‘People often envy and admire those who possess great physical strength or high status.’
And that atmosphere of admiration mixed with distance tended to isolate the very people who became its targets.
Yet aside from those special aspects, they too were simply people who felt loneliness and sadness, and who sometimes wanted to lean on someone.
“…You must have been lonely.”
I raised my hand and gently stroked Rastan’s cheek. He lifted his hand and carefully wrapped it around mine where it touched his cheek, then softly closed the eyes that had widened slightly at my touch.
The jewel-like blue eyes disappearing beneath his dense eyelashes felt like a scene from a movie, and I stared at it blankly.
‘Wow…’
Rastan moved slowly, rubbing his face against my hand as if enjoying his owner’s touch, like a dog.
Then, at some point, he opened his eyes and lowered the large hand that had been covering mine to grasp my wrist.
He gently pulled it and lightly pressed his lips to my palm.
“I had never thought of it that way, but now that you mention it, I think that was true. I always felt as though I was alone in the world.”
Then he stepped closer and lightly kissed my lips.
At the moment our soft lips touched and parted, my heart began to pound fiercely.
“So… please don’t leave me alone anymore.”
At the sudden shift in atmosphere, this time it was my eyes that widened.
“Ah…”
Before I even had time to respond, Rastan parted my lips and pressed in.
Accepting the kiss, which I had now grown fairly accustomed to, I let my complicated thoughts go for a moment.
And each time I kissed him, I focused on the sensation spreading through my entire body, a feeling that felt new every single time.
‘I don’t know anymore.’
Whether my kisses with Rastan were something I did purely out of obligation because of the contract, or whether I was enjoying them.
Over the next few days, I practiced behavior control not only on Rastan, but also on Sally, Ris, and the other servants of the manor.
Since they slept at night at relatively close distances from me, and I knew the locations of each of their rooms, it was easy to gauge the distance between us.
‘I want to check how far my power can reach.’
Of course, the actions I instructed them to do were only light and harmless ones.
‘Like humming specific songs in order while cleaning my room, or completely reversing the serving order while bringing my afternoon tea.’
And astonishingly, they followed my instructions with a one hundred percent success rate.
‘…Good heavens.’
I also confirmed that even those who hadn’t met me during the day were affected by my behavior-control commands as long as they slept within the same manor at night.
Moreover, as I repeated the practice, I became able to enter the dreams of people I met not on the same day, but within about three days.
Compared to when I had first realized my ability, it was truly a dramatic leap forward.
‘It’s partly because I’ve been practicing consistently, but also because my contact with Rastan has increased so much.’
My newly discovered power was fascinating, but at the same time frightening, because it was a power so easily abused. And if even I, the owner of that power, found it frightening, that went without saying for others.
‘I should keep it a secret from the Imperial Family, at least.’
Historically, the special abilities of the daughters of House Krone had mostly been used for the sake of the Empire.
They were used in war, and they were also used to improve the quality of life of the people of the Prasen Empire.
‘If used well, my power could probably be used in intelligence warfare against enemy nations.’
And if I could even control the thoughts of monsters rather than humans, its range of use would expand far further.
No, going even further, I might even be able to control the ruler of an enemy nation. But if others were to learn this fact—
‘They would try to eliminate me. Even if we’re on the same side now, they would be afraid, never knowing when they themselves might be controlled.’
At that point, my thoughts naturally turned to Rastan.
“Should I tell him?”
I could simply leave him once the contract period ended, but…
Just imagining him looking at me with wariness and discomfort made my chest ache as if it had been cut by a knife.
‘To him, I’m just a useful card for purifying nightmares. Who would want someone who could even control them staying by their side.’
Still, a desire to be honest with him also lifted its head, small but upright, in one corner of my heart.
After wavering back and forth in thought for a while, I eventually found a compromise.
‘For now, I’ll practice this ability and develop it to a usable level. I’ll understand it better first, then tell him naturally.’
There was still much I myself didn’t know about this ability that had expanded beyond dream control, so I decided to postpone the confession a little longer.
***
Thus passed several days that were both joyful and uneasy.
Rastan and I were just about finished with dinner.
I asked him about the progress of the investigation after he returned home from his work at the Security Department today.
“Rastan. Is the investigation and sentencing regarding Baron Lansval nearing its end?”
Rastan set down his cutlery with an elegant motion and replied with a light smile.
“Yes. The punishments for the previously reported cases are now mostly at the stage of being finalized.”
Gerald was the type who would try to bribe his way into a reduced sentence somehow, using the bits of money he had stashed away here and there.
He was also the type with strong self-pity and a tendency toward exaggeration, so he was probably having a very hard time enduring life in detention.
‘But of all things, the Head of the Security Department himself is firmly backing this case.’
There would be no investigator who could downplay or roughly wrap up a case that the Head of the Security Department was personally overseeing.
And that wasn’t simply because Rastan wore that title.
‘If you strip away that title, the epithets attached to Rastan become even more terrifying.’
Imagining the look on Gerald’s face as he fell into despair upon realizing that even bribes wouldn’t work made a quiet chuckle slip out of me.
Up until then, Rastan had been watching my face closely, and a natural smile spread across his own.
“You seem to be in a good mood.”
“Ah, it is not that.”
I gathered my thoughts once and then opened my mouth again.
“I think it is time to set off the bomb I have been saving.”
As expected, Rastan immediately understood what I meant.
“You mean the slave trade case.”
“Yes. Please submit an anonymous tip together with the materials I handed over before.”
“Understood.”
Gerald had already fallen to the status of a commoner, and he probably thought his life was already ruined.
‘But I need to show him that there’s still further to fall.’
I planned to completely shatter even the faint hope of recovery he might still be clinging to.
At that moment, an idea came to me.
‘Let’s try using the control ability on him.’
It would serve both as practice for my ability and as a way to help the investigation proceed smoothly.
***
The next day, I visited the detention facility where Gerald was being held once again, together with Rastan.
The reason I had come back here on purpose was because I still couldn’t be certain of the limits of my power, or where the line of effective influence lay.
My ability had been steadily growing lately.
‘But I still don’t know for sure whether, just from having briefly been with Gerald here about a week ago, I can plant thoughts in him today.’
As I had before, I asked Rastan to wait outside in the corridor for a moment and went in alone.
‘Gerald was moved from solitary confinement to a shared cell now, right.’
The guard guided me toward the shared cells.
As I quietly entered the corridor lined with rows of cells, I heard raucous snickering coming from beyond the bend in the corridor ahead.
‘That must be the cell.’
I walked over and peered into the shared cell through the small window facing the corridor.
The first thing that came into view within the narrow field of vision was Gerald, sprawled face-down in a crawling position like a baby.
With a cringing expression, he was fawning over another inmate with a small, scrawny build.
‘So that small inmate must be the alpha in this cell.’
Another inmate, who had been watching the scene and laughing gleefully, smacked the back of Gerald’s head with a sharp snap, making a loud smack, and said,
“A noble who bought his title, huh? You strutted around and then fell right back to being a commoner! What did you think you were relying on to get mouthy with our boss? Hahaha…”
Listening to the other inmates chime in one by one, it seemed Gerald still hadn’t broken his habit of looking down on others, and had tried to pull a so-called “establishing the hierarchy” move on someone smaller than himself.
