♡ Chapter 7 ♡
(The Hidden Disciple Hides His Power)
The next day, Kanyak visited the Imperial Palace even earlier than I expected.
I did not think I would see him again after only one day, but he must have been in quite a hurry.
“Princess, it is good to see you again.”
“Seeing you again too, Robel.”
Robel, who had come together with Kanyak, bowed his head to me.
After lightly returning his greeting, I turned my bored eyes toward the man sitting on the sofa.
“Kanyak, you look a little tired.”
“Ah. Last night, a flood of mysterious complaints suddenly came in addressed to Lord Kanyak, so his work increased and he couldn’t sleep much.”
At my question, Robel quietly explained the reason in a small voice.
Goodness. It looked like the maids of the Princess Palace had quite a lot of firepower.
Kanyak, who had appeared wearing a red ruby ornament on top of a pitch-black cravat, looked like an evil god who had come down to earth just to tempt humans.
‘Now that I think about it, Kanyak always liked black ever since he was little.’
One day, because he kept wearing only dark colors and his whole mood had become gloomy, I gave him a glowing ruby brooch as a gift, thinking it would create some contrast.
At the time, I had given him the prettiest jewel I had.
Yes, it looked exactly like that one—
…Huh?
‘Wait. Don’t tell me that’s the brooch I gave him?’
I rubbed my eyes and looked again, and the thing attached to Kanyak’s cravat really was the same ruby brooch I had given him long ago.
No, how old was that thing? And he was still wearing it?
‘Did he not have any suitable accessory? I should give him a new brooch soon.’
Thinking that I might have to call in a jeweler, I sat down on the sofa opposite Kanyak. Robel stepped back a few paces and stopped behind Kanyak.
“You really came early.”
“The one who wants something should be the one to move.”
…
He answered calmly with a face that looked like it had never known regret in its life, then took a sip of tea and met my eyes.
His blood-red eyes, lowered from that slightly tilted gaze, were painfully clear.
“I’m really curious about that diary.”
…Did he already know what was written in it? Why was he so obsessed with someone else’s diary?
“Why do you want to do the magic tool business?”
That business had been purely the product of my own greed.
It was nothing more or less than a backup plan for the case where I failed to leave this place.
Of course, when preparing it, I had done my best—but that was all. I did not have any real will to make it happen.
All my attention had been on completing the dimensional magic circle.
‘In other words, it had nothing to do with Kanyak.’
And it was not as if the Magic Tower lacked money either.
The Tower always received more than enough support, and even the basic magic tools it already sold brought in plenty of profit.
I was just idly thinking maybe he wanted personal capital or something like that, when Kanyak slowly opened his mouth in a plain tone.
“I wanted Master, who went on a journey far away, to hear this news and come back.”
“…What?”
That answer came from a direction I had never expected.
“If she learned that the special items she personally planned had spread far and wide through the world and benefited many people, I thought she would surely be pleased—”
For a moment, Kanyak’s gaze in the air reminded me of the past.
The pure eyes that had once carefully called me Master came back to me again.
“And if she had forgotten me, I hoped this would make her remember.”
…Ah.
At those quiet words that kept coming one after another, I suddenly could not speak.
This was much more than I had expected…
‘Ah. So this is what it feels like when your heart breaks.’
Only now did I realize how careless I had been when I lightly decided that Kanyak would be fine even without me.
Without knowing any of that, I had been talking about cooperation and throwing out conditions.
Looking at it now, maybe the real adult was not me, but Kanyak.
“Well, it’s a wish that can no longer reach her, but still, it contains Master’s intentions, so as her disciple, I’m only trying to carry it on. More than that, only I, whose level matches hers, can understand such a high-level plan anyway.”
Mm-hm. That’s right.
Who but my favorite disciple Kanyak could dare understand my advanced business plan?
Really, I raised this child so well.
“Don’t smile like that. I don’t know why, but looking at it makes me feel sick and my stomach turns.”
He frowned and pressed his forehead, saying he really felt unwell.
For a short moment, the mood had finally become good again, and this man really—
Not Lusha, and not even Sierra’s memories, had ever once heard anything negative about my looks in our entire lives.
Maybe because of that, Kanyak’s report of feeling sick gave me a serious shock.
Did that boy have something wrong with his eyesight?
“Other people are desperate to see me smile, and you don’t even know what you’re saying.”
Who knows—maybe that was because of the mana rampage too?
I wondered if I should look through old books to see whether I could fix even something like that.
Because Kanyak said it with such a serious face, I got twice as angry.
‘Don’t seriously think about something like that…’
Since the mood had already fallen apart anyway, I decided to ask the question I had been holding back.
It was a somewhat sensitive topic, so I tried to ask it a little indirectly.
“You, I heard you used to be really nice. So how did you end up like this?”
At my question, Kanyak’s straight brows twisted sharply.
Oops. My mistake. That was too direct.
“What do you mean by ‘like this’?”
“Well, if I put it nicely, mean. And if I put it badly, unpleasant.”
“That’s bad either way.”
As he wrinkled the bridge of his nose, Robel chuckled behind him, and Kanyak turned his head with a sharp glare.
A little later, the red gaze that had moved away returned to me again.
“Because there was no longer any reason to live kindly.”
…
“The person who promised to stay with me for a long, long time abandoned me.”
“Aban—”
I almost blurted out, Who abandoned you?
Without even thinking.
But he had not said the subject, so he might not have been talking about me.
Since I never interfered in Kanyak’s private life, maybe he was talking about some hidden first love I did not know about.
That had to be it.
“I-I heard you released hidden power. Why did you hide your power?”
Swallowing dryly, I hurriedly changed the subject while stammering.
I had asked suddenly, but it was something I had been curious about the whole time.
There was no way I, a great mage, could have failed to notice the potential of little Kanyak when he was a child, so when had he started hiding it?
“Your Highness seems to know quite a lot about me. Am I your type?”
“W-what?”
“Don’t try to know. You’ll get hurt.”
With his lips lifting softly in arrogance, Kanyak leaned toward me and poked my forehead with his index finger.
Then he calmly drank his tea as if nothing had happened.
“Hey, if I had met you at my age—”
…No, wait.
In Sierra’s body, I was younger than him.
By four whole years.
“If what?”
As if telling me to continue, Kanyak stared right at me with strangely interested eyes.
Just a moment ago, he had looked unbearably bored.
“…Then you’d be the lucky one. I’m younger than you and very pretty.”
The moment I finished speaking, Kanyak gave a snort.
While muttering,
“Then all pretty people must be dead.”
Hey, I heard that clearly.
I asked carelessly and ended up creating a ridiculous misunderstanding instead.
‘Anyway, that means the reason he darkened was because of me in the end?’
This was driving me crazy.
I had gathered everything I had and left it for him, only to find out I was being resented.
This time, Lusha—meaning me—should get a chance to speak too.
Ah, this is so unfair.
…
While I sat there silently drinking tea, burning inside without being able to say anything, Kanyak made a quiet hand motion toward Robel.
Then Robel took out a contract from his arms and held it out to me.
“Let me give one piece of advice to the Princess who is younger than me and very pretty. Read it carefully before signing. A contract is not something you make carelessly.”
A smooth smile rested on his lips as he threw out words that sounded like a warning or maybe guidance.
What was that?
Why was he smiling so suspiciously?
I gave him a doubtful look, then read the contract, and just as expected, I was the weaker side in it.
Not just that—
I was the powerless weaker side.
There was a mountain of things I had to do, while the only thing Kanyak guaranteed me was my life.
‘Well… the one whose life is at stake is usually the weaker side…’
[Party B shall take responsibility for completing the matters desired by Party A.
Party B shall take charge of interpreting the sealing magic placed on the diary of the former Tower Master, Lusha Annis.
Party B shall inherit the magic tool business left behind by Lusha Annis and faithfully contribute until the official launch of the products.
Party A shall regularly provide Party B with mana stones and contribute to preserving Party B’s life…]
And so on.
The major contents and the basic contract clauses were densely written all over it.
‘Now that I think about it, everything Kanyak wants is connected to me.’
I had thought that once he became Tower Master, he would be too busy and forget me quickly.
A faint bitterness spread in my mouth.
Since he was living a life so different from what I had expected, I felt a little sorry for him too.
After checking each clause and signing it, Robel took the document away.
Then I slowly raised my head and looked at Kanyak.
“Kanyak. Why are you smiling like that?”
“What do you mean?”
“No, it’s just… you’re smiling exactly like a con artist who tricked a good person.”
“…You’re not, right?”
