[Congratulations! You have been chosen by the System. You will gain access to most of the perks and benefits that it offers. Would you like to receive a short overview of what the System can do for you?]
No. Disappear. I need to understand what the hell is going on first.
The System screen obediently closed, and she looked at her surroundings, doing her best to appear calm despite her racing heart. Thankfully, most of the girls in the orphanage were still sleeping, and the few who were awake paid no attention to her.
Good, seems like nobody has taken notice of yet. I can't freak out, otherwise sobody might suspect I have gained access to the System. Play it cool. Keep calm. You'll figure this out slowly.
After taking a few deep, calming breaths, lina got up from her bed, putting on the plain gray dress that every orphan girl was wearing. As she dressed, she observed her surroundings. There was a sack of her ager belongings sitting by her nightstand—she must have packed it the day before. Right, this was the day she had to leave the orphanage. She thanked her past self and reached out to take the sack when a blonde girl about lina's age blocked her path.
"Happy birthday, lina!" she said in such a tone that it almost sounded like an insult. lina had to rack her brain trying to rember who she was. It had been 20 years since she had been in the orphanage and most of the people here had already been erased from her mory. "It is such a joyous day. Do you know why?"
A few other girls, slightly younger, appeared behind the blonde one and giggled in a way lina had only heard gnolls do. She didn't answer them, instead eyeing her sack and trying to rember whether she had any plans. No, she could not rember. This day had been so frantic it completely overshadowed any other mories.
"Because I won't have to see your face anymore," blondie laughed and the girls behind her laughed as well, as if she had just told the best joke of the century. lina, however, couldn't care less about their jabs, instead trying not to wince from her increasingly strengthening headache.
Alright, try to rember—what was your plan before the System screen appeared? I can't freak out like the first ti and be taken away to the Church. But what do I do? If only I had been brought it back just a month before now, I could have spent so ti understanding what to do next. Now I have no clue what to do. I'm an orphan with no money about to be kicked out into the big world this very day.
"Hey, don't ignore !" the blonde girl huffed angrily, hoisting her hands on her hips.
"Who are you again?" lina asked, genuinely not rembering the girl's na. It felt like it was on the tip of her tongue, but her head hurt, and trying to dig through her mories only made it hurt more.
"Are you that dumb that you can't even rember MY na anymore?" she snorted and threw a lock of her hair behind her back as if she were so nobleman's daughter looking down at a peasant. Except that she most certainly wasn't—she wouldn't be in this orphanage then.
"No, I cannot. But I suppose it doesn't matter. After all, I am leaving today. So would you be so kind as to move out of my way?" lina said, pointing towards her sack. The blondie turned red from anger while the girls behind her gasped in shock. She lifted her hand up and was about to slap lina when a gruff voice called from the entrance.
"What is going on here?" A corpulent woman in her late fifties stood in the doorway, looking at the scene with unhidden disgust.
"We were just congratulating lina on her birthday," the blondie said, her expression instantly changing to a sickly sweet one. lina rembered this woman. She was the orphanage's owner whom everyone called 'the old hag'. The grumpy woman scoffed and then looked at lina.
"lina, co with . We have matters to discuss. And you, girls, if you have nothing better to do, then there's a mountain of dishes that need to be cleaned for breakfast," she said, and the three girls growled, glaring at lina with all the intensity of an angry kitten.
"Coming," lina said, grabbed her pack, and followed the woman out of the bedroom, leaving the fuming girls behind. As she passed by the entrance, she caught her reflection in the mirror and stopped to look at herself.
Long, wavy hazelnut locks stretched down her back while eyes as clear as sapphires looked at her from the mirror. It was astounding to see herself so young again. She looked rather thin, since the food in the orphanage hadn't been the most nutritious but other than that she was a picture of health.
It's amazing. I'm young again. I knew what the ritual would do, but I never expected that I could experience the results for myself. Everything pointed to the fact that I would bleed out before the ti was rewound, but sohow… I survived long enough to go back.
lina stared for a few more seconds as if to make sure that what was happening was real. That her reflection remained the sa and it wasn't so fever dream. But it didn't change, her own face staring back at her, confused. lina sighed and hurried after the orphanage's owner who was waddling through the narrow corridor like a bloated duck.
I'm going to live again. To think that I'd get this chance—it's like a miracle.
"Co in, co in, lina. We have much to talk about," the old woman cooed, closing the door of her office once the two had entered. She had sothing akin to a smile on her face, although lina was pretty sure it wasn't a genuine smile. The old woman wanted sothing from her.
"Alright," she replied dryly and sat down on the chair in front of the owner's desk. The woman's eyebrow twitched, but her smile remained as she slowly waddled over and sat down in her own, oversized chair.
"As you know all these years we and especially I have been taking care of you to the utmost of my ability, lina. I've always wanted what was best for you," she began her ramblings, and lina instantly tuned her out. How could she have forgotten? It was the famous pity speech that the orphanage's owner gave to adult orphans in order to guilt trip them into "donating" so of their governnt stipend to the orphanage.
Right. I completely forgot, because I never really experienced this myself. It was what other kids told . Instead I had to deal with all the System shenanigans. But since I never told the old hag that I have gained access to the System, I get to leave the sa way normal kids do. By listening to an hour long monologue. Great.
lina sighed ntally as the orphanage's owner kept going and going about all the things she had ever done for her, how she'd changed her diapers and fed her from the bottle and cald her in the late hours of the night. Although lina was quite sure she arrived at the orphanage when she was already five years old, long past the age of diapers and bottles.
It seems like this might drag out for a while. Maybe I can take a look at my Status Screen while she yaps. Not like she can see it anyway and it could give an idea as to what to do next.
lina ntally commanded the System to show her the Status Screen and it appeared right in front of the orphanage's owner's face. Perfect. She could look at the screen, but for the woman it would appear like lina was looking at her.
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[Na: lina Dufour]
[Level: 1]
[Class: None]
[Intelligence: 5]
[Agility: 5]
[Strength: 5]
[Skill: 5]
[Charm: 5]
[Active Skills: 0]
[Passive Skills: 1]
[Archmage's Shadow.]
She barely managed to keep her expression neutral as she saw the passive skill that she definitely did not have the first ti around. The woman was still prattling on without a care in the world, wiping at the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief. lina willed the System to bring up information about her passive skill was still a part of who she was.
But my magic is gone and there's no getting it back. It's the price I paid to erase my mistakes.
Suddenly, as she was wandering around the shopping street, a pleasant sll wafted through the air. lina paused for a mont and noticed a pastry shop among the sea of stores. She peered in through the clean window and shelves with freshly baked pies, cute desserts and decadent cakes while custors were patiently waiting in a long line. The sight was oddly familiar.
lina's stomach grumbled, she hadn't eaten anything yet, and she decided to check inside the shop. Her breath hitched when she saw the woman behind the counter. She joined the end of the line without any hesitation, occasionally glancing at the shop's owner.
Could it be? No, it couldn't. But she would be… right around this age after the ti rewind.
"What would you like, dear?" the woman behind the counter asked lina with a bright smile when it was her turn at the counter. It was without a doubt Elenor, only twenty years younger.
It took lina a mont to tear her eyes away from her and look at the desserts displayed behind the glass case. The variety and colors overwheld her—she hadn't seen so much food in one place in years.
"I'll take a slice of chocolate cake. A-And so milk too if you have it," she said, pointing at the dessert closest to her. It felt wrong to order sothing so rich and decadent, but she wanted to taste it. Elenor's bread tasted wonderful so this cake must be sothing out of this world.
"Of course. That'll be five silver coins, dear," Elenor said, and lina didn't even feel bothered by the high price. Logically, she knew that with the little amount of money she had, every little coin mattered. But this was Elenor—lina was willing to make an exception.
She put a gold coin on the counter, and Elenor quickly counted the change. She was working fast, cutting up a slice of cake and retrieving a glass of milk from a refrigerated display case. lina took her al and went to one of the free seats. For a mont, she looked at Elenor, how she chatted with the custors and bustled around, smiling happily.
Could I also live a life like this? Just baking cakes, making pastries and then serving them to the custors?
Looking down at the cake, it appeared simple at first—three layers with so frosting in between them and ganache on top. But the sll was so wonderful that lina could taste the cake from it alone.
Tentatively, she broke off a piece of it with her dessert fork and put it in her mouth. lina chewed the cake slowly, savoring its rich chocolatey flavor and soft biscuit mixed together with the velvety cream. As she ate, tears began dripping down her cheeks. Like heavy raindrops, they fell onto the table, leaving a small wet spot behind them.
"Is everything alright, dear?" Elenor ran up to her, her face creased with worry.
"I… Yes. I'm sorry. Your cake is just so delicious it made cry," lina admitted, half-smiling half-sobbing. The dessert was just so good, so flavorful, so… alive. Elenor's bread had been good, but this was sothing else entirely. It was like a whole new world of flavor had shown itself to lina. She wanted to see more. She wanted to know more. Could she create sothing like this too if she tried?
"Don't scare like that, child. Although I am glad that you like it," the woman flushed a bit, taking lina's tears as a sort of complint, and left. After a minute she returned with another slice of chocolate cake and set it down in front of lina. "Enjoy it. You look like you could use so more food in your belly."
"Thank you very much," lina said to her, and then dug into her cake. She ate it with gusto, savoring every single bite, feeling the rich sweetness of it. While she ate it, lina's conviction that she wanted to make sothing like this only grew stronger. To make sothing so delicious that it would bring others to tears.
"Thank you for the cake. It was incredibly delicious, Elenor," lina said as she brought the empty plates and glass to the counter.
"I'm glad to hear that, child. Wait, how do you know my na?" the woman cocked her head curiously.
"Because you've told it to once before," she showed a genuine smile in what felt like ages and turned to leave. lina knew what she was going to do.
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