Chapter 56
Leon wasn't exactly well-versed in mana studies, but he still knew the basics.
A mana core per person. The mana that manifested also followed the principle of having a single nature.
Depending on that nature, everything from the efficiency of physical enhancement to magical aptitude and the way mana was handled differed drastically.
The breathing technique Leon used was just one of countless methods of operation.
The influence of mana's nature wasn't absolute, but it was by no means something that could be ignored.
The mana Leon knew Renoa possessed was closer to a venomous snake.
A venomous snake that slowly killed its prey.
But right now, there was another foreign mana in Renoa's circuits.
Foggy like mist and sticky like a swamp, that mana was disrupting Renoa's neat circuits and tightening around her windpipe.
'There wasn't anything like this before.'
What on earth had she been eating?
Questions for later.
Healing came first.
Since making a familiar contract, interfering with Renoa's mana had become far easier than before.
Through the link, he could push his own mana in or, conversely, draw hers out.
Leon carefully injected mana into her circuits so as not to alarm her.
Sharpening his mana into a hook, he snagged the sticky energy writhing inside and dragged it out one by one.
The effect was immediate.
Renoa's ragged breathing quickly subsided, and the furrow between her brows softened.
“Le…on…….”
“Yes, I’m here.”
He wondered if the low call had woken her, but Renoa still had her eyes closed.
It seemed she had unconsciously murmured his name at the familiar sensation of mana entering her body.
“The immediate danger's been dealt with…….”
As she relaxed, the grip that had been crushing Leon's hand also loosened.
He wasn't about to be held until morning like before. Leon seized the opening and quickly pulled his hand free.
“Ugh…….”
Apparently displeased, Renoa groped across the bed in her sleep and flailed at the empty space where his hand had been.
But Leon had no intention of acting as her comfort toy.
After looking around the room, he put a shoe in her hand. Though she didn't like it, it was better than nothing, and Renoa soon quieted down.
After finishing his business, Leon returned to the room.
The murky black-green mana. Its sticky feel was just like contaminated runoff from a radiation leak.
It looked dangerous at a glance, so he had no reason to keep it; he scattered it into the air and erased it.
***
The Duchy of Rander.
The witch Cersia, who had taken over the duke's empty laboratory, was busy preparing for her ritual once again today.
“Ugh, why on earth do I have to go through all this trouble…….”
Cersia muttered as she rummaged through the laboratory and pounded at her lower back.
Her blood vessels stood out darkly like rotten branches, and a foul stench wafted out with every breath.
Her body, already at its limit, was no longer something that could even be called an old woman's; it was little more than a living corpse.
“This is all because of that damned old bastard.”
Twenty years ago, her grand plan to turn the entire imperial family into puppets had been brutally crushed by a single man.
The emperor's execution blade and commander of the Imperial Knights, Aslan Zion.
His blade had struck the mana core dead-on, the heart of a mage.
Because of that, the mystique had shattered and her body had been left as nothing but a shell.
It was a miracle she hadn't died on the spot.
“Still, not much time is left…….”
Cersia greedily stroked the violet crystal placed atop the altar.
The place she'd stumbled into while fleeing with her ruined body was Edelheid, the empire's premier magical house.
If she used the Edelheid bloodline, she could make a body even superior to the original.
However, her own dying body couldn't properly serve as a seed-bearer, so she seized the body of a suitable maiden and moved into it.
By squeezing out the last of her mana and mystique, she cast a suggestion spell on the duke, then crawled into his bedchamber and succeeded in conceiving a child.
What was born from that was none other than Renoa Edelheid.
A perfect creation inheriting the Edelheid bloodline and Cersia's essence.
“At most, I've got another year.”
The moment Renoa matured and her mana circuits fully blossomed, Cersia would erase her consciousness and claim that fresh body.
It would be far superior to her original body. She would be reborn as a complete great witch.
“My beautiful vessel. Who could you possibly take after to be this pretty?”
Everything was going smoothly.
If she could approach the prince at the academy and win his favor.
If she could turn him into a puppet, seizing the empire would be nothing.
For that reason, Cersia was busy with the groundwork for the ritual even today.
A suggestion spell cast from within the body with Cersia's mana, planted on the day Renoa was born.
It was the process of conditioning the body so that, when she later switched bodies, it would accept her without resistance.
During the day it lay dormant deep within the mana core and only acted at night, so there was no chance anyone would notice.
Just as she was in the middle of her usual suggestion spell.
-Flash!
The crystal ball flickered.
The crystal ball peering into Renoa's mind no longer reflected anything.
It simply fell quiet, like an ordinary glass marble.
“W-what? What is this? Why is it like this?”
Cersia tapped the crystal ball, then shook it this way and that.
Crystal balls were magical tools, so they did break down from time to time. Whenever that happened, hitting them like this would usually fix them, but now there was no response at all.
“Has it reached the end of its life?”
Just as that thought crossed her mind.
-Crackle!
“Ugh!”
A sharp jolt of electricity swept over her.
The mana she'd planted in Renoa had vanished without a trace.
The backlash hit Cersia.
“Who? How? Could Renoa have found out? No, that can't be.”
Unless she directly checked Renoa's mana circuits, there was no way it could ever be exposed.
Fortunately, half of Renoa's mana nature was Cersia's, so tracking it wasn't a problem.
But it was impossible to cast the same suggestion spell with magic as before.
By now it was too late to plant it again; Renoa had gone off to the academy, and even if she called her back, it would only arouse suspicion.
After thinking it over for a long time, Cersia made up her mind.
“Looks like there's no helping it~”
She gave up cleanly. If it worked, great; if not, it was only a little regrettable.
Still, she had prepared a safety measure in case something unexpected happened.
Cersia scribbled something on a small piece of paper and rolled it up.
With a flick of her finger, a single crow was summoned.
She put the letter in the crow's beak and sent it out the window.
The rest would be left to her capable assistant.
***
“Young lady, please get up. If you sleep any later, you'll be late.”
“…….”
“Young lady. Young lady.”
“Mm…….”
Renoa pried open her heavy eyelids and let out a languid breath.
After stretching out her stiff body, she sat up with Bibi's support.
Taking the cup, she rinsed her mouth with cold water and gathered her wits.
“How unusual. For you to sleep in, young lady. On such an important day, no less.”
“…….”
“Didn't you sleep well last night?”
“It's not that….”
In fact, it was the exact opposite.
She'd slept far too well.
Ever since arriving in the duchy, Renoa had been having nightmares almost every day.
Because of that, she could count the times she'd slept properly on one hand.
If she showed weakness, the direct line and the retainers would undoubtedly jump on it and tear her apart, so even if she was tired, she couldn't show it.
But today, she hadn't had a nightmare. More precisely, the nightmare had disappeared partway through.
'No matter how much I struggled, it never went away...'
It was enough to make anyone swear they were seeing ghosts.
“But, young lady, why are you holding a shoe?”
“Huh?”
At Bibi's question, Renoa lowered her gaze. In her hand was a shoe.
As if she'd spent the whole night hugging it tightly, her pajama front was also covered in dust.
“Why do I have this…….”
“What's important right now isn't that. If you don't want to be late for the entrance ceremony, hurry up and get ready.”
“Ah, right.”
With the maids' help, Renoa washed up and changed into her academy uniform.
Leon, who had already finished getting ready, was waiting in the sitting room.
“Just how long are you going to sleep? I waited forever, so I was about to go on ahead alone.”
“…….”
Leon was already spouting whatever came to mind from the morning onward, as if he had no idea how frightening his master was.
Renoa looked at him quietly.
She couldn't remember clearly because she'd been asleep, but she seemed to have sensed a familiar energy.
An endlessly gentle warmth.
“You, last night…….”
Renoa, about to ask without thinking, stopped herself.
“…No, never mind.”
She brushed it off vaguely.
Even if it really had been Leon's help, what was she supposed to do?
The very fact that she felt relieved by his presence was practically self-destruction.
It was better not to know.
“Let's go. We'll be late.”
“Yes.”
“Please take care, both of you.”
Bibi saw the two of them off.
As a maid, she couldn't enter the academy. It was prohibited by the school rules.
If nobles brought servants in under the pretext of attendants, the academy would be in chaos.
“Don't laze around because I'm not here.”
“Of course. This capable maid never rests, even when the young lady isn't around.”
“Yeah, right.”
Leon and Bibi's gazes met.
Leon, freed from Renoa and left behind at the mansion, looked at Bibi with envy.
Bibi let out a snort of derision.
“Let's go.”
“Mm...”
Leon and Renoa departed for the academy.
After seeing them off until they disappeared from view, Bibi returned to the mansion with a light step.
Humming, she tidied Renoa's bedroom.
“I heard there's a famous cookie shop in Valerion. I should go check it out.”
Lounging on the sofa while eating delicious cookies—that was Bibi's favorite thing in the world.
What's more, there wasn't even a Renoa here to pick on.
“I hope the young lady goes to the academy forever.”
Wouldn't it be nice if she repeated a year about sixty times? Then I'd have the confidence to devote my loyalty to her.
While she was tidying the bedding and thinking such trivial things.
-Caw! Caw!
A crow's cry rang out.
Looking toward the window frame, she saw a crow perched there before she knew it.
Bibi approached the window.
The crow dropped the small piece of paper it had been holding in its beak into Bibi's palm, then vanished like smoke.
Though the room was already empty, Bibi looked around just in case.
After confirming once more that she was the only one there, she carefully unfolded the paper.
She quietly read the words written on it.
And then.
“…….”
She clenched the paper tightly in her fist.