The sight of Askart struggling with a messy desk in front of him was somehow cute, so I smiled to myself and said,
“It’s okay. Young master, your desk is quite messy.”
I looked at Askart, who was busy organizing things with a blush on his face even as I comforted him, and quickly skimmed through the books he was reading.
‘Wow…’
Although I expected it to some extent, all of them were high-quality grimoires. When I saw this, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘Wouldn’t Askart be able to answer my questions?’
Actually, I was quite confused while reading the grimoire recently. Magic is basically the act of creating and discharging magic using magical power derived from mana, and understanding magic was the basis for implementing magic. If you go into more detail, it is subdivided into categories such as attack, protection, summoning, and manipulation, from attributes such as water and fire, but the problem is that it is something I had never heard of when I was learning magic from the master. The mana management method that the master had trained me so much in also had absolutely nothing to do with it. In the end, I had no choice but to exclude everything I knew so far and study magic almost as if I were acquiring new information. Of course, there were some areas of overlap. ‘Quality of mana’ and ‘quantity of mana’ are different for each person, and the two are innate and do not change with acquired efforts.
‘But I’m completely different from before.’
Since it is a situation where one has returned from death, perhaps the story is already in a different area.
“Ahh…!”
At that time, the book I was organizing collapsed and the papers on top fell to the floor. Askart seems to be the type of person who makes more mistakes when he is embarrassed. Feeling a sense of kinship for some reason, I quickly picked up the fallen paper and stopped. The paper I was holding had a huge and beautiful magic circle drawn on it that I had never seen before. The geometric shapes made up of tens or hundreds of straight lines and curves were shockingly delicate and beautiful.
“Wow, so pretty… uh?”
I looked closely at the magic circle and tilted my head.
“Grand Duke! The mana flow here seems a bit strange. It seems like a conflict.”
Askart blinked at the words I said without thinking, quickly put on the glasses he had placed carelessly on the desk, and came next to me. When thin silver-rimmed glasses were placed on the bridge of Askart’s well-stretched nose, which gave off an infinitely gentle atmosphere, he instantly transformed into an intellectual person. Askart, who seemed like a good-looking student, suddenly looked like a cynical scholar, and I, who was dumbfounded, suddenly became nervous. In fact, I only recently started learning about magic circles properly, and it was not a field I was familiar with. It must have been a drawing of a higher-dimensional magic circle that I didn’t understand, but it was a time when I regretted saying it for no reason.
“Oh, my God.”
Askart, who had been looking at the area I pointed at for a long time, took a deep breath with a short sigh. He shouted, shaking his hands as if he couldn’t control his strong emotions.
“How could I have missed this part? Because it was placed in such a polar opposite series, it didn’t start properly!”
And then he immediately took out the fountain pen and started calculating the formula and modifying the magic circle. It was only for a moment that I looked with interest at Ascarte’s concentration in an instant. After quickly finishing his correction, Ascarte looked at me with sparkling eyes.
“Lia, are you a genius by any chance? I’ve been struggling with this for weeks, and thanks to you, I’ve solved it! “I was just looking at the wrong parts like a fool.”
“I’m glad it helped.”
When I saw Askart who couldn’t hide his joy, I couldn’t help but smile.
“No, it’s not that much, you’re really, really smart!”
Unlike the first image, where he seemed quite calm, Ascart became excited as if he had changed as a person when we talked about magic. And even though I told him to stop because he was embarrassed, he didn’t stop telling me I was smart or a genius. Thanks to this, my cheeks got very hot, but I still felt good about the compliment, so I smiled shyly and asked cautiously.
“Excuse me.”
“Huh?”
“Well, then, when I send a letter to Bianca, can I write that the Archduchess told me I’m smart?”
“What? Ahaha.”
I don’t know what was funny about what I said, but Ascart suddenly burst into laughter and stroked my head.
“He’s smart, but he’s also this cute! “If you had a younger sister, would you feel this way?”
Askart, who said that, seemed to be surprised by what I said, and his body trembled. Soon a faint smile appeared on his face. The atmosphere calmed down in an instant. And I suddenly knew why the air felt so awkward. Although it happened quite a long time ago, it was an incident that anyone with even the slightest interest in the Principality of Belus could not have known.
‘Of course, I only found out after a long time had passed and I entered Terencium…’
“Actually, I had a younger brother like Lucio.”
At that time, Ascart began to speak in a calm voice.
“I lost it without even being able to see his face properly. But when I see you, I keep thinking of that kid. No, maybe I’ve been like that ever since I heard that Lucio’s younger brothers were coming today.”
Actually, I didn’t want to meet him… Askart laughed and asked if I felt foolish for leaving the library without realizing it. It’s my first time seeing someone look so sad even when they’re smiling.
“Do you miss your little brother?”
When I asked carefully, Askart bit his lip and nodded his head.
“I miss you. And my parents probably feel that way more than I do.”
“…”
“If I hadn’t lost it, I would have grown up to be good and smart like you. You’ll blame us, right?”
When I saw the eyes trembling and distorting, I felt like tears were coming out without me knowing.
“Grand Duke, I am an orphan. So, I don’t have any parents or siblings, so I’m not sure… Still, I think I would be happy to know that my family somewhere is missing me like this. I never hold any grudges.”
The end of my voice shook slightly after I finished speaking. I felt like I was going to burst into tears at any moment, so I quickly turned my head and took a deep breath to suppress my growing emotions. After a while, I could feel Ascart exhaling evenly, as if he had already contained some of his emotions. When I turned my head back to look at Askart, he smiled awkwardly, as if he was embarrassed to have this conversation with me when we first met. But the look in my eyes was warmer than before.
“Lia, I want to repay you for solving a problem that was bothering you. Is there anything you want or need? You can say anything. Oh, if you are interested in magic, I will formally invite you to the Principality of Belus. You know that the largest magic tower on the continent is in the principality, right?”
I feel sorry for the magicians of the empire and kingdom, but the magicians of the Principality of Belus were of a different level, and Askart was unbecoming and condescending. I was curious as to why I had come to study at the Imperial Academy in such a place, but Ascart’s words immediately reminded me of something, so I said it regardless.
“Grand Duke! Then please solve this problem!”
* * *
“Where did Lia go with whom?”
The Duchess barely left her meeting with her wives, and after listening to her story through the knights who were escorting her, she headed to her academy dormitory where her children were. And while she was looking for the invisible Leah, she heard Allen’s words and she was startled.
“You said you went to the library with Askal? At best, you come to the festival and it’s not fun!”
Allen said that it was actually a festival, and it was not fun to look at the street stalls set up by students, and touring the classrooms and internal facilities was also boring to the point of madness. I just wanted to quickly go to the school where the swordsmanship department was located and watch the sparring show and watch the fireworks. I was a little curious about the dormitory my brother was staying in, so I decided to stop by.
“Bro, how do you live in such a small place?”
Allen said as if looking at Lucio’s dorm room. In fact, Lucio was the top student at the academy and was in a much better situation than the other students, but for Allen, who had only lived in the duke’s residence or castle until now, it was only a narrow space. According to the rules of the academy, which assigns dormitories strictly in order of grades, I would be assigned to a smaller room than this one, but I was already at a loss as to how I would live in the future.
“I will survive somehow.”
Lucio responded indifferently, unaware of her sister’s deep concern, and took Diana’s hand, telling her to leave as she was jumping on the sofa. The Duchess, who was happily looking at Lucio, who seemed blunt but kind, looked towards her library for no reason as she left her dormitory.
‘After all, it’s Askart.’
The Duchess was heartbroken when she heard that Lia was with the Archduchess of the Duchy of Belus, where Bianca belonged, who was preying on Lia. It’s not that I don’t understand because her interest in magic is as great as her talent, but I was worried about what would happen if she suddenly decided to leave for Belus.
“Diana, her heart is more important than her face!”
“You have a good mind too! Good boy!”
“How do you know!”
At the same time, Allen and Diana were also in the middle of a fight, as if they were talking about Askart. Diana shouted at Allen, who was fuming at her.
“That older brother is as shiny as her older sister! So be nice!”
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Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
Next post will be released on February, 3.
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