Chapter 58

Eleanor had been calm about her own result, but now she looked at Reina, who was only just falling into despair.

She knew that in moments like this, no words could truly be comforting.

Just as she was about to suggest that they calm down and return to the room, the entire mansion shook violently.

“W-what’s going on?”

“Kyaaaah!”

“Everyone, be careful!”

With a thunderous rumble, the mansion lurched hard and the windows shattered with a crash.

That wasn’t all.

Every lamp powered by mana stones went out one after another, and darkness fell.

“Everyone evacuate outside the mansion!”

Damian shoved the door open roughly, holding both children in his arms.

“Move, now!”

“Yes, sir!”

Dean rushed off to relay Damian’s order to everyone.

After everyone fled outside, the area buzzed noisily for a while.

At first, it seemed like an earthquake, but only the mansion had shaken.

People whispered among themselves about the strange phenomenon.

Most of the windows of the once majestic ducal castle had been shattered beyond recognition.

“What on earth happened?”

“Could it be the mage’s doing?”

“But for what reason?”

“An imperial mage, maybe?”

“Most mages dislike the imperial family and oppose them, so there shouldn’t be anyone skilled enough to do this.”

Listening to the scattered conversations, Reina stared blankly at the ruined exterior of the mansion.

“Could this be a mana stone overload?”

She was asking Eleanor beside her.

“Strictly speaking, mana stones are condensed mana. If they all explode at once, it feels like this.”

“That’s extremely dangerous…”

“It is. But using magical tools improves quality of life, so it’s unavoidable. Noble houses regularly call in magicians for checks. Still, the ducal castle was inspected not long ago, so this is strange.”

As she listened to Eleanor’s explanation, Reina looked back toward the castle.

‘A mass of mana exploding.’

Something surfaced in Reina’s mind.

“…No way.”

There was no way a problem could be solved so simply and easily.

What she had thought of felt like nothing more than a far fetched dream.

‘If I thought of it, there’s no way no one else ever did.’

Reina considered herself an ordinary person, maybe even less than that.

Because of that, she never believed her thoughts were special or truly helpful.

Even so, part of her wondered if it might be worth mentioning her idea to Peter or Damian at least once.

‘If this works, it could help the empire a lot.’

If an idea bordering on fantasy became reality, Reina could receive a title for a legitimate reason.

‘Maybe it’s okay to tell Peter or my lord once.’

And she trusted that neither Peter nor Damian would ever dismiss her words with ridicule.

* * *

“Boni, are you okay?”

“…Yeah.”

Thankfully, not every room had shattered windows, and the room where Reina and Bonita stayed was one of them.

Only rooms where magical tools were actively operating had been affected.

“The knights will be patrolling the corridors tonight, so you can sleep without worry.”

“The knights…”

Bonita climbed onto the bed, then stopped.

“Mom, can I become a knight?”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because… I don’t have much mana. And I don’t have aura either…”

“Uncle Dean can’t use aura either, can he?”

“But still…”

“But still?”

“I want to become a cool knight who can protect you and the young lady.”

Reina sat down beside Bonita and gently laid her properly on the bed.

According to Eleanor, Bonita didn’t have talent as a knight.

Saying that now might have truly been for the child’s sake.

But was forcing a child to face such a cruel reality really the right choice?

No matter which path she chose, it felt like she’d regret it.

‘But I want Boni to choose.’

Not to make her give up, but to let her decide for herself.

Reina tucked the blanket around the child and kissed her forehead.

“Mom will support you no matter what you become. Whether you’re a knight or choose another path.”

“Really?”

“Really. Mom just wants you to be happy.”

Even as she said it, sadness flickered in Reina’s eyes.

If only Bonita hadn’t resembled her.

If only Reina had possessed abundant mana, maybe she could’ve given her better words.

Perhaps exhausted from everything, Bonita soon fell asleep as Reina comforted her.

Reina checked her sleeping form carefully once more and left the room.

“Ah.”

“You’re out.”

Damian was standing outside the door.

He looked like he’d been waiting for a while.

“If you were outside, you could’ve called me.”

“I thought you might wake the child if I knocked.”

“What if I hadn’t come out?”

“I believed you would come to see me.”

“Why?”

“Because of your daughter’s result.”

Silence settled briefly between them.

“…Because of that, I figured you’d come looking for me.”

“You’ve been avoiding me lately, My Lord.”

“I was thinking about your request.”

“Thinking?”

“Plenty of people ask me to spare their lives. You’re the first who’s asked me to kill them. That gave me something to think about.”

“Have you finished thinking?”

“More or less.”

Reina blinked and looked at Damian.

“If you ask me to kill you, then I’ll do it when the time comes.”

“But when that moment comes, I might not want to die and might not ask you.”

“Then there’d be nothing I could do.”

Reina realized that Damian was speaking this way because he didn’t want to grant her request.

But she also knew how rude that request had been, so she didn’t argue further.

“Then could we talk about something else for a moment?”

“Is it about your daughter?”

“No.”

Reina usually asked Damian only about Bonita or Estelle.

So her firm denial surprised him inwardly.

He couldn’t imagine what else it could be.

“Then what?”

“Something that could help the empire.”

Reina turned her gaze away and smiled faintly.

“I-it’s only a theory for now. It could fail, or it might sound strange… Someone else might’ve already thought of it.”

“You need a theory before you can even try. Truth can exist in words that sound strange. Or it might be something no one has ever considered.”

Damian turned and began walking ahead.

“This doesn’t seem like a conversation for the hallway. We’ll continue in my office.”

* * *

Eleanor once dreamed of becoming a great mage.

When she was very young, she even dreamed of becoming the master of the mage tower.

As she grew older, even if not that, she wanted to be a mage whose name people recognized.

‘Well, I’ve given all that up now.’

Being a magician wasn’t a bad profession.

It was fulfilling and helped people.

But because she could never fully give up magic, choosing to become a magician and watching mages afterward was quite painful.

‘If you’re going to quit, you might as well quit everything.’

The image of the lovely pink haired little girl surfaced in Eleanor’s mind.

“That was the right choice…”

Inside the carriage, which barely swayed, Eleanor squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them.

It felt like she’d pushed the burden of telling the truth onto Reina.

She wondered if it would’ve been better for a stranger like herself to say it directly.

As she recalled Reina’s face from earlier that day, the thought lingered.

Reina had such a vague appearance that she was easy to forget, but in that moment, Eleanor had clearly felt her overwhelming despair.

‘When I get to the mage tower, I should check if there are any other cases.’

Even as she believed giving up was the right choice, Eleanor still searched for another way.

Thud!

The carriage jolted hard as it hit a stone.

“S-sorry! Are you alright, Lady Eleanor?”

“Ah, I’m fine.”

She reassured the flustered coachman, then looked at the luggage bag across from her.

‘I’m not fine…’

Even though she knew a measuring orb wouldn’t break from such a jolt, magicians cherished them dearly.

Eleanor’s mentor had been the same.

She never understood that excessive worry and probably never would, but what she learned from him hadn’t been meaningless.

After years of being drilled with those warnings, she grumbled and opened the bag anyway.

“Damn old man, those measuring orbs aren’t that fragile…”

And then,

There was a crack running through the measuring orb.

“Th-this…”

Eleanor was stunned.

Especially because during her apprenticeship, she’d dropped a measuring orb dozens of times without it ever breaking.

“I’m sure when I put it in the bag…”

Then she realized something.

“…Huh?”

The night before, because of the magical tool overload at the mansion, she hadn’t properly checked the orb before packing it.

“…”

And the last person to touch it had been…

“Hey, no way…”

…Bonita.