-Nigel! I sense magic from this note!

It all started with Rus’s words while organizing gifts and notes.

Rus pointed to the 12th note, the 11th birthday note, and jumped up and down.

“Not in the other notes?”

-No! I only feel it from this note, not the others!

Rus nodded confidently.

Nigel quickly closed her eyes and focused on the flow of magic.

“……!”

As Rus said, a faint trace of magic could be felt from the note.

“Rus, do you know what kind of magic it is?”

Nigel looked at Rus, struggling to focus her shaky vision.

-Would Rus like to tell you?

Nigel nodded urgently, without time to answer.

-There are several overlapping letters written in magic! Although Rus’s training is still a bit lacking to interpret the meaning, I can figure out the spelling sufficiently.

Rus squinted at the note.

“Rus, please.”

Nigel, hiding her trembling, quickly found a pen and paper in the room and wrote down the letters that Rus slowly recited.

And a moment later, after combining the mysterious letters.

-Nigel, Nigel! What does it say?

“‘I found a potion that fits your body perfectly. If you’re lucky, I might be able to celebrate your next birthday.’……”

Nigel said in a dreamy voice, pondering the meaning of each word.

‘What on earth does this mean?’

Nigel’s mind went blank as she watched Rus bouncing around, saying it was a good omen.

After standing dazed for a long time, leaning against the cold wall, a thought struck Nigel’s mind like a bolt of lightning.

No way.

Purple eyes full of wonder and shock blinked slowly. When they opened again, there was a faint certainty in those eyes.

As the scattered pieces of thought began to find their place one by one, her heart beat rapidly.

-Nigel, your heart is beating too fast! Don’t die from a burst heart!

Even Rus’s voice, which was usually impossible to ignore, now echoed faintly in her mind.

Finally, all the pieces fit together, converging on one possibility.

“……It can’t be.”

Nigel flinched, then turned the doorknob with trembling hands and burst out of the room.

-Nigel……?

Rus tilted her head and quickly followed behind Nigel.

Nigel’s gait was urgent and desperate, like a child who had lost their parents. The small body, with its small world, had emotions fully loaded in the rapidly falling footsteps, as if the world would end if she couldn’t find her parents.

Nigel roughly opened and closed doors as if possessed by something. Rus, in harmony with Nigel’s emotions, quietly clung to Nigel’s shoulder, hoping that Nigel’s pain would end quickly.

At that moment, elegant footsteps were heard from across the hallway.

Nigel’s unfocused eyes turned to the end of the corridor.

Calein, who had secretly left the palace avoiding the eyes of the servants and tutors, waved his hand vigorously from afar.

“Sister! The conversation we couldn’t finish earlier……”

The kind and welcoming voice lost its strength under Nigel’s intense momentum.

Nigel walked almost at a run and approached Calein in one breath.

“Cal, where is Mother’s study?”

Calein, who had been smiling broadly at his cousin’s familiar address, snapped to attention at Nigel’s trembling fingers touching his sleeve.

“Follow me. I’ll show you.”

A low voice settled in the corridor.

Nigel walked following Calein, holding his sleeve tightly like a rope sent down by the goddess.

“It’s here.”

As Calein stopped in front of a tall, massive brown door, Nigel opened it without hesitation.

“……?”

When the door wouldn’t open despite turning the doorknob several times, Nigel clenched her fist. Calein, startled by Nigel’s attitude as if she would break down the door with her fist, quickly grabbed his cousin’s fist.

“W-wait a moment, Sister! This door won’t open no matter what without a special key!”

Nigel loosened her fist and looked up at Calein.

Calein chuckled at his cousin’s face, which clearly asked what the key was and how on earth to open the door.

“You already have the key. Only those with magic similar to Aunt’s, that is, family magic, can open this door.”

Calein placed Nigel’s hand on the doorknob and stepped back.

Warm magical power filled the relaxed fist.

The magic glowed golden along the doorknob, then spread throughout the door like paper absorbing liquid.

When the door was completely illuminated, the heavy door slid open smoothly, allowing entry to visitors.

Nigel, unable to wait for the door to open completely, squeezed through the narrow gap and entered the study.

“Sister!”

-Nigel!

Calein and Rus, who had been staring blankly at this, entered the study a step late.

Abelin’s study, which only royalty could enter, was full of dust as servants could not freely manage it.

“Sister, what on earth are you trying to find… Cough cough.”

Calein closed his eyes at the sudden harsh air and waved his hands to make the dust fly away from around him.

“Ugh, to think it’s in this state after not being managed for a while. I must order cleaning immediately.”

While Calein was still battling the dust and shaking his shoulders, a sound of rummaging came from far away.

Calein slightly frowned and entered deeper, parting the dusty field.

At the end of the hazy view where dust was flying, Nigel could be seen roughly searching through the drawers behind a long wooden desk.

“Sister, this is a place I’ve checked many times. There’s nothing important left in Aunt’s study……”

Thud.

As if denying those words, Nigel threw a thick hardcover notebook onto the desk.

“There is something important.”

The dust on the desk scattered in all directions from the recoil.

Calein, who had no tolerance for dirt, barely opened his eyes while coughing.

“This is……!”

“It’s Mother’s diary.”

Nigel wiped the dust off the desk without hesitation with her sleeve and shook it off. Then she stroked the smooth cover of the diary and carefully but quickly flipped through the diary to find the date of the 11th birthday.

Swish, swish, as the diary got closer to the date, Nigel’s heart beat violently.

Rus and Calein watched Nigel silently, holding their breath.

“……Meriel and Enigel’s 11th birthday.”

Nigel, who found the title written in her now familiar handwriting, immediately read through the diary.

Quickly skimming over tearful phrases like ‘I miss you’ and ‘I always love you’, Nigel searched for the desired words.

“……Found it.”

Pointing to the three-syllable word clearly written in the diary, Nigel uttered in a low voice.

Calein, whose curiosity was piqued, quietly approached and examined the diary.

“Ah, I was wondering what you were looking for, it was Reparo.”

There was joy and nostalgia in Calein’s voice.

“I remember vividly even though I was young. At that time, Aunt, who was critically ill, took Reparo and regained her strength. I clearly remember her patting my head, saying she could enjoy daily activities like taking walks after getting up from her sickbed. Ah, she prepared your gift at that time too.”

Calein smiled gently towards Nigel. There was bitterness mixed in that smile.

“Thanks to the potion that appeared like a comet, Aunt talked with her family and peacefully went to the goddess’s side. To express gratitude to the creator of this potion, we secretly searched for their identity… but unfortunately, like you, the creator had no intention of revealing themselves.”

Nigel blinked blankly while listening to that story.

Her guess, which she had pieced together just in case, was correct.

Reparo, created for Nigel to live, saved the life of Abelin far away in the capital, and later came back to save Nigel’s soul.

In the series of intertwined processes, the starting point was a boy spending summer in Tillin.

“……Nix.”

“Pardon?”

“I need to find that child.”

Although the memory was gone, the desire to save someone was still alive.

Ignoring Zeronin’s words to sell it as a common potion because they might face opposition from the temple, Nigel insisted that the potion must heal someone.

Reparo was born from the meeting of Zeronin’s talent, who had surrendered, and Nigel’s magic that was unconsciously drawing Nix.

The potion made by Nigel, who was born taking her mother’s life, extended her mother’s life.

Laughter burst out at this ridiculous contradiction. Tears filled between the laughter that sounded like a weak wind.

“……Let’s go out.”

After a while, the calmed Nigel wiped away her tears with a clean sleeve and picked up the diary.

“Huh……? You’re not going to read more?”

“No. If I read more, I don’t think I’ll be able to open my eyes tomorrow morning. I’m going to postpone reading for later.”

Nigel raised her eyes and pointed to her reddened eyes.

-Good idea! Now don’t cry anymore, Nigel.

Rus, who had been struggling in harmony with Nigel’s emotions, regained her spirits along with Nigel.

“I have a new goal.”

Nigel looked down at the diary blankly and grinned.

Nix, I will find you.

No matter what happens, definitely.