Chapter 23

Melissa gasped in surprise, but Shilen had already knelt down under the armchair and was twisting something beneath it.

That might damage the chair.

She thought absently, then—

Click.

A round metal ornament fell from the bottom of the chair.

Shilen picked it up and sat down right there on the floor.

‘What is she doing?’

Anyone else would have panicked, saying she was carelessly tampering with the Grand Duchy’s property. But Melissa only watched with curious eyes.

There was a seriousness in Shilen’s expression, something that told Melissa the child was doing something important.

Clink, clink. Creak, click.

With her tiny fingers, Shilen was assembling three metal pieces she had found among the books, shelves, and the armchair.

She placed the two round pieces together, then slid a long, slender metal rod she had retrieved from the bookshelf between them.

After twisting the circular pieces in a particular direction, a small click sounded, and a tiny ridge popped out from inside the thin rod.

“Wow.”

Melissa’s eyes widened.

So this was the key Shilen had been looking for.

A key that could only be formed by combining three pieces.

“That’s amazing!”

Beaming brightly, Melissa took the key Shilen offered her.

Despite being made from several separate fragments, the little metal piece was tightly fitted together, strong enough to work as a proper key when turned in a lock.

Melissa turned it in her hand, marveling at the craftsmanship, then looked down at Shilen.

“You’re incredible. I never would have thought of putting the pieces together to make a key. How did you even know they were key parts—”

Wait.

Melissa’s voice trailed off.

Before she could finish, Shilen’s eyes widened, her pupils shrinking sharply.

“Shilen!”

The child’s small body swayed and collapsed. Melissa barely caught her in time, panic flashing through her.

Her face was burning with fever, her skin flushed. Her eyes were unfocused, her pulse unsteady, her breathing faint.

“Hold on. Just hold on, Shilen.”

Biting her lip, Melissa held the girl close and ran out of the records room.

She had to find the physician.

* * *

At that same moment, in an old tower weathered gray by time, a man was pacing nervously through a stone corridor.

“Please. Please, Great Spirit, please.”

Groaning softly, Joel, an apprentice mage of the Magic Tower, clutched his stomach.

His insides churned as if demanding to be emptied.

Maybe I should go to the restroom one more time.

He hesitated, but he had already left five minutes ago, or twenty minutes before that, no, fifty minutes ago if he was being honest.

And between those visits, he had done countless other things.

He’d gone all the way to the well beneath the tower to fetch water because he felt thirsty. Then, craving something sweet, he had gone into town to buy a box of cupcakes from the most popular shop. After finishing them, his throat felt dry again, and he had considered buying milk from a farm across the mountain until people stopped him.

All of it had started with a single letter that arrived yesterday.

“Ugh…”

He couldn’t delay it any longer.

Grrrgle, gurgle.

His stomach twisted again, but it wasn’t just nerves this time.

If he postponed it today, something far worse would happen tomorrow.

Staring at the nameplate on the heavy wooden door, Joel’s eyes darted sideways.

The sun hadn’t set yet. Maybe he could wait a little longer?

‘She’ll probably stay up until dawn anyway.’

He started stepping back quietly, imagining the person beyond the door.

“What are you doing?”

“Eek!”

Joel shrieked.

A woman stood in the doorway that had somehow opened without him noticing.

Tall and sharp-featured, her face hidden beneath a black veil.

“P-Professor Natalianne.”

“Your business.”

Her curt tone made Joel swallow hard.

Natalianne, the Ice Witch of Nerencia Tower, one of the most powerful magicians in the empire and his mentor.

He squeezed his eyes shut and blurted out what had been eating at him since yesterday.

“A letter… arrived from your family!”

Thud!

Her fist slammed into the wooden door, freezing it solid at the point of impact.

Joel’s face drained of color.

Oh Great Spirit, save me.

As his pale eyes trembled, Natalianne spoke coldly from behind the veil.

“What did you say?”

“T-the Grand Duchy of Eisenhart sent a letter!”

“Damn it.”

Crack.

White frost spread from her hand, freezing the entire door. Ice shards fell with a brittle sound as Joel stood frozen in terror.

Her voice cut through the air like a blade.

“The letter.”

“H-here!”

He fumbled in his robes and handed it over.

The envelope was snatched from his hand. Frost dusted the floor where her fingers brushed it.

Joel stared at the melting ice on the ground and felt a pang of empathy.

Poor ice. You want to cry, don’t you?

Me too.

He had asked himself dozens of times why he had ever volunteered to work under Professor Natalianne.

It was a long, tragic story.

As he wallowed in his regrets, her frigid voice interrupted.

“Leave.”

“Y-yes, ma’am!”

He bolted down the hall as if his life depended on it.

After running down three flights of stairs, Joel finally let out a long sigh.

“Ugh…”

How had he ended up as her assistant again?

At the time, it had seemed like the best choice.

Her temper was terrible, but her research achievements were unmatched throughout every Magic Tower in the world. She was even considered one of the Seven Sages, second only to the Tower Master of Nerencia.

And she had achieved all that at the age of eighteen.

“A genius, a real genius.”

No one could deny it.

Because of her, funding poured into her laboratory, and every apprentice in the tower dreamed of working for her.

He had thought getting accepted meant a bright future ahead.

He had been so wrong.

“Ugh…”

Sniffling, Joel wiped his nose and trudged down the stairs.

“Why does she hate her family so much?”

The Eisenhart Grand Duchy.

It was no secret within the tower that Natalianne came from one of the most powerful noble families in the northern empire.

Anyone else from such a prestigious line would brag endlessly about it.

“If it were me, I’d tell everyone.”

He would hang banners across the tower declaring, I am the daughter of the Eisenhart Grand Duchy.

But Natalianne despised the topic.

Those who knew her secret didn’t dare bring it up. No one wanted to test her temper.

Rumor had it that five years ago a mage who gossiped about her origins ended up in a duel and was carried away half-dead.

So even Joel hadn’t known anything about her background before joining her lab.

“Well, geniuses are always a bit odd, I guess.”

He sighed, shrugging slightly.

There must be something he couldn’t understand.

Dragging his feet, Joel headed toward the maintenance office.

He’d better file a repair request for the professor’s door.

* * *

“Feeling better?”

At the curt question, Shilen blinked, then nodded faintly.

Demius stood with his arms crossed, his voice cool and detached.

“Don’t think I was worried about you. My thoughtful wife insisted that I come and check on your condition.”

“…?”

Shilen’s eyes widened.

Demius had always been expressionless, but today his face showed clear irritation.

Even as the child blinked up at him, his insides were boiling.

He knew how pathetic it was to feel competitive with a kid.

But still.

He sighed inwardly and looked down at her.

She looked so much like his older brother, yet for some reason he couldn’t feel any affection for her.

‘Why is that?’

He frowned slightly, puzzled.

If she resembled his brother, he should feel at least some warmth. But strangely, whenever she wasn’t in sight, she slipped from his mind completely.

When Natalianne first saw the girl, she had wanted to throw her out immediately.

Could she have known something?

Demius’s gaze shifted slightly as Melissa’s words echoed in his mind.

‘Shilen found the key!’

How?

His frown deepened.

According to Melissa, Shilen had found three pieces of metal in the records room and combined them into a key.

‘Could it be…’

His sharp eyes narrowed on the small figure before him.

‘Maybe the real spy… is her.’