Chapter 7: Nothing But Potential (伸び代しかない)

Chapter 7 - Nothing But Potential (伸び代しかない)

“Why does Brother only care about you...!”

After I finished dinner, Jenny - to no one surprise - chased after me with her cute face frowning, pulling me into the shadows.

She shoved me off and began ranting her heart out, vexed. See, that’s what I wanted to ask.

“If it weren’t for you, Brother would be mine now. You’re really nothing but a hindrance!”

“......?”

I thought Jenny had quite a bad personality, but maybe she wouldn’t lose to Julius. An unreasonable woman.

And why would Julius become Jenny’s without me? I didn’t remember getting in their way that much, and there was hardly any part of the current me that was superior to her.

“You can’t move up from F-rank anyway, so why can’t you just get expelled and disappear?”

“Ehhh...”

“I’ll warn you. If you keep getting in my way, I won’t just stay still.”

Did she have to go that far? Even patience had its end.

From what I saw, Julius’ attitude towards Jenny didn’t change no matter if I was there or not.

“Can you stop blaming people?”

“Wha...!?”

A few seconds after I said that, Jenny slapped me on the cheek. Provoked, I slapped her back too.

A sharp pain shot on my cheeks, probably caused by her long nails cutting a little bit of my skin.

“What are you doing!?”

“We’re even now.”

She pressed on her red cheek and had an expression of disbelief on her face. And she eventually reached her hand out to me. A soft, warm light overflowed from the palm of her hand.

The pain in my cheek also subsided all at once.

“...I’ll never forgive you.”

That being said, Jenny flipped her cute, frilly dress and left. If she had complaints, then she should say them to Julius. Don’t take it out on other people for no reason.

I let out a deep sigh and went back to my room. Yet when I looked in the mirror, there wasn’t a single trace of being slapped on the cheek.

The light I saw was probably her healing magic. Maybe she regretted hitting me even though she spoke like that. She had a cute side too, didn’t she?

I should apologize for hitting her back tomorrow morning. Having decided so, I opened a book on magic lessons.

◇◇◇

“Good morning”

“Fwahh, good morning.”

The next morning, when I left my room after getting dressed, I met Julius. Even his slightly sleepy expression was like an artwork.

“I’ll be under your care from today on.”

“Yeah. I need to have you do your best too anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mhm?”

As always, he never made any sense. However, it was reassuring that he seemed serious about teaching me. Since Julius apparently had to go to school early today, and he immediately left home.

I went straight to the dining room to have breakfast, but it was filled with an indescribable atmosphere in the air. My stepmother, in particular, was sending me a stabbing gaze.

I took a seat, wondering what was going on.

“Rene, I heard you slapped Jenny on the cheek last night.”

And that was the first thing my father told me.

My eyes immediately went to Jenny next to me, and her cheek still had red marks on her pure white skin. I only slapped her a little last night. Why would it become like that?

“I did hit her, but Jenny hit me first.”

“...Why would you lie like that...?”

“Eh!?”

Apparently, the story changed to that I unilaterally hit her. My cheek was unharmed and hers was swollen. And it was the truth that I hit her. What a trap.

Above all, I finally noticed. Father doted on Jenny more than Rene. It might be inevitable, considering the difference between competence and Rene’s past behavior.

That's probably why everyone believed Jenny.

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So she thought this far. That’s why she used healing magic on me. What a schemer. Even I was impressed. Could someone please tell this family; she could use healing magic in the first place, why not heal her cheek already?

I knew it would be useless to say anything else, so I simply insisted, “Jenny hit me first.” With the complaints of my stepmother as background music, I finished my breakfast and quickly left the dining room.

It was a disaster from the morning, I decided not to let it ruin my day and passed through Heartful Academy’s gate.

“Good morning.”

“......”

And today, too, I didn’t forget to greet Prince Theodore. As expected, he only looked at me for a moment with no reply, but I didn’t let it get to me and walked to the school building.

There were no ends to slanders towards me, but they were nothing compared to Jenny’s direct insult combined with a slap.

Today's first class was an outdoor magic practice. I didn’t know anything about how to use magic. Breaking into a cold sweat, I moved outside alone.

“Please form a pair as a group.”

Furthermore, my teacher sentenced me to the death of all loners.

As people around me formed pairs one after another, I waited for my incoming fate. I saw this development before; the remaining person would team up with the teacher for personal coaching.

“Would you like to pair up with me?”

“Eh!?”

Unexpectedly, the beautiful girl whose seat was next to me asked me out. Not only that she was pretty, smart, and perfect, she even had the kindness to save a loner like me. Goddess.

And above all, I was happy. It was the first time since I came to the academy that a student other than my brother spoke to me like a normal person. I thanked her and introduced myself again.

“I’m Rene Wainwright. Nice to meet you.”

“I'm Therese Riddle. Nice to meet you.”

From our surroundings, I could hear voices saying, “Why Lady Therese is with that F-rank...” I knew it. She was an object of worship.

While doing light warm-up exercises, I asked her why she wanted to pair up with me. She had such a lovely smile that I could feel myself falling in love even if we were both girls.

“Because you’re trying to change.”

“Eh?”

“That’s all.”

I didn’t get it, but I was happy. She noticed that I wanted to change.

“I’ll do it first, okay?”

“Yes, please.”

Today’s class was to practice magic attacks on a target located a little distance away.

Therese was proficient in ice magic. With her hand straight up, multiple blocks of ice appeared at once around her. And they hit the target with crazy precision.

Eventually, the number ‘92’ was displayed at the top of the target. It was the score, which was graded on the magic’s power and accuracy.

Looking around, everyone was unleashing their own much, such as fire and water, hitting the target. Most of them only scored from sixty to seventy points. Therese sure was amazing.

For me, I was already excited that magic existed in the first place.  My heart thrummed at the fact that I could use magic myself.

“Do you know how to cast magic?”

“Sorry, not really...”

“Right. Fire magic is the easiest to activate, so try using fire magic first. There are also people who cast using words that make it easier to imagine.”

From her explanations, as long as I got used to it, I should be able to activate it by feeling. For words that make it easier to imagine, should I go with something mainstream like “fireball” for fire magic?

Saying that out loud would be embarrassing, though... While thinking to come up with a cool word to use next time, I faced my palm to the target and whispered, “Fireball.”

Then a tiny little spark appeared, and it wobbled towards the target.

Its unsteady movement was so unreliable that I felt like I was watching a kid doing their first errand.

“Oh, it hits...!”

Eventually, the fire hit the edge of the target and vanished. I couldn’t be more excited about being able to use magic and hit the target, but...

The score displayed was, in fact, 3 points. It was followed by laughter from all around me. Even Therese burst out laughing.

“Let’s practice more, okay?”

“Yes...”

Though I was once again reminded that it was going to be a long, tough battle, I was feeling more excited and rewarded than ever before.

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