6. Ray Trevor

6. Ray Trevor

It had been two months since she began practicing her magic. Lucinda had been diligently going to Flora’s every week, but today she noticed that the atmosphere around the mansion was different from usual when she arrived.

‘Oh, the teacher usually greets me at the gate, but……’

Lucina looked around, but couldn’t find Flora anywhere.

As she tilted her head and wondered what she should do, a young man who had just come out of the mansion caught her eye.

He looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, and his brown hair and the sharp eyes looking in her direction somehow reminded her of Flora.

When she finally snapped back to attention the young man had already walked up to her and was speaking. He bluntly asked,

“Are you Lucinda Lancaster?”

“Yes, I am, but…um….might I ask who you are?”

“I’m Ray Trevor. Flora Trevor’s son.”

‘Ahh, that explains the similarity. But where is the teacher?’

As Lucinda wondered why Flora hadn’t shown up, her son, Ray noticed her puzzled face and explained.

“My mother went out earlier and was supposed to be back before your class started, but now she’s running a little late and will only be back in about an hour. If you want to go back home, she will reschedule your class. Or, if you want to wait, you can come inside the house. What do you want to do?”

“Oh, then…can I wait for her?”

“Alright. Follow me, I’ll show you to the drawing room.”

Ray took her to the drawing room, and moments later a maid came in with a tray of warm tea and biscuits. 

“Then, I will take my lea-…”

　

Ray was about to leave the room, but Lucinda felt it would be boring to wait alone, so she tried to hold him back a little.

“Since you’re here, why don’t we chat a bit?”

“Huh? Why should I?”

Still, Ray begrudgingly walked further into the room and sat down on the sofa across from her with a look of displeasure on his face.

Although he was showing a reluctant attitude, he went along with what Lucinda said, not to mention he had prepared tea and sweets in advance. Lucinda was starting to think that he might be a bit more considerate than her first impression.

“Lord Ray, do you attend school now?”

“Yeah.”

“It must be the Royal Academy of Magic, right? What kind of things do you study there?”

“The usual things. You know, …literature, geography, history, math…”

“Ugh.”

“What?”

“No, excuse me, I’m just not very good at math…”

“Well, you do look like you would suck at it.”

“What? Do I really look like that?”

Lucinda touched her face in surprise, and Ray, who had been wearing an unfriendly expression until then, seemed to finally relax a little.

“Well, it’s not just sitting in a classroom. There are practical lessons in magic as well,” he explained.

“As expected of a magic school.”

“I guess? But I skip the classes anyway, so……”

“Huh?”

Lucinda was surprised to hear Ray confess to skipping class so easily, so she asked just in case.

“Perhaps……you’re taking magic classes with Mrs. Flora?”

“My mother hasn’t taught me magic for over two years now.”

“What? Why?”

“To be honest, I can do magic better than my mother or the teachers at the school, and there’s nothing they can teach me.”

Ray said as if it was obvious.

‘I don’t know if that’s true, but he sure sounds confident.’

　

As Lucinda hesitated as to how to respond, Ray said in a fed up tone,

“Although they’re called ‘teachers’ and they act as if they’re so high and mighty, magic teachers are only for those who have failed to become royal court magicians. You can’t aim for the top if you learn from them. If you want to become a proper magician, you should give up early and apprentice yourself to some royal court magician.”

Ray’s words left her speechless.

　

He was ridiculing the profession of teachering and even his own mother.

‘Could it be that Lord Ray is in a rebellious phase?’

　

Lucinda thought that things like ignoring teachers and parents and behaving in a disrespectful manner were common in rebellious phases. She remembered that, in her previous life, there were some boys like that among her classmates in middle school.

‘Well, I’ve just met him, and I don’t want to get involved in someone else’s business…It’s probably best to leave him alone. But…the way he spoke about Mrs. Flora was a bit too much.’

　

Lucinda was troubled about how to proceed with the conversation, but she decided to follow up a little for the sake of Flora, who had been extremely helpful to her so far.

“Um, Lord Ray. May I say something?”

“What is it?”

“With all due respect, there’s a big difference between being able to use magic and being able to teach it to others.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“For example, if you were to become an apprentice to the best magician in the country, what would you do if the way they taught you was, ‘To activate magic, think of the magic you want to use and then let the magic flow out of your body and then you can use it’? What if you couldn’t do it well even after practicing and you told the magician so, but they only replied, ‘I don’t know why you can’t do it. Just do it the way I taught you.’ Wouldn’t you be troubled if they said that?”

“Well…yeah…that…..could be a problem.”

　

Ray muttered to himself.

“Right? But Mrs. Flora would never teach me that way. She explains everything in simple terms, using words that I can easily understand. If I get stuck during a lesson, she will suggest another way to do it and find a way that suits me. Besides, she encourages and cares for me so that I never feel rushed or discouraged. Even Lord Ray knows his mother is like that, right?”

“Well, I guess……”

“In order to teach others, it’s not enough to be able to do it yourself. You need to have the skills to teach others. Besides, a teacher is not just a person who teaches magic or math, but also a person who teaches you how to think, how to deal with people, and how to live. Also, a teacher can be a great source of support for students who feel they have no place at home.”

“…………”

“So, I think that teaching is not just a job for those who couldn’t become a royal court magician, but a job for those who want to become a teacher, people with aspirations and pride in their profession.”

　

That’s right, even in RPGs you don’t just randomly choose a profession just because you have to—you choose it after careful consideration of the goals you want to achieve. If that was the case even in games, then for a real-life job, a person would put even more time and effort into choosing the right profession.

　

When Lucinda stared at him with her eyes full of protest, Ray fell silent and looked as if he was thinking about something.

“…………”

“Um……Lord Ray……?”

Unable to bear the silence, Lucinda called out. Ray finally opened his mouth.

“You don’t need to add the ‘Lord’, just call my Ray. Ah, there’s no need to speak so politely, either.”

“Okay….”

“I never thought I’d be lectured by a girl seven years younger than me.”

　

Ray held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Oh…I’m sorry for sounding rude, and I’m sorry for taking up your time.”

“No, your words were eye-opening. Thank you.”

　

As Ray reached out his hand and patted Lucinda’s head, Flora’s voice could be heard.

“Lucinda, I’m so sorry I’m late…….Oh! Ray, you’re here, too?”

　

Flora’s eyes widened, surprised to see that her son was waiting together with her pupil in the drawing room.

“He kept me company and told me stories about the academy,” Lucinda briefly explained.

　

After Lucinda finished talking, Ray walked over to his mother.

“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done until now. Will you…would you be willing to teach me magic again?”

Flora froze and stared at her son as he said those words, astounded. However, a smile soon crept onto her face and she recovered, teasingly tapping her index finger against the tip of her son’s nose.

“Of course, I’ll teach you well so that you won’t have any trouble no matter where you go. You’d better be prepared.”

“I am!”

Flora and Ray both looked somewhat happy.

‘Has the rebellious phase ended safely?’

Lucinda gazed at the mother.and-son pair who had apparently resolved their differences with a smile on her face. Suddenly, Flora clapped her hands as if she’d just had an idea.

“Ah then, Ray, you should join Lucinda’s lessons.”

“What? Lessons together?”

“Yes. You’ll learn a lot, and it’ll be a good motivation for Lucinda.”

“I want to study with Ray!,” Lucinda chimed in eagerly.

“……I guess it can’t be helped”

And that is how Ray joined the magic lessons with Flora, and Lucinda, now that she had an older apprentice to look up to, became even more enthusiastic about her lessons.

Notes:

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