I had softened the story as much as I could so she wouldn’t be too shocked, but Mother closed her eyes and said, “I only wanted you to live a peaceful life...”

Mother’s intuition was frightening, as ever. From what I’d told her, she seemed to have grasped the situation to some extent. I wanted a peaceful life too, but without my abilities, I would have died long ago. Far from living peacefully, I’d had to struggle just to stay alive.

“And you’re going to spar with Lord Manuel? Will you be all right?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine. Oh! Come with me. I’d like you to see what I can do.”

Come to think of it, I hadn’t been considerate enough toward Mother. I was worried about leaving her behind when I went away to study, but she must have been just as worried about me going. Perhaps I needed to change the purpose of this match a little. I would use it to put her mind at ease.

I took Mother to the woods behind the mansion. A crowd had gathered at the family training ground where I’d practiced all this time: the old butler, the knight commander, Simon, and even the Duchess. In front of them, Manuel, the second young master, was waiting for me, flicking sparks from his fingers.

A rare gathering of the family(?). Unfortunately, the Duke was nowhere to be seen.

While I prepared for the match, Manuel spoke to me. He delivered his words with his nose in the air, though unfortunately they were nothing new.

“I hear you fight rather well for your age. But I’ll show you that nobles don’t fight like that.”

I’d heard it plenty of times before. A knight who used mana fought very differently from an ordinary person, of course. It was like going from medieval combat to modern tank warfare. They had no long-range artillery or machine guns, but in terms of attack and defense, mana-wielding knights weren’t so different from the armored vehicles of my previous life.

Yet even knights fought much like ordinary people compared to nobles. ‘They said battles between nobles are more like fights between people with superpowers, decided by the strength of their abilities and how well those abilities match up, didn’t they?’ It was pure fantasy... No, the sort of fight you’d find in a science-fiction novel about superpowers.

My older brother, standing before me, made it perfectly clear that he was preparing for just such a fight. He wore no proper armor, and sparks hovered above his hand. Then again, knights and soldiers carrying metal swords or wearing steel armor would go down at once if that lightning hit them. It wasn’t as though going without armor made you immune to electricity, though. Was that why my brother wasn’t wearing proper armor?

I considered taking off my armor and picking up a wooden sword, but that didn’t seem like the right answer, so I equipped myself properly. Part of me wanted to win without worrying about how our abilities matched up. Honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing taking a fight against a kid this seriously, but I was a kid too, so perhaps it didn’t matter. I put on armor fitted to my body and took up a steel practice sword.

I couldn’t use my greatsword or the dagger I’d brought back from the ruins. Even if I didn’t show what I could do with them, anyone who knew swords might ask probing questions about both blades. I could make up a story for most people, but if the Duchess, the knight commander, or the head butler took an interest, I’d be in serious trouble.

“Hmph. So you’re just pretending to be a knight after all. I suppose it’s only natural when you’ve never fought a proper noble.”

Hmm. If we were talking about combat experience, I had far more of it. I might not have fought proper nobles, but I had fought inherited abilities several times. Manuel’s confidence puzzled me. ‘Huh? Did Simon never tell his younger brother?’ I glanced at Simon. He might not have seen me in a real fight, but he’d watched me spar throughout our journey. Simon was no slouch himself.

With that in mind, there was something strange about Simon’s expression. He was looking at his younger brother, and his face seemed a little cold. Ah, could they be rivals despite being brothers? Or was there another reason? No, this wasn’t the time for such thoughts. I pushed the distractions aside and focused on the match.

Sword in hand, I walked toward Manuel and looked around. The knight commander and head butler watched us with interest. Simon stood beside the grim-faced Duchess, wearing that peculiar expression. The Duchess’s head maid stood on her other side, while Mother and Flora, my personal maid, watched me from a little farther away. Mother looked worried, and Flora was trying to reassure her. After taking in the scene, I stopped in front of Manuel.

His face was full of scorn, but I barely noticed it. Instead, I felt an unfamiliar rush of excitement. Was it because we had an audience? Without realizing it, I gripped my sword hilt tight. This wasn’t a fight to the death, and I wasn’t especially nervous. But I could feel everyone watching, and warmth surged through me. It felt wonderful. So this was what an audience could do. I still had to keep certain things hidden, but I wanted to give this fight my all.

Once Manuel and I took our positions, the knight commander gave us a brief warning as referee, then signaled at once. The match began.

FLASH!

At that instant, everything before my eyes turned white.

KRA-KOOM!

A thunderous sound followed. I forced mana into my eyes and barely managed to regain my sight. Even then, my eyelids still twitched, and my whole body trembled from the shock.

PTUI!

I spat out the blood pooling in my mouth and glared at Manuel. Hadn’t he been looking down on me? Attacking the moment the match began—I’d nearly been taken out. Worse, he’d made no movement to launch the attack. The sparks above his hand hadn’t changed, and he hadn’t held it out or snapped his fingers. Lightning had simply struck toward me. Or rather, it was as if a bolt had connected Manuel and me. Honestly, it wasn’t an attack I could have dodged.

Yet Manuel stood before me with his face twisted in frustration. He’d probably meant to land a blow at the starting signal and laugh at me, but his smile had crumpled before it could fully form. After all, I had evaded his surprise attack. I hadn’t dodged by watching him move, of course. I’d seen the mana flowing through his body. If I hadn’t sensed it, the attack would undoubtedly have hit me squarely.

The ground where I’d originally stood, between the two of us, was charred black, and sparks still danced around it. Even though sensing his mana had let me throw myself well clear of the point of impact, I hadn’t escaped completely. The attack had been far stronger than I’d expected. If it had hit me directly, I might even have lost. I circulated mana through my body to drive out the lingering shock. As expected, the mana dispelled it easily.

‘Mana’s practically a cure-all.’

Once the shock was gone, my trembling body returned to normal. So he’d had a trump card after all. But was a trump card like that really something to use in a match between brothers? Such moves usually took a considerable toll, too. Sure enough, Manuel was glaring at me with a deathly pale face, gasping as though he could barely breathe. It seemed the move had been too much for him.

‘Well, I don’t need to go easy on him.’

I ran forward, intending to finish it at once. Manuel’s face rushed closer, and I noticed something odd about it: the color had returned in an instant, and his breathing was normal again.

‘What?’

I could also sense the mana he’d exhausted returning to his body in an instant. It was a good opening, but experience told me this wasn’t the moment to charge in.

“Tch!” I clicked my tongue and leaped back.

At the same time, Manuel tensed his entire body and roared. Electricity surged over him.

“Raaaargh!”

It seemed this move wasn’t one he could use without preparation, unlike the last. His face pale again, he glared at me. “Impossible! How did you dodge it this time, too? And you definitely got shocked!” he shouted as I retreated.

What was he thinking, shouting questions in the middle of a fight? Besides, I had something I wanted to ask him: how had he recovered his mana immediately after using so much of it that he’d nearly run dry? Even now, he was pouring out electricity without seeming short of mana.

CRACKLE.

His face amid the sparks was gradually growing paler, but it made no sense for someone his age to have enough mana to sustain that much electricity. I’d never heard of Manuel having a separate ability to recover mana. Nor had I ever heard of anyone besides me possessing more than one ability.

“Could he have some sort of artifact that restores mana?”

“Th-there’s no way I’d have anything like that!” Manuel shouted, his voice stuttering.

Huh? I’d only been talking to myself. Did he really have one? My mana-enhanced hearing picked up a faint sigh, too. I glanced sideways and saw Simon with a hand over his face, while the Duchess wore a deep frown. Apparently, such an item did exist, and my brother was secretly using it in our match. If he was going to cheat, he could at least avoid giving himself away.

There was no way this could be a proper match now. The knight commander cleared his throat; it looked as though he was about to stop us. I couldn’t let that happen.

I looked at Manuel, who was still pouring electricity from his entire body. It made it difficult to approach him, let alone swing my sword. Whatever kind of artifact he had, surely he couldn’t keep this up for long. He was visibly tiring, too. In a little while, he’d probably collapse on his own.

“Grr! Die!” Manuel seemed to realize something was wrong and fired some of the electricity surrounding him toward me.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

Unlike his first attack, these were plain to see. There was no chance I’d let them hit me. I sidestepped each one, and Manuel tired even faster. If I stalled just a little longer, I’d probably win without doing anything else. But the knight commander seemed likely to stop the match first, and I didn’t want it to end like this either.