“We’ll stop the horses here.”
They tied the horses to a nearby tree. Anya stroked Mil’s fluttering mane once.
“Your Imperial Highness, watch your step. You could fly off into the distance if you’re not careful.”
Riario carelessly spat out frightening words. The courtyard was full of unknown characters and diagrams, with fragments of magical devices scattered everywhere in between.
Riario carefully moved his steps, avoiding the fragments here and there, then settled into position and closed his eyes with his hand on the ground. A purple light bloomed beneath his hand.
“I’ve neutralized everything for now.”
He shook off the snow on his hands and gestured inside. Anya stepped inside with a much lighter heart. Karen was silently walking into a nearby barracks, carrying an armful of parchment.
“Karen will redraw the magical formulas written on the parchment into the magical devices… and Master just needs to transfer magic into these orbs.”
The wooden box Riario handed over was full of transparent orbs. The insides of the orbs were completely empty. Anya picked one up and examined it from all angles. It was truly an empty orb with nothing inside. Riario opened another wooden box rolling on the ground and kicked it with his foot. The glass inside clinked with a sharp sound.
“See this? When you fill it with magic, it takes on color like this.”
Indeed, as he said, that wooden box was packed full of orbs that had changed to mysterious colors.
“So I j-just need to f-fill them with m-magic.”
Now he had work to do too. Anya enthusiastically rolled up his sleeves. Motivation welled up.
Anya dragged the box under a tree. As soon as he grasped one orb from the box, a whirlpool arose in his belly as if someone were stirring it. It was an unfamiliar feeling, but this was definitely magic. Mmm, a small groaning sound came from Anya’s mouth. Before long, a blue light rippled inside the orb.
The boy’s hazelnut eyes glowed faintly. Anya stared at the colored orb for a long while. So this is magic. Seeing with his eyes the formless energy that had always felt like air was incredibly fascinating.
Anya immediately grasped another orb. Thanks to having opened the path once, this time he could insert magic more easily.
He failed with 3, and had filled about 9 orbs with color. When he grasped the 13th orb, Anya suddenly felt intense dizziness. A chill rushed in like an avalanche, as if all the blood was draining from his body. Anya’s body swayed and soon his knees buckled. Thud. The boy fell face-first onto the snow and blinked his eyes blankly.
*’Uh… why, why is this happening.’*
He felt dizzy and chilled. He had been fine just a moment ago… It was a familiar pain he hadn’t felt in a long time. During his detached palace days, he felt this kind of pain just from getting out of bed after going hungry for several days. He hadn’t felt it much since coming to Tildyen….
“Your Imperial Highness!”
Riario, who had been working on a magical device, came running in shock. At the same time, the ground shook. A massive black warhorse was galloping from the distance. Is that Duke Evernight. Soon darkness rushed in. Beyond his fading vision, familiar leather boots stepped down.
“It’s my fault. I should have explained more thoroughly….”
“What’s done is done. Riario, do it with Karen as originally planned. It can’t be helped if it takes more time.”
“Yes… understood.”
With the murmuring conversation by his ear, Anya completely closed his eyes.
* * *
Through his half-opened vision, he could see several people sitting hazily.
“Your Imperial Highness?”
Karen, who had been leaning against the wall, noticed first. Only then did Riario, who had been sitting in a chair tearing at his hair, also raise his head to look at the bed.
“How did… I…?”
He had definitely been near the wall, but when he opened his eyes, he was inside the inn bedroom. Evernight strode over.
“Anya.”
He called his name quietly. But from his graceful eye corners looking at Anya, coldness dripped steadily.
“You don’t need to help Riario anymore. It wasn’t something a beginner like you should have been involved in from the start. It was my misjudgment.”
It was neither blame nor contempt. He was always like this. He didn’t even scold Anya, saying it was his own misjudgment. That made Anya feel even more miserable.
“I-I’m fine now. I don’t know why I f-fainted either… I’ll qu-quickly do it again….”
Anya hastily threw off the thick blanket and got up from his seat to show he was okay. But before long, his knees buckled pathetically. Before he could crash unsightly to the floor, Evernight caught him by the waist.
“Stop.”
“N-no. I c-can too….”
Anya struggled hard in Evernight’s arms.
“Stop it, Anya.”
It was a firm tone. It felt like cold water had been dumped all over his body. Hearing those words, he couldn’t give any response. He placed Anya back on the bed. His downward gaze seemed like he was looking at a troublesome burden.
*’No, no. It’s all my imagination.’*
Anya wiggled his fingers and tried to avoid his gaze.
“Your Imperial Highness.”
Riario approached. His hair was tangled every which way as if someone had grabbed and twisted it.
“The magic flowing through your body must not be used except when casting spells. Absolutely not. For a mage, it’s like lifeblood.”
Riario complained with a heavily furrowed face. It felt like his chest was completely blocked, just like when he had been scolded by the scholars in the imperial palace. Anya habitually muttered sorry, sorry repeatedly. It was an action that came out without him knowing.
“Mm….”
Riario took a step back. That wasn’t what he meant… He looked up at Evernight with complicated feelings. The blue eyes mercilessly sent a look telling him to continue. Riario continued with a small sigh.
“What I asked you to do… was to transfer the magic pooled in nature. We—that is, mages—can read and feel all of that, can’t we?”
Ah… a small sigh escaped from Anya’s mouth.
“Those orbs were specially made to gather magic very efficiently. You felt it as soon as you grasped it, didn’t you?”
Anya nodded slightly. Riario continued speaking with a somewhat uncomfortable expression.
“That orb sucked out the magic from inside Your Imperial Highness’s body. Twelve of them… it sucked out quite a bit, so it’s no wonder you fainted.”
Anya was still deathly pale. It felt like every single drop of blood in his body had been stolen by the orbs without leaving anything behind.
“Now that… you’ve t-told me, I can do it w-well.”
Anya clasped both hands together tightly and looked up at Riario with a desperate expression. Oh dear, he showed reluctance. Riario gestured with his chin for Anya to get permission from Evernight, not him.
“Anya.”
Saliva gulped down his throat. Evernight was businesslike, sharp, and hard—like a well-honed holy sword or a flawless commander.
“…Yes?”
“Don’t be a nuisance. What you’re doing, that’s being a nuisance. We didn’t come here to play.”
A nuisance…. Tears seemed about to pour out at any moment. But crying wouldn’t solve anything. He knew that fact better than anyone.
“B-but I want to help. I’ll do w-well now.”
Everyone in the imperial palace treated him as an incompetent half-wit, a lazy person who only wasted food… someone who shouldn’t exist in this place. The scholars always clicked their tongues with narrowed brows, and his siblings were desperate to torment him. His father… he had never even seen his face.
Anya was desperate to prove his abilities. Perhaps it was because of all the past sorrows. Or perhaps it was a struggle to avoid being degraded back to an incompetent person.
“Who are you to help them?”
Anya very easily recalled the people of Northernmost.
“Th-those people looked so h-hard-pressed. Everyone was d-dirty… and c-cold….”
Evernight frowned slightly. He looked quite displeased.
“Don’t carelessly judge and pity them. Your cheap and naive pity doesn’t help at all. It only makes things worse.”
Like now.
Instead of arguing back, Anya closed his mouth. He couldn’t argue back. Because everything he said was right.
“I-I!”
Evernight turned his back as if he wouldn’t allow any more conversation. Anya got up from his seat and staggered toward him. The moment he tried to grab his hand, Evernight raised his arm as if avoiding him. Tears finally burst from Anya’s eyes. Anya quickly wiped away the tears.
“Rest. Don’t even think about coming out.”
Riario and Karen also followed Evernight out with troubled expressions. The door closed. Anya collapsed onto the spot. He brought his knees together and buried his face between them. His husband’s words were absolute. When he had commanded this strongly, there was no way to disobey. Still, it was sad. But he absolutely wouldn’t cry.
*’Crying doesn’t change anything.’*
The more he cried, the more his siblings beat him, and the useless crying sounds only grew louder.
As if a snowstorm really was coming, it was noisy outside in the middle of the night. The gathered straw and household items someone had thrown away fluttered in the wind, and the anxious sounds made by livestock occasionally scattered into the darkness. But he wasn’t in the mood to care about such things.
