Episode 31
“Baron Selberdine.”
Lily answered nonchalantly.
“I mean, my father.”
Lily explained again.
So it was Baron Selberdine who turned his daughter into a rabbit?
“No matter how shameless my father is, I don’t think he did it on purpose. I’m not sure if he intended to use it for something else or if he brought it by mistake, but I accidentally consumed the potion he brought.”
Cassium sifted through his memories.
Had he ever consumed anything provided by Baron Selverdin?
“……”
Ah.
He had.
At the late-winter party hosted by the royal family.
At that time, the Selberdine family was responsible for preparing the drinks.
Though usually sharp at detecting poison, he hadn’t immediately noticed something tainted with dark magic.
If it had been mixed into strong liquor while he was drunk, it was plausible.
“Wait a moment, Lily. How old are you?”
“Fifteen.”
“You drank alcohol?”
“No, it wasn’t intentional. I mean, I didn’t know, and, well, it can happen once, right?”
Lily, who had been trying to explain, suddenly shouted.
“I ended up as a rabbit because of it!”
“That’s true.”
Lily shrugged her shoulders.
She was an oddly relaxed rabbit.
But thanks to this easy-going rabbit, Cassium had obtained some crucial information.
“Lily.”
“Yes?”
“You’ll likely start reverting back gradually.”
“Really?”
“You’ll turn back into a human a few times, and the intervals will get shorter and shorter. Eventually, you’ll be fully human again.”
Having received valuable information from her, Cassium shared important information in return.
“Is that so? Honestly, I didn’t think staying like this would be so bad.”
“You were even talking about marrying that little boy.”
“Well, there are still a few years left until I’m old enough to marry anyway.”
Indeed, they were only in their teens, too young to be discussing marriage seriously.
On the other hand, he was now at an age where marriage wouldn’t be unusual.
“Marriage…”
“Do you have someone you want to marry?”
“I do… I don’t… I do…”
“Is it yes or no?”
“Yes.”
“Who is it?!”
Cassium turned his head without answering.
Somehow, his ears felt warm, so he curled them inward.
“It’s not something that can happen right now. I’m not trying to force it if she doesn’t want it. Whether she accepts the proposal or not is entirely her decision…”
“You even sent a proposal? That’s fast!”
Cassium blushed even more, curling his ears tightly as he blurted out things Lily hadn’t even asked.
Though he knew words couldn’t be taken back, he didn’t know why he spoke.
Maybe Lize would reject the proposal. After all, she had told him “no” that day.
But perhaps, just perhaps, if that wasn’t her true feeling…
If Lize accepted his proposal…
“When will my sister find a new man?”
At that moment, the little boy Bryce’s muttering was audible.
A new man?
Cassium’s curled ears perked up instantly as he turned to Bryce.
“Having a brother-in-law from the duke’s family would be nice, but my sister’s opinion comes first.”
Cassium’s golden eyes wavered.
“Still, that man is rumored to be too handsome. They say there’s no substance behind the rumors, and he’s probably not as good-looking as they claim.”
“That’s not true!”
Cassium instinctively retorted, but Bryce only heard a “beep” sound in his ears.
Still, understanding it was directed at him, Bryce stopped his indifferent muttering and looked over.
“Shall I trim your claws now?”
Apparently, Bryce didn’t comprehend what Cassium had said.
Cassium felt a gaze from the side.
Lily was looking at him, shaking her head.
“Is it you?”
“What?”
“You’re the one who’s actually handsome?”
“……”
“It’s you, isn’t it?”
Cassium, still reeling from Lize’d earlier rejection, didn’t care much about what the rabbit next to him was mumbling.
Bryce asked him again.
“Not trimming them yet?”
Cassium turned his head sharply.
No, she hasn’t explicitly said she rejected the proposal yet.
As Cassium convinced himself of this, Bryce lowered the claw trimmer he had picked up and opened a book instead.
“I’m curious how the Duke of Balteire’s family will react to the rejection.”
“……”
“They wouldn’t bother my sister over it, would they?”
Bryce left Cassium no room for hopeful thinking, hammering in the final nail.
Even as he tried curling his ears again to block the sound, Bryce’s voice continued to echo.
Cassium felt all energy drain from his body as he stared blankly out the window.
***
A long sword sliced through the air in her right hand.
With his back to the sunset, she swung the sword several times as if cutting through mist, then exhaled deeply.
It’s still not working.
A few days ago, she’d dreamt about his academy days.
The day Cassium claimed to have mastered aura, and the day he decided not to meet Lady Marju anymore…
But that had nothing to do with his current training.
It’s always like this. Even trivial matters get tangled with Cassium, making everything complex.
That’s why I disliked getting involved with him.
Even what happened that day…
If it were just about his accomplishment of mastering aura, I could’ve simply congratulated him. Had anyone else told me, that’s all it would’ve been.
But when Cassium said it, other thoughts and things he had said intertwined, making it hard to focus on the words alone.
Thoughts completely unrelated to aura—like Lady Marju’s matters or the fact that he had suddenly appeared on a path he rarely used—kept interfering, complicating my judgment and thoughts.
It was frustrating.
And it wasn’t just that. Even when I was doing something entirely unrelated to him, Cassium would pop into my mind, irritating me.
Where is he? Show up if you’re going to!
Even now, these thoughts suddenly invade my mind!
It’s distracting!
“Hoo.”
I should get back to training.
I was currently practicing how to manifest aura.
The aura Cassium claimed to have manifested in that dream.
Focusing on the sword in my hand, I closed my eyes and directed all my attention to it. I tried to gather all the energy at the tip of the blade, where it touched the air.
According to an article written by Sir Olimia Setrin, a master of aura, in the scholarly journal The Path of a Knight, aura is created when the energy of the sword’s wielder interacts with the elements in the air.
[Aura is formed when the strong energy of the sword’s wielder materializes the energy of the elements in the air and contains it within the sword.]
That’s what it said.
Of course, understanding those words wasn’t as simple as they sounded. It took me years just to grasp their meaning.
But as time passed, I gradually began to understand what they meant, naturally.
It happened when I became accustomed to the sword, feeling as though it was an extension of my own body. When I learned how a slight motion could create significant ripples.
As someone who wielded a sword, I naturally discovered how to direct my internal energy to its tip.
Thus, I had mastered the first stage of using aura.
But the next stage is the real problem.
No matter how much energy I gathered, it was useless if it didn’t interact with the elements in the air.
It’s the same this time. The elements seem like they’re about to gather but keep dispersing.
I could clearly feel the point where the elements started to gather in response to the sword’s energy.
The moment when a faint breeze stirred around me, beginning to converge on the sword.
The moment when it felt like something beyond the breeze would begin to glow.
But it had already been half a year since I reached that point, and I couldn’t move beyond it.
Something keeps interfering.
It felt as though an unknown force was preventing the elements from fully gathering.
I should ask Cassium again about what happens next… Wait, that’s right, Cassium isn’t here right now.
My concentration broke instantly.
Again!
Cassium disrupted my focus again in this manner.
“Ah, seriously.”
I swung the sword sharply through the air. Dissatisfied mutterings slipped out of my mouth.
Maybe I should just head back for now.
I glanced up at the sky, painted red by the setting sun.
Tonight was a full moon.
I needed to stop by Bryce’s room to retrieve the golden rabbit and then return to my own room.
Then I’d carefully draw the curtains and hide myself under the blankets all night.
That way, I wouldn’t experience the same kind of pain as last time.
Let’s hurry back.
At that moment, the signal device placed on the other side of the training ground sounded.
Who could it be?
I quickly approached the signal device.
The name of the person trying to contact me appeared on it.
Commander Denver?
What could the commander want?
• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •By Esraa• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •
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