Am I the Villainess of this Story?

Chapter 9: I Acquired a Follower

Despite the initial hostility shown by Leon, the stubborn prince finally admitted that he likes Cousin Li's company. Apparently, Li's calm albeit shy demeanor engenders a relaxing atmosphere. Also, after showing some backbone when Leon's antagonistic attitude almost crossed the line into bullying, the young prince admitted that our cousin is acceptable to be around with.

Although it's nice to have my friends increase in number, it's annoying to hear my brother say that I only have to look for someone specializing in wind magic for me to complete my group of bodyguards. When I retorted that he has wind magic along with water, Sean shrugged saying his doesn't count since it's not his main affinity. Though, it's really a good thing that Master Hendrickson is one of the few rare mages like the king who has the four elements as his main affinities. With his abilities, he was able to teach Sean on his water and wind magic, Leon with his main affinity of fire and minor affinity of water, Liam with his exceptional affinity towards the Hurst Family alignment to earth, and myself with my fire and wind affinity. Although, all four of us have some minute affinity towards spirit magic, our instructor told us that there is no generic way to train said affinity since what it gives us is an ability unique only to us like my and Sean's telepathic link, Leon's enhanced sixth sense and Li's minor empathic ability.

When told about our abilities, Master Hendrickson simply nodded and gave us exercises to help us hone these abilities further. However, upon learning about our ability to talk mentally, Leon sulked saying how he wanted to trade abilities with Sean saying something about his ability being only useful in combat-related things. Not wanting to have him pouting at me longer than necessary, I immediately comforted him by saying, "Isn't it fine? Your sixth sense is quite useful when you want to look for someone, right? After all, you always manage to find me even if I'm trying to be alone. Besides, isn't talking with someone face-to-face better in conveying things that words cannot simply allow?"

Trying to see whether I was actually consoling him or simply scolding his unthinking action, Leon stared at me for a while. It would have taken him some time to get himself together if it weren't for our teacher coughing to get out attention. Realizing how close our faces are, I watched Leon's face turn red before standing up. However, such an action caused the two of us to lose our balance. I ended up falling down on my behind with the prince almost falling on top of me. Due to Master's quick action, he prevented Leon from fully crashing onto me so I suffered to further injuries. However, I cannot say the same for my dear fiancé because my brother doesn't seem to appreciate his action and was glaring fiercely at him while mentally chanting the words, "Death to the pervert idiot..."

Cousin Li was also giving Leon a look of disappointment saying something about propriety and age. Master, on the other hand, simply stared at Leon until the sometimes-brat fidgeted in discomfort before telling the prince that he's going to add the incident to the report he's been giving to Father regarding our progress. At this, Leon's expression changed from embarrassment and guilt to outright horror while my relatives were giving approving nods. In an attempt to save himself, Leon cried that he didn't trip me on purpose. Pitying him, I decided to back up his claim since everything was really just an unfortunate accident.

xxxxx

So, three months have passed ever since Cousin Li arrived at our house. He managed to integrate himself quite nicely into our household and Grandpa Ricky was glad that his eldest grandson is no longer as shy as he was before. Even I was surprised by how outspoken he has become. He used to stop himself from reprimanding us three younger children when we're doing some reckless things but now, he has acquired the courage to stop us from doing unreasonable things. Happy with his sense of responsibility, Grandpa Ricky along with Father and Mother even tasked him with taking care of us. In short, despite being only a year older, he was actually given a babysitting duty. When I gave him my condolences for having the thankless job of trying to mitigate the chaos that we may cause now that we are being taught combat magic, Sean and Leon gave me the stink eye, Li looked at me in apprehension, and Master laughed out loud for the first time since he started teaching us almost six years ago.