Chapter 209

 

* * *

 

Recently, there was hardly anyone at the ducal residence as they were busy handling matters related to Prince Samuel.

The Duke was preoccupied with finding clues to a resolution until the very end in Kristonson, while Claude frequented the Magic Tower and the Imperial Archives.

Naturally, Ronny had to attend the ducal family’s external schedules in place of his father, and Jeremiah was living at the Magic Tower as always.

The only Baldwin who was always left at the mansion was Loretta.

She conveyed comfort to the grieving Mr. and Mrs. Higgins, and sometimes helped Ronny who had to handle many schedules.

“You know.”

But most of her daily time was spent quietly lying in her room, hugging a candy bottle containing a mana stone.

Muttering words that couldn’t reach anyone.

“…Bad thoughts keep coming, Evan.”

Loretta rested the sparkling bottle against her forehead.

“Your mana is clearly here, but I don’t know why I keep thinking that way.”

Could it be because of Melody’s absence?

The place she thought could never be filled by anything forever.

“I wish she had at least said goodbye to me in person before leaving.”

Loretta was no longer just a young child. If they had met face to face and explained the situation, she might have felt a little better than now.

“It’s not that I resent Melody, absolutely not…”

Loretta hugged the glass bottle even deeper.

“I’m just so scared that I might never see her again.”

Tears she had been holding back fell with a plop on the smooth glass bottle.

At that moment, the faintly flowing light suddenly intensified, completely dyeing Loretta’s field of vision white.

Startled, Loretta sat up from the bed with a jolt.

‘Bang!’

Soon, a sound like the world was completely shattering was heard.

“Ah!”

Screaming and covering both ears, Loretta cautiously raised her head and looked around after a while.

Nothing was visible due to the smoke and dust that rose from the explosion.

“Th-this…”

Just as she barely said that much with trembling lips, a picture frame on the wall fell to the floor with a thud.

“Eek!”

Loretta quickly hid under the blanket.

In that dark place, Loretta recalled a very old memory.

“…Mom.”

On the day she rode in a carriage with her mother.

Heavy black rain fell, and just then, this explosion sound painfully reverberated in her ears.

And on that day, her mother…

“Loretta!”

Soon her room door opened and Claude’s urgent voice was heard.

“…Brother!”

As he lifted her up high, Loretta clung to his neck like a person drowning in water and flailed.

“I’m scared, so…”

But before she could even finish her words, another window shattered with a crash, and its fragments pounced on them.

Claude quickly turned his body and completely embraced Loretta.

“Young Master! Miss!”

As the startled Higgins tried to run over, Claude raised his head and shouted.

“Get Jeremiah, quickly! And don’t let anyone come up to the second floor!”

It would be troublesome if the servants saw this scene.

Once rumors started that suspicious explosions continued around Loretta, someone would soon notice that she was a Physis.

‘If that happens…’

The Emperor would want Loretta’s death for the safety of the people.

Of course, the ducal family had no intention of meekly handing over this child, so they would inevitably become at odds with the Emperor.

From then on, only chaos would ensue.

“Understood. Young Master, I will send all the servants back.”

Fortunately, Higgins quickly regained his usual composure.

He explained to the servants that a medicinal herb research chemical had exploded, and ordered everyone to leave work for now as it was dangerous.

Meanwhile, the explosion ceased for a moment, and Claude slowly patted the back of the child sobbing in his arms.

“It’s okay… It’s okay, Loretta.”

“No, brother.”

“Shh, let’s calm down. Nothing will happen now.”

“Run away, okay? You getting hurt…”

At the answer that returned in a sickly voice, he shook his head repeatedly.

“I won’t get hurt, I knew everything.”

“No! Like the carriage fell that day…”

Loretta, who was rambling incoherently, lost consciousness for a moment like that.

Claude tightly hugged Loretta’s limp body.

‘…Miss Melody predicted it would be several years later. How?’

Perhaps, could it be that something was going terribly wrong?

 

* * *

 

Within a few minutes of being contacted, the Duke, Jeremiah, and Ronny returned to the mansion.

They looked around Loretta’s room, which had become a complete ruin, and couldn’t say anything for a long time.

“Wait a minute. This doesn’t make sense!”

Ronny was the first to break the silence.

“Even if we generously admit that Loretta takes after her mother, she’s only eleven years old now?”

Since learning about his mother, Ronny had studied enough about the existence of Physis.

Although little was known about that constitution, one thing that was consistently stated in every study was that ‘it manifests after becoming an adult.’

There had never been a single case where such tremendous mana was concentrated in the body of a young girl to the point of leading to an explosion.

The Duke opened his mouth calmly, straining to suppress his anxiety.

“Perhaps… there may have been some influence we are unaware of.”

He looked around Loretta’s room. It was much more gruesome than what he had witnessed before.

‘Did I not even notice until the child became like this?’

He reproached himself, but soon realized that now was not the time for that.

“Claude, how are your injuries?”

“I’m fi- ugh.”

“Hand Loretta over here.”

Jeremiah healed the wounds on Claude’s back and turned to look at the Duke holding Loretta.

“For now, it would be best to take Loretta to my room. If we don’t restrict her mana with a magic circle, another explosion might occur.”

At Jeremiah’s suggestion, they left Loretta’s room for now.

 

* * *

 

The people of the ducal family divided their roles.

The Duke handled the rumors about the explosion.

Fortunately, everyone knew that the ducal family had recently started cultivating medicinal herbs, so they could pass it off as an accident related to magical medicine.

They added that Magician Baldwin had been dispatched to the mansion to reflect on and investigate the situation.

Ronny continued his external activities as usual.

Although his heart felt like it would rot from worry about Loretta, he spent his days smiling as if nothing had happened.

Claude went to find Samuel to bring ‘August’, a stabilizing presence, as Melody had advised before.

At least it was fortunate that the relationship between Samuel and the Emperor had improved.

Otherwise, he would have had to take him outside the capital, and it would have been difficult to even cross the city walls.

Lastly, Jeremiah laid Loretta on a large magic circle drawn in his room and continuously absorbed the mana filled in her body.

Loretta woke up from her unconscious state the very next morning.

“…Brother Jeremiah?”

She rubbed her eyes and barely sat up.

“I… had a dream.”

“Think carefully, Loretta Baldwin.”

He answered coldly and sat facing Loretta.

“I don’t think it was a dream.”

“Yeah.”

He grasped both of Loretta’s cheeks and looked closely at her blue eyes.

Loretta knew that action was ‘observation’ or ‘experimentation’, so she stayed still for now.

“You… seriously.”

As he frowned and tried to interrogate something, Loretta spoke with a dazed face.

“Brother, I heard the exact same sound as that day. The sound I heard in the carriage.”

“It must have been.”

“What about Brother Claude? Did brother…”

“Big brother is fine. More importantly, open your mouth wide.”

Loretta opened her mouth round, and Jeremiah meticulously examined its interior as well.

“No matter how much natural power is absorbed in an area for hundreds of years, it shouldn’t be this marinated in mana.”

“…Will I become like mother too?”

At the question mixed with fear, he shook his head.

“Father and big brother said they had a solution. They went to get it now.”

“A solution? Is Melody coming?!”

When Loretta asked with expectation, Jeremiah shook his head.

“Higgins doesn’t always have to be the solver of everything.”

“…What, I guess not.”

The moment she dropped her head in disappointment, Jeremiah was startled by the explosively erupting power of mana.

Fortunately, he and the magic circle absorbed it simultaneously, so a situation like yesterday did not occur.

It seemed Loretta also felt something strange.

Seeing her quickly cower her body in surprise,

“…It, it happened again just now? Right?”

“Yeah.”

At the indifferent answer, Loretta asked with great fear.

“Why… did I become like this? Did I do something wrong?”

“There are several views on Physis. It’s difficult to explain them all.”

He pondered for a moment with his arms crossed.

“I support the theory of ‘minimal balance’.”

“Balance?”

“Magicians are receiving the power of nature in a vessel and freely using it as they please.”

Loretta nodded.

“Then there must also exist humans who are used by the power of nature.”

“To maintain the balance of the world…?”

“Something like that. So each individual’s morality hardly matters at all.”

Loretta thought his conclusion was an answer to ‘what she did wrong.’

She was somehow grateful and relieved that he was saying it wasn’t her fault.

She had been worrying if she became like this because she had only been thinking bad thoughts lately.

“By the way.”

Jeremiah stroked Loretta’s forehead again and tilted his head several times.

“No matter how I look at it, the erupting mana feels like a familiar texture.”

“Te-texture?”

“Yeah, mana is ultimately no different from oneself.”

As he kept tilting his head, Loretta asked a question with an anxious heart.

“Could it be about father forbidding me from going to the Magic Tower…?”

“He probably didn’t want to stimulate your constitution. I don’t know how he knew, but anyway, nothing good comes from an unaware Physis being with a magician.”

As the surprised Loretta stared at him with wide eyes, Jeremiah’s eyes instantly narrowed.

“…Don’t tell me you.”

“No!”

Loretta quickly shook her head.

“What do you mean no?”

“I mean, that’s…!”

The moment Loretta tried to get up from her seat, the candy bottle that had been in the folds of her clothes fell to the floor with a thud.

“Ah.”

The startled Loretta tried to grab it, but Jeremiah was a little faster.

“This is.”

As he raised the bottle high to observe it, Loretta tugged at his arm.

“Th-that’s candy! I made it. It’s nothing!”

“Candy…?”

He asked in a low voice and opened the bottle, pouring its contents onto the floor.

A sweet scent spread around, and a transparent stone fell onto Jeremiah’s magic circle, emitting a green light.

As the power of pure mana unaffected by Loretta manifested, Jeremiah finally realized something.

“Higgins!”

As he shouted, the door immediately opened. It seemed he had been standing in front of the door in preparation for any situation.

“Yes, Young Master.”

“Contact the Magic Tower, right now.”

Loretta, who had a bad feeling, quickly clasped her hands together and started begging.

“Brother please, not that!”

“That can’t be. The reason you became like this is all…!”

“No, that’s absolutely not it!”

Ignoring Loretta, who was screaming, Jeremiah continued giving orders to Higgins.

“Bring Evan, right now.”

“Understood.”

“No, Grandfather. Absolutely not Evan!”

Now Loretta got up from her seat and started running towards Higgins.

However, she couldn’t go any further because Jeremiah grabbed her waist.

Watching Higgins’ back retreat, Loretta screamed as if her body would shatter.

The mana erupting from her body shook Jeremiah’s entire room for a moment.