Evie blinked in surprise, looking at the shell in awe.

It really talked!

She looked around to see if there was an adult who could confirm it, but sadly, there were none.

“Hewo…” she said, voice soft, as if afraid her friend would be intimidated.

After a moment, it spoke again. “...hello...” it said, and it was the voice of a young child, too.

“Was youw name, Mista Shew? My nwame is Evwie.”

“...Silas,” he said.

It was the voice of a child, perhaps just a little younger than her brother.

“Siw?”

“Hmn.”

Evie did not think much of this situation. She was just happy that she could talk to the shell!

She hadn’t been outside much, but when she was, she could feel that the other children didn’t seem to like her at all.

She always felt envious when she saw other kids play and laugh (except when she and her brother were the ones they were laughing at). She would ask her brother or the maids to play with her, too, but she also wanted a friend the same size as her, or even smaller.

Looking at the large shell just the size of her head, it felt like she had found what she was looking for.

It couldn’t play tag or play hide and seek, though… but they’d figure something out.

Before she could talk more—to ask what games the shell could play—the doorknob turned. Evie flinched, and her eyes sparkled, excited to tell her mother about her discovery. “Mummy~ Evie has new fwen!”

“Oh?” Celeste said, looking at the shell the baby was holding up. She held it up near her face while her baby stepped onto her lap to talk to it. “Siw, Siw, meet my mummy!”

Nothing.

“Siw?” the baby asked again, louder but more tentatively this time.

Still nothing.

Evie’s eyebrows immediately furrowed in worry.

Celeste, on the other hand, was more concerned that the baby was awake in the middle of the night.

She coaxed the shell out of her small hands and placed it on the nightstand again. Evie pouted and followed the movement, looking longingly at the shell, which was now far out of her reach.

“When did you wake up, my baby?” Celeste asked, guiding the little princess back to her embrace, gently patting at her back to lull her to sleep.

Evie was obedient and embraced her mother. However, she felt sad. Did Sil leave? Would he not talk to her again?

It was this thought that occupied her mind as she was embraced by her mother, eventually falling into slumber.

…

The next morning, she woke up alone again, as usual. This was not counting the maid who entered as soon as she made noise while she was looking for her mother.

The maid’s name was Bona, a young lady with braided hair and a freckled face. However, instead of going into her arms, the little princess crawled to the nightstand, grabbing the shell again.

“Mowning Siw~”

No answer.

“Siw?”

Still no answer.

Her eyebrows furrowed. She was concerned for her ‘friend.’ She did not even consider that the exchange could have been a figment of her imagination at all.

She called on the shell a few more times before Bona decided it was time to start the day. Once again, the shell was taken away from Evie’s grasp. She was carried to the bathroom so she could be prepared for the day.

“Princess! Time to take a bath,” Bona said with a gentle smile, taking her to the bathroom. It was located deeper in the large bedroom, far from the windows, so a bit dark.

Bona then took a reddish shard and placed it on an opening underneath a wall light. As soon as she placed it there, some patterns formed on the lamp, and the entire room lit up as if there was a window there.

A few more maids came in with buckets, and they filled up the bathtub with water. When it was done, Bona placed another red shard in a slot at the side of the tub. The surface of the tub burst with a pattern before disappearing.

Evie blinked, curious. She saw this every day, but today, she started wondering why there were patterns, why it was like that, and so on.

Bona had no idea the toddler’s ‘why, why, why’ phase was on the horizon. She was just innocently soaking her hand in the water to determine when it would be warm enough. When it was ready, she removed the shard.

While she did this, the other maids helped the Princess out of her pajamas and into the water.

It was comfortably warm, and Evie enjoyed swimming for a bit.

It was really nice…

As always, the maids cleaned her up well. They dressed her in a frilly but comfortable dress that she liked and led her to the palace’s dining room half an hour later for breakfast.

The way to the dining room passed by a long veranda facing the gardens. The baby saw her mother practicing her water magic there, causing her little feet to stop. The maids blinked and stopped moving. They did not urge the princess to move and patiently waited until she got bored and moved on.

Evie watched in awe as a large water snake followed her mother’s movements. She looked so graceful and lovely.

“Woww…” she mumbled and Celeste paused when she realized her daughter was there. The ‘snake’ was well-behaved and returned to the large bucket, turning to still water, while Celeste headed to Evie to give her a smooch. Celeste cut her exercise short and headed to dine with her daughter.

Breakfast was as usual, and Elric had once again left early to go to the academy.

For the morning class, Celeste and Helena decided to add some difficulty to Evie’s lessons.

Evie could already speak well (not counting her natural lisp as a baby), so Celeste wanted to see how she comprehended things.

“Hmmn…” Celeste mumbled, looking around. She took a random silvery-grey vase from the side. “Can you tell me what this is?”

“Is a vase, Mummy!” the baby girl proudly answered. That would’ve already been enough, except—

“Made of Zephiw metaw…” she mumbled. “I wike it when pouw watew.”

“She even knows of Zephyr metal, Your Highness,” Helena whispered, startled.

Their City was built next to a mountain called Azerea Mountain. Zephyr metal was one of the things that could be mined there. This was why there was a good amount of it in the royal and noble households.

It was also a fairly uncommon metal around the world, and it was therefore one of their Kingdom’s main items for trade.

This metal was very malleable, and—combined with Desert metals found in the deserts of Solthar Kingdom—it could create the special weapons that both armies used.

The desert metal might be the main metal in the weaponry, but their Zephyr metal was required to make it effective

The two women looked curiously at the little girl. “How do you know that?”

The baby blinked. “Bwothew towd me.”

At this, the two women looked at each other with raised eyebrows. They seem to have a vague memory of this scene. It had been when Evie was just one year old and had just started running.

Like most babies, she had boundless energy and an endless need to explore.

In one of her many ‘adventures,’ she had ended up hitting a table, causing the vase to fall down. Zephyr metal was very malleable, and the fall created a dent, making the girl believe that she had broken it.

The baby had cried in shock, almost inconsolable. Fortunately, Elric had been there to comfort her.

At the time, he had told her it was made of Zephyr metal and only needed to be heated a bit and then hammered, and it’d be good as new.

“It is even used by our soldiers as a weapon, you know,” he had said, causing the girl to stop crying.

They had no idea she’d still remember that.

Celeste gulped, thinking. Obviously, her baby was very special—well, she had always believed so, but this was indisputable specialness that proved it wasn’t just her bias as a mother. Frankly, she wasn’t sure how to handle it.

She cleared her throat and looked around, seeing some loose papyrus that Elric had brought home.

“Then…” she paused, shifting her gaze to her daughter, who had just passed 2 years old not long ago. “Maybe we can start writing lessons?”

…

Parchment was expensive and in limited supply, so it’d be too wasteful for them to use it as a practice surface. She might be the daughter of a Duke—also the King’s woman—but Celeste was never wasteful.

In the end, she had the idea to use the soil outside to practice letters. They created a soft bed of soil and took a few sticks to use as writing tools.

The first lesson was just the repeated writing of three letters. After the Great Armstice, a lingua franca that combined all five languages had been implemented.

This language system was phonetic, and it had about 40 letters overall. Three seemed to be quite a bit to start with… except Evelina managed to master all three in ten minutes.

And it only took that long because she couldn’t control the stick that well yet.

And so, that afternoon, Evie finished her work early again. It was just a little later because of the added challenges, but she still finished it much faster than people expected her to.

She once again went around exploring in her free time. This time, it was her handmaid Bona who followed her around. As before, she asked to stay in the room alone, and Bona made sure she wouldn’t accidentally fall somewhere before leaving her be.

Handmaids simply had to be nearby, easily called by the masters as needed. There was no need to be in their space every time, even if said master was a toddler.

After being left alone in her comfy position, Evie lay down with the shell again. “Hewo?” she asked, but she was actually very worried. It had been a while since she last talked with Sil, after all.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry too long, because a voice did come through.

“I’m here.”

“Siw!” Her small voice echoed across the room and into the shell. “Yew hew! Wew wew youuu?”

“I…had something going on,” he said, as succinct as always. However, Evie never really minded it. She could do most of the talking anyway.

“I mwissed youuuu~”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Miss…” he said, asking why she’d missed him. Interestingly, Evie knew what he meant.

“Yew my fwen.”

“Friend?” he paused. “What does that mean?”

“Hmn~ sumone you wike to pway withw,” she said. This definition was something she had learned through the lessons. She learned the definition of a friend and what they would do—and what they would not do.

Celeste had taught this in the hope her children would find a good friend, and not someone who’d stab them in the back in the future.

The current nobles were certainly putting the children at arm’s length, and it was worrying their mother.

There was a long pause in the conversation.

For a moment, Little Evie thought Sil had disappeared again.

Her little shoulder slumped at the thought. She pouted and sniffled, looking like she was an abandoned baby.

If an adult were there, they’d have felt heartbroken at the sight.

Fortunately, her sadness didn’t last too long, because the shell made a sound again.

“Hmn. Mine, too.”

The child on the other side had always been taciturn, but somehow Evie knew he was smiling.

Just like that, all sadness was swept away, and her cute giggles bubbled up.

So happy!

Although Sil didn’t speak again after that, Evie’s mood was nice the rest of the day, causing happiness to the entire palace in turn.

…

Solara City, thousands of kilometers south of Zephyris City

Somewhere in Solthar Kingdom’s largest city-state, a dark-skinned boy not even four years of age was withering in the corner of a dusty room, curled up as if he were a drying worm.

In his frail grasp rested a familiar shell.

His hand was rough, his fingers were thin and calloused, and his arms looked so fragile that it felt like they’d break at the slightest movement.

However, there was a small smile that graced his dried lips, causing his entire aura to brighten just a bit.

“Friend, eh…?” he murmured, his voice barely a whisper.

He tried to keep his eyes open, wanting to continue replying to the child on the other side.

However, he was already too weak to utter another word, and his eyelids were getting too heavy.

They closed in the end, and no one could tell when they’d open again.