“I-I’m sorry. The young lady is unwell, but she is certainly alive. Her fever has gone down significantly.”

“Hmm.”

Maximilian glanced at Rosaline, who was lying like a corpse, without much interest and asked Sophia:

“But why are there only three of you? Where are all the other knights?”

“That’s… Actually, shortly after arriving in Ansen, we were attacked by a group. Only us and the young lady barely survived the attack.”

“What group? Who were they?”

“I’m not sure. The three of us survived because we were hiding in the carriage.”

“Didn’t you see anything? For example, the emblem of the attackers?”

“Um.”

One of the young maids cautiously stepped forward at Maximilian’s question.

“It was… a woman.”

“A woman?”

“Yes. There was definitely a woman with black hair among them.”

She still trembled at the memory of that time. However, she remembered because the face of the woman she saw right after getting out of the carriage was unrealistically beautiful.

“That can’t be. A woman attacked Embly’s carriage? How? Are you sure?”

“W-well, I’m not certain…”

“You shouldn’t go around talking as if it’s a fact when you’re not even sure.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

Though his tone was gentle, it did not hide the sharpness within. The maid who had spoken shrank back, hunching her shoulders.

“If we go to the place where you were attacked, we might find some clues. You remember where you were attacked, right?”

“Ah. Yes. I remember it clearly.”

Sophia described the location of the attack in detail.

“I see. They dared to attack Embly, so they must be made to pay the price, don’t you think?”

He spoke as if Embly’s blood flowed through him, and it was so natural that it didn’t even feel out of place.

At that moment, another maid holding a child in the corner carefully brought Daniel over.

“A son, the young lady gave birth to a son. His name is Dani…”

“You take good care of that.”

Maximilian didn’t even look at his son’s face. It seemed he didn’t think of him as his own flesh and blood.

Sophia was furious at his behavior. The young lady had endured the pain of tearing her flesh for this child, yet this man wouldn’t even care for his own child.

“And you take good care of Rosaline until the Elector of Embly arrives. How sad would the Elector be if she were to die?”

“…Yes. Understood.”

When Rosaline was by his side, he acted as if he would pluck the stars from the sky for her, but now that she couldn’t open her eyes, he was so cold. It felt as if he was entrusting an animal, without a speck of warmth.

Sophia inwardly cursed him while outwardly nodding her head obediently.

* * *

‘The fact that she held my hand means she must have some feelings for me, right?’

Leonard had been staring intently at Cordelia’s hand for a while. Then he began to retrace each of her actions towards him, trying to attach meaning to them.

‘Saying that she respects me the most in the world must include affection, right? Doesn’t it mean she’s full of positive emotions towards me?’

If someone knew the thoughts floating in his head, they would laugh at how ridiculous it was, but surprisingly, Leonard was sincere.

‘Moreover, she hugged me in the middle of the night, crying not to abandon her. That’s proof that she trusts me more than anyone else in this world.’

“Master.”

“What, huh? Why?”

“Why are you so surprised?”

“When did I get surprised, ahem.”

His voice choked, making what he just said lose credibility. He tried to act as normal as possible and said:

“What is it, tell me.”

“You’ve been staring at my hand for a while now. Don’t tell me you’re still holding a grudge?”

“Grudge? What grudge?”

“This bracelet. Was it Ebrard’s treasure?”

Cordelia lightly shook her left wrist. Leonard had been looking at her hand all this time, but only now noticed that Ebrard’s treasure was on her wrist.

“Just keep it. Don’t feel burdened.”

“Beluce said this allows instant teleportation, right?”

“That’s right. But he told you that fact?”

“Yes. He even told me the activation word. Though I haven’t tried using it yet.”

“That’s unusual. At first, Beluce seemed to disapprove of you…”

Come to think of it, Beluce is suspicious.

At first, he expressed great dissatisfaction with the fact that Cordelia was his disciple, but at some point, he never complained about protecting her. Rather, when Cordelia was leaving for Abrams, he volunteered to stay by her side.

‘Could that guy also be…!’

It was a thought that would immediately infuriate Beluce if he knew, but Leonard, already deeply infatuated, set up a boundary thinking it was quite possible.

“Don’t get too close to Beluce.”

“Huh? Suddenly? Why?”

“Just don’t do it when I tell you not to. That guy’s head is full of nothing but me and swords. There’s absolutely no room for a woman in there. Got it?”

“Well, um. Yes.”

All this talk about Beluce and women out of nowhere was quite odd. He didn’t seem to be like this usually, but ever since leaving Abrams, the master had been saying incomprehensible things more often.

Cordelia felt it was quite strange, but she let it be. All her attention was now focused on the Wilas Islands, which were not far away.

Originally, they had planned to go straight to Yebo Delim, but there was news that traces of Maximilian had been found in the south. Along with that, they changed course to Ropel Mahyeop to officially establish Cordelia as the successor of Leonard’s school, ‘Acheron’.

“What kind of ceremony do I need to do there?”

“Just gathering some old wizards and announcing that you’re the successor of Acheron.”

“Is that successor different from being a disciple?”

“Usually, one has multiple disciples. The successor refers to the one among those disciples who will take on the next Seirius.”

“Is it okay to make me the successor? You might take on other disciples later.”

“No.”

Leonard shook his head very firmly.

“You are my first and last disciple. I never intended to take on any disciples in the first place.”

The words ‘first and last’ struck Cordelia’s heart. She quite liked it.

First and last.

“Ahem. Well, that’s up to you, Master. But why didn’t you want to take on disciples?”

“As you probably know by now, the master-disciple relationship for wizards is absolute. It can’t be easily broken or passed on. Once you take someone as a disciple, it means you have to take responsibility for them for life. Do you know how scary that is?”

“Master, you really…”

“Really what?”

“You seem to fear taking responsibility. Like with marriage before.”

“It’s because I know the weight of it well. It’s not just anyone’s life being turned upside down by my choice.”

“You seem unexpectedly sensitive for someone who doesn’t seem to care about others’ lives.”

“I don’t care about others’ lives. It’s different because it’s my disciple or my wife.”

Leonard stared directly into Cordelia’s eyes as he spoke.

“The reason I…”

He hesitated, wondering if bringing this up might sour the mood that had just improved, but he chose to move forward directly.

“The reason I gave money to your father was also my way of taking responsibility.”

“What kind of responsibility?”

“I wanted to protect you from him, and I chose to give money as a way to do that. I swear, I never thought of that money as a price for you.”

“…”

“But that was just my intention, and if it made you feel bad, then it was the wrong approach.”

To be honest, he still didn’t fully understand why she was angry, but his feelings for her helped him overcome even that lack of understanding.

Cordelia stared at him silently for a while. As the silence lengthened, Leonard spoke in a voice smaller than usual.

“Say anything. That you’re annoyed because of me, or that you’re still not over it. …Anything is fine.”

“Is it really okay?”

“Yeah.”

Though he spoke casually, Leonard’s emotions were jumping inside. If she were to say something like she could never forgive him, or that she was disappointed and didn’t want to see her master anymore, it would be a big blow.

“My father hated my eyes.”

“…Huh?”

His head, which had been looking down at the floor, snapped up at the unexpected words. Cordelia calmly told her story.

“I don’t know why. He just said he didn’t like them. When he drank, that hatred grew stronger. At first, it was just a slap or two, but later he would grab whatever was at hand, even leather belts…”

She recalled days she didn’t want to think about, but couldn’t forget.

She clung to her father’s trouser legs as he swung the belt, begging. Saying she was sorry. Begging for her life. But Cordelia still couldn’t understand what her fault was.

As Leonard listened to Cordelia’s story, he secretly clenched his fist tightly.

‘I shouldn’t have just broken his ankles. I should have whipped him with a horsewhip until he was on the verge of death.’

“At first, I tried to understand my father. Of course, I failed. Then I tried to change my eyes.”

“How?”

“With something like chemicals… I thought that if I became unable to see, maybe my father wouldn’t hate me as much.”

Thinking about it now, it seems foolish, but at the time she was desperate. If she had had a little more time, she might have really done it.

“Your eyes.”

Leonard could easily imagine the young Cordelia. She would have brought her trembling hands to her eyes. He reached out his hand, almost touching her cheek.

“Your eyes are very beautiful. More than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

“Hehe. Thank you.”

“I’m serious. I’ve never seen such clear green eyes like yours. Sometimes they’re as soft as spring sunlight, and sometimes they’re like leaves that have just bloomed in early summer.”

He regretted his poor expressiveness. To explain how beautiful her eyes were, sparkling with each ray of light, he would need to summon all the literary figures of Ershe.

It’s unclear whether Leonard’s sincerity reached her. Cordelia just smiled very faintly.