Chapter 23…………………………………………..
Ripples
After parting ways with Leon in the shopping district, Lowell bought everything she needed and then sat down on a bench along the edge of the marketplace.
“Haa…”
Leaning back, Lowell looked up at the sky. Contrary to her turbulent thoughts, the sky was clear, not a cloud in sight. With a long winter soon approaching, it felt oddly out of place that the sky was still so high and blue, like autumn at its peak.
Lost in those thoughts for a while, Lowell opened the bundle of medicinal herbs beside her when the wind began to feel a little chilly.
“Six bundles of blue herb, ten Saeoreum mushrooms…”
It seemed she had managed to buy the right amounts. Before, she had only purchased small quantities because she wasn’t confident, but now that she and Leon had agreed to take the herbs properly, there was no need to buy them little by little.
I was a bit flustered when Madam Louise asked why I needed so much, though.
Remembering the puzzled look the herb shop owner had worn even as she packed the herbs, Lowell let out a small laugh.
Come to think of it, in one of the past timelines, Madam Louise had helped her a great deal when she made a turbidity-curing potion for Aria.
It’s something that never happened now.
Perhaps because the truly cold winter was about to begin, Lowell found herself growing sentimental for no reason.
Crash!
That was when she heard it—the sound of something piled up collapsing.
Startled, Lowell jumped to her feet. She soon spotted a heap of boxes scattered across the ground, pale clouds of dust rising under the afternoon sunlight.
“What the—?”
A shrill sound escaped her lips at the sudden situation.
“Damn it, what the hell—why did it collapse like that?”
A familiar, frivolous tone followed. Turning her head toward the voice, Lowell saw someone sprawled awkwardly atop the fallen boxes.
“Viscount Davis?”
It was Andy. Aria’s former lover who had once failed while trying to break into Aria’s room. No—trash.
“……”
Andy froze in place, and Lowell stood stunned as well. Their gazes met only for a brief moment.
“Damn it.”
When Andy cursed again in that same careless way, a question immediately popped into Lowell’s mind.
Why is he here?
Before she could even finish the thought, Andy scrambled to his feet and, faster than anyone, climbed back over the wall he had fallen from.
“Wait—!”
At that moment, Lowell felt it instinctively. She had to follow him. So she ran, straight toward the wall Andy had disappeared over.
But the wall was too high for her to climb. She stamped her feet in frustration for a moment, then looked around as if making a decision.
After confirming no one else was around, Lowell began chanting a coordinate-shift spell.
“Ahh!”
With the help of the teleportation spell, Lowell appeared directly in front of the fleeing Andy. Startled by her sudden appearance, Andy fell backward onto the ground.
Andy looked so pitiful in that moment that Lowell almost let out a hollow laugh, but she quickly shook her head and spoke instead.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean, what?!”
Andy shouted as he braced himself on the ground and scrambled backward.
“Why are you running away?”
Andy didn’t answer. Instead, he glanced around nervously and then flung a handful of dirt at Lowell—exactly the sort of petty, cowardly tactic that suited him.
“Ah!”
Her vision obscured, Lowell covered her eyes with her sleeve and stepped back. In that instant, Andy bolted at full speed in the opposite direction.
Bang!
But his escape ended absurdly fast.
A magic circle formed beneath Andy’s legs, and the force pulled him down to the ground.
“Why are you running?”
Now truly angry, Lowell hardened her expression and approached him. Perhaps because of the sun behind her, a deep shadow fell over Andy as he cowered at her feet.
“…I—I don’t have anything to do with it anymore! I’m not interested in Aria’s mana anymore, so you can take it all for yourselves!”
His voice was loud, but he was trembling. Of course, Lowell was less interested in his pale face than in the name that had come out of his mouth.
For a moment, a question rose up that was strong enough to eclipse even her anger.
“Lady Aria?”
Lowell echoed in disbelief. But perhaps because her emotions had wavered, the magic circle beneath Andy faded. He didn’t miss the chance and took off running at once.
“……”
This time, Lowell didn’t chase him. She remained where she was, turning over his words again and again in her mind—forgetting entirely that she had naturally cast spells in quick succession just moments earlier.
A few nights later, as usual, Lowell was learning magic from Leon while providing him with mana in return. Suddenly, she leaned closer to him.
“Why are you staring so hard?”
Lowell tightened her grip where both her hands overlapped Leon’s, blinking at him with curiosity.
“…I wasn’t looking at you. I was watching the flow of mana around you.”
“Oh. Sorry. I thought you had something you wanted to say.”
“The one with something to say isn’t me—it’s you.”
“Pardon?”
Lowell’s eyes widened. It was the unmistakable look of someone who’d been hit right on the mark.
“You’ve been sneaking glances whenever you get the chance. If you have something to say, just say it already. You’ve been so fidgety that even the mana flow reaching me is unstable.”
Leon spoke with a frown, sounding annoyed.
So Lowell stared at his knitted brows for a moment and thought, briefly, that Leon really was perceptive.
“You’re right. I do have something to say.”
“Fine. Whatever it is, say it quickly.”
“Before that, there’s one thing you should know.”
“What is it?”
“I’m not asking this while deliberately sharing mana so you can’t run away.”
“…I never even thought that, but now that you say it, it sounds like something you might do.”
Lowell didn’t respond to the jab. She pressed her lips together, stared at the floor for a long moment, then took a resolute breath.
“There’s something I need investigated, so please assign some people to it. I think it needs to be done quietly, so experienced ones would be best. It’d be even better if they were people you know well, Leon-nim.”
She rattled off the words in one rapid, unbroken stream.
“…What are you investigating?”
It took Leon a moment to erase the bewilderment from his eyes and ask the question. She’d spoken so fast it was a wonder he’d understood her at all.
“I think something has happened to Lady Aria.”
The moment Aria’s name was spoken, the already unstable flow of mana shook violently. Lowell’s anxiety surged straight through.
“Is this because of the letter you received last time?”
“That too… and there are a few things I’ve heard and seen recently. I think I need to look into it separately.”
“Hm. I see… but why ask me? Unfortunately, there’s not much I can help with. The kind of skilled people you’re talking about aren’t in this estate right now.”
“That’s why I’m asking.”
“What?”
“Please summon the servants of the Marquis of Riefman.”
Her gaze locked onto him insistently. Faced with that resolve, it was only natural for Leon to frown.
“Do you not know that I left my family?”
“I know. That’s exactly why I’m asking.”
“How can you be so sure the Riefman household has people like that?”
“Any marquisate in the empire would have servants who gather information. I’m not ignorant of how fierce information warfare is among the nobility of the Khan Empire.”
“……”
“Please. Go to your family estate and bring them here.”
Lowell spoke slowly, as if worried that if she didn’t, Leon wouldn’t grasp the sincerity behind her words.
And as Leon watched her emphasize each word, he finally understood why she had mentioned him ‘running away.’ Riefman—his surname, and at the same time, a name that soured his mood the instant he heard it.
So Leon was going to refuse. Agreeing would have been stranger. To enter that detestable house and ask them for a favor himself—it was absurd.
More than anything, this had nothing to do with their contract. He had no reason at all to comply.
“Th—”
But that resolve slipped away in an instant, like a misunderstanding. Just as Leon was about to refuse, moonlight caught in Lowell’s eyes. For a fleeting moment, they gleamed like jewels.
Ripples… in her eyes…
Perhaps because those ripples reached all the way to his chest, Leon, staring into those violet eyes, suddenly forgot what he was about to say.
And that moment became the first time Lowell’s purple ripples overflowed into Leon.
