CHAPTER 53…….
“Come to think of it, you haven’t gone to see Lady Ober lately, have you?”
Meanwhile, at the Ivory Tower.
Bruno spoke in a mild tone to Magnus, who had been sulking in his office for days.
“Hmph. Who’s this Lady Ober you speak of?”
He’s sulking for real…
Just a few days ago he treated her like a precious granddaughter, and now his attitude had flipped completely.
Truly, an elder who didn’t act his age.
“I must have been mistaken in my old age. I don’t know any such Lady Ober.”
“Exactly! Ever since she took in that slave, she’s been too busy to meet me, acts as if she doesn’t need my teachings, schemes with Duke Brimstone without telling me a word, and then has the audacity to boast she’ll sell a mine to that Duke at a high price—and actually pulls it off! That insolent little brat—I don’t know her! How could I know her when she leaves me out of everything!”
You seem to know her better than anyone…
Bruno wisely kept that thought to himself.
“Hmph, so now she has no need of me.”
With arms crossed, Magnus sulked like a ten-year-old child.
In short, his complaint was this:
Linaria hasn’t been coming to see me.
But Bruno did have some good news for him.
“A letter arrived from this Lady Ober whom neither of us knows. Truthfully, it came some time ago, but since you don’t know her, Master…”
“……”
“It took time because we had to follow proper procedures, to ensure it wasn’t a seditious letter.”
That was a lie.
In truth, whenever even the syllable ‘O’ of Ober was mentioned, Magnus’s eyes would flash so fiercely that everyone was too scared to deliver it.
Passing the task off to others and delaying, they had only just managed to bring it to him now.
“If a letter came, you should’ve given it to me at once! Kids these days—always loafing on the job while still collecting their wages!”
Magnus snatched the letter greedily.
“In my day it was the same—young people never change!”
Grumbling, yet wearing an expression like a child unwrapping a present, he opened the letter.
—Lately the head chef has been making too many snacks, and with no one to eat them, it’s become troublesome.
Even now, I’ve got a pile of madeleines in front of me, and of course I thought of you first. They’re your favorite, after all.
“Hmph, see? She misses me after all.”
Up to this point, Magnus’s grin nearly split his face.
But then—
He froze.
“What’s wrong, Master? Did this stranger of a young lady ask you to explain some difficult formula?”
“No. I almost wish that were the case.”
Magnus swallowed hard.
“Linaria… why do you keep getting yourself involved in dangerous things…?”
“Is the young lady in danger?”
“Dangerous, yes. Perhaps enough to cost her life.”
That slave was bad enough, but now she had meddled with something she absolutely shouldn’t have.
Magnus glared at the words on the page.
—…Due to a certain incident, I ended up meeting Duke Ignas in person.
He looked like a child whose growth had stopped.
There’s no way anyone could call him twenty years old.
They say it might be some rare disease… would you happen to know anything about this, Tower Master?
“Bruno! Make preparations at once! Hurry so fast that even your crooked spine straightens!”
She hadn’t spelled it out in the letter, but if Linaria had discovered this, she must have approached Duke Ignas directly.
If she continued to contact him, she might get caught up in something and die needlessly.
“Those wretched Ignas fools, doing foolish things…”
Magnus muttered like a curse, face grim, as he rose to his feet.
In doing so, he bumped into a glass cup on his desk.
Crash—!
The cup fell and shattered.
“Master! Are you all right?”
“How ominous…”
Magnus squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again.
For now, all he could do was pray Linaria stayed safe.
Linaria’s body floated in midair.
And then—
“Kaas.”
Kaas, who had been below, caught her.
Thanks to him, not only Linaria but also the child she had saved were unharmed.
“That was reckless.”
From behind her came his voice, lower than usual.
“You nearly died.”
She turned her head—
And saw Kaas’s face, pale and shaken. For someone who rarely showed emotion, it was unexpected.
“But thanks to you, I’m fine.”
“What if I had been a little slower? That child… you didn’t have to save him. He has nothing to do with you.”
“You’re right, he doesn’t. But I could, so I did.”
There was no grand meaning behind it.
Linaria set the child down.
“Are you all right?”
“Y-yes…”
Forgetting she was in a maid’s uniform, she spoke informally.
The boy only mouthed words in shock before stammering a reply.
It seemed he hadn’t heard Kaas’s earlier remark that she didn’t need to save him. Best that he hadn’t—otherwise it would have scarred him.
“Go to your parents.”
“But…”
“You could have fallen down the stairs and died. You know it was that dangerous, don’t you?”
“Y-yes…”
“And it wasn’t your fault, so don’t blame yourself.”
“Th-thank you.”
Bowing clumsily, as if not even knowing what he was saying, the boy fled down the stairs.
Once he vanished from sight, Kaas silently began climbing the staircase.
“Wh-what the… he’s just a servant.”
The children, who had been peering down to see if their victim had fallen, stiffened at the unexpected sight.
As Kaas drew closer, his sheer size overwhelmed them.
“S-servants can’t use divine beast powers!”
But they quickly grew brazen again.
“Kneel!”
Kaas didn’t obey.
He simply kept walking toward them.
“D-didn’t you hear me?! I ordered you to kneel! I’m a noble!”
When Kaas’s eyes met the boy’s, burning with dangerous fury, the child flinched.
“L-last warning! If you don’t obey, I’ll use Leviathan’s power on you—!”
Flames rose around the children.
The fire spread rapidly, hemming them in. Panicked, the children tried to put it out with water.
“Th-this can’t be happening!”
But the flames didn’t weaken—they only roared higher.
There were natural affinities between divine beast powers.
It was easier to extinguish fire with water than the other way around.
And yet the flames grew fiercer.
When the children tried to flee, fire blocked their path.
“This kind of power—only a head of house could use it! But my mother said the Duke of Ignas is a fool!”
Seeing someone wield divine power so freely left the children aghast.
“Kaas, that’s enough.”
The children were sweating buckets now. It seemed right to stop. Linaria tugged at Kaas’s sleeve.
But he shook his head.
“I started it, yes. But this now—it’s beyond my control.”
For a moment, she thought he was lying.
For only the head of a house should be able to wield greater power than Kaas.
Rustle, rustle—
Sensing a presence, Linaria turned her head.
And there stood a familiar boy.
“Duke Ignas.”
It was Noah.
He looked as shabby as when she had last seen him.
The cloth Linaria had once draped over him still hung from his shoulders like a cloak.
What was once white was now tattered, charred, and frayed.
“Dangerous.”
Despite his frail appearance, he was the cause of the unquenchable flames.
Kaas tried to push Linaria behind him.
“Can’t we at least get the children out of here?”
At Kaas’s gesture, the flames surrounding the children briefly parted, opening a path.
Seizing the chance, the children screamed and fled.
Linaria carefully approached Noah, who merely watched all of this with indifferent eyes.
She had come in disguise for this very purpose—to meet him.
“Duke, you’ve come out.”
“I heard someone calling me.”
For some reason, Noah’s presence felt completely different from their first meeting.
Did Auguste get it wrong?
If this overwhelming divine power was Noah’s, then Auguste’s claim was false.
Noah’s capacity was by no means small. Compared to other dukes, he was lacking nothing.
But… I don’t see the divine beast.
Linaria had learned that divine beasts lingered near their head of house or heir. If she stayed close to Noah, she might be able to glean some information.
She had been hoping for the same luck she had with Brimstone.
But just as before—there was no sign of Ignas’s divine beast.
Brimstone clearly led me to where Ignas was…
Then it struck her—Ignas referred not only to the duke, but also to the divine beast itself.
Just as that thought flickered through her mind—
“Careful.”
Sparks flew.
Kaas shielded her, sparing her injury, but it was dangerous.
Noah’s heading toward where the children ran…
Wherever he stepped, flames bloomed like footprints.
And the fire born of his divine power—seemed utterly beyond control.
