Awakened Ella
Ella was irked by Leon. It wasn't a matter of like or dislike. Just the fact that the girl bore her little brother's name was enough to grate on her nerves.
Today, as always, Ella watched from afar as the man taught Leon magic. Right beside him was Leon.
'...Damn it all.'
They didn't resemble each other in appearance at all, nor in build. Not even their gender. Leon had been her little brother, but this Leon was a girl. Yet she carried the name Leon. That alone was infuriating.
'He did it on purpose. To force it under my skin.'
She had to draw the man's attention back to herself somehow, but she couldn't act rashly. Because she'd decided he was trying to leash her.
'If he notices I'm bothered by this fake Leon, he'll use it to collar me.'
That's why she couldn't move carelessly. Any hasty action would expose that she cared about Leon.
So Ella resolved to pretend she had no interest in Leon at all. If she acted utterly indifferent, he wouldn't touch Leon just to toy with her.
With that in mind, Ella kept vying for his gaze as usual while deliberately ignoring Leon. Time passed as she ignored Leon like that.
Then something strange happened. Two weeks before enrollment.
Leon vanished.
Days passed, but Leon didn't return. Until now, the man had vanished off to practice magic with Leon, but he no longer did. Now, he just calmly sipped his coffee as if nothing had happened.
As if Leon had never existed.
By this point, even Ella was starting to doubt herself. Was Leon a hallucination she'd conjured? Had the man driven her insane?
His attitude was that nonchalant.
'...Why? Where did she go?'
Ella stole a glance at the man's profile as he sipped his coffee. He was the same as always. Staring blankly out the window, impassive, then occasionally flicking his gaze her way with a slight curl of his lips.
Ella barely suppressed the urge to bolt from her seat.
A week had passed since Leon disappeared, but the man hadn't uttered a single word about her. It wasn't insanity—Leon’s slightly ajar door clearly showed the difference between her being there and not.
'It's a trap. Definitely a trap.'
Ella repeated to herself. The man knew her thoughts, her plans. Asking about Leon here would hand him the leash.
'I don't care. That kid might as well have never existed. Leon's already dead anyway.'
But her mind was filled with Leon. Where had the girl with her brother's name gone? Did the man kill her? Or hide her somewhere? What if... right now, at this very moment, she was suffering somewhere?
'No, that's none of my business. None at all.'
Ella tried to focus on her sword practice. She thought swinging the blade would clear the nagging thoughts. But every swing flashed Leon's face across her mind—the scrawny, trembling girl from the shantytown.
'Why does it bother me? She's no blood relation, just someone I've seen for a few months. No reason to care.'
Ella gritted her teeth. Two more days passed. She grew increasingly restless. Even at meals, Leon's empty seat gnawed at her. Sitting in the living room, she half-expected Leon to emerge from her room. But she didn't, and the man remained utterly calm.
One night, Ella woke up. She thought she heard something beyond her door. Quietly, she rose and opened it. At the end of the dark hallway, Leon's door stood ajar.
Without realizing, Ella stepped toward it. Her heart pounded wildly.
The room was empty. Leon's things remained untouched: the rumpled bedsheets, the beginner's magic textbook on the desk, and a single small pebble.
Ella picked up the pebble. Had Leon found it? It seemed worthless, yet she couldn't let go.
'Why hasn't she come back?'
What the hell had that bastard done—
"Can't sleep?"
Ella whipped around. The man leaned against the doorframe. His eyes flicked to the magic book she'd been touching.
"...Ah, so you wanted to learn magic."
This was Leon's room. Yet he acted as if she'd never existed. It was utterly chilling.
"Magic depends on talent and aptitude. It's not like martial arts that anyone can pick up."
He smiled and added, "Well, martial arts need talent too. But that's not what I mean."
"...What are you getting at?"
He shrugged. "No talent for magic, and you could die learning it. Your mana goes boom. I don't want to see you die."
Ella blurted without thinking, "...What?"
"Sleep well, then. Gotta get your muscles growing—aim for at least six hours."
He waved casually and walked away.
Left alone, Ella's thoughts froze.
'Dead...?'
Leon was dead. Probably from a mana explosion during practice. At least, that's what he'd implied.
'...Why?'
Why? Why the hell would he do that?
Ella thought she knew his tastes pretty well by now. He craved amusement—the vile kind from watching others break. For that, he needed toys to play with and victims to torment.
But Leon was dead. Why? How? When? Where? Was killing her without her knowing right?
'Wasn't it to see me break? Did he get another toy without me noticing?'
Her mind raced for reasons.
'Or because I acted like I didn't care? So he discarded her? Or some other reason?'
Why? Why? What for? No matter how she turned it over, no answers came.
Crunch.
Ella clenched the pebble.
"In the end... it was all meaningless...?"
Her grand mission to monopolize his attention and block victims. Her resolve to understand and redeem him. Her efforts to ignore everything.
All of it, utterly pointless?
Was the pebble sharp? Heat bloomed in her palm. Blood trickled between her fingers. Amid the sharp pain, the man's voice echoed.
To accomplish anything, you must devote everything.
The words he'd toyed with Broker using. Back then, she'd vaguely thought that to achieve something, she needed proper resolve.
"Ha, haha..."
She'd been complacent. How shallow that mindset had been.
Proper resolve? No, she hadn't truly committed.
To accomplish anything, you must devote everything.
'I still haven't given everything.'
That's why that monster toyed with her.
Yes, she was stupid.
'Because I still haven't given everything, I've been played.'
It was common sense.
Kiel's agonized scream as the man tormented him rang in her ears. She'd seen well what happened to those who half-assedly tried to protect everything. Eyes wide open, nose cut off—a stupid bitch. Wasn't that just like her now?
To see that fate and still fall for the obvious ploy so neatly.
'...Discard her. She's no longer needed.'
Ella hurled the pebble out the window. She hesitated midway several times, but in the end, it left her hand.
To stop him, she had to devote everything. Ella decided to stake her all on that one man alone.
Leon’s survival, other victims—none of it mattered anymore.
My plan was simple. Introduce a new figure—Leon, utterly unlike me in gender, build, and age—to shift the obsession from me to her.
To that end, I made Leon "disappear" and prodded Ella.
After all, giving something and then taking it away is the surest way to make it stick.
Leon was fine, of course. She hadn't come home because I'd moved her quarters myself. By now, she was probably holed up in an inn, buried in magic practice.
When the time was right, I'd return her and swap Ella's fixation onto Leon.
But...
"So, even after I explained the risks yesterday, you still want to learn magic?"
Ella smiled. "Nah, lost interest. Why bother with magic when I can't even grasp the basics yet?"
Huh?
"I've got stuff to do today anyway. Need to head out for a bit..."
I trailed off, gauging her reaction. Ella beamed.
Huh?
"Sure. You never asked permission before. But be back by the time I enroll at the Academy, got it?"
My head went ice-cold.