AME 68

Chapter 68

Alesia’s already pale face stiffened immediately. Her eyes, which had suddenly darkened, now held a shadowy depth that was impossible to read.

A suffocating silence fell between them.

Then, in a voice barely louder than a whisper, Alesia spoke.

“…What are you talking about?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. I sensed the presence of mana from you.”

Kaon had been replaying the same scene in his head ever since he waited for Alesia to awaken. The scene he’d witnessed in the forest earlier that dawn.

After defeating the monster in combat, Kaon had turned to leave when he suddenly felt an overwhelming surge of mana. Without hesitation, he’d retreated. The monster, grievously wounded, couldn’t chase him.

Just as he emerged from the trees, he saw wild foxes swarming toward her. Alesia was already collapsed, feebly waving her arms in resistance. Thought didn’t even have time to catch up. His instincts moved before reason.

He sprinted toward her at breakneck speed, and just as he approached—

A blast of power erupted from her ring.

‘Something’s… not right.’

Kaon, with his eyes locked only on Alesia through the chaotic scene, momentarily froze. A strange sensation gripped him. The sight of Alesia was… indescribably uncanny.

A massive flame, as if ready to consume the entire forest, roared through the air. The space it passed was scorched and filled with thick, acrid smoke. And then, just as suddenly—it vanished.

Kaon recalled the fleeting moment.

At the instant of the spell’s casting, Alesia had been enveloped in a distorted current. A current formed from an immense outpouring of mana—a flow he had seen only once before.

That was how he knew, without a doubt, it had been mana.

The problem was—Alesia wasn’t a mage. She had admitted it herself. She couldn’t use magic without the ring. Yet the mana that night had clearly come from her—not the ring.

He had seen her cast spells countless times before. But this was the first time he had seen something like that. It was completely different.

Magic operated through mana. It was an artificial force used to trigger phenomena by manipulating natural energies. In other words, if the mage didn’t supply mana, the magic would stop.

Alesia’s magic always relied on the ring’s mana. That was why the spells had remained consistent regardless of her physical condition.

But this morning, the flame that erupted from the ring vanished the moment she lost consciousness. It was the complete opposite of the fire she cast the day she collapsed in a knight’s place—it had continued to burn even after she’d passed out, until the monster’s core had melted away.

“I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me. I’m only telling you what I saw. The mana… it was definitely surrounding you.”

As if protecting you. Kaon left that part unsaid.

Her gaze drifted blankly to the ceiling.

“That’s impossible,” she whispered.

“Alesia—”

“No. That’s not possible…”

She repeated the words like a prayer, as if saying them enough would make them true. Her face was on the verge of collapse. She shut her eyes like someone who couldn’t bear to face reality. Her chin trembled, and her lips moved in silent despair.

Kaon clenched and unclenched his fists.

‘Was I too hasty?’

It hurt to see her like this—on the brink of tears, yet not crying. Alesia had lived her whole life as the heir to a mage family who couldn’t use magic. Maybe he had given her false hope by putting too much meaning into something that might’ve been a fluke. Maybe he should’ve waited until she’d healed.

He was about to stop her—to say “That’s enough. Don’t think about it anymore”—when she spoke.

“My name… it comes from Ingelos’ middle name.”

Her voice was quiet.

“So you’re saying… you weren’t born without mana? You actually had so much that you were named after the first lord?”

Kaon’s voice trailed off as he tried to wrap his head around what she’d just said.

Ingelos.

The name that now represented an entire household was once that of a legendary archmage in the history of the Gaios Kingdom. Even someone like Kaon, not a mage himself, knew the weight that name carried in the magical world.

To think Alesia had once possessed so much power that she was named after him…

‘They experimented on their own child? Have they all lost their minds? And no one stopped them?’

More than that, Kaon couldn’t believe how she had come into the world.

What kind of deranged parents could see their child as nothing more than the result of an experiment?

That level of obsession with power was an illness. It made even the money-hungry mages of the Tower seem humane in comparison. They were twisted, yes—but the Ingelos duchy? They’d probably sell their souls to demons if it meant gaining more power.

‘So that’s why they did all that to her.’

He could still picture the scars on her body—scars so severe it felt like a miracle she’d even survived. He would probably never forget them for the rest of his life.

When she failed to meet their expectations, the Ingelos family had lost their minds. No sane person could’ve done what they did to her.

“It happened when I was little,” Alesia said quietly. “Too young to even remember clearly.”

The trembling in her voice was gone. She sounded… detached.

Kaon’s stomach twisted again. She always seemed so cold and hard—but in truth, she had simply become that way to survive. And that made it even harder to bear.

He was seventeen. So was she. Nearly eighteen, but still… just kids.

Kaon had gone through his share of hardship growing up in Ferdinand, a nation plagued by war with monsters. Whether it was physical or emotional, he thought he understood struggle.

But compared to Alesia, his pain meant nothing.

He had parents who loved him. A sister who always quietly supported him. Comrades who believed in him. He was born with talent and never had to try hard to stay ahead.

And Alesia? She had nothing. For failing to meet their expectations, she was condemned to a life of despair. Abused. Tormented. Threatened by her own family.

“There’s no need to look so sorry,” she said. “It’s all in the past. I’m not the only one who’s lost their mana.”

“…You’re not?”

“No. It happens sometimes—after serious injuries. Or, very rarely, without any reason at all.”

Her voice was laced with quiet sadness. She was one of those rare cases.

“Has anyone… ever regained it?”

“Maybe. But I’ve never heard of it. Even Ingelos gave up on me.”

Kaon couldn’t bring himself to say anything more. He had more questions, but asking them would only reopen wounds that hadn’t healed.

He could barely imagine what she’d gone through, for even Ingelos to abandon her.

“Alesia.”

She looked up at him with her crimson eyes.

“I won’t ask if you’re sure about what you saw,” she said. “To be honest… I’m not expecting much.”

Her gaze dropped to the ring on her finger. Kaon followed her eyes.

That ring was what had brought them together—and what had once nearly torn them apart. And now, it might become the key to an unexpected future.

“But I want to know. I’m not clinging to false hope or anything. So don’t worry—I won’t blame you.”

“…Are you sure?”

“What’s there to be afraid of? It’s not like I have anything left to lose.”

A faint smile crossed her lips. She looked… at peace. She must’ve spent a long time getting to this point.

“If you say so. Then once you’re better—”

“There’s no need to wait. I’ll try it now.”

Kaon’s brow furrowed. She really didn’t know how to do things in moderation. She had literally collapsed from magic earlier that day, and now she wanted to try again?

“You’re not even healed yet—”

“I don’t need to be. I’m just checking if there’s mana in me. I can’t feel it, but if it’s there, you’ll be able to see it. I don’t have to cast a full spell, right?”

“…True.”

She wasn’t wrong, but he still didn’t like it. Then again, he was the one who’d brought it up.

“I’ll only try something small. Just a tiny flame. Just watch.”

With no more room to object, Kaon fell silent and observed.

Alesia raised her right hand and began murmuring in a language he didn’t understand, but which she clearly did. A practiced incantation.

Moments later, a small flame appeared, suspended in midair.

It looked like an invisible candle was holding it aloft.

“…Oh.”

Kaon’s expression shifted as he watched, tense anticipation melting into something… unreadable.