Chapter 7
I was so embarrassed after that ridiculous failure that I couldn’t even speak.
In the end, we had to return home with nothing.
My parents didn’t scold me—they actually comforted me and said it was okay.
But I could see that they felt guilty for involving their young daughter in such a serious matter.
I couldn’t help but feel gloomy.
When we came down from the mountain, the Empress gently patted my head and said,
“I’m sorry, Chelsea. We made you worry about something like this. From now on, leave it to the adults. Carmen will definitely get better. I promise.”
How disappointed the Empress must have been.
And yet, she didn’t get mad at me because I was just a child.
Children are powerless.
This incident only made that clearer.
No one blamed me, but I was still embarrassed and sad.
I was full of grief the entire way home.
To be honest, I had felt uneasy even when we first arrived at the mountain.
And when the knight captain showed that wrong flower, my mind went completely blank.
But after returning home and thinking about it calmly, I realized something felt off.
My familiars—moths and ants—have a great sense of smell but very poor eyesight.
So even if they looked similar, it didn’t make sense for them to confuse the scent of Baraka with the wrong flower.
And what about the royal knights?
Their prince was lying sick with a deadly illness, and they just lost their only hope—the antidote plant.
Shouldn’t they have looked more disappointed?
If they didn’t expect much from a child like me, at the very least, they should have shown some annoyance.
But they only talked behind my back while going up the mountain—not on the way down.
If they were loyal knights, it should’ve been the other way around.
“Hmm…”
I lay in bed and ruffled my hair.
Something just didn’t feel right.
Even the Empress and my parents told me to leave this to the adults and the royal family.
And yes, I didn’t think the royal family was less capable than me.
But still…
I kept seeing Carmen lying sick in bed.
I’ve been sick before too.
I’ve had colds, and once I got food poisoning.
That time, I cried and begged my mom, saying I felt like I was going to die.
I was in so much pain, I hated everything.
But even then, I wasn’t anywhere near death.
No one around me ever seriously thought I would die.
It just wasn’t that bad.
So what does it mean to be sick enough to die?
I didn’t know.
Just imagining Carmen enduring pain I couldn’t even guess made my heart ache.
If I could split his illness in half and carry some of it for him, I would.
I wiped my tears and turned my head.
My insect familiars were sitting on the window frame, watching me.
Right.
Since I already summoned them, and the contract time wasn’t over yet, it wouldn’t hurt to try again.
I walked over to them and gave a second command—the same as before.
To find Baraka.
But this time, I would give them more help.
Anyone interested in magic must wonder how much magical power they have.
It’s said that the size of your magic equals your magical talent.
That’s why magic towers and academies let anyone use magic measuring tools to find talented kids.
I had mine checked once too, when I followed my uncle to the magic tower.
But in real life, there aren’t many chances to use all your magic power.
These days, even magic tower wizards are short on magic.
Since it’s a hard time for magic, people created tools to use spells with small power.
Like magic amplifiers or overclock spell circles.
The second option was too hard and complex.
Magic amplifiers were super expensive—only really rich nobles could buy them.
Thankfully, I happened to be one of those nobles.
Natural magic power is called pure magic.
Magic boosted by crystals or amplifiers is called artificial or enhanced magic.
My pure magic was 12 pasis—just enough to summon one or two puppies.
But I was about to test the limit of my enhanced magic.
“Ugh…”
I held my head as pain throbbed.
I think I blacked out for a moment.
My vision spun like I was dizzy from anemia.
It was a symptom of magic exhaustion.
Over the week, I had drawn around 2,000 magic circles.
Trying to activate them all at once caused one-third to fail.
Each one used about 0.1 pasis of magic, so I used roughly 130 pasis total.
That means my artificial magic was enough to summon 1,300 ants or moths…
Is that a lot or a little?
I wasn’t sure.
My newly summoned familiars hovered near me, looking worried.
Their stares irritated me, so I yelled,
“What are you staring at? Go to work!”
Startled, the insect familiars flew out the window.
Hmph, I didn’t want to be pitied by bugs.
So while over a thousand of my familiars worked hard to search for Baraka, I just slept.
Magic exhaustion was terrible.
My body felt heavy even when I lay still, and no matter how much I slept, I stayed sleepy.
So for a while, I stayed curled up in bed.
My parents worried I was sick.
Even a doctor visited, but since he didn’t understand magic, he couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
My parents ended up thinking I was heartsick from worrying about Carmen.
I spent three whole days like that.
And finally, on the third day, my familiars found Baraka in the outskirts of the capital.
The moment I heard it, I wanted to run and tell my parents.
But I didn’t.
I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake as when we went to the royal mountain.
Yes, I was afraid my parents and the Empress would be disappointed again.
Whenever I tried bringing up Baraka, my parents firmly stopped me.
My mother told me to leave Carmen’s matter to the royal family.
I had already lost their trust.
But more than that, I had a strange, uneasy feeling I couldn’t ignore.
If I told my parents, they would do the proper thing—report it to the palace.
But for some reason, I felt like they shouldn’t.
It was just a feeling.
But I decided to trust my instincts—especially when it came to Carmen.
Why?
Because of love.
So I stayed quiet until sunset.
I told my nanny I was going to bed early, then went to my room at dusk.
I stuffed pillows and dolls under the blanket to look like me.
Then I tied the curtains together and climbed out the window.
I strapped on my backpack and stepped outside, whispering in my heart,
‘Mom, Dad… I’m sorry.’
I was still under house arrest, and lying to my parents scared me.
But saving Carmen was more important than anything.
I went into the city and hired a carriage.
To avoid looking like a noble girl traveling alone, I bought a robe.
Some silkworm moths joined me in the carriage to guide the way.
The carriage left the city and followed the river.
I stared out the window, enjoying the night view.
It was my first time seeing the stars alone so late at night.
I felt like a traveling mage on an adventure.
The driver stopped the carriage at the base of Mount Peres after passing through a small village.
I got out with my familiars and handed the rest of the payment to the driver.
He stared at me for a while, then said he’d be staying at a nearby inn.
If I needed a ride back, I could come find him.
That was a relief—because I had been worried about how to get back.
He looked really tired.
As he left, he warned me,
“Watch out for mountain bandits.”
I climbed the mountain with my familiars leading the way.
It was my first time hiking at night.
Thanks to the full moon, it wasn’t too dark.
While following the fluttering moths, I suddenly stopped.
I smelled something strange.
The silkworm moths flew above my head, and I looked up.
My eyes grew wide.
Long pistils rising above the flowers like butterfly antennae.
A foul stench like a skunk.
Exactly like in the book.
A patch of Baraka glowed purple under the moonlight.
But…
“How do I get up there?”
A steep cliff stood in front of me.
The Baraka was growing on top.
I tilted my head all the way back to look.
Maybe I really should’ve brought my parents.
I considered going back to the village to ask for help.
That’s when I heard a voice.
“Oh, there it is!”
It was a rough male voice.
I quickly hid behind a tree, almost by instinct.
Maybe they were the mountain bandits the driver warned me about.
There were two men.
One was tall and fat.
The other was short and thin.
They dropped their luggage near the cliff.
From their bags, they pulled out metal spikes and rope.
The short man threw the rope up and secured it to a rock.
Then he climbed the cliff quickly.
The tall man muttered,
“Do we really need rope for such a low cliff?”
“No harm in being careful.”
Low cliff?! That cliff?
They must be experienced mountain men.
The short man reached the top in no time and started picking Baraka.
I panicked.
Should I run out now and try to grab at least one before they take them all?
Then the man picking the plants spoke.
“It’s a shame we have to burn all these rare things.”
