Determination
“Magic! Teach me magic!”
Heni’s eyes sparkled as she beamed with a bright, pure smile. The dream-filled smile of a young girl was a lovely sight, yet Jun felt more worry than fondness.
He wasn’t the only one.
“Heni, is that why you came so early this morning?”
“Did you dream of becoming a mage while you were asleep?”
“H-Heni, I’m sure you can do it.”
“...”
Linda, Donald, Harry, and Leon all wore the same ambiguous smiles as Jun as they looked at her.
Perhaps those gazes didn’t sit well with her. Heni’s cheeks puffed out in displeasure.
“Why! Why are you all making that face! Even you big sisters and brothers think it’s hard for me to become a mage!”
The way she said “even” suggested she’d already gotten a lecture from someone else. That someone was probably her father, Robin.
To still insist on becoming a mage after getting a talking-to from her own dad... Knowing Heni’s personality, she wasn’t likely to give up easily.
That uncle’s going to have a rough time of it for a while.
“Hey, you little shrimp. You think becoming a mage is easy? Just wanting it doesn’t make it happen.”
Blunt as ever, Donald drove the point home. His wording was a bit rough, but the advice itself was spot-on.
Unlike becoming a knight—something you could eventually achieve through sheer effort—a mage was impossible without talent, no matter how hard you tried. The essential requirement for becoming a mage, a Mana Core, only blossomed through innate mana affinity.
And it wasn’t just Mana Cores. Spirit Cores, Spell Cores, and nearly every other external-release type of core that settled in the middle dantian shared the same trait.
Cores formed from borrowed power—like Holy Power Cores or Magical Energy Cores—were exceptions, of course. Expensive elixirs and breathing techniques could theoretically compensate for a lack of talent, but the efficiency was abysmal.
For all these reasons, Heni’s chances of becoming a mage were practically zero. She was nine years old. Children with talent for magic usually awakened their Mana Cores naturally before the age of eight. That she hadn’t meant she had none.
Moreover—
“Kid, you awakened your Aura Core about two years ago. And now you want to awaken a Mana Core on top of that? Stop being ridiculous and treasure what you’ve already got.”
It was such a perfectly reasonable point that Jun found himself nodding along without thinking.
Donald’s got a big mouth, he poses for everything, and his temper’s a bit short, but it’s not like he’s brainless. He sees reality pretty clearly.
Come to think of it, Jun had promised himself that if they made it back alive, he’d punish that loose mouth of Donald’s—the one that was about as valuable as a roadside pebble. He vowed to use this opportunity to make that mouth a little heavier.
“No! I’m going to learn magic!”
“I said stop being stubborn! Do you have any idea how much money it costs to learn magic? You think Uncle Robin’s going to allow it?”
“He did! He gave me permission last night!”
“...Shit.”
Donald stood blank for a moment at the news that Robin had given permission, then his face twisted violently as he spat out a curse.
“Hic! He cursed at me. He cursed at me! Waaah!”
Heni, apparently thinking the curse had been aimed at her, began to tear up. But the other orphans, who fully understood the feelings Donald must have been going through after Heni’s earlier remark, only soothed her. No one scolded him.
He’s probably dying of envy. He doesn’t have parents who’d indulge his stubbornness.
“Treasure what you’ve already got.”
Those words Donald had thrown at Heni were the very same ones he’d heard himself years ago.
There had been a time when Donald had thrown tantrums left and right, desperate to obtain an Aura Core. He’d clung to Leonard’s pant leg begging to be taught Aura cultivation methods, and he’d even cried and pleaded with Leon. What he got in return was Leonard’s sharp rebuke and a cold refusal. In the end, Donald had no choice but to give up on awakening an Aura Core.
Yet Heni had her stubbornness accepted for no reason other than having parents. It would have been strange if he wasn’t angry.
“Hic! Hic!”
“...Tch.”
Donald shot a sidelong glance at Heni crying in Linda’s arms, clicked his tongue once, shoved his hands into his pockets, and turned his back. He trudged off toward the church without another word.
Perhaps it was because they’d lived under the same roof and eaten from the same pot for ten years. Jun couldn’t just leave him like that.
“Heni, I’ll teach you magic. Come over here?”
“...Really?”
Jun smiled gently and nodded. Heni sniffled, approached him, and nestled softly into his arms.
You little she-cat!
I’ll give you all the hugs you want later, so calm down, Fortuna.
Barely managing to soothe Fortuna—who had completely forgotten her self-reflection and was flaring up with twin sparks of jealousy—Jun looked at the flustered orphans and spoke.
“Linda unnie, Harry. You two go comfort Donald. Leon, you stay somewhere else. If you go with them, you’ll only stoke his jealousy more.”
“Okay!”
“Got it.”
Deeply empathizing with Donald’s feelings, Linda and Harry hurried after him.
“Jun, what are you going to do now?”
“Well... I said it, but honestly I have no idea how I’m supposed to teach her magic in my current state.”
“Sniff. Jun oppa, did you lie to me?”
At Leon’s question, Jun could only scratch his head. Heni, who had been burying her face in his chest, looked up at him with shocked eyes. Moisture began welling up again in those bright, round eyes.
Don’t cry, please. You’re the one who caused all this trouble—what am I supposed to do if you start crying?
Jun felt like crying himself.
Just then, Leonard’s voice rang out like salvation.
“Jun, take Heni to her house. Robin just sent a message. He said he’ll prepare everything so you can teach her magic, and asked you to come over.”
“...Does that include ‘that’ preparation?”
Meaning, was he also preparing to train Jun himself? When Jun asked the loaded question, Leonard carefully checked Leon’s reaction and nodded.
“Huh? What preparation?”
Leon looked back and forth between Jun and Leonard, completely lost. Not wanting to invite unnecessary suspicion, Jun deliberately leaned in close to Leon’s ear and whispered in a meaningful tone.
“You know that awakening a Mana Core is essential for learning magic. I was asking if that preparation is ready.”
“Ah, okay. So could you back off a little? Your... face is too close.”
Mission accomplished. Yet looking at Leon’s flushed face, Jun didn’t feel particularly good about it.
He tells me to back off, so why is his nose flaring like that?
Jun frowned and pulled away. Then he felt a strangely sticky gaze from below and reflexively looked down.
“Sss... haah. Haah.”
“...”
Heni was drooling as she looked back and forth between Jun and Leon. The eyes she turned on them no longer belonged to a dream-filled young girl.
What do they call those eyes again? They look familiar.
Jun thought hard and finally remembered.
Right. The rotten eyes of fujoshi who go crazy for BL.
They were the same eyes his little sister in his previous life had started showing after their cousin introduced her to the BL version of Fullmetal Alchemist—eyes that stuck in his memory for all the wrong reasons.
I never thought I’d become the target of those eyes myself.
Jun lamented and flicked Heni on the forehead. She still didn’t seem fully corrupted, so if he kept correcting her like this, she might recover someday.
His previous sister had been too far gone, but this time... maybe?
The fujoshi attribute was pure poison to a girl, so Jun wasn’t confident.
For now, let’s stay as far from Leon as possible.
“Boss, then I’ll head over to Uncle Robin’s house with Heni.”
“Alright. Don’t cause too much trouble.”
“Wait, Jun, I’m coming too.”
“Leon. I need you to run an errand for me.”
“Huh? Y-Yes, sir.”
Once Jun and Heni left, and Leon followed on his errand, the backyard fell quiet in an instant. Leonard let out a sigh of relief and approached the three orphans who remained, still watching the departing figures.
“Are you envious of them?”
At Leonard’s question, Donald hung his head in frustration. Linda bit her lip, and Harry met his eyes and nodded.
“Then let’s pray.”
“Pray?”
“Are you telling us to become believers?”
To the surprised Linda and Donald, Leonard said,
“There’s no need to envy Heni. You have a Father as well. Though He cannot stay by your side, He watches over you wherever you are, always.”
“Really?”
“...”
“You don’t seem to believe me. Well, I understand. I didn’t believe either when I was your age. But—”
He patted their chests lightly.
“The moment His power settles here, in this heart, you come to understand naturally. Ah—that He has always been watching over me.”
Leonard took the two children’s hands and guided them to his own chest. His Holy Power Core hummed and radiated sacred energy. The two children slowly closed their eyes, savoring the warm power that flowed through their fingertips.
They felt someone’s gentle gaze upon them.
Leonard kindly wiped the tears that had begun to fall down their cheeks, then met the eyes of Harry, who was still staring blankly at him.
Unlike the eyes of the other two children—dark with loneliness and a sense of loss—Harry’s eyes sparkled with gratitude and happiness.
Leonard was very curious what he would say.
“Father.”
“Yes, Harry. Is there something you want to ask?”
“I want to pray for Jun. Is that alright?”
Harry’s voice was filled with nothing but sincerity. Leonard was about to nod with a deep smile when—
“What a truly admirable child.”
A tiny, crystalline voice—audible only to Harry and Leonard—accompanied a small ray of sunlight as it settled gently upon Harry’s chest.