unlike the pure energy of mana, their properties were set in stone once cast, and the only thing you could do was dispel them.
This all changed once you reached rank 4,
'But I'm only rank 1!'
Focusing on the [Wind Barrier] under them, Ren started to dispel it slowly, taking it apart piece by piece before compressing the gas like property of the Wind element into a more solid form before pushing it back into the [Wind Barrier] spell.
The process repeated as they moved closer and closer to the ground and their impending death.
But the pair was focused, Aria on holding the spell while Ren was dispelling and reforming the spell.
'My mana… it should be enough.'
'Come on, just a bit more.'
…
While Aria and Ren were having the time of their lives, a certain incident was happening nearby.
"Your highness, get inside the carriage!"
An old looking butler shouted towards the girl by the carriage.
'This was supposed to be a simple escort. How did it turn out like this?'
The old man's name was Thetford, formerly a knight of the Aureus Dutchy. He put down his sword and became a butler, but it now seemed he would have to pick up the sword once more.
"S-sir Thetford, w-we can't track the attacker's mana; they must have the ability to hide themselves!"
An inexperienced squire named Weren spoke with panic; his body was shaking, and looking around, it was clear why.
There was a poisonous purple gas all around them; some of the knights in the escort were already collapsed onto the ground.
'It's his first escort mission too, poor boy.'
Thetford looked at Weren with pitying eyes.
The only reason Thetford, the squire, and some other knights hadn't collapsed was because of the magic barrier around the deployed carriage, which had been cast by the lady inside, or it would be more appropriate to say that she was now outside.
Luckily, the barrier was big enough to cover all the knights, but unfortunately, it was cast too late, leaving some knights incapacitated.
Only the knights closest to the carriage weren't heavily affected.
'Is it a monster? It can't be, this is too calculated to be a monster. Then it must be an assassin, but who would dare attack the daughter of a duke?'
"Thetford, how is the situation?"
A lady of immaculate beauty approached from the carriage, interrupting his thoughts. Her blonde hair was well groomed, and her blue eyes were like sapphires sparkling with innocence.
She wore a dress of blue and yellow, which accentuated her beauty, in her hand; there was a staff that glowed with the golden brown light of the Earth element.
Her name was Relia Aureus.
"L-lady Relia!"
Weren looked in shock as their lady left the carriage's safety.
Her beautiful yet innocent face held a serious worry, questioning Thetford, who could only respond with concern.
"Your highness, we are being attacked. I ask of you to please get back into the carriage. We can handle this situation here."
Thetford responded calmly, requesting her to go back inside.
Thetford, at his peak, was a rank 4 knight, but after suffering a near fatal injury, his rank dropped to rank 3. He felt that he wouldn't last long if he stayed outside the barrier.
'It's shameful to admit, but if her highness weren't here, we would be dead.'
In response to Thetford's request, Relia shook her head calmly,
"I can't sit by and watch my knights die, can I? I also need to be outside to strengthen my barrier. About how long will it take reinforcements to arrive?"
Her calmness surprised Thetford; he felt a tinge of pride seeing the young noble lady of Aureus, whom he watched grow up, act so mature.
Realizing such a thought as irrelevant, he quickly shook it away,
"We sent a signal 5 minutes ago; they should arrive at any moment now."
The escort was on its way to the capital of the Rael Empire and was split into two groups.
This was because they needed to send one group first to confirm their arrival, while the other stayed behind. Typically, the group sent was composed of the strongest members of the escort.
It was a tradition put in place by haughty noble families to show their power, among other reasons.
Thankfully, there were methods of communicating between the groups, allowing Thetford to inform the other group of the attack.
'Such foolish traditions caused her highness to be put in danger! They must be removed!'
Thoughts of complaining to Duke Aureus came to mind as Thetford started to get ready to fight.
Just then, he spotted a figure moving through the purple gas and approaching the barrier. Warren shouted in surprise and happiness.
"The reinforcements!"
He waved and shouted towards the figure.
"Hey! Over here!"
As the young squire was about to run towards the figure, Thetford grabbed his shoulder, stopping him with sharpened, cautious eyes.
"?"
Warren looked at the butler with confusion. Despite being retired, Thetford still trained the squires and even the full-fledged knights, commanding their respect.
The same applied to young Warren, who knew something was wrong after seeing Thetford's wary expression.
"Stop, the reinforcements are too few, this… this is the attacker."
"T-the attacker?!"
A hooded figure emerged from the thick gas; under the hood, the figure was covered in bandages, covering any skin or identifiable features.
The bandages emitted mana, which seemed to repel the purple gas, and judging from the blade in the figure's hand, they weren't here to help.
The person in front of them was clearly an assassin.
Thetford walked forward with a spare sword in his hand as he shouted towards the figure,
"State your name and purpose! This attack is an offense to the Aureus Dukedom!"
The hooded figure didn't respond, which was what Thetford expected.
'As if an assassin would reveal their affiliation. Did they come out realizing the gas couldn't breach the barrier?'
The assassin could have stayed hidden, but since reinforcements would be coming soon, they were forced to move and try to break the barrier.
'This person… a rank 3 or maybe even a rank 4'
Thetford, despite his experience, couldn't get a full read on the figure in front of him, which caused him to feel wary as he flowed mana through his blade.
The assassin raised their blade and slashed at the barrier.
The barrier held firm with only a single scratch on its surface, but the attack was far from over as the figure raised their blade, slashing again and again.
The scratch turned into a crack, then a hole, causing Thetford to frown, but then particles of golden brown light flowed into the barrier, repairing all the damage.
"Your highness!"
"Please tend to the wounded Thethford. I can hold them off."
With the staff raised, Relia smiled kindly towards her butler as golden brown elemental light leaked from her staff and into the barrier, making it thicker.
Tehtford's eyes widened in shock, his mind was surprised,
'Amazing! A barrier of this level is rank 4 at the very least! She hasn't even had her coming of age ceremony yet! Her highness is truly a child of the golden bloodline!'
A person was already considered talented if they were ranked 1 before the age of 18, but Relia was casting a spell 3 whole ranks above that!
She was clearly in a league of her own, giving her the grand nickname, the Golden Witch of Aureus.
Yet as she watched the assassin continue to break her barrier again and again, her thoughts were far from how her grand title portrayed her,
'C-come on! Just give up already! Please!!'
…
Relia Aureus was born with memories of her past life. Formally Melissa Smith, she was just a regular girl going to school before she, like any cliche novel protagonist, got hit by a speeding truck!
Born in the Aureus family, a family called Prosperity Incarnate, she shouldn't have had any worries for the future and should have lived a life of luxury.
The keyword was 'should'.
The word she was sent to was one she read in a romance fantasy novel.
In said story was a heroine who was a commoner who suffered through a war between the Rael Empire and the Lelfon kingdom.
The heroine eventually became a powerful mage and later even a Saintess in the church after unlocking her secret powers that were sealed in her bloodline.
As cliché as the story was, Relia found herself oddly enamored by it, remembering the exact details of the story to an absurd degree.
Yet, since the heroine was a commoner, Relia was obviously not sent into the heroine's body since she was a noble, nor was she sent into the body of the best friend character the heroine would have.
She wasn't even sent into the body of the villainess who hindered the development between the commoner heroine and the noble male lead.
She was instead sent into the body of Relia Aureus.
The Relia Aureus, who wasn't even present in the story, not because she wasn't special, not because she wasn't relevant.
But because she was killed.
Assassinated on her way to the capital, Relia Aureus's death would be the reason that the war between the Rael Empire and the Lelfon kingdom happened in the first place!
A detail in the prologue, a character whose very death was just a plot device!
'How can I accept that!!'
She even tried to change the date of her departure and have more guards, but it was all useless, as if fate itself was playing with her; the rank 4 guards were all in the other group for some inexplicable reason.
But Relia wasn't without options as she trained and trained, reaching rank 3 in preparation for this day.
The story did mention that the assassin couldn't kill Thetford, a rank 3, leading Relia to believe the assassin was only rank 3, yet looking ahead, she could only curse.
'Rank 3? What a bunch of bullshit! H-how are they breaking my rank 4 barrier then!?'
The Earth barrier had cracks all over it, but they disappeared just as fast as they appeared.
To cast the barrier, she commissioned a mana tool that would allow her to use a spell above her level, but it came at the cost of ridiculous mana consumption.
Relia desperately held multiple rank 4 mana crystals in her hand, trying to squeeze as much mana as she could from the tiny crystals.
Yet eventually, more damage was being done than repaired, a hole in the barrier finally opened, and some of the purple gas poured in.
The assassin dashed through the hole, the guards desperately tried to defend her, but where evaded, even Thetford wasn't fast enough to intercept them.
Soon, the hooded figure was meters away, blade in hand, ready to kill, and Relia was unable to fight back, mainly because she didn't have any attack spells fast enough to fight with.
She could only pray, casting a barrier around herself,
'God, please! If you're going to send me to another world, you could at least give me something! Anything!'
Just then, at the moment of her praying, she felt mana above her,
'A.. star?'
It was a green, beautiful light that came from above. Relia only saw it for a moment as it was going at a speed too fast for her to fully see,
The star fell in front of her.
One moment, the assassin was in front of her.
The next her entire view was covered in a cloud of dust.
As the dust cleared, Relia could discern two figures; there was a boy and in his arms a girl, both about her age.
The boy's expression was full of pain. It seemed that he broke the fall for the girl. But the boy had a confused expression as if he was expecting more pain before he looked down in shock.
"Whoa! Are you okay, sir?"
Under the two was the hooded assassin, whose body was contorted; they had at best broken most of the bones in their body or at worst were dead.
Relia had tears streaming down her face at the sight. Ren looked up at the girl in surprise, thinking she was crying out of grief,
"Umm, Miss, do you know this person?"
Relia merely shook her head,
'M-my prayers were answered!'
Her tears were of the happy kind.