Chapter 12
“I-I want to disappear...”
“Huh?”
When Carla heard the boy say those words, she doubted her own ears.
—Because the boy's eyes looked lonelier than any she had ever seen.
To Carla Orlando, the boy named Randall Ultos was, plainly put, exactly the sort of noble she disliked.
She still remembered her first impression of him.
Since he was the heir to the prestigious House Randall, she had accepted the request to assess his mana, but Ultos's behavior had been awful.
He had a beautiful maid at his side, and even made her feed him snacks, going, “Aah.”
Even when she took the trouble to explain the mana assessment, he only leered at her, barely listening to a word.
—In the end, noble young masters were all like this.
Disappointed, Carla assumed the mana assessment wouldn't yield anything noteworthy and decided to leave as soon as possible.
But Randall Ultos's mana affinity was astonishing.
A mana assessment analyzed the subject's blood.
With common affinities, assessment took only a few days...
But Ultos's assessment proved difficult.
“It can't be...!”
After scouring every text she could find, Carla arrived at a certain hypothesis.
—Beyond-Domain Magic.
And among those already rare Beyond-Domain types, the 【Space】 affinity.
Carla herself possessed a rare Beyond-Domain affinity, but such an affinity was something she had only seen mentioned in old texts.
“Well, this is a problem.”
Normally, this should have been cause for celebration.
But at the same time, Carla felt uneasy.
The boy called Ultos was the archetypal unpleasant noble. Could she really tell someone like that about this power?
Beyond-Domain Magic could give its user an overwhelming advantage.
What if he abused it?
If he abused it and someone got hurt...
“If that happens...”
If that happened, she would stop him, even if it cost her life.
—Carla made up her mind.
But when she met Ultos again after so long, all the unpleasantness she'd sensed before had vanished.
No, she even felt that the atmosphere around the manor—and among the soldiers, whom she'd only caught a brief glimpse of—had improved.
But Carla didn't believe it.
Surely, once she told him about Beyond-Domain Magic, he'd immediately get carried away, just like last time.
That was what she'd thought, but—
“I see.”
The boy's reaction was unlike anything she'd imagined. It was bitter.
And then, the words spilled from the boy's lips:
“I-I want to disappear...”
(No way...!!)
At that moment, Carla arrived at the truth.
That the boy had been wearing a mask all along. That he had never wanted this power—Beyond-Domain Magic—in the first place.
That's right.
If she looked at it that way, everything made sense.
Surely, somewhere in his heart, the boy had realized his own talent.
That was why he deliberately acted stupid and foolish, trying to keep others away.
Even now, too.
“So I really was a genius, huhhh?”
When Carla looked at him, Ultos was laughing. “Guffuffuff.”
The same laugh as last time. The same lecherous gaze.
Before, she would have gotten angry and wondered if he was making fun of her.
But Carla had realized it now.
This was an act.
Her eyes burning, Carla couldn't help but lower her head.
Just how much weight had this boy been carrying?
Because she, too, possessed Beyond-Domain Magic, Carla understood.
—The boy's bravado.
Carla didn't like physical contact with other people very much. She hardly ever hugged anyone, even other women.
But reflexively, Carla—
“It's okay,” she said, hugging the boy.
“It's okay. You don't have to pretend to be someone you're not...”
Carla hugged Ultos with all her strength.
She heard a somewhat troubled voice say, “Uhhh...”
The boy squirmed in resistance.
He probably still didn't trust her.
“It's okay... You were suffering too, weren't you? I'm sorry I didn't realize...”
But Carla swore from the bottom of her heart.
She would never let this boy—this boy desperately wearing the mask of a clown to keep the people around him at a distance—be alone again.
She would be an ally to this awkward boy, who was somehow impossible to ignore.
Afterward, though, for some reason, the maid got furious with Carla.
“Why won't you let me hug you, but let someone you've only met once or twice hug you?!”
The boy desperately tried to calm the angry maid.
“Mmm...”
—Carla thought.
Maybe, to earn the boy's trust, she first had to earn the trust of this maid.