I reincarnated as the Duke’s only blind daughter - Chapter 6 Part 1

Even though the rumor was bad, meeting the real person helped me realize that there was nothing for me to worry about.

They all went back after I bid them goodbye, and we would see each other on the next day.

After I saw them off,  I thought more about Emilia. Surely both Karl and Emilia seemed really close to each other, as expected from the person who received Karl’s trust. Even if she was the mentioned Baron’s daughter, after our meeting I can affirm surely that the rumor was not supported by any fact at all.

Enough with being swayed by others gossip, Alicia!

Because I stood firmly without moving towards the door, Karl became worried and raised his voice.

“What’s wrong? Are you alright? Emilia may have caused you discomfort because of her personality. You must be surprised. I intended to introduce her to you tomorrow, but everyone ended up coming because I wanted an update immediately. I apologize.”

“No. I too arrived earlier than expected.It’s okay.”

When I tilted my head to the side and said that, Karl seemed relieved.

“ Let’s do a proper introduction tomorrow, shall we?”

“Please, I will be in your care. I’m happy to be able to meet such good people like your friends.”

“Yeah, I’m proud of them.”

It clearly felt like he was boasting about his friends. I smiled at him.

We sat down on the sofa.

When I took a break in my bedroom, Karl took the time and contacted Daddy, after a long conversation, he finally gave him the permission to tell me about the magic. It could not be delayed any longer, we started talking right away after his conversation with Daddy.

First of all, I had to stop assuming that everything I heard  was like what I knew from my previous life. Even if it’s something small, I have to ask right away when I don’t understand something. The only thing I can do right now is to ask.

Seeing me take a strong resolution, overwhelmed with questions, Karl gently poked my hand to get my attention.

“A,Alicia. I understand that you are eager to know the answers for a lot of things. H,How about having a cup of tea, and getting down to business smoothly?”

Before I knew it the tea was prepared and served. I took it from Karl, gripped it carefully and drank it all in one sip. My mind seemed to calm down thanks to the warm and delicious tea.

“I am sorry, Karl. I just have too much to ask…I must look like a kid to you.”

“It’s alright. I have forgotten that my duty was to explain to you who can’t see. You don’t need to worry about it. However, let’s do one question at a time, shall we?”

“I understand. I see, for the start, can you tell me how many types of magic are there? The only ones I know are your attack magic and my stamp magic. Of course, father did cast deffense magic on me from time to time, but I could not understand how it works or what it looks like.”

“It’s that so. Now that you mentioned it, back when we were kids, we started your training without any proper explanation. This time, I will try to explain using methods I learnt at school then.”

Karl began to tell me about the many types of magic and their usable ranges, how it performs in reality little by little in detail. Just like when he was a kid, he always speaks in a theoretical way but really easy to understand.

According to his explanation, normally, magic is sometimes visible, other times it can be heard, sounding like your voice coming in and out, the magic activates just like that. Most of the time we use it without realizing, in short, your imagination is the trigger for magic to happen.

After his long detailed explanation, it was time to talk about my condition. Karl faced me and then gave a heavy sigh.

“By all means, mostly, the reason why you can not use magic is because you can’t imagine things normally. For example, the horse, before the magic inside me activated, I imagined the shape of the object rising from the ground and moving forward. However, you didn’t seem to know the shape of the horse, you even thought it was a living creature. If you keep doing that, I can’t be sure of the outcome.”

“I can’t see so I can’t understand its shape or colors and imagining it is difficult. As expected, there is nothing good coming from these eyes.”

Karl gently comforted me while I rested my chin on my palm, lost in thought.

“Yeah. That is why you couldn’t use magic until now, maybe it will be even harder in the future. About your stamp, without having any shape and normal imagination, it broke out just like that. When I had a conversation with the Duke earlier, he told me after everyone in the Duke’s family understood the difficulties, they decided not to  talk about magic in front of you.”

“My father?”

“Yeah, the Duke regretted so much.”

“It’s that so…”

I never thought the reason why I can’t use magic was because of my blindness all along. I felt hopeless.

“You don’t have to feel depressed like that. Aren’t you the Holsten family’s only princess!? There aren’t any chances for you to use it after all.”

“I don’t understand..”

“I think it’s not that different from things until now. To assist nobles on a daily basis, the servants use magic to do all the work. For Nobles, especially ladies, the time they get to use their magic is nearly none. Even if they do, it is only the defense one for sure.”

From Karl’s explanation, the servants mostly use their magic on a daily basis. What we use is usually for defense. Things like horses are used only for moving, apparently your magic acted like a switch, resembling one that you use to turn lights on and off.

Now that you mentioned it, I never went anywhere by myself. And if you ask me if I needed light or not, I would say I don’t necessarily need it. The magic didn’t exist in my previous life, the feeling of wanting to try it is unbearable. Even the head Knight, required to obtain a certificate which was strictly restricted in order to use attack magic.

In the case of Karl, he only used attack magic to protect me from the dangerous beast. It was one exceptional case. Of course they also teach magic at the academy too, however, the teaching focused more on how you can instinctively use magic in an effective and theoretical way rather than how to fight. Only the students who wished to join the Knight order are the only ones who can attend attack magic classes.

According to Karl, my impression of magic is quite unique. I would unconsciously take the magic and split it into separated categories like gas, electricity, water. If there is something which cannot be categorized, I would just accept it and think of how convenient it was.

The image of magic that my previous life fabricated crumbled down instantly. My silly self even thought that using magic normally will be like ‘bang bang’, just like what Karl did before.

“I lived comfortably without any concern for 18 years and finally learned the truth now. What a life..”

“But there is one magic you can use, or rather I should say I want you to use it.”

“What is that?”

“It’s defense magic that protects yourself. To be honest, if you leave the Duke residence like this time again in the future, my worries for your safety will increase. You couldn’t do anything except stamping after the last training. I was thinking, if I can really make you truly understand it’s concept, wouldn’t you be able to use it?”

With new resolution, Karl’s body tightened with sudden tension and turned his head towards me. However, with the fact that I can’t see, the hope I kept for so long is getting smaller and smaller.

“But..I’m blind..”

“The defense magic is casted on yourself. It doesn’t matter if you are blind, you can imagine your own body right? “

“Yeah, I can at least do that..”

“Because the effect of defense magic will disappear after a day, you need to cast it again everyday. We can say this magic is definitely used by the nobles and Royalties. It doesn’t activate with your imagination, just do it like when you pray to god for your safety. It’s close to that. The Duchess was in charge of casting protection on you everyday. But from now on, in order to cultivate a better understanding, even just a little bit is fine, I suppose you do practice everyday.”

“Now that you explained it, I think I understand it a little. After the dangerous encounter with the beast, I surely had the feeling that someone was casting protection on me everyday. Yet, I couldn’t tell who was doing that. But I remember I felt my body become lighter and warmer after receiving kisses on the hand from my parents.”

“I think that was it! I can sense the Duke couple’s aura heavily coming from you. To their daughter who cannot cast protection on her own at this age, it is normal for the parents to do it instead. It’s everyday’s magic, I am sure that you will be able to do it in no time.”

Listening to what he was saying, I tightened my hand in response and opened my mouth.

“…I..I want to try doing it one more time. You even took your time and listened to my problems. I decided, I will go and try to ask Father for permission.”

“That’s right! The Duke forgave me and even gave me permission to tell you about magic. I’m sure he will be more open to talk about magic with you from now on. Of course I will do what I can to help you, Alicia.”

“I could never thank you enough. If everything works out, I would love to try casting a protection spell on myself first. Karl, can you teach me like before?

“My pleasure.”

I became excited after hearing his answer.

“C..can I ask you.. what kind of magic you can use?”

I couldn’t hold back my curiosity. If you know one thing, you can’t help wanting to know what’s next. Karl repeatedly said “hmm, what kind~” for a while, then took my hand and left a kiss on it.

“Eh?”

At that moment, I could feel my body starting to float up gradually.

“Like this?”

“This is so cool!! How can you do this?”

“I looked at you, I thought it would be great to see you floating so I imagined it.”

“Can anyone do this?”

“I wonder? I’m from the Royalty so my magic is stronger than everyone else. For things like this, I wouldn’t know if I don’t try.”

“So cool..”

I tried to flap my arms to see if anything would happen but my body was still steady floating in the air.

“I will drop you off now.”

After Karl said that, my body slowly went down and returned to the sofa.

“ How was it?”

“It was really fun! You were so cool, Karl!”

“You are praising me too highly. That’s right! Tomorrow is the open campus day, there will be a magic teaching class open to the public too. How about trying it out?”

“Really? If so I would love to!”

Karl looked at Alicia who was repeatedly leaning her body back and forth because of excitement. He couldn’t hold back and embraced her.

“Let me be honest here, I don’t like you becoming excited over something that is not me. Aren’t you coming over here to see me?”

My face heated up quickly from his words.

“Karl! Don’t say like I did something bad! Geez..of course I came because I really wanted to meet you! It’s just I was curious about things..” (● ˃̶͈̀ロ˂̶͈́)੭ꠥ⁾⁾

I covered my tomato-alike face and rested my head on his chest.

…Wait a minute? Was Karl.. this big before? (*)

My mind was filled with excitement, that the feeling of wanting to meet Karl again was totally forgotten. And now it rises up again.

That’s right! Isn’t this the first time we met after I realized my feelings for Karl?!

I didn’t know what to do so I tried to wrap my arms around him.

I clumsily put my hand on his arms and hugged his back. Replying to my failed attempt to hug him, his body seemed like jumping up for an instant and next thing I knew I was being embraced tightly by him. I could feel his strength through his arms and that somehow erased all my anxieties and put me at ease.

I took a deep breath and whispered to him.

“I had always thought that it is natural to have you by my side. But because of that I didn’t realize the most important thing. You know, Karl? Now I do. I love you.”

Karl sighed deeply and relaxed his body while lifting my face up then touched my cheeks with both of his hands.

“I know.”

He replied in a deep voice.

——

(*) she meant his build, his body size and because he became taller than her now.