The Superior Orphan Chloe (2)
I should have explained this earlier, but magic exists in this world.
The world runs on magic power instead of electricity, and things like the industrial revolution had been renamed with the bizarre label Magic Revolution.
I learned about all this because the orphanage director forced me to study.
He even permitted me to read books freely.
It was clearly a calculated move, made with the assumption that I would eventually be sold as a noble’s concubine.
‘Not that I had learned much to begin with.’
The Winterland orphanage where I lived sat in the borderlands of the Krantz Empire. The national border lay close by.
Still, since the Krantz Empire was winning its war against the Federation, there was no immediate cause for worry.
Most of the books contained little more than that.
Looking back now, the director himself probably hadn’t known much more.
‘After all, what could an orphan have learned?’
Regardless, the director had crammed every kind of knowledge he could into my small head by force.
And he kept it up for a full five years.
‘I never studied this hard even when I was in college.’
Ah. I got sidetracked again.
I was in the middle of explaining how I had grabbed the conscription officer and demanded an aptitude test.
At fifteen years old, Chloe Winterland had seized the officer who traveled between border orphanages collecting children and asked him directly.
“Please let me take the aptitude test.”
“...What?”
“Please let me take the aptitude test.”
The conscription officer frowned and shot back.
“Why should I?”
“I want to enlist.”
“Why?”
“To protect the country.”
Looking back now, I didn’t have the slightest shred of patriotism. The only thing I truly wanted was to avoid becoming a noble’s concubine. That was all.
Being penetrated by a man was absolutely out of the question.
Did I enlist because the military seemed like an easy place to satisfy my darker desires? No. I am someone who values my life above everything else, and my masculinity comes second. In other words, if I lived safely in the rear without ever being penetrated, I could protect both.
Thinking about it now, it was an incredibly stupid and trivial reason.
The conscription officer stared at my face for a long moment before answering.
“Age?”
“I just turned fifteen this year.”
“...That’s old enough to enlist if you have the aptitude.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Follow me.”
Just as the conscription officer began leading me toward the vehicle that held the testing equipment, the orphanage director came bursting out of the entrance in a panic.
“You can’t!” the director shouted.
The conscription officer stopped abruptly.
Thud.
I slammed face-first into his back.
I quickly stepped aside, watching them.
The conscription officer and the director locked eyes.
“What exactly can’t I do?”
“That child is…”
“That child is only fifteen? She’s a girl? Her face is pretty, so you might be able to sell her to a noble for a good price?”
...I was honestly surprised.
I hadn’t expected him to see through the director’s intentions so perfectly.
Because every word the director had been about to say had been laid bare, he could only open and close his mouth like a fish.
Watching the pained look on the director’s face, a strange heat pressed firmly against my lower abdomen.
Hmm. It felt good.
The conscription officer delivered the finishing blow to the stiffened director.
“Let the child decide her own future. That’s what an adult is supposed to do.”
Thinking about it now, the conscription officer had probably thought something like, there’s no way she has any aptitude, planning to run one quick test and send me back to the orphanage.
With that casual mindset, he led me to the measuring device.
The conscription officer brought me straight to the rear trunk of the truck.
When I simply stood there staring at it, he shook his head, jumped up first, then offered me his hand.
‘...Ah.’
Realizing something, I refused his hand.
“I can get up by myself.”
“Suit yourself.”
“Hup!”
With a short shout, I leaped with all my strength and barely managed to hurl myself onto the military truck’s trunk.
Crash.
Covered head to toe in dust, I stood up as if nothing had happened and brushed myself off.
The conscription officer looked at me with faintly pitying eyes.
“...You all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“Anyway, this is the tester.”
He pushed a blue crystal ball forward.
When I simply stood there watching, he let out a short sigh and began explaining.
“Ah, of course you wouldn’t know how to use it.”
“No, sir.”
“Place your hand on it first.”
Attack (A): ■ — Level 1
Barrier (B): ■ — Level 1
Cure (C): ■ — Level 1
Detect (D): ■■■ — Level 3
Enhance (E): ■ — Level 1
The crystal ball displayed strange square boxes.
“Wow… it’s real…”
“What’s the matter?”
“You have aptitude.”
The moment the conscription officer spoke, I cheered wildly inside.
The fear of being sold as a noble’s concubine and penetrated had vanished.
‘All I have to do is stay safe in the rear, polish my magic aptitude, and wait until the war ends…!’
Even if I were deployed, I could just cast magic from a safe distance.
I genuinely believed that.
The conscription officer studied my deliberately blank face and asked.
“Are you curious?”
“Yes.”
“You lie quite well with a face that shows zero curiosity.”
Hmph.
It wasn’t a lie.
I felt a little wronged.
This body apparently had a constitution that didn’t let emotions show on the surface.
Maybe that was why, even when I complained to the director every day about being bullied, he thought the harassment wasn’t serious.
Even though I had bruises on my stomach.
Completely unaware of my inner thoughts, the conscription officer continued indifferently.
“Those squares represent aptitude. Level 1 is the lowest, Level 3 is the highest.”
“I see.”
“In order, they show aptitude for A, B, C, D, and E magic.”
I thought for a moment.
“Then… can I shoot fireballs too?”
“…What is that.”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know what you’re imagining, but humanity only knows how to use five kinds of magic.”
This was new information.
That damn director really hadn’t taught me anything properly.
“Five kinds… I see.”
“Yes. A, B, C, D, E. That’s everything.”
“…What do they stand for?”
“Attack, Barrier, Cure, Detect, Enhance. They’re the Empire’s ancient words.”
It was just English.
‘In order: attack, defense, healing, detection, enhancement.’
Honestly, I was a little disappointed.
I had expected a fantasy world to have a flashier flavor.
‘Still, you never know.’
Maybe those basic magics could be combined and applied to create new ones.
After all, the reason mages received rear-line education and were treated as high-value assets during war was because each spell offered tremendous efficiency.
Who was to say one attack spell couldn’t hit with the power of a cannonball?
“Oh, and magic aptitude never changes later in life. It doesn’t grow, either.”
Ah.
Ugh… my stomach suddenly hurt.
The conscription officer watched my face and asked.
“By the way, do you not have expressions?”
“Excuse me? I do. Look closely.”
Hearing my answer, the conscription officer actually stared at my face for a long time.
Before long he frowned.
“Tsk. I can’t tell.”
“I see.”
“So you really intend to enlist?”
“Yes.”
“Mages usually have talent in only one type of magic. Talent in two or more is rare.”
In that case, did having all five make me special?
‘No way… is this finally the otherworld reincarnation perk?’
What a pathetic thought.
“Do I have talent?”
“No.”
“Pardon?”
“Normally someone has level 3 aptitude in one single magic. The others aren’t necessary.”
I fell silent for a moment.
Honestly, I was disappointed.
The conscription officer, still paying no attention to my feelings, simply continued saying whatever he wanted.
“A magic consumes only A-type magic power. B magic consumes only B-type magic power. Do you understand what that means?”
“It means I have a lot of magic power.”
“What… no. It means multiple types of magic power are mixed inside your body. The purity is low.”
I tilted my head.
“Then is there a problem?”
“The low-aptitude A, B, C, and E spells will probably be limited to once a day no matter how hard you try. Twice if you burn your lifespan.”
“......”
“D has good aptitude, so it might reach five times a day.”
I understood now.
In this world, a mage possessed only one type of magic and activated spells using only one type of magic power.
Because my body contained a mixture, the total volume of usable magic power was actually lower.
I spoke up.
“Then… what happens to me?”
“You said you wanted to enlist. With your own mouth.”
“Yes. I definitely said that.”
“Then you will enlist.”
The conscription officer, who had tried to stop my enlistment only moments earlier, suddenly reversed course at an unexpected moment.
I stared at him quietly.
“I can’t read your expression, but I can more or less read your attitude.”
“...?”
“Never mind. Follow me. At least say goodbye to the director and your friends.”
I hesitated.
There was no one I particularly needed to say farewell to.
I had felt some gratitude toward the director and the caregiver, but after learning they were embezzling government subsidies, even that emotion had grown faint.
If I told the conscription officer about it, the military would be notified immediately.
The orphanage would disappear before long.
Embezzlement was a serious crime, and in wartime it would be punished even more harshly.
But I didn’t want that.
No matter what, I couldn’t treat the people who had raised me that way.
The conscription officer looked at me.
“You really don’t need to say goodbye?”
After searching for a suitable excuse, I decided to utter a cool line I had once seen in an old anime.
It was an accident born from the fusion of a man in his twenties’ experiences and the peculiar personality of a girl who had just turned fifteen.
I opened my mouth and spoke the problematic line.
“A soldier does not need such emotions.”
The conscription officer said nothing. He simply stared at me blankly for a long time.
“...Just what have we done to all of you?”
“You haven’t done anything in particular.”
“......”
The truck began to move.
Through the open rear, I saw the director slumped at the orphanage gate, crying.
This time I turned to look at the conscription officer’s distorted expression.
‘Ah, this is it.’
A small happiness.