Chapter 12
“Wha—wh—what—!”
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
The two women shouted very different sounds after seeing what Acares was pointing at.
Across the field, at Coco’s ranch—
about a hundred cows were running wild outside a broken fence.
“Hey! Where are you all going?!”
Coco screamed as she ran after them.
But she was in such a hurry that she tripped and fell face-first.
“Coco, ma’am!”
Bella shouted and ran to her side.
She helped Coco up, but the woman had fainted from shock.
Watching this, Acares asked calmly,
“Bella. Does this woman have family?”
“Mr. Hedleton went to the capital yesterday,” Bella replied quickly.
“So there’s no one else to handle this mess.”
Bella looked nervously between the unconscious Coco and the cows disappearing in the distance.
Then she turned to look at her small but beautiful house.
Inside—it was practically a noble’s mansion.
And she had created it herself with her Oracion magic.
‘No one’s watching… Maybe it’s okay to use it this time.’
Since building the house, she hadn’t really used her Oracion magic again.
Because Acares always stepped in first and solved everything.
But now, this was a problem even he might not fix easily.
And the Hedletons were important neighbors—almost like family.
Bella couldn’t just stand by while they suffered such a loss.
She clenched her fists and declared,
“I’ll fix this!”
“What?”
Acares blinked, surprised.
“…Bella, are you serious?”
“Of course! Just trust me!”
Her little face shone with confidence Acares had never seen before.
She tied her soft gray hair into a high ponytail and rolled up her sleeves.
Acares sighed deeply.
‘Damn it.’
He had started doing everything himself just to stop her from using Oracion.
‘Oracion mages lose much more energy than normal mages when they use magic. The wider the range, the more damage it does to their body,’ Eden had once told him.
Acares remembered that night he killed a knight—Bella’s hair had gone white in patches, her body burning like fire.
She must have used Oracion over and over after he disappeared, trying to summon him.
‘She must’ve thought she could break some kind of limit. She kept using her power until I appeared.’
Even that day when Froc was taken away—same thing.
A cute but dangerous misunderstanding.
And Acares didn’t want to correct her.
He wanted her to believe she’d reached her limit—so she would stop using Oracion.
At least until his “task” was complete.
‘But now she wants to summon her power in broad daylight—to chase cows?!’
Even though this was a remote place, people still passed by sometimes.
If anyone saw her use Oracion, the emperor’s men could discover her.
Then all his efforts to hide her would be ruined.
“Bella, I’ll take care of it,” he said gently, trying to calm her.
If he didn’t stop her now, she’d really do it.
But Bella refused to back down.
“No, I’ll do it!”
“I said I’ll handle it.”
“What can you even do?”
Acares froze.
She wasn’t mocking him—she really wanted to know.
“Bella, I’m a man who can do more than you think.”
“For example?”
“I’m strong. I’m smart.”
—He was, after all, the most powerful mage and swordsman, commander of the royal knights, second only to the Emperor himself.
“I also have great taste,” he added proudly.
The kind of man who would burn a priceless painting if the colors felt off.
“And I know everything.”
He could read people’s minds, a gift some called a curse.
They called him the Cruel Butterfly, and no one in Atlanta dared to cross him.
But—
“Ah, I see…”
Bella looked at him with unimpressed eyes.
Acares had simply told the truth, yet somehow it felt insulting.
Then Bella tilted her head and muttered,
“That’s strange. How did a familiar like you come out of me?”
He swallowed down his irritation again.
It wasn’t sarcasm—she was genuinely curious.
He remembered Simone’s words from long ago:
‘My daughter’s… a little unusual. I worry about her.’
Even when Simone had been imprisoned, she always smiled when she spoke of Bella.
She had been Acares’s light—his fairy tale come alive.
And Bella was just like her.
So much so, it felt like Simone had come back to life.
As he lost himself in thought, sunlight flickered in his green eyes—and he suddenly saw Bella’s small figure running toward the escaping cows.
“B–Bella!”
He grabbed his coat and sprinted after her.
A soft smile spread on his lips.
As always, Simone had been right about everything.
***
When Bella reached the ranch, she crouched under the fence to look around.
More than half the herd had escaped into the nearby forest.
“Ahhh… This is really bad.”
That forest was full of wild beasts.
Even if she brought the cows back with Oracion, some might already have been attacked.
There was no time to waste.
Bella swallowed hard and raised her hand.
The air shimmered with golden light—her Oracion appeared.
Just then, someone grabbed her shoulder.
“Bella!”
“Acares?”
Acares was breathing heavily, his hand firm on her shoulder.
It was the first time Bella had seen him so anxious.
“What’s wrong?”
“I told you—I’ll handle it.”
Again, the same words.
‘Why is he acting like this?’ Bella thought.
All Acares ever did was chop wood shirtless or use brute strength for everything.
Sure, he’d once snapped his fingers and woke people from an Oracion trance, but that had to be a coincidence.
Then Acares hesitated, before blurting out—
“Bella. Actually… I can hear the voice of God.”
“…What?”
He said it desperately—it was a lie, just to stop her.
But instead of calming down, Bella’s eyes lit up even more.
“Whose voice?”
“God’s,” he said quickly. “He said… you shouldn’t do anything. I’m your Oracion’s summoned one, remember?”
Bella froze.
He had never talked so openly about Oracion before.
“God told you to stay still,” Acares insisted.
“…What?”
‘What kind of nonsense is that?’ Bella thought, fuming.
A faceless god giving orders through her summoned man?
‘Really, Mom? Isn’t that ridiculous?’
Oracion was a divine gift.
Past Oracion users sometimes claimed to hear God’s voice.
But in all her years, God had never once answered Bella’s prayers.
Not once.
‘And now He tells my familiar to sit still—because I want to save a few cows?!’
Bella’s anger burned hotter.
She knew using Oracion was risky—it might knock her out for days, just like ten years ago.
But she couldn’t let the Hedletons lose everything.
She wanted to repay their kindness—
and to carry on the will her mother, Simone, had tried so hard to protect.
“Acares, can you just watch for me? It’ll only take a minute.”
“…Bella, must you really do this?”
Acares’s voice sounded almost pleading.
Bella smiled gently and turned back.
Then she began softly, like reading a story to the children at Piroche.
“At the foggy Hedleton ranch,” she whispered,
“the cows that went out to the meadow for a picnic all came back home!”
Her Oracion burst into light, scattering golden sparks like stars.
And then—from deep within the forest—
a tremendous roar echoed.
