The Talentless Inheritor

Sebastian wiped off the sweat on his forehead. He breathed in deeply and pushed his hand out. A small flame emerged but it dispersed before it could reach very far.

"It reached five yards that time..." Sebastian muttered. He had been emptying the stigma's mana since he arrived but the longest the flames could go was five yards.

Not only that, the intensity of the flame would only be enough to burn paper. It was as if he was a moving used-up candle.

—Don't be too disappointed, this is only natural. Many have gone through the same ordeals as you. The best way to improve your connection with the stigma is to continuously exhaust it and allow it to naturally fill up over time.

As Sebastian waited for the energy in the stigma to return, he asked Balanos in a solemn voice, "Balanos, tell me the truth. Will I be able to reach Apprentice rank by the day of the duel?"

—...

Surprisingly, Balanos responded with silence instead of her typical snarky yet apathetic remarks.

"I'll be fine," Sebastian spoke.

—...No. You won't be able to reach that level of power by the day of the duel. At most, you'll be able to reach the middle of Novice. Right now, you can barely be considered a Novice. Normally, people take two or three years to get past Novice and enter Apprentice but you'd need a year at most.

A year was very short, even Amy and Gilbert needed more than a year and a half to reach the peak of Novice. But to Sebastian, it felt too slow.

—You might still be able to defeat him, but you'd have to improve your archery and rely on the black bow and arrows alongside your abilities. The stigma isn't limited like the mark, you can use a variety of other powers but in the end, it all boils down to how much energy your stigma can store.

And, in the event that you use other abilities and get found out, the consequences would be dire. Even though Balanos didn't speak that last sentence, Sebastian could understand it from her words.

"You told me that I can imbue flames in my arrows, shouldn't I practice that first?" Sebastian asked.

—Although that indeed takes less mana to use, our focus is on improving your capacity, not power. According to that maid, Kathrina, your talent in archery is monstrous. I expect that you won't have much trouble trying to perform it.

While they were talking, Sebastian felt a wisp of energy return to the mark and held out his hand again. This time, it reached six yards before fading into nothing.

"It got farther again. How long will I need to take down the dummy though...?"

He was ten or so yards away from the dummy made of wood. A simple flame wouldn't burn it so easily like a straw dummy. He had to engulf it in flames completely.

Sebastian picked up the bow leaning on the wall and began shooting targets. During that one day of training, he managed to have perfect shots as far as forty meters.

Whoosh

Another arrow was launched from the bowstring and pierced through the air breaking the arrow on the target in half.

The number of arrows Sebastian had broken over the past two days would make a regular archer's heart hurt in anguish. Typically, they save arrows as much as possible but Sebastian kept on splitting them in half by choice.

To a normal person, a sheaf of arrows was something to save but to Sebastian, their value wasn't that high. Of course, they were standard arrows and weren't fit for combat. Arrows fit for the military cost more and couldn't be distributed to commoners.

A sheaf of standard arrows for practice and the like cost about a thousand Aur a sheaf which had thirty arrows. A military arrow sheaf costs as much as 2,000 Aur. In the past, the prices of arrows were a lot cheaper but in today's wars, arrows weren't widely used because of the 『Inheritors』 and manufacturing had taken a huge blow.

Although there were still lineages with abilities that could help them with arrows, there were very few of them in number. In fact, there is only one such house working under the House of Leon.

While Sebastian was in deep thought, he felt another wisp of energy enter the stigma. He leaned the bow on the wall and aimed his hands at the dummy.

—Do you like that human girl, Amira Luna that much?

Sebastian who was in the middle of firing began coughing several times in quick succession while his flames had dispersed not even a yard away from his palm.

—What's got you so fl.u.s.tered? I just asked a question.

"Look here, other people asking me that is one thing but when did you start taking interest in my love affairs?"

—I'm not interested in your love affair, I'm curious about your motivation. It's rare to see a person driven so much to someone unrelated by blood.

Sebastian fell silent and picked up the bow before he began speaking, "Amy and I were born on different years but we had less than a year's difference. She was born after my elder brother but she had become attached to me instead."

Sebastian fired an arrow at a different target. After it had hit the center, he stepped back further.

"The Houses of Sol and Luna are in an alliance—no, partnership. They had the same interests aligned and Markus Luna frequently visited my father with Amy. My elder brother was attached to his mother and my father was typically alone when it came to business. It was just for one day that I had accompanied him and met Amy.

"At the time, I was about four or five. She had gotten lost and had tripped. Her knee was bleeding and I came to help her. All the way back to father, she was crying and saying it hurt. Well, there were various other happenings but long story short, she grew attached to me and frequently visited my home with her attendants."

Sebastian had already fired several arrows during his reminiscence but he didn't seem to notice, "as the second son of a major house, the pressure on my shoulders was very heavy and I was always compared to my siblings, especially my successful elder brother.

"Amy and I did everything together, we had even taken baths together," Sebastian smiled wryly, "the only time I found solace under such pressure was when I was with her. She protected me from bullies, took care of me whenever she could, and made sure I was happy."

Sebastian lowered his bow, "I suppose I could've called her my older sister in the past. But, it was obvious that the feelings she had for me weren't just a feeling of familial love, it went further. When I had become twelve, I realized that if Amy were to disappear, I'd most likely break down. She was my moral support—no, she still is."

—In the end, your motivation in getting stronger is to never lose her?

"...I suppose so, yes. She had always been reliable in the past but as we grew older, it turned into mutual dependence, and then I became the older brother figure. I can't imagine living a life without her, is what I'm saying."

—I see.

What reigned after that was silence. Sebastian didn't feel the need to explain any further and Balanos didn't feel the need to ask anymore.

Kathrina wasn't present to train him but she was still in the mansion. Only Sebastian and his father knew about the fact that he has abilities now and he intended to keep it that way. Luckily, there weren't any traces of burns and he left after checking it for a second time.

—You'll be able to see results after you rest. I estimate that the stigma's capacity had increased by a tenth at the least.

Although it didn't sound like a lot, it was definitely useful. The more energy the stigma could provide, the more intense the flames he could make and the longer they would last.

"Young master, you've finished?" Kathrina saw Sebastian walk out of the courtyard and approached him.

"Yes, I'll continue archery practice tomorrow, I'll arrive at the same time as today," Sebastian left behind those words to Kathrina who bowed in response.

"Please take care on your way home."

...

"Ah, young master—"

As Sebastian walked through the doors of the estate, Martha greeted him.

"I'm not hungry yet. I'll be in my room for a little bit," Sebastian said without stopping for even a second.

"Young master, it's about—! Oh dear, he left... I don't suppose he'd just ignore Miss Linet if she's in his room but..."

Unfortunately, Sebastian didn't hear Martha's warning and went straight to his room. He opened the door and started taking off his clothes starting from the top.

"Eep!"

As Sebastian removed his blazer and undershirt, he turned around at the source of the noise and saw Linet sitting on his bed under the covers.

"..."

Neither of them could talk and they were both frozen in place.

"What is she doing here? And, why is she on my bed...?" Sebastian's thought process froze once he reached that point as he realized his top was still off.

He coughed awkwardly and took out a new shirt to wear from he drawers, "Linet, what brings you here?"

"A-ah, I have business at Aurora Academy and I was told to stay at this estate... I waited in your room because the living room was being cleaned and most of the rooms were unavailable. I-I'm only on the bed because I had gotten tired and decided to lie down for a bit so please don't get the wrong idea!"

She said all that in a single breath.

"I-I was hoping that cousin could show me around the academy and help me talk to the student council president."

"Hm? Your business is with the president?" Sebastian asked.

"Yes, well... To be specific, it's with the House of Luna but we've been told that Miss Amira Luna became the acting representative for the house's affairs temporarily."

To that news, Sebastian raised his brows in surprise. "Looks like they really are nurturing Amy into the next successor."

Sebastian's older brother was two years older than him and had graduated last year. He had also been appointed by their father to become the house's representative for a while.

"Alright, I'll take you there tomorrow," Sebastian told her after pondering for a few seconds.

"Thank you!"