Gomen ne, Oniisama

Oniisama 1-1

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Wait for me, Oniisama!

First Year.

PASHIN, went the hard sound of the fan closing.
The mana that had been single-heartedly emitted in no particular direction now faded away, without forming a single shape.
The boy who was forcefully awakened from his extreme nervousness, had drawn in a deep breath before he had realised it.
A woman with neatly ordered brown hair, with just a tinge of golden, gazed at the boy with cold eyes.

“Gilford, could it be that you cannot form even a fireball?”

“…I-, ‘m very sorry, esteemed (step)mother.”

The woman gave a deep sigh, as though she were disappointed from the depths of her heart, before placing a hand to her head.
With this, the person you could call the boy’s final stronghold, had finally given up on him.
She had become somebody that would no longer protect him.
He had failed her test after all; the test of she who was the most unopposable authority in this magic clan.
This woman did not have the leisure to pay attention to the incompetent.
Even if this was a given result, it still aches the heart.

―――However.
As I watched this boy’s shoulders shakily rise and fall with trembling breaths, and saw a membrane of tears cover his verdant eyes, despite myself, despite myself, the beating of my heart began to quicken.
The moment that the bishounen with the dull silver hair and green eyes was moved to tears by his failure, and was abandoned by the beautiful blonde woman…
The moment that he hit rock bottom, that marked the most important point for this story about crawling up from the bedrock…
To think the day would come that I would see with my own eyes this picturesque scene. I had never even thought it possible.

The person looking on from the side looked like nothing but the image of a cold-headed stepmother, but she had kindness that allowed her to never give up on him, no matter how many times, how many times he failed a test.
But Okaasama with her weak body is forbidden from straining her heart.
If she continued guiding them even after they failed the test, she would definitely collapse.
While calming this heart of mine that had been trembling with emotion, I cut in between the two of them to take on that duty myself.

“Okaasama. Would it be all right if I took over testing Oniisama?”

Since I’ve gained Okaasama’s permission, and I’ve seen her off…
Now then, with this it’s my turn now.
I abruptly changed my posture, and after gazing at the bishounen with villainous, confident eyes, I let out a fireball the size of my palm into the air.
It wasn’t magic that corresponded to my strength; I deliberately mass produced the beginner class spell that he was desperately practising.
One, two, three――――――――――――ten.
The boy’s eyes were coloured with despair as he gazed at the fire balls surrounding my small body.

“By the rules of our family, I will not forgive a person eternally useless.”

Raising a small arm into the air as the fireballs followed my movements, I turned them towards the boy.
Regardless of the fact that there was a protective film cast over him, touching the balls you would find them appropriately hot, and those fireballs rained down onto the defenceless boy.

“Oniisama, let me teach you the difference between us.”

Even if they’re older than you, or in a higher position than you, the strength of the person takes priority.
Whether you’re brother and sister, father and daughter, master and disciple, it’s the same.
The unconditionally meritocractic Luzil family is super muscle-headed.

…*

＊

…*

Just like in many stories, 【I】 was reincarnated.

In the past, there was once a book that began to have a quiet boom, which bit by bit began to catch on, and just as they were about to conclude the series and people were thinking ‘The anime adaptation is pretty close too!’ …with such exceptional timing, the publisher went bankrupt, and it was postponed.
The name of the series was called ‘The Magician and the Country of Night’.
In the past, I was completely engrossed in it.
A book once a year, and at worst, even a book every three years. This series that would only be released at such a pace was to I, who spent my days in boredom, the only thing I had to look forward to in excitement.

There were many characters that I liked, but amongst them all, I was particularly fond of the protagonist.
He was a 【Strongest Character】 type protagonist that you often find in novels, but because of his mental development as a person in the novels, and because he didn’t boorishly bulldoze through everything with force, he was terribly cool.
Early life, an unfortunate childhood, a door opening to a world he never knew, a journey with his friends, schemes that stood in the way, blessings of a guardian spirit, grief on the battlefield, difficulties, and growth.
Each of these components were spices that made him shine―――the only regrettable thing was that just before his final confrontation, the publishers went bankrupt.

Now then, the world that I was born into was none other than that of ‘The Magician and the Country of Night’.
The truth is that when I was younger, my memories were unstable, so I wasn’t really sure, but once my ego had developed, I properly realised the situation.

Indeed; I realised that in the near future, the protagonist―――the Grand Hydromancer, Gilford, would become my older brother.

Honestly speaking, when I realised this, I was so excited that for days I couldn’t even fall asleep.
I mean, I had been reborn as one of the characters in the book that was my absolute favourite in my past life.
I spent every single day excited, and dived into my studies of magic with enthusiasm.
I showed my mother and father knowledge above my age, and grasped the tenets of magic.
However, once I calmed down a little and thought through one of the memories in my mind, I realised that the road my future brother would be travelling would be filled with difficulties.
Of course, growth comes hand in hand with difficulties, so I had not the slightest intention of negating that.
The worries on the battlefield, the conflicts with the enemy, the discord between friends; all of them were essential to growth, so it wasn’t a big problem.

But. But,
the magician who was the country’s final defence was my oniisama―――this was a problem.
He was unmistakably the protagonist. However, he belonged to the type that matured and showed their talents later.

The Luzil family that Gil-sama and I belong to is a clan of pyromancers.
A clan was directly descended from a great magician who had in the early days of the country, cleared a path through the enemies with their flames, and established clear national borders.
And even now, it was a clan that was a key cornerstone of our country, a clan that overpowered the forces of the opportunistic neighbouring countries that might seek to attack us.
Would there be any noble who wouldn’t be proud of such an important position? No, there wouldn’t be.
As a result, this family of mine that values strength more than anything, is a complete meritocracy.
That’s why my late-bloomer Oniisama had for a long time been treated as something lower than a worm in this house.

Originally when Otousama had suddenly brought back a boy and said ‘This is my kid.’ it was a huge fiasco.
It wasn’t described in the book, but probably seeing that his daughter had such potential, he ecstatically thought ‘Maybe the seeds I sowed earlier are strong as well’.
Gil-sama is a child who’s older than me―――in other words, he was a kid conceived during Otousama’s political engagement with the esteemed Okaasama.
For a long time now they had seemed like a couple in a political marriage that only played the parts of husband and wife, but since Gil-sama was brought back, the relations between the two of them became as terrible as they could get.
It was a relationship with nothing going for it except trust, so it can’t be helped that it came to this though.
Even so, she married into this family that served as the cornerstone to our national defence, so Okaasama resolved herself.
It was good to have even one more able magician serving the country.
That’s why she very properly trained Gil-sama in the magic of the Luzil family.

The result was that Oniisama had absolutely no talent for fire.
The symbol of her husband’s infidelity, a talentless good-for-nothing――――――with such a boy pushed onto her, Okaasama’s pride as a royal princess had already long been torn to shreds.
Had Gil-sama even a little bit of talent in pyromancy then once he grew up he could at least work as a magician to protect the country, even if it was work in support roles, so her husband’s infidelity was tied to supporting the country; it was for this reason that she could bear it.
However, the reality was that even after teaching, and teaching him, he revealed no power whatsoever.
And seeing Okaasama driven into a corner like that, those that sympathised with her, and those that were envious of his position, all verbally abused Gil-sama, so he ended up spending a pitiful ten years like that.
That was what was written in the novel.
It was a family built on meritocracy, so that part of it can’t be helped though.

But, but, no matter how much growth you can gain from suffering, the circumstances really are just too much!
Even though the only one in the wrong is Otousama with his loose lower body, Gil-sama and Okaasama are really too pitiful. I was angry.

Thankfully, 【I】 am Origa Emelda Luzil.
The one known as the strongest villain in that story, the Lady of the Inferno, Origa.
In the book, Origa was such a powerful pyromancer that she was even called the heaven-sent child of pyromancy, and with a severe and flaming personality, she mowed down every person in the clan with her strength, and snatched the position of clan head from Otousama at the young age of sixteen.
And like that, because of that severe meritocracy, various incidents were―――no, that’s not something relevant right this moment though.

Even if I speed things along a little, it’s a predetermined ending, so there shouldn’t be any problem.
This is a story about the growth of the magician Gilford, that heads towards an ending where he saves the nation.
As long as it’s regarding matters outside of the blooming of his abilities, and his reign as the best magician in the country, I believed that I would be able to interfere.

So that’s how it is.
I want to hurry up and refine his talent so that nobody can say a thing about him, and free Gil-sama and Okaasama from the fate that they’re experiencing.
In other words, each day I do nothing but devote myself to playing the villain.

Sorry, Oniisama!
―――It’s just for a little while longer, so hold on, okay?

tl: “esteemed (step)mother”
It’s written ‘giboue/義母上‘ or ‘esteemed step-mother’, but he probably reads it as ‘hahaue’ or ‘esteemed mother’. Well, I’m not entirely sure, so correct me if you think this is a situation where he would actually read it as ‘gibo’, but I don’t think he does.
Ah, for readers with no idea what I’m talking about, in Japanese, usually you would refer to step-parents or in-laws as ‘step/-inlaw’ when you write, but pronounce it as ‘mother’ or ‘father’. But since this is fantasy, I’m not exactly sure how things go.

 

54 thoughts on “Oniisama 1-1”

  2. Oho ho… this looks like it could be a lot of fun. A protagonist who’s basically role-playing the villain? Greatly looking forward to this.

    My thanks to you, O esteemed holy sheeprabbit.

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    1. Yeah I prefer protagonists that think things through over muscle heads that punch first. Our MC seems to have adapted to get environment nicely. I just hope she won’t go all yandere on us lol.

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      2. Playing along in a villainous role in order to help the other party because she read it in a book and believes things are predetermined is pretty much the opposite of thinking things through, to be perfectly blunt. She’s pretty much an idiot, who has such a shallow understanding of the situation that she believes following the script, only in this case she’s even making things worse, will somehow help.

        Sometimes I really wonder if these Light Novel protags actually behave like real people – it’s disheartening to accept that there are people with such lack of thought and cognitive dissonance.

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        1. Hm, to be honest this is explained. First of all by the fact that she’s a girl who’s never been outside since she was 5. Second of all by the fact that you find out as the story progresses that she’s actually obsessed with the book.

          Final part is an extra chapter before the concluding arc.

          Hm. Maybe I’ll translate an excerpt from that only, and post it here.

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        3. What are you saying? If you follow the script and make minor changes here and there that don’t affect the story, you will be able to predict everything that happens and then use the minor changes as a safeguard to actually change the outcome while still keeping to the script. The problem with your idea where you don’t follow the script is that things can end up becoming even worse. For instance if she did not play the role of a villain, then another party could take on that role and fill it in the vacuum that was created. As the villain she can make sure her brother does not die, however another villain could do things that put her brother in danger. Likewise, if her brothers life became better then his growth in power might be hampered. If he was seen favorably then more expectations would be put on him before he was physically ready which could lead to him ending up getting killed.

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      3. Damn the tone of this story is so much more dark and nature than the usual happy go lucky WN. I really get a sense our MC feels like she’s trapped by her circumstances. It makes me that much more interested in finding out the full story. Hopefully someone will pick this up!

        Thanks for the glimpse Estelion.

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  9. Onii-sama story GET! Oh man this girl, she’s role playing a tsundere? I hope she doesn’t truamatize poor Onii-sama too much! If she gets too into playing the villain and doesn’t let here true feelings show she’ll be hated you know? Hopefully they actually have a good relationship and she’s only strict when teaching him.

    Gilford reminds me if Kazuma from Kaze no Stigma. He was also born into a prestigious clan of pyromancers. He was the eldest son of the clan leader but had no talent for fire magic. In a clan that valued strength above all else, he was worthless and thus, disowned. Lmao Kazuma also had a super talented female relative that usurped his place. Although he wasn’t a bastard child. Kazuma then came back later with godlike command of wind magic and became an OP protagonist.

    Once again, thanks for the translations!

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      1. Oh shit! That can’t be right, your not supposed to kill of the heroine!

        …

        Wait she’s the villain in the original story. Things aren’t looking good. I hope our MC can change her fate!

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      2. It’s one of the darker route I don’t see often in stories ‘w ‘ someone intentionally taking evil role AND have the fairly twisted logic to also not have bad conscience about it.

        In this case she knows that by going through hardship he’ll grow to be someone great, and since she is one of the hardships he faced in the book she is giving her all to be the villain in that book.

        Instead of, say, teaching him “btw, your magic is actually water type, hence why you’re so bad at fire” and turns him into Tria v2 by solving all his upcoming problems with her strength.

        At this rate I can almost imagine her being defeated by him, and as he’s about to land the final blow, she smiles and says “ah, how majestic you’ve become” then splat.

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    2. I’m thinking it must be intentional homage, since Kaze no Stigma was also left incomplete. Granted, that was due to the death of the author and not a publisher going bankrupt.

      From this chapter it sounds like she’s playing the villain completely, even outside of training. She’s too worried that she’ll impact his personal growth if his youth is any less harsh than it was in the book. It seems to me like she could have gone a different route than the story she knew if she’s that concerned about him. I’m guessing she’ll mostly just diverge from things in the background. I’m curious how this turns out, since I expect people close to him got injured/killed in the original, will she let him think they suffered/died while she saves them?

      In any case, sounds interesting, thanks for the translation and keep up the excellent work.

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      1. Damn so it’s a “For the greater good!” mentality she has? I was thinking she acted like Mahouka’s Miyuki when she was young. She acts cold kinda because that’s what’s expected but she can’t help but let her true feelings leak out from time to time.

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  10. Wow, I soooo pitty that guy. I really don’t want to be him. And I’m not sure if our mc is doing the right thing or not.

    Thanks for the chapter!

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    1. The Status Quo (author) have force this treacherous fate upon them. Right or not, if she wanted him to become someone he will be, our MC must become a stepping stone , a final obstacle to his greatness, Just like His will intended.

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  22. Read the sidestory. Bit of a pity, this – her actions are foolish, but they are certainly understandable, if tragic, so I don’t have problems there. Not my kind of story, though, so I probably won’t follow it. Tragedy’s not my cup of tea.:p

    Feel like punching that fictional author, though (not the LN author, but the author of the story she read). Mostly because his justification for the path that the Origa in the story walked being incontrovertible is utterly nonsensical, and the gall in making such a categorical statement to his fans about a situation with an uncountable number of variables speaks of some serious lack of perspective.

    The simple truth of the matter is that with the kind of power she possesses comes the ability to go beyond the role she was assigned. She actually *could* have broken out of her role, were circumstances and thoughts different, but the fictional author doesn’t seem to have cottoned on to that. Is this a cultural difference? The whole ‘nail that sticks out gets pounded down’ bit? Who knows. Pity, though, if she was forever under the impression that nothing could be changed till the end.

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    2. This is getting so meta lol. It’s a complaint against the author of an LN inside of a WN about a story the fictional LN author wrote and how the fictional author’s narrow minded views caused the heroine to go down a path of destruction… Did I get it right XD?

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      1. Ha. Yep. Fits the story, so I don’t have a problem, but that view always annoys me and I got carried away.XD

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    3. And yeah, I thought so too. I won’t spoil the ending, but with everything warped so far, she does manage to escape the fate of the ‘story’, and begins walking her own path.

      The thing that I seem to have noticed about some anime-esque Japanese web novels though, is that the characters often stand for an idea, or have some sort of concept behind them.

      Like, I’m not sure if you’ve read Otoburi, but Manami’s ‘concept’ was ‘slightly above average in everything, but absolutely not beyond that’ and so you’re sort of given the idea that because she maxed out magic stats, everything else sort of declined…

      There are a few other examples but… I can’t quite remember what they were. Read them in Japanese though.

      Anyway, rather than it being a case of the tall nail being hammered down, it’s just that Japanese people are more likely to use characters symbolically, at least in my experience.

      Like, ‘Origa’s personality, circumstances and fate are this way, because she stands as the symbol of the old era’ and not the other way around.

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      1. Interesting. Personally, I feel that not only are characters used as symbols, but that their personalities and beliefs stem from such concepts as well. I feel it’s not merely a coincidence that more or less all MCs I’ve read of Japanese light novels seem to suffer from a major case of bystander syndrome – they tend not to involve themselves in other people’s problems and shy away from standing out, regardless of their own ability, the situation and how it can be resolved, or the actual consequences of the act at hand. As an aside, characters are used as symbols in most works I’ve read or seen, not merely Japanese works – it’s just that the better works tend to flesh them out beyond merely being symbols and characters that tend to only be a certain way, but real characters with traits that grow, change and adapt as the situation around them changes. In a sense, characters always behaving a certain way isn’t good characterization, but being one-dimensional, because their response and thoughts don’t change with the situation, but with the concept and archetype they embody.

        In this particular case, I feel that the in-universe LN author believes the idea of things and people being a certain way – as though there is no alternative, or even that the alternative cannot be favorable, because to him upsetting the status quo or the way things are is an inherently bad thing. It’s a rigid philosophy that I feel he truly believes in, and hence Origa is made to be this way as well – that is, she cannot break out of her family’s beliefs, regardless of outside influence or circumstance, because things should be the way they are and known, rather than breaking free of accepted norms and wading out in the unknown.

        … Heh. I’m psychoanalyzing a character that’s fictional in a fictional universe.XD

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  24. No, if u just keep harassing a boy-ignorant of his talent, what make you different from those rubbish? The true villain act villain with some missions, with the description above u seem just harassing him without the goal of showing the way to him indirectly
    #somehowgotannoyedbyhischapt.dontmindmemuch

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