Chapter 16: You Can’t (1)

“You can’t.”

Big brother said that to me with a scary face.

“But—!”

“This might sound harsh, but you’d only slow us down as a magician with no practical experience. Are you able to stay calm in front of demon beasts you have never seen before? What if your magic goes out of control in fear? Sometimes, an incompetent ally is more detrimental than a competent enemy.”

My brother had a good point.

If I didn’t fully understand my magic, what would happen if I panicked and just kept shooting out fire and ice? In the worst-case scenario, I might even harm my own allies. Just thinking about it made my body tremble, and I unconsciously hugged myself.

I didn’t want to slow them down. I wanted to help change the future.

“If you still want to do something…”

I raised my head and looked at my brother. He wasn’t smiling at all.

“…If you can pass my exam in three days, I’ll ask Father to let you come with me.”

He told me as such with a challenging look in his eyes.

“…Exam?” I asked.

What was I supposed to do? What did I need to do in order for him to accept me…?

He held out his right hand over his left hand and muttered something to himself.

At that moment—

The left palm of his hand split open with a small cut.

“Brother!”

Blood was dripping from his palm.

“Settle down and watch.”

My brother remained calm as he said this.

I couldn’t understand what he wanted to do, so I could only watch, slightly cringing. I thought I heard him mutter something small again, but then…

“—!!”

In the blink of an eye, a faint light enveloped my brother’s palm, and after the light disappeared, the wound had completely disappeared.

“This is recovery magic. You have three days to master it. If you can’t use it by then, I won’t be able to take you with me.”

My brother showed his right palm to me, and I was convinced that was what he meant.

If I could use recovery magic…

Suddenly, I held out my right hand.

“Charl—!!”

I paid no mind to my Brother as I cut my left hand in a similar way he did earlier.

“—!!!”

Blood began to flow. The cut hurt almost like a dagger wound. It looked like it was a little deeper than Brother’s had been.

“Charl!! Why did you—your hands!!!”

“—Huh? Was that no good?”

“Don’t move, I’ll fix you right up!”

My brother was unusually flustered as he tried to fix my left hand with his own. Seeing him like that was funny and made me giggle, forgetting about the flowing blood in my hand.

“Charl! This is no time to be laughing! A girl shouldn’t get a scar—”

“It’s okay. I’ll just heal it, okay?”

I held my right hand over my left hand, which was still being grasped by my brother.

“Recovery…”

I imagined the bleeding being stopped, the wound closing, and finally, completely disappearing. I mulled over that mental image and finished muttering—

“…Heal.”

As soon as I finished, the area became enveloped in a dazzling light. The light was so bright that I couldn’t keep my eyes open, but when things finally calmed down…

The scar on my left hand had completely disappeared. In fact, all of my skin seemed to be glowing with health.

“Hooray! I did it! I was able to recover!!”

With a smile, I looked at my brother only to see—

“…Charlotte~?”

Eeeeeeek!!!!

Demon Lord Lucas had descended.

I’m scared.

I could see the Hannya behind his smiling face. (***The Hannya/Hannya mask represents a scary demon and is often used to depict scary/angry characters in many manga/anime)

“Br-Brother…?” I called out to him in fear.

“Charlotte. Let’s have a little talk~”

Scary, scary, so scary…

I instinctively sat down into a dogeza (***Dogeza is an element of traditional Japanese etiquette which involves kneeling directly on the ground and bowing to prostrate oneself while touching one’s head to the floor. It is used to show deference to a person of higher status, or even as a deep apology).

“Don’t ever hurt yourself again, okay?”

My brother, with a painful wrinkle between his eyebrows, took my left hand and continued to check my wound over and over again.

“It’s okay, Brother, because—”

—Brother suddenly smiled again at me as I tried to argue with him.

‘It’s okay because it’s healed.’—I didn’t want to risk saying that.

“Were you saying something?”

He put some more pressure on me.

I ended up succumbing and giving in.

“I’m sorry…it won’t happen again.”

I apologized and bowed my head obediently.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

T/N: Lucas is such a scary protective older brother…

|♡| Table of Contents |♡| Support me! |♡|