‘Anyone would think I’m a bandit or a thief… can’t help it.’

She dusted off her clothes and briefly glanced at the blue window she had turned on earlier.

Warning! A trial that will plunge this world into chaos is approaching. You must complete ample preparations for the upcoming trial.

Time remaining until the first trial: 2 days 18 hours

If it’s this point before the first trial, there’s no doubt cracks would have appeared in several places. It was said that signs showed up similarly during the first trial in the previous world.

The path behind the mansion that Cedric mentioned also had a small rift, which Koko had already confirmed.

And Rosha planned to visit as many rifts as possible during the remaining time before the trial, and inscribe a ‘specific magic formula’ there.

‘I can train my magic while at it.’

In three weeks of effort, the new power called magic had completely settled in her body, but the size of the vessel holding magic hardly increased.

Due to awakening with the pure magic of the rift, the faint magic dispersed in the atmosphere didn’t show any training effect.

So, the only way for her to increase the size of her vessel at this point was one.

“That way. The guys I told you about.”

Breaking through the imperial knights guarding near the rift, she would insert her hand into the rift and absorb magic directly.

Rosha looked at the spot where the fence of the mansion ended, which Koko pointed out with his wing tip. There were two imperial knights guarding the alley entrance with indifferent faces.

Koko perched on her shoulder calmly asked her intention.

“We need to go through that alley… What will you do? Kill them?”

“No, we can’t kill them.”

She needed to visit other rifts too, and if trouble arose here from the start, the next time the guard would be strengthened and it would be difficult. Besides, it was disheartening to take the life of an unarmed person.

And…

“I have a pretty good idea.”

Rosha, who was staring at the knights guarding the front of the alley, took something out of her pocket.

It was a necklace with a red ruby embedded.

* * *

Elvan, a third year imperial knight, was bored as he leaned against the wall.

He knew what was at the end of this alley he was guarding. A strange phenomenon that had started to appear in the capital not long ago.

A black crevice as if someone had drawn a line in the air with a sword.

At first, when told to guard such a thing, he had no choice but to be tense.

But surprisingly, nothing happened, and standing in the same place for eight hours every day without knowing when it would end was quite a torture.

“Whew, why are the imperial knights doing the work of a guard? We don’t even have enough time to train our sword skills.”

Grumbling, Elvan’s colleague knight replied:

“Well, still, grotesque monsters might come out. What could the guards do?”

“Monsters? I don’t believe in such things. There was a fuss about monsters a few days ago, but in the end, there was no damage at all.”

“…That’s true.”

They recalled that day.

The knights who were guarding the ‘black crevice’ that appeared near the capital’s slums came back in a frenzy one day, babbling.

“What was it. Monsters resembling wild dogs in the cracks but with two heads sprung out three at a time, and in the moment when I barely fended off their attacks-“

Suddenly, the eldest son of Marquis Lycaon, Geoffrey Lycaon appeared out of nowhere and skewered them with an ice spear.

No matter how they thought about it, it was a ludicrous story.

Elvan, who quickly erased that story from his mind, complained irritably.

“Everyone is not held back by Geoffrey Lycaon, why on earth are they babbling such nonsense…”

But at that moment.

Someone in a very suspicious attire was approaching this way.

Tap, tap.

The face wasn’t visible as the hood was tightly pulled down, but judging by the slender figure and light steps, it was likely a woman.

Confirming she was unarmed, Elvan put his hand on the hilt of his sword and said:

“This area is off-limits. If you continue to approach, I won’t be responsible for what happens next.”

“But it’ll only take a moment.”

“What…”

He was about to say it was a joke, but suddenly.

The moment he saw the necklace on the woman’s neck.

Elvan’s mind went blank.

“I’ll just go in, see what’s there, and come out. So, please forget that you just met me.”

“Yes, yes… Understood.”

Elvan, who had placed his hand on the hilt of the sword, nodded before he could even understand what the woman said, and stepped aside voluntarily, immediately forgetting everything related to her.

The knight colleague who was with him also fell for the same suggestion and didn’t realize what had just happened.

Anyway.

With the replica of the Necklace of Suggestion taken from her uncle, Rosha swiftly resolved the situation and moved her steps quickly, whispering to Koko,

“Is this performance not okay?”

“Um, considering it’s fake, it’s fabulous. Although the magic was exhausted by using it on two humans at the same time… I can generously bestow the title of fake suggestion necklace.”

“…Why would you attach such a title.”

“It’s my whim!”

Anyway, the situation went smoothly.

Soon after discovering a small clearing, and a small crack opened on one side of it, Rosha thought.

‘I should practice some magic while engraving the magic formula around here.’

But at that moment.

“Shh!”

Koko sent a quiet signal to her ear.

And that was reasonable, for in front of the rift, a man was sitting on the ground with his eyes closed!

‘…Who is that?’

Rosha, who cautiously stood close to the wall, examined his identity.

Fortunately, the man seemed to be concentrating on something and didn’t notice her presence.

Boldly sitting in front of the rift, he was breathing rhythmically.

Surprisingly, it seemed he was practicing a breathing technique to accumulate the magic power flowing out from the rift into his body.

‘That is… a common training method often practiced by magicians?’

But the surprise wasn’t over yet. Under the moonlight, the man’s face seemed familiar.

Koko also seemed to realize, and he whispered softly:

“That… isn’t it that guy, your former fiance?”

Indeed. A man with red hair and sharp eyes.

It was definitely Heres Lycaon, the second son of the Marquis Lycaon, Rosha’s former fiancé.

‘Ha… why is this guy showing up here all of a sudden?’

Naturally, she was very dumbfounded.

It wasn’t strange to bump into him at the capital due to the Month of Abundance Banquet, but the problem was that the place was right in front of the rift.

Plus, out of the blue, he was practicing a breathing technique to accumulate magic power!

‘Was Heres Lycaon actually a magician? But I don’t feel a bit of magic power from him?’

She didn’t think that he was a high-level magician who could hide his magic power from her.

Then, Koko who had discovered something whispered again:

“That guy, somehow his body looks a bit strange.”

Although to anyone, young master Lycaon’s body looked frail, that’s not what Koko was referring to.

Rosha, focusing her eyes filled with magic, closely observed his body. Then she saw the magic power entering his body through breathing, couldn’t pass a certain point near his heart and scattered.

“That’s…”

“Um, it seems like he was born with a twisted flow congenitally.”

There are many who can’t handle magic power due to lack of talent, but one who can’t accumulate magic power due to congenital physique is a rare case that even she hadn’t seen much.

Of course, it’s not unfixable.

In the previous world too, through repeated trials and deepening understanding of magic power, eventually, she could find a way to untangle the twisted flow.

But people here might still find it hard to know that method.

“Hoo… damn it!”

At that moment, Heres Lycaon opened his eyes with a curse, muttering.