Chapter 40
“So, Roil, what happened with that girl Lilin and Sila?”
Erica asked as she left her dressing room and entered the parlor.
Ellen, Roil, Serel, Adrian, and Santuque were having an irregular Pallet meeting at the Note family mansion.
As soon as they gathered at the Note mansion, Roil briefly recounted the recent events to the children who asked about Diana’s well-being. Erica had just noticed ink on the cuff of her dress and was about to change before coming out.
Now, almost living in riding attire as if it were everyday clothing, Erica plopped down onto the sofa in the parlor, making a soft thud. Her expression was slightly twisted.
“Aunt handled Lilin not for attempted murder, but for assault.”
Ellen gently smoothed the furrow between Erica’s brows as she answered. Serel opened her mouth as if to say something but then quickly closed it again.
“Still, taking into account that she was loyal to the Karzel family for nearly ten years, it was decided to exile her from the Karzel territory. Many argued that it should serve as an example to the retainers, but Mother strongly overruled them.”
Serel and Erica, who had kept quiet at the word “assault,” let out small sighs at Roil’s additional explanation. Even a commoner causing injury to a noble could easily face a punishment as severe as losing a limb.
“Aunt must have felt conflicted too.”
“That’s right. She wouldn’t overlook something like that easily.”
Adrian and Serel nodded.
“But do you all really think Sila is the culprit?”
Ellen tilted her head as she asked, looking at her friends one by one. She had disliked Sila from the beginning, and every encounter with her had left unpleasant feelings and a sense of unease—but why did the others think that way?
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Santuque asked in return. Surprisingly, Serel and Adrian nodded along beside him. Seeing even the thoughtful and deep Serel and Adrian agree, Ellen was taken aback.
“Why obvious?”
Roil asked curiously, sharing Ellen’s confusion.
“If you say that, there must be a reason, right?”
Adrian answered Roil while giving him a slightly strange look.
Ellen felt a bit conflicted.
‘Right, they’re at that age.’
At their age, it was easy to trust friends blindly. They could suspect, but their suspicion wasn’t aimed at friends, nor did they easily oppose them. They had their own thoughts, but they were somewhat naive.
And as expected, they seemed to have pushed ideas like investigative fairness to the back of their minds. They simply wanted to believe their friend and support them.
Being young, that made sense—but it also made her trust and appreciate her friends even more. Meeting people willing to believe her blindly would only get harder in the future.
“What about Sila?”
Santuque asked, looking curiously at Ellen, who had a faint smile on her lips.
“…She’s in the mansion.”
“Is it okay to just leave her there?”
Serel asked worriedly at Roil’s answer.
“There’s no concrete evidence. You can’t exile or punish someone on mere suspicion… But we can’t keep her near Mother either, so she was reassigned. From now on, Sila will rarely enter the mansion building.”
“They could just fire her… right?”
Santuque started to ask but hesitated as if he had just remembered something.
“That’s right. There’s an employment protection law.”
“Ugh, such a useless law.”
“I heard that while it’s largely ineffective in the capital, it’s strictly observed near the borders.”
Serel and Erica took turns responding.
“That’s true. Still, it feels a bit uneasy, so we’ll watch her and only dismiss her before the contract ends if there’s a reason.”
The children nodded at Roil’s words.
“It’s a relief it ended at least this much.”
Adrian tapped Roil’s foot under the table.
“Yeah. It was really fortunate that Lady Quinter helped.”
Roil smiled at Adrian and then looked at Ellen. Unaware of Roil’s gaze, Ellen was busy putting three spoons of sugar into her tea.
After discussing the Countess of Karzel’s well-being, a brief silence lingered. The faint clink of Ellen putting down the teaspoon could be heard.
Then Erica spoke with a slightly excited tone.
“I have something to show you all.”
The children focused on her. Erica, noticing their gaze, murmured softly—but loud enough for all to hear.
“Silph.”
Silph?
Before they could even react to her words, something small and human-shaped with wings appeared in the air, scattering sparkling dust.
“A fairy…?”
“It’s a Silph,” Erica said.
Santuque muttered, staring blankly at the sparkling dust, while Erica spoke to him.
The Silph had light silver hair and eyes, wore a white dress, and had semi-transparent white wings.
The Silph looked around at the humans in disbelief before flying swiftly in front of Erica. Smiling gently, Erica opened her palm, and the Silph landed lightly, settling comfortably.
“Is it really a Silph?”
Ellen asked in a trembling voice.
“It’s my first time seeing a spirit!”
“Wow, look at the sparkling dust. It’s beautiful…”
“The Silph is really tiny.”
“Yeah. It really looks like a fairy from a picture book.”
“Erica, you said you’d become a spirit mage, and you actually did!”
“Oh my, a spirit mage among us!”
Amid the commotion, Erica quickly put her finger to her lips, signaling “Shh! Shh!” The children gradually lowered their voices.
“No one knows yet.”
“You didn’t tell His Grace the Duke?”
Serel asked quietly, lowering her voice as well.
“Yeah. Dad would be happy if he knew, but…”
“Why?”
Erica trailed off, and Adrian tilted his head curiously.
“If Dad knew I contracted with a spirit, he’d probably send me straight to Edelheim.”
Finally, the children nodded.
“Yes, His Grace would do that.”
“Mm, mm. Definitely.”
The scene immediately played out in their minds, and everyone agreed.
Then Serel, who had been mumbling, suddenly stopped. She turned to Erica sharply and asked,
“Wait, Erica. Did you say contract? You contracted with a spirit? You don’t just communicate with one?”
“Yes. Why?”
Erica widened her eyes, as if confused.
“Why? If that’s the case, you obviously have to go to Edelheim!”
Serel whispered, her face flushed.
“I know, but I don’t want to.”
“Why should you have to go if you don’t want to?”
Erica said sulkily. Santuque pouted and asked,
“Because it’s rare for a spirit mage to contract with a spirit alone.”
Adrian answered briefly. Seeing Santuque raise his eyebrows, Adrian added an explanation.
“Most spirit mages need to go to Edelheim and get help from senior spirit mages to contract with a spirit. Contracting requires mana, right? Senior spirit mages help control the mana while you contract.”
“Why go through all that trouble? Can’t you just build up mana and do it alone? Didn’t Erica do that?”
“You need a huge amount of mana at the exact moment of contracting. Who knows how long it would take to gather that much? And sensing mana itself is difficult. Wizards can feel mana alone, but for spirit mages, that’s rare.”
“Why? Is a spirit mage’s mana different from a wizard’s?”
Even Erica, now a spirit mage, didn’t seem to know and asked Adrian.
“No. Mana isn’t different, but the constitution of wizards and spirit mages is different, I guess. That’s what I’ve heard.”
Adrian shrugged and continued.
“Even with high affinity, it’s rare to contract with a spirit alone before you can sense mana. You can only make simple requests to spirits.”
“Then how did Erica do it?”
“Exactly. How did she do it?”
All eyes turned to Erica. Yet she had no clear answer. Was sensing mana really that difficult? She rather wanted to ask.
“The point is, our friend might be an incredible genius for sensing mana and contracting alone.”
Adrian smiled.
“Erica must have been exhausted after contracting too. Even with senior help, spirit mages are said to be sick for about a day after contracting. Doing it alone must have been even harder.”
“Yeah. After I accidentally contracted with Silph, I was in a lot of pain for a while. No one could figure out why. If my dad found out, he’d send me straight to Edelheim.”
“But Erica, you’ll eventually have to go to Edelheim. Spirit mages must register there and undergo three years of training and practice.”
Serel gently rubbed Erica’s hand. Feeling the warmth, Erica clasped Serel’s hand tightly.
“I know. But not yet. I want to stay in the territory a little longer. You might call it childish, but I still don’t want to leave home to live in Edelheim.”
“Erica, there’s a mansion in the capital too. Couldn’t you just commute daily to Edelheim from there?”
Santuque asked after thinking for a moment.
“The principle is to live in Edelheim while training. The only exceptions are princes or princesses with spirit mage talent. They never make other exceptions to maintain discipline. And Erica prefers the territory mansion to the capital one.”
Still holding hands, Serel answered for her, and Erica nodded in agreement. Ellen then held Erica’s other hand.
Like most children their age, they all felt grown-up. But to Ellen, they were still kids. It was natural for a child not to want to leave their parents and home.
“Yeah, Erica. You can take it slow. There’s no rush. I wouldn’t like having to live away from my parents for years either. We’ll keep it secret until you say otherwise.”
“Me too.”
“Me too.”
“We’ll keep it secret.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Ellen smiled, and the children promised. Erica laughed, tears welling up in her eyes.
