~Chapter 113~
The Hartmann Duke’s study.
People involved in the “Save Irene Project” arrived one by one.
“We were told you called for us. Why did you summon everyone so suddenly…?”
The Duke and Duchess of Hartmann, who had been nursing Irene, entered with puzzled faces.
They looked at Fabian, seated with a grave expression, and Albert sitting beside him.
Albert checked the time, as if choosing his words carefully. “Eric will be here soon. We’ll start when everyone’s gathered.”
How much time passed?
A distant thudding came closer, and the door burst open.
“I heard Lady Irene was hurt! Is she alright? Where is she? Is it serious?”
“…”
“And why the sudden summons—oh. You’re all here already?”
Bustling in, Eric felt the room’s eyes on him, gave an awkward smile, and took a seat.
Once everyone was present, Albert looked around at them. “The Master of the Tower has something to tell all of you.”
When Albert gestured to Fabian at the head seat, every gaze fixed on him—questioning.
“…”
Fabian sat with arms crossed, staring at the mana test results.
He didn’t speak for a long time, and people began to glance at one another.
Why did the Tower Master look so grim?
Was there a problem with the results?
The Duke and Duchess tried to peek at the paper, but the terms were too technical to understand.
Watching Fabian’s silence, Albert also grew uneasy.
With Irene’s accident already weighing on his mind, why had Fabian gathered them with such a severe look?
Perhaps… because it was truly serious.
That fear made the air heavier.
“At any rate, I called everyone today because… there’s something important to say about Lady Hartmann’s illness.”
At last, Fabian spoke. Albert answered, “Alright. What is it?”
“To put it bluntly, Lady Hartmann’s illness did not come from being born with too much mana.”
Huh?
Eyes widened all around the room.
Fabian began his explanation.
“Generally, mana side effects occur when someone is born with more mana than they can handle. Ninety-nine percent of cases are like that.”
“…Yes. That’s what we believed about our daughter. That’s why her treatment has been practice to accept that large amount of mana.”
“I thought so too.”
Fabian uncrossed his arms and leaned forward.
He passed the papers around and pointed to a section.
“See here? This part shows the amount of mana in Lady Hartmann’s body.”
“…”
“After repeated tests, a trend began to show. And there was something strange.”
He indicated the charts and graphs.
“If she were born with immense mana, the level should be constant. But here, you see it fluctuate slightly up and down.”
His fingertip traced the faintly drifting numbers.
“At a glance, it looks steady, so it’s easy to miss. The Temple likely couldn’t catch this either. But considering the remaining one percent of cases, the variation is significant enough to examine.”
“…”
“So we ran a detailed analysis…”
Fabian flipped to the next page and held it out—full of even denser terms and figures.
“We discovered a force inside her body that is resisting the mana.”
“A force resisting mana? What does that mean?”
The Duke and Duchess tilted their heads, asking for a simpler explanation.
“From the start, Lady Hartmann was not born with mana.”
A shocking statement fell from Fabian’s lips.
“She came to have mana by force. Which means there’s a high probability someone injected mana into her.”
“…!”
“So her body began resisting it, causing side effects… and that’s the reason she was given a time limit.”
Fabian’s voice sharpened, a cold anger glinting there.
“In short, someone tampered with Lady Hartmann’s body.”
Silence dropped like a stone. Mouths fell open in shock.
The quiet stretched on.
It took time to process the devastating truth Fabian had uncovered.
Everyone sat staring at the papers, speechless.
“So then…”
At last, Eric spoke first.
“To summarize—when Lady Hartmann was young, someone forcibly infused mana into her body, which caused side effects and the death sentence?”
“…Yes.”
“So the cause isn’t ‘being born with strong mana,’ but something done by someone else?”
“That’s right.”
Silence again.
It was hard for anyone to accept. Frowns deepened as each person wrestled with the thought.
“…Who?”
After a long while, the Duke clenched his fist.
“Who would do such a vile thing to our daughter?”
Once they understood, the next emotion to rise was fury—
Fury at the one who had done something so monstrous to Irene’s body.
Who would do this to an innocent young woman?
“Was there ever a time when Lady Hartmann was kidnapped, or anything strange happened to her? Before the symptoms began.”
“…Never. Irene was never away from us for long in her childhood.”
The Duke shook his head. The Duchess asked,
“Are you suggesting someone inside the estate did this?”
“…I only asked in case it made narrowing down the culprit easier.”
Fabian shook his head and continued,
“A curse of this kind doesn’t require the target to be present. A strand of hair is enough.”
“…”
“Still, they’d need at least hair, so the likelihood is that it was someone acquainted with her—unless by bad luck someone picked up a shed hair and staged a random attack.”
“…I agree. A random act seems unlikely.”
Albert, who had been listening quietly, spoke.
“Today’s accident tells us a lot.”
“Have you learned something about the carriage accident, Your Highness?” the Duke asked.
Albert glanced at Fabian and nodded.
“…What’s certain is that the wheel was sabotaged with mana.”
Fabian dipped his head in agreement.
“It isn’t certain yet, but… the one who caused the carriage accident and the one who tampered with Lady Hartmann’s body may be connected. We can’t rule it out.”
“In other words, someone may have been targeting the Lady for a long time.”
“…Yes.”
Silence settled again—the Duke and Duchess most distraught of all.
“But who, and for what reason, would do this to our Irene…?”
“What wrong did our child ever do to deserve such a thing?”
“We’ll uncover that step by step,” Fabian said, looking around at them.
“For now, mana-control training… should be stopped as of today. Since the cause is different, further practice is meaningless.”
“…”
“What matters more is finding who did this. Only then can we find a lead to a real solution for Lady Hartmann’s condition.”
They listened with sober faces, then turned to one another.
One by one, they nodded with resolve.
It was the moment the “Save Irene Project” changed course.
