Inheritance

"You will inherit the Aozaki family's Magic," the old magus said in an emotionless, mechanical voice. "Aoko."

Aoko had waited far too long for this moment, from the day she was born until now. Even though memories from her "previous life" had let her know the outcome in advance, when the moment truly arrived, she still felt as though "fate was rolling toward her."

"Mm." Aoko answered with unexpected calm. "I understand."

On the other side, Aozaki Touko, who had always worked hard to grow as an egg of a "Magician," did not react as strongly as the old magus had expected.

The old magus's humanity had dwindled with age, making it increasingly difficult for him to judge human emotions. Yet he still understood that replacing the heir at the last minute like this would leave Aozaki Touko extremely dissatisfied.

Ignoring Touko, the old magus explained various related matters to Aoko. He told her to remain in the workshop that night and prepare to receive the Aozaki family's Crest. Aoko agreed without much warmth or enthusiasm.

Throughout the conversation, Touko showed no expression and said nothing. She asked no questions. But Aoko, who had spent a long time trying to understand her sister's thoughts, knew Touko was nearly at her breaking point.

And just as she had expected, while Aoko and the old magus discussed the details of the handover, Touko turned and left the Magician's workshop without looking back, departing the place that had rendered all her previous efforts meaningless.

"...Aren't you curious why I changed the heir to you?" After seeing Touko leave, the old magus paused briefly before asking. Perhaps this was the most human thing he had said that night.

"I don't think an old man like you would tell me," Aoko said with a smile. "If I won't get an answer, why ask?"

"..." The old magus seemed to be thinking, or perhaps he simply looked as though he had fallen asleep with his eyes shut. "Then let's not waste time. Follow me, Aoko."

Touko wore a beautiful evening dress as she walked through the cold night wind.

As the eldest daughter of the Aozaki family's generation, raised amid everyone's expectations, she had achieved every goal that outsiders considered impossible. Thus, she had accepted without reservation all the benefits and praise she received for being an "egg of a Magician." To Touko, those things were only natural.

An elite family background, a wealthy life, a tolerable relationship with her sister, and her own exceptional talent—any one of these was a lifelong pursuit for many people. Yet the blow Touko had suffered today made all her efforts until now seem utterly ridiculous.

Touko had been born with Mystic Eyes and should never have had any trouble with her vision. Yet because she had worked so hard to meet the expectations around her, she had still been forced to wear nearsighted glasses.

Touko returned to the empty house and sat on the comfortable sofa in the living room, her mind a complete mess.

The only residents of this Western-style house were Touko and Aoko. It stood in the suburbs not far from the old Aozaki magus's workshop, and Aoko had begged their parents to buy it after deciding to study under their grandfather.

Touko had originally lived almost entirely in her grandfather's magecraft workshop. But unable to withstand her younger sister's persistent pleading, she had eventually moved into this house, spending over a decade there in equal measures of joy and sorrow.

Touko rose from the sofa, entered the kitchen, and opened the refrigerator, where she saw a dessert stored beneath a glass cover.

It was a chocolate lava mousse cake Aoko had specially made for her, exquisitely shaped and decorated with bits of fruit and delicious nuts.

Touko took out the dish and found a note attached to it. Written in elegant handwriting was a message: "Idiot Touko, don't forget to eat this."

Holding the glass dish, Touko sat at the dining table. She removed its cover, picked up the silver fork someone had thoughtfully placed inside, carved out a small piece of cake, and put it in her mouth.

The bitter fragrance of chocolate balanced the sweetness of the sugar. The soft cake melted in her mouth, while the carefully selected nuts kept its texture from vanishing too quickly.

As she tasted the cake Aoko had made, Touko revealed the slightest trace of satisfaction. It was not that she had forgotten what happened that night; the food she was eating was simply far too delicious.

After finishing the dessert, Touko could not help stretching in relief. The ample serotonin swept away her previous dejection. Fierce fighting spirit now burned in her eyes. She decided that tomorrow, she would first demand an explanation from her grandfather in person, then find a suitable opportunity to settle matters with her sister.

Intense pain throughout her body woke Aoko from unconsciousness. The last time she had hurt this badly was when her grandfather activated all her magecraft circuits. For certain reasons, Aoko possessed far more magecraft circuits than either her grandfather or Touko—an astonishing ninety-nine. It would not have been an exaggeration to say that she was a person growing on a mass of magecraft circuits. Even Aozaki Aoko from the original timeline had not possessed this talent.

She struggled upright from the "operating table" in her grandfather's workshop and looked around. Her grandfather was seated in a chair with his back to her, reading some book.

"I suggest you rest a little longer," her grandfather said without turning around. "The Aozaki family Crest is 'somewhat' different."

Only somewhat different? Aoko thought silently.

A magecraft Crest was the crystallization of the research and training passed down through generations of magi.

It could be the product of a unique magecraft mystery made tangible, or the result of condensing and refining all the magecraft circuits of a certain generation's magus.

At its core, it represented the inheritance of a magus's path: an engine that could be infused with magical energy to activate magecraft without an incantation.

Among magecraft families, it was less that magi controlled their Crests and more that magi were vessels for them. The one holding dominion was not the magus, but the inherited magecraft Crest.

But the Aozaki family Crest was different. What it inherited was not magecraft, but Magic.

Magic and magecraft were fundamentally different existences. Magic had never obeyed the constraints of any law in this world. It came from beyond the heavens, an enemy of the world—a calamity that had accidentally flowed forth from the Root. And compared to the other types of Magic, the Aozaki family's Magic was especially so.

Aoko frowned and endured the pain caused by the Crest transplantation, feeling the pulse of the Aozaki family Crest. She fed it a small amount of magical energy, and the foreign organ in her right arm emitted a faint glow.

The pain made Aoko grunt, forcing her to stop the flow of magical energy. But she had only wanted to see whether the Crest that old bastard had implanted in her worked properly. She would have to wait until the gift fully integrated with her body before testing its actual effects.

Aoko pulled her sleeve down from her shoulder again, covering her still-aching arm, then climbed down from the operating table.

"Can I take some books?" Aoko asked as she put on her coat. "I have a feeling Touko will come here tomorrow and make a huge scene with you."

"Do as you please," her grandfather said without turning back. "Don't touch anything except the grimoires."

Aoko did not stand on ceremony with the old bastard. Enduring the pain, she activated her Imaginary Number magecraft and stuffed every grimoire she had long been interested in—but which her grandfather had previously refused to let her read—into her personal Imaginary Number space. It was like a dimensional pocket that no one but her could unravel. Normally, this magecraft was extremely difficult; even skilled magi found it hard to accomplish. Yet unexpectedly, Aoko possessed considerable talent for Imaginary Number magecraft. Besides the wind attribute shared by all members of the Aozaki family, she also possessed the exceedingly rare Imaginary Number attribute.

After discovering this, her grandfather had, for once, used some of his connections in the magecraft world to find a highly capable magus with the Imaginary Number attribute and have them teach her how to use Imaginary Number magecraft.

After stuffing every grimoire that interested her into her Imaginary Number space, Aoko gave her grandfather one final look.

He still maintained the same posture he had held when Aoko first woke up, without any change, only turning a page now and then.

Aoko narrowed her eyes and tried to make out the book's contents, but she could only see the title printed at the bottom of the page.

It was Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, recounting the romantic exploits of a certain unconventional great writer.

Aoko had always preferred to keep her distance from such literary works. She left her grandfather's workshop without looking back, not even saying goodbye.