Chapter 1

Aura, known as the strongest water mage, allied with other countries to bring heavy rain and floods to the kingdom.

Due to the sin of taking thousands of lives, in the sixty-second year of the Kingdom of Shemel, Aura was beheaded at the age of twenty-three.

History of the Kingdom of Shemel, Chapter 2: "The Mage Aura"

......

One day, nearly thirty years after Aura's execution.

"Alesia, we're almost home, so don't fall asleep."

"Okay, okay, I won't sleep..."

My mother's gentle voice and the warm hand that stroked my back made me feel so good that I became even sleepier.

(Why can't I sleep? It feels so nice.)

At the time, I found it mysterious.

I was sitting in a basket attached to a camel.

We were returning from a trip to a big town, and I was full and tired. As I swayed on the camel, gazing at the vast desert dunes illuminated by the moonlight, I think it was inevitable that I, at three years old, would become very sleepy.

I paddled my chestnut head back and forth and blinked my blue eyes, which were speckled with gold, trying hard not to close them. But my eyelids slowly drooped.

Eventually, I fell asleep.

My mother always kept oil paper and wax-coated waterproof cloth ready in case I fell asleep outside.

Because it would rain. Only around me.

I was born with a special power.

The power to make it rain unconsciously when I slept.

My mother first noticed this a few days after I was born.

Weak showers fell only around our small house in the capital, day and night.

When I slept, it started raining. When I woke up, it stopped. At first, my mother thought it was a coincidence, but upon closer observation, my sleep and the rain were perfectly synchronized.

When I was a baby, it was more like a light mist, and the range was very small.

The neighbors would say, "It often rains these days," and my mother would laugh and brush it off, saying, "Yes, it does. But the rain is a blessing."

She couldn't possibly say, "It seems our child is making it rain."

My father, Serio, worried, "If this is known, I might be treated like a monster and killed for sport," and my mother, Ilda, feared, "If such power is known, important people might take this child away and use her until she dies." Therefore, my parents decided to thoroughly hide my power.

My parents judged that "if we stay here any longer, rumors about the rain will spread," and left the familiar capital with me, who was two weeks old.

My father sold our meager savings and household items to buy vegetable and wheat seeds and the minimum building materials, and built a shack in a dry valley far from the capital.

Such a place is usually uninhabitable. There is no water.

However, our family did not lack water because of my power. The rain that fell on the roof of our shack was collected with a homemade rain gutter, and a large barrel was always filled with plenty of water.

Gentle rain also fell on the fields we created in the desert valley. When seeds were sown in the fields that received both rain and sunlight, vegetables and wheat grew lushly, and sweet fruits abundantly ripened on the young fruit trees. My parents called me "our rain-bringing princess" and raised me with great care.

The Kingdom of Laminb is a young country that was formed after the collapse of the old Kingdom of Shemel. The land is surrounded by high mountain ranges to the west and south.

The moist air from the sea to the west and south hits the mountains and rains on the other side of the mountain range, leaving only dry winds to cross the mountains. Therefore, three-quarters of the kingdom is a dry region.

The royal palace is near a river that brings water from the mountains, but the river disappears underground and vanishes when it reaches the wasteland beyond the capital. The people of the Kingdom of Laminb, who live outside the capital, depend on the water from scattered oases.

"In this country, water is more valuable than money in some places."

"Yes. If it's known that you have the power to make it rain while sleeping, you won't be able to lead a normal life."

My parents were poor farmers living on the outskirts of the capital, so they never thought of using my ability to gain power and rise in status.

"Alesia's power is growing with her."

"Yes. Recently, the rain falls not just around the house but quite far away."

The range of the rain increased with my growth, and by the time I was three, it rained on a land area of about four hundred meters in diameter.

Our house and farm were far from the capital, the oases, and the trade routes used by caravans, so no one ever came near. This isolated life with the three of us continued until I turned five.

Thanks to the quiet rain that fell every night, my parents enjoyed a bountiful harvest, and my father would leave the house at night to sell the crops at the market in the capital. He sold vegetables and fruits that were fresh and tasty, and our income improved significantly compared to when we lived in the capital.

One day, a family came to our house.

Thank you for reading this work among many others.

Please take your time and enjoy it.

I had been writing this for a long time and finally decided to publish it.

To me, it's a heartwarming story.