Chapter : 82
Ah, now that I think about it… where’s Dad?
Aldine, who had been glaring at Eani with a click of her tongue, finally thought of Baron Nasel.
She hurriedly looked around nearby and spotted Baron Nasel lying on the ground.
“Dad!”
Aldine dashed over to him.
“Get up! Quickly!”
He was an unreliable father, but still, better than being alone, right?
With that thought, she tried desperately to wake him, only to notice a long gash on his arm.
It wasn’t a deep wound, but blood was streaming down.
“Why would anyone make something like this?!”
A wizard’s blood is often used as magical material.
Could it be that they were after that?
“No way… he’s just an ordinary person, there’s no way!”
Moreover, both Aldine and Baron Nasel were lower-tier mages, meaning their blood was only low-grade material.
Ignoring this fact entirely, Aldine shook Baron Nasel without mercy.
“Dad!”
“Hah!”
She yelled right into his ear, and Nasel finally opened his eyes, barely regaining consciousness.
He raised his hand to his temple as if his head ached but hesitated mid-motion.
“What are these handcuffs? Where… where are we?”
“Dad, snap out of it!”
“Aldine?”
Aldine quickly explained what she understood of the situation—everything. What Eani said in the underground prison, where they were now, and even the wounds on their arms. All of it.
“Look at this! The cuts are long enough to draw blood! Are they insane?!”
As Aldine spoke, Baron Nasel’s expression gradually hardened.
Then he quickly lowered his head to inspect the floor they were sitting on.
“This magic circle…”
“Huh? Magic circle?”
Hearing Nasel murmur, Aldine carefully examined the floor as well.
The previously dark room now revealed the faint outline of a magic circle.
‘What kind of magic circle is this?’
Judging by its design, it looked like an ancient magic circle handed down over centuries…
It was a pattern Aldine had never seen before, and she tilted her head in confusion.
Just then, Baron Nasel, after quickly checking the magic circle and their wounds, snapped his gaze toward Eani.
“Did you sleep well~?”
“…Eani, why did you do this to us? And why are we here?”
Eani gave no answer, only a relaxed smile.
Her smile made Nasel’s voice grow increasingly harsh.
“Good heavens! You drew this magic circle too? Huh?! You’re not trying to do what I think you’re trying to do, are you?!”
Seeing this, Aldine sensed that the situation was serious.
“Eani Nasel! Stop pretending and speak clearly! You know what this act means, don’t you?! And this magic circle… only the head of the house should know it! How did you find out?!”
“Dad, what are you talking about? What magic circle? Explain!”
Aldine asked him repeatedly with anxious eyes, but Nasel, furious, was too busy yelling at Eani.
Aldine shot him a glare, then glanced at Eani across from them.
And the moment she met her sibling’s green eyes, a chill ran through her entire body.
‘Scary…!’
Eani looked down at them with an expression Aldine had never seen before.
A sharp, indifferent gaze, as if evaluating the value of merchandise.
Right next to Eani stood the Marquis Seind, infamous in high society for his coldness and cruelty.
Yet his presence was completely overshadowed—Eani was terrifying and eerie.
‘That’s right… she was like this even in the underground prison…!’
Right before Aldine collapsed, she had felt an unusual sense of intimidation and discomfort from Eani.
She had lost consciousness immediately after, thinking she might have been mistaken.
‘I wasn’t wrong.’
Her instincts screamed.
‘This person isn’t Eani…!’
No matter how much memory she had lost, Eani could never have such eyes.
Family was her entire world, and a helpless little girl like her could never look at her family this way.
‘Hah… but then, who is she?’
Who was this woman with the same face as Eani?
Aldine began trembling nervously when Eani’s previously smiling lips slowly parted.
“I wanted it. Baron Nasel’s ‘unique ability.’”
Aldine Nasel, frozen at my words, muttered softly.
“Unique ability…?”
She clearly didn’t understand what it meant.
‘Well, of course.’
A ‘unique ability’ is a power little known to the public.
The reason magical families are special is not only because of the magical power inherited through blood, but also the unique ability passed down through generations.
‘In simple terms, it’s like an extra bonus beyond magic.’
Magical families each had their own unique abilities, and only family members could use them.
Moreover, these abilities only manifest if certain conditions are met.
Of course, nowadays, most unique abilities were forgotten.
Many magical families had died out, and even in the present, people like Aldine Nasel knew little about their family’s unique powers.
‘I wouldn’t have known so much either, if not for the records left by the Sun Mage.’
Thankfully, Nasel still carried the magical lineage, and I wanted Baron Nasel’s unique ability very much.
“That’s what a unique ability is. And this magic circle is a device to awaken Baron Nasel’s unique ability…!”
It seemed Nasel had finished explaining everything to Aldine, who was still curious.
Aldine swallowed hard after hearing the explanation.
“So that exists… What are the conditions to awaken a unique ability?”
Baron Nasel bit his lips tightly at his daughter’s question.
“The last remaining mage of that family in the world!”
“…!”
“This magic circle is a ‘mana-draining’ circle, artificially designed to fulfill that condition! Anyone who spills blood here will have all their mana stolen and become ordinary humans!”
“What?! Ordinary humans?!”
“Yes! And the magic circle channels all the stolen mana to the mage with the most power in the space…!”
“So Eani Nasel brought us here to—”
“She’s trying to steal all our magic right now!”
I watched the two of them chatter and chuckled quietly.
“That’s why I said, let’s continue our little family game~.”
“Wh-what?!”
“Dad, sister.”
Both flinched at my voice. I smiled brightly at them.
“You can do this much for me, right? We’re family~.”
At my words, the father-daughter duo’s faces turned bright red.
They hadn’t expected to hear what they themselves said to Eani in this way.
‘As shameless as ever~.’
They shivered indignantly.
Among them, Baron Nasel could no longer contain himself and shouted in anger.
“Are you seriously saying that now?! You’re making an absurd demand just because we’re family!”
Aldine Nasel panted but flinched and hunched her shoulders when our eyes met.
From her reaction, she had clearly realized my presence and felt quite afraid.
‘Well, she’s been with Eani Nasel since childhood.’
So regardless of affection or dislike, she would instinctively know before anyone else.
The Eani Nasel in front of her wasn’t just memory-loss Eani—she was an entirely different person.
‘But what can Aldine Nasel do? There’s no evidence.’
Just from seeing her scared like this, the answer is clear.
Aldine Nasel is no match for me.
