The Useless Duke's Daughter Saves the World

♧ [V2 || Chapter 27] ♧

[Luca's Tale]

A young boy, with hair the color of cotton candy and eyes that shone in the brightest of purity, sat on a bench as he read a dusty, worn out book. The summer was needlessly hot and there were flies buzzing about but still he managed to get through over 30 pages in one sitting.

"Luca!" cried a familiar voice. Luca looked up from his book for the first time and caught a glimpse of a golden haired girl waving at him from afar.

"Ouch!" the same girl exclaimed. While dashing towards Luca, the girl tripped on a rock and fell on her knees. Luca quickly placed his book aside and hurried towards the girl.

"You have to be more careful, Lorena," he frowned. Despite his dear older sister being one of the top mages in the country, she was quite the airhead.

His sister chuckled softly. They were eight years apart in age and yet sometimes it feels like he's the older one of the two.

"Oh! Guess what? I found another book for you!" said Lorena as she stood back up, brushing some dust off her dress. She walked past Luca who stared at her with admiration. Ever since their parents passed away, it had always been a struggle to gather funds for anything aside from daily necessities.

While Lorena is dubbed the brightest amongst the current generation's mages, the both of them are still commoners. There was a great disparity between a noble mage and a commoner mage, even if the latter was more talented. Every day Lorena would face mockery and isolation from her teammates. Instead of being discouraged however, Lorena continued to work hard to prove her worth.

"I'm sure they'll recognize my worth someday," she would always tell her younger brother. Luca, being the slight realist doubted his sister a little. But because he admired her a lot, he simply nodded and offered an encouraging smile. One day, they'll surely acknowledge her hard work even if she is a commoner.

"Lorena, I told you to spend the money on yourself," he sighed. Lorena pouted and stuck out her tongue at her younger brother.

"Nonsense! I have everything I need. Why shouldn't I spend it on my dear little brother?"

"But-"

"No! I won't hear it anymore. I saw you eyeing this book last month and I know you've been studying hard to make sure you pass the selection ceremony in a few years."

Luca sighed. His sister was only observant when it came to matters of her little brother. Reluctantly, he accepted the book at his sister's insistence. He glanced at the bright red leather cover and ran his hand over the silver colored title. It was a book on magic theory and it looked newer than the current book he was reading. He had been reading the older book from cover to cover for months, but no matter how much he had memorized the words, it was still an outdated book that contained things that were most likely disputed a while back. This new book however, was the latest edition and could greatly further his studies.

"Alright, I'll accept it for now. But next time, please buy something for yourself."

Lorena beamed but, didn't comment on his statement.

"What do you want for dinner?" she asked, quickly changing the subject "I'm starving."

"How about some beef stew?" Luca suggested. He wouldn't usually suggest meat for dinner as it was terribly expensive, but since his sister did go out of her way to buy him a new book, he would use the money he scraped up from selling foraged materials to buy some decent quality meat.

"This is why you're the best younger brother!" Lorena squealed happily.

Luca smiled softly and quietly wished in his heart that these happy days would never end.