“We’ve prepared something for you to drink, Young Master*.”
PR/N: used by servants to address the sons of aristocrats
I turned my head towards the voice. A man stood there handing me a glass of tomato juice.
He was in his 40s, but could easily pass off as someone in his early 30s due to his debonair air and regularity in his movements.
He’s the only butler who works for me in this household.
His name is Ron.
The moment I see him, I immediately start to smile.
“The Ron I know has a wicked side to him. There’s no poison in this drink, is there?”
“Absolutely not, Young Master. How could I…?”
Ron being a little slow-witted strangely looks charming.
I reached over and took the glass of tomato juice.
“Thank you very much, as always.”
After hearing my words, Ron smiled then walked away. He must have gone to prepare the food.
I drank the tomato juice slowly and looked around.
There are eleven other people in this rose garden besides me.
One of them was Ron, who had just given me tomato juice. The other ten were men placed on guard outside the door, watching me.
There seems to be no need to care about them other than Ron.
But…
‘What should I do now?’
I looked up at the sky and sighed quietly.
I’m certain this is reality now.
I didn’t think I’d end up going back to such a time, not to mention it’s only been an hour, or one hour and 24 minutes to be exact, that I realized I traveled to the past.
Obviously, I didn’t have any plans on what to do.
I suddenly lifted my hand.
Currently, I am 14 years old.
Even though I’m 14, there are no calluses on my hand and there was no such thing as the heart of magic or magic power inside my body.
Compared to the children of other aristocratic families who started their practice of magic at the age of 13, my current status is not just below average. It’s much lower than that.
But, at this point, my power is…
Smack—!
At that moment, I felt pain at the back of my head and I fell forward.
“…Huh?”
I felt dizzy.
There’s a sharp pain at the back of my head and I thought—Wait… Let’s ignore the pain for a second.
What’s going on here?
No, wait.
I understand it now.
I just got hit at the back of my head.
Ironically, it’s been decades since someone has hit my head so it took a while to understand the situation.
My eyes were still a little out of focus.
I saw the juice Ron had given me spilled on the lawn.
I could feel myself get angry at the sight.
“You dim-witted boy, aren’t you going to say hello when you see your brother coming?”
I raised my head.
The person coming towards me had thick, caterpillar eyebrows, tiny eyes, and a big nose.
A man with a height of about 180cm and weight of 70kg.
No… A teenager.
I know who he is.
Fallon Valantier.
He’s my brother who is three years older than me. He’s also the second son of the Valantier family.
The reason I don’t practice magic. No, the reason I can’t practice magic is because of his coercion and violence.
It’s been decades, but I still can’t get it out of my mind.
“You low-class. I could kill you in a minute if I make up my mind to do it.”
“You are of no use to me unlike my sister, so don’t learn anything, whether it’s swordsmanship or magic. Because the moment you try to learn it, I’ll think that you want to kill me, so I’m going to kill you.”
“Though you have the blood of the Marquis, it would be better if you were far away from me. You’d better continue to rely on the family and live in peace for the rest of your life. Perhaps, when I become the Marquis, I may think of you as my brother.”
I was very cowardly when I was young.
I was often talked about as a disgrace to the family for my weak character.
Of course, this is only the rumor at home. The rumor outside is even worse.
Idiot. Stupid. Loser.
And dim-witted.
These were the nicknames I was called, courtesy of Second Brother and Countess Mantis.
But watching this guy right now, it was quite absurd.
As I mentioned before, the eldest Valantier is not a male but a female.
She is the only one in my ‘family’ that I can rely on and the only one who cares about me.
My sister, who is one year older than Fallon, failed to become the family’s heir all because she’s a woman.
Her fate was inevitable.
She had to follow the arrangement of her elders and father and complete a political marriage. She had to marry someone she did not love to raise a family.
My sister is in this situation.
Second Brother is the first person to treat our sister as a commodity. He even asked the upper-class dandies and the royal fools he hung out with if they wanted to sleep with his sister… Alas.
This guy is damned anyway.
“Ha… Why is this bastard glaring at me?”
I stood up slowly.
Was he displeased because he saw that I was not hurt?
Crack—
I nimbly raised my left arm and grabbed his wrist.
“…?”
He was astonished at this unexpected situation. Immediately, the guards panicked and started to surround us.
It’s a pity, but none of them are on my side. Except for Ron.
“How dare you resist my attack? You’re no worse than a worm—”
Ignoring his yelling, I broke his arm, and used the reaction force of my shoulder and waist to throw him in the opposite direction.
Thud!
He got up as soon as he hit the ground and glared at me.
I looked at his stupid expression and thought it was slightly cute.
“You….. You dared to go against me?”
I did not answer him and walked towards him. He stood up immediately.
He’s in a stance that shows he’s about to use his magic, and yet no one tries to dissuade him.
In retrospect, it was very interesting.
Just then…
“My Lord! No!!”
Ron ran up from behind me and blocked Second Brother. Ron told him to bear with it and that there was no need to use magic in such a situation.
But there’s no way he would listen to Ron’s words.
The only one on my side, Ron…
Thump—
He flew backwards as Second Brother hit him.
Was I worried?
Not at all.
Ron is a man with a lot of secrets.
With a forced smile, I continued to walk towards Second Brother.
“You arrogant fellow! I’m going to kill you here today!”
Perhaps he had read too many hero novels, so he had begun to talk nonsense.
“Do you fight with your mouth?”
“Wh-What?”
Perhaps he didn’t know what to say, so he drew his sword from his waist.
I always thought it was only an accessory, but it looks like that it wasn’t.
While walking slowly, I kicked a table aside.
Despite my weak body and lack of magic, I have no confidence…
No confidence that I would lose, of course.
He swung his sword at me as I ran towards him.
Swoosh—!
This is not the average strength of a 17-year-old.
This guy who had practiced magic was moving a lot faster and much more destructive than I thought.
It was as good as the power someone with 3rd circle magic would have.
But that was it.
I can see exactly how Second Brother wields his sword.
Although the momentum of the sword is a little stronger, it is still a child’s skill.
The sound of tearing through the air was noisy, but it was clear that he didn’t even know where to hit.
This level is the equivalent of blind swordsmanship. Nothing more, nothing less.
I lowered my head down quickly.
Swish—!
The sword grazed my scalp.
Perfect dodging.
Then, with straightforward steps, I reached him and caught his arm.
I wondered for a tenth of a second whether to throw him out, then decided not to.
It was too easy.
This guy needs some moral education.
Then, I saw it.
I saw a marble on the floor.
At any other time, I wouldn’t have looked at it. But this marble is bigger than I thought.
Let’s see…
Second Brother protected his whole body with the 3rd circle magic.
According to the essential use of magic theory, if he protected his whole body with magic, it should include his head.
So… Alright.
I stopped thinking and used his head to hit the marble.
Thud—!
The result was very satisfactory.
With an unusual noise, the marble broke into pieces.
Twitching like a worm, Second Brother fell limp on the ground.
I kicked him on the head with my foot, but there was no response.
Second Brother seemed to have passed out.
I looked around and saw the dumbfounded crowd.
The spectating guards and Ron, who was wiping the blood from the corners of his mouth.
They all looked utterly in disbelief at what just happened. But it wasn’t Ron who was the first to move. It was the soldiers.
I saw them trying to get to where I was with Second Brother.
I raised my hand, “Stop.”
“If you don’t want to die, stay where you are.”
Hearing my sharp tone, the guards became terrified.
I grabbed Second Brother by the hair and dragged him to a little lake in the courtyard.
I put his head into the lake, then he started shouting.
“Ah!!!!! Ahhhh!!!!!”
The water covered his body and he went mad.
Perhaps Second Brother was so startled that he forgot to use his magic which he was so proud of.
I slowly raised his head back up.
“Urk… Ugh… Ah, ah, ah… Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
He made strange noises and looked very frightened.
But come to think about it, a lot of bad things happened because of this guy.
As soon as our sister, who was the most beautiful woman in the continent, married the Emperor, he assassinated Marquis Valantier with poison. After he became the Marquis, he used the power of the Empire and committed crimes.
The ending was also straightforward.
The family of the Marquis of Valantier disappeared as quietly as they could and became an ordinary family.
I had no interest in avenging my father.
I had no other expectations for my family either.
I was angry that the opportunity won at the expense of my sister had been squandered.
That stupid idiot—no—those stupid idiots.
My sister is clever.
And kind.
When she was sold to the Empire, what was she thinking?
What was she thinking while in a carriage going towards her doom?
For my sister who was to marry the Fourth Prince, the lazy and prodigal son, I think she has already thought of what was going to happen.
Because my sister is someone who attaches great importance to the word ‘family’.
That’s why she was able to bear it.
If only this guy knew what my sister would go through— If my father, the Marquis of Valantier, only knew…
… Sigh.
I took deep breaths and pushed those memories out of my mind.
If I continued to think about it, I would probably wind up dead due to anger.