Chapter 78
The boy who owned that elegant room sat facing the necklace on the table, muttering something under his breath.
Every so often, he glanced at the grimoire in his hands, then turned his gaze back to the necklace and pointed his small palm at it while chanting a spell written in the grimoire.
"...What are you doing, ×××-sama?"
The attendant boy had been silently watching his master, but now asked in a deliberately emotionless voice so his exasperation would not show.
The boy who had been facing the necklace looked up with a start.
"Today, in my basic magic class, I learned that a spirit resides in Mother's keepsake necklace."
"Yes. I understand that Aileen-sama had magical aptitude and had entered into a contract with a high-ranking spirit."
"So I thought Grandfather might be happy if I could do the same thing."
The boy's sky-blue eyes sparkled.
The attendant was completely at a loss.
Why did his master have to be so stupid? Concealing that candid thought, the attendant calmly informed him of the cruel reality.
"You cannot."
"Huh?"
"A contract with a high-ranking spirit can only be formed with a spirit whose attribute matches the mage's innate affinity. Your affinity is different, ×××-sama, so you cannot contract with the spirit Aileen-sama contracted with."
To begin with, contracting with a high-ranking spirit required an enormous amount of magical power and an understanding of magical formulas. Surely his master had learned that much in class, yet the attendant was inwardly exasperated.
The boy became thoroughly dejected, looking down at the necklace with his head bowed.
The attendant secretly sighed. It was not as though he wanted to make his master sad.
"Please forgive this unsightly display."
"...Hm?"
The attendant lifted the outer garment he was wearing and took out a book that had been strapped to his back.
An adult could have secretly carried it beneath a coat, but the attendant was a boy roughly the same age as his master. To bring the book in without being seen by the adults, he had no choice but to strap it to his body and conceal it beneath his outer garment.
"Here. Please take this."
When the boy saw the title of the book the attendant held out, his eyes lit up.
"Isn't this a book on astronomy by Mary Harvey, the 〈Star-Seer Witch〉?"
"You said before that you wanted to read it."
"Wowww! Thank you! I've wanted to read it for so, so long!"
The boy hugged the book to his chest and hopped up and down, expressing his joy with his entire body.
Normally, the attendant should have admonished him for such poor manners, but the attendant boy pretended not to notice.
His master had taken an interest in the stars in the night sky. However, the adults always tried to keep books on subjects like astronomy away from him, saying that such things would be of no use in his future.
That was why the attendant boy had secretly obtained the book and brought it in—for no other reason than that he wanted to make his master happy.
"〈Star-Seer Witch〉 is one of the Seven Sages, but she's an amazing prophet who observes the movements of the stars to see the future of the kingdom! There are countless fortune-tellers in this country, but they say 〈Star-Seer Witch〉 is the only one called a prophet. Apparently, the colors of the stars and the number of times they twinkle are important, and the color of a star directly indicates its lifespan..."
"I am terribly sorry, but I'll hear the rest of that story later. The daughter of Marquis Shailbury should be arriving soon, so please get ready."
The boy grimaced. "Ugh."
"...Come to think of it, I did promise to practice dancing with Bridget today, didn't I...? I don't want to. I'm terrible at dancing, and Bridget gets really angry when I step on her feet... I'm bad at talking to girls. I get nervous and can't speak properly."
"I must ask you not to say such things about your prospective fiancée."
"Of course I won't say them in public. You're the only one I say them to."
The boy sighed deeply and hugged the book he had received from the attendant to his chest like a treasure.
＊ ＊ ＊
That evening, the boy was summoned to his grandfather's room, where he stood frozen in shock at the sight before him.
Kneeling at his grandfather's feet was the attendant boy he looked up to like an older brother. His upper body was bare, and his white back was horribly swollen with welts from a whipping.
"G-Grandfather... why...?"
"This one apparently gave you an unnecessary present."
His grandfather said this while looking at the book on the table. It was the book the attendant boy had secretly obtained for him. He had hidden it safely in his room! The boy's face went rigid.
"N-no... I'm sorry! It's not his fault. I was the one who insisted that he get it for me..."
"In other words, he followed your orders rather than mine... For a mere servant to mistake who his master is..."
His grandfather brought the whip down across the attendant's back. Though he was nearly the same age as the boy himself, the attendant clenched his teeth and endured the pain without making a sound.
"Please stop! I beg you! I beg you! I won't ask for astronomy books anymore. So please...!"
"That book. Into the fireplace."
Following his grandfather's order, the boy picked up the book from the desk and stood before the fireplace.
Then, with trembling hands, he threw his precious book into the fireplace.
Even though the attendant boy had gone to the trouble of smuggling it in—for the boy's sake, and no one else's.
As he watched the letters burn away and struggled not to cry, his grandfather told him in a low voice,
"I hear today's dance lesson was a complete disaster."
"I-I'm sorry..."
With a sharp crack, the whip came down again.
Not on the boy, but on the back of the kneeling attendant.
His grandfather knew perfectly well that hurting the attendant whom the boy looked up to like an older brother was more effective than hurting the boy himself.
"I have been humiliated before Marquis Shailbury."
"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll do it properly next time! I won't ever disgrace you again, Grandfather. So please...!"
When the boy tearfully begged him to stop whipping the attendant, his grandfather brought the whip down one last time with an especially loud crack. Even then, the attendant boy endured it without crying out.
"There will be no next time."
"...Yes."
When the boy nodded, trembling violently, his grandfather looked upon his good-for-nothing grandson with eyes colder than a winter lake and spat out,
"To think that such a failure is Aileen's son. How lamentable."