Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

Chapter 113: Wasted potential

Evangeline giggled as water dripped down her hair and clothes.

"Really, it’s so much fun to do stuff like this with magic."

Adrian stared at her, unamused, and then he spoke evenly.

"That’s enough; dry yourself now."

After a few more giggles, Evangeline gathered mana in her palm, which started to twist into strange shapes resembling constellations. Moments later, a small vortex of wind was swirling around her hand.

She controlled it carefully, all while adding more mana to increase the size of the vortex. She made the vortex swirl around her body for a while, drying her wet hair and wet clothes. And a few moments later, she was completely dry, just like before.

’Ah, it’s just so much fun. If only Mama would let me do this in the mansion too.’

She turned to Adrian and asked excitedly.

"Hey, Adi, aren’t I amazing?" She spoke dramatically. "The strongest and most amazing. Seriously, having four elemental affinities is the best, wouldn’t you say?"

Saying that, she made a victory pose with her hand.

But contrary to the reaction she had expected, Adrian... shook his head.

"No, it’s not that great, really. I would call it wasted potential, if anything."

Evangeline puffed up her cheeks and replied in an annoyed tone.

"Hey! Don’t be mean!"

She was trying her best to lighten the mood, which was also why she had not mentioned anything about yesterday’s duel, but Adrian just had to say rude things. Evangeline might not show it, but it wasn’t like she didn’t feel hurt by his words.

But her thoughts came to a pause as she heard his next words.

"I am not trying to be mean; I am genuinely saying that it is wasted potential. And that has nothing to do with you; it would’ve been wasted potential no matter who had it."

Evangeline tilted her head.

"But why, though?"

Adrian pointed at the ground in front of him, as if gesturing for her to sit. She quietly complied, and he started speaking the moment she sat down.

"I had asked the man who teaches me about you—"

"You mean you asked your teacher about me?"

Adrian turned and stared at her quietly for a bit, then sighed.

"Anyway, as I was saying, I asked him about—"

"Ah! I get it now!" Evangeline smiled mischievously. "Addddiiiii, you’re embarrassed to call him ’teacher,’ aren’t you?"

’Really, what a tsundere.’

Moments like these made her forget how insensitive and emotionally blunt the boy in front of her really was.

Adrian frowned.

"Embarrassment has nothing to do with it. Focus on the topic for now. Anyway, so I asked him about you, and this was what he had to say."

’Huh?’

Adrian’s teacher said that four-elemental affinity was wasted potential. But why, though? It was so cool, and everyone else had the same opinion.

Her answers were moments later as Adrian continued.

"You must know that to control a spell or a magical phenomenon, you need sufficient understanding of ‌your element, correct?"

Evangeline nodded.

Casting a spell was easy since all you had to do was shape the mana into the spell’s formula. But controlling the phenomenon created by the spell—like a gust of wind, concentrated water, or fragments of rocks—was extremely challenging. At least it had been in the beginning.

Evangeline couldn’t quite put her experience into words, but it felt like she was doing something that was closer to telekinesis, and it required a lot of focus from her.

Adrian continued.

"That understanding is not going to come to you like some epiphany; it is going to accumulate gradually and will require a lot of training. But the problem is that people only have so much time and can only learn so much. This is also the reason they choose between the path of a caster or the path of an infuser. It takes a significant amount of time to gain sufficient understanding of even a single element."

Evangeline nodded along.

’I see...’

She had always wondered why people didn’t just learn both instead of choosing between the two.

’I mean, I knew there must’ve been some reason for it.’

"On top of that, what makes major elements special is the fact that as long as you gain sufficient understanding, you can even use derived elements under that major element. Of course, your proficiency at controlling them will be significantly lower than that of those who actually possess the affinity to those derived elements."

Adrian turned to look at her.

"Do you get it now? You possess four elemental affinities, and all four of them are major elements. Your potential is absurdly high. It is so absurdly high that it is impossible to realize it completely before you die of old age. This is why it is simply wasted potential."

Evangeline was lost for words as she heard that revelation.

’I can’t realise all my potential...’

Sitting on the grassy ground beneath the shade of the tree, she leaned backwards as her back touched the ground. She gazed at the dense green leaves of the tree now in front of her and asked somewhat absentmindedly.

"Adi, is it really not possible?"

In her lying position, she couldn’t look at him, but she heard his voice soon after.

"I wouldn’t say that it is absolutely impossible. More like nearly impossible. After all, you can’t spend your entire life simply training, can you? You can’t even utilize all twenty-four hours of a day since you have to eat, sleep, and do other tasks too."

Evangeline didn’t say anything after that, simply gazing at the tree leaves and the blue sky as she lay motionlessly on the ground.

She felt her mood sour somewhat, and her earlier excitement began to fade.

With neither of them speaking, the surroundings turned quiet, with the only sound being the rustling of the tree leaves caused by the light breeze.

But then, Evangeline heard Adrian’s voice once again, breaking the silence.

"I have been somewhat jealous of you for quite some time now, Evangel."

A frown appeared on her face the moment she heard those words in his dull tone. She felt as though she had heard something wrong.

’Adi being jealous of me? Yeah, right.’

If anything, it was the other way around.

Evangeline was jealous of him. Even though he was only ten, he was so intelligent, so talented, and so strong. Well, he was unusually mature for his age, too, but she didn’t really think it was a good thing.

Evangeline, in comparison, was nothing special, even though she was supposed to be. She was a reincarnate who had lived on Earth for almost seventeen years. But despite that, she didn’t have any knowledge from Earth to use in this world since she had been stuck in a hospital room all her life and wasn’t able to attend school.

And even though she was born with special gifts that put her on the same level as Adrian, she was now being told that she would never be able to utilize those gifts to their full potential.

She gritted her teeth and spoke in a somewhat sharp tone.

"Adi, are you mocking me? Is that your way of taking jabs at me? How childish."

Adrian had no reason to be jealous of her. He didn’t lack anything that she had.

But Adrian’s voice came once again.

"I am being sincere; I really am jealous of you, Evangel."

She closed her eyes and sighed. And...

"...Why?"