“A beast in the form of a dog, that’s quite rare. It must have been quite expensive. I’ll offer you three times what you paid for it, milady.”

“Lottie is not for sale.”

“How about five times?”

“No matter how much you offer, it’s pointless. Would you please leave? My companions are nearby.”

“Hmm.”

He glanced regretfully at Lottie behind Cordelia for a moment, then left with a light bow.

Cordelia confirmed he had settled in a corner of the restaurant and hurriedly left with Lottie.

Baron was just finishing loading their luggage onto the carriage. Leonard, seeing Cordelia rushing out of the inn, called out:

“What took you so long? Hurry up and get in. We’re about to leave.”

“Master! How did you know Lottie was a magical beast?”

“Why are you suddenly asking that?”

“Just now, a man immediately recognized Lottie as a magical beast and tried to buy her from me.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. Just a man completely covered in a cloak.”

Leonard’s previously indifferent expression changed. Baron, who had been listening, also took on a serious look.

“To recognize a magical beast with such an ordinary appearance as Lottie, he must be a high-level magician. Even I didn’t notice at first.”

“High-level magician? Is that impressive?”

“Probably an elder, or just below that level.”

“But his voice sounded very young. And his chin too.”

“He sounded young?”

At Cordelia’s words, Baron and Leonard exchanged meaningful glances. They discussed something in hushed tones, but Cordelia could barely make out any of the words.

Beluce fingered his sword, scanning the surroundings with sharp eyes.

“Just to be safe, we should leave this village quickly.”

“Yes, that would be best.”

Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to be a particularly pleasant situation. As Cordelia put her luggage in the carriage, she bid a final farewell to Lottie.

“Lottie, go back to the castle. This is really…”

“Bring the dog.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Rather than being clumsily tracked because of that dog, it’s better if we keep it with us.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Cordelia opened the carriage door with a broad smile.

“Alright! Lottie, come on up!”

Lottie jumped into the carriage as if she’d been waiting for this. Watching this, a chuckle escaped Leonard’s lips.

“You didn’t make up that story about the man on purpose, did you?”

“Master! What do you take me for! I didn’t! Lottie, you say something too. Tell him you saw that man!”

Cordelia protested vehemently. Leonard clicked his tongue briefly and climbed into the carriage.

“Alright, alright. Just get in already. Let’s go, Baron.”

* * *

The tedious journey continued for a full ten days.

The Abrams territory was in the northeast, and the land where Diloana was located was at the southern end, so the carriage kept heading south.

“It’s so hot…”

With each passing day, the clothes they wore became gradually thinner. For Cordelia, who was from the north, the warm spring weather that persisted was unbelievably hot.

During this time, Cordelia repeated the same routine every day. During the day, she studied magic under Leonard’s intensive tutoring—or what he called tutoring but was more like harassment—in the carriage, and at night, she would collapse into bed as soon as she lay down.

The only advantage was that since there was nothing else for her to do besides learning magic from Leonard, her skills were improving faster than expected.

“You can already draw triple magic circles?”

“Hmph. This is nothing.”

Baron couldn’t hide his surprise as he looked at the paper Cordelia was diligently scribbling on. Cordelia proudly straightened her shoulders and showed Baron other papers as well.

“I’ve done this and this too.”

“Indeed, Lady Cordelia, you are a quick learner. Other magicians in Ropel would be shocked. Such achievement in less than a month.”

The Ingwer light brightly illuminated the surroundings.

Today, they couldn’t find a village midway through their journey, so they had to camp out.

Beluce had left, saying he would catch a rabbit or something, and Leonard had gone off on other business, leaving only Baron, Cordelia, and the drowsy Lottie by the campfire.

“It’s all thanks to my master.”

Cordelia smiled modestly, but she was secretly proud.

In fact, the reason she was progressing so quickly with magic circles was due to her talent for ‘seeing’.

While an ordinary magician would have to pour all their concentration and mental energy into drawing a magic circle, Cordelia could see the magical energy, so she just had to look and trace it.

“Your personality has brightened a lot too.”

“Has it?”

“Yes. When I first met you, it felt like you were barely breathing, as if suppressed by something.”

At Baron’s words, Cordelia reflected on the short but long past two months. As he said, compared to before she met Leonard, she was now a different person.

As she learned magic, she gained confidence and her expressions became brighter. If even she could feel it, it wasn’t strange that others noticed her change as well.

“Don’t get cocky over just that.”

Leonard, who had returned at some point, sat down next to Cordelia and briefly scanned the magic circle she had drawn. The fact that he didn’t say anything meant it probably wasn’t wrong.

Baron smiled good-naturedly and defended Cordelia.

“Lady Cordelia’s skill is undeniably impressive. To already be drawing triple magic circles.”

“Anyone with a brain can do that.”

“Tch. Always saying that. You should praise your disciple sometimes to boost her morale.”

“Her morale seems a bit too high already. It could stand to be knocked down a peg.”

“Master.”

With a low voice, Beluce appeared from the darkness. The smell of blood stung their noses. Lottie jumped up from her spot. Cordelia almost screamed at the sight of Beluce.

“Didn’t you say you were going to catch rabbits?”

“What happened, Beluce?”

He was covered in blood from head to toe. Yet the other two men didn’t even flinch, let alone show surprise. Only Cordelia was shocked, clutching her startled chest.

“Instead of rabbits, I found something interesting.”

“What kind of thing?”

“You should see for yourself. I left it alive.”

He turned around and walked away, dragging something back. This time, Cordelia nearly threw up.

What Beluce dragged back was humanoid in shape, but completely battered. It was clear why he was covered in so much blood.

Smelling it up close, the blood odor was more nauseating than expected, and Cordelia grabbed a tree and dry heaved.

“Can it speak?”

That was all Baron was curious about. Beluce shrugged his shoulders. Then, without any emotion, he kicked the pulped human.

“Ack!”

“You can talk, right? I didn’t touch your tongue.”

“Why this one?”

Baron asked.

“I was wandering around to hunt when I saw this man writing something. I saw something familiar and couldn’t just pass by.”

Beluce handed over a small note. At the end of the note, there was a faint image of a snake wrapped around a lily.

“What is this?”

Cordelia asked, craning her neck. Baron kindly answered.

“It’s the emblem used by Maximilian.”

“Oh, I see- wait, Maximilian? That Maximilian?”

Her eyes widened as much as possible. For one of Maximilian’s subordinates to be caught near their campsite was an amazing coincidence.

“The more interesting part is here.”

Beluce grinned ominously and lifted the fallen man’s arm. On the back of his hand was clearly drawn a wolf. This was an emblem Cordelia knew for certain.

“Embly? Why is the Red Wolf here?”

“Hmm. Maximilian and Embly. Not a surprising combination.”

The Red Wolf Embly was one of the eight sacred families, just like Vasquez and Atilei.

For someone from the Embly family to have Maximilian’s note, there was certainly some connection between the two.

“Thinking about how this one was caught, I realize this forest is on the border of Embly territory.”

Baron said, assessing the situation.

“Master, what does it say there?”

The note was written in code, so Cordelia couldn’t understand it even if she looked. It was similar yet different from what she had seen when delivering Leonard’s letter before.

Leonard’s expression hardened as he read the note.

“We need to change our destination.”

“Pardon? What does it say?”

“Maximilian is trying to permanently close my research lab.”

“Is that even possible?”

Baron exclaimed, jumping up. Leonard crumpled the paper and threw it into the campfire. In an instant, the note disappeared from the world, leaving only ashes.

“Since that bastard is my only family, it’s not legally impossible.”

“But there are so many precious things in that lab! Maximilian seems to be dead set on this.”

“We need to go to the Ropel Magic Association.”

“But it’s impossible for me, Beluce, or even you to enter with your current body- Ah.”

Baron stopped mid-sentence and suddenly looked at Cordelia.

She found that sparkling gaze extremely, terribly unsettling. It was similar to the look Leonard had given her before they departed for Diloana territory.

Leonard was also staring intently at Cordelia.

“Why, why are you looking at me?”

“We have her. If a legitimate heir appears, they can’t permanently close it.”

“But if we do that, it will reveal who Lady Cordelia’s master is. Is that alright?”

“It’ll be revealed eventually. Preventing the closure is more important.”

The two men exchanged words that Cordelia couldn’t understand. Baron glanced at her once more and shook his head.

“My goodness. Ropel will be completely turned upside down.”

“Um, could you please explain what you’re talking about?”

“It means I’m going to officially acknowledge you as my disciple.”

“But I’m already your disciple.”

“People don’t know that. That you’re my disciple.”

“Do we have to let people know that?”

From Cordelia’s perspective, her first thought was ‘Why bother?’ She was planning to just learn a few spells and leave, so the idea of going all the way to the Magic Association to reveal this fact felt burdensome.