"Oh, gods! With all that happened lately, I had almost forgotten about that." Tista took the records about Nana out of her dimensional amulet and started to read out loud.
According to the book, Nana had been born as Nerea, the daughter of Lutia's shoemaker, 75 years back. From a tender age, she had shown a brilliant mind and an amazing talent for magic.
She had learned how to write, count, and use all kinds of chore magic by the age of three. Even without a master nor proper training, by the age of six, she had started to take care of her own family thanks to the spells that she had learned simply by observing the village's healer.
By the age of ten, she had started to develop several personal spells and rumors spread throughout the Lustria County that she had inherited from her ancestors the power of the Dragon's Eyes.
Even mages couldn't explain how such a small kid could imitate their simplest spells just a few days after watching them in action despite not having received any explanation. The rumors had reached Count Cenar Lark, Trequill's father, who had arranged for Nerea the exam at the nearby Lightning Griffon.
There, she had shocked the examiners by showing complete mastery over the first three tiers of magic and even hexa-casting. It would have been all the more reasons for rejecting her application since the nobles could already see their heirs being humiliated by a dirty poor commoner.
It was then that, after noticing their scorn where admiration was supposed to be, Nerea had performed Silverwing's Hexagram. It forced the Headmaster to let her enroll and hope that, once inside the academy, the students would have broken her.
The records of the admission exams would be submitted to the Association and then to the Royals. If any of them discovered that the academy had rejected a twelve years old girl already more capable than most mages who graduated from lesser academies, the Headmaster's head would have rolled.
According to the records, Nerea had it rough, especially during the first months. Hazing was the rule and few Professors did what they could to help her. Yet instead of breaking Nerea as her enemies hoped, that treatment made her stronger.
After a while, Nerea started to ambush her oppressors while they were alone in the academy corridors, and then she beat them until the only feeling they had at her sight was fear.
She would always heal them before leaving so that no proof remained. With her growing talent and outstanding grades in both her specialization as War Mage and Battle Mage, she had piqued the interest of the Royals themselves.
The Queen asked Nerea if she was interested in becoming one of the secret assets of the Kingdom in exchange for protection for her, her family, and more money than she could count.
The young girl already hated the whole world and the idea of finally being respected was too good to turn the Queen's offer down. Nana officially failed her Battle Mage specialization so that she had the time to attend the Assassin specialization lessons that took place on the hidden seventh floor of the academy.
The two disciplines followed the same principles, but while a Battle Mage was flashy and fought on the battlefield, an Assassin was inconspicuous and their work mostly took place inside opulent households.
Even though Nerea was considered to be a student with only one specialization, no one dared to mock her anymore. At least not after the Queen exacted revenge on her behalf and wiped out two noble families that had been persistent in troubling her.
Soon the corridors of the academy turned from a battlefield into red carpets for Nerea and her life had never been happier nor easier. Yet it also made her conceited, mistaking bootlickers and fair-weather friends for people she could rely upon.
After graduating from the academy, Nerea started her work in the field. The more her body count grew, the more the burden of her actions made her reliant on her so-called friends, preparing the field for the incoming disaster.
A few years later, when Nerea was 21, one mission went horribly wrong. Anela Linnea, future Headmistress of the Lightning Griffon and Nana's handler, had sent her to kill Grand Duke Creghan.
He was a known traitor to the Kingdom, but there was no solid proof of his traffics with the Empire and he was too powerful to kill him off with a flimsy excuse. Since he never remained alone, not even when meeting his lovers, the plan was to kill Creghan in his sleep and to keep the body count to a minimum.
Alas, the late Alric, who was tasked with collecting info, failed to learn about the Arch Duke's last minute change of plans. The late Wyla, infiltrated among the house staff, failed to inform her accomplices that in the absence of the master, the lady of the house would still be there.
Linnea, in turn, failed to check on her assets, having become complacent with Nerea's skills. According to the records, when Nana realized what had happened, she had already killed Lady Creghan and her son, mistaking them for husband and wife.
On top of that, Lord Creghan returned soon after, compromising her escape route. In the end, she had managed to kill the Arch Duke and to Warp away, but she had left behind a massacre that years later would inspire Balkor.
Nerea's team falsified the reports and pinned all the blame on her, claiming that even after receiving the news of Creghan's change of plans she had decided to continue the mission.
The Royals had no reason to doubt their loyal servants and they needed a scapegoat. Creghan's death had already ruffled the noble household's feathers so punishing noble heirs would have only made things worse.
Making an example of a grassroots commoner mage, instead, would have given everyone enough reason to celebrate and created a scandal that would have obfuscated Creghan's death, especially after they found proof of his treason.
Nerea found herself alone, stripped of her titles, riches, artifacts, and even forbidden to ever use dimensional magic again. It was another of the classes that she had allegedly failed and, if she exposed the truth, only death would await her.
After that, Nana had returned to Lutia, indulging in alcohol and self-pity until age made her health so poor that her blue core degraded to bright cyan.
"Poor Nana." Tista said. "Now I get why she was so bitter and why she wanted me to be more ruthless."
"Everyone involved is dead, except for Linnea who has disappeared years ago." Lith said. "Are you really going to hunt her down? Even though this isn't what Nana wanted?"
"Honestly, I don't know." Tista sighed. "Too much time has passed and Linnea got her due. Even if she's still alive, she now knows what Nana went through because of her betrayal.
"Linnea lived all of her life as noble, yet now she has lost everything as well and has to live as rat, hiding into some dark corner to not get stomped. I'd say that's the best life sentence I can hope for. I wish Linnea has a long and unhappy life ahead of her."
