Longing for the Stars - Chapter 25

I thought he was a snow fairy.

The Kingdom of Purple has several towns and villages. The country itself isn’t large, but because of the mountain ranges, the climate and culture differ depending on where you are. Among them, there is a town known for its harsh environment.

Bonhomme—a town located a bit above the midpoint of a high-altitude mountain, where everything is shut away by snow once winter arrives.

He apparently came from that freezing town where temperatures stay low even in summer, and where tears are said to freeze the moment they fall in winter.

He had straight, pure white hair like snow, and clear light-blue eyes that looked like a piece of the blue sky had been cut out. His small nose and lightly tinted lips stood out against his white skin. Even though he was a boy, his frame was so delicate that when I first saw him, I thought he might be a girl.

“Um, what’s your name…?”

It was the magnificent hall where the entrance ceremony was held. The ceiling was so high my neck hurt just looking up. In that place, crowded with children of the same age, he was the only one who looked like he was glowing from within. I thought he was such a cute child.

At the very least, of all the children I had met so far, he was the cutest.

That’s why I spoke to him. I was nervous and my voice went high, and I even stuttered a little, which was embarrassing, but I wanted to get to know him before anyone else.

Then, he looked at me. He stared at me with beautiful eyes like glass beads, and then tilted his head slightly. I couldn’t take my eyes off the way his short but silky hair swayed.

“When you ask someone for their name, you should give your own first.”

“Eh.”

I think I looked like I’d been hit by a surprise.

Without changing his expression at all, his perfect alto voice pierced right through me.

“…I’m Yard Clibbery.”

“I’m Aldebaran Stark. Nice to meet you.”

I told him my name while feeling inwardly timid, so I was a bit surprised by how simply and easily he answered. And it was only then that I realized this child was a boy, and my eyes went wide.

“Wait, you’re a boy?!”

“I am. I’ve been told that constantly since I came to the Royal Capital. Do I really not look like a man?”

Aldebaran Stark’s personality was a little different from what I had imagined.

First of all, I had thought he was a girl, and I assumed he would be quiet, or even timid and shy—the same type as me. Instead, he didn’t look away when talking to people, his voice was clear, and his attitude was… well, straightforward.

I vaguely realized he was a strong-willed child.

I wasn’t good with strong-willed people. I always tended to hesitate when choosing something and usually took the longest time, and I was often scolded by strong-willed people who didn’t like that about me.

So, when I realized he was like that, normally I would have tried to keep my distance, but this time was different.

Just thinking about being watched by those beautiful blue eyes made my heart race, and even though it wasn’t hot, a light sweat broke out on my back. My face might have even turned red.

I didn’t understand the strange things happening to my body at all, so I don’t remember what we talked about after that. I just know that the entrance ceremony ended before I knew it, and we were walking through the academy behind an instructor.

The inside of the academy was just as vast, beautiful, and sparkling as the hall where the ceremony took place. Everything was generally whitish, and the pillars were sometimes decorated with gold. The walls had intricate carvings, and though I didn’t know much about art, there were many paintings in beautiful frames hanging about.

By then, the strange thumping of my heart had calmed down, and I was overwhelmed by the greatness of the Royal Magic Academy. Everything looked brilliant, and my heart danced with excitement for the future of the “chosen self” that was about to begin. I had high expectations.

“This will be your class starting today.”

The instructor stopped and slid the classroom door open. What I felt immediately was “pressure.”

My bangs lifted slightly, even though there was no wind. I remember how a cold sweat ran down my spine like I’d been dropped off a cliff, even though I had been so excited just a moment ago. But I was probably the only one who noticed it. Everyone else had perfectly normal faces.

Why? Is something wrong with me? Why is everyone acting normal? It’s so scary. Why, how… everyone, wait.

“Whoa! You’re super sparkly!”

“Huh?”

The first thing I saw in the classroom after being pushed inside by the crowd was a collision of light and light.

Sirius Louvre. That was the source of the pressure.

His father was the Knight Commander, and his mother was the daughter of a great noble. He had an older brother and an older sister; both were top students, and his brother was already working at the Royal Palace because his talent was supposedly vital to the nation’s core. In short, he was an elite from birth.

Incredibly, the source of the pressure I felt on the first day was apparently the magic radiating from Sirius Louvre.

“It’s impressive that you can detect Louvre’s magic at your age, Clibbery. You can become an excellent mage, too.”

That’s what the instructor told me when I asked about the pressure.

The words “excellent mage” made me purely happy. So, back then, I thought:

“I’m going to practice a lot and become the best mage ever!”

I was, probably, excellent.

I was from a town a bit far from the Royal Capital, but it was fairly prosperous because it was nearby. I was an extremely ordinary person born to parents who were teachers in that town, and as a child, I vaguely thought I would grow up to be an adult just like them.

However, the magic measurement changed my life completely. It turned out I had much more magic than average.

My magic capacity, my ability to understand things, and even my height (both my parents are tall) were likely in the top tier of this class. Because of that, there was almost nothing I didn’t understand in my studies, and there was no spell I couldn’t cast in practical magic class.

I was, probably, excellent.

But I couldn’t bring myself to say I was excellent with pride.

“The one who created the largest fireball was Louvre. Let’s all work hard, everyone.”

“Listen up, you lot! A mage needs physical strength, too. There are surprisingly many hand-to-hand fights. So, follow Louvre’s example and train your bodies!”

“For this applied offensive magic test, the top performer in the practical section was Sirius Louvre. Everyone, let’s have a round of applause for him.”

I felt like I could never win.

Louvre was abnormal. His magic capacity, his growth speed, his ability to absorb information—everything was abnormal.

A spell that took me three days to master, Louvre would master in one. Three days later, he would have internalized it enough to apply it in different ways. It was the same in combat class.

Even though I was larger, Louvre would defeat me with a calm face. He would run past me as if he didn’t even know what losing felt like.

Everyone recognized Sirius Louvre as a genius.

He was a monster. He was different from us. Because he was a genius. So, it was only natural that we couldn’t do what he did; I thought that was normal.

I thought that, but there was one person who was different.

“Hey, Louvre. That thing you did just now, releasing fireballs simultaneously—how did you do that?”

A white, round head was speaking to Louvre, not even trying to hide his annoyance. It was Aldebaran Stark, the one I had spoken to on the first day because he was so cute, and he was also an excellent student.

“Stark! Uh, well, you just go rrgh with the fire magic, then go pop-pop-pop, and then boom!”

“……Are you being serious?”

“? Yeah!”

“It was my mistake to ask you.”

After exchanging only those words, Stark walked away from Louvre’s side.

At that time, I think the relationship between the two of them was still just that of classmates.