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[Luminous’s POV]
I turned three.
Only at this age did I finally learn my family’s names.
My father was Paul Greyrat.
My mother was Zenith Greyrat.
My twin brother, and the elder of the two of us, was Rudeus Greyrat.
Lilia was the maid of this household.
And my name was Luminous Greyrat.
I was the second son of this family... the Greyrat household.
Though I had the name Luminous, neither Father nor Mother addressed each other by name, and they called Rudeus and me by our pet names, Rudy and Lumi. That was why it took me quite some time to learn our proper names.
Well, learning something new was nice, but it did not bring any major changes to my life.
Mother was always at my side, cherishing me as though I were some sacred treasure.
Whenever Lilia was looking after me, I went up to the second floor with Rudy to study letters and magic.
Lilia continued to turn a blind eye to my sneaking away. If I exhausted myself by using too much mana and fell asleep, she would carry me down from the second floor and make sure Mother did not find out.
She was the only helper in this household who freed me from my restraints.
Whenever our eyes met, she would look at me with pity.
Perhaps Lilia’s actions stemmed from sympathy for me, having been born with strange abilities.
But I did not mind.
Because of her sympathy, I had gained free time.
That alone was enough. If anything, I was simply grateful for Lilia’s generosity.
Someday, I would repay this kindness.
◆◇◆
Rudy and I spent our time studying eagerly and practicing magic together.
Unlike quiet, taciturn me, he was lively and curious.
More than anything, he was clever.
Whenever I came across something I did not understand while reading, he kindly explained it to me.
Of course, being children of the same age, there were limits to what he knew.
Even so, Rudy was such a kind child that he would go to every length to explain things to me, even using gestures if he had to.
An older brother who looked after his younger sibling before himself.
Was this what close brothers felt like?
In my childhood, getting along with my siblings was one thing, but it had been difficult even to exchange a proper word with them.
My older brother was busy studying and working day and night to carry on the family, while my older sister was busy preparing to marry young. There had been no time for us to talk, laugh, and joke together.
Perhaps it was because our household itself tended to be quiet rather than bright and cheerful.
Father and Mother never exchanged a word; they understood each other through their actions alone.
My comrades used to tell me stories of their own, since I had siblings yet knew nothing of siblingly affection.
"Siblings, huh? I had an older sister. She was beautiful and kind, and good to everyone. After our father and mother died, she was sold off in marriage to the third son of a low-ranking samurai family... Still, in her own way, she was thinking of me when she placed me here with this guard unit as an adopted son. There was a time when I thought she had abandoned me, but once I got older and had enough sense in my head, I could not help but understand how she felt."
"...Is that so."
"Well, I had a sister, so I do not know how people with brothers feel. But apparently men are always fighting with each other. They say a lot of them end up with terrible personalities, too."
"A terrible personality... That sounds dreadful in its own way."
"What are you lot talking about?! Be quiet while you eat!"
"See? It is not enough that brothers fight with each other—they grow up defying their elder brothers, and that is how they turn into ogres."
"Soji! Once you are done eating, get your ass out to the dojo!"
"Nooo. Seems like you want another beating, Hijikata."
"You think you are so good with a sword? Then come at me!"
Late evenings, after the day’s work was done.
As always, my comrades were there, laughing and chattering as they made a side dish of their little squabbles.
"Now, now, Toshizo, Soji, neither of you should fight at the dinner table."
Okita would fearlessly pick a fight with Hijikata, known as the Demon Vice Commander and practically the organization’s second-in-command.
Whenever those two bickered, Kondo, our leader, would stop them with a wry smile.
"Huh? An opening! The pickles are mine!"
"..."
"Heheh! The law of the jungle—Gurk!"
"...Heisuke, should I take it that stealing my favorite pickles means you have prepared yourself to die?"
"S-Shinpachi! Save me!"
"Whoa! Heisuke’s fish is mine!"
"Fuhahahaha! Now this is what mealtime ought to be like. It would not be the Shinsengumi without this kind of lively commotion. Well then, I shall take Heisuke’s sake as well."
"Shinpachi! Sanosuke! You are too meeeean!!"
There had even been those among them who picked fights with me.
Yes. Heisuke would try to steal my favorite pickles at every meal, then flinch.
Whenever he sent pleading looks for help, Shinpachi, a burly giant of a man, and Sanosuke, the drunkard, would smile at him like children.
In a way, we were not blood relatives... but perhaps that was siblingly affection.
Well, that was that. I had reminisced enough.
Thinking back, the comrades I knew who had siblings were not especially good people.
They were neither good nor bad, exactly.
How should I put it...? Calling them peculiar would probably be the right expression.
It was true that I had felt a little nervous about having a brother, based on what I had indirectly observed in those around me.
Yet, contrary to everything I had expected, Rudy was a kind older brother.
Rather than disliking me as someone who might become an obstacle to him, he looked after me.
I could not help but acknowledge Rudy as my older brother.
And I came to think that I should follow such a brother.
"Lumi, you finally made three Water Balls! Good job! Good job!"
"Y-Yeah. Thanks, Brother."
"...D-Don’t suddenly call me Brother. The gap moe is killing me."
"Gap moe? What is that, Rudy?"
"It is technical jargon you do not need to know, Lumi. Come on, let us focus on practicing!"
"...Okay."
Rudy would sometimes use words I did not know, his eyes wavering as he did, but aside from those moments, he was diligent, kind, and truly intelligent.
If Rudy continued to grow, he would probably become a fine man.
I did not know how Rudy appeared from the perspective of our parents or others, but the Rudy I had watched would surely become a truly great man... or so I thought.
◆◇◆
During my secret time with Rudy, I learned many things about magic.
First, anyone could perform magic as long as they had mana in their body.
And if used in battle, it had an extraordinarily wide range of applications.
It created something from nothing.
More precisely, it transformed the mana flowing through a human body into substances found in nature and used their power. It was sorcery that let ordinary humans command the power of nature.
It resembled the alchemy studied by scholars in the distant West long ago, as well as the yin-yang arts that employed Eastern feng shui.
Of course, compared to the magic of this world, those were no more than children’s games.
Basically, so long as one knew incantations and magic circles and possessed mana, anyone could use magic. And if one used water magic, one would never suffer from a shortage of water, no matter when or where.
One could supply oneself with clean water even in wartime.
Applying that to combat made it easy to catch an opponent off guard in all sorts of ways.
That alone made it immensely practical.
I could only use Water Ball for now, but there were many other water spells as well.
The beginner-level water spells listed in the textbook were as follows.
Water Ball: Fires a ball of water.
Water Shield: Erupts water from the ground to create a wall.
Water Arrow: Fires a water arrow around eight inches long.
Ice Smash: Hurls a mass of ice at the opponent.
Ice Blade: Creates a sword of ice.
There was limitless room for growth at every stage.
Over the past year of training in magic with Rudy, I had grown capable of creating three Water Balls, each holding as much water as a bucket.
It was all thanks to the training method Rudy had discovered and taught me.
The textbook was wrong when it said that the amount of mana one possessed was fixed from birth.
Just as Rudy had said, the day after I used up all my mana and collapsed from exhaustion...
When I created Water Ball again, I confirmed that it had grown larger. After repeating this, I realized that as the Water Ball grew larger, so too did my mana reserves.
The second thing was Rudy’s advice: if I could not use incantations, why not prepare the spell formula beforehand?
For some reason, I could not use magic through incantations at all.
The incantations used in magic followed a fixed set of rules and steps.
Creation → size setting → projectile speed setting → activation.
Magic activated when the caster determined the size and speed during that process.
In other words, the principle of magic was to form that process in one’s mind through an incantation.
But even if I recited an incantation, I could not properly follow that process.
For me, memorizing words was nothing more than memorizing words in their literal sense.
To simultaneously carry out all those steps in my mind while reciting words... was impossible.
So Rudy gently suggested that, if it was difficult to form an image of magic through an incantation, perhaps I should create that image through a magic circle and then feed mana into it.
And that advice fit perfectly.
Using magic while reciting an incantation was a cumbersome process for me.
But if I wrote down the magical process beforehand and then used it, there was no problem.
I borrowed the ink in the room, drew the magic circle from the textbook onto my hand, and used magic. It worked without issue.
That was to say, rather than using magic directly from the start, I used a medium inscribed with a certain shape. Then all I needed to control with mana was the size and speed.
Of course, my reserves of mana were absurdly small compared to Rudy’s.
To compare us, if Rudy was a steam locomotive, I was a snail.
What was more, Rudy had gone beyond using incantations and was even able to use magic merely by thinking about it... The difference in our talents was plain to see.
It seemed an older brother truly was made of different stuff.
Even so, I did not give up on magic.
Though there was a difference between the vessels of a genius and an ordinary man, I had become interested in magic circles in my own way.
Drawing magic circles was much like calligraphy.
You calmed your mind as you wrote, placing intent into the characters and giving them meaning.
Art made with the hand and language.
In my previous life, I had been captivated by calligraphy.
Even when I was working as a swordsman, I never stopped writing; I always kept brush and ink in hand.
Perhaps it had been a means for a man forever stained with blood to soothe his mind and body.
But whatever the reason, simply writing something brought me peace of mind.
For me, drawing magic circles was no different from finding tranquility.
Rudy wanted to use stronger magic, while I eagerly wanted to draw magic circles and try out many different spells. That was how we spent our days.
But even that secret time eventually came to an end.
◆◇◆
"Lumi, our mana reserves have grown a lot now, so let us try intermediate magic!"
It was one afternoon.
Rudy spoke to me with sparkling eyes, saying that we might be able to use intermediate magic by now, so we should test it.
At the time, I too was drawing a magic circle to activate intermediate magic, so I nodded and accepted Rudy’s proposal.
After drawing magic circles on the backs of our hands, Rudy and I stretched our hands toward the wall and released our mana.
At first, I thought it would only be like a water balloon bursting against the wall.
But then an enormous torrent of water shot from our fingertips and punched a huge hole through the wall.
We stared blankly as droplets trickled down from the edges of the hole to the ground.
As we stood there dazedly looking at the view outside through the absurdly powerful blast—
"What happened?! Whoa...!"
Father was the first to come running.
Then he saw the hole in the wall and opened his mouth wide like a catfish.
"What in the world is this...? Rudy, Lumi, are you all right?"
Rather than scolding me for coming outside without Mother’s permission, Father first worried about whether we were hurt.
I could only think that this man was truly a good person.
Even now, he was muttering things like, "A monster...? No, there should not be any around here...," while warily scanning our surroundings with sharp eyes.
Then Mother entered the room after him.
"Oh my...!"
When Mother saw the hole in the wall, she rushed over and swept me into her arms.
After checking me over for injuries, she spotted the magic circle drawn on the back of my hand, then noticed Rudy sitting there and the magic textbook.
She sat me down beside Rudy and met our eyes with a gentle expression.
But there was no smile in Mother’s eyes.
Rudy and I tensed at the sheer seriousness and solemnity of her expression.
How long had it been since I had seen the face of someone demanding an explanation?
If we avoided her gaze now, she would surely get angry.
Thinking that, I did not avert my eyes and met Mother’s gaze directly—
"Rudy, Lumi. Did you read out loud what was written in this book?"
"We are sorry."
"...I am sorry."
We nodded and apologized.
Admitting one’s mistake and apologizing was the way to resolve a problem smoothly.
Besides, with the evidence so plainly conclusive, it was far too late to deny it.
Upon hearing our answer, Father looked dumbfounded and spoke to Mother, but...
"No, but this is intermediate—"
"Ahh, darling, did you hear that?! Our children really are geniuses!"
Mother cut him off, letting Father’s words go in one ear and out the other.
In complete contrast to when she had discovered my strange ability, she clapped her hands and hopped about like a rabbit in delight.
It seemed she had completely forgotten that I had left my room without permission.
Father, on the other hand, looked troubled.
Unlike Mother, he did not appear terribly happy that we had used magic.
Relieved that she would not be reproached for letting me out of my room, Lilia began cleaning up.
"Darling, put out a notice in Roa City tomorrow! Talent must be nurtured!"
Mother was getting excited on her own, going on about genius and talent.
"Darling, they need a tutor! I am sure we can find a fine magic teacher in Roa!"
"No, wait. We agreed that if we had boys, we would raise them to be swordsmen. I gave up on teaching Lumi the sword because his body is frail... but I absolutely will not yield when it comes to Rudy."
Father cut down Mother’s suggestion in a single stroke.
From what I heard, it seemed they had decided even before we were born that any sons would be taught the sword.
"But they are casting intermediate magic at this age! If they are properly taught, they will become incredible magicians!"
"A promise is a promise! I will give up on Lumi, but not Rudy!"
"What does a promise matter?! You always break your promises!"
"This is not about me right now!"
And so the marital quarrel began.
I found it awkward that my parents, who had been as devoted as mandarin ducks, would fight over something like this.
Rudy seemed flustered by seeing our parents fight as well. He could only watch the argument with his mouth hanging open.
All I could do was marvel at Lilia’s composure as she calmly continued cleaning amid the grim atmosphere of their heated exchange.
Then the argument came to an easy end, thanks to Lilia’s sighing suggestion once she had finished cleaning.
"How about having them learn swordsmanship in the morning and magic in the afternoon? You should teach Master Luminous the sword as well, without making distinctions."
"But... Lumi is frail. More than that, he is not in a position where he can be injured."
"I believe that is the perspective of adults. Master Luminous must also understand the weight of pain, and there is a need to make his weak body healthy. I do not think merely protecting a child is the role of a parent. ...Forgive my presumption in offering my opinion, but I apologize if I have overstepped my place."
What I had wanted to hear came from Lilia’s lips instead.
She had firmly taken my side.
Even though she could hardly have been blamed if they berated her for voicing an opinion beyond her station as a maid.
Perhaps Father and Mother felt something upon hearing Lilia’s earnest advice, for they nodded.
"Yes. Lilia is right. Until now, we have only protected Lumi too much. We should have trained his frail body and made him healthy."
"Now that I think about it... I did not consider Lumi’s feelings either. He must have enjoyed playing alongside Rudy like this, but I was so worried that I think I kept him confined."
"We can do better from now on. From now on, treat Lumi exactly the same as Rudy."
"Yes! You are right! Lilia, thank you. You made me realize it."
Learning magic and drawing magic circles was good, but my true identity was still the sword.
Not for a single moment had I let go of my desire to grip a sword.
Perhaps that desire was why I had always watched Father so intently.
Thanks to Lilia, I was freed from my restraints. I gained free time, and the opportunity to grasp the sword I had yearned for ever since being born into this world.
At that moment, I made a vow.
‘Lilia, even if I must give my life, I will repay this kindness.’
To me, she would be family, precious after the parents who had given me life.
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