Chapter 49
A week had passed since I met Velias.
There was still quite some time before the Nebula ducal family's succession ceremony.
Although I was taking heir's lessons, the education was unexpectedly lax, leaving me with far more free time than I had anticipated.
To be honest, as a noble, I had been prepared for tedious lessons on etiquette and the like, so the situation was rather anticlimactic.
Curious, I once asked the Duke directly why the education was proceeding so leisurely.
And the Duke's answer had been absurd.
'Why should we, as dukes, have to observe etiquette and proper manners?'
'What?'
'They're the ones who have to bow their heads to us, and we already observe basic manners, don't we? The only people we need to show proper respect to are the Imperial Family.'
The Duke had said that while looking at me as though wondering why I was worried about something like that.
'Oh, is that so?'
Somehow, I found myself convinced by the Duke's tyrant-like words.
As one of the four dukes recognized by the Empire as possessing autonomy, our status was more than sufficient.
Moreover, the Nebula ducal family was the king of the underworld, having completely seized control of it.
In other words, they knew every dirty secret of the nobles.
That was only natural when the information circulating through the underworld was combined with the information the Nebula ducal family collected independently.
There were hardly any nobles with entirely clean hands, so in a sense, it was no exaggeration to call the Nebula ducal family their natural enemy.
'We know their weaknesses inside and out. If we started showing them proper respect, they'd be horrified. Think about it. Imagine me suddenly addressing you formally and treating you with the utmost courtesy.'
'Ugh.'
'Pahaha! Exactly. That's the reaction I expected. If even you react that way, would the other nobles be any different? In the first place, we obtained permission from the Imperial Family long ago. So all we need is the bare minimum of human courtesy.'
The Duke spoke in a low voice, looking thoroughly ill, yet entirely unyielding.
'You're the man who will become the Nebula Duke.'
And that was the beginning of my lifestyle with Velias—a life that was called tea parties but was really mana training.
"Ugh."
[Now, imagine delicately drawing out your mana thin and long, like a thread.]
Her voice echoed inside my head.
In response to her voice, the mana flowing from my hand began to transform into something threadlike.
Mana thread.
A technique for drawing mana out like a thread.
It was said to be such a difficult technique that controlling mana threads was proof of being able to manipulate mana with extreme precision.
[Good. Now you need to separate the mana you've drawn out like a thread into even finer strands. Imagine one thread splitting into dozens of threads.]
[You have to succeed at this before you can move on to the next step.]
The only problem was that, from her perspective, a mana thread was merely a sort of milestone.
"Phew."
I imagined splitting the mana thread in my hand into dozens of strands.
As though responding to my image, dozens of threads began splitting from a single mana thread.
Rustle.
But that was as far as I got.
The split mana lost control and began scattering into the air.
"Haa..."
I sighed at the sight, leaned back against the chair, and looked up at the ceiling.
On the first day of training, I couldn't even successfully produce a mana thread and split it.
From the second day onward, I had become capable of splitting it, but the number of strands was insufficient, and the mana dispersed into the air without lasting even five seconds after splitting.
Today, on our third meeting, I had finally managed to split it into dozens of strands, but I still hadn't achieved complete success.
[Even so, you're amazing. An ordinary mana awakener would normally need years just to gain this level of precise control.]
Velias's voice echoed inside my head.
Her voice was filled with nothing but praise, without the slightest hint of falsehood.
As I listened to her praise, I sighed and began drawing out mana once more.
Training my control over mana would help me in many ways.
Besides, I was enjoying the entire process, so there was no reason not to continue.
.
.
.
['This is really amazing, isn't it?']
Velias kept marveling inwardly.
She knew very well that she was a genius.
After assuming the position of boss of [Dark Shadow] herself and carrying out numerous missions, she had long since understood the extent of her own accomplishments.
She had seen many people.
Magitech engineers who had to use mana with extreme precision.
She had also seen barrier mages who had to weave magic with precision.
And even great mages possessing overwhelming magical abilities.
Yet even compared to them, there was hardly anyone who had raised their control to a level comparable to hers.
No, in the first place, there was no reason for anyone to conceive of drawing out a mana thread and then splitting it into dozens of strands.
It was a technique that only Velias herself could use.
And Abel, standing before her, was knocking on the door of the technique she had invented.
And he had reached this point in only a week!
['This is...']
Was it talent?
Was it even right to define it as talent?
She watched Abel before her, smiling faintly as he drank black tea with one hand, emitted mana with the other, and once again split the mana thread.
The mana was clearly more refined than the mana that had just disappeared.
For an ordinary person who had awakened mana, stirring up mana consumed mental strength.
That was why ordinary people regarded every act of summoning and controlling mana as a form of training or exercise.
Since moving mana also automatically strengthened the body, calling it exercise was not entirely wrong.
But beings who overturned this obvious truth occasionally appeared in this world.
People who enjoyed and even welcomed the act of moving and honing their mana.
Geniuses or eccentrics.
A person very much like Velias herself.
[This is.]
"Hm?"
Without realizing it, she began muttering through telepathy.
Because of that, Abel, who had finished his tea, was looking at her, but she paid no attention to his gaze.
The joy of finally meeting someone she felt she could truly communicate with came first.
[You're doing well!]
"Huh?"
It was the first time.
She had never experienced this feeling even with the direct descendants of other ducal families—in other words, her own siblings.
She had occasionally met people with personalities similar to hers.
But they had not been blessed with talent like Abel's, so she had felt slightly distant from them.
[Yes. Split it like that, then create a tiny hole in the split mana threads. Like a syringe needle!]
And then Abel had appeared.
He smiled while training even in a situation that required him to pour out his utmost concentration?
Some might say that he simply had such an expression because he was a training maniac who enjoyed training.
No, that wasn't it at all.
He wore that expression because he found the act of moving mana itself enjoyable, rather than thinking of it as training.
She had often experienced similar feelings herself, so she understood the difference better than anyone.
A similar disposition and an admirable talent.
Grab.
That was why.
She had met, for the first time in her life, someone with a disposition similar to her own.
The extreme sense of familiarity she felt at that fact was why she had taken another person's hand without hesitation.
A momentary sense of discomfort had risen because of his extraordinarily strong mana sensitivity.
But she was too overjoyed to let that discomfort keep her from reaching out.
[Come on, shall we try it one more time?]
.
.
.
The distance between us had suddenly narrowed dramatically.
"..."
Out of consideration for her flinching whenever I approached, I had always maintained a reasonable distance from her.
From the first day of this week, when our training had begun in earnest, that distance had never narrowed.
I had no intention of becoming closer to her than necessary, either, so the distance between us had remained very consistent.
But.
The scent of her shampoo brushed the tip of my nose.
I could feel her soft hand beneath my fingertips and the warmth of her body.
And her captivating voice echoed inside my head.
Even her murky violet hair filled my field of vision.
[Here, like this. Yes, you're doing well. Move it gently.]
Every sense except taste was being filled with her presence.
"..."
At the sight before me, I couldn't control my trembling eyes and found myself staring blankly at her.
***
As always, Mist had come to attend to Abel around the time the tea party ended, and her eyes widened slightly at what she saw before her.
Abel was coming out through the open door, while Velias was seeing him off.
To anyone watching, they might have looked like a wife seeing her husband off to work.
Mist quietly watched the scene, and when Abel turned around and looked at her, she slowly opened her mouth.
She spoke in a calm voice so he wouldn't find her sudden question suspicious.
"You've grown rather close to Lady Velias."
"Hm? Ah, well. I'm a little flustered myself, though."
'The truth.'
"Lady Velias suddenly grew close to Lord Abel?"
"Well, yes?"
"Then Lord Abel doesn't know why she suddenly grew close to him?"
At her question, Abel readily nodded.
'This is also the truth.'
Mist was one of the people who understood Velias's disposition well.
Her unique constitution made her absurdly sensitive to mana.
It did not cause any particular problems in her daily life.
However, because of that sensitivity, she had a tendency to avoid other people's mana more than necessary, except for her own.
And yet she had suppressed that tendency and grown rapidly closer to him in a mere two weeks?
'No way.'
Her master, Abel, had clearly said so.
He had said that he was cultivating his friendship with Velias in order to receive advice about mana techniques.
There was no falsehood in those words, and Mist prided herself on understanding Abel's personality well, so her doubts only grew stronger.
Mist knew.
Sebastian and Nella's ulterior motive of secretly bringing Abel and Velias together had been exposed long ago.
They had not exactly intended to hide it, so let us move on from that for now.
However, Mist had not expected the relationship between the two of them to make much progress.
Given how well she knew both their personalities, that had been the natural conclusion.
But had the two of them really grown this close so quickly?
'Hmm...'
Very slightly—only very slightly—the focus in Mist's eyes began to blur.