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I met more nobles than yesterday, exchanged greetings with many, and ate until my stomach felt ready to burst.

I overheard some gossip about Count Tyren, though it wasn’t my intention.

“Count Tyren has been expelled from the castle, hasn’t he?”

“What on earth did he do to deserve that? …”

“He didn’t achieve anything significant in the last war and has been drifting from place to place since it ended, and this is more or less his end.”

“From what I’ve heard, Count Tyren’s eldest son got into some trouble.”

“So the rumors are true, Count Tyren’s eldest son, the summoner he boasted about, has been in trouble?”

“Hush. Hush. Anyway, how absurd is it to come here and get expelled for not keeping an eye on his son?”

I could hear them talking.

“By the way, have you heard the rumors, Young Master Dain, that he’s already a full-fledged summoner?”

“So, the Count Sogres’s son is now a master summoner?”

“That’s not all; I heard he can also use magic!”

“Oh my God, does that even make sense?”

News spreads.

Although not all of it is accurate.

In any case, Count Tyren probably wouldn’t have been expelled so dramatically if he had apologized and bowed his head in the first place.

I don’t know if he was trying to gain something from this, but a belated apology doesn’t help at all.

It taught me something.

Apologies are better than excuses.

Apologies are immediate.

I’ve seen it a lot in my past life, but there’s no better way to resolve a conflict than with a quick apology.

Of course, there are occasions when you shouldn’t apologize.

Meanwhile, when my mother heard the news, she grabbed me and asked.

“Dain, you’re not hurt, right?”

“No.”

“Phew, that’s good to hear.”

She’s my mother, after all.

Gentler than my father…

“Have you ever used stealth?”

“Yes, I have…”

“I heard you use summoning and magic bullets, so I was wondering.”

My father must be quite detailed.

“Yes, of course. I hid in the garden grass, and they didn’t even notice.”

My mother was delighted.

“That’s very good,” she said, “and it’s commendable that you did it right the first time. I’ll have to teach you tracking next time.”

Thankfully, my older sisters aren’t around.

They would have asked the same question.

Is it good that I didn’t use spear skills?

After all, all I did directly was hit his nose against his forehead, so it doesn’t seem like I did much wrong.

Anyway, except for spear skills, the other three talents had practical use in unexpected circumstances.

Well, technically, it’s not magic; it’s a magic bullet, but… so what?

I was inspired by the flower magic my older sister taught me, so it counts as magic.

By the way, many people are interested in my talent.

“Oh, you’re Dain I’ve only heard rumors about! I’m Baron Offent. House Offent, in the east, have you heard of us?”

“Yes, Baron. I understand you’re quite famous for your roasted trout and sapphires.”

“Haha, what a place, it’s true. We have the best trout and sapphires on the continent! Oh, and I heard you’re talented in many aspects!”

Partly due to my father’s prestige, but mostly because of the sly way he looked at me.

“It’s nothing, I just wanted you to meet my daughter, greet her. Haha.”

Something like that.

Duke Thermion was quite a gentleman.

It’s not my place to approach Count Sogres and talk to him.

“Hello, my name is Sylvia.”

“Hello. I’m Dain.”

“You’re the one who will take care of the Sogres family someday, right?”

What’s with kids these days?

“I’m not sure.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. They said you’re very talented.”

“I don’t think that’s something I should be thinking about.”

I reflected on how to return this annoying young lady to Baron Offent and came up with an unexpected solution.

Or rather, a solution occurred to me.

“Dain, here you are.”

It was Leyla.

Sylvia jumped to her feet, panicked.

“Ley-Leyla.”

“Who are you?”

Leyla looked at Sylvia, narrowing her eyes like needles. Sylvia seemed nervous, but she introduced herself very casually.

“Good evening, Lady Leyla. I’m Sylvia Offent, the eldest daughter of Baron Offent.”

“Oh, really? I’m Leyla Thermion. Nice to meet you.”

Women are scary.

Because even in those brief moments, they are scrutinizing every corner and crevice of each other.

I suppose in a murderous aristocracy, it’s a matter of routine, but…

“I’m sorry, but I need to borrow Dain. He has a ‘promise’ to fulfill, right, Dain?”

At those words, Sylvia looked at me.

A cold sweat ran down my spine.

The time to choose had arrived.

I know it very well, as I’ve often witnessed the bloody wars among my older sisters.

In such cases, you have to make the best choice.

I’m sorry, Sylvia.

I rose from my seat, feigning defeat.

“I’m sorry, we’ll talk another time.”

“Uh, yeah…”

The Duke’s honor, whose power is surpassed only by the Emperor in the capital.

And the Baron from the East.

It was a one-sided battle.

Anyway, I left the main house with Leyla to quench my thirst and head to the gardens.

“What did you talk to her about, did she tell you anything?”

“About what?”

“Maybe… about the engagement?”

I chuckled.

“Do you want to know?”

“Not necessarily, just curious, but…”

You’re curious.

“I’ll tell you later if you’re curious.”

“Really?”

“No.”

“Ah, stop kidding.”

Jokes are fun.

“But did she really say that?”

“No. She didn’t.”

Why does she seem relieved?

Anyway, Leyla and I reached the garden.

It’s a secret place, to be precise, one you wouldn’t know unless you lived here, in the Count’s territory.

“You really can’t see anything from here.”

Leyla looked around curiously, her shining eyes locking onto me.

“Okay, it’s your turn to make a wish. What do you want me to do first?”

“Let me ask you a few questions first.”

“As you wish! By the way, my birthday is only four months away!”

I went straight to the point.

“Yes, yes. Have you ever felt magic?”

“A little?”

“How much is ‘a little’?”

“Not enough to form a… magic core or something, but enough to sense and gather?”

“Then you’re not at the release stage yet.”

At those words, Leyla frowned and asked.

“Is it hard to learn, then?”

“No. You just have to learn it from now on.”

“Really?”

I recalled rolling on the battlefield, naturally breathing in magic.

The battlefield is a desolate place, filled with corpses, but paradoxically, it’s a place where I can breathe magic more freely.

When knights, mages, summoners, and others who can handle magic die, the magic in their bodies slowly depletes.

With such corpses, it was naturally a more energetic space than other places.

I’m about to tell her how I learned to do it naturally.

By the way, they don’t teach you this at the ducal academy.

Affinity for magic is highly individualized, but a duke should be able to tell you.

Is Duke Thermion stricter than he seems?

“Firstly, you need to feel magic in your body.”

“Feel it in your body?”

“Yes. To release it from your body, you must be able to manipulate the mana within you. The keyword is ‘imagine.\'”

“If you imagine…”

“Imagine mana flowing through your body. Close your eyes and imagine your body. And imagine magic running through your veins like blood.”

Imagine.

Or, in other words, create.

It’s not just about manipulating magic; it’s the foundation of everything you can do with it.

“It’s not working…”

And it’s difficult at first.

It’s challenging to imagine something you’ve never seen.

“Take it easy.”

If merely accepting the energy is a matter of affinity, releasing and properly blending it to form a core or a circle is a matter of imagination.

Circles are much harder to form than cores; that’s why mages talk to themselves all the time and get lost in their thoughts.

If you can’t do this, you won’t end up with a core or a circle.

And magic tends to disperse after a certain time unless compressed into a core or a circle.

“Power…”

“I’m not going to give you power.”

After trying for a while, Leyla felt frustrated.

“It’s not working.”

“Then let’s try this.”

I enchanted the ring my older sister had given me, and a subspace appeared in front of my hand. Leyla gasped in surprise.

“Wow! Is this a subspace?”

“Yes.”

I took a mirror from the exposed subspace. It was large enough to reflect Leyla’s entire body.

“Do you have a subspace pocket like this…?”

“Yes. My older sister made it herself this time and gave it to me.”

“Wow… I’m so jealous… My brothers don’t even pay attention to me because they’re too busy training at the academy.”

Leyla looked thoughtfully at my ring and then clenched her fist as if she had already made up her mind.

“I’m going to be stronger than my brothers, no matter what.”

I know it’s none of my business, but it’s a shame she doesn’t care about her only sister.

“Okay, for that, stand in front of the mirror. I want to see your whole body.”

“Like this?”

“Okay. Like that. From now on, instead of closing your eyes and imagining it, look at yourself in the mirror and picture it in your head. It will be much easier.”

Imagining is difficult.

Especially when it comes to your own body.

But it’s much easier when you have a mirror.

You can imagine looking at your own body with your own eyes.

Mind you, I didn’t have a mirror, so on rainy days, I used to run to the puddle to practice seeing my reflection.

“Okay, I’ll give it a try.”

Perhaps instinctively sensing that this would be easier, Leyla gathered her willpower and started looking at herself in the mirror.

How much time had passed?

“Oh.”

I let out a faint sigh and watched Leyla’s excitement.

It was a flow of magic that would be invisible to anyone but someone like me, with a strong affinity for magic, or Leyla herself.

In other words, Leyla was radiating magic throughout her body.

She has talent.

Although not as much as me.

“Hmph.”

Leyla was really struggling.

Her face was flushed, her knuckles white, and her swollen eyes fluttering.

The moment she finally realized that she was releasing magic.

“Pfft!”

She let out a choked sigh and collapsed to the ground.

A breath that sounded tired, almost exhausted.

But her expression was one of joy.

“That’s it, that’s it. Did I do it?”

“Yes. That’s it.”

As she was already breathing to receive magical power, it seemed to happen so quickly.

But this is just the beginning.

“But it’s only the beginning.”

“This, is the beginning?”

Leyla asked, bewildered.

“Yes. Now that you know the emanations, you have to follow that sensation and concentrate them in one place.”

“Ha, can’t we take a break?”

“What did you just say? We have to go with the flow.”

Leyla got up annoyed.

She tried to look as pitiful as she could, but it wasn’t working.

“Ugh…”

In the end, Leyla manages to stand up and positions herself in front of the mirror again.

I smiled satisfactorily and nodded.

Then I tried to ignore the glances I felt behind me.

How long is my father going to sneak a peek?

Did you learn stealth from my mother?

***

“Ohhh.”

Count Sogres looked at the two children and smiled with curiosity.

Stealth is perfect. Hiding in the grass.

He learned the art of stealth for his wife, Lily, who often used her stealth to surprise him with a pat on the back.

“My son Dain is already teaching others. He has grown.”

Count Sogres smiled satisfactorily.

“What are you doing there?”

“Surprise! Oh, no, Duke.”

“Why are you hidden in the grass, is there some kind of nocturnal couple here?”

“How did you know?”

Count Sogres seemed surprised that his perfect concealment had been discovered.

“I can see through you. How can such a poor concealment be called a concealment, tsk tsk. Your wife is a legendary assassin, and you, her husband, haven’t learned anything from her.”

“…”

“What’s the point? The castle owner can’t hide in the bushes like this, and if someone catches him spying, they’ll insult him.”

“I’m following my son.”

“Eh? You too? I’m following my daughter.”

Here were two elderly nobles.

“Let me see.”

Duke Thermion peeked through the garden grass and smiled as if he knew.

“I see my daughter has taken a liking to him.”

“Does it seem that way?”

“Yes. It’s not common for Leyla to give her heart so easily.”

“Has something happened to her? She seems like a bright girl.”

“Bright on the outside, being the Duke’s favorite, but not on the inside. She distanced herself from her brothers when they went to the Academy.”

“I guess that would explain…”

“Her mother is also sick, and we don’t spend as much time together as before, so she feels lonely.”

Duke Thermion sighed.

He buried his head in the grass.

“I thought about sending her to the academy to mingle with kids her age, but you know the aristocratic society.”

“I know, and that’s why I kicked them out halfway.”

“That’s why I brought her to this banquet, thought it would be good for her to meet other kids here, and it seems she’s made good friends.”

Duke Thermion smiled, relieved.

He stuck his head in the grass.

“Hmm, is Dain teaching Leyla to manipulate magic? That’s what it looks like in the mirror.”

“I think you’re right. I wonder if Dain offered to teach her first.”

“Leyla might have asked him first. In any case, she’s been practicing without telling me lately, saying she needs to create a magic core, and now she’s had a breakthrough like this.”

Count Sogres scratched his head and frowned.

He buried his head in the grass, and the branches scratched his face.

“Ugh. Why aren’t you being gentle with your daughter, anyway?”

“Because she is… wait, did you notice?”

“It didn’t seem like you cared at all.”

“I did it on purpose. I treated my children like this and then disguised it, especially when they were training.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. It will hurt you later. It’s the same with magic cores. Why didn’t you ask Dain?”

“I remember when you used to…”

Duke Thermion nodded, wondering if he felt the same.

Once again, the branches scratched his face.

“Will your son be sent to the capital later? If you send him, he’ll stay in the duchy, but…”

“I’ll do what Dain wants, as Arabel and Claire did, and if he tells me he wants to go to the capital, I’ll send him.”

“And if you do, he’ll come with me.”

“Do you want him to go there and duel all day?”

“Look down. Eh.”

In the midst of their discussions, neither of them took their eyes off Dain and Leyla, their son’s playful but serious riding lesson with their daughter.

And there was a woman with her eyes on their behinds.

“What are you two doing hidden in the garden?”

It was Lily Sogres, searching for her missing husband and son.

She sighed at the two bottoms wriggling, trying to hide somehow, and then decided.

“Let’s pretend I didn’t notice.”