Beast [Irregular at Magic High School fanfic] (Boyxboy)

Chapter 16

I was released two weeks after the war ended. My aunt came to pick me up herself, and I was rolled out of the hospital in a wheelchair I was slowly getting used to. The black car, sitting next to her with Ori at my feet... It was almost too much. I kept my hands folded on the blanket over my lap and legs, and my eyes closed.

"You don't have a guardian, Minoru... That needs to be remedied."

"I have Ori."

"Ori is as much as you as you are him."

"I don't need a guardian."

"You wouldn't be in the health you are now if I had given you one to begin with. Although I didn't expect for you to leave that house... Do you have any preferences?"

"Male. Brown hair. Muscular."

"That's oddly specific, Minoru."

I open my eyes to see her leaning towards me a little, her own guardian dutifully ignoring the conversation as best he can. Her smile is a little to wide, a little too pleased.

"Take it how you will, Auntie Maya."

She laughs, just a little, to show she's amused, before leaning back into her seat. Despite her usual... domineering personality, she's probably one of the family members I like the most.

"So what now?"

"You are still a Yotsuba. Your name was changed to reflect that during your absence. Your body may be broken, but your mind is not. Your prowess for magical engineering will be put to good use."

"Will I be living at the main estate?"

"No. I don't believe that's a good area for you. Too much going on, and your siblings will be around. I've arranged a separate house for you, away from the mansion, though you'll be on Yotsuba grounds and officially at the estate."

It's not that she's thinking of me personally. She merely wants to keep me close, but away from all the other family members to avoid a power struggle. I don't have intentions of it, and my sister has already been named as such, but I have a legitimacy to be heir. If anything were to happen to my sister, the clawing power frenzy would begin all over again.

"Auntie Maya."

"Mm?"

"Where am I now? In the family."

"If I am the queen, then you are a prince, and your sister the princess. Your brother is her knight, and the rest are mere noblemen and noblewomen. I intend on keeping you very close, Minoru."

Because I resemble my mother, and I resemble her as a man. Something she's always seemed to want to be. A man, strong a powerful in body where she is not. My aunt is as she said: a queen. She runs the kingdom in the public eye and also in the dark, but the king is ultimately the one to raise the sword and stand tall.

Others will always underestimate her for being a woman, though she is far beyond their reach in terms of power. The Yotsuba are possibly the strongest clan, after all.

"I see."

The rest of the car ride is spent in silence. When we reach the estate, I avoid looking out the windows. I don't want to see the place I grew up in... There's too many memories that now seem tarnished. She doesn't say anything about it, instead seeming to do the same.

In a way, this place is a prison to both of us.

The car finally stops, and her own guardian steps out of the car. There's some communication with those outside, before my aunt is assisted in a polite fashion out of the car. Another man gets in in her place, definitely someone affiliated somehow with the clan but not a family member. The door is shut, and the car begins to move again.