♡ Chapter 4 ♡
(The Hidden Disciple Hides His Power)
“I didn’t know the Imperial Princess had this kind of hobby. If I had known, I would have left the jewel vault open. There are many pretty things there.”
“What jewel vault? The Magic Tower doesn’t have one.”
“That’s right. It doesn’t. Then how do you know that?”
…He got me. I was so flustered that I slipped.
“And how did you know there were mana stones here?”
His low voice slowly turned colder. Even at a glance, it was obvious he was measuring what to do with me.
“Before I report this to the Imperial Palace as a criminal caught in the act, I suppose it is only proper to give you a chance to explain.”
The corners of Kanyak’s lips were curved, but he did not look like he was smiling at all.
Seeing this unfamiliar side of Kanyak—the one I had always thought of as just a soft child—threw my mind into confusion.
‘Th-this is mine… it really is. I came down here at night and hid them one by one myself…’
I couldn’t even call my own things my own…
It was so unfair that I wanted to tell him the truth right away, but looking at Kanyak’s face, I felt that even an Imperial Princess would not be safe if she said the wrong thing.
‘Has being Tower Master for the last five years really been that hard? That sweet child can make a face like this now?’
Of course, it would be hard for him to look kindly on a thief who had snuck in.
Still…
“Tower Master, this is… well… there’s a reason.”
“There had better be. I’m a little sensitive right now.”
Kanyak picked up one of the mana stones that had fallen to the floor and carefully wiped the cracked top with his fingertip.
“Even I cannot touch this carelessly.”
…What is he talking about?
Of course, I had hidden only the highest-quality ones separately, but mana stones were all over the Tower, so there was no reason he couldn’t touch them.
Anyway, I had to explain myself.
If not, this could get dangerous.
‘But I really did come here to steal them, so I have nothing to say…!’
The longer I stayed silent, the more Kanyak’s patience ran out.
Just as a vein began to rise on his pale forehead, my mouth urgently blurted out the first thing it could think of.
“L-Lord Lusha appeared in my dream!”
“…My master?”
“She said if I went to the underground of the Magic Tower, there would be a jewel that could save my life… and that I had to keep it with me…”
For an excuse I made up while stammering, it actually sounded pretty believable.
Kanyak’s face even seemed to soften a little.
Come to think of it, whenever it was about me, Kanyak would always become foolishly weak.
‘Kanyak, no matter how much I’m your master, you mustn’t trust me this much.’
Once, when he looked confused, I had asked him a question.
‘What would you do if I killed someone?’
‘Then that person must have deserved to die.’
‘…What if that person was innocent?’
‘Then it would be a world where innocence is treated as a crime.’
And then he had added:
‘If not, I would make it so.’
After that, I gave up trying to fix Kanyak’s blind trust in me.
No matter what I said, I couldn’t break that abnormal stubbornness of his.
“That’s a lie.”
But then Kanyak shook his head firmly.
No, wait—how does he know it’s a lie?!
“If she were to appear in someone’s dream, I should naturally be the first one. So of course it’s a lie.”
…Wait a second.
What kind of confidence is that?
Why should I appear in your dream first?
“How am I supposed to believe that Master appeared in the dream of a thief I’ve never even seen before?”
I really hated the way he was calling me “thief,” but I couldn’t argue with it.
Honestly… I was stealing.
“Isn’t the fact that I was trying to take the mana stones enough proof?”
“No, it isn’t.”
Kanyak nodded as if he had been waiting for that.
Tch. That pointless stubbornness of his was still the same.
“Anything else?”
“…Anything else?”
“Did Master say anything else besides that?”
His red eyes, full of distrust, followed me stubbornly.
Even though he said he didn’t believe me, the fact that he kept asking meant that he at least half believed what I was saying.
“Well…”
After thinking for a moment, I quietly took the mana stone from Kanyak’s hand and hugged it to my chest.
“If you let me take this, then I’ll tell you.”
I had thought I had about three hours left, but maybe I had been wrong.
My breathing was getting heavier, and it felt ominous.
At the same time, Kanyak’s gaze turned even colder.
He clearly didn’t trust a thief who was trying to bargain with him.
And as expected—
“No.”
“No, just let me take one—”
“Get lost. They’re all mine.”
Kanyak held out his hand for me to return it.
He even crooked his fingers at me annoyingly.
And he was using informal speech too!
Th-that rude brat!
Shock.
My disciple had been hiding his bad personality.
Give me back my soft little disciple who used to follow me around crying, Masterrrr…
My vision began to blur quickly.
I had no choice.
Death was right in front of me, so I was ready to risk everything too.
“Aren’t you curious about Lusha Annis’s diary?”
“…What?”
Back when I was Lusha, I wrote in a diary every single day.
I started it right after transmigrating, to remind myself that all of this was not a dream, but reality.
One day, Kanyak had asked me what I was writing in it so often.
And I had answered:
“I’m writing about the thing I treasure most.”
After that, Kanyak kept trying to get his hands on my diary, but I hid it somewhere, and he never found it.
“If you help me, I can tell you where it is—”
Cough!
With another fit of coughing, dark blood filled my vision.
The death I had barely been holding back had finally arrived.
Before I could even continue my thoughts, all the strength drained from my body at once.
In the end, I lost consciousness before I could even see Kanyak’s expression.
“Huaaah!”
“Cough, cough—!”
“Y-Your High…?”
“Why is the Princess…?”
The mages who saw the man silently walking across the central hallway of the Magic Tower were all deeply shaken.
One of them was so shocked that he spat out the coffee he was drinking.
The dazzling silver hair, like winter snowflakes, was the symbolic color of the Glacis Imperial Family that ruled the Patiel Empire.
Anyone could tell at a glance that the unconscious silver-haired woman in the Tower Master’s arms was royalty.
How could they not be shocked?
“My God… I think the fate of the Magic Tower has finally come to an end.”
“I-I need to write my will…”
Then someone hurried after the man.
The one running up in a panic was Robel Arkham.
He looked at the witnesses and pressed a finger to his lips.
“If you speak of what you just saw…”
He did not forget to drag his hand across his throat either.
At that threatening gesture, the mages shut their mouths tightly and hurried away.
Robel Arkham was the only subordinate directly under Tower Master Kanyak.
The mages knew very well how frightening Robel’s genius memory was, so they would definitely keep quiet—if they valued their lives.
“This is driving me crazy…!”
After the frightened mages quickly left and the area became empty, Robel finally let out the breath he had been holding.
He should never have let his lord go to the underground alone.
What in the world had happened in that short time—
for him to come back carrying the unconscious Imperial Princess?!
While lamenting his miserable fate, Robel followed Kanyak and saw something even more shocking.
Kanyak was laying the Princess down on his own bed.
“Lord Kanyak, I need an explanation. She should not be here, and must not be here, so how in the world—?”
This was a major incident with no easy way to fix it.
After all, Princess Sierra was one of the most beloved people in the entire Empire.
Though extremely weak, she understood the hearts of the weak better than anyone else, and for that reason she received great respect and affection.
So why—
why was someone so precious here?
Robel already knew Kanyak sometimes caused incomprehensible trouble, but this time he had truly crossed the line.
He never thought he would even involve royalty.
“That’s what I’m saying.”
But when Robel was about to question him in detail, Kanyak gave him an absurd answer.
“Pardon?”
“How did this woman get in here?”
The underground door only opened for those recognized by the Magic Tower.
Which meant only the Tower Master.
“Has the Tower ever recognized someone other than the Tower Master?”
“Never. In all the Tower’s history, such a thing has never happened.”
“What an honor. I get to witness a first.”
Should he be thanking this noble intruder or not…?
As if he did not realize how serious this was, Kanyak calmly looked down at the sleeping Sierra.
Even if Lusha had appeared in her dream and told her, wasn’t the Princess supposed to be an ordinary person?
So how had she entered the underground?
“Whatever the case, you must return her to the Imperial Palace immediately. By now they must have discovered that the Princess is missing.”
“Mm.”
Not “mm.” Send her back, you lunatic.
Robel pounded his chest in frustration and forced moisture into his dry eyes.
He was terrified of what this madman might do next.
Just a few days ago, Kanyak had dried up the upper stream of the Arseille River—the lifeline of the Empire—just because he wanted to do an experiment. Robel had nearly died trying to put it back.
How much time had even passed before he caused another disaster?
“Though it is rather one-sided, I’ve been offered a deal that isn’t bad.”
As Robel looked warily at Kanyak, Kanyak pointed at the sleeping Sierra and asked:
“Robel, do you see anything unusual about this Princess?”
“No. I don’t feel anything.”
“The Princess’s mana went out of control.”
“What? No way. Wait—more importantly, the Princess is a mage?!”
Hearing one shocking thing after another, Robel’s mouth fell open wide.
An ordinary person would not have mana to lose control of in the first place, so if her mana had run wild—
then she had to be a mage.
“But even if she is a mage, unless her mana is extraordinarily large, it would be strange for it to go out of control…”
Robel tilted his head, as if asking whether Kanyak had seen it wrong.
But Kanyak had seen it clearly.
The black blood made from dead mana that had flowed from Sierra’s mouth—
And the brief but enormous surge of mana he had felt.
Something was tightly suppressing the Princess’s vast power.
Kanyak seemed to think for a moment, then quietly laughed and placed his hand on Sierra’s cold forehead.
“Thief, don’t die. I quite like this deal.”
