The following day was…weird.

  Quintin hummed to himself at the kitchen table. His eyes were closed, and a permanent smile marred his face. He looked at me with overwhelming joy. Likewise, Amalia whistled as she made breakfast. Both were in tune as they happily harmonized the same song.

  I was going to barf.

  Quintin screamed and hugged me when I showed him my eyes. After that, he ran inside and showed me off to Amalia before I could process what had happened. Both started crying and hugging me. I did my best not to poke them with the very tiny horns hidden within my hair, but even when they did, I don’t think either of my parents noticed. They were too excited.

  It was now morning, and they had calmed down significantly, but not enough for my liking.

  “You’re going to change the world,” said Quintin. “It’s destiny. My daughter is going to change the world.”

  “Honey, don’t put so much pressure on her,” said Amalia. She moved around with a skillet of food and began platting us. She gave me a bigger portion of meat than usual. “Eat up.”

  “Thanks,” I mumbled. At least I can cut my stupid hair now. I think.

  “You have a strong destiny,” said Quintin. “The Gods have made it so! See?! Devils, humans, it doesn’t matter! The Gods see everyone as equal. Why else would you be given such great power?” He slapped his hand on the table happily. “Isn’t this wonderful?!”

  They both began speaking religious-type dribble since they saw my eyes. The world was based on “strong stories,” said the Pantheon religion, and those with world-changing destinies would have stronger stories and power.

  I clapped my hands together like I was praying, then folded them open toward me to reveal both my palms. Mana concentrated in my hands, and a book appeared.

  It was my personal codex.

  I closed the pages and flipped to the cover, which was a brilliant white color to reflect my eyes. The time of day was also etched into the top right corner of the book, and the date into the left. My name, Yennifer, was printed at the bottom in big letters. There was no surname since I wasn’t a noble and didn’t come from a noble family. And finally, right dead in the middle was a white circle indicating my ability to draw mana at the highest level.

  The book contained general information about my life, allowing me to organize tasks, plan for the future, keep a record of events that happened to me, and store important items.

  Each codex essentially had an endless number of pages. They appeared to have a few dozen pages, but nobody could flip to the end or beginning of their codex no matter how long they tried. No one could read another person’s codex either. Unless the owner wanted specific people to see what was written, the pages looked blank to anyone else.

  The codex also disappeared unless its owner wanted someone else to look at it and hold it. For the owner, however, opening the book offered insight into what someone owned, how much money they had, and what they knew. It was condensed, summarized, and presented to the codex owner’s preferences.

  In terms of finance, the codex acted as a bank containing all the coins and transactions a person undertook throughout their lifetime. Pages could be removed from the codex and assigned a value, allowing coins to be accessed and distributed to other people.

  In theory, I could assign a set amount of coins to a sheet of paper, remove it from my codex, and hand it to someone. If the person I gave the page to added it to their codex through their hand or by adding it to their pages, the coins would be transferred to them. If I intended it for someone or something specific, the amount would only be accessible if the codex page was accessed by that particular person or if certain criteria were met once logged into the codex.

  Items could also be fed into the book for later use. Doing so stored the item in a separate space, accessible only via the codex. To test it out, I placed a comb inside first. When I wanted to access the item, I thought about it, turned a page in my codex, and a hand-drawn version of it appeared on the very next page with a written description of the item, its quality, history, and value.

  The amount someone could hold within their codex depended on their mana supply. Usually, in the storage section, there’d be a “1/40” or similar kind of number sequence indicating how many items someone could hold within their codex. Some items took up more than one space, but that was dependent on several factors that I wouldn’t have to worry about. After all, I didn’t have a limit in mine because of my eyes from what I saw. It was probably the best benefit I could have asked for. Merchants would kill to have that ability, and it was something I had immediately upon awakening. With help.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Coins and items could be exchanged between different people’s codexes. That was how most contracts in this world worked—by assigning and distributing codex pages. It made transactions fair and easily enforceable. The Guild took advantage of this system better than anyone else.

  The codex also served as a recorder of past events as well as a task list and schedule. If I wanted to recall a particular event, all I needed to do was think about it then turn the page, and my codex would be filled with notes recalling what happened from my perspective. It also generated summaries of knowledge I’d learned. For example, if I’d seen a type of animal or recipe before, that information would be generated on a page for me to read if I wanted or needed it.

  “I’ve always wanted to try this,” I said as I grabbed a page from my codex. I pulled it out, and my intent was printed on the page like a written contract. I handed it to Quintin. “I’m giving you back all the coins I made.”

  Amalia and Quintin stopped what they were doing to stare at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Why would you do that?” asked Quintin slowly. He’d been holding all the coins I’d made from hunting the past few years and had only recently given me them earlier that morning.

  “I want to hire Barcus and his party to train me,” I explained. Cocking my head to the side as innocently as possible, I forced a confused expression on my face. “They did offer yesterday, didn’t they? They also seem fine with devils since there are two in their party, and there’s someone around my age to train with. It’s kind of like fate, isn’t it?”

  Quintin grabbed the codex page from me. It looked like a typical, worn sheet of paper, but it glowed with a soft golden aura around the edges, brightening it. He opened his codex, held the sheet over it, and my contract inserted itself inside with the rest of his pages.

  Instantly, I felt the “exchange” finalize inside myself and suddenly knew what had happened: that my codex had been updated and the amount of money I had decreased. It was a different sensation from when I “remembered” skills from my past life. Instead, it felt more like a reminder than something being jammed permanently into my mind.

  “Oh, cool, it worked,” I said with little excitement. “Lucky me.”

  Quintin fumbled to open his codex. “I’ll give it back to you.”

  “No, that’s alright, I’ll—”

  “But—”

  “I’ll tear any sheet you try to give me,” I said. Doing so would return the contents to its original creator. “It’s my decision. I don’t want you guys to pay for it. You’ve done enough to raise and support me. I have the money. I’m paying.” I paused and sheepishly scratched the back of my head. “Hopefully its enough.”

  Quintin and Amalia were quiet. I could see from their conflicted faces that they didn’t want to take the coins, but I could also tell they knew I was serious and that I wouldn’t take them back.

  “This might be enough to pay Jessie to train you. And Barcus. They’re both strong. Stronger than me, and…I agree with your reasons,” said Quintin after a while. “I don’t have the knowledge or skills to train you the way you need to be trained. Not now, at least, with what’s happened.”

  I stared at him. After all, I cared for him in my own psychopathic way, but I agreed with him, too. “Are you sure?”

  “Depends.” Quintin looked at Amalia. “You okay with the idea?”

  In a move entirely out of character, Amalia nodded. “Yes. I think it’s a great idea. Barcus seems competent.”

  “He is and his team’s one of the better adventurer groups to come through here since I moved in,” said Quintin. “I think it’d be a good idea to have her train and work with them while they’re here this month. That way, I can supervise her while they teach her things I can’t. I’m a little lacking…”

  Amalia and I sighed. We both hated it when he put himself down like that.

  “You’ll learn a lot from that crew. They’re good people, and they like teaching kids about mana. Barcus says it helps them build the reputation he wants, so he goes out of his way to do it on purpose,” explained Quintin. “And them training Nigel is convenient for you.” He frowned. “You like that boy, right?”

  “He seems like he’d be a good friend. He didn’t make fun of my ears and treated me like an equal,” I replied.

  Quintin nodded. “Good.”

  Amalia leaned in and whispered into Quintin’s ear. “How old? Twelve, right?”

  “Yup,” Quintin whispered back.

  “And?”

  “Other boys aren’t nice to her, and he is. They’ll be training together for a while.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll be keeping my eyes on him.”

  “What do you think is going to happen?” I interjected. “I’m ten. We’re children.”

  “And I was thirteen when I first started *ahem* exploring,” said Quintin.

  “I was fourteen,” added Amalia. “Just be careful, okay?”

  I could have gone my whole life without ever knowing this. I thought.

  “The boy’s only a year younger than I was,” mentioned my father. “Just be conscious of him, okay? Boys think differently than girls about these kinds of things even if you don’t.”

  I rested my chin on the table. “Whatever you say.”

  We’d already had “the talk” when I turned ten. It happened right after my birthday. They were very, very detailed about it and open to questions. I, for one, never wanted to hear anything ever again afterward.

  What was worse was that I suddenly “remembered” the topic they were telling me about. My eyes grew vacant as I pitifully recalled that day. Anyway! That aside, training with Nigel and learning from Barcus and Jessie would be perfect. It might even give me a reason to leave Sandy Branch someday.

  “Let’s do it,” I told Quintin. “I’m ready to learn.”

  Quintin smiled. “Then I know just how to use the coins you gave me.”

  “Dad, they’re for—”

  “My family,” interrupted Quintin. “Besides, I’m pretty sure we can get a discount.”