I Favor the Villainess Chapter 119

"Where are Mei and Alea?"
"I put them to bed. As expected, Alea seemed quite worried about something."
"I see…. That's understandable."

Claire-sama, who was wearing her pajamas, furrowed her brows.
It was currently ten o' clock in the evening.
In order to discuss what we were going to do moving forward, we sat facing each other at the table in the living room.
Since it was going to be a long conversation, I prepared some tea for us before taking a seat.

"To think that Alea has no magical aptitude whatsoever…"

We had just received the results of the magical aptitude assessment.
The results ended up reflecting exactly what we feared.

"Even though Alea was so looking forward to using magic."

Although Mei was also eager to be able to use magic, Alea's admiration for it was definitely stronger than Mei's.
Even just going by the way she spoke, it was easy to tell that Alea really loved Claire-sama, so she wanted to be like her in every way possible.
That included wanting to be able to manipulate magic and having it be as magnificent as Claire-sama's.
Since fire magic had a lot of flashy spells, a lot of kids were enamored by it.

"I wonder if we should even tell them about this…"

So far, we haven't revealed the results to Mei and Alea yet.
I wonder if those two noticed how stiff the atmosphere has been, since they also haven't gone out of their way to ask us about it either.

"This would have been much simpler had they both ended up without any magical abilities… That is probably something I shouldn't say, though."

Right.
The problem wasn't a lack of magical aptitude, but rather, the difference between them.
This wouldn't have been as difficult if Mei also had no abilities.
It would be unfortunate, but at least the two of them could give up the idea of magic together and then pursue other strengths, and that would be the end of the conversation.

"That's true, but Mei is a quad caster. If anything, she should be doing everything she can to work on growing her magic."

Mei is the world's second confirmed quad caster.
She didn't have a choice but to learn magic.

One's magical ability is said to be determined based on innate factors.
Simply put, it seems that if you weren't born with it already, there were some parts of it that just couldn't be compensated with effort.
It also has nothing to do with one's blood.
If it did, then Mei and Alea, who were born under the same star, shouldn't have ended up being this different.

"It's not like we will be able to keep this from them forever. Those two must have noticed how strange we were acting today, so they refrained from saying anything, but there will come a time where they will want to ask about their results."

Claire-sama heaved a huge sigh.
No matter how intelligent Claire-sama was, even she couldn't come up with an answer for this problem.

"So we have no choice but to be frank with them, right? Rather than trying to be funny with it or say things that would confuse them, I think getting straight to the point would make things faster."
"That sounds like something a genius who has never needed to worry about something like this would say."

Claire-sama's face looked slightly angry.

"A genius who has never needed to worry about this… Are you referring to yourself, Claire-sama?"

In my eyes, Claire-sama was full of talents.
Besides cooking, which was her only weakness, she was basically perfect at just about everything she did.

"Rei, have you forgotten? You are a dual caster, with an extremely high aptitude in both elements at that. For me, I still remember the humiliation I felt during our first duel."
"I mean, I guess so."

But I think that's all I'm really good at.

"I do not think that I am inferior to other people, but at least when it comes to the experts, I cannot compete with them. People like me are what they call a jack-of-all-trades."
"With how talented you are, I don't think you can simply just brush yourself off as a jack-of-all-trades, Claire-sama."

I said while looking at the embroidery that decorated our walls.

"Even so, it is painful whenever I am forced to notice the difference between myself and others' talents."
"I feel like that everyday."
"Hey, don't make fun of me."

Claire-sama flicked my forehead lightly.
As I was covering my forehead, something came to mind.

"Claire-sama."
"What is it?"
"Do you mind if I share my thoughts on the matter?"
"? Of course, what are you thinking?"

Claire-sama looked ready to listen.

"Even if we chalked Alea's lack of abilities up to bad luck, on the other hand, don't you think that Mei being a quad caster feels a little too good to be true?"
"Too good to be true…? Why do you say that?"
"For Alea to have no magical capabilities whatsoever, I think that there must be something unnatural going on."

Upon hearing my words, Claire-sama gave me a bittersweet smile, and,

"Are you just saying that as a doting parent?"

Is what she asked.

"No, that's not it. Have you forgotten? Those two have a curse flowing through their blood."
"Ah…."

A curse where anything that comes in contact with their blood is turned into a magical gem.
It wasn't just Mei, Alea also had that curse.

"I don't know what the connection between magical aptitudes and magical gems is, but isn't it hard to imagine that they are completely unrelated?"
"That… that may be true… In that case, are you saying there is something that is responsible for Alea's lack of magical abilities?"
"I might have a theory, but…"
"Let me hear it."

Claire-sama urged me to go on.
She could hardly hide the look of expectation in her eyes.
Well, that was to be expected.
This whole situation where Alea doesn't have any magical aptitude really pained Claire-sama.

"While the two of them were in their mother's womb, something must've made it so only one of them inherited the powers."
"Is that even possible?"
"At the very least… I don't think it's impossible."

There was an American movie from my past life that had a similar theme.
It was starred by somebody whose last name started with Schwarz-something, but it was about an excellent younger brother and his less well-off older brother, and their search for their mother.1
Since it was meant to be fiction, there was no real scientific basis for anything that happened in the movie, but at the very least, there was a similar situation with the twins and their difference in talents.
In this world where strange things like magic exist, it didn't seem all that crazy for a situation like that to exist either.

"But that does not help Alea at all."
"No, I don't necessarily think that's true."
"What do you mean by that?"

Telling her I have a hypothesis for my theory, I continued.

"If we assume that Alea's lack of magical abilities isn't a completely closed case, and if her lack of aptitude is due to some kind of mutation, I think there's still a chance that there's some potential within her."
"But has it not already been confirmed that she has no magical aptitude?"
"Yeah, but that's only based on what we currently know about magic."

The potential for magic that Alea may or may not have might be related to something that just hasn't been discovered yet.

"…. This sounds a little too good to be true."
"Does it?"
"But at the very least, this is not something that we should tell Alea. She may end up getting false hope over something that's just wishful thinking."
"But!"

I tried to refute, but Claire-sama put her hand up to interrupt me.

"Calm down, Rei. We sort of lost our cool for a moment."
"…… You're right. I got too heated there. I'm sorry."

If this was about me, I would've been a bit more calm about it.
The reason why I'm so worked up about this is because it was related to Mei and Alea.

"There is no use in arguing among ourselves."
"…. I agree. Let's think about what the best course of action is here."

That being said, I couldn't come up with any solutions at all.
Rather, was there even a solution in the first place?

"First, let us take a look at what must be done. Can we agree that telling them about their aptitude assessment results is inevitable?"
"Yeah, you're right. I don't think we have the option of choosing between not telling them or just telling one of them either."
"We shouldn't bring up the theory regarding the possibility of Alea's untapped potential either."
"…… I agree. I think it'd be cruel to give her false hope."
"Finally, I wonder if we should come up with another way of informing them…. But still, the simplest way to convey the message is by saying it normally, isn't it…"

Claire-sama pondered about it anxiously.
Since it was for the kids' sake, Claire-sama was extremely desperate about finding a better way of telling them.

"How we should tell them, huh. What if we told them fake results?"
"That is pointless. Suppose we told Mei that her aptitude is lower than it actually is, let's not forget that she's still proficient in four attributes. There are only two confirmed quad casters in the whole world."
"On the other hand, what if we told Alea that she's able to use magic too, but her aptitude is just low?"
"I don't think that is a good idea. Alea has no magical proficiency whatsoever. I think it is cruel to tell her that she can use magic and give her false hope when she cannot use it at all."
"….. This is tough."

I'm at a loss for ideas.
No matter how hard I think about it, nothing comes to mind at all.

"….. How nice it would be if only I could give Alea half of my abilities."

The words quietly spilled from Claire-sama's mouth, with the pain almost overtaking her voice.
I feel the exact same way.
I wonder if all of the parents in the world felt like this in the face of trouble as well.

A heavy silence took over the living room for a while.

"Claire-sama, I think we have no choice but to be direct about it."
"Rei…… But――"
"Most likely, with the problem at hand, there's unfortunately no way for us to tell Alea without her getting hurt."
"……."
"All we can do is express our love towards Alea when she gets hurt, and that we'll still love both of them equally and unconditionally."
"…. I wonder if that is all we can do…"

Claire-sama lowered her gaze.
Although I spoke like I knew what I was doing, the truth was, I may as well have given up.
But I seriously couldn't think of anything else.
No matter how much I loved them, or how much I thought about them, the harsh reality was that there were just things that couldn't be solved.
It pains me to say this, but the case of Alea's lack of magical aptitude was one of those things.

"…… I feel powerless. I am amazed to think that they can call me the heroine of the revolution."
"Claire-sama…."

Hearing Claire-sama put herself down like that was tough.
Mei and Alea were important to me, but I considered Claire-sama to be of equal importance.
My determination to support Claire-sama was renewed.

At that time…

"Mothers… Are you fighting?"
"It's bad if you don't get along, you know?"
"You two…"

While still rubbing their eyes, Alea and Mei came to the living room.

1) This is supposedly referencing the movie, Twins, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito.↵

Chapter end