However, contrary to everyone’s worries, an entirely unexpected scene unfolded.

“What took you so long? The sun’s about to set.”

“That person over there… isn’t that Maximilian?”

“That’s right. My cute little brother.”

Leonard giggled and forcefully stomped on Maximilian’s head with his foot. The Baron set Beluce down, leaning him against a tree, and rushed over to Leonard.

“Are you alright? Diloana…”

“Ah, that. I was going to take care of it anyway.”

[Release this immediately!]

Surely, what the Baron had seen before leaving was a small silver fox, but now Diloana had turned into a house-sized wolf, thrashing about madly.

Unfortunately, she was trapped in a magically created prison, unable to move an inch. Diloana growled and rammed her body against the bars, but they didn’t budge at all.

“I was in the middle of extracting Maximilian’s magic power when she tried to pounce on me from behind. I wanted to kill her, but time was short, so I just captured her for now.”

He spoke so casually that for a moment, it was hard to understand what had happened. The Baron could only respond with a dazed expression, saying, “I see.”

It was an unfortunate timing for Diloana. She had tried to attack Leonard when the two were fighting and their strength was depleted, but it happened to be when he was absorbing Maximilian’s magic power, making him even stronger than before.

[Hahaha.]

Roti, who had been following, saw Diloana trapped in the prison and laughed loudly.

[You look pathetic, Diloana.]

“Raustonio! How did you get here!”

[I was just passing by.]

“Why is this thing talking?”

Leonard pointed at Roti with his finger. Cordelia explained in detail about what had just happened.

“…Roti appeared just in time. Then he killed all ten magical beasts. Oh, and it turns out Roti isn’t a low-level magical beast, but actually a very powerful one even in Glendni.”

“Hmm. I thought it was just a mangy dog, but it seems to have some use.”

At that, Roti stretched out his neck and introduced himself in a dignified voice.

[I am Raustonio, the fifth calamity of Glendni.]

“Right. Calamity. From now on, protect my disciple well.”

[…..]

Even Roti, who had been acting so composed, was momentarily at a loss for words at Leonard’s indifferent reaction. Regardless, Leonard took his eyes off Roti and walked back to Maximilian, who was crawling on the ground.

Cordelia trailed behind him.

“How did you catch Maximilian? He’s been following me since Wilas, right?”

“Cor-rect.”

Though he made it obvious that he found it bothersome, he still answered each question.

“Are you going to kill him here?”

“No. I’m going to extract his magic power to use it.”

“Why the magic power? Is it some kind of torture among magicians?”

“Torture? What are you talking about? Do you think I have that much free time? It’s a process to create a medium for soul transfer magic.”

“…Huh? Then what about me?”

“What are you talking about? Ah, stop being annoying and go stand over there.”

Leonard waved his arm at Cordelia as if shooing away a fly. Cordelia froze in place, her lips quivering. The Baron intervened.

“To think you’d consider using Maximilian as a medium. As expected of my brilliant master!”

“You, you weren’t planning to use me as a medium?”

“Why would I use someone as weak as you as a medium?”

Leonard snorted and stabbed a dagger into the back of Maximilian’s right hand as he crawled like an insect.

“Argh!”

“To be a medium, you need to be at least at my brother’s level. Right, Max?”

“I’ll, I’ll k-kill…”

Maximilian trembled like a specimen pinned down. Having already lost a significant amount of magic power, even speaking seemed painful for him.

“So, so, does this mean, ugh, I can, hic, continue, urgh, learning magic?”

“What on earth has this one been babbling about?”

As Cordelia, who had been whimpering, burst into loud sobs, Leonard snapped in irritation. The Baron, with an awkward smile, briefly explained what had happened.

After hearing the explanation, Leonard glared fiercely at the knight who was unconscious, leaning against a tree trunk.

“Beluce, that bastard said unnecessary things…”

“Lady Cordelia has been through a lot emotionally. Earlier, on our way here, she said she would give everything for her master. How touching that noble heart was.”

“Hmph. So that’s why you’ve been pouting like a duck and not doing your homework these past few days. Expect double the homework for a while.”

“You could have, ugh, told me beforehand. I didn’t even know.”

“You should have asked me in the first place. After imagining all sorts of things on your own.”

Everything he said was correct, so Cordelia couldn’t find any words to refute. As he said, if she had honestly asked from the beginning, she wouldn’t have had to suffer alone like this.

“Ouch. It hurts.”

As the tension eased, pain suddenly rushed in all at once.

After confronting magical beasts multiple times, rolling and jumping around, her whole body ached. The side of her back hurt the most. She must have been scraped by tree branches.

As she staggered, clutching her side, Leonard let out a sigh.

“What now? Did you trip over a rock on your way here?”

“Not that, but I think I scratched my side a bit.”

“Come here.”

He placed his hand on Cordelia’s side. She thought the small wound would quickly heal with healing magic, but it didn’t. Leonard’s expression hardened.

“When did you get this wound?”

“I’m not sure. I think I got scraped by a branch while running frantically.”

“You idiot. This isn’t from a tree branch!”

“Why?”

He shouted angrily. Cordelia blinked her large eyes, looking at Leonard.

“Haa. Doesn’t it hurt?”

“It hurts a lot.”

“With a wound this severe, it seems you were clawed by a magical beast, not a tree branch. My goodness, to think you didn’t say anything with such a large wound.”

The Baron, who had come to her side, exclaimed upon seeing Cordelia’s wound.

“Come on, it can’t be that bad. If it were, I should have fainted like Beluce.”

“It is that bad. It’s strange you didn’t faint.”

Cordelia tried to make light of the situation.

Since the wound was on her side close to her back, Cordelia couldn’t see it herself, but she didn’t think it was severe enough to make the Baron exclaim.

Of course, the two men had different opinions.

“What should we do with Cordelia? Perhaps we should give her medicine…”

“Right. Make her faint and lay her down next to Beluce. She won’t be able to endure the suturing while conscious.”

While Cordelia was thinking it couldn’t be that bad, the Baron took out a bottle from his chest and handed it to her.

“Please drink this.”

“What is this?”

“It’s a medicine that will make you sleep deeply. It will erase both pain and thoughts.”

Cordelia took the bottle handed by the Baron and drank it in one gulp. Fortunately, it wasn’t bitter. And it didn’t make her sleepy either.

“But this sleeping medicine…”

It was Leonard who caught her as she collapsed to the side. He chanted a healing spell over Cordelia’s wound area. As the white light disappeared, her complexion became more peaceful.

“Take her away. I need to finish things with Maximilian now.”

“Yes, Master.”

* * *

Memories come back in fragments.

The Baron’s worried face, someone’s back, or Roti’s dull gray fur surfaced and disappeared repeatedly above the surface of sleep.

It feels like waking up from a very long sleep.

Cordelia became aware that her body was shaking. That was the first sensation.

As she managed to lift her eyelids, light poured in.

She frowned and closed her eyes again. Then someone made a shade with their hand.

“Are you awake now?”

It’s a voice she’s hearing for the first time. When she first heard Rosenblur’s voice, she thought it was clear like a bell, but this one was low and sweet. It was impossible to say which was better, they were so equally pleasing.

Thanks to the hand shading her from the sunlight, Cordelia could fully open her eyes.

The shaking movement must have been because they were in a carriage.

When she looked up, there was an angel with platinum blonde hair and mysterious purple eyes.

“…Ahem. Who are you?”

Cordelia was instantly captivated by this angel. She stared at the angel with her mouth slightly open, unable to take her eyes off.

The angel rested their chin on their hand and snorted.

“Now you can’t even recognize your master?”

“Our master doesn’t look like this.”

“This is how I originally look.”

“No, it’s not. Our master… Our master…”

Slowly, her mind returned. The events that had happened before she fell asleep passed by like a panorama.

From going to Diloana’s territory with Leonard, to the life-and-death situation with Beluce, Roti appearing to save them, and finally clearing up the misunderstanding she had about Leonard.

“Huh? Huh?”

“Will you stop gaping? A fly might fly in.”

“Is this really your original face, I mean, Master?”

“How many times do I have to tell you? It is.”

Leonard got irritated as she repeated the same question. The personality was familiar, but the face was completely unfamiliar.

She thought Rosenblur’s face was one of a kind in the world, but there was another similar type.

“How’s your wound?”

“Wound? Ah. My side. Huh? It doesn’t hurt anymore… Ouch.”

“Seems it hasn’t completely healed yet.”

“Ow, why are you poking it!”

“From today, you’re going to have special training.”

Somehow, this sentence felt familiar, as if she had heard it somewhere before. Cordelia instinctively shook her head quickly.

“But I just woke up? I also suffered a severe injury, and I’m not fully recovered. My head suddenly feels like it’s hurting too.”

“No. You’ve recovered a lot while sleeping for three days, so don’t worry.”

“Three days? I’ve been awake for three days?”

“Yes. You were out for so long, I thought Baron might have given you poison instead of a sleeping potion.”

Knock knock−

At that moment, there was a sound of someone knocking on the carriage from outside. Cordelia quickly opened the carriage window to escape the topic of special training.

The Baron greeted her cheerfully.

“Lady Cordelia! You’re finally awake!”

“Yes, just now.”

“I’m so relieved. For three days, I’ve been suffering under suspicion of poisoning you. The master was really grilling me…”

There was a reason why the Baron was overly welcoming her. But sadly, he couldn’t finish his sentence.

Leonard got up and shut the window so hard it made a thud sound. Cordelia turned around, dumbfounded.

“Hey, someone was talking…”

“And?”

“…Just saying.”

What’s the use of an angelic exterior if the inside is rotten fruit?

He arrogantly crossed his legs and leaned back. When he did the same action in Craig’s body, she inwardly mocked him for putting on airs, but when he did it in his original body, it naturally exuded nobility.

His face looked so holy, as if he had never even thought of uttering a curse word.

“What are you staring at?”

“Was Maximilian perhaps adopted? How can you two look so different?”

Of course, Maximilian was handsome too, but Leonard’s beauty was on a completely different level. She had never seen such vivid and perfect platinum blonde hair in her life. Moreover, his eyes were so mysterious they didn’t seem human.

“It would be better if he were adopted.”

“Oh, by the way, what happened to Maximilian?”

The last she remembered of Maximilian was his miserable state, crawling on the ground like an insect.

Leonard pointed his finger at the top of the carriage. Thinking he meant the sky, Cordelia nodded.

“Ah, so you did kill him after all.”

“No. I didn’t kill him. He’s up there. With your husband.”

“Up? Where up?”

Cordelia looked up. If not the sky, ‘up’ here must mean the carriage roof.

“Don’t tell me you put them on the roof? Alive?”

“How could I kill my only brother? Of course I put him up there alive.”

“Along with my dead husband?”

“Yeah. There’s more space up there than you’d think.”

Now she understood why Maximilian was his blood brother. Cordelia shook her head.