PAGE 1

“It can’t be. Is that why so many magicians are being sent here? In order to kill Alan, their next obstacle?”

“That is my view on it, my dear. It is the real reason that so many failed magicians were created and sent out. This thing about Kiara is just an excuse.”

The conversation led to Margrave Vain establishing his belief that House Everal was being targeted by supporters of Ruain, and there was a possibility that they would be attacked.

And he was able to accomplish this without addressing my fantastical ‘dream.’

 

Perhaps it was Reggie who had devised all of this, but I was grateful regardless.

It would always be easier for people to act based on realistic predictions derived from your situation, rather than be swung around half-heartedly because someone had a dream.

And it seemed that Reggie had been able to give Margrave Vain a precise account of what I had told him.

 

“Now, if this was all we had to discuss, then I would not have had to call Kiara here… But she too is involved in this and in a difficult position.”

Here it comes… I immediately felt nervous as my shoulders tensed.

I was standing behind Madame Beatrice when I felt everyone’s eyes move towards me.

 

“Kiara says that she had been forced to drink the same thing that the failed magician did.”

“But, then Kiara is…”

Alan’s expression turned to one of surprise, Madame Beatrice’s eyes looked watery as if she were going to burst into tears at any moment.

 

“Ohhh, Kiara, are you alright?”

Alan had stood up and grabbed my wrist.

He was saying incomprehensible things about how he wouldn’t be able to face Reggie if something were to happen to me… But it was clear that he was worried.

…I felt a little relieved by that.

It was unmistakable that these two did not feel fear or disgust by me. The two people that were now the closest to me did not look at me as if I were a foreign thing to be feared.

 

Even Lawrence seemed to feel sorry for me as he traded looks with Madame Beatrice and wiped at the corners of his eyes…

-hey now. I am not dead just yet! I don’t want to die. That is why I’ve been flounderingt around so much.

I wanted to tell them of this, but of course, I could not. It was very inconvenient for there to be things that you could not say.

I wasn’t too surprised to see Sir Wentworth deep in thought with his arms crossed. He was likely already imagining different possible outcomes. And I could hear him mumbling something about how horrible it was to do such things to children. As an officer of Margrave Vain, it seemed only fitting for him to be a man of such compassion.

 

“We don’t know if it was because she had the right qualities, or if it was some luck that made it impotent, but there appears to have been no effect on her body. Kiara currently has no ability to use magic, so she had no idea that the drink had any relation to it until now. Is that not right, Kiara?”

Margrave Vain was kind enough to explain this to everyone, so I nodded.

 

“Even if she had drunk the same thing as the failed magicians, we don’t know for sure if the drink was the reason that they almost turned into a magician. We cannot confirm anything without the drink in our possession, and there is the possibility that the imprisoned man had misunderstood something.”

However, as a precaution, I was not to leave the castle again until things settled down. And so Margrave Vain ordered Madame Beatrice to keep me inside.

 

“It would be one thing if he were only looking for her in order to force her into a marriage, but it would be most dangerous if he were searching for Kiara due to her potential to be a magician. While it is true that we should not like to have her become an enemy magician, she is also under His Highness’ protection and we must all try and keep her safe.”

And just like that, I was forbidden from leaving the castle.

But it didn’t matter to me, I was much too afraid to leave as this was right after I had been attacked.

Even the others who worked and lived within the castle who did not know the details had heard of the attack from Madame Beatrice, who had said, ‘The poor girl, she seems to be too scared to leave the castle now. I am thinking of keeping her inside so she can recover from her fears.” And everyone was satisfied with that explanation.

If anything, they all seemed to feel pity for me now that I would have to stay inside.

 

And three months later.

They discovered traces of a failed magician who had died, near a river in the Margrave’s territories.

 

---

 

Translator’s note:

I didn’t have as much time to proofread this as I would have liked, so there are probably errors all over the place(this might be a continuing theme from now on).

But please let me know if you see any mistakes or inconsistencies. Thank you for reading!

edit:

Thank you to everyone who have been kind enough to reach out to me. It means a lot!