Bashin, with a hard sound, the fan was shut.
The mana that had simply been released without any direction dispersed and didn’t form anything.
The boy, forcibly awakened from his state of extreme tension, took a deep breath and gasped for the air he had stopped breathing at some point without realising.
A woman with neatly tied up light golden brown hair gazed at that youth with cold eyes.

“Gilford, could it be that, you cannot even produce a fire ball?”
“……I am, sorry. Step-mother.”

Utterly disappointed, the women sighed and put a hand to her head as if to say that.
With this, the last existence that can be said to be the youth’s final bastion, has finally abandoned him.
He has become an existence without any protection.
Because he could not pa.s.s the test of the woman who holds inviolable authority in this magic clan.
Even if this is the inevitable result, my heart still hurt.

———But.
Seeing the film of tears in the spring green eyes of the boy who was apologising while breathing hard, unintentionally, unconsciously, my heart pounded.
This is an instant of tearful disappointment, where the handsome boy with silvery grey hair and green eyes is abandoned by the beautiful blond woman.
The important instant in a story where he climbs up from the very bottom, the instant when he is dropped to the very bottom.
I have never thought I would be able to lay my eyes on this picturesque scene.

From the side, she is an existence that can only be seen as a cold-hearted step mother, but she has the kindness to not give up on teaching him multiple times, for many years, even if he failed the test given from pity.
But anxiety is forbidden for mother with her weak body.
If she was made to continue teaching a failure after the test, she would definitely collapse.
While soothing my heart that was thumping from excitement, I forced myself between the two of them to take on that role myself.

“Mother. Can you let me serve as onii-sama’s opponent?”

Once I got mother’s permission, and watched her leave the room.
Now then, next, is my turn.
Spinning my body around, I focused on the handsome youth with my strong eyes like a villain’s, and shot out palm-sized fireb.a.l.l.s into the air.

Intentionally not using magic befitting for my skill, I ma.s.s produced the elementary magic that he had been desperately practicing until today.
One, two, three——————Twenty.
While watching the colour of despair grow in the boy’s eyes as he saw the number of fireb.a.l.l.s surrounding my small body.

“I will not allow an existence without any ability to stay in my Rujil family forever.”

When I swung up my small arm, the fireb.a.l.l.s matched that movement and headed towards the boy’s body all at once.
Even if it is magic covered with a protective membrane, if it touches him, the heat it bears will rain down on the boy’s defenseless body.

“Onii-sama, I will teach you the difference in ability between us.”

Even if he is older, even if I respect him, those with power are in a superior position to those without.
Brother and sister, father and daughter, master and disciple, they all don’t matter.
This absolute meritocracy Rujil family is full of muscle brains.

This is something common in fiction, but ‘I’ have gone through that thing called reincarnation.

It started with a quiet boom, started to catch fire bit by bit, then anime coming soon! Completion is right around the corner!……at such a wonderful timing, the publisher went bankrupt and the work became shelved.
That is the light novel called ‘Magicians and the Country of Night’.
The past me was extremely absorbed in it.
One volume a year, at bad times, one volume in three years. That light novel that was only published at that pace was the only thing that I looked forward to that made my heart pound in those boring days I lived.

There was a lot of characters I liked, but among them, I particularly liked the main character.
He was the common ‘strongest existence’, but his mental development as a human in the story was not something so boorish like using brute force, so he was very cool.
His upbringing, an unfortunate childhood, the wider world, a journey with friends, the conspiracy standing in his way, a guardian spirit’s blessing, grief on the battlefield, difficulty, growth.
All of that were great spice that made him shine———It’s sad that the publisher went bankrupt just as he knocked down the last barrier.

Now then, the world I reincarnated into, is the world of ‘Magicians and the Country of Night’.
Actually, when I was young my memories were unstable so I didn’t know, but by the time I gained self-awareness, I had properly understood the situation.

Ah, in the near future, the main character———great magician of water Gilford, will become my brother.

Honestly, when I realised that, I was unable to sleep for days because of excitement.
After all, I have been reborn as a character in the light novel that the me of the previous world loved the most in her life.
Getting excited everyday, I enthusiastically tackled my magical studies.
Things like showing Mother and Father knowledge beyond my age, or getting a grasp on magic.
But, when I calmed down a little and traced my memories one by one, the path the existence that would be my brother will go through is overflowing with difficulties.
Of course,difficulty is a part so growth so I don’t have the slightest intention of denying that.
Worries on the battlefield, conflicts with the antagonists, clashes with
friends, they are all essential for growth they are not problems.

But. But still.
My onii-sama who will become a magician who defends the country in the future———this is the problem.
He is unmistakable the main character. But, he was a late bloomer.

The Rujil family that brought up Gil-sama and I is a clan of fire magicians.
A clan of direct descendants of a great magician that burnt enemy armies to ashes and established clear national borders when the country was created.
And currently we still stay vigilant and knock down neighbouring countries that target our country, a keystone of the country’s defence.
Is there any n.o.ble that wouldn’t be proud of such an important position? No, there isn’t.
Resultingly, our lineage which places the greatest emphasis on strength is a complete meritocracy.
So onii-sama, who is a late bloomer, will be treated as an existence inferior even to bugs for a long time in this household.

In the first place, because father suddenly brought a boy back and said stuff like ‘this is my offspring’, there was a large commotion.
It wasn’t written in the light novel, but father was probably ecstatic about his daughter’s talent and thought that the offsprings he had scattered around might have strong power too.
Gil-sama is a child older than me———meaning, he was a child sired during the engagement period with Mother who was of a high position.
They were already just acting as husband and wife because of a political marriage, but with this the relationship between my parents collapsed into the worst possible condition.
It was a relationship built only on trust, so that can’t be helped either.
But because she had wed into the family that is the keystone of the country’s defence, Mother steeled her heart.
It is better to have even one more powerful magician that can support the country.
So, she also thoroughly and sternly trained Gil-sama in the magic of the Rujil family.

The result was, onii-sama has no apt.i.tude for fire at all.
The symbol of her husband’s unfaithfulness, a good-for-nothing with no talent———mother’s pride as a royal princess is already in tatters from having such an existence forced on her by her husband.
If Gil-sama had even a bit of apt.i.tude for fire magic, once he grew up he could still work as a magician protecting the country, even if it is just as logistical support, so she could have endured her husband’s unfaithful conduct as something that connected to supporting the country.
But, in reality, there is just a youth that displayed no power no matter how much he was taught.
And the members of the clan that symphatised with mother who is being driven into a corner as well as jealous of his position, will treat Gil-sama so badly for ten years that it is pitiful to even talk about it.
That was all written in detail in the light novel.
Because it is a family based on meritocracy, that side of things might be inevitable though.

But even if it is a trial necessary for his growth, that is just too much!
Even though the one at fault is father with his sloven lower body, Gil-sama and mother are too pitiful, so I roused myself.

Luckily, ‘I’ am Origa Emelda Ruijil.

The lady of the inferno, Origa, the strongest villain in the light novel.
In the light novel, Origa who was even said to be a heaven-sent child of fire magic, she swept aside everyone in the clan with her ability and burning, severe personality,  and wrested the position of head of the family from her father at the young age of sixteen.
And with that severe emphasis on ability, she caused various incidents———but, that is unrelated for now.

Accelerating the set future a little bit should not cause any problems.
After all, this is a story where the magician Gilford grows and heads to an ending where he saves the country in the end.
Once his talent blooms, he will reign as the strongest magician in the country, other than that outline, I thought that it is possible to interfere with the story.

And, thus.
I want to quickly polish my ability and release Gil-sama and mother from this fate in a way n.o.body can complain about as soon as possible.
And so today I will just dedicate myself to being the villain.

I’m sorry, onii-sama!
——Just endure, for a little bit more.