“Is that even possible?” Cyan asked in disbelief.

Cyan was so ashamed that he felt like he would be better off dead. He had initiated his mana seven years earlier than Eugene and had been training in the White Flame Formula for nearly as long. Thanks to this, he had managed to reach the Second Star of the White Flame Formula three years ago.

But until now, Cyan’s progress had remained stalled at the Second Star. The stars around his heart seemed like they were just about to divide, but they never did. But instead… that annoying son of a bitch, Eugene, who had initiated his mana seven years later than Cyan, had already reached the Third Star of the White Flame Formula.

“Of course, it’s possible,” Eugene said with a relaxed smile as he allowed the mana to dissipate. “Because I’m a genius.”

Eugene thought declaring something like that from your own mouth was rather shameful. Or at least, he used to think that. But now, he had to admit that it would be ridiculous to pointlessly act humble. He had been born with the body of a genius, and on top of that, he had memories of his past life.

Although Hamel from his past life wasn’t a genius, Eugene definitely was.

“Why don’t you just go and die,” Cyan cursed.

Eugene chided him, “Brothers shouldn’t say such things to each other.”

“Like you can talk about what brothers shouldn’t do. Every morning you beat me up so badly that it feels like I’m going to croak.”

“Aren’t you the one who keeps asking for a spar every morning? If you don’t want to get beaten up, let’s just stop. It doesn’t matter to me.”

Cyan ground his teeth as he glared at Eugene. Challenging Eugene to a spar every morning was Cyan’s own way of dealing with the frustration of his rivalry with Eugene.

Honestly speaking, Eugene appreciated this change in Cyan’s attitude. At first, he thought that Cyan was just a stupid brat, but perhaps because he had come to accept Eugene after the adoption, Cyan’s foolish streak had shown a lot of improvement.

“…But why magic of all things?” Cyan returned to the main point.

“Because I’ve never learned any magic,” Eugene explained.

“So that’s why you want to learn magic? Don’t make me laugh…. And how exactly do you intend to learn magic? Do you want to call up a teacher from the capital?”

“I’ll need to check with the Patriarch regarding that.”

“Are you really serious? No, but — why on earth do you want to learn magic all of a sudden?”

Cyan just couldn’t understand Eugene. Since he had that much talent in martial arts, why would he want to dabble in magic instead of focusing on what he was good at?

Cyan tried to dissuade Eugene, “Aren’t you too old to be learning magic?”

“Seventeen is still plenty young,” denied Eugene.

“This is nonsense. Have you forgotten about what happened to Eward?” Cyan asked with a snort as he dusted off his pants. “He went off to learn magic when he was fifteen, two years younger than you are now, and now he’s just being treated like a fool in Aroth.”

Eugene glared at Cyan and growled, “Bastard, how dare you say such a thing about your older brother?”

“Did I say anything that wasn’t true?” Cyan protested while shrugging off Eugene’s glare. “…Instead of putting on airs and pointlessly heading to Aroth to learn magic, just stay here at the main estate, where it’s comfortable. …If you really do tell him that you want to start learning magic, Father might just start crying tears of blood.”

That did seem to be a possibility.

Four years ago, Eward Lionheart, the eldest son of the main family, had accompanied Lovellian, the Head Wizard of the Red Tower, to Aroth as soon as the Bloodline Continuation Ceremony was over.

…But in the end, he couldn’t become Lovellian’s disciple. It seemed that his potential wasn’t bad, as he had been allowed to remain in Aroth, but he couldn’t become as big of a success as his parents had hoped for. Now four years had passed, and Eward was still staying in Aroth.

According to what Eugene had picked up in passing, he was currently learning magic from a wizard affiliated with the Red Tower of Magic, but… he didn’t seem to be achieving much progress. Thanks to this, it wasn’t just Lovellian’s authority as the Head Wizard that had obviously been affected, but the main family’s prestige had also been tarnished. 

Although the Patriarch had just done his best for his eldest son by using his connections to send him to the Red Tower of Magic to learn magic, to others, it appeared as though the Patriarch was getting rid of a mediocrely-talented heir by exiling him to the Red Tower.

“Even if the Patriarch does shed tears of blood, Madam Ancilla should end up supporting me,” Eugene commented.

“…I could see Mother doing that,” Cyan mumbled with a needlessly wary glance at the main family’s mansion. “H-however, it isn’t that my mother dislikes you.”

Eugene objected, “But sometimes when we cross paths, she gets a really fierce look in her eyes.”

“That’s because she’s seen how you beat me like a dog,” argued Cyan.

“Even if she has, what can I do? How can I just stop beating you when you keep asking for it?”

“You son of a bitch.”

It was admittedly Cyan who had asked him to take their spars seriously. This was because Cyan had thought that his skills wouldn’t grow if Eugene kept taking it easy on him, but, for a long time now, Cyan had come to feel deep regret for saying something like that.

Eugene showed absolutely no mercy during their spars. If he even saw a tiny opening, he would pierce through it right away and keep attacking mercilessly. While doing so, Eugene would also constantly point out Cyan’s various inadequacies. Still, because Eugene explained his criticisms clearly and in a way that was easy to understand, Cyan was forced to listen to him silently even when he felt like his heart would stop beating out of anger.

Eventually, Cyan asked Eugene, “…Do you really intend to go to Aroth?”

“If you’re going to learn something, you should learn it properly,” was all Eugene needed to say in explanation.

If you wanted to properly learn magic, the best thing to do would be to go to Aroth.

‘And there’s also something that I want to investigate,’ Eugene thought to himself.

He wanted to see what Sienna’s life had been like in Aroth following their journey. This desire had been building up within him for a long time. And it wasn’t just Sienna, but Anise and Molon as well. He wanted to know how his companions had lived their lives after they returned from the Devildom three hundred years ago, and ultimately… he wanted to know the truth of what had happened then.

‘Even here, at the main estate, there are hardly any records of them.’

The history of the founding ancestor, Vermouth, was also left very vague. Although he had searched here and there during these four years, there were hardly any traces of what the hero and his companions did after returning from the Devildom. 

‘And this necklace as well.’

Eugene stared down at the necklace hanging from his neck. He had constantly worn the necklace since he retrieved it from the treasure vault four years ago. Even when the Head Wizard of the Red Tower had personally peered into the memories left within the necklace’s mana, Lovellian hadn’t been able to find any memories identifying it as Hamel’s keepsake.

This meant someone else had created an undetectable, false layer in the necklace’s memories.

From what Eugene thought, the only people who could do something like that were Sienna or Vermouth. But why on earth would they have done it? He couldn’t figure out what their reasons for doing so might be.

However… if he had to say it, Sienna seemed more likely to have prepared such a prank in the necklace, rather than Vermouth. The Vermouth that Eugene remembered wasn’t the type of person to do something like this.

“…That’s… if you do go to Aroth…,” Cyan coughed before continuing with a hesitant expression, “…Ciel will be sad.”

“Really,” Eugene said, with a laugh for how absurd Cyan’s claim sounded. “Are we talking about the same Ciel, the one who looks disgusted whenever she sees me?”

“Those aren’t her true feelings,” although he said this, Cyan didn’t seem to have any confidence in his own words.

Ciel Lionheart, that cunning brat, seemed to have started going through puberty at the beginning of this year. She no longer stuck close to Eugene like she used to, and she wouldn’t even start a conversation with him. Perhaps it was because the symptoms of her puberty were quite severe; she rarely even left her room. Although Ciel didn’t neglect her training, she no longer trained with Eugene and Cyan as she had done before.

‘I hate the smell of sweat,’ was the reason that she had given for it.

Thanks to that, Gion and Gilead were forced to keep very busy. They first met with the puberty-stricken Ciel in the morning and spent half the day teaching her while the other half was spent teaching Cyan and Eugene.

“…Anyways, if you do go to Aroth, Ciel will be sad,” Cyan insisted.

“Do you really think I’ll change my mind just because Ciel will be sad?” Eugene asked.

“You heartless bastard,” Cyan spat as his fists trembled in anger at Eugene’s careless comment. “Have you even considered how Mr. Gerhard will feel?”

“My father will be perfectly fine without me.”

Even Cyan couldn’t help but agree with that. Gerhard had initially been uncomfortable with living at the main estate, but he had become completely accustomed to life here over the past few years. Now, he regularly went on hunting trips with the heads of the other collateral families, and he sometimes spent whole nights drinking beer with Gion and Gilead. Even Ancilla got along quite well with Gerhard.

Of course, Eugene was well aware of the reason for this. Ancilla didn’t wish to show much hostility to Eugene. Although she hadn’t relaxed her considerable vigilance towards him, she knew that it was better for both of them if they appeared to get along than to appear openly hostile.

However, Tanis, as Eward’s mother and the official first wife…, was openly wary of Eugene and Gerhard. Following Eward’s failure to become Lovellian’s disciple, Tanis’ overly sensitive personality had continued to worsen.

‘Looks like I’ll need to be a little careful of Tanis,’ Eugene reminded himself.

If she was told that Eugene was going to Aroth, Tanis would definitely become even more sensitive to the threat he posed to her son’s candidacy. This wasn’t a problem that Eugene could simply solve by paying more attention to her. Instead, this was something that he would have to secretly entrust to the Patriarch, Gilead.

“…Where are you going?” Cyan asked as he noticed Eugene beginning to walk away.

“To meet with the Patriarch,” Eugene explained over his shoulder.

“You’re going to meet with him right now?”

“I need to get his permission quickly, after all,” with this final reply, Eugene left the gymnasium.

After staring absent-mindedly at Eugene’s receding back, Cyan gave a deep sigh.

“…What the hell is with this bullshit about learning magic?” Cyan grumbled and began following after Eugene.

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