The Capture Target Only Loves Magic

1-7. Magic

Life was peaceful.

Typical, clumsy Annie. I snorted and turned my head. I looked unhappily at her. Annie lifted her foot in surprise, but it was too late. I closed my eyes at the ripping sound. When I opened them again, Annie was kneeling as she touched the edges of my alphabet book awkwardly. It was ripped in two. Split right in the middle. Great.

It took a little time before Annie realized what had just happened, the silly maid.

"Oh," she stated numbly.

My expression was deadpan. I wasn't about to cry, I just didn't feel very happy. I didn't know all my words yet, and I really didn't want to be illiterate. Especially since the time I spend awake has lengthened nowadays, learning and reading was my only hobby. And now without my language book I had to wonder what to do in my extra seconds every day.

Annie began to spout gibberish. Her voice sounded panicked, then it turned sad. I still couldn't completely understand the language, so a lot of what she said was cloaked in fog.

"I'm so sorry!" Annie said.

That was one of the few words I could understand. My maid made huge exaggerated hand motions to convey that, or I hoped, she would get a new alphabet book for me. She had better be saying that she was going to buy a new one for me. I huffed. As if just saying sorry was going to be enough.

I pointed to the book. "Nu! Nu!"

New! New!

Annie nodded. I looked at her expression carefully.

I sighed. It hadn't been that long since I had started to learn how to read. It had only been a few days. Starting from scratch wasn't easy. I had thought around a couple of hours should be enough to memorize the alphabet, but the problem was the language barrier. I could understand none of Annie's explanations.

And now my progress was interrupted.

This wasn't the only alphabet book I had, actually. There was also a leather one, but that book had been completely cracked 5 months after birth. It took some time for me to turn over and flip the pages, and it took time for my eyes to focus on letters, but afterwards, the alphabet was completely memorized in around two days or so.

Not bad. One of the not-many positive things about being a baby was that my short-term memory greatly improved.

The problem was, Annie ripped the paper book. The leather one was different from the paper copy. The leather copy only had alphabet letters, but the paper one also had various words and sentences to learn. They were completely different books.

"I'll make it up to you," Annie promised.

The floor was soft. I yawned. Annie pouted as she realized I was facing her opposite direction. She was yipping like a distressed dog as if the ripped book was the only reason I was currently ignoring her. It wasn't.

I wasn't bored enough to play with an adult taking care of a kid. Even if I added in my previous life, Annie still looked as if she would be older than me. Annie made a sad sound. Have fun with yourself or whatever. You look around twenty, for god's sake. I'm sixteen. Seriously.

Kids sleep a lot, Annie. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I just don't have the energy to keep myself going for long periods of time. I yawned again, smaller this time.

Little was happening in my everyday life. It wasn't really bad or good. But, okay. A small rare smile formed on my face before I wiped it away. It was a second life for heaven's sake. I just had to wait for a few years. Compared to being stuck in limbo forever, this was a much better deal.