Holy–. This is a quite hard chapter to translate. Mostly because of the explanations. While I do understand the explanations, somehow I couldn"t quite convey it into words. Let me know if there"s something strange with the explanations and if you have better suggestion for things.
TL: clover
ED: clover
The tour of the garden ended pleasantly.
Ann was very happy.
She looked very surprised at the improved flowers in the western Aurelia and enjoyed the tour.
I remembered to return to the gardener on my way back to bundle the flowers Ann picked up and decorate her room with them.
She would be pleased when she got to her room.
Once I was about to return to my room before the dinner party began, I came across a surprising thing.
"…Haah, not yet, another round…!!"
"This in an embarra.s.sment. Aren"t you already out of breath, Klaus? I"m already hungry, so let"s stop this here…"
It seemed that Klaus and my older brother Edward had been sparring in the courtyard of the palace.
Klaus had a long staff that was used by the mages of the East, while Edward-onii-sama had a short wand that was used by the alchemists of the West.
Apparently, Edward-onii-sama was winning.
As expected from Onii-sama.
No, wait, your sparring partner was a child so go easy on him, you 20-years-old man.
The lawn of the courtyard roughly had hollowed out, huh.
"Oh, Erica. How was it for you?"
Edward-onii-sama came over with a look like "I was saved" when he found me.
I saw Klaus trembling from hearing his voice…
A scene of being thoroughly defeated like that, he wouldn"t want anyone to see it.
"Well, Ann-sama was very pleased. Have the two of you been bonding with each other?"
"Aah, Klaus-kun said he want to test my strength. Well, he"s very good. I was defending against him."
"Oh my, is that so?"
I hoped for your continued humility.
It was better for you to be careful as exaggerating humility felt unpleasant to see, Onii-sama.
Perhaps he invalidated all aggressive magic that Klaus sent with a calm face?
"Tch……!"
See, the trembling Klaus turned red.
In the first place, in this spar Klaus was in a disadvantage, if you thought about it.
Basically, mages far outperform alchemists with their degrees of freedom and variation of spells.
However, the physical and mental burden was correspondingly high.
That was because to perform a spell, mages used magical power that they generated from their own body.
Such things like inexperienced body and an unstable mind would obstruct everything.
Conversely, the magic composed by evoking a strong emotion became enormously powerful.
Alchemists created some constructions with built-in spells beforehand and filled them with magical power, which could be stored for various utilizations.
Then, performed magic as necessary afterwards.
Neither physical condition nor mental health was relevant.
The question was whether or not they had prepared for the situation properly.
As the result, the alchemist Edward who had stored items sufficiently, with the mage Klaus who had not complete his physical maturity, it would not even be a match.
By the way, I, Erica was an inferior student which was rarely found in Aurelia family in recent years.
The fatal thing was, I couldn"t build spells nor store magical power.
I could barely use the items created by other alchemists.
Actually, that could be done by any human, even if they weren"t alchemist…but…, hahaha.
Painful!
Right now I was under the patronage of my father and older brother, but what would happen when I entered the academy!?
Apart from that.
"Both of you, the dinner party will start soon. Isn"t it better to use the time to prepare?"
I pa.s.sed on my calm brother who was not sweating, and looked at Klaus" body.
"That"s why, Klaus-kun. This game is a draw, so time out."
"…Tch, I will not lose next time…"
"Oh, that"s right. I was called by my friend from school a few days ago. After dinner party I will be returning to Leandez Magic Academy."
"What did you say……!?"
"Well, I"m sorry. Klaus-kun."
This was my first time hearing that my older brother would be returning to Leandez Magic Academy tonight.
I guessed Edward-onii-sama used this chance to flee from Klaus.
"That"s so sudden, isn"t it possible to stay, at least while the Harvan"s people are here?"
"This is urgent. Make friends with Klaus-kun for my part too, Erica."
"Eh……? Alright."
And then Edward-onii-sama left.
Klaus and I were left behind.
This was awkward.
I glanced at Klaus and caught him scowling at me openly.
Smiling while thinking on what to do, he scowled at me even more.
"……I apologize for saying something rude before."
He stopped scowling at me, just looking at me with honest eyes.
"It"s fine, Klaus-sama."
"It seems that I was originally weak even before I caught the weakness from the others."
Klaus looked like a dejected puppy.
Edward-onii-sama, just what did you do……?
"You are the sister of that man. You must be a refined alchemist."
"No, I have no alchemy talent at all."
"……Do you like such humility?"
Aah, after Edward-onii-sama"s exaggerating humility, it would be suspicious.
"No, it"s true. Unfortunately, the magical power for spells and magic is obstructed inside my body."
"……! I see, I"m sorry to hear that."
Even in the western Aurelia this kind of const.i.tution was a bit severe, but in the eastern Harvan this was a quite fatal const.i.tution.
Suddenly Klaus" eyes that were looking at me turned sympathetic.
Reflecting on this, I was seriously concerned about my future.
Surely the Erica in the original game would have been distorted by her inferiority complex in this area.
"But, ah……don"t take this the wrong way, but there"s a problem, I feel a trace of strange magic around you. If that is not your own magical power, I wonder what generates that magic?"
Oops, what was it?
"Oh my, I have not noticed anything at all."
Of course, I also had items with defense magic.
However, this was the home of Aurelia family.
There was no need to use such magic at home ground.
"That"s concerning. Sorry, can I come a little bit closer?"
"Eh? Yes, it"s alright."
Klaus said so and came close to me.
He began to look at me closely.
"Hmm……"
Did you understand something?
As expected from someone who would be a versatile mage in the future.
"I understand, it comes from your chest. Are you holding some special ornaments with magical power?"
Aah, you mean that–!
The star crystal necklace I got from Onii-sama.
"I got this from my older brother this morning. I didn"t know that such powerful magic was embedded within."
I couldn"t show this to Ann, but since it was just Klaus there shouldn"t be any problem.
Having said that, I pulled out my necklace from under my dress.
Right now it was evening.
Blue light from the star crystal overflowed in the dim surroundings.
"…Beautiful. So this is the famous Aurelia"s star light…"
"This is a good charm for me to make friends."
I thought it was just on the level of a good luck charm, but it seemed that it seriously fascinated other people?
Klaus stared at me as if he was fascinated.
"It is not your brother"s magic. On the contrary, it is a type of magic I don"t know. It doesn"t belong to Harvan or to Aurelia."
"Well, I heard that this was what was found in the Ruins of Visitor. It may be some kind of ancient magic."
"Ruins of Visitor, huh."
Oh no, something was wrong.
Somehow the fact that the keyword itself came out, it felt like a prelude for bad things to happen.
"But, why didn"t Edward-onii-sama notice the magic inside this stone?"
"I also thought that it"s just my imagination since the magic is very faint. But, magic that I don"t know, this is quite rare."
This was Klaus who was an excellent mage.
He probably noticed it since he was using Gram Sight1 that could visually sense traces of magic.
His magic would activate automatically even when he was not conscious.
Unfortunately, us western alchemists couldn"t respond to unexpected events.
It was no wonder that Edward-onii-sama didn"t notice this.
Even so, Klaus was surprisingly someone who had great ambition, huh~
Although he had not entered the magic academy, he had covered the East and West magic.
"It"s amazing that you noticed that, Klaus-sama."
"Naturally. This is the result of training to my utmost every day."
I felt that Klaus" eyes were glittering.
Talented people were curious and greedy for their favorite field.
"I also want to go to the ruins. Erica, will you show me the way?"
–This flow, I only had bad feelings about this.
Somehow my death flag seemed to have been raised.
In the game, Ann was possessed by the evil spirit in the Ruins of Visitor.
If Klaus went to the ruins instead of Ann, Klaus would be possessed by evil spirit, and then he would curse me~~!!
"That"s impossible. Because that is a dangerous place."
"Wasn"t it possible for Edward to go there without problems? Or, do you think it"s impossible for me?"
Oh no, I triggered a strange sense of rivalry from him!
I guessed I would hurt his pride if I said that was the truth.
What should I do?
1 Gram is the name of the sword that killed the dragon Fafnir in Norse mythology. I don"t know why the author chose this name, but I am certain that it is the ‘Gram" from Norse mythology. Because there will be other names in this story that use names from Norse mythology.