“Today’s your lucky day, commoner! I, the great Ted, will be making you my underling!”
Uh-huh... I see. He may not have said it in so many words, but the point seemed to be that he wanted to take me on as his apprentice. There was only one appropriate response—ignoring him. He was just another brat—typical of any time period.
“Hey, are you listening? Hello?! Hey, Lilith’s little brother...Abebe?”
“Abel.”
“Come on, Aybuhl! Be my underling! You know what an underling is, right? It’s an apprentice!”
“Sorry, but I have absolutely no interest in a master-apprentice relationship.”
“Aw, come on! Just do it already!”
Ugh. What a day this is turning out to be. This little spoiled noble brat was shouting at me like the kid he was and showing absolutely no sign of wanting to leave. He left me no choice. I took no pleasure in frightening children, but there was no way I could focus on reading with him here. Time to give him a little scare. Having made up my mind, I slammed my book shut.
“Let me warn you. It’s best not to get involved with me. You know what my eyes signify, don’t you?”
Honestly, acting wasn’t exactly my forte, but I just had to suck it up and keep going in order to resolve this situation. I looked down at the invader with my Amber Eyes, which sparkled gold, the same color as the eyes of demons. They were an omen of evil. This should’ve been enough to get him to stay away from me.
“Huh? You... Your eyes!” Ted took a step back, and in order to keep the pressure on, I made sure he got a really good look at them.
Things were going just as I expected. All I needed was one more push to up the fear factor.
I cackled. “That’s right. I’ve nothing to hide. I possess the eyes of demon—”
However, Ted’s next move, which betrayed every last one of my assumptions, was beyond my predictions. He took a good look at my face, then snorted.
“Seriously?” He began to laugh. “A-Amber eyes?!” Why was he rolling around on the floor laughing his head off? “This is my first time seeing them in person! Amber Eyes really do exist!”
Uh...what’s going on? I could only stand there, mouth agape, completely and utterly shocked.
“Ted! You can’t just barge into Miss Lilith’s house without her permission!”
In the next moment, a guy with hair the same color as Ted’s entered the room, frantic. He seemed a little older than Ted, maybe by two or three years. Judging by their appearances, it was more than likely they were siblings.
“Barth—look at this guy! This is the first time I’ve seen Pleb Eyes!”
Can I get a translation for what this brat is saying and doing? Still, in the end, he was just a kid. Everything he said and did could be written off as mere childish tomfoolery. Surely, someone older—like this Barth guy—would be more aware of the significance of Amber Eyes.
“Oh. Ms. Lilith had mentioned that she was housing her incredibly talented little brother, but...I guess my expectations were a little too high.”
I had no words. Huh? Is the older brother just as ignorant as the younger one? No explanation should have been necessary. The belief that Amber Eyes were simultaneously a symbol of supreme strength and evil should have been widespread. But wait. Maybe...
“Are Amber Eyes looked down upon in this world?”
Ted burst out laughing again. “Barth, this Abebe guy doesn’t seem to know anything!”
I was so shocked and confused, I didn’t even feel like correcting him about my name anymore.
“Listen up, Abebe. Your Pleb Eyes have absolutely no affinity with any element. It’s useless for any magecraft—whether that’s fire, water, wind, creation magecraft, or healing magecraft. Since they have zero use, they’re called Zero Eyes!”
“Ted, that’s enough. You’re going too far.”
Well...this was certainly a surprise. True, utilizing one’s Amber Eyes required training—more specifically, close to ten years of continuous training were necessary to even have a chance of making use of other elements. People with Amber Eyes were late bloomers. However, one could also look at it this way—spending a mere ten years in study produced incredible results. After all that training, those with Amber Eyes were able to manipulate any element they wanted.
Of course, there was still variation between individuals, but by and large, it was possible for everyone who possessed Amber Eyes to perfectly manifest magecraft of any element to its highest degree. Sure—we also inevitably had to endure unjustified persecution, but as a trade-off, we had the strongest abilities, bar none.
“Uh... Abeshi, right?” How did he even come up with that name? Sounds like it’d be fun to scream.
“It’s Abel.”
“I’m sorry my little brother said all those rude things to you, Abel.” Barth tipped his head slightly.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not a problem,” I said in a small voice. I really don’t care, though.
“You apologize too, Ted.”
“Why? I don’t wanna. He is a Pleb Eyes, after all.”
“No—you need to apologize, Ted. This is an age where people can live happily, even if they can’t use magecraft. He’ll probably be serving our family for years to come, so you should be kind to him.”
Barth, was it? At your core, it seems you look down on Amber Eyes too. Personally speaking, I didn’t care too much about the kind of unrestrained mockery I got from idiots like Ted. If anything, I preferred it to the kind of half-assed kid-glove approach that intelligent and prideful people like Barth adopted.
“Come on, Ted, let’s go home and study magecraft. We have a responsibility as chosen ones to improve ourselves.”
“Okay, fine. Later, Pleb Eyes Abibi!”
They left, the door shutting hurriedly between them. Uh, seriously... What the heck was that? They just barged in, verbally abused me, then left. It was like a storm had blown through. But I had learned something. I pulled out the book that I’d been reading and turned back to where I’d left off—“The History of War.” There hadn’t been a single war with the demons in the past two hundred years, meaning that peace had reigned.
With no demons around, people naturally stopped fearing Amber Eyes. Furthermore, apparently nowadays it was only necessary for people to train a little in order to begin using the element affiliated with their eyes with ease.
On the other hand, Amber Eyes took a long time to mature—and even then, it took a lot of training for those who possessed them to learn any magecraft at all. In this age where the general level of magical ability had fallen, that was probably the reason why those with Amber Eyes had become the target of ridicule and labeled useless.
It’d taken a while, but I finally understood why Lilith used Color Contacts. I couldn’t really get myself to like the idea of using cosmetics to hide who I was, but under these circumstances, I completely understood. First came persecution and now plain ridicule. Good grief. Who would’ve guessed it’d be so hard to lead a normal life?