Coincidence, or Fate
“Tsk. I need to get the crown prince’s seal of authority soon.”
That way, not even a Grand Duke could easily take the child away. The research hadn’t progressed far enough yet—he couldn’t let the child go now.
“Let me know when the Grand Duke arrives.”
“Yes, sir.”
He was at Hector’s secret research lab.
When he had first entered, the lab was thick with a smoky, acrid smell—the stench of repeated failure.
He was observing Hector’s experiments—experiments extracting and infusing mana into everything from insects to small animals.
Time slipped by unnoticed as he watched.
He caught a fluttering piece of paper that came floating down.
The sheet, inscribed with a magic circle, crumbled into ash in his hands.
“Another failure?”
“Tch. I told you—go home already. I’m not stopping till it works.”
“Watching is a kind of study too, isn’t it?”
Hector, his face blackened with soot, clicked his tongue in annoyance.
“How many days are you going to stay holed up in here? You’re a newlywed, you know.”
Ah—only then did he remember Milena.
He had told her he’d come home early. He had completely forgotten.
“It’s fine. My wife is very understanding. Ah, Gérard, bring the ring.”
Lexion pulled out a ring from a jewelry box.
The emerald had been custom-made to match Milena’s eye color and shimmered beautifully.
“What is it?”
“The magic embedded in the wooden ring. Put it in this one too.”
“Sir, with all due respect… This is hardly the time.”
It was a matter of life and death for the head of the family.
There was no room for distractions.
“I know it’s urgent. But do this for me first, then resume.”
“Am I your personal magician now?”
“Just show me how. I’ll do it.”
Even the spell he used with the wren was something Hector had taught him.
He’d gone beyond a mere teacher.
Lexion had once refrained from using magic, but now he could wield it without strain. White mana truly did seem useful.
“When would I ever finish teaching you at this rate…”
At times like this, Hector still felt like he was dealing with the same clueless young master.
Scratching his unkempt hair, which hadn’t been washed for days, he took the jewelry box.
“Stop distracting me. Go read a magic book or something.”
Lexion, watching the experiment quietly, suddenly spoke.
“What if I became the subject of the experiment?”
“Have you gone insane?!”
“Are you out of your mind?!”
Hector and Gérard shouted in unison.
Lexion only shrugged.
“You’re going to try this on the child eventually, right? So I’ll go first.”
Hector let out a long, exasperated sigh.
“Gérard. Get out.”
At the dismissal, Gérard frowned and looked at the failed test subjects.
Did his master really intend to do that to himself?
He glanced at Lexion in concern before leaving the lab.
“Young master. Extracting mana is practically taboo. What I’m doing now borders on the illicit.
I’m only trying to extract a fraction of the boy’s overwhelming power.”
Even if the child died in the process, he had to die after the procedure succeeded.
Perhaps Lexion had realized that. That was why he volunteered his own body for the experiment first.
Truthfully, everything was a gamble at this point.
What the family head lacked most was the life force bound to his mana.
“I need something.”
“What is it?”
Hector acknowledged his own limits.
At this rate, he would only fail, and the family head would die.
“I need alchemical data. From someone well-versed in black magic.”
“Someone like that…”
Lexion trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
He already knew who Hector meant.
“Yes. He’s already dead.”
They needed the data of a dead mage.
Specifically, the one responsible for the kidnapping incident—the one who extracted Sharpeil Silvert’s mana and sealed it into a gem.
“I could try to replicate his work, but I can’t guarantee it will merge perfectly.”
“…When a mage dies, their research becomes property of the Mage Tower, right?”
Normally, those called mages had their knowledge archived in the Mage Tower—excluding people like Lexion, who had mana but weren’t officially recognized.
“Yes, and ever since the new tower master took over, the tower’s location is completely unknown.”
Usually, when a new master took over, they would gather the mages and reveal the location of the tower.
But this time, the new master skipped all the formalities.
No one even knew what he looked like.
“For now, I’ll use all the knowledge I have to complete the magic formula. So please, young master…”
“I’ll search for the tower master.”
A dead mage’s data…
Tch. Just thinking about the past gave Lexion a splitting headache.
“Young master. The boy and yourself are in similar condition. Perhaps the young madam’s mana could be the key…”
BANG!
Lexion slammed his hand on the cluttered desk covered in books and papers.
“No.”
He stared coldly at Hector.
“Using the child is already crossing the line. But Milena? Absolutely not.”
His face was desperate.
During the past kidnapping incident, they had been subjects of horrible experiments.
Some lost their mana, while others gained new power.
Among them, the Silvert brothers’ fates had diverged sharply.
Sharpeil lost his mana.
Lexion gained his.
Lexion had been devastated by the power he never wanted.
The fact that another’s mana had been forcibly grafted into his own body filled him with deep disgust.
He lived with overwhelming guilt.
He knew how excruciatingly painful those experiments had been.
To think of putting Milena through that? Unthinkable.
“I’ll find the solution as quickly as possible. Don’t test anything directly on the child.”
“….”
He knew it was a contradiction.
But even so—he hoped.
That the child wouldn’t suffer.
That he wouldn’t endure the same pain.
“Whatever you do, don’t let it hurt. Do it after he’s asleep.”
“…Understood.”
Lexion left with those final words of plea.
Hector, left behind, waved his hand and shaved off his scruffy beard in a single gesture.
He rubbed his now smooth chin in thought.
“Seems like the young madam’s mana really might be the key.”
Coincidence, or fate.
This good fortune couldn’t be allowed to slip by.
Milena and the child would become valuable data.
Woof! Woof!
Loud barking echoed through the duke’s garden.
Even Milena, who wasn’t usually afraid of animals, instinctively stepped back at the sight of the two hunting dogs charging toward them.
“You’re noisy.”
At the grand madam’s single word, the hounds immediately stopped and lowered their heads.
Whimper—
The dogs glanced up at her, watching her expression.
“Wow! That’s amazing, Grand Madam!”
Ashdel clapped in amazement, eyes sparkling.
The dogs were so large, they stood taller than him.
“Hmph. It’s nothing,”
The grand madam cleared her throat shyly.
Claudia, standing beside her, let out a hearty laugh.
“Ha! Those mutts would pretend to die if my mother told them to. My father raised them himself, but he trained them to obey her completely. He really loved her, that old man.”
“You say the oddest things.”
All her memories of the previous duke were warm ones.
A gentle smile passed between mother and daughter.
“Go feed them, will you?”
“Shall I? Hey, kid. Wanna feed these guys?”
“Me? Can I really?”
“Of course! They just look intimidating—they’re real sweethearts.”
Claudia, eyes gleaming, took Ashdel to feed the dogs while the grand madam took Milena aside.
“Thank you.”
Milena bowed, but the grand madam only looked at her as if to say, what’s that for?
“No need for thanks among family. This is only natural.”
To cheer up Ashdel, who had grown dejected after seeing his birth mother, the grand madam had brought out the dogs.
Even Claudia, who claimed to be too busy, made time during training to keep an eye on them.
Thanks to that, both Milena and Ashdel were slowly beginning to settle in here.
“Come, I have something for you to do.”
“Yes, Mother.”
She wanted to repay the kindness they had shown her—so Milena followed her willingly.
“Lexion still hasn’t come home?”
“No, he seems very busy lately.”
“Next time he’s back, I’ll have to scold him. What kind of husband runs around like that and leaves his wife alone? Honestly, even if he is my son, it’s embarrassing.”
Milena simply smiled, wondering too what exactly he was doing out there.
The grand madam led her to the study.
As soon as they entered, the room fell silent—everyone pausing their work to greet her.
“You’re here.”
“You’ve already met Archer, right? Come this way.”
Milena nodded a greeting to Archer and followed the grand madam through a connecting corridor.
“This room belongs to the lady of the house. The previous duke had a wall knocked down to connect it directly to the main office.”
She smiled faintly, reminiscing about her late husband.
Inside, the documents were stacked neatly, just like in the main office.
“Here, dear.”
“Yes?”
“These are the ledgers of our household.”
“Pardon?”
Why was she handing this to her?
“You’ll be acting as the lady of House Silvert someday. It’s best you learn early. I won’t be around to manage this place forever, you know.”
