I excused myself and carried Ojousama in my arms and then ran to the place where we left the coach.
Once we managed to arrive there, I seated her on a bench outside.
I paid for some water and washed her clean of mud, starting with her hands and face, then her hair.
On Ojousama’s palms that were red like the leaves of autumn, blood was oozing out from the grazed skin.
It wasn’t a big injury.
If it’s something like this, it can be healed with Gigi-san’s healing magic without leaving a scar.
And yet my heart was furiously struck with sorrow.
I washed away Ojousama’s filth, wiped her clean, and placed her on the coach.
Gigi-san turned up 30 minutes afterwards.
He healed Ojousama’s wounds with healing magic.
We left town on the coach as if running away.
“…………”
“…………”
There were just Ojousama and I inside the coach.
Ojousama was hugging her knees, making herself small.
I was also silent and just continued to sit across from her.
—As Ojousama looked up, she wrote on the mini blackboard.
[… my classmates used to tell me the same thing back when I still went to school.]
What the vampire family head and second son had said earlier was [Chrisse’s parents are magicians and yet, why is she talentless as a magician?].
[I had also resisted at first. There’s a chance that abilities don’t get inherited even if both parents are magicians. But every time I said that they just laughed at me without properly listening to me…]
Ojousama wrote with trembling fingertips.
[Lute onii-chan, Am I a despicable existence for not inheriting magical talent? Am I unnecessary?]
I shook my head sideways.
I was also bullied in my previous life, so I knew exactly what Ojousama wanted to hear.
So I looked straight into her eyes and declared.
“I don’t know about other people, but master and madam definitely doesn’t think that way. Also Gigi-san, Merry-san, Mercè-san, Malcolm-san, and all the other servants, including me of course, none of us care about whether or not Ojousama can do magic! We all love Ojousama! We’re happy just from seeing Ojousama smiling!”
“…….!”
It’s tough on Ojousama being looked down by others and being the topic of malicious gossip.
But the most frightening thing of all is how her parents think of her.
Maybe, just maybe, they think she’s a [good-for-nothing] because their magician’s abilities didn’t pass on to her.
When I became a hikikomori because I was afraid of being made a target by those delinquents, I was afraid to even find out what my parents think of my miserable self.
So I did all I could to stay inside and reduced contact with family members as much as possible. I came under the impression that they didn’t care about me, and finally our relations soured.
That’s why I told Ojousama this.
We’ll be her allies, even if she can’t be a magician, even if the whole world would turn against her.
We will always be by her side.
Those feelings seem to have reached her, and Ojousama once again burst into tears.
She slowly reached her hands out, grabbed my butler suit, and pressed her face down onto it.
*sob*
Ojousama continued crying while trying to muffle her voice.
As if she was letting out all the sadness that’s been filling her chest.
I continued to gently stroke her soft hair the whole time until she stopped crying.