Leo immediately moved to the far end of the training ground and took position.
He drew his wand and performed a simple casting stance. Watching him, a memory surfaced—my father and brother doing the same thing when I was a child, just a glimpse in passing.
*Our family has its own stance, I think.*
I knew how to do it. I just didn't want to follow the family tradition.
I gave a slight nod and adjusted my grip on the wand.
*…!*
Leo's spell was already at my throat.
I pivoted on my heel and sidestepped.
*Kwaaang—!*
Part of the training ground wall shattered under his attack, debris raining to the floor.
Cold sweat broke out.
*Impressive.*
A split second slower and that would've hit me square.
He wasn't the type to use cheap tricks to win. He must have launched this the moment after my greeting. And still, this speed.
I couldn't even fathom how much effort it took someone with insufficient talent to build this level of skill.
Truthfully, fighting Leo was unrealistic from the start.
Luca hadn't properly used magic in nearly ten years. Talent means nothing if you don't hone it. No amount of genius could compete with someone who, despite lacking talent, had spent a decade doing nothing but chasing magic like a madman.
But that didn't matter.
I wasn't here to win. I was here to pull Leo to my side.
"Evaded?"
As expected, Leo launched attacks that seemed to encircle me. Blue energy spread out, and the air felt thick, like being underwater.
"Ugh!"
I deployed the minimum magic to block, but some of it pierced through the barrier and stabbed into my skin.
The power was intense, almost unbearable.
*And it doesn't even feel like he's started in earnest.*
Come at me properly. That's when I'll let it loose.
What he wanted was for me to use real magic.
Since I knew the desire he wasn't showing, the true outcome of this match was decided long ago.
*Kwaang—! Kwang—!*
I barely deflected countless attacks meant to scatter my focus.
I could push back with power, give him what he wanted. But the timing wasn't right.
Just a little longer.
When I kept defending without any real counterattack, Leo spoke, his voice laced with contempt.
"What's the point of stepping up? Planning to just waste time here?"
Spot on.
I didn't answer. Just smiled.
Of course, I didn't need to. The opening came soon enough.
Leo rolled his wand between his fingers, extended it long, and slammed it into the floor.
*Kwaang—!*
Thorny brambles surged from all sides, hindering my movement. Vines wrapped around my jacket sleeve, reaching for my wand.
As if declaring the end, with my retreat cut off, my vision flashed again.
*Now.*
*Wuddeuk—!*
I tore my arm free from the brambles with all my strength and aimed my wand at him.
I drew the maximum output from my core. The thorns digging into my arm during the struggle negated some of the magic flowing through my veins.
But the spell was already away.
The time it took for my jacket to tear acted as a brake on his magic.
*Kwaaang—!*
A deafening crash echoed as our attacks met. Dust billowed from the shattered wall and floor.
But…
*The counter should have hit by now.*
Don't tell me…
I swept the dust aside with my wand. Leo was on the floor, clutching his forehead.
*…!*
He hadn't dodged.
The faint scent of blood hit my nose.
I let out a dry laugh.
*I expected it, but I didn't think he'd just take it.*
His reason for calling me out was to see me use magic with everything I had.
I figured he wouldn't care much about the bet's result. But taking the hit directly? That's not just dedication. That's insane.
"Hey, are you oka—"
"…Hah."
Leo let out a breathy laugh and slowly pushed himself up.
I quickly scanned him. Thankfully, aside from the scraped forehead, he seemed fine.
*My attack must have been mostly negated by his.*
"Haha, hah… Yeah. This is it. This!"
Leo laughed, holding his reddened forehead.
Seeing his face, a chill shot down my spine.
"What the…"
"To see this… to see this again… I… I've waited for this day… How long… At this rate, I won't even be able to catch up to your heels soon. You won. You won."
He staggered, trying to stand, then slumped back to the floor. He still wore that grin, like something wonderful had happened. The whole scene was horrifying.
I wanted to lock the door and leave. But since my attack did this, I couldn't just abandon the kid here.
I walked over, slid an arm under his shoulder, and helped him up.
"…Hey. Sorry. You seem a little crazy. Let's go get that treated."
"No, do it again. Use it again."
*Lunatic.*
"Huh? I'll take as many hits as you want. No, wait. I'm begging you. I can't believe what I saw was real. So just one more time. One more hit and I'll accept this is reality, I swear I'll—"
*Thud!*
The chills came back. I dropped him back onto the floor.
Too much passion leads to this.
Sure, the novel mentioned his extraordinary passion for magic. I just didn't know it was to the point of shrugging off injury.
"Get a grip. This result is because my magic was mostly negated by yours. If you take a direct hit like that without defending, you could die. Don't you get that?"
He ignored my exasperated tone completely.
Leo, lying weakly face-down, pushed himself up like a zombie and mumbled.
"…You could use it. I wasn't wrong. The adults wouldn't believe me, and ten years had passed, so I thought maybe I'd just imagined it. But it was all exactly like that day."
"...."
Come to think of it, he'd said something like 'to see this again' earlier.
In the original, this was a story he never told anyone until the very end, only confessing to the protagonist…
*Is it okay for him to tell me directly like this?*
He seemed too excited to know what he was saying.
Or maybe he genuinely didn't care.
Might as well try to stop him, just in case.
As I was about to sit beside him, he let out a sudden, choked laugh.
"What is this? The rumor about you belonging to Pleroma was a lie too, wasn't it? Right? If it were true, you wouldn't have let me live just now. So… for how many years have you…"
His voice began to tremble.
It left a bitter taste in my mouth, too.
More so because these were the words of someone who started magic because of me. Even though I'm not Luca, I felt Luca's emotions completely.
Leo, who had been muttering at the floor, jerked his head up. His eyes were completely different from before.
They were filled with madness.
"What do I have to do for you to show me that magic one more time? What if I attack you again…!"
"Grow up."
He's like a damn roly-poly toy.
All the earlier poignancy vanished.
Since dropping him didn't seem to sap his energy, I just did as he wished and shot a sleep spell at the back of his neck.
I plopped down beside the now-sleeping Leo.
Need to rest a bit before moving him to the infirmary.
Through the transparent training ground ceiling, I saw the pitch-black night sky. It looked exactly like the sky from the world I lived in. Of course it did. Everything so far had been similar.
Using magic just now and then thinking of my old world… I could only laugh dryly.
However I ended up in this world, trying to stop an extra from dying…
"This settles it."
I'd just secured the person who would be my greatest help.
*Strictly speaking, he's not fully on my side yet.*
But after seeing me use magic, he won't act normally anyway. Calling it a success now is fine.
If anything, I should worry about him becoming a nuisance.
Not that I'd mind.
Now that I've secured Leo, it's time to gradually raise my own strength.
Of course, I can't practice magic openly.
That'd be like putting up a sign saying 'Please kill me ASAP.'
But…
*Can't just sit still either.*
Since I can't move directly right now, my only option is to utilize the people around me 200%.
And I'd already finished calculating how best to use this friend.
I looked at Leo, sprawled out.
Released from a decade-long wish, his face as he slept deeply showed not a trace of tension.
*Sleep well, oblivious to the future.*
Let's get friendly.
I laughed out loud.
* * *
I had a dream from childhood.
The same situation every time, the same magic appearing.
But today was different.
*…The magic seemed more dazzling than in the usual dream.*
When I opened my eyes, pure white sunlight flooded my vision.
This was definitely not morning.
Leo turned his head and winced. One side of his forehead pulled tight.
"Ugh…"
"Awake?"
At Lucas's short question, Leo rolled his eyes to stare blankly beside him, then weakly closed them again.
"…A dream…"
"It wasn't."
"Then everything I remember…"
"It's real."
Leo bolted upright and scanned Lucas. Then he clicked his tongue.
"Tch."
What's with the 'tch'?
Seeing his still-guarded eyes, the personal distance between us hadn't shrunk much.
As Lucas wondered how to react to that, Leo furrowed his brow and spoke.
"…I have so many things I want to say, I don't know where to start."
"Take your time. We skipped class. We have plenty."
A long silence followed.
Leo took a deep breath and began.
"You don't drink blood."
"I'd puke. It's disgusting."
"So the rumor that you can't use magic because you can't drink blood was fake too. That excuse the Pleroma bastards always use… it has nothing to do with you."
"That's right."
"And the rumor that the second son of Ascanian was born with poor qualities as a mage is wrong too. I knew that was false already—I saw it with my own two eyes."
Lucas nodded.
Leo, who had been making a complicated face, frowned deeply.
"The magic you used yesterday wasn't normal mana. Absolutely not. You know that too, right?"
"I know."
Lucas answered simply.
Frankly, if you saw it with your own eyes and didn't know, you'd be an idiot.
Of course, I was shocked at first. My reflexive thought was, 'My brother will never sit in the family head's seat.' That says it all.
"Why didn't you use magic all this time?"
"...."
When Lucas just stared at him, Leo's voice rose.
"Why did you yield to those empty rumors? Why live like that when you have this kind of talent?!"
"Want to hear it?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
At Leo's sharp reply, Lucas let out a light laugh.
Good. That's more like it.
Yesterday, he was too excited confirming I could use proper magic, focused solely on the magic itself. But now, with time to think calmly, it was time to dig into the core of the problem.
Lucas leaned forward from where he'd been resting against the back of the chair, bringing himself closer to Leo.
"Then promise me. You won't tell a soul. My life depends on this."
Now, come over.
From this moment on, the original plot is going to bend completely.
In a good way, of course.
—-----------
T/N:
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