CHAPTER 3(SIDE STORY): Breaks My Heart

--Aishita’s POV--

My name is Fukuda Misaki, 13 years old and a proud sister of Fukuda Surrivan Akira, Sura for short. Did you know? That my name’s derived from my mother’s and my father’s name? Misa and Akihito, combined and you get my name Misaki, it’s so cool!

I was lonely during the whole pandemic; I couldn’t go out and spend time with my friends but it’s okay though, Oni-chan would occasionally come to my room to share with me the novels, manga, and anime that he loves, I think he noticed that I was feeling lonely being cooped up in my room and wanted to cheer me up somehow. I love my Oni-chan, he’s my hero who defends me from anything even from my mother or father when they get angry at me for not being able to meet their standards.

I miss him.

I have so~ much that I wanted to do in my life, for example, graduate, travel the world, help the poor, however, all of that had happened, my life suddenly changed. You see I just recently died due to a rare disease that spread fast throughout my body, during the pandemic there was a point when you can’t just go outside and go wherever you like so I hesitated to tell my family about it, that’s why, when they noticed the sudden change in behavior it was already too late. I never even had the chance to say goodbye to my mother, or father, or even Oni-chan.

When I was reincarnated in this world, I was so surprised to see the faces of my mother and father again, however, it wasn’t them, they were too different from my real parents, but I guess it’s fine since I was given a second chance in life. I was not Misaki anymore, my parents named me Aishita, Aishita Pridesworth, I did like the name, though I prefer Misaki… it’s fine. I never really questioned them about my Japanese-like name, which was strange given this world’s name sense is mostly foreign.

When I grew up to be able to do things independently, I started trying to be a better version of myself, I started doing my chores often, I started studying more, I even wanted to try magic so that it would be more convenient to do the chores but we didn’t have any book related to magic, that’s why my parents looked for an old friend in the village.

Ophelia Crest was a former teammate of my dad in his adventurer days. They were known as Ashadow, named after the most powerful being in history, Ashura, the leader of the 12 Lords of Battle, The Lord of Death. Ashadow was a legendary group that delved through dungeons and labyrinths until they suddenly broke up.

Ophelia Crest was of the demi-human race, specifically, she had ears and a tail that looked like those of a golden retriever but she had a normal human face, her radiant brown hair shines under the sun, her drooping ears are cute and brown. Her pink flower ornament that holds her hair to a braid, complements her beauty.

She taught me the basics of being a mage, she gave me books to study, one of the books was about the story on how magic came to be and so much more, I had a hard time keeping up but I managed to become a D rank Water Mage in only 7 months, they say it takes around 5 years for a normal person to start and become a mage, I guess I was trying too hard.

After a few months, Mary got pregnant and I was excited because I’ll be a big sister soon, right then I vowed that, just like my brother, I’ll be their shield and stand up for them when they get bullied. When her tummy got big enough for her to get slow doing her chores, I asked Ophelia-san, if it was okay for me to have a break from her lessons for a while, just as my sibling got big enough to help out and promised her that I will still study the books she lent me on my free time. She agreed.

After my little brother was born, my parents were having a debate on what his name will be and asked about my opinion, but I honestly didn’t like any of it, so I suggested that his name be Surrivan Akira Pridesworth, he looked like the baby version of my big brother, so cute~, they were surprised because I immediately come up with a name better than theirs. We then named him Surrivan Akira Pridesworth. I love it!

After a few years, I thought him everything I knew, read him stories from the books Ophelia lent to me, at a reasonable pace anyway, he was considerably more mature for being younger than me. I was surprised at how fast he learned magic like he was a natural or a prodigy. It took me 7 months to learn magic, he only learned it in 4, I was a bit jealous, but not to the extent that it will grow uncontrollably, I do love him after all, I was proud and the day he was able to use a Water attribute spell, I got so excited I hugged him tightly, I congratulated him, he did work hard after all.

Everything we do, we do it together, when I wash the dishes, he’s there with me, when I read, he listens, when I train, he trains as well. It’s adorable. We are considerably close for siblings, maybe, because he is mature for his age that’s why he and I go along with each other than normal young siblings do.

A few days ago, I was surprised to see our father unconscious on the floor, however, when I looked at Sura-chan, it looked like he was paranoid, he had this desperate look in his eyes, his arms and legs are both trembling. He was afraid… 

That was the first time I ever saw someone that traumatize. Maybe he thought that our father will die at that moment, I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. Having witnessed such a sight, I froze in place.

Thankfully, Mother took charge of taking care of our father. She told us to wait at home, while she goes to buy some ingredients to make some medicine, it seems we were out of ingredients, dad never did have a resilient body, well against diseases anyways. However, I suggested for Sura and I do it instead.

As we went to the local market to buy the ingredients, I noticed Sura getting tired from walking a long distance, I thought about giving him a piggyback ride on the way home later but I guess that’s a conversation for later, for now, maybe we’ll rest a bit then continue to the market.

After reaching the market a strange man with a scary aura suddenly bumped into my brother without saying sorry, I was scared but I’m also annoyed because it’s common courtesy to say sorry whenever you bumped into somebody. I tried talking to the man to correct his behavior, however, he didn’t bother to look at me and just kept walking. Sura somehow found something that the man dropped, it had this black leather cover and it seems to be in poor condition, I didn’t care whether Sura keeps it to himself because it’s the man’s fault, after all, not saying sorry and not bothering to talk, we were also in a rush to buy some ingredients. It seems Sura kept the book.

After buying from Ophelia-sensai, we immediately went home to help mother. On our way home, I noticed that Sura was at his limits and I offered to take him home on my back, when he rejected my offer, I somehow got mad at him, I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry, I just want to ease your suffering little brother. I’ll always put you first above anything else, just like how my big brother was. Now that I remember my brother never yelled at me, he was always so gentle and I think that was my mistake this time, I’ll try to be better.

I offered to make lunch for the day, it seems Sura will give father his medicine.

After eating lunch and making sure that father was ok, we started to train magic. I think Sura was ready to short cast some spells, so I taught him what I knew. To my surprise, when he started short casting Aqua Sphere, it wasn’t Aqua Sphere that came out of his hand, it was some sort of black mist engulfing Sura’s hands, the moment I saw that I was in awe, I decided for us to take a break and train again tomorrow.

The next day, I ran to Ophelia-sensei’s place as fast as I can, to ask Ophelia-sensei to teach me again but this time together with Sura. I explained to her what happened the other day, to which she agreed and said she’ll come tomorrow.

The sun was just about to rise, Sura was eager to try combining 2 different magic attributes and came out by the garden to train but Ophelia and her adopted daughter, Yuna, came and they manage to distract Sura from doing his training.

Ophelia came inside and asked to privately talk to me regarding the dark mist we talked about yesterday. She explained that as soon as I returned from yesterday, she immediately ran to her personal library because she recalled reading it a long time ago. She told me that the dark mist was a sign, that Sura had an affinity to Dark Attribute magic, 1 of the 2 rarest attributes for a mage to use, however, she further explained that dark attribute users who don’t know that they had an affinity for dark magic are consumed by this darkness if they do not master it at a young age. According to her research a group of bad guys known as the Followers of Ashura mostly consist of dark magic users. I think she said that it was some kind of religion, they believed that Ashura will come back and save them from death, they invade areas for no known reason for the last few centuries. I recalled something that I read from one of the books Ophelia-sensei gave me that the current 12 Lords of Battle, the 12 strongest beings of this world mostly consist of the ‘9 Circles of Hell’ the leaders of the Followers of Ashura. A chill ran down my spine.

It certainly was a lucky coincidence for him to release a dark mist and for me to inform Ophelia about it immediately, she instructed me to keep it from my parents because they could start treating him differently. She agreed to teach us both, however, she still recommended both of us to further study at the Manasophy Academy in the Kingdom of LouwenDale. I wondered if I also had an affinity for dark magic.

After hours of discussing our future, she told me that it is about time she heads home and went to where Sura and Yuna were. I was still concerned about the future of my little brother, just imagining my little brother be a villain… it breaks my heart… It seems my brother noticed that I wasn’t my usual self but I somehow reassured him that nothing was wrong.

With that, we waited for tomorrow.