Chapter 10
The missing maids were news to Isaac.
Old Jonas had only told him about major events and stories concerning the family, not about the entire household staff.
It wasn’t surprising.
He likely hadn’t had time to pay attention to such things either.
Around this period, Isaac himself had been drowning in self-loathing and despair from the mana explosions.
His heart had not been strong then, so he had wallowed in self-pity and paid no attention to others.
Of course, that didn’t mean he was entirely without clues.
“Why don’t you tell me in more detail, Bill?”
The atmosphere in the kitchen turned frigid in an instant.
The maids went pale, and the face of the manservant among them turned equally ashen.
“Ah. Uncomfortable talking about it with so many people around? Then let’s have an intimate conversation, just the two of us. Bill?”
“Uh, well… what I said was just, you know… stupid servant talk. Joking around, really.”
“I understand. So follow me. I found it amusing and want to hear more.”
Bill looked around at the maids with pleading eyes.
But not one of them came to his defense, nor did they offer even a sympathetic glance.
It seemed he hadn’t made himself many friends among them.
Isaac led him to an empty sitting room and took a seat.
“Sit.”
“I—I couldn’t possibly, not with you, young master…”
“Sit. Unless you really want to see the ‘true nature of a noble.’”
Isaac’s voice hardened.
And Bill realized — he’d heard everything.
With a tightly clenched face, the servant lowered himself into the chair across from Isaac; though the seat was made from fine wood and padded with a soft cushion, Bill sat on it like he was balanced atop a bed of nails.
“Bill. That’s your name, right?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
“I heard three maids have gone missing.”
“Ah, y-yes, yes.”
“What are the names of the three?”
“Hilde, Clara, and Enette.”
“When did they disappear?”
“Well… I’m not exactly sure…”
“Rough estimate.”
“Uh… Hilde vanished about two months ago, then Clara went missing a few weeks after that. And just this past weekend, Enette disappeared after attending church service.”
Bill couldn’t meet Isaac’s eyes.
What kind of kid had eyes like that?
He’d seen all kinds of madness in the gutter corners of Bern; psychopaths, killers, addicts. But this child’s gaze sent a different kind of chill down his spine.
It held refinement, but beneath that, something deeply unnatural. If he had to put a name to it — madness.
More than anything, his spine went cold thinking this brat might explode at any moment.
“Do you have any leads? Anything that might suggest why they disappeared, ran away, were abducted… anything?”
“………..”
Bill hesitated, watching Isaac’s face, then shook his head.
“You can be honest. I promise I won’t punish or expel you for it.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Isaac nodded.
“Hilde thought she was a nobility, always stuck-up. Clara was kind of promiscuous. Enette… she was just an ordinary girl. Honestly, if it were Clara, I wouldn’t be surprised if she ran off after stealing something expensive from the mansion, but the other two, they didn’t seem like the type.”
“And?”
“The only… common reason I can think of…”
Bill glanced at Isaac, then quickly looked down again.
“Is it me?”
“Isn’t it? Look at Hans’s face. It’s always bruised or scratched. That guy always complains about being sick. I bet he won’t live long if this keeps up…”
Bill shut his mouth tight.
Idiot. He wanted to smack himself for saying something so stupid.
The one who wouldn’t live long was him.
Goosebumps rose on Bill’s arm.
The young master’s strange condition, the explosion…
Those kinds of words were taboo among the servants.
Gossiping among themselves was one thing, but saying it to the chamberlain meant getting whipped twice that same day.
And now he had brought it up in front of the person himself.
It was practically asking to be killed.
“Bill.”
“Bill.”
“Y-yes! Please spare me! I’m not even married yet, I don’t have kids, but the priest said life is a gift from the Lord…”
“You don’t want to die?”
Isaac looked at Bill with a blank expression.
Bill trembled as he felt Isaac’s gaze.
This wasn’t the time to be proud or stubborn.
“Then. In exchange for sparing your life, do some work for me.”
“Y-yes? Excuse me?”
𝄞 𝄢 𝄞 𝄢 𝄞 𝄢
‘Right. That was her name.’
Isaac recalled the names of two maids he had been close to.
One was a red-haired maid named Rosa who always took his side in the kitchen.
And the other was Enette, one of the missing maids.
A sphere of blue flame hovered in the air, swirling gently as it spun through the room.
Creation, condensation, condensation again, phase shift.
With the addition of a fourth mana circuit, Isaac could now raise the flame’s temperature even higher than the red fireball’s, while also altering its phase.
The blue fireball was a type of magic not recorded in any common spellbook, so it was unclear what class it belonged to.
Considering the red fireball was classified as a second-class spell, this one was likely third-class or higher.
Thanks to the panacea left by the doctor, the expansion speed of his mana circuits had also increased.
At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before he had a fifth mana circuit.
‘Enette was close with Clara, wasn’t she?’
Enette was a quiet girl.
After Hans and the nanny died due to the mana explosion, no one was willing to serve Isaac anymore.
Rosa and Enette were the only ones who had volunteered to care for him, ignoring everyone’s objections.
Rosa always comforted Isaac with kind words.
Enette only said what was necessary, but she silently stayed by Isaac’s side and cared for him.
One day, Isaac fell into extreme despair over his unexplained condition and the people who had died because of him.
Rosa’s kind words didn’t help, and even Enette, who stayed with him, felt annoying rather than comforting.
— You, do you even understand? Do you know what it feels like to kill someone you cherished with your own hands?
He must’ve snapped at her with something like that.
But unexpectedly, Enette, who rarely spoke about herself, opened her mouth.
— I do know. Because I killed Clara with my own hands.
— Who…?
— Clara. She was my closest friend.
She didn’t explain exactly what had happened.
She only said that Clara had died because of her.
— If I had just turned around once, if I had reached out to her, maybe I could have saved her. Young master. I know your situation is a special one. But even if it weren’t, anyone can end up doing something they regret.
Enette didn’t try to comfort Isaac.
She didn’t tell him it was going to be okay.
She just told him the truth.
That even without something like a mana explosion, people inevitably do things they regret.
That people commit irreversible acts.
— Once in their life, everyone does. Even saints. Otherwise, there would be no reason to believe in God so desperately.
Somehow, Enette’s pessimism comforted Isaac.
He didn’t know if that was what she intended, or if she was just frustrated with how self-pitying he had become.
‘I should’ve asked her more back then.’
Isaac moved the blue fireball as he recalled Enette’s words.
In curves, at right angles, drawing an S-shape, a circle, a U-shape, and a spiral, the fireball moved accordingly.
More than ninety percent of combat magic relies on the role of projectiles.
In other words, if it doesn’t hit the target, it’s meaningless.
That’s why in combat magic, the most important, and most difficult, aspect was phase shifting.
If one could freely shift phase, they could snipe targets even behind barriers or obstacles.
On the other hand, if one was not skilled at phase shifting, then no matter how powerful the spell was , it became useless in one-on-one combat or against small monsters.
Unless one intended to annihilate allies along with enemies, that is.
No amount of practice with phase shifting could ever be considered excessive.
“Hoo…”
Isaac wiped a bead of sweat that had trickled down his forehead.
A dull headache and a hint of dizziness were starting to set in.
His brain, strained from calculating the phase shifting, was beginning to overheat.
Just then, he sensed someone approaching from outside the room.
Fsshhh—!!!
The blue fireball dissipated into the air.
Knock —!!! Knock—!!!
“Young master, it’s me. May I come in?”
It was the nanny.
“Yeah. Come in.”
Isaac grabbed a random book from the desk and opened it as he spoke.
“What’s the matter? At this hour? I told you to leave before sundown.”
“My quarters are right next door, you know.”
“You should spend more time with Hinder.”
“He’s grown up now. Doesn’t really like having his mother hovering over him anymore.
Seems like he’s got a girl he likes in the village.”
“I see… So, how are you feeling? Did you take the potion the physician left for you?”
“Yeah.”
The nanny checked over Isaac’s condition, as usual.
And even though he knew her concern wouldn’t change anything, he still answered all her questions.
It was a comforting thing, to have someone worry over you.
He’d learned that lesson far too late in his past life.
But this time, he wouldn’t make the same mistake.
“Anything you’d like to eat tomorrow?”
“Apple pie.”
“Again?”
“It’s good. Everything you bake is.”
“Fufu, alright. I guess I’ll have to show off my skills again.”
She smiled warmly at his praise.
“And, here.”
“Hm?”
The nanny brought forward the hand she’d been hiding behind her back.
In it was a small wooden figurine.
“What’s this?”
It wasn’t particularly well-crafted.
Barely resembled a human figure, and even then, its rough shape made it hard to make out any real detail.
“A knight. Or so I’m told.”
“A knight? Did Hinder make this?”
“No. He’s hopeless with his hands.”
“Then… did you carve it?”
Isaac tilted his head in confusion.
“No, of course not. I received it from the nanny of the second young master. She asked me to pass it to you.”
“Jonas…?”
“Yes. She said he was told not to enter your room, right? He’s been avoiding you. It’s been two weeks already. The second young master says he misses you. He wants to play together like before. He knows the explosion is dangerous, but… maybe it’s okay to talk for a little bit, at least?”
The nanny asked carefully.
Isaac blankly stared at the wooden doll he’d received from her.
Now that he thought about it, he used to be good with his hands as a child.
He used to carve knights, horses, and dragons out of wood and gift them to Jonas.
Jonas would take them and make up knight stories like something from a dime novel and play with the figures.
Those were precious times.
He wanted to go see Jonas right away, but Isaac couldn’t move so easily.
The probability of a spontaneous mana explosion due to his condition was currently very low.
Ever since his mana circuits exceeded four, Isaac had started to feel some certainty.
The wild flow of mana that once overwhelmed even his body and mind—
It still flowed quickly, but as more circuits formed like webs or tiny branches, he could feel that it had stabilized significantly.
Even so, the reason he still found it hard to face Jonas was because of the memories.
Eyes.
The pale rubble and the collapsed servants.
Raindrops falling like blood through the broken windows.
The taste of blood. Of metal.
His younger brother’s eyes staring at him in disbelief.
The blood that kept pouring from his brother’s wrist.
The belated scream of his brother.
The sense of spiraling downward, as if he were plummeting—
When he first saw Jonas after returning to the past, he had been happy.
But the more he saw him, the clearer those memories became.
‘Not yet…’
Isaac stared vacantly at a point in the air and then spoke.
“Nanny.”
“Yes?”
“Could you bring me a chisel and a few carving blocks? Is it too late at this hour?”
“No. The second young master likes carving, so there’s always a pile of wood blocks behind the annex shed. Shall I bring some?”
The nanny brightened up.
“Yes. Please do.”
Isaac nodded.
𝄞 𝄢 𝄞 𝄢 𝄞 𝄢
The desk by the window in Isaac’s bedroom was a mess, to put it mildly.
Wood shavings and splinters from carving littered the surface, along with unfinished chunks of wood, pieces he had failed to shape properly and abandoned partway through.
There were easily over a dozen of them strewn about.
Among the chaos stood a single, completed wooden figurine.
It was the image of a knight, clad in armor and raising a sword.
The same pose as the crudely carved figure Jonas had once made.
“Young master? Young master?”
Hans knocked for quite some time, but with no reply from inside, he cautiously opened the door.
“What… what is all this?”
He froze at the threshold, overwhelmed at the thought of having to clean the disaster of a room.
Isaac was slumped over the desk, fast asleep.
“Mnngh…”
Stirred by Hans’s presence, Isaac slowly opened his eyes.
His back ached.
Good thing he was still young, if he’d slept like that at an older age, he might’ve been bedridden for days.
Yawning deeply, Isaac stretched and groaned.
“What the—when did you get here?”
“Just now, young master. I knocked several times, but there was no response.”
“Ugh… right.”
Isaac rubbed at his bloodshot eyes.
“You didn’t sleep, did you?”
“Think I started dozing off around sunrise.”
Because he’d overslept, he hadn’t been able to go for his morning run.
Ruffling his disheveled hair, Isaac sat up.
Then his eyes landed on the carved figurine sitting in the corner of the desk.
“Hans. Give that to Jonas for me.”
“You carved this yourself?”
“Yeah. And tell him… to wait a bit longer.”
“Wait for what?”
“To see me. Tell him his big brother’s a little busy right now and can’t meet him just yet.”
“…Understood.”
Hans gave Isaac a quiet, thoughtful look before nodding.
“Um, should I come back later?”
A voice piped up from the entrance.
It was Bill.
“He said he has something urgent to tell you, young master. Claims it’s an errand you asked him to run. Is that true? You know how he tends to exaggerate…”
“It’s not exaggeration, alright? This is important!”
Bill snapped at Hans’s skepticism.
“I did ask him for something.”
“Is that so?”
“Could you give us some space?”
Isaac dismissed Hans and remained alone with Bill.
Perched on the edge of the bed, Isaac let out another long yawn.
Even in a twelve-year-old’s body, exhaustion was exhaustion.
‘I pushed myself too hard.’
He ran a hand over his face, trying to shake off the drowsiness.
“So—did you find anything?”
“…Yes. I did. Didn’t even have to search long. Down in one of the southern territories, they’ve been granting commoner status to freedmen.”
Bill lowered his voice.
Isaac gave a slow, wordless nod.
‘That was it.’
Enette…
She had helped her friend escape, at the cost of her own safety.
His suspicions had been correct.
