A Speck of Pebble
After breakfast, as Anelia headed toward the salon, she found herself facing Ricarton.
“Huh? Magic lessons?”
“Isn’t it enough that you’re already taking classes right now? …Aren’t you going to play instead?”
“It’s just a little tea time after a meal.”
“You keep stuttering, you know.”
“Ugh…”
Anelia’s cheeks flushed bright red. Ricarton smiled gently.
“Her Highness Anelia possesses quite remarkable magical talent. It would be such a waste to leave it unused.”
“…”
Even after hearing those flippant words, she felt no joy.
She had heard the same phrase since she was little—from her father, the South Duke, from the servants in her mansion, and even from her private tutors. They had praised her without end.
At first, she had been happy. Of course she had. No one would feel bad about being called a genius.
But believing every word had brought nothing but a brutal schedule. Young Anelia had thought she would die.
That memory made her shiver. “I… I don’t like hard things.”
“It won’t be hard. Professor Henderson is considered one of the greatest teachers in the Empire. His lectures at the Magic Tower are said to have an extremely high acceptance rate.”
“If it’s the Magic Tower professor, then it’ll be difficult and scary, won’t it?”
“Come on. Would I scare the princess?”
Ricarton seemed completely unaware of how terrifying he was being to Eris. Even inside the Imperial Palace, rumors flew that the Captain of the Imperial Guard had “given” the first princess to him as a teaching aid.
“…”
“I didn’t want to say this, but…”
Ricarton suddenly dropped to one knee in front of the hesitant Anelia and whispered close to her ear.
“His Majesty the Emperor asked me to do this.”
“……!!”
Of course it was a lie. Little Anelia had no way of seeing through it.
“Your Highness has an immense magical talent, yet all you do is play. I worry about you.”
No one would have guessed the speaker was the Empress herself. In truth, Ricarton had earned quite a name for Seriel both inside and outside the palace. Even just the RS Company he co-founded bore her initials.
Of course, no one knew that secret. Not even Seriel herself.
“Wouldn’t it be fun to study with Her Highness Silsian, who’s also a second-class mage?”
He also wanted to give the princesses time to become close sisters and to spur each other on. Silsian would make things less bothersome for the timid Anelia. That was the real reason.
“…All right.”
Anelia could only nod helplessly. If the Empress wanted her to study, what could she do?
“Even sister doesn’t know?”
“Uuu…”
“If she didn’t know anything, how did she become a second-class mage?”
“Hwaaaaaang!”
Anelia couldn’t endure Silsian’s blunt words even thirty minutes and bolted out of the room. Silsian meant no harm. She was simply asking out of pure curiosity. The problem was that she never considered how the other person might react.
“Huff… huff…”
Anelia ran until her mana ran out, then dove into the nearest wardrobe in the room. She had often hidden in closets to escape the tutors and servants her father sent.
This particular wardrobe was so wide she could lie down with her legs stretched out. Beneath the faint scent of premium wood lingered a touch of mustiness. It wasn’t quite as narrow as her own closet, but it was comfortable enough.
Sitting inside it made her feel at ease. She didn’t have to do anything. She wanted to keep sleeping like this forever. This place was the one space where she could be useful or useless without worry.
Crash!
The wardrobe door suddenly opened, flooding the space with light. Anelia, who had been wiping away tears, looked up blearily.
“Your Highness.”
Ricarton stood there.
“Are you all right?”
Anelia accepted the handkerchief he offered and finished drying her tears. It smelled of a nice flower. It was a man’s handkerchief, yet it smelled sweet.
“Hic… Silsian… Silsian… Hwaaaaang!”
“It’s all right. Everyone gets lost at first.”
He barely calmed her down before sending her back to the lecture hall.
“Why didn’t I know this?”
“…”
“The professor explained it very clearly just now.”
“…”
“S-Silsian…!”
Anelia’s second escape happened in only ten minutes!
Crash!
“Your Highness.”
…
“Are you really not knowing, or do you just pretend not to know? I’m genuinely curious.”
“…”
“S-Silsian—! Aah, Anelia—!!”
Anelia’s third escape came after only five minutes!
Crash!
“…”
Anelia’s sixth escape ended in failure.
The Imperial Palace was no longer safe. Every time she hid, that terrifying Captain of the Imperial Guard would find her.
Thinking that way, Anelia used wind magic to leap over the palace wall and flew south. If she could go home like this, maybe she could reach the South Duke’s mansion in one breath as a second-class mage.
One hour after she had crossed the palace wall, her mana ran out and she began walking in a daze. Suddenly, a downpour started. Anelia, who had been running through the forest to escape the rain, stumbled into a large cave visible in the distance.
“Ha… ha…”
Exhausted from running without enough mana, she walked deeper inside. The space was pitch black and stuffy. She thought she could lie down and feel relaxed there.
“Sigh…”
Deeper in, the wall loomed ahead. She touched it. It felt soft, almost spongy.
“There are rocks like this too?”
Anelia tilted her head at the sight.
Flash!
Two red dots appeared. Then two more. Then two more beside them.
“What’s that?”
Fireflies? The fireflies of the South were yellow, but the fireflies of Adelin were red. That thought crossed her mind as she sparked a flame from her palm.
“Kwooooreee—!!”
The sight of a bear monster with its jaws wide open toward her made Anelia nearly faint.
“Kyaaaaaaaak!!”
A Crimson Bear, its signature feature being its red fur. Those sharp fangs were aimed right at her when—
“How dare—”
Chills ran down her spine. The cave filled with an icy sensation so intense it raised goosebumps everywhere.
“You dare stick your stinking mouth in front of me.”
Just as he extended his hand and unleashed mana, every Crimson Bear inside the cave froze solid.
“Hic, Ricarton-nim…!”
“You traveled far.”
Ricarton rushed over and gently stroked the trembling Anelia. The heat of his body canceled out the freezing effect and dried her soaked clothes.
“Huff… how did you know I was here?”
“There’s a way to find out anything.”
When she had crossed the palace wall with magic, both the Imperial Guard and the Empire’s knights had noticed. Among the countless magical security devices laid across the entire palace, this one was classified as top secret. Even the princesses weren’t supposed to know about it.
After the downpour stopped and Anelia’s clothes had dried, Ricarton asked, “Are you ready to go back now?”
“…No.”
She buried her face in Ricarton’s chest and shook her head vigorously.
“Why?”
“If I go back, it’ll be the same. I’m stupid, so I can’t follow the lessons. Silsian will get angry at me for being stupid… and—”
“You’re not stupid, Anelia.”
“I’m stupid at learning and slow, and I’m lazy besides. I can’t even do simple things properly… All I have is mana.”
At ten years old, Anelia was analyzing herself with frightening accuracy. Ricarton swallowed the thought without a word.
“Everyone has high expectations for me… but I can’t live up to them. Because I’m useless. Like this pebble.”
Thud.
A kicked pebble rolled out of the cave and came to a stop outside.
Ricarton watched it in silence.
Thump.
He stepped outside and asked, “You don’t want to be useless?”
“…”
The question struck straight to the heart.
The weight of her birth as a princess, the heavy destiny carried in her royal blood—it had been too much for a small, young Anelia. That was why she had tried to become someone useless. If no one expected her to become the Empress, life would be easier. If her father and others gave up on her, she could escape the brutal schedule.
Over time, she had come to believe she was truly useless. It felt as though her method acting had somehow influenced her real life.
A useless, stupid, completely worthless child.
Anelia had locked herself inside the small wardrobe she had created, and because she had hidden there for so long, she no longer knew how to come out on her own.
“Do you know this?”
Ricarton picked up the pebble with mana. The exact one Anelia had kicked moments ago.
“A pebble can be surprisingly useful, you know.”
“Eh?”
“In nature, river stones keep water clean, provide shelter for tiny creatures, and are collected by some people as treasures. They’re called gemstones, too. To make wishes, people stack stone towers. On the battlefield, they strike with great force. In catapults, they become small cannonballs. With mana infused, they become fine weapons. Besides that—”
Anelia stared blankly at Ricarton’s endless stream of trivia.
“Ah, um, I talked too much.”
“Yes… uh…”
With the sound of wind, the dark clouds drifted away. Light pierced the forest—first one beam, then another.
“Anyway, what I wanted to tell you is—”
A single ray of light fell onto the pebble Ricarton had placed in her palm.
“Just as this pebble is useful despite thinking it’s useless, so are you, Anelia. Much more useful than you think.”
This was the message he wanted to give the Anelia who had lived through school days and imagined himself—someone who opened his mouth and created drama, yet was useless at studying, useless at sports, and without even a talent for speech, so he had no friends. Someone with no hope for the future.
Please, he wanted Anelia not to wander lost in the darkness the way he once had. In the pouring light, he reached out to her.
“You don’t have to use magic. You can slowly explore what you’re good at, what you enjoy, and what you want to become.”
“…”
One day, you’ll realize just how useful a useful person Anelia really is.
At the end of the long, dark cave, the world outside began to brighten. As if the magic had been cast.
Her small feet stepped forward.
Slowly, but surely, she walked toward the light.
At the very end of the cave, Anelia stopped at the clear boundary between light and darkness and asked, “…Are you going to help me, Ricarton-nim?”
She looked up at his face with a hint of unease, afraid he might refuse.
“Of course.”
His smile was as warm as sunlight streaming down.
Anelia, who had come out of the cave on her own, accepted the pebble from his hand. She held it gently in her small hands, forming a tiny circle. Even without magic, it felt warm.
***
Ricarton carried Anelia to her second annex with a satisfied smile, then returned to his own room.
“Ricarton.”
“…”
Before long, Silsian appeared as usual and demanded, “Read me a book.”