I exhaled deeply as I felt Miss Rachel's footsteps farther away.
- Surprised.
"... I thought you remembered"
The whimpering voice seems to disappear into the starry sky beyond the glass.
Looking at the brilliant stars, I was thinking back to myself when I met that girl.
"Monster! Stay away from me!
It was when I was twelve that my closest friend yelled at me like that.
I've always laughed at Nico and I've never seen him angry or anything, and when I show him new magic, he says, 'Theodore is amazing!' He was the kind of guy who would be happy.
I trusted him more than anyone, and he was a friend I loved so much.
It's just that the look on my friend's face, who was always smiling, clouded. That's because the friend was found corrupt by his grandfather, which allowed him to be bullied by kids his age.
One day, I saw him lying around, surrounded by about five classmates, bleeding out of his mouth.
At that moment, there was more blood on my head than I had ever felt before and anger covered my entire body.
We have to help.
I can't forgive you.
I was governed by such emotions.
Then the lightning struck over and over again as they responded to my anger.
Fortunately... it never hit them, and the ones who were bullying fled crying.
But my hand, which I reached out to my remaining friend, was paid for by a pale and trembling friend and rejected as a 'monster'.
That's when my presence swayed.
As the son of the Camus Marquis family, who produces many talented magicians from an early age, he has been blessed with talent and expected.
Still, even in a Camus like that, I understood I was heterogeneous.
I could freely manipulate magic that I had never learned, and above all, I could understand the words of the Spirit.
In doing so, I felt like the rejection of the word 'monster' from a friend I trusted more than anyone else had been made clear about the heterogeneity I had felt faintly.
The Camus Marquis returned to their ancestors because they draw the blood of the Virgin.
Many say so.
But it's not.
A greater power than the power of the Virgin...... yes, a power like the Spirit for example.
I felt something like that in me.
I tried to find the answer to my heterogeneity, but the answer was surprisingly light.
That was just when I was blocking it, too.
My father's covenant spirit, the High Spirit of Fire, told me.
"Once upon a time, a girl born between the Virgin and the King and the Spirit King fell in love. Between them a pretty girl was born. This is the house where the child came to his daughter-in-law!
So all the people in this house are mi-na-mi-na-mi-na-mi-na-mi-na-mi-na.
But you're even more special! Looks like you inherited both the Spirit and the Virgin. Normally, we don't inherit the power of the Spirit! So all spirits like you. "
"Descendants of the Spirit King...... so? I've never heard of a past like that."
"It's easy for the Spirit King to manipulate people's memories."
"If so... why did you tell me about it"
'Cause you're worried. The Spirit is sad when you are sad. I came here to tell you because you wanted to know.'
I mean, I'm not a spirit or a human being.
Halfway there, is that it?
The truth conveyed by the Spirit was too great for me, twelve years old, to accept.
After that, I became more stuck in the shell.
Always wearing a robe all the way to my head, I got scared of dealing with people.
Because I thought with so much power, this time it could really hurt someone.
And because I was afraid to be rejected by someone I cared about again.
My routine from then on was just to lock myself in a room or read the literature in the library in the mansion.
But one day.
Behind the garden to change my mood, reading a book as I fell asleep.
"You are?
I hear a girl's voice from over my head, and I try to shift the book.
Then there was a girl about six or seven years old peeking into me.
"... you, who?
"Me? I am Rachel Marcel. I'm here with my aunt today."
Grandson of the Marquis Marcel family, huh?
I see.
You mean the granddaughter of my grandmother's closest friend?
"I was here first. So get back to your place as soon as you can."
"No! Auntie, leave me alone. It's just a chat."
"You can't help it because that's what you're looking forward to."
"So what are you?
Properly decorated, this girl never listens.
On the contrary, he sat down on a nearby bench and looked at me curiously sparkling his big hanging eyes.
"I'm not going to name you"
"Why? Ah! Okay."
The girl just makes a bright voice that she flashed something.
I look at the girl with a troublesome gaze and wonder if she could go somewhere soon.
But the girl doesn't even look at me like that.
"You're the troubled grandson Master Flavi said!
"What?"
"I've been telling you lately that I'm sad you haven't even shown me your face."
"Damn, chatty"
Flavi is my grandmother.
I mean, you heard him talking about me like he did.
"Anyway, I don't have a hobby for playing with kids. You have my brother around there. Play with him."
"I don't want to! You mean LeAnn, right? Lian threw a bug at me. Even the skirt pulls."
"Ha, that was bad. I'm sure LeAnn just wanted to distract you."
"Even so, I just said I'm not playing with Lian anymore."
The girl in front of me was plainly angry with her cheeks swollen.
Sure, my brother has a mess.
But I guess I had fun playing with a pretty girl the same age.
I guess they hated me as a result of trying to distract me somehow.
When I thought so, I felt unexpectedly sympathetic to my cute, pathetic brother, and laughed.
"That's right! Show me the magic. Lady Flavi told me that Lian's brother was a good magician."
"What?
"Hey, just give me a second."
Buddha does extra.
"I can't."
I look at my own hands and whine in a small voice.
Ever since that day, I've been afraid to use magic.
Someone might reject me again.
A huge force could hurt someone.
In that case, I can no longer use magic in front of my family.
"Magic, can't you use it?
"Oh, I'm sorry."
The girl leaned her neck strangely and looked at me jiggly.
So far, there will be no more girls.
I think so, and I move my gaze again to the book I had in my hand.
Still, the girl doesn't look like she's off the bench.
Feeling suspicious, shift the book slightly to confirm the girl's sitting bench.
Then, when the girl got up off the bench, she took up the book I had as it was.
To protest against it, I wake up and try to open my mouth, but the girl's bright voice echoed around before I could talk.
"Then I will teach you"
"Huh?"
- Teaching magic... so?
A kid under ten who's still invited to a tea party at the Royal Palace, to me?
It doesn't matter to me that they take it lightly and I can't say anything, the girl laughs joyfully and keeps talking.
"It's me, the magic is so, so strong! So I'll tell you when I start learning magic"
- Do what's stupid.
Even if the magic is strong, everyone knows it for me.
Besides...
"Is strong magic a good thing to fulfill"
"Why?"
"Normal people... I want to be that"
If only I hadn't been born with this much magic these days.
I can't help but think so.
That way, my friends wouldn't even hate me.
I was not scared, I was with people.
"Is normal funny?
The girl stares at me strangely with a Kyotong face.
"I'm so glad I'm so magical! Something special."
"Special."
I don't need anything special.
If you try it on me, even this girl, whose magic is somewhat stronger than people's, is a normal person to me.
"I don't have to be normal. 'Cause it's fun to have lots of magic! Don't you think?
... fun?
Sure, from a very young age, witchcraft has always seemed natural around me.
When new magic became available, I showed it to my parents.
Then you were glad to stroke your head with joy that 'Theodore is amazing'.
I wanted everyone to be happy and I enjoyed playing with the Spirit... more into witchcraft.
Still... I am.
Unlike people.
"... it's a monster. I am."
"A monster? Something like a haunted or a monster?
"Damn. The magic is too strong, my friends scared me, and I have many, many tens of times stronger magic than you"
Why, I just met him.
Besides, I guess you're telling this story to a younger girl.
That being said, the weak noise that squealed once never stopped.
I don't want you to comfort me, or be scared.
But maybe he wanted someone to ask him.
Still, I'm scared of reactions and wear the hood of my robe back deep.
But my weakness seemed to have nothing to do with her.
"You, you're so magical!
Raise your gaze inviting by the sparkling bright voice color.
Then there was a girl there staring eagerly at me with her watery eyes shining.
"... so strong that it's easy to hurt you."
"But you won't hurt me, will you?
"How can you say that?"
"'Cause you don't bully me like Lian"
The edge of the mouth rises unexpectedly to the girl's answer.
Well, my brother, who is only five years old, and me, who is twelve, will be different.
I don't imitate things like pulling a skirt because I want to distract you.
"Because if you're strong in magic, you can also use magic to your liking, right?
I can use it to bully you or to help you... both. "
- Magic to help someone.
Protect your loved ones...... power?
Unexpectedly, stare with your hands in front of your face.
My magic isn't just the power to hurt... is it?
The girl's words just stick straight into my heart.
It's like just a glimmer of light in the dark.
Enclose my heart brightly and gently.
I see.
Did I want someone to say that?
My powers are heterogeneous, but not fear.
I don't care about humans or spirits.
You wanted me to recognize my powers.
"... don't say good things to your kids"
"You're not a child, either."
My mouth gave me a clumsy thirsty grin.
"Theodore."
"Huh?"
Remove the hood with your right hand and look at the girl.
Then the girl...... Rachel looks at me and she has her eyes round.
"My name. Theodore."
But when he found out I had given him his name, Rachel smiled delightfully and smiled nicely.
Those eyes were very clear water color with the blue sky of the day and I had that feeling that it was beautiful.