Chapter 49
Ginny, the invention genius of the orphanage. Every single member of the Droche ducal family was her idol.
And one of them was right there.
Riana leaned against a landscaped tree, watching Killian closely.
“Romance… in this situation? Really?”
What kind of scene was this supposed to be?
Deborah still hadn’t shown up.
The children would be leaving the plaza any minute now. If something was going to happen, it had to be before that…
“Bothering you?”
Gray nudged her, noticing her serious face.
“Yeah.”
The short but firm answer made Gray’s mouth twitch into a flat line.
Then, from behind the tree where Killian was leaning, a small figure popped out.
“Duke!”
A chirp-like voice—more like “Doooke!”—rang out.
Killian straightened abruptly and turned toward the sound.
The little voice called again, “I want to be a powerful mage too!”
The little girl—Ginny—looked scared by the Duke’s cold face, but she didn’t stop saying what she’d come to say.
It was clumsy, but heartfelt.
“I was waiting for your speech…! I want to hear it! I’m the orphanage’s invention champion!”
It seemed she was asking him to give the welcome speech he hadn’t delivered earlier.
Killian’s jaw tightened. There was nothing he could say.
You mustn’t end up like me.
You should grow up to be a mage welcomed anywhere.
“Ginny! Are you crazy?”
Hugo arrived, panting, and immediately grabbed Ginny by the scruff to pull her away from the Duke.
“The teachers told us to stay put—why’d you come here? You trying to die?”
Ginny’s eyes reddened, but she snapped back, “Why would I die? You die!”
“What?”
Hugo’s face twisted with anger. He almost started crying, but if he did that over a tiny girl, Louis would tease him forever.
So instead, he shouted, “Idiot! That man is either already a murderer or will be one! Haven’t you read the textbook?”
“N-no! That’s not true!”
The word murderer itself was scary for a child. Ginny hadn’t decided whether to believe Hugo, but tears welled up anyway.
“It’s not true! It’s not!”
She started swinging her little fists at Hugo. She didn’t want to cry like some of the other wimpy kids, but her chest felt tight and her breathing came quick.
“Ow! Stop it!”
Her punches stung more than expected, and Hugo shoved her away.
With a thump, Ginny fell backward. Her wet eyes looked up at the Duke.
Even after landing on her backside, she was waiting for just one thing from him:
Please tell me it’s not true… that you’re not… that.
But no answer came. No warm hand reached out to her.
Killian’s own face had gone pale, like he’d been the one shoved.
His limbs were stiff as wax, his breathing completely still.
“Uh… uhh…”
Tears brimmed in Ginny’s eyes, ready to spill—
—when a bright, clear voice cut in.
“My, do they teach prophecy at orphanages now?”
A woman with long pink hair stepped forward and offered Ginny her hand.
With her other hand, she tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled warmly.
“They didn’t in my day.”
Killian’s blue eyes shifted slowly toward the woman.
It was Riana.
Riana had no intention of stepping between Killian and the children at first.
“This really feels like that webtoon scene…”
The orphanage group was already starting to move west, and the crowd in the plaza was thinning.
If something was going to happen to the male lead, it could only be now.
“Idiot! That man is either already a murderer or will be one! Haven’t you read the textbook?”
Oh boy…
Riana sighed quietly to herself.
She glanced at Killian.
Is he angry?
Aside from when he was flirting with maids, he always kept himself perfectly composed. That’s why he could get a maid fired for “immorality” when he himself was the cause, without anyone pointing fingers at him.
A man that good at managing his image wasn’t likely to lash out at a child just because he was upset.
So Riana decided to wait.
Hoping the heroine would appear and say what she wanted to say.
Hoping she would act in Riana’s place.
“It’s not true! It’s not!”
“Stop it, that hurts!”
When the girl hit the ground with a thud, Riana clenched her fists—to stop herself from jumping in.
Deborah, where are you?
But Deborah still didn’t appear.
And Killian still stood frozen, doing nothing.
The girl was looking up at him with a face ready to cry, wanting an answer.
“Riana, are you sure about this?”
She turned to see Gray holding her wrist.
Only then did she realize she’d already stepped forward.
“I don’t know… damn it. It’s already a mess. Me stepping in won’t make it worse.”
She shook off Gray’s hand and strode forward.
Ginny took Riana’s right hand and stood up. Riana brushed the dirt from her clothes, then tilted her head toward Hugo with a bright morning-sun smile.
“So, what’s our little prophet’s name?”
Hugo’s eyes narrowed.
Some weird lady kept calling him a prophet, when he’d only repeated something Louis had told him.
“Hugo. And it’s not prophecy—it’s common sense. Don’t you read the textbook, lady?”
Hugo hadn’t actually read it himself, but since he knew what it said, he felt confident.
Besides, he’d nearly made Ginny cry, so he’d practically won. Thinking that made his voice louder.
“Magical Power Disorder is dangerous! You should stay away from him too!”
Like he’d yanked Ginny away by the scruff, Hugo tugged at Riana’s skirt.
But she didn’t budge an inch.
“I’m not staying away.”
“Why not?”
“Because someone who knows a really, really important secret has no reason to be afraid of him.”
Hugo thought that no matter what secret you knew, staying near someone who might kill you was just stupid.
But… he was curious. Curiosity was a mage’s instinct.
“…What secret?”
“It’s something you have to know if you want to be great.”
Greater than Louis? Hugo’s ears perked.
“So what is it?”
Riana bent down until their eyes were level.
“It’s this: in this world, prejudice is more dangerous than any illness. An illness might hurt him, but prejudice will hurt you. It’ll close your mind and block out all the good possibilities you could have had.”
Hugo narrowed his eyes.
“But his illness will make him kill people. That’s—”
Common sense.
Before he could finish, Riana held up two fingers in front of his face.
“Second: no so-called common sense can decide the future. You don’t know if this man will hurt people or help them. Just like no history book says whether you’ll grow up to be a great mage or just a good one. Right?”
That… was true. Hugo did plan to be a great mage, after all.
“Well…”
He shifted awkwardly, and Riana smiled before straightening.
Stepping closer to Killian, she went on,
“I’m not saying the textbook is wrong. It’s full of facts and useful knowledge so you can learn. But it’s not there to trap you inside it.”
Hugo’s doubtful gaze was now wide and blinking. Ginny’s tears had dried, her eyes fixed on Riana too.
Finding them cute, Riana continued,
“Great people—people who learned the same things you’re learning—figured out how to use magic and Magical Power Disorder together to protect others. They made rules so no one would get hurt. That’s what great mages do: they study hard to protect people. This man, and—”
She pointed to Killian, then to herself.
“—people around him like me. That’s the kind of mage you want to be, right, Hugo?”
He’d never thought about it before, but now that she said it, it made sense. If that was what it meant to be great, then sure—why not?
His head bobbed in a confident nod. Then he suddenly asked,
“So… that means you’re great, right?”
“…”
The rapid-fire speaker was struck silent by a single, unexpected question.
