CHAPTER 06……………………………
Both of their gazes turned to him.
“What if we say he already has someone?”
“What did you say?”
At Lectarion’s reaction—clearly asking what nonsense he was spouting—Beric hurriedly added an explanation.
“I mean that he has someone he loves deeply, someone he’s already promised his future to.”
“……It seems you want me to check just how well my sword cuts, Beric.”
Lectarion suddenly smiled brightly and reached for the hilt of the sword resting beside his desk, causing Beric to jump in alarm.
“No! I’m not joking!”
He desperately continued.
“If it’s love at first sight, then it cooling off will also happen in an instant. If he maintains a formal relationship for about a year and then breaks off the engagement, saying they’re incompatible, then not even His Majesty the Emperor—no, not even a god—could object.”
Beric’s expression turned sly. Even he thought it was a brilliant move.
A brief silence followed. Then Lectarion, who had looked displeased the entire time, curled his lips into a grin.
“That’s true. The human heart is something even tenth-tier magic can’t fathom.”
It was a saying from the continent’s underworld: if you con well enough, even a mage won’t see through your scheme.
As it happened, not long ago, while conducting an investigation under an imperial order, he had captured a low-ranking member of Beatrice—the worst mage crime guild in existence.
They were infuriatingly meticulous, so catching even a single lackey was the first breakthrough since he had begun hunting them.
And recently, using information extracted from that man, he’d uncovered a promising lead linking a territory in the west to the guild.
At such a critical time—when the long-pursued guild was finally starting to reveal its true form—he had no desire to waste time on something unnecessary.
“But it’s still an imperial order,” Jace said worriedly.
A hereditary retainer of the Northdian family and heir to the Baron Baek house, Jace was diligent and earnest to the point of rigidity.
In response to Jace’s concern, Beric—free-spirited by nature—grinned.
“The one who delivered it was a close attendant of the emperor. That makes it possible.”
In other words, this letter was not an official imperial decree that would be formally recorded.
Of course, even so, it clearly reflected the emperor’s will, so unless there was a reason he could accept, he would still be expected to comply.
“Find one.”
“…Pardon?”
“Find someone suitable for this plan.”
Lectarion’s dark crimson eyes gleamed.
“Yes, sir!”
Jace and Beric immediately rushed out.
They had to find someone.
If they failed, the future where the Northdian family was exterminated for regicide against the imperial family was all but guaranteed. Neither of them had the slightest desire to be swept up in such a fate.
That very day, the two secretly approached the few noble families that met their conditions—houses with unmarried young ladies of marriageable age who might be willing to cooperate. At the very least, the partner had to be a noble to make the story plausible to society.
However, because their master was so extraordinary, they often forgot one crucial fact: Lectarion was a Notch, a status utterly despised in noble society.
In the end, despite the unprecedented offer of becoming the duchess of Northdian, only one family accepted.
The Yuberis Count family of the west.
One week later.
At the very moment Eloa realized she was facing a financial crisis, the Yuberis estate was also thrown into utter chaos.
“Find it! Find it right now!”
After returning to her room following dinner and discovering her necklace was missing, Cosette had been screaming hysterically, turning the entire house upside down.
Crash!
As she angrily swept her arm across a shelf, expensive vases and ornaments fell and shattered to pieces. The servants, faced with her unusually violent rampage, were at a loss.
“M-Miss, we’ll search again thoroughly, so please calm down. You’ll hurt yourself.”
“Yes, if you get hurt, we’ll be reprimanded by the master.”
At the maid’s self-preserving remark, Cosette glared daggers.
“Shut up! Do you even know what kind of item that was? It was a gift from Lord Heron! I was supposed to wear it to the imperial banquet next month—and now it’s gone!”
Snorting like an enraged bull, she finally lost control and struck the maid across the cheek.
Smack!
“M-Miss!”
“Mina!”
One maid collapsed to the floor, and screams erupted from all around. Cosette didn’t even spare her a glance, biting her nails instead.
‘Useless idiots. Do you have any idea what that necklace was worth?!’
The emerald necklace she had ostentatiously displayed on her vanity was gone.
It had been a gift from Heron, Viscount Biorn and the second son of Marquis Hayes—her fiancé.
After receiving such a large and expensive jewel, Cosette had been so delighted that she spent days and nights gazing at it, counting down to the day she would wear it to the imperial banquet.
And now it had vanished.
“Ah. Right.”
Chewing her nails in agitation, Cosette suddenly realized the culprit, as if struck by revelation.
“It was that bitch Eloa. She definitely stole my necklace.”
“Miss Eloa? B-But…”
To the servants, Eloa was someone who always kept her head down and shrank back, so they couldn’t be certain she was capable of such a thing.
Moreover, since she was constantly harassed whenever she appeared, she rarely even came down from the third floor—where her room was—unless summoned.
But unlike them, who felt a trace of pity for Eloa, Cosette knew almost instinctively.
It was all an act. That cunning woman knew she lacked power, so she lay low—but she had never once truly been intimidated by Cosette.
You could tell just by looking at those piercing eyes. Why no one else noticed, she couldn’t understand.
‘That’s right—what would a Notch know anyway! That damned girl must have stolen mine in retaliation for her mother’s jewelry box being destroyed!’
Each time Cosette reached a new level of magic, she’d tried to break Eloa’s spirit by reminding her of her helplessness, but that incompetent Notch still carried herself with infuriating defiance.
‘Who does she think she is? I’m the heir of this family. Not you!’
Just because she’d been born two years earlier, Eloa had lived comfortably in this house. Meanwhile, Cosette had gone hungry, shivering in a cold little room night after night.
All the while, waiting desperately for a father who would someday come and save her and her mother.
As the daughter of Isabella—the last descendant of a fallen noble family—Cosette had once envied her half-sister living in that grand mansion.
Isabella, a noble who’d never been properly educated and could only use first-tier magic. And Cosette herself, who hadn’t even undergone an awakening ceremony until past the age of eight.
And the slum they lived in—inhabited only by Notches—had the audacity to reject mages.
If it were discovered that they were nobles—mages—there was no telling what kind of violence they might face.
With only first-tier magic that could barely light a flame or stir a gentle breeze, it was nearly impossible to resist the back-alley Notches who were little different from wild beasts.
So she’d clung to her father’s promise that one day he would bring them into that grand, magnificent mansion, hiding the fact that they were mages and barely enduring each day in the slums.
And yet, when she finally arrived at the mansion, the one occupying her rightful place was a Notch—the very kind who had always threatened their lives in the slums.
Cosette ground her teeth.
“Where is she?”
“…Pardon?”
“Where is that bitch right now?!”
This was no time for her to be out. She had to find Eloa.
She refused to let anything be taken from her anymore. Everything in this house belonged to her.
I had been standing in front of the door, agonizing for hours already.
“What do I do… that was my entire fortune…”
In packing in a rush, I’d completely forgotten the most important thing—my coin pouch. It wasn’t a large sum, but if I spent carefully, it would have been enough to live on for several months.
More importantly, I had nothing to eat right now. Even though spring had come to this forest, I had no knowledge of foraging—and even less ability to hunt.
No matter how accustomed I was to hunger, I couldn’t survive without food for half a month.
“Should I go back?”
I stared at the door I’d come through.
Since I hadn’t returned yet, the door should still be connected. I could go back if I wanted to.
The problem was that if I did, I wouldn’t be able to return here again for another half month.
And since I’d taken the emerald necklace with me, the mansion would undoubtedly be in an uproar. The moment I set foot in that house again, I’d surely face something truly horrific this time.
I leaned my forehead against the door and knocked it against the wood a few times.
‘A disaster of my own making.’
Then, suddenly, a thought struck me and I snapped my head up.
“Right! They said they’d be going out today for the Gale Viscount family’s banquet.”
Banquets hosted by noble families were usually held at night—illuminated brilliantly by magic to flaunt their wealth and power.
That was why Cosette had been obsessing over jewelry since morning. I’d also heard that Father and my stepmother would be attending, so there was a good chance the mansion would be empty.
‘But what if something changes and someone stays behind…?’
Past experiences made me increasingly timid.
Abandon my entire fortune—or take a risk.
As I’d said, it was my entire fortune. Most of my mother’s belongings I’d taken were worthless trinkets to anyone but me, impossible to sell.
The one valuable item—the necklace on my wrist—was far too precious to ever consider selling.
And if I tried to sell Cosette’s emerald necklace, I’d be caught immediately. In a world where magic was used as a means of communication, information spread at an unimaginable speed.
‘Worrying won’t tell me the outcome anyway… Fine. I’ll bet on the chance that this gamble succeeds.’
I made my decision.
