ATPL 51

* * *

Unfortunately, Judy’s plan never came to fruition.

“That’s far enough.”

The girl, crouched at dawn while trying to light a fire with straw, flinched. Behind her stood an ominous man.

His face was pale and finely featured, strikingly beautiful. His pink eyes glowed eerily beneath the morning star.

Judy recognized him instantly.

“Y-you…”

It was the wizard. The same one who often locked himself away in his room with that girl.

But she hadn’t heard anyone approach. Judy was stunned. How could someone, even a wizard, move so silently?

If Judy had known more about wizards, she might have understood.

Not only had he masked his presence, but he had also cast a spell that ensured everyone in the mansion remained in a deep, undisturbed sleep.

But Judy couldn’t have known that. And the wizard wasn’t the type to offer explanations.

He smiled faintly.

“What are you doing to my master?”

Only then did Judy snap back to reality. Her hands still held oil-soaked straw and a tinderbox.

“T-this is to keep her warm…”

A flimsy lie. So flimsy that Judy herself cringed the moment she said it.

Surprisingly, the wizard’s smile brightened.

“Oh, is that so?”

With a flick of his hand, a tendril of magic lifted the hem of Judy’s apron.

“Gasp.”

From her apron pocket, stolen valuables spilled out. Precious items she had taken from around the mansion, things too valuable to burn.

There were small silver dishes, spoons, and pearl-adorned wall ornaments.

“What’s this, then?”

“T-this is…”

“Ah, I didn’t explain.”

Cutting her off, the wizard brought his palms together with a deceptively sweet smile.

“I didn’t ask because I wanted your explanation.”

He then clapped his hands lightly. At the soft sound of the clap, Judy’s expression twisted in agony.

“Gah…”

An intense burning sensation rose in her throat. No—her throat was literally burning.

“S…hk…”

She tried to cry out, to plead for mercy, but the sound died before it could leave her lips. Judy collapsed to the ground, choking and gasping.

The wizard stepped forward, now standing directly in front of her, still wearing that gentle smile.

“I burned your throat first. We wouldn’t want any screaming, would we?”

Pain like death engulfed Judy’s entire body. She wanted to thrash, to writhe, but even that was impossible.

Her nerves were already searing, and her limbs no longer obeyed her.

All she could do was bang her head on the ground and make choked, guttural noises.

The wizard ignored her suffering. Instead, he waved his hand, returning the stolen items to their original places throughout the mansion.

Along the way, he picked up a tarnished spoon and polished it until it gleamed. It was the one Anais had used the night before.

Staring at the spoon with something like rapture, he kissed it, then floated it gently into the air.

It drifted off like a silver feather in the wind, disappearing into the kitchen.

“I never liked someone like you being near my master.”

“…!”

“Those greedy eyes, always watching her. If you were so covetous, you could have at least been loyal. I would’ve given you enough pocket money to satisfy your greed.”

Judy’s fingertips, hair, and feet began to disintegrate, burning away without flame.

“To covet what belongs to my master… Pathetic. Not even clever, just a wretch living off her kindness. Truly, compared to you, Miss Fleur is a saint for keeping you alive as long as she did.”

The wizard knelt on one knee.

Now Judy, or what remained of her, was barely half a person, her form nearly unrecognizable.

The magician bared his teeth in a smile.

“If she had just accepted that mercy and lived quietly with her head down, I would have left her alone.”

The oil-soaked straw scattered.

A harsh gust of wind swept through. When it passed, only ashes remained. And an apron.

The magician nudged the apron with the tip of his shoe, crumpled it underfoot, and tucked it away carelessly.

Everyone would assume the maid had simply run off. After all, her troubled past and mountain of debts were no secret.

‘Besides, no one cares about people like her.’

More importantly…

“Ah, Miss Fleur. My revered mistress…”

The magician gazed toward the far end of the second-floor corridor with rapturous eyes. In the deepest darkness lay Anais’s room.

‘I want to see you once more.’

He moved like a ghost. With his overflowing magical power, the distance to Anais’s room—only about twenty steps—was nothing.

The door to the young mistress’s room was tightly shut, perhaps excessively so, but it opened silently at his touch.

He stood there, eyes shifting between the open gap and the doorknob.

Cesar swore to himself that he had no ill intent. He only wanted to touch the door. Just once. To hold the doorknob, she had held…

“That’s far enough.”

A blade gleamed in the dark. Freshly sharpened in Reims that very morning, it shimmered cold and blue as it pointed directly at Cesar’s face.

The magician turned his head.

There stood a man he recognized.

The Dragon Knight Commander.

With a breathtakingly handsome face, he looked down at Cesar like he was filth.

“Duke Rezaie. I won’t ask why you’re here.”

His voice was deep and resonant—lower than usual, likely to avoid waking the young lady who had only just drifted off to sleep.

The magician didn’t mention that he had already silenced all surrounding sounds with magic. Instead, he smiled.

“Well, isn’t it obvious, Commander? It’s love. My burning heart… uncontrollable in the still of night…”

The knight didn’t flinch, even as the magician whispered with both hands on the door.

“And I would like to ask why you laid hands on a servant of the Fleur household.”

“…”

“…”

Silence stretched between the two men. Cesar slowly lowered his hands from Anais’s door and turned to face Elliot.

Then he smiled brightly.

“Oh my, I’ve been caught.”

“I said I would ask why you did it. If you have no excuse…”

“I have no reason to make one.”

The warmth had drained from Cesar’s pink eyes. The love and affection they once held now replaced with a coldness like northern mountain ice.

He brushed back his black hair and looked Elliot square in the eye.

“You saw it for yourself. She tried to set fire to the mansion. What more do you need?”

“Even so, she should have been punished properly. Publicly. Given a chance to repent.”

“Procedure, is it?”

Cesar’s smile turned bitter. Since meeting Anais the day before, he had watched this mansion with ten unseen eyes—though no one would have noticed.

He had seen everything Judy had done to Abelard and Anais.

He knew Anais had forgiven her. He even knew why.

“When should we wait for procedures? My Anais already judged her justly today.”

“…”

“But did that garbage show remorse? No. She resented the one who showed her mercy. She tried to burn her in return.”

Cesar also knew that Elliot Resaloniki had sensed his presence and followed him.

But he had allowed it. He had wanted Elliot to see.

To see that he would never harm Anais Fleur.

That, if anything, he would throw himself at her feet and beg to be used.

That he only wished to follow her, wherever she went.

“Then all the more reason she should have been judged publicly. The punishment should have been harsher. But taking her life, secretly, without witness, without trial—that is not justice.”

Elliot’s words were righteous. Firm.

But Cesar didn’t waver. He simply let out a soft “Hmm, is that so,” and dropped his smile.