One's Own Freedom [Genshin Impact]

Chapter One - Locked Away

"Rai my dear, it's time for your daily reading lecture!"

I was only 14 years old, and yet I had so much useless knowledge stuffed inside the small skull of mine. I was tired of this life. I was tired of being restrained. I was tired of being locked away from what mysteries lie beyond the castle walls. Possibly, even beyond the kingdom.

I was limited to what books I could read, but I managed to sneak some in from the library, because the librarian had taken pity on me and decided I needed a spice of life. I hid these books under a wooden plank on my floor underneath my bed, where only I knew where to find them. These books were the key to my escape with Lumine and Aether.

I rushed down the narrow staircase, circling the tower's interior. Round and round it went, though I had gotten used to it. If I were to be late for the third time this week, mother would surely ban my reading time for another month.

The stairs were quite sturdy for wood, but they were kept in tack and made sure that not even a creak sound came from it. As I reached the last few steps, I hopped off of them, and quickly skipped to the library. The large room wasn't too far from the stairs, only down the hall and to the first right. I turned the corner to see the door at the end of the hall. It was wide open and I swiftly rushed inside looking for my mother.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw mother emerge from the last row of books, "There you are Rai. Iris is awaiting you at the far table by the fiction novels." Iris. 10 years of being my instructor, but it's only book lectures. Never once has she taught me something of greater knowledge, it was always meaningless topics like the history of Tafōot and boring literature. Subjects I found no interest in. The only topics that catch my eye are all about pure magic and traveling.

People have been doing it for decades, maybe even centuries. They've gained extensive knowledge, and prepared for years and years. Practicing spells and creating potions for their long journeys, where they most likely, not return to their home. They have the courage and determination like me, except for the fact they're free to do whatever they please, whilst I'm simply locked away.

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The lecture was coming to an end quicker than I anticipated it to be, however I zoned out for most of the lessons. The useless lessons. In general, just the useless lectures. None of the information given was important to me or my understanding. It had been only false stories of Tafōot, keeping magic out of the question, altering the books and words written. It was only history and literature and writing.

No mathematics, astrology or simple alchemy was even taught to me. I only had Luna, the librarian, to rely on to teach me those subjects. There were rarely any books from those categories, though I made my best out of what I received from Luna, so I can finally make her proud one day, and say I finally achieved what I wanted to do all of my life. I'm still rusty to this day, but at least I have an idea of what they're about.

The days went by, weeks slowly turning to months, and the lectures were small bits and pieces of useless history that was made up completely by the orders of the Queen. And with each passing day, an itching feeling grew upon me; Why had they placed magic out of the question? Specifically, why were they changing the texts for that reason? Beforehand, I never really dug deep into that question, nor have I even thought of that before. It suddenly just came up in my thoughts.

I finally decided to disturb a daily lecture from Iris, considering Mother had wandered off into the palace to complete her royal duties. I was not going to expect much of an answer, but if I could get one sentence from her, I'd gladly start to pay more attention to her lectures.