The Villainous Young Lady Would Even Risk Her Life for Her Beloved ～ Her Fiancé, the Prince? By All Means, Please Be Happy with the Heroine! - Chapter 1.19

The days were gradually becoming warmer. The children of the Flores family, who were originally fated to die on a cold winter day in the original story, now seemed likely to welcome spring in good health.

“So sleepy…”

The one uttering such a lazy complaint was not me—it was Luca. Lately, Luca had been so exhausted that he couldn’t even enjoy our nightly “machine talk” before bed. His intensive magic capacity training had begun in earnest.

◇◇◇

“I want to train too!”
“Absolutely not.”

On the first day of special training, I tried to request permission to join Luca in Aribara’s lessons, only to be flatly denied.

“It’s not like it would hurt to have more training!”

I pressed Aribara, even though I knew it was a long shot. I had reincarnated into this world, after all—I wanted to be overpowered. I wanted to experience that omnipotent feeling.

“Lady Lydiana, you are not suited for this training.”
“You’re coming with me instead, dear.”

Suddenly, my mother’s voice interrupted. Aribara immediately bowed to her as she entered the room unannounced.

“You mustn’t disturb your little brother.”

She gave Luca an encouraging smile before taking my hand and leading me out of the room.

“Mother, do you know what kind of training they’re doing?”

The original story never mentioned anything about increasing magic capacity. Not even during the strategy meetings to defeat Lydiana had such a method come up. If it were possible to increase magic power, it was unthinkable that the people of this country wouldn’t be doing it. Magic capacity was a status symbol—having more meant elevating one’s rank.

“I had never heard of it either. But apparently, it was a fairly well-known method in Aribara’s homeland. Nowadays, though, there may not be many left who can still use it.”

It seemed Mother was somewhat familiar with Aribara’s background.

“To put it simply, they use up their magic until they reach their absolute limit.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?!”

In this world, people died if they ran out of magic. How could they allow such reckless training?

“Don’t make that face. I hesitated to give my approval as well… but Luca was so serious about it.”

So Luca had been struggling with this after all. I wanted to tell him he didn’t need to worry so much, but saying that to a noble-born child in this country would be nothing more than empty consolation.

“This training has several conditions. First, the person must be young. Second, they must already have excellent control over their magic. And third, a highly skilled mage like Aribara, who excels in both magic capacity and control, is required to oversee it.”

In other words, I didn’t qualify due to my lack of magic control.

“You have too much magic for this method to work. You wouldn’t be able to deplete it all in a single day.”
“Even so… when I healed Lady Shelly, I was nearly drained completely.”

The same thing had happened when I healed Sophia—I could feel my magic running low. Even if I had “immense magic power,” this was its limit. Which meant magic control was even more crucial.

“That was because you were recovering from illness! You’d had your magic drained constantly back then.”
“What?!”
“…Magic takes time to recover once it’s depleted. Most people return to normal after a night’s rest, but you don’t function at that level.”

That was new information. So that was why I had collapsed so quickly back then—I had healed my siblings before my magic had fully recovered.

“The fact that you were never taught such a basic principle… now I understand why you dismissed all your tutors!”
“Ugh…”

That stung a little. I had driven away several tutors—not because they were incompetent, but because they either fawned over me excessively, compared me to Luca to flatter me, or tried to dominate me with an overbearing attitude. In terms of actual teaching, there had been no real issue. So in the end, this was my fault.

Mother led me through the mansion until we stopped in front of the finest guest room.

“Now then, your special training begins today as well!”

Inside the room stood a man in simple, worn clothing. He had the same hair color as my mother and light violet eyes like my grandmother. And more importantly—he was an incredibly handsome older gentleman. He was, without a doubt, a relative. Yet I had never seen him before. If I had, there was no way I would have forgotten him.

“Nice to meet you, Lydiana. I’m Luke Flores, your uncle.”

…What?

“L-Lydiana Flores… It’s an honor to meet you.”

I reflexively returned the greeting, then immediately turned to look at my mother. Uncle? But she only had one sister. I had never heard of an uncle before.

“He’s my twin brother.”
“Twin?!”

Mother introduced him with a bright, delighted smile. Seeing my confusion, Uncle Luke explained himself.

“Ah, well, I ran away at fifteen to become an adventurer. Your grandfather disowned me completely! But now that Sasha took over as head of the family, I was finally able to come back.”

He laughed heartily. He didn’t seem to hold any grudges over being disowned.

Given that there were no traces of his existence in the estate, my grandfather must have truly erased him from the family records.

“Luke will be your instructor from now on!”
“Instructor…? You mean—”
“You’ll be properly learning healing magic!”

Finally! The day had come!

“I would have loved to teach you myself… but I’m sorry, dear.”

The only healers I was personally acquainted with were my mother and aunt, but both of them were far too busy to dedicate time to teaching me properly.

“Luke was the best healer among our siblings! Make sure you learn from him well.”
“That’s quite the pressure… It’s been so long since then.”

The two of them laughed together. They must have been very close. But if Luke had been a better healer than both Mother and Aunt, even in the past, then wasn’t he essentially the best healer in the entire country?

“Now then, I think I should go wash up first. I hadn’t realized my state until I stepped into a noble’s mansion again.”
“I’ll have the servants prepare hot water immediately.”
“See you later, Lydie.”

He smiled at me playfully, just like Mother often did.

◇◇◇

“You should be grateful that you’re only feeling sleepy. At first, you were collapsing without even being able to speak.”

Luca was barely managing to stay awake. Before his training session, we had been discussing household appliances, and he had wanted to continue the conversation.

“That’s… true, I guess…”
“Luca…?”

He had fallen asleep. I called for Eliza, who carefully carried Luca out of my bed and took him back to his own room. It seemed the training was starting to show results.

As for me, I would begin my practical training tomorrow. I had been granted permission to stay at the knights’ training grounds within the royal castle for a while.

“My lady, I’ve brought you some hot milk.”
“Thank you.”

The nights were still chilly. The warm milk Maria had prepared seeped into my body, soothing and delicious.

“I truly appreciate what you did for my brother the other day.”

Maria, who was usually cheerful, lowered her head deeply, her expression serious.

“It was nothing. Is he doing all right now?”
“Yes! Thanks to you, he’s been able to return to work.”

Maria’s younger brother was a carriage driver. A few days ago, while delivering a large shipment to the royal capital, he had accidentally been crushed under a load, suffering fractures in both his arm and leg.

When Maria received the news, I had gone with her and healed him on the spot. By that point, I had already treated nearly everyone in the estate, so it had been a valuable experience for me as well—after all, serious injuries weren’t common.

“Um… are you truly sure about the treatment fee?”

Maria’s voice was unusually small. The fee I had charged was only about a tenth of the usual market price. Even so, it was still a hefty sum for her brother.

“I’m not going to suddenly demand more later, if that’s what you’re worried about!”

I teased her lightly.

“My deepest apologies! Thanks to you, my brother can continue his livelihood.”
“I’m still too inexperienced to call myself a proper healer. But since he was willing to be my practice subject, I’d say we’re even.”

I didn’t charge the household staff for treatment since they were practically family, but healing outsiders for free could cause problems. Everyone in this country knew that healing magic was expensive. If I charged too little, I needed to provide a reasonable explanation.

“No, my lady. Your healing magic is already more than sufficient.”
“If even you say so, then maybe I can allow myself a little confidence.”

Thinking about tomorrow made me incredibly nervous. The knights’ training grounds sometimes had Lord Finley present. I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of him.

In the original story, Lydiana had struggled with healing magic… That fact still lingered in my mind, making it hard to shake my unease.

(I am me. The original story is the original story!)

For what felt like the hundredth time, I repeated the mantra to myself before drifting off to sleep.