In Loki's Honor

I went to the bakery to get the first bread of the morning. Something I always wanted to. Freshly baked, scalding. I was at the bakery door before the sunrise, hearing to the silly tunes my father sang and crying silently. I made my current helper flustered.

Last night I hired a village girl, one of my acquaintances from childhood. I wouldn't call her a friend because I had none growing up. My disability and the prejudice that came with it was too big of a barrier for developing such bonds. But Halyle was the one that treated me the best.

"Are you crying?" She laid a hand on my shoulder and asked.

"Maybe?" I tried to laugh but a sob-hiccup came up.

Halyle cupped her hands and shouted, "Master Honorcoin! Open up!"

Daddy cursed and opened the door. "Who-- Mistress! Is something wrong?" The worried baker asked.

"No. Nothing wrong. Just two silly requests, actually. First, I wanted to know if the master would allow me to eat the first bread of the day."

"Oh! You honor me. Please, come in. I'd just taken the first tray out of the oven! I made an extra batch with apple and honey. I think the lady will love it!"

I followed my nose. I touched the bread, ignoring the "careful it's hot!" warning from my father and bit it. Tasted like home and love. Apples and honey too. I devoured that loaf of bread as if my life depended on it. I wept as I ate.

Living each life gave me a fresh start, time to grow up, and become a new person. But while one might laud the perks of immortality, the truth was that too many good people I loved vanished. That I was still able to feel, to love, to care was a blessing. I might be a cold-blooded murderer one night and a loving daughter in the next but I never lost sight of who I truly was. Maybe that blessing from Loki was the keystone to my sanity.

Past Life Memory (unique): Never lose sense of self. You carry memories, Attributes, Skills, and non-situational Traits to the next life.

Not to mention my absurd power.

I licked my fingers when the bread vanished.

"Is something wrong, milady?" Daddy asked. His voice was trembling, fearing the wrath of a powerful mage.

"No," I said with the softest tone Apricot's voice could make. "It was delicious. Perfect. I loved it."

"I made the whole batch for you, milady. I'm glad you liked," He humbly replied.

I waved a hand and sent all the bread to my storage, like piping hot as it was. The dam of my eyes was broken. Tears kept flowing. "Thank you, master [Baker]."

"You honor me, milady."

"My second request, would you listen to it? Please, master Honorcoin."

"I'll do whatever is within my reach, milady."

"I know your wife is a seamstress. I have some clothes that are in need of repairs, could you take me there?"

"I know where she lives," Halyle interjected. "I can take you there, milady."

"No. I want master Honorcoin to escort me. I brought you here to look after the bakery, Halyle. is it possible, master?"

"I think? The next batch of bread will take a few minutes to come out of the oven. Can you do it, Halyle?"

"I can, master. You know I would work here if you allowed me."

That was a good cue to ask one thing, "Why don't you have an apprentice, master?" I asked my father.

"I'm still strong. And I once hoped to leave the bakery to my daughter's husband. Get a strong man to keep the family business going."

"Does it have to be a man?" I asked with a stern tone I didn't intend.

"No. Nothing wrong with a stout lass, I guess," he replied a bit embarrassed.

"Well, let Halyle try. She'll do a good job and sell your bread this morning. If it works, you can think about letting her be your apprentice. I'll pay for her tuition. If it doesn't work, I'll apologize to the villagers and compensate for the damages. Does it sound like a deal?"

He was humbled, "Aye, milady. Bless you."

We left the bakery in Halyle's hands and went home. I heard the broom sweeping the porch.

"Hey, Eirana!" Daddy shouted. "You have a customer!"

The broom stopped.

"Temus! Who's... Milady [Mage]!" Mommy exclaimed, surprised.

"Mistress Eirana, well met," I greeted her.

"Milady here has some clothes in need of repair. Can you take a--"

She interrupted daddy as usual, "Of course. Please. I still didn't clean the night dust away, but make yourself comfortable."

"I'll leave the ladies--"

I interrupted him too, "NO," I firmly said. "You come inside with us."

"Aye, milady," He relented.

"Would you give me the broom, mo-Eirana?" I asked and extended my hand. I felt the stick in my hand. "{Animate Broom Golem}". The cartoonish hands sprouted from the sides of the dowel and I felt the broom coming alive in my hand. I summoned a bucket.

"Sweep the porch and walkway. Don't go into the street. Pick up debris on the front lawn and put the dust and debris in this bucket. Then return to the porch and standby for more orders once everything I mentioned is clean. You shall answer Eirana's orders too."

Mommy squealed, "A magic broom servant! I'm delighted!"

The golem started to sweep. "He will last for a day and a half. Tomorrow afternoon it will become an ordinary broom again. Please, let's go inside."

I entered. The same smells of my youth were there. Mom liked to use a herbal sachet to ward off moths and mites from the cloth.

"Milady, if you hand me the clothes you want to fix, I'll work on them right away."

I heard daddy close the door. "I have a dress here, I wish you check it for damage. It's a precious memento from my mother."

"Of course. I'll take the utmost care," Eirana answered. She reached and touched my shoulder. I think I was still crying but I can't remember. She was wearing one of my rings.

"Here. It's this dress," I produced the same dress I wore when I left this village. When I reached with my hand to pass the dress, I had the same copper rings as they.

"Funny, we have copper rings that look like yours. My daughter--" I heard her unfold the dress and look at it. "You said this dress was a memento of your mother?"

I pulled the hood and shifted my voicebox back. "I did, mom."

"By Galbarar's shield!" She gasped. "Rose?"

I reached and pulled them both into a hug. "I missed you so much, mom. Dad."

"Rosie!" Mom cried.

"Daddy, I hope you are not angry at me for pranking you," I told him. "But I had to know. If you would be afraid of me again."

He sniffled. My daddy was too manly to cry. "That shames me, Rosie. There's not a single day I don't regret what I did in those woods."

I planted dozens of kisses on his face. "Then stop it. I love you and all is forgiven."

"What are you talking about?' Mommy asked.

I chuckled, "Oh. The day we went hunting, I killed a level forty-one armored bear with a spell and daddy got scared of a little girl's magic."

"YOU WHAT?" Mom went from zero to a hundred faster than a Porsche. "You bleeding liar! You told me it was a goblin! A goblin!"

She was hitting him. I laughed so hard I started to cry again. But I took pity on him. "Mommy, stop that! He didn't want to make you worry."

"He put you in danger!" She protested.

"No, mom. I could've killed that armored bear with my bare hands if I wanted to. Back then, I had more than forty thousand HP when we went hunting. And my mana shield."

"Forty... thousand?"

"Yes. And today, if I met a bear out there, I could let him chew on me for a whole day and I would still be fine."

I wish to see the bear do ten million damage without a critical. I might want to invest in insta-kill protections later. I do have one to avoid criticals already but more might be better.

"Please don't," she implored.

"I won't."

"You healed elder Molly," mom started. "I'm getting sick lately, could you heal me too?"

I grinned. "Of course. Let me hold your hand." I held her hand and Nenandil chirped.

"What the?" I gasped. "Nenandil?"

The fairy made herself visible, coming out of my solar plexus. "Congratulations Mrs. Honorcoin," She chirped. "You're pregnant." The doctors said she was barren after having me.

Mom fainted.

I told them all about my adventurers. All about the official adventurers. I learned a long time ago that tales of murder, especially regicide, are better left untold. My bedroom became my mom's atelier. She insisted I should leave the inn and come back but I stopped her. I dug a basement-shaped hole in the backyard and popped my house in there.

Then word got out that I was the visiting mage and I had healing powers. Every villager with some affliction came to ask for treatment. My future storefront became a clinic. With daddy back to the bakery, Halyle turned into a nurse. I even started teaching her.

Every week I teleported via trees to the capital to check with Kazuyran. A Duke was winning the dispute for the regency. The fighting was mostly contained to the plains outside the city but some assassination contracts were put out for some key figures. I told him that he could take on some if they were not from the peaceful faction. I also learned that I had to come back and make an appearance to stop the rumors I'd fled with the King and the archmagister.

I kept my MP use to a minimum. My personal brand of healing used SP anyway. My aura covered the whole village and the vast majority of the villagers had no use for their MP. The guild master only noticed my aura because any veteran worth their salt always kept an eye on their resources.

I did some math. It would take me an absurd amount of time to reach fifty million MP, the amount I needed to break one of the curses. The time to fill one hundred and two full mana pools. That's months without using any magic at all.

"I might need more levels," I sighed my frustration to Nenandil.

We were in the attic, the fairy-sized lavishly-decorated mansion. I was using Silverstreak's form, of course.

Nenandil held my hands and looked in my eyes. "Rosewise. We need to talk," she said, seriously. "Your Exp allocation is still manual. Check how much Exp you have. You have all the Exp from the King doing nothing there. You need to look at your sides sometime," she giggled.

You reached Manaborne Sorceress level 18

You gained 2 perks.

You reached Ghostsight Eleon level 17

You gained 1 perk.

You reached Spirit Jeweller level 16

You reached Fae Enchanter level 16

You gained 84 Skill Points.

Attributes above the cap were redistributed.

13 / 100 Attribute points withheld.

Lucky Evasion (ultra-rare): When you are targeted by a hostile attack or spell, the difference between Luck scores are applied as either a bonus or a penalty to the attacker.

Drain Magic Core (very rare): You can use a magic core to replenish your MP. Each level in the core recovers 2% of your maximum MP.

My real level now was seventy-five. I kept the sixty-three on display. The goalpost shortened. Eighty-eight mana pools. I had to return to the capital to leech more MP off the population. Or use three hundred and twenty-one levels of magic cores. That reminded me, I had hundreds, probably a thousand monsters to dismantle.

Without much to do, I started to convert the basement into a monster processing workshop. The carpenter took two weeks to make the furniture. I could do it faster but I couldn't spend MP. At least I got time to spend with my parents.

Once my tools and furniture were all in place inside the basement, I put myself to work on the monsters. I started with the armored bear. The skin plates were good for making armor, the fangs and claws made good household tools. The meat was edible but too sinewy. People usually fed it to mastiffs. The blood was just monster blood. I gathered it in a barrel. When I opened the heart, I found a magic core.

I was lucky, I guess. It was a level forty-one magic core. It would give me and Nenandil twenty Attribute points each if I consumed it. I set it aside. Butchering the bear took me a whole day. I had years of work ahead of me.

With all the villagers healthy, I devoted my time to dismantling and butchering the monsters in my dimensional storage. On the second day, I found five cores. On the third, six. From what I knew that was abnormal. Most monster cores shattered upon death. Mine were mostly intact.

Two months after I arrived, my mother's belly was starting to bulge. The baby was healthy, I had hundreds of fruit and honey bread. And I almost had enough cores to break a curse. One day, mommy called me.

"Rosie, I found the perfect fiance for you! it's a strong fellow from a nearby village! He's coming tomorrow to see you."

That's when I had to break the bad news. "Mom, there's war brewing at the capital. I have to go back. I'll come here every week now. I hope you understand, I have duties there. Love you."

I returned to the capital. I wasn't running away from an arranged marriage. NOPE.