Chapter 7

Today marked the start of yet another refreshing day. Especially since yesterday I had learned swordsmanship from Carusien, today was also the day I would learn magic. According to the schedule we agreed on yesterday, we promised each other to study swordsmanship three days a week, magic three days a week, and take one day off.

‘Swordsmanship is a man’s romance!’

However.

‘Magic is a man’s romance, too!’

Anticipating the magic I was about to learn, I slowly walked toward the room designated as my private lecture hall. Magic involved a lot more theory, so classes were held in a classroom. Yul followed behind me like a shadow.

“Lulu~ Grow bigger~ Lulu~ Grow bigger!~”

Just as I was almost reaching the classroom, happily thinking about a mage character from a game called Loor that I used to play frequently back then, it happened.

Up ahead, a figure and the maid following behind them came into view. It was a handsome young man with silver hair that matched my own hair color remarkably well. Yet, perhaps because I had already seen an insurmountable wall of handsomeness, he looked somewhat ordinary.

I came to a halt. I had completely forgotten about this because we hadn’t crossed paths until now, but both ducal households in the kingdom each had sons. Come to think of it, that was only natural.

Nobility operated on a hereditary system, and things would be unstable without an heir. Besides, since the worldview rarely allowed women to inherit, having a son was a much more natural occurrence than having a daughter. However, since they didn’t seem like characters of much narrative weight, I had completely erased them from my mind—never expecting to run into one like this.

I reflexively bowed my head to greet him, then flinched at the words hitting my ears.

“Hmph, I have no idea what kind of magic a stupid bitch whose head is filled with nothing but love for the prince thinks she’s going to learn. I hear you’re supposedly learning the sword, too—wouldn’t it be much easier to just give up?”

“………….”

Huh? What did this punk just say?

He was probably around eighteen now; if this were back in my country, he’d just be some snot-nosed kid attending high school. Feeling my head, which had been lowering to bow, shoot straight back up, I almost said a piece of my mind before holding myself back.

Regardless of anything else, the guy standing right before me was my sibling—an older brother who was ostensibly older than me. Let me, the adult, hold it in.

“I’ll give up if it gets too hard, dear brother.”

Flinch!

“W-w-what?!”

Seeing him look utterly startled by my words, I tilted my head. Inside, however, cold sweat was pouring down my back.

No, just what kind of woman was the original Armienne, anyway? Every single person I met for the first time looked completely shocked the moment I uttered a single word. By now, even a passing idiot would probably look at me and be astonished.

Since things had come to this, I had no choice but to brazen it out once more.

“C-c-cough. Well, do your best, I suppose. Though you’ll probably quit in no time.”

Uttering dialogue straight out of a third-rate play, I watched the punk’s back as he walked away accompanied by his maid, smiling brightly while giving him the middle finger.

‘You’re dead the next time I see you.’

Seeing that action, Yul asked me,

“My lady, what does that mean?”

At her question, I agonized. I couldn’t exactly tell her it was a curse, could I? After thinking for a moment, I roughly cobbled together whatever excuse came to mind.

“Oh, um… It means, ‘May infinite blessings be upon you.’”

Yul let out a soft gasp of admiration at my words.

“I see. Just a short while ago, you used to swing your fists unceremoniously whenever you saw the young master, but you truly have changed, my lady. I, Yul, shall offer this body of mine to support you.”

“…Th-thanks. Appreciate it.”

I used to swing my fists? No wonder he flinched. If you put it that way, the bad guy here wasn’t him—it was me all along. A younger sister who throws punches at her older brother the moment they meet? Even I would hate that.

I mentally updated his status from ‘death’ to ‘near-death’ for our next encounter, and pushed open the classroom door.

Inside, as if he had arrived early, an elderly man wearing a magnifying monocle over one eye sat at a desk quietly reading a book. He looked like the absolute portrait of a medieval fantasy mage.

Oh, a fantasy mage. So cool!

As I approached with a small sense of awe, hearing the sound echoing only once I got close left me with a dumbfounded expression.

“Snoooore, snooooooore.”

“………….”

Gazing at our proud second-in-command of the Magic Tower and vice-master grandfather, who was currently partaking in the most blissful honey-sweet nap of a midsummer night, I wore a mischievous smile and slowly brought my face close to his.

When my lips were practically close enough to touch the old man’s cheek, I opened my mouth and let loose.

“Boo!”

“Yiiii-kyaaaah!”

Crash-clatter!

Undefended and completely exposed to my shouting attack, the old man shrieked in shock and tumbled backward right along with his chair. Still seemingly out of his wits, he looked around frantically this way and that, causing me to burst into laughter.

“Pfft—hahahahahaha. Grandpa. Are you alright? Ahahaha.”

I reached out both hands to help Vice-Master Capeldeor up, and the old man gently smoothed down my hair as he spoke.

“Sheesh, you nearly gave your grandfather a heart attack, you know.”

Even so, whether because he didn’t entirely dislike such behavior, a smile was drawn across the old man’s mouth.

According to the story I heard yesterday, Grandfather Capeldeor had originally been a commoner. Once his talent for magic was discovered, he entered the Magic Tower and had reportedly lived inside the tower for his entire life ever since. He had intended to live out his days studying magic until the day he died, but right on cue, our dad—the duke of the ducal house of Celion—had made a polite request. Furthermore, the Tower Master was tied up with urgent matters, and the other researchers were all busy as if coordinated by clockwork, leaving no time to spare. In the end, the vice-master himself had been sent.

Hearing those stories about his life, I nodded. I felt like if I hadn’t come to this world and had simply kept living my life, I probably would have ended up spending a lifetime just like Grandfather Capeldeor.

“Thinking about it now, I suppose meeting Armienne was quite possibly the greatest stroke of luck in my life.”

Though I already knew what he was going to talk about, I asked anyway. Capeldeor seemed like he wanted to talk more.

“Why is that? Grandpa?”

“My word, I’ve gained such a cute granddaughter, haven’t I? Heh-heh-heh. I always thought that only studying magic was the sole joy of my life, but I’ve only just realized now that there are things far greater than that. Well, I don’t regret the past, but as others say, meeting a woman probably wouldn’t have been a bad thing either, it seems.”

He claimed he had no regrets, but his voice was laden with a deep sense of lingering attachment. Hearing that, I resolved in my heart to sacrifice my single body for the old man.

“Oh come on, you have me now, you know.”

Goosebumps that felt like they would never sprout and grow again suddenly broke out all over my body. Knowing that the sheet-kicking session on my bed was now booked and waiting for me, I poured every ounce of my effort into acting cute.

Perhaps my efforts paid off. Capeldeor burst into a hearty laugh.

“Indeed, indeed! Thank you, Armienne. Well then, since you’re fully awake now, shall we begin our lesson?”

“Yes.”

For some reason, it felt less like we were about to study magic and more like we were about to begin a mathematics class, causing a faint sense of unease to creep over me. Realizing it only just now, why on earth did magic have way more theoretical lessons than practical application?

As far as I knew, magic in fantasy novels was about sensing mana and coming to comprehend spells in proportion to one’s talent.

Capeldeor drew a large circle on the chalkboard using a piece of chalk. Then, he drew illustrations of fire, water, earth, and wind at the four cardinal directions—north, south, east, and west. Seeing that, I let out a sigh of relief, realizing it thankfully didn’t seem related to the math I hated so much.

“In magic, observing the basic four-element rules is of the utmost importance. Depending on how you synthesize these four-element rules, the power or the attribute of that magic is determined. And if you express these rules simply through symbols, it looks like this.”

Tap! Tap! Tap!—

The moment I laid eyes on the large symbols he drew while making crisp tapping sounds with the chalk, I couldn’t help but make the exact same reaction I had when I first saw Carusien.

The symbols drawn on the chalkboard were precisely +, -, *, and /.

Shedding tears of blood, I let out a wretched, internal wail.

Oh, no way! Is this because it’s a novel written by a Korean author that you have to heap this kind of trial upon me?

It felt almost like an invisible voice was speaking to me.

‘If you want to learn magic, study your math hard. Magic = mathematics.’

No way! This is a nightmare!

Perhaps sensing my inaudible screams, Grandfather Capeldeor, who had been drawing the four fundamental arithmetic symbols on the chalkboard and explaining them, came to a halt.

“Why is that? Was the explanation too difficult?”

“…No. It’s fine.”

It definitely wasn’t difficult. If anything, it was bordering on easy.

For the record, it was math that I hated. It wasn’t that I was actually bad at it by any absolute measure. Granted, while attending university, I’d honestly let things slide a little bit, but back in high school, I had never once missed ranking in the top tier for math grades. In a way, I was practically a king of mathematics.

The problem was that the backlash from all that had made me utterly loathe math. And now, the very math I thought I’d never have to look at again the moment I graduated high school was something I had to pick back up just to learn magic? No, wait a minute.

“G-Grandfather!”

A sudden thought striking me, I hurriedly called out to Grandfather Capeldeor. He gazed back at me with a questioning look.

“U-um, before we actually learn magic, shouldn’t we first check whether I can even sense mana?”

Seeing Capeldeor nod as if my words made complete sense, a single ray of hope sparked within me. Right, what good was having a strong grasp of theory if you couldn’t sense mana in the first place? It would all be completely useless.

With the old man looking so immensely happy teaching me, I simply couldn’t bring myself to say I hated magic, so this was the only escape hatch left to me.

If I had severely lacking talent for handling mana, I was certain I could use that as an excuse to quit magic class altogether.

“That is true, as well. I got so carried away that I forgot the most important thing. Come over here, Armienne.”

I sat down in the chair pointed out by Capeldeor, and soon he began drawing something resembling a magic circle on the floor using sparkling, glowing powder extracted from his pocket. However, the magic circle I had imagined was one featuring a large star drawn inside a grand circle—the reality, however, was not that. Contained within the large circle were not stars, but complex mathematical equations.

‘Oh, damn it! No way.’

Cursing the author who wrote this novel yet again, I smacked my own head, which was automatically attempting to solve the quadratic and cubic equations currently in plain sight.

“Why are you doing that? Does something hurt?”

“Ah, n-no.”

A short while later, the magic circle flared brightly, sending a pillar-like beam of light surging upward to wrap around me. Standing right inside it, I had no choice but to let the tears flow.

“Do you feel anything?”

To his question asked with wide, sparkling eyes, unable to bring myself to lie to him, I answered through my tears.

“Yes.”

I can feel it damn well.