A jolt woke me from my peaceful nap on mother's lap and I lurched off the seat. Mother caught me before I fell to the ground.

"Fweh?" I groggily looked around. "Mama?"

Mother held a finger to her lips. Her brows were knitted, and Marina similarly had a tense face. "Shh. We're surrounded by bandits."

"Bandits?" I sat up straight and yawned. I crept over to the curtain and peeked out the window. Sure enough, there were bandits. "I see six of them. Assuming that the whole group is spread out equally around our caravan, then based on my field of view, the entire group probably has... 30 or so?"

"30?" My mother's face went pale.

"Is it okay to kill them all..."

"Tia, what are you saying?"

I pinched my chin. "Since they're bandits, they're probably aiming for our lives, or to take us as hostages, right? And if you're prepared to take a life, you have to be prepared to have your own taken away too. That's the common sense of this world, yes?"

"How can you be so calm... but yes, I would agree with that." Mother frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"Just trying to figure out where my moralities lie. Obviously I won't compromise when it comes to keep those important to me safe, but..." I looked out the window again. "If it's within my means, I wonder if I should show mercy - no, rather, could I live with myself if I don't show mercy. I already lost my innocence... but if there's a bit left in me I feel like I should protect it."

Mother looked at me with sad eyes. "Are you talking about that incident two years ago?"

I lost my innocence and became jaded when my memories as an adult returned to me, but ironically it was because of that, that I realize how valuable my innocence really was. I want to be innocent like a normal little kid. But I also want to protect everything important to me.

I'm greedy, aren't I?

I sighed. I shouldn't overthink things. "Oh well. I'll just play it by ear. If I want them to talk I have to show them overwhelming force first. Marina, did you charge up the cartridges?"

"These ones?" Marina handed me a box of bullets.

"Yeah that." I pulled out the magic rifle from my Arsenal that I had been developing back in the mage department's workshop and chambered a bullet. I parted the curtain a bit with the rifle and looked through the sights. I picked a bandit and pulled the trigger. A fireball streaked out of my rifle and crashed into his feet. It exploded and blasted apart three of the bandits.

"What do you think?" I asked.

Marina screamed and covered her eyes. Oops, I forgot that the most combat experience she had with humans was putting people to sleep. All of her other fights were against monsters. She took a few deep breaths and looked out of the window.

"W-with the amount of magic I put in I p-p-probably could hit more if I did it myself." Her lips quivered.

I bit my lip. "I'm sorry for making you see something unpleasant. But after you charged the cartridge your magic could recover, right?"

"Unn, so I'm still full with magic. Oh, so that's what you were going for?"

I nodded and chambered another cartridge. "I was hoping for a better efficiency rate though." I fired another round and took down another two bandits.

The area outside descended into chaos, as part of the bandits charged in towards our guards and another part scrambled around trying to figure out what happened.

"Marina, could you guard my mother?" I asked.

"I'll do my best." Marina nodded.

Mother grabbed my sleeve. "Tia, what are you going to do?"

"It'll be okay mama." I smiled. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"I'm worried about you!"

"It'll be okay." I cast light magic on myself to raise up my abilities.

What weapons should I go with?

I pulled out two katanas and kicked the carriage door open.

"Tiana Bracklin, Sword Caster, launching!" I flew out with my wind magic.

"What are you even talking about?!" My mother's scream echoed behind me.

I streaked over to a bandit fighting one of the guards, and before he could react I double slashed through him. His body fell apart as I landed on the ground. The guard stared at me with his jaw hanging open. I scanned the battlefield for where our guards were struggling the most. I cast my wind magic again and zoomed in towards an enemy. Right before I reached him I leapt into the sky, flipping over his head and striking him from behind.

I leapt into the air and flew onto the roof of the carriage, then used my wind magic to project my voice across the area. "Put your weapons down and surrender if you don't want to die."

A group of archers fired their bows at me and I pulled out a wall of swords from my IA. The arrowheads sounded like hail as they clanged against my blades. When their volley was over, my blades flipped over in the air and shot into the enemy archers.

I jumped back down and cut off the dominant arms of a pair of bandits that came close to the carriage.

An axe swung at me from behind and I crossed my blades to parry it.

"What kind of monster are you," the bandit hissed.

"Just your average ten year old girl." I weaved in and out of his range as we exchanged blows. He swung too hard and couldn't recover. I nicked his wrist with one sword, and when he broke his stance I stabbed the other sword through his neck.

I turned to engage another group when a snake-like stream of fire weaved through and disarmed them. Marina had her hands out of the carriage window and was casting fire magic here and there.

A tall bandit threw down his sword. "Stop! We surrender!"

He seemed to be the leader, as the remaining bandits either followed suit or ran away.

I kept watch over them as our guards tied up the ones that surrendered. There were about twelve of them.

"You killed Joey, I'll get you for this!" one of bandits that was missing an arm snarled at me.

I swung my sword to his neck, stopping right at his skin. Blood trickled down my blade. "I can send you to hell with him if you want."

The bandit completely froze except for his eyes, which were angled down and staring at my blade.

"Jonan, shut up!" barked the leader. He turned to me. "You can take my life instead, but please spare the rest of them."

"So you're the leader?" I asked.

"Yeah. Name's Rohan." He was tall and well built, with long black hair framing his face. A jagged scar ran down his left cheek. "You could've wiped us all out. Why did you save us?"

"Because I'm a greedy girl." I kept my swords into the two floating sheaths by my waist and shrugged. "I want to protect everything I can. Take everything I can. Save every life I can. Keep every bit of innocence that I can. I want everything in the world in my hands." I held out my palm towards his face and made a fist.

Rohan held his breath for a second then nodded. "What are you going to do with us now?"

"For now I'll march you guys over to the next town, and probably turn you over to the guards there. But don't get any weird ideas. I spared your lives once, but try anything funny and you will be dead." Rohan nodded, and I went back to the carriage.

The moment I entered I dropped myself down onto my mother's lap and curled up on her. My chest pounded. The warmth of her arms soon enveloped me.

"Was what I did okay?" I asked.

"You did your best," said mother as she rubbed my head. "That's good enough."

"I-I think you did well." Marina nodded.

"Thank you." I buried my face into mother's soft chest and fell asleep.

After that bandit attack, we continued on without incidents. We reached Windal, our last major overnight stop before our destination at the duchy's capital. Windal was a small town surrounded by mountains in the north, west, and east. It had many low stone buildings, and its industries were centered around cattle and the mines in the mountains.

We checked into an inn while our guards dumped Rohan's group at a local guardhouse. I was able to finally take a warm bath. I could've cleaned myself off with my magic, but it felt a lot more comfortable to stretch out and relax in a warm tub. It also helped that Lescia helped wash my body with her hands. Being an ojou-sama is the best~

"You don't have to keep doing this if you don't want to, you know," I said. Even though I enjoyed it a lot, since I had some of my previous world's sensibilities I didn't want to force anyone into doing this kind of thing.

Lescia smiled. "I don't mind it one bit, ojou-sama."

I pulled Lescia's arm into the bathwater and hugged it against my naked body. "What about coming into the tub with me?" I angled my head up and smiled.

"While that sounds nice, I have my pride as a maid, ojou-sama."

I let go of her arm. "Can't take a break from that once in a while?"

"Perhaps when you're older."

"Buu." I twirled my pink hair in my fingers. "You're 15 now, right? Are you going to get married and leave me?"

"If you wish, I will stay by your side."

"Don't you want to have your own family?"

"As long as you want me, I am perfectly happy to serve you for the rest of my life."

"Really? Not just flattery?"

"Really, ojou-sama."

I nuzzled my cheek against her arm. "I love you Lescia. You're like family to me."

Lescia dried me off and helped me get dressed, then we returned to my room where Marina was waiting. Together, the three of us went out onto the town's streets to stretch our legs.

Marina looked around at the scenery with her eyes wide open.

"Enjoying the view?" I asked.

"I never left the capital city before," said Marina. "I read about mountains in books, but to see them is another thing."

I bought some pears from a stall and shared them with Marina and Lescia. "Too bad the weather isn't good. It'll be dangerous to go into the mountains when it's raining."

Even though it was mid afternoon, the sky was dark. Grey clouds swirled above us, and we could hear distant rumblings of thunder. After we walked down a few more streets, droplets fell from the sky. Lescia hurried to bring out an umbrella but I cast a magic barrier around us to keep us dry.

"Think we should go back to the inn?" I asked.

"That would be wise, ojou-sama," said Lescia.

That night I was woken by a chorus of screams in all directions.