My other brothers Lance and Adrian had been away for a long time and they were finally back home. Our family stood by the gate to greet them.

Mother gave her newly returned sons a hug and father made small talk inquiring about their time overseas.

Adrian’s gaze turned to me and Lazar.

“Haha! Who are these two? I barely recognize them anymore.”

Lance pinched my cheeks.

“Look at how cute you are. We missed you so much!”

“Ow! Stop it!” I let out a fake smile.

The two glanced at Lazar as if they were about to say something, but they did not.

Lazar seemed uncomfortable standing there holding onto his fake smile as I was.

The air was cold between Lazar and his older brothers. I could tell something was off between them.

Lazar’s brothers initially looked down at him as if he were irrelevant to their true goal: the heir position. However, things have changed in those recent years. Not only has Lazar shown an interest in competing against his brothers, but his magic prowess has grown so much so that he’s been hailed a genius. 

Lazar was 14 while both his brothers were 19. It was obvious they felt threatened by their younger brother. I’m sure he always felt their hostility towards him.

Meanwhile, they viewed me much the opposite, especially after hearing about my aptitude test results. 

There was, however, one thing they didn’t know. They had no idea that Lazar had been secretly teaching me magic.

Lazar had been teaching me for about a year now. At first, it was just the basics of how to train my mana efficiency and endurance but as time went on he began to teach me more and more.

One day, he came to me with a worried look on his face.

“Fae, I need to ask you for a favor.”

“What is it?”

“Can you keep a secret?”

“Of course.”

“Please don’t ever tell mother that I’ve been using my recovery elixirs on you.”

I was selfish. I pretended not to notice it but I knew what was going on all along. 

Lazar gets elixirs to help with his training but since my mana capacity was so low, I needed to use multiple per training session just to keep up.

He had been using them all up on me and as a result, his own training was stagnating.

I felt so pathetic being a parasite happily leeching off the only person that was supporting me.

“I’m sorry.” I said looking down in shame.

“What? Don’t be sorry. I just need you to not tell mom.”

“...”

“So, can I count on you to keep this a secret?”

“Of course.”

A few days later, I was outside practicing the spells Lazar taught me when I heard our mother’s voice.

“Fae! Come inside this instant!”

I knew I was in trouble.

When I got inside, she looked at me with an enraged expression.

“Why are you wasting your time trying to learn magic?!”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“And what are you doing with his elixirs? Do you know how much those costs to be wasted on you!?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Liar! I knew something was going on between you two! I’ll deal with you later. As for you, Lazar!”

She glared at him.

“From this day forward, you are forbidden from teaching magic to your sister! Is that clear?!”

Lazar’s face turned red with anger, but he did not say a word.

“I said, is that clear?!”

“Yes, mother.”

“Good. Now get out of my sight!”

I knew this was not the end. There was no way Lazar would stop teaching me magic. He always kept his promises.

A few days later, I was in my room when I heard a light knock on the window. I got up to open it, and I saw Lazar standing there with a note in his hand.

“Here, take this.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a list of spells and instructions on how to practice them. I snuck it out of the library.”

“What? No! You shouldn’t have.”

“I know, but I can’t just sit around and do nothing while you’re stuck here.”

“Thank you.”

I tried hard to hide my tears.

“Don’t thank me, just make sure you practice hard. I’ll try to check in on your progress from time to time.”

Over the following months, I trained by myself in my room following Lazar’s written instructions.

Progress was much slower compared to learning one-on-one, especially without Lazar’s elixirs but I eventually trained my mana heart to be efficient enough to do one or two spells.