Episode 34: “Fiine’s Choice”
Burkhardt had said he wasn’t wealthy, but the new life Fiine found herself in was so extravagant it left her unsettled.
The house in the royal capital had a live-in maid who handled every kind of household task — cooking, laundry, everything.
Meat appeared on the table every single day, and the library shelves held a staggering number of books.
Unlike before, Fiine no longer needed to help with any housework.
Instead, several private tutors were arranged for her.
And for practical training in magic and hand-to-hand combat, Burkhardt taught her himself.
“Fiine. You have talent for magic — but that’s all it is. Talent is worthless unless it’s honed.”
“Yes, sir.”
“First, every day, keep using basic-level magic in each attribute until you collapse from magic exhaustion. After a month, we’ll start identifying which attributes you’re strongest in, alongside that.”
“Understood.”
Burkhardt’s training method was severe — essentially, “keep going until you collapse.”
For someone like Fiine, who’d never seriously pushed herself at anything before, it was brutal both physically and mentally. But in a way, that was exactly what she needed.
While she threw herself desperately into magic training, she didn’t have to think about anything else.
Magic could be broadly divided into seven categories.
The six elemental attributes — fire, water, earth, wind, light, and darkness — plus a special category that belonged to none of them: “creation magic.”
Burkhardt’s strongest attribute was fire, though he could also use water, earth, wind, and light. Darkness and creation magic, however, were apparently beyond him.
(Burkhardt-san said being able to use every attribute is amazing, but…)
If she could only use each one halfway, competently at best, surely none of it meant anything.
She had to train hard, properly, to live up to his expectations.
The reason he’d taken her in hadn’t been out of pity or affection — it was because he’d judged her to have value, to be useful.
Which meant she couldn’t afford to betray his expectations.
◆
“Starting next year, you’ll be enrolling at the magic academy.”
Burkhardt told her this on her fourteenth birthday.
About six years had passed since he’d taken her in. Every single day without fail, she’d trained, mastering a wide range of magic.
Beyond that, she’d also been rigorously taught swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat.
(Burkhardt-san really has treated me well…)
He’d spared no expense on her education, and given her more allowance than she could ever spend.
During breaks, he’d sometimes taken her traveling.
Not once had he ever asked her to call him “father.”
And yet, to anyone looking on, it had become plain that he’d come to love Fiine like a daughter.
“Understood. I’ll take the magic academy’s entrance exam, then.”
Promoted to brigadier general the year before, Burkhardt had also taken on a position as an instructor at the magic academy around the same time.
Monster attacks on villages and towns had grown increasingly frequent in recent years, raising the urgent need to strengthen the Magic Corps.
As part of that policy shift, Burkhardt — with his many years of field experience — had been appointed as an instructor.
Until then, teaching positions at the magic academy had been something of a sinecure, typically filled by high-born but low-ability nobles.
That system was finally being reformed.
(Burkhardt-san took me in because I had talent for magic. But I still haven’t given him anything back.)
At first, she’d believed she’d been chosen purely because she had value, because she was useful.
But probably, that wasn’t quite right.
He’d simply been unable to turn his back on a talented child in need.
“And once I graduate the academy, I’ll join the Corps. To be of use to you, Burkhardt-san.”
If she was honest, she had no real interest in the Magic Corps itself.
But magic was the only thing she could do at all competently, so there wasn’t really any other kind of work available to her.
(…Besides, I do want to properly repay him for everything.)
She looked steadily at Burkhardt, resolve settled in her eyes.
He seemed to have aged a little since the day they’d met, but the sharpness in his gaze hadn’t changed at all.
“Fiine.”
“Yes?”
“Honestly, I’d rather you not go anywhere near the Corps at all…”
The words felt strangely unlike something a Magic Corps instructor should say. Burkhardt let out a rough sigh as he said them.
(He said he took me in because I had talent for magic, though.)
That she felt no real discomfort at the contradiction in what he was saying was probably only because, all this time, he’d faced her with real sincerity.
“The Magic Corps needs you, as it stands now.”
“I don’t know what I’ll be capable of, but… I’ll do my very best.”
She’d never had any particular dream of her own, not even as a small child.
To begin with, if Burkhardt hadn’t saved her that day, she would have died right there.
(If that’s the case, then this has to be the best choice there is.)