Curse the Mainframe! 421 Teaching a Fool

"Teach me? How can you?" Katherine asked, unfreezing. Her eyes were distrusting.

Alec tilted his head to the side, as if thinking.

"I'm an Awakening type, after all."

"You're lying!"

Katherine's chest heaved up and down, and her eyes were red. She couldn't believe that he was making fun of her after she poured her heart out to him. Didn't he have a conscience?

But… that didn't fit her image with Alec.

After all, he had comforted her, even if he had gone about it in a weird sort of way.

Unless, he really was an Awakening type like her?

But how could it be? She could feel that he was stronger than her. If she wasn't being conservative about it, she even guessed that he was a Meister.

Yet, at this time, he actually admitted that he was an Awakening type?

She heard that Uncle Aeden's son wasn't from around here, but where he was from, did they have different perceptions about her Magitype?

Alec's smile was his normal one, but in Katherine's eyes it looked rather elegant, like he wasn't even trying. For some reason, it made her want to believe in his words.

Alec looked closely at Katherine's face and said, "No, the realm I'm from doesn't have a different perception about our Magitype either. I had to forge my own path, just like you were doing previously. But as you already know, not having anyone else leave their notes on their paths mean that we're wandering along the road, blind."

The girl nodded quietly. She'd been trying, and she could 'up' her rank by accumulating magic, but that hadn't seemed to help her, only allowing her to lash out with more strength as she used it to accommodate her muscles.

Other than that, she really could not find anything.

No records, no spoken tales. It was like their Magitype was so disdained that it wasn't even spoken about. As if they were invisible.

Katherine clenched her fists.

Alec was igniting a bit of hope in her that she couldn't bring herself to snuff out.

Katherine might have been a rash person, but she still had some judgement. "You really are of the Awakening Magitype," she said. Her voice still held a trace of disbelief. She really could not believe it.

There was no one who would *willingly* admit they had their Magitype. Just the thought made her bitter.

All this time, she had thought that she was alone in struggling. Even when she went out of her way to find someone else of the Awakening Magitype, those people had all long since given up, and they were just struggling to get through life, wading their way through life aimlessly.

There was no one else like her, who was still struggling desperately along the path. She was not resigned; she was not resigned!

She took back everything that she'd said in frustration earlier.

Katherine took a deep breath. "Tell me, but don't teach me," she said.

Katherine had her pride. If Alec could do it, then she could too. She refused to believe that she couldn't.

Alec flicked her forehead, causing her to hold it. She looked at him in surprise and confusion.

She looked quite funny, with her mouth open and her eyes confused. She looked nothing like her usually arrogant and domineering self.

She snapped out of it and glared at him.

"You have someone wanting to teach you, but you instead refuse and want to forge your own path? That's fine, but aren't you being foolish about not wanting to learn? You can avoid all the pitfalls and traps, but you instead want to wade through them yourself?"

Katherine glared harder. "What's wrong with that? My path would be nothing but my own. I refuse to believe that I won't be able to forge my own path!"

Alec smiled, and before she had time to marvel how his smile was really like her brother's, her forehead was flicked again.

This time, she was flicked until she saw stars. She actually collapsed backwards and knocked her head on the ground, causing her to be dizzy. The stinging pain came in waves, and she rubbed it. She held in the hiss that wanted to come out, not wanting to show any more of her weaknesses.

"There's a fine difference between stubbornness and foolishness," Alec said. "There's already someone who's forged a path, so why be stubborn before you've even listened to what I have to say?��

Katherine remained silent. She didn't agree, but she was willing to at least listen to him speak.

Alec opened his mouth and taught her slowly, giving her a few examples.

At first, Katherine was still a little sceptical, but the more she listened, the more she felt as if her eyes had been opened.

She hadn't even though about the things that he was talking about. Forget her walking along her own road, she hadn't even stepped foot on it yet.

It was only then that she realized the extent of her ignorance.

The way that Katherine looked at Alec also subtly changed – from the earlier slight wariness and confusion to admiration, to almost worship.

She didn't even feel this way for her uncle, who was the strongest person that she knew.

Before this, she had always wanted to be like her uncle – she wanted to be strong enough to make all her naysayers shut up for eternity, but now, she found that it was all meaningless.

Her eyes had been opened.

What did she have to care about those insignificant people?

She had her own pride, and that shining pride would not be tarnished by mere words alone.

The more she listened, the more she fell into a deep trance as she rapidly comprehended what Alec was imparting to her without holding back.

She felt gratefulness for what Alec was willing to share.

After all, she had insulted him earlier on, but he had even given her combat pointers at that time, and it wasn't like he had humiliated her either.

It had all been her own wishful thinking that boxed her into a corner.

Now, her mind was open.

She saw the world with clearer eyes, and she felt like she'd been freed from her earlier narrow thinking.

She breathed in, and she felt like the air had never been so fresh.

By the time Alec stopped talking, her eyes were sparkling as she looked at him.

Alec looked at her and his lips twitched. Somehow, he felt like he'd gained a little fan…?

But that couldn't be right. The only reason why he was willing to help her out a little was because of her brash arrogance – an arrogance that had been tempered and born naturally from the little girl's soul.

Seeing all that arrogance shatter, then seeing the process rebuild again, this time… that arrogance was more like confidence now.

She wasn't a bad person. She was just too young. Added with a Sin's base personality… well.

But she was his cousin after all, so Alec would give his father some face.

The man seemed to care about her at least a little.

More than that, seeing the world try and crush out another Awakening Magitype filled him with a kind of helpless and fury that burned from deep inside.

So, he taught her wholeheartedly.

Chapter end

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