Penelope reached out and lightly patted her shoulder, as if she was smoothing down invisible wrinkles.
"You train too hard," she said. "If you don't eat, you'll collapse."
Violet's throat tightened slightly.
She lowered her head and nodded. "Thank you, Mother."
Across the table, Valerius Raven lifted her gaze. His eyes moved from Violet's plate to Penelope's, now nearly empty.
For a moment, Violet thought her father would speak.
But the knight said nothing.
He simply continued cutting his own beef.
Except this time, the knife scraped harder against the plate.
A sharp, unpleasant sound rang out.
It was subtle.
But Violet noticed.
And so did Rowena.
Rowena paused mid-bite and glanced at her father, her brows tightening. Valerius Raven's eyes shifted toward her.
It was only a look.
But Rowena immediately lowered her head again, chewing obediently like a soldier who had just been reminded of rank.
Violet didn't say anything else. She simply ate the extra meat.
Accepting her mother's love was the right thing to do. Refusing would only hurt her.
And Violet had no interest in hurting the few people in this world who cared about her.
When the meal ended, the routine followed like clockwork.
Valerius Raven stood up first. Rowena rose immediately after him. "Come," the knight said, voice calm and firm.
Rowena straightened. "Yes, Father."
The two of them left the dining hall together.
Violet didn't move as she already knew what came next.
This was the time when Valerius Raven guided Rowena, correcting her posture, refining her breathing, teaching her swordwork, and the finer points of Mana control. Violet wasn't allowed to attend those lessons.
Atleast, not yet.
Only when she became a first-level trainee knight would she be allowed to sit in on that kind of teaching.
Violet watched them disappear through the doorway, then quietly stood.
Penelope glanced at her. "Go rest," she said gently.
Violet gave her a small nod. "I need to do something first."
Penelope didn't ask what. She just watched her leave with a look that held both worry and pride.
Violet then returned to her room without wasting a second.
The food in her stomach felt heavy, but not unpleasant. It was fuel. Real fuel. And the training she had done tonight had left her muscles trembling in a way that wasn't only exhaustion.
There was something else.
A pressure under the skin.
A restless heat in her blood.
She could feel it like a storm gathering behind a wall.
Violet closed the door and sat down on the carpet, crossing her legs. The room was quiet except for the faint wind outside the window. Moonlight slipped through the cracks of the shutters and painted pale lines across the floor.
She inhaled slowly.
Then faster.
Her breathing shifted, no longer natural, no longer casual. her belly expanded with each breath, then snapped inward with every exhale. Her lungs worked like bellows feeding a forge.
Knight Breathing.
The secret method of all knights.
Every knight's family guarded their breathing technique like treasure. Some inherited theirs through bloodlines. Some learned it in knight academies. Some earned it through war, trading achievements on the battlefield for stronger breathing methods.
Without breathing, there was no Mana.
Without Mana, a woman was just meat waiting to be cut.
Violet's mouth opened as she exhaled.
A white stream of breath then shot out like mist, fast and sharp, flying nearly a foot before vanishing into the air.
Again.
Inhale.
Exhale.
White mist.
Her stomach tightened.
The beef and porridge inside her began to burn, not as digestion, but as something deeper. Violet could almost feel the nutrients being ripped apart and turned into energy, feeding her muscles and bones.
Twenty breaths.
Violet didn't stop.
Twenty-one.
Twenty-two.
The air in the room seemed to shift slightly, as if the space itself was becoming heavier.
Violet's heartbeat slowed.
Then suddenly…
Something snapped into place.
A pulse.
It wasn't a sound.
It wasn't visible light.
It was a sensation deep inside her, like a drumbeat beneath her ribs.
Her body trembled violently.
Violet's eyes widened.
For a terrifying second, she thought it was failing again.
She had felt that tremble before. Many times. It was always the same story. The Mana gathered, struggled, then scattered like smoke before it could form.
But this time…
The shaking stopped and her pulse stabilized.
And then a warm force surged outward from her chest and flowed through her limbs.
Violet's entire body felt like it had been washed clean.
The soreness vanished.
The exhaustion evaporated.
Her mind cleared instantly, bright and sharp, like she had just woken up in the morning after a full night's sleep.
Violet sat frozen.
Then she slowly clenched her fists.
Strength.
Real strength.
Not the illusion of muscle. Not the fake confidence of a woman on Earth who lifted weights in gym and thought she was tough.
This was power.
Her lips parted. "I did it."
Violet's chest rose with a deep breath.
"I finally did it."
First-level trainee knight.
A year ago, she had watched her father swing a sword wrapped in white light and cut through a tree thicker than a bowl. The blade hadn't even slowed. The tree had split like rotten wood.
That moment had burned itself into Violet's mind.
That was when she truly understood she wasn't on Earth anymore.
This was a world where humans could surpass humans.
And in such a world, the weak didn't get to live peacefully.
They got trampled.
That same day, Violet had asked her father to teach her to become a knight.
Valerius Raven had stared at her for a long time, then spoken plainly. "Rowena is the heir."
Violet remembered the words clearly.
"All resources go to her first. You can train, but only when it doesn't interfere with her practice. If we have extra, you get extra."
It wasn't cruel.
It was reality.
Violet had nodded back then. "I understand."
And her father had added one more thing.
"As long as you carry the Raven name, you will learn the Raven knight inheritance. You are my daughter, too."
Those words had been enough.
From then on, Violet learned everything she could. Horse breeding, weapon maintenance, riding, archery, and etiquette. In a few months, she had swallowed knowledge like a starving woman.
Then, two months ago, she had officially begun knight training.
And now, after endless nights of sweat and pain, she had finally stepped through the first gate.
Violet let out a shaky breath and smiled faintly.
But the smile didn't last.
Because the Mana pulse inside her suddenly began draining.
Violet's eyes snapped open. "What…?"
The energy flowed away like water spilling through a crack. Violet's heart lurched. The loss wasn't spreading evenly. It was rushing toward her right arm.
Her right arm felt hot, then cold, then numb.
Violet's breathing turned sharp. "No, no, no…"
She clenched her teeth.
The first Mana pulse had just formed. If it collapsed now, she would lose everything.
But then, just as suddenly as it started…
The draining stopped.
Violet froze, sweat forming on her forehead again.
The Mana pulse remained.
Weaker than before, but atleast stable.
Violet exhaled slowly, forcing her racing heartbeat to calm down. "Damn."
Her right sleeve fluttered slightly as air moved.
Violet pulled it up and stared at her arm.
There, beneath the skin, a faint shadow could be seen. It wasn't a bruise. It wasn't a scar. It looked like a shape printed into her flesh, so pale and faint that if the light wasn't right, it would vanish completely.
Violet leaned closer.
Her eyes narrowed.
That shape…
She knew it.
She knew it too well.
Her breath caught in realization. "No way."
Violet sprang up from the carpet like her body had been struck by lightning again.
"This is…!"
She stared at her arm like she was afraid it would disappear if She blinked.
"The Alchemist's Cube!"
Her voice came out half-choked, half-laughing.
Her heart hammered wildly in her chest.
Impossible.
This couldn't be real.
But it was the same cube.
The artifact she had used for years in the Alchemists of Nymira game that she loved so much, and the same game she played before she transmigrated into this world.
The same cube every player recognized instantly, because without it, you were nothing. Without it, you couldn't craft, couldn't upgrade, couldn't survive the late game.
Violet paced around the room like a woman possessed.
Her hands trembled.
Her breath turned uneven.
In a strange world, seeing something familiar felt like finding a lifeboat in the middle of a stormy ocean.
Violet swallowed hard. "So it came with me… But how? That's just a game made up of 1s and 0s… this is reality..."