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Chapter 14
Just as I was thinking that—
Crash—!
With a jarring noise that didn’t belong in a noble household, the door collapsed.
…No, to be precise, it would be more accurate to say it crumbled into dust.
All I could do was stare blankly at the wall where the door had been, now left with a huge gaping hole.
“Wh-what is this…?”
When I looked over in disbelief, Calian—standing there boldly, not looking in the least like the culprit who’d just destroyed a wall—broke into a proud grin.
“See? You’re fine after all.”
Before I could even ask what the hell he thought he was doing, the answer came out of his mouth first.
“You locked the door and wouldn’t come out, so I just broke it.”
“That’s supposed to make sense…?”
If someone locks themselves in and doesn’t come out, you wait until they do.
What kind of mindset leads someone to think, Let’s just smash the door?
I was about to snap back when I belatedly noticed that Calian was empty‑handed.
No matter how inhuman his abilities were, there was no way he could break down a door bare‑handed.
A bad feeling creeping in, I rolled my eyes slightly—and there it was. A rough hand gripping a sword.
“Of course, it wasn’t me. It was Father.”
At Calian’s finishing blow of confirmation, I pressed a hand to my throbbing head.
Before I could do anything else, Father dropped the sword and rushed over, pulling me into a tight hug.
Like he was soothing a crying child, he slowly patted my back.
“It’s all right, Tien.”
“……”
“It’s all right, h-hic…”
The sobbing that followed left me at a loss for words.
Who was comforting whom, exactly?
Looking past Father’s broad back, I caught sight of Mother. Her eyes were clouded, as if she found the whole thing pathetic.
Clicking her tongue, she tugged at Father’s collar and scolded him sharply.
“Tien is perfectly fine, so why are you making such a fuss?”
“S-sniff… You were worried too, dear…”
“Of course I was worried.”
Mother’s previously calm gaze flashed sharply.
I hadn’t done anything wrong, but my body flinched on instinct.
“I was worried you were putting on some ridiculous show again and tarnishing the Elopheze family’s reputation!”
…A show?
It wasn’t exactly wrong, but in a situation like this, shouldn’t she be worried that I’d fallen into despair after losing my magic?
I hadn’t expected sympathy, not even a little—but her reaction was so completely opposite of what I’d imagined that I was just about to speak when—
“Dear, even so, the sense of loss must be great. You shouldn’t press her too hard.”
Father stepped in like a spokesperson.
“Loss? Someone suffering from loss wouldn’t be eating every meal just fine!”
…That didn’t help much.
Faced with such a perfectly reasonable assumption, I hurriedly avoided Mother’s gaze.
Maybe I should’ve skipped a few meals.
Now that I thought about it, I had eaten every snack Anna brought into my room, too.
“Father, just look at her. Does she look like someone overwhelmed with loss? She’s so round she’d probably roll if you poked her.”
That little—!
It seemed my damn second brother had decided to fan the flames of a burning house.
“…I really did lose my magic, you know? If you don’t believe me, check for yourself.”
Calian shrugged and stepped closer.
And of course, when he was told to check, he actually checked. It was enough to drive me mad.
As Calian slowly sensed for mana, his violet eyes trembled.
Only then did he seem to realize I’d been telling the truth.
“…It’s really gone?”
“Boo‑hoo, dear, see? She says it’s really gone…”
Wiping his tear‑soaked face, Father looked to Mother.
Mother’s expression faltered—just slightly. Then, in an instant, it returned to indifference.
“So what if she lost a bit of magic?”
There was probably only one person in the entire world who could refer to my magic as “a bit.”
“Even without it, she knows perfectly well she’s the best in the world.”
Seeing her gaze so steady, not wavering in the slightest, I let out a silent, bitter laugh.
Honestly, Mother knew me too well—that was the problem.
Watching my family ruin things no matter how much I tried to spin them positively, I shook my head.
“Still, breaking the door was a bit much…”
“Then you wanted me to keep watching you laze around all day?”
“…I misspoke.”
“A week is enough. Get out of that room now.”
“…Yes, ma’am.”
Refusal was a luxury.
In reality, I didn’t have a choice.
I’d planned to stay shut in for about another week, but clearly that was no longer an option.
Leaving my regrets behind, I stepped out of the room that I could no longer be alone in.
“Guess I’ll have to use another room for a while.”
“Then why were you holed up in there in the first place?”
I didn’t even want to call him my brother, but the overwhelming presence behind me made my pronunciation slur as I clenched my teeth and snapped back.
“…Do you get thorns growing in your mouth if you don’t open it for even one day? (Do you really have to talk all the time?)”
“Why ask something so obvious, like you just found out today?”
I barely managed to suppress the urge to smack that round, white head of his.
“Why don’t you ask the mages at the Magic Tower? You know plenty of them.”
“…I should assume I don’t anymore.”
Mages were people with pride and egos as tall as mountains.
Madmen who’d be happy to spend their entire lives obsessed with magic formulas.
And there was only one thing that determined their hierarchy.
Mana quantity.
Status meant nothing to them.
So what would happen if my mana—once at the very top—vanished in an instant?
They’d swarm me, wondering what they could squeeze out of me.
Then it would only be a matter of time before my lie about losing my magic was exposed.
More likely, I’d get annoyed and reveal it myself first.
I might even subconsciously fling someone into another country.
In that case, it was better not to step foot there at all.
“Well, it’s not like you’d have any friends besides Leila anyway.”
At Calian’s words, I stopped dead in my tracks.
Right.
That was it.
“…Leila.”
There was no way she hadn’t heard the news.
Normally, she’d have rushed straight to the Elopheze estate.
“…Leila didn’t come by?”
When I asked, Calian finally seemed to notice something was off and fell silent.
After a brief pause, he answered.
“You’re right. Normally she’d have come running immediately. Did you do something to her?”
That couldn’t be.
The last time I saw her was before heading to the battlefield. I hadn’t met her since.
I’d been holed up in my room the entire time, pretending I’d lost my magic.
“…I’ll go see Leila for a bit.”
I reflexively tried to use mana, then remembered reality and turned around instead.
I wasn’t used to it yet—and neither was Calian.
“Why aren’t you going?”
“…I have to take a carriage.”
Maybe my face stiffened slightly when I said it, because Calian was uncharacteristically quiet.
So he could read the room, after all—
“You know you’re supposed to take your shoes off before riding in a carriage, right?”
…Guess not.
Why did I ever expect anything from him?
Even though I’d grown accustomed to life here, and it had been ages since I’d ridden in a carriage thanks to using magic—
“Don’t say something so idiotic.”
I was far too old to believe in superstitions like that.
Even as a child, I wouldn’t have fallen for lies I’d heard countless times in my past life.
Deliberately, I dragged out my words and spoke again.
Mother was far enough away—it was the perfect opportunity.
“You should worry about yourself, idiot.”
“……”
He’d never beaten me even once, whether in words or duels, yet he always picked fights.
“Mother—”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to run crying to Mother over something so petty and childish?”
“……”
“It’d be a real shame if the young ladies found out Calian Elopheze is actually a narrow‑minded little man. If rumors spread, you’d never get married. Right?”
“You’ve got some nerve saying that. I’m still better than you—men run away the moment they see you. Don’t go around calling yourself my sister. It’s embarrassing.”
“Likewise.”
My completely unfazed response made Calian grind his teeth and glare at me.
It seemed my factual verbal abuse had really done a number on him.
He clearly had more to say, but his simple brain couldn’t organize it. After smacking his lips a few times, he spat out a pitiful curse.
“I hope you trip and fall on the road.”
As if that counted as a curse.
I’d personally given Leila an early education in vulgar insults since childhood.
There was no way something like that would work.
Still, feeling a bit sorry for Calian—who’d been on the losing end all this time—I decided to let it slide just once.
“Are you a child or something?”
“……”
