Trigger warning: this chapter contains scenes of bullying, and childhood trauma. Please be warned before proceeding.
Tuk.
The small child cautiously placed his hands together on the black stone. Her eyes tightly shut, she squeezed his little hands together earnestly, but the eyes watching her were endlessly cold.
“It seems you still don’t feel anything.”
“No, there’s something… something seems to be moving…”
Startled by the cold voice from above, the child hurriedly made excuses. She tightened her grip on the magic stone as if asking for another chance, but unfortunately, nothing happened.
Duke Ingelos, watching the scene with a look of profound disappointment, suddenly pointed his hand at the magic stone.
“Ah!”
Boom! A small explosion occurred just above the stone, sending up a plume of black smoke. With a shrill scream, the child standing near the stone was knocked back.
“Is this level of stimulation still useless….”
The duke clicked his tongue shortly and muttered. He turned his back without looking at his young daughter sprawled on the ground.
The child who was left behind shivered for a long while before finally sobbing quietly by herself.
***
Staggering back to her room, Alessia spotted a group and turned pale. She quickly looked for a place to escape, but it was too late—she had already been noticed.
“Wow, there’s Alessia! Our archmage is over there!”
At that signal, the children gathered at the end of the corridor rushed towards her as if they had been waiting.
“What kind of miracle did you perform today?”
“It must be magic that ordinary mages like us could never do, right? Can’t you show us?”
Small and notably frail, Alessia was quickly surrounded by the children. There was no escape.
“Please, make way….”
“Of course, we must obey. When our great archmage Ingelos commands!”
Her voice trembling faintly, she pleaded, but no one seemed to listen. What returned was jesting replies and loud, roaring laughter.
They were cousins who had once been compared to Alessia in their childhood.
The Duke Ingelos family and its collateral branches lived together in a castle to share the progress of their studies. Thus, the adults’ stories became the children’s, and Alessia’s name remained strongly within her cousins.
“How dare you! To our great archmage!”
“Oh, I’m sorry!”
Mimicking someone else, the children laughed joyously, looking down at Alessia with eyes that turned similarly red.
“You thought I would say that?”
“My dad says you’re not a mage. Uncle said you are a failure.”
“You thought you were the best, right? Everyone loves you for that, don’t they?”
“No, I haven’t… I haven’t done anything, it’s not like that….”
“Shut up!”
Before she could say more, a harsh scolding cut her off. Alessia instinctively covered her head and buried her face in her knees.
The children, as if trying to make her look up, viciously grabbed her hair, revealing her white scalp as they pulled at her thin strands. Alessia swallowed her cries of pain.
“Alessia can’t use magic, she can’t, she can’t.”
The taunting song painfully rang in her ears. Alessia covered her ears, not wanting to listen, but eventually, she was overwhelmed and laid down on the ground.
Alessia can’t use magic, she’s a fool, an idiot….
The mocking song about Alessia continued. Alessia, Alessia…
***
Alessia Ingelos.
Once hailed as the hope of the Ingelos family and expected to be the reincarnation of a great sorceress, the child’s name had now become a subject of mockery.
The signs of trouble appeared when she first began her magic lessons at the age of four. Unlike most descendants of Ingelos, who could easily sense the mana, Alessia couldn’t even sense it.
Since mana was abundant, sensing and gathering it should have been simple, but Alessia acted as if she was completely unaware of its existence.
Occasionally, there are children who start slowly, so the Duke did not panic and brought out a magic stone. If she couldn’t feel it herself, external stimulation was supposed to suffice. He was confident, having already witnessed Alessia’s potential when she was younger.
Even years later, he vividly remembered the magic stone glowing like a glass bead, brilliantly shining. He had no doubt that, though she was initially clumsy, she would soon surpass others once she realized her potential.
“…How can this be….”
However, his belief was shattered when, despite his patience, the magic stone showed no reaction. He had brought all the magic stones owned by Ingelos, but none responded to Alessia’s magic.
“Monique! Xavier!”
He hurriedly called his wife and brother into the room. Interrupted from their own research, they entered with irritated expressions but soon contributed their thoughts after grasping the situation.
“Maybe she’s just too nervous because it’s her first time.”
“But it shouldn’t cause her magic to be this dormant.”
“Have you tried forcing the magic to collide?”
“Not yet.”
The child, belatedly sensing the tense atmosphere, shrank back, but no one paid her any mind as they busied themselves devising other methods.
Days, then years passed quickly.
Family members suggested awakening the dormant mana by surrounding her with magic stones or by firing multiple magical energies at her simultaneously.
But none of these methods provided a solution. Alessia still couldn’t sense magic, and the magic stones never reacted. While it was rare for a child born with magic to lose it suddenly, an abrupt disappearance of abundant magic like in Alessia’s case was almost unheard of. Facing an unprecedented event, the Duke and his wife stubbornly researched Alessia, but made no progress.
Years later, her dazzling talent had completely vanished, leaving behind only an ordinary child who was always on the lookout.
Eventually, the Duke and his wife acknowledged that the experiment had failed. As before, their interest quickly shifted to the next experiment.
***
Failed experiments were usually discarded. Once thrown into the laboratory’s trash, they were seldom revisited and easily forgotten.
However, the Duke and Duchess Ingelos’ failed creation, Alessia Ingelos, was neither discarded nor forgotten. It would have been better if she had been simply thrown away, but that was not the case. Her existence itself a shame to the family, she spent her life confined in the mansion.
Her life itself was no different from a trash bin.
“Poor Alessia, why even bother with magic books if you can’t use magic.”
With a mocking tone, Stella flicked Alessia’s head and kicked a torn book across the floor.
“Behave yourself. Don’t make us feel disgusted with your pointless efforts.”
Pascal, having already turned the room into a mess, spat on the floor and laughed as he left the room.
The hidden magic book was now shredded, its pieces scattered across the floor, and a trickle of blood ran down from a cut on her forehead.
Leaning weakly against the wall, Alessia pondered what she had done wrong.
Pascal and Stella, who had been insignificant mages from a young age due to their meager magical power, had turned out just as expected.
They lacked the intellect to dedicate themselves to research and the talent to refine their magical abilities, and they took out their frustrations entirely on Alessia. But no matter how much she thought about it, it wasn’t Alessia’s fault. Just as it wasn’t her fault she wasn’t born with magical talent, her cousins’ lack of ability had nothing to do with her.
“What did I do wrong?”
The wounds throbbed painfully. Alessia bit her lip as she looked at the blood-stained book. She couldn’t sense magic, and thus, couldn’t perform it. She knew better than anyone that looking at such books was pointless.
Yet, she couldn’t just wait to be discarded. She had already tried living that way, but nothing changed.
Alessia just wanted to live a little better. Or rather, she just wanted to live. It didn’t have to be as a mage; just being treated like a human seemed enough. Was that too much to ask?
Creak.
Someone entered the room. Though she wanted to rest her mind right then, even that seemed too much to ask.
Alessia barely lifted her head to see who it was and gasped.
It was Richard Ingelos.
Richard, sixteen years older than Alessia, had been effectively managing the Ingelos household since their parents had stepped back to focus on research a few years ago.
He had neither directly hit nor bullied her, but he hadn’t helped her either. Under his indifferent oversight, her cousins had become even more enthusiastic in tormenting her. His sudden visit was ominous.
Thud. Silently looking down at her, Richard tossed something.
‘A ring?’
Following it instinctively, she noticed a ring with a large ruby. It looked too mature and a little old-fashioned for Alessia to wear, but that was the least of her concerns. She was more curious about why he was giving it to her.
‘Is he trying to frame me for theft?’
This had happened several times before, so it was a likely assumption. However, Richard was not one to waste time on trivialities.
“You can’t continue living without worth forever. An opportunity has arisen for you to be of use to the family.”
Normally, Alessia would have responded in some way to appease him, but now she lacked the strength. The blood that had dripped down clung to her eyelashes, narrowing her vision. Alessia exhaled slowly.
“Take this and go to Ferdinand. You are to become engaged to the prince of Ferdinand.”
“…!”
Alessia, previously listless, opened her eyes wide in shock.
Ferdinand? And an engagement?
Both were incomprehensible, but more than that, Alessia focused on the part about leaving. Richard was proposing something she had only dared to dream about but never imagined would actually happen.
“And there, you will face monsters.”
“…Magical beasts, you mean….”
The sudden proposal threw her into a mix of confusion and anticipation, but her mind quickly cooled. Alessia couldn’t use magic at all. Asking her to confront magical beasts was essentially a death sentence.
So that was it. She briefly allowed herself to feel foolish for having hoped, and swallowed a bitter laugh.
“Alright. I’ll do it.”
She nodded shortly after. Life in Ingelos was no better than death anyway. It would be better to live elsewhere for a short while, even if that place was Ferdinand, a sworn enemy of Ingelos.
“Use this. If you wear this ring and recite the spell, even you will be able to use magic. It’s been imbued with magic.”
However, Richard’s next words took Alessia by surprise again.
She had heard rumors that Richard was researching magic transference. Everyone had speculated that if successful, it would earn a tremendous amount of money, and it seemed he had indeed succeeded.
Everyone had said it was impossible, but the heir seemed to be different. As she sighed, Alessia suddenly snapped back to reality.
‘Why is he giving this to me?’
It was unexpected enough that he was helping her escape Ingelos, but to also give her a means to survive was unbelievable, considering he had ignored her all her life. It would have been more comforting if he had simply driven her to a dead end. That’s typically how Ingelos handled things.
But this was… excessively kind. Alessia squinted through blurred eyes at Richard’s expression. Unexpectedly, he looked anxious.
Alessia grew even more puzzled. Normally, one would be happy if such impossible research succeeded. Instead, Richard seemed uneasy.
Thinking about it, Alessia realized she had never actually heard that Richard’s research had been successful. Such a groundbreaking achievement in the magical world should have been announced by now, yet it was suspiciously quiet.
“Make sure no one finds out you can use magic through the ring. If they do, I will take your life. If anything unusual happens, contact me immediately.”
“…I will.”
Ah, that’s what it was.
Alessia belatedly understood. It seemed Richard intended to use her as a test subject. If she suffered any side effects and died in enemy territory, there would be no consequences, making her the perfect subject for his experiment.
She guessed there must have been a need for a mage to go to Ferdinand, and since no one volunteered, it conveniently fell to her. This explanation made everything fall into place.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
After Richard left, Alessia sat in silence for a long while, clutching the ring.
Even if it was a trap, she had to turn it into an opportunity. She had neither the strength nor the resources to escape Ingelos on her own. If she missed this chance, who knew when another would come? Besides, she might be able to start a new life in Ferdinand. People there wouldn’t know she was branded a failure in Ingelos.
‘If only I can….’
Even if she became a test subject again, it didn’t matter. If that was what it took to lead a normal life, she was willing to risk everything.
‘I will survive.’
Alessia resolved. She would survive in Ferdinand by any means necessary and reclaim her life.
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