Chapter 54
Chapter 54
Returning to her own carriage, Ivelin sat there dazed, like someone whose soul had left her body.
"...This is suffocating."
"Pardon?"
"Open the window wide."
At Ivelin's order, the coachman hurriedly yanked the window open.
Cool night air drifted in, but Ivelin's flushed head showed no sign of cooling down.
Beyond the window, the sunset was burning red.
Looking at that red glow, it overlapped with the golden afterimage she had just witnessed.
'What on earth was that I just saw?'
Her mind was a complete mess.
Cassian del Parne.
The disreputable second son of the Parne family.
And yet everything he had shown so far was the complete opposite of his reputation.
Overwhelming skill, as if mocking the existing system of magic.
An endless well of mana capable of turning an entire village upside down.
And even the mysterious power she had just witnessed—one that could reconstruct his own body.
'Human... is that even possible?'
No way.
Then there was only one answer.
He was something in human guise.
Ivelin's gaze fixed on the setting sun.
Suddenly, a line from an ancient text she had read deep in the imperial library flashed through her mind.
[Beings who wield the primordial mana, taking shape yet whose essence is nature itself.]
Incredible magical skill.
A vast reservoir of mana.
And the golden aura protecting him, radiating a grandeur beyond nobility and even seeming majestic.
Ivelin's trembling lips parted.
Only one hypothesis could explain all these mysteries.
"...Could it be?"
Shock and awe flashed in her eyes at once.
"..."
Ivelin clenched her trembling hand.
Her heart refused to calm down.
The puzzle pieces scattered in her mind were being drawn into place as if pulled by a magnet.
"Yes, that's it."
"Pardon? Your Highness, what...?"
"Be quiet."
Cutting off her maid, Ivelin continued the flow of realization.
Her eyes flashed with certainty.
'I tried to judge him by human standards, so everything seemed contradictory.'
Come to think of it, there had been more than a few strange things.
From their very first meeting, he had not been intimidated by her as an imperial princess.
He had openly found her annoying.
As if the attitude humans should show toward royalty simply did not apply to him.
'He wasn't being rude. He was just... on a different level.'
Whoooosh...
The wind blowing in through the window tousled her hair.
Ivelin swallowed dryly.
That overwhelming mana.
That unconventional brilliance that seemed to mock the existing magical system.
And that mysterious power of reconstructing the body she had just witnessed.
What if he had only recently awakened from a long sleep?
What if human etiquette and power structures had all seemed trivial to him?
Everything would make sense.
"...Goodness."
A sigh slipped from Ivelin's lips.
Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it might burst.
She realized that she was witnessing a page of imperial history, no, mythology.
Ivelin trembled as she stared at the red sunset outside the window.
"I... how dare I...."
'I misjudged him.'
First, Ivelin trembled at the realization that, as a mage, she had encountered a mythical being.
But then.
'What do I do?'
Right after that, all the karmic debt she had built up toward Cassian del Parne came flooding into her mind at once.
"Haaah."
She suddenly wanted to drag her past self back and talk sense into her, telling herself not to do that.
* * *
"Mm."
I opened my eyes.
My mind was clearer than clear—so clear it almost rang.
It felt like someone had taken my brain out, scrubbed it hard in ice water, and stuffed it back in.
I stretched to loosen up my stiff body, then sat up.
"Hup—huh?"
Lurch!
"Huh?"
My body sprang up on its own.
I had clearly just gotten up the way I always did, bracing my waist as usual.
But my upper body bounced out like a spring, and I almost toppled forward and planted my face on the floor.
I flailed around and barely managed to catch my balance.
"What the hell is this?"
Even the voice that spilled out in my panic sounded unfamiliar.
It was absurdly clear and crisp, with not a trace of dullness left.
Hearing how clear it sounded now, I suddenly realized my own voice had had a rough edge to it.
And on top of that.
"...I didn't even turn on the light?"
Since I'd put up every curtain possible, the inside of the carriage should have been pitch-black.
But strangely, I could see objects.
Not crystal clear, but I could at least make out the outlines of the seats and the interior.
"I have no idea what's going on."
I tilted my head and stood up.
Thud.
"Ah, shit."
The moment I stepped forward, my body swayed again.
My legs didn't feel like my own.
It was as if gravity had suddenly been cut in half.
I was so light, and so full of strength, that I couldn't control myself.
"Doesn't seem like I'm hurt."
After all, I was brimming with vitality to the point of bursting.
"Let's go out and get some air first."
Maybe a little stretching would help.
I moved carefully, with the mentality of walking on thin ice, and pushed back the curtain.
*
As soon as I stepped down the wooden stairs, a cool evening breeze swept over me.
The sky was burning red.
"What? Did I not sleep for long?"
Or had I slept for more than twenty-four hours?
No, that wasn't it.
Looking toward the village, I saw smoke rising in puffs.
And there were still no signs that anyone had visited the carriage.
If days had really passed, they'd definitely have set up tents or done something nearby.
Compared to right before I got on the carriage, it was far too unchanged to say days had gone by.
"Item power really is the best."
I stood in the middle of the clearing and stretched my arms wide.
"Uuuuuuuungh!"
Crack! Crunch!
"..."
Why did the sound of my joints realigning come out like that?
Normally it should just go pop, but this sounded like every bone in my body was singing in chorus.
But unlike the sound, there wasn't any pain at all.
Instead, a tingling rush, as if blocked blood vessels were being opened up, ran up my spine.
"Mm. Nice."
I was catching my breath after finishing my stretches when.
Suddenly, a hot surge welled up from deep inside my body.
"...Huh?"
What is this?
Did someone boil me while I was asleep or something?
It felt like the overwhelming blast of heat you get when opening a furnace door, spreading through my entire body along my blood vessels.
It was like crackling electricity was running all the way to my fingertips and toes.
Instinctively, I focused my senses to find the source of that heat.
My stomach... no, not my head either.
"My chest? Then my heart?"
I placed a hand over my left chest.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
No, what the hell is this.
Why can I feel my heartbeat this clearly? It's terrifying.
And I could feel a massive force swirling right in the center of that heart.
"What is this?"
I muttered blankly, rubbing my chest.
"Did I seriously get modified or something?"
No, what the hell is this, exactly?
In all my life, I had never once touched mana or felt it.
But instinctively, I knew the force raging in my chest was mana.
There was this heavy, hot sensation flowing through my veins with every beat of my heart.
No question about it—this was mana.
"Could this be some holy-water effect? No, no, that's not it."
My memory of things like ranked potions and the like was hazy, but potions definitely existed in the original novel.
It was thanks to that knowledge that I could tell alchemist-made potions from temple-made ones.
But I had never once heard of a potion creating a mana hole, I swear.
If something like that existed, every Tom, Dick, and Harry would chug potions and become archmages.
"Can't I get this back out?"
I could feel it instinctively: I was screwed.
Or rather...
I had a bad feeling my father would use me however he could until my bone marrow dried up.
Even now, he'd hauled me up to the capital saying, "You're useful, right? You'd better be useful."
And now I had become a great mage who could burn through mana like water?
The thing about my father was that he had an uncanny knack for spotting lies.
If my limit were three clicks a day, I could honestly say, "I can't do it."
But if this kept up, I'd have to tack on, "I can't do it. Maybe?"
"Ah, shit. I'm really screwed."
Wow.
Forget respect for my father or not—I absolutely refuse lifelong forced labor.
If that happened, all my respect and love for him would probably go cold, too.
At this rate, my filial piety might really go off the rails and I'd end up committing some truly unfilial act.
Succeeding you, Father!
I've completely lost it.
Clunk.
Then I heard the sound of a door opening from over there.
Turning my head, I saw the princess's carriage door open.
It was Ivelin.
She carefully climbed down the carriage steps, then froze with a jolt when she spotted me.
'...?"
The reaction made me automatically wonder what was going on.
It was because Ivelin was fidgeting and watching my expression.
What the hell is up with her now?
Could she still be worrying about me?
Then, with hesitant steps, Ivelin approached me and spoke.
"Um... are you feeling all right?"
...What?
Why is her voice so polite?
Where had her usual sharp, haughty tone gone? She sounded like a daughter-in-law trying to please a difficult mother-in-law.
Fuck, why is she being so creepy?
I hid my uneasy feeling and answered casually.
"Yes. I'm fine. I was going to be fine after resting a bit anyway. As you can see, I'm perfectly fine."
I deliberately swung my arms around.
Then Ivelin let out a relieved breath and pressed a hand to her chest.
"Ah... that's a relief. I'm truly relieved."
"..."
Oh, fuck.
That's seriously creepy as hell.
She's not being sarcastic, is she?
Her face looked genuinely relieved, which somehow made it even scarier.
Why was she suddenly acting so deferential?
"...Why are you being so cautious around me?"
What I really wanted to ask was, "Why are you treating me like your superior?"
We might have exchanged honorifics, but that had only ever been mutual respect between royalty and nobility.
But Ivelin's attitude right now was different.
In her expression and the way she spoke, the girl who had only just been treating me like a rude underling was suddenly being oddly respectful, as if I were a hard-to-please superior.
She even had both hands folded demurely, like a daughter-in-law being inspected by her mother-in-law.
Did she eat something bad or what?
At my blunt question, Ivelin panicked and darted her eyes around.
Wow.
She's darting her eyes around just from trying to read the room?
She's crazy, isn't she?
No matter what she ate, she ate something seriously wrong, didn't she?
Who the hell fed her a tonic without realizing how scary the princess is?