In the endless dark dimensional space-time tunnel, Tsukasa's consciousness remained clear; she didn't know how long she had stayed in that one place without the concept of time, she only felt that her spirit and will had received sufficient training here. When she woke up, she was lying on a bed; there was a suffocating feeling in the room, and when she got up from the bed to look, she found that one room was covered in dust and cobwebs.
Some information came into her mind.
Tsukasa Astrea.
A descendant of the ancient Sword Saint Astrea Family of the Empire, her parents had disappeared during an adventure and could probably be judged as deceased. Now, Tsukasa Astrea was a student at the Imperial Capital's Magic Caster Academy, having returned to the ancestral villa that had been uninhabited for many years during her vacation. Because she was too lazy to clean, she saw such an absurd scene when she woke up.
Tsukasa habitually raised her hand, intending to use Shadow Demon Summoning to call forth her servant, but just as she was about to cast the spell, she froze in place for a moment.
The magic was not released.
Although she could indeed remember the spell and feel the presence of mana, when she tried to activate the skill, she failed to release it.
"A new otherworld." Tsukasa had a very clear realization of this. Without the system's assistance, she found that casting magic had become extremely difficult; everything from controlling mana to the principles of how to release magic had to be completed by her own hands.
This seemed a bit bad.
Although her body hadn't changed and her strength remained the same, she now struggled to successfully cast even the most basic magic. Even though she had trained before, subconsciously she was still relying on the system's power. So, while she hadn't completely lost her spellcasting ability, if she were to encounter a battle, her current casting ability might be even more helpless than that of a low-tier magic apprentice.
"Eidor..." In the past, Miss Fairy would surely have given useful advice like a teacher, but after coming to this new world, she could no longer receive Eidor's advice.
The unfamiliar environment, her restricted power, and the grief of losing a friend—all these emotions erupted at once, making Tsukasa's mood very foul.
And then there was the sense of loss regarding her status.
Before her two previous transmigrations, she had been a weakling and had never experienced what it felt like to be strong. But in the last world, she became a powerhouse. Even if there was still a long way to go before reaching the upper limits of that world, she was indeed the strongest human Magic Caster there. Although she hadn't vied for the title, she eventually defeated the Hero.
The Hero's master, that old man known as the strongest Magic Caster, was no longer her match.
Furthermore, she was the master of the Night Sky Pavilion, with wealth so vast she couldn't even count it herself. At this moment, suddenly becoming a destitute noble lady—even if this starting point was far better than the previous two times—the huge drop in status after just being a powerful witch was still quite hard to stomach.
Specifically, the reality before her required her to accept that she temporarily couldn't use magic. The fact that she had to manually clean the room herself made her very uncomfortable. She couldn't remember the last time she had done such a thing, and the dust in this room was so thick it was hard to breathe. She wondered how Miss Astrea had endured it.
Wait, although it seemed impossible, could this eldest Miss Astrea's persona be set according to her own personality?
Tsukasa thought silently: If she had traveled a long distance back from the academy to a villa that hadn't been cared for in years, and found that while there was quite a lot of dust, it wasn't so dirty as to be uninhabitable, would she have spent the first night working hard to clean it?
How could that be? It's just a little dust; couldn't she just endure it for one night? Tsukasa immediately thought that she would definitely have given such a response at the time.
Sss—
No, that couldn't be me!
Speaking of which, where are the cleaning tools for this villa kept? Tsukasa recalled memories that clearly didn't belong to her, yet truly existed without any
sense of abnormality. She walked out of the room, went to a cabinet in the first-floor hallway, opened it, and found the cleaning tools.
Even though it had been two years in her memory, the quality of these tools was still very good. Then she went to the well in the courtyard outside to draw water—
"Dammit, why are there so many weeds here, and this is already rusted!"
There was a device above the well to lower a bucket for water, but unfortunately, this device was no longer usable. The rope was no longer sturdy, and the mechanical axle had rusted.
She glanced at the depth of the well and realized she really had no way. As for high-difficulty maneuvers like jumping down to get water, she expressed that she couldn't do it.
Although her physical stats of nearly ten thousand points were still there, physical stats didn't equate to skill. She was just a Magic Caster; even if she possessed physical stats exceeding those of a swordsman, she couldn't perform those wall-running, roof-leaping maneuvers.
"Miss Astrea, do I have any money?" Accustomed to solving problems with money, her first thought was to go to the upper city and find servants to solve everything. However, in her memory, a certain Miss Astrea shook her head at her with a smile full of poverty and bitterness.
Sorry, all of the Astrea Family assets had already been pawned off by her, all used to exchange for a ticket into the Imperial Capital Magic Caster Academy. Furthermore, in the first year, she had spent all her money lavishly, and by the second year, she was already penniless.
The most tragic part was that this young lady spent all her money buying materials to research magic, and her life had always been very tight. The reason she was back from school on break was also because she had been kicked out of school with nowhere to live, and the school wanted her to prepare the tuition for the next semester.
Normally, according to Imperial policy, if she were an Imperial commoner, in this situation, as long as she showed talent, she could have received Imperial sponsorship for her education.
But unfortunately, she bore the title of a hereditary Duke. Although it was the highest rank of nobility, because it was only an honorary title, this thing was of no use at all—though she could even rely on this title to crash banquets at the Royal Palace for free food and drink.
The ancestors of the Astrea Family disdained that bit of noble power; they were a group of ascetic monks obsessed with the sword.
They could never have imagined that their descendants would end up in such a state, and instead of properly studying swordsmanship, would run off to study magic!
At that moment, the sound of the door knocker came from outside. Tsukasa was very confused; in her memory, this reclusive, destitute young lady didn't seem to have any friends or enemies, so why would anyone come to visit?
She went to the door somewhat nervously. It wasn't surprising she was so nervous; because she currently couldn't use magic, even though she possessed decent physical stats, she really hadn't learned many fighting moves or sword techniques.
Opening the door, a young blonde girl dressed as an Adventurer looked up at her and gave a sweet smile. Judging by the girl's temperament, she didn't seem like an ordinary Adventurer.
By the way, why would an Adventurer come looking for her?
"Sister Tsukasa, I received word from the teacher saying you were back," the blonde girl said.
Tsukasa found the girl's words very hard to understand and scratched her head. Although she did have a magic mentor of significant status, that fellow had never cared whether the eldest Miss Astrea lived or died, and hadn't even taught her more than a few magic spells.
In Miss Astrea's persona, she was self-taught through grimoires.
That teacher was someone she had bought using the Astrea Family's connections and money. Because one had to follow a teacher in school to learn magic, Miss Astrea had gritted her teeth and used money to bribe that Magic Caster to become his student, thereby gaining access to the old fellow's library and becoming self-taught.
Furthermore, she wasn't familiar with that old thing's other students, because when Miss Astrea was at school, she basically spent every day in the magic laboratory researching magic—a typical shut-in bookworm.
So why did that teacher, who had zero presence in her memory, send this girl to find her? Tsukasa silently sized up the girl in front of her, and judging by intuition, the feeling the other party gave her could be summed up in one word.
Weak.
---------------------------------
If you'd like to read the next 70 chapters in advance, you can support me on Patreon.
I regularly post chapter previews there, so you'll always be up-to-date and won't have to wait too long.
patreon.com/SolyuraMT
And if you enjoy the story, don't forget to give me a Power Stone. Your support really motivates me to continue translating!