Chapter 41
“Please take care of Riersha, Countess Charlotte.”
“I am not good enough to teach the young lady. You know my abilities.”
“That’s exactly why you’re the right person. I had intended to keep it secret, but since you’ll be her teacher, you won’t be able to avoid noticing it anyway, so I’ll tell you. Riersha’s ability is reflection.”
Ian’s eyes calmed.
He finally understood why the duke had chosen him as Riersha’s instructor.
Teachers assigned to a successor usually had abilities of similar nature.
It was to deepen the successor’s understanding of their own power.
Depending on how well one understood their ability, its usefulness varied dramatically.
Ian touched one of the floating bubbles in the air.
At the same moment, his fingertips flicked outward.
Ian revealed his own ability.
Soon, bubbles identical to the ones Riersha had created began wavering all around them.
“Oh?”
Riersha was shocked.
“Turnsaengnim, do you have the same ability as me?”
“Not quite, Lady Riersha.”
Ian shook his head.
He lightly flicked one of the bubbles he had reproduced.
The bubbles suddenly slammed into each other—
BOOOOOOM!!
The bubbles exploded with a deafening roar as they shot in opposite directions.
Riersha covered her ears.
Her hair whipped wildly in the blast.
“W-what… whas that…?”
Once the situation calmed down, Riersha muttered in bewilderment.
“My ability is Mirror. I can replicate another person’s power.”
“……”
“The duke instructed me to focus on minimizing any damage caused by your ability, my lady. As you can see…”
Even though the bubbles were tiny and had flown in opposite directions, the entire clearing around them was devastated.
Ian smiled brightly.
“You have absolutely no idea how to control the degree of reflection.”
“…Yes. I’ll twy my best to learn.”
A few more explosive booms later, Riersha finally finished her lesson.
Covered in dust from head to toe, she looked utterly worn out.
Her legs trembled as she staggered to the shade of a tree and collapsed against it.
“Are you all right, Lady Riersha?”
When Ian asked with concern, Riersha shivered.
A two-faced man!
That man was a complete two-face.
During the lesson he pushed her like a monster, and now he was asking if she was all right?
“…Hic.”
Riersha’s eyes welled up.
She missed Sona. If Sona were her instructor, the lesson wouldn’t have been this painful.
Perhaps that was exactly why Arcrod deliberately excluded Sona from the list of teacher candidates.
“Here, have some water, my lady.”
“Thank you…”
Riersha gulped down the water.
The cool liquid revived her a little.
When she set down the empty bottle, Ian looked slightly apologetic.
“My apologies. I got a bit carried away…”
“Carried… away?”
“Your talent is outstanding. Before I knew it, I found myself getting a bit serious.”
Ian smiled cheerfully.
So… that meant…
“A bit?”
“Yes.”
“Then… does that mean the lessons cwould get even harder than they were just now…?”
Riersha paled.
Please, please let the answer be no.
But he betrayed her thoroughly.
“Of course—today’s lesson was just a taste.”
“……”
“Well then. Since you worked so hard today, why don’t you tell me what’s troubling you?”
“…So to summarize, the rabbit and the turtle were very close friends, but suddenly had a falling-out?”
“Yes.”
“And you have no idea why.”
On the dusty ground before Riersha, cute drawings of a rabbit and a turtle were scratched out with a stick.
The area was messy from her explanations, but Ian understood perfectly.
The rabbit represented Yelena Aracrene, and the turtle was Karla Declaire.
Riersha avoided details so he wouldn’t guess who she meant.
“What do you think happened between the rabbit and the turtle?”
Riersha asked gloomily, as if she truly had no clue.
Ian studied the drawings seriously and then said, “Ah.”
“These two are animals that live in completely different environments, aren’t they? Turtles live in the sea, rabbits on land.”
“And that’s why?”
“They must have had frequent small clashes.”
Growing up in different environments creates many differences—what they see, hear, wear, eat.
Come to think of it, Mother and the Empress only became close because their families were aligned.
Riersha realized her drawings unexpectedly fit the situation.
“What if only one of them thought they were close friends?”
“…Only one?”
“Yes. The turtle may not have believed they were as close as the rabbit assumed.”
“……”
“You thought they were your closest friend, but they didn’t feel the same.”
Hearing Ian’s explanation, Riersha shot to her feet, as if enlightenment had struck.
He was right—the size of one’s heart is never equal.
Ian smiled when he saw she understood.
“This is especially common if they’ve been close since childhood. Sometimes children are forced to get along because of family interests, even if they don’t actually like each other.”
“I see…”
Yes—what if Karla Bellotion had never considered Yelena Aracrene a true friend from the beginning?
If that was the case, the tangled thread unraveled somewhat.
If they were truly friends, the Empress would never have done such things.
“Thank you, turnsaengnim. I think I can figure the west out on my own now.”
Their obsession with the idea that the two were friends had prevented them from progressing.
“No need for thanks. I’m glad I helped.”
Ian stood.
He was assigned as her personal instructor, but he was still a very busy man.
He couldn’t stay long.
“Well then, Lady Riersha. I’ll see you at the next lesson. I hope your problem is resolved by then.”
“Yes!”
Riersha bowed politely, and Ian returned the gesture before leaving the clearing.
Riersha quickly erased the drawings on the ground with her foot.
It was time to wash up, do the homework Kaden assigned,
and if she had time, make the flower bracelet for Fernoar.
“Oh! On the way I should check the garden for flowers.”
Thinking happily about which colors would best suit Fernoar, she left the clearing.
“Oberon, what are you doing here?”
Oberon, who had just exited the clearing, stopped when he saw a man approaching from the opposite side.
A man with long silver hair tied back and a monocle.
He stepped out from behind a tree, blocking Oberon’s path.
Since they normally didn’t get along well, Oberon frowned.
“I thought you were away on a mission, Rosinante.”
It was Rosinante.
He glanced in the direction Oberon came from and smiled pleasantly.
“Yes, the young duke gave me an assignment. I’ve just returned to the ducal estate.”
“Then you should go to him at once.”
Oberon moved as if he had no more business here.
Rosinante shrugged and stepped aside, letting him pass.
But Rosinante’s eyes watching Oberon were colder than ever.
“Rosinante, from now on, monitor everyone in the family. Even those who served the Aracrene family for generations.”
A sudden order issued by Fernoar after returning from the crown prince’s birthday banquet.
There was no detailed explanation, but Rosinante knew the intent—
someone within the household needed to be filtered out.
Even long-serving elder retainers who had followed the Aracrene family all their lives were not exempt.
Didn’t they say Lady Riersha will begin taking lessons here starting today…?
Rosinante’s eyes narrowed sharply.
