Dawn.
Creak—
The sound of an old wooden door closing echoed down the corridor.
Carrying only a small lantern, I stepped into a room. A faint scent of burning wood lingered in the air.
“…Lord.”
“You’ve pulled quite the stunt, Adel.”
Tall. A solid physique tapering down from broad shoulders. A well-trained body.
The current head of House Bliss. Austin Bliss.
He was seated in his office, dressed in his formal uniform.
His gray hair and sharp blue eyes stood out vividly even in the dim light.
“You said you’d be bringing Camilla home. When I read your letter, I thought it was utterly impossible.”
“Did you?”
A letter lay on the desk, quietly announcing its presence.
I had written it not too long ago.
“You didn’t hate Camilla? You used to find her difficult and were jealous of her. You always seemed kind on the outside, but that’s how it was.”
“So you didn’t like me for it?”
“…You’ve changed quite a bit, Adel.”
I simply shrugged. At this point, I had no interest in what the original Adel was like.
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“…Ever since you were young, you constantly bullied Camilla. You probably resented her for becoming our daughter while you were stuck in bed.”
“I see.”
So the original Adel was the type who only acted tough around family. That’s not exactly unusual.
“But now, Camilla trusts you completely… I don’t know what happened, but still.”
“……”
I looked silently at Austin.
This man was a skilled actor. Just like at the dinner table earlier. He was meticulous, calculating even how his words might be interpreted by others.
Intellectual, perhaps. The type who plans his actions with sharp intelligence.
“Are you disappointed?”
“What do you mean?”
“That the stage you set for Camilla’s growth ended up in ruins. Are you disappointed by that?”
“……”
Austin remained silent. But he was grinning.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I’m talking about Camilla’s misunderstanding. Logically, even for a child, it’s strange she would believe something like that outright. Most would ask again at least once. You must have intentionally created an atmosphere that led her to believe it.”
“An interesting take.”
“And then there’s the matter of Marquis Damir conveniently becoming her sponsor… At the time, she had only been wielding a sword for two years at most. No matter how much of a prodigy she is, catching the eye of a marquis after just two years is strange. She wouldn’t have had any reason to even meet him.”
Austin crossed his arms, as if signaling me to continue.
“And then I found something odd. The Staff of Wishes that was put up for auction two years ago… the buyer was none other than Marquis Damir. The winning bid was 800 gold coins.”
“Isn’t that just a coincidence?”
“A top-rank staff-type magic tool going for 800 coins… and a well-known one at that. That’s way too cheap. You manipulated the price, didn’t you? Using a trick like pre-registering provisional ownership of the tool. It was already decided from the start that Marquis Damir would take it.”
The Staff of Wishes…was it part of the deal in securing Camilla’s sponsorship from Marquis Damir?
That was the implication.
Austin spoke.
“And why would I go out of my way to do something like that?”
“You wanted Camilla to find out one day once she’d graduated, once she was ready to face her trauma. You wanted her to realize it had all been a misunderstanding.”
“If that were the case, couldn’t I have just told her from the start?”
“You wanted that misunderstanding to push her to grow, didn’t you? And with auction house records only being made public for ten years, there wouldn’t be any risk of your little scheme being exposed later either.”
I’d heard before that lack can become potential.
It’s only natural that someone who’s missing something or being chased by something is more desperate than someone who has it all.
Count Austin Bliss….maybe he had deliberately created that psychological lack in Camilla to drive her to rise even higher.
That was my theory.
“……”
A theory bordering on certainty.
A truth he had never needed to say aloud.
Silence fell. The breeze coming in through the open window was cool. Only a hard, heavy stillness hung between Austin and me.
How long did it last?
Then, Austin began to clap.
Clap—clap—clap—…
“Well done, Adel Bliss.”
“……”
“You truly are my son. Until now, you’ve only been a disappointment, but finally… finally, you’re fit to be the heir of House Bliss.”
Austin Bliss, with a satisfied smile—
He looked like a villainous boss who’s just had his master plan seen through by the protagonist.
A laugh escaped me.
“What good is being the heir to a ruined house? I’m not particularly interested. Camilla even tried to quit halfway through multiple times, didn’t she?”
“……”
“Camilla would have grown just fine even without all that. More importantly… do you happen to have any magic books? Maybe some secret library passed down through the family? That’s the sort of thing I’d actually like to take a look at.”
“A secret library, you say…”
Austin’s face stiffened, turning a bit awkward.
“…That would all be in the lord’s castle.”
“Then we can just go there, can’t we?”
“Haah. That’s true, but… ever since the previous generation, just showing interest in magic is enough to raise suspicion. If you enter the castle, you’ll be under constant watch. The path to the secret library would be exposed.”
“……”
“…Let’s bide our time.”
What is this, some sort of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?
Still… so the secret library does exist.
Just then, as Austin stood lost in thought, he suddenly got up from his seat.
“Even if I can’t take you to the family’s secret library, there is something I can show you right now.”
I tilted my head. From what I’d heard, Austin Bliss was also magic disabled. In other words, just an ordinary man.
“Show me… what exactly?”
Shrrk—
A sudden sound came from his waist.
“It’s a sword.”
***
The clearing behind the mansion.
When I looked up, I realized how much time had passed. It was already a full moon.
Under a moon larger than Earth’s, I stood with a sword in hand. It was still the middle of the night.
“…I heard the Bliss family was a prestigious magic household.”
“Not anymore. From the previous head of the family to me, the current head, and even to you, the next in line….we’re all magic-disabled. How could we call ourselves a magic family now?”
I had thought his build was unusually solid, but I never imagined he’d actually draw a sword.
But I couldn’t take him lightly. The pressure I felt the moment I faced Austin with a sword….it definitely wasn’t something a mage would give off.
Just by looking at his stance, I could tell. It might even be a warning from the demon slumbering within me.
I activated my trait.
Crackle—
◆ [Total Magical Structure Analysis] activated.
“……”
He has no mana core. The flow of mana definitely doesn’t extend outside his body.
But… according to the intuition my trait provides, Austin is strong.
The energy radiating from his body, refined to the extreme, was not something to be underestimated.
Stronger than Camilla?
I noticed it right away. Of course, he couldn’t compare to Camilla once she’s fully grown, but at least for now, Austin is stronger than she is.
Austin spoke.
“I’ve already heard the rumors spreading from the capital. Word is you’ve overcome your magic disability.”
“Sometimes things like that happen.”
“No… I doubt it’s truly resolved.”
He muttered bitterly.
“Ever since the previous family head, Bliss has been researching magic disability. And the research results are clear. The condition is absolute.”
He wasn’t wrong.
If it weren’t for the NP system, it would’ve taken me a long time to use proper magic.
“What you’ve done is either alter the fundamental formula of magic to activate it or rely on some kind of magical tool. Am I right?”
I nodded. As expected from a family of magical heritage, he was insightful.
The NP system, after all, functions by altering the magic structure to enable spellcasting.
“The effort it takes to change the foundation of magic is one thing….but that method has a fatal flaw.”
“A flaw…?”
“It uses the mana stored within your body. It’s different from other mages who generate waves and manipulate phenomena. Am I wrong?”
He was spot on. A shifter’s magic consumes their own mana reserves.
Unlike other mages, who use their mana waves like remote controls to trigger effects, it was different.
“For someone with magic disability to act like a proper mage, they’d have to increase their mana reserves… but doing that affects the body internally and eventually leads to a shortened lifespan. So you can’t increase your mana.”
“That’s right.”
So it’s as I thought. Austin spoke with a hollow tone.
What he described was one of the signature side effects of being a shifter.
I was a little surprised.
The current Bliss family clearly knows far more than the research of that Heinel Shifter.
…So they uncovered this much as they fell into ruin. Impressive.
Of course, I wasn’t too concerned about the side effects of the trait Austin mentioned.
I could suppress them with demonification, and I knew most of the magical drugs that could supplement my constitution anyway.
Still, the trait’s disadvantage in prolonged combat… that part couldn’t be helped.
He might actually have something useful to teach me.
A sense of anticipation stirred.
Austin spun his sword skillfully.
“What I’m about to teach you isn’t swordsmanship, but more like a few survival techniques. It’s a way to gain physical power without being bound by magic disability.”
“Ooh.”
“I’ll show you the core of it now. So, pick up your sword, Adel.”
“?”
Why the sword….was what I was thinking when it happened.
A sword strike came flying at me without the slightest warning.
“──!!!”
A slash, fierce enough to kill, swept toward me. It was hardly the kind of blow you’d expect in a sparring match. The blade sliced through the space where my neck had just been.
I dodged it almost purely on instinct.
“The hell is this—?!”
A curse escaped my mouth at the sudden, very real threat.
“I knew you’d dodge. Judging by how your body’s changed, you’ve trained quite a bit. You’ve found the right direction.”
“What kind of parent suddenly swings a sword at their own kid—?!”
“Adel. With your brilliant talent, wouldn’t it be better to experience it firsthand than hear it explained? Don’t worry….you won’t die.”
The sword Austin held at an angle reflected the moonlight.
Another slash. A clean downward cut. I barely managed to block it.
──Clang!!
I gathered mana waves into the hand holding my sword. I deflected his blade diagonally and countered with a strong swing!
Austin reacted as if it were nothing. The moment our swords clashed, I channeled lightning magic through the blade.
Lightning Peak—
Fzzzzzzzzzt!!
“That won’t work on me.”
Austin grinned.
◆ [Total Magical Structure Analysis] activated.
An unknown phenomenon.
But I possess the ability to precisely grasp what he did in that brief instant.
“……”
“…Ho. You noticed that this quickly? Impressive, Adel.”
I recalled the scene I had just perceived.
The moment the magical current touched his body, a surge of innate mana waves rose instantly to just beneath Austin’s skin.
Caught in the torrent of that wave, the lightning was completely extinguished. The lightning spell had only managed to scorch a single layer of skin.
“……”
It felt like a technique that forcibly triggered momentary magic resistance.
To confirm it, I activated a different spell.
Thorn Hail. Object Manipulation.
A spell combination that fires magically formed spikes.
But that was all.
Shatter—!!
Like breaking glass, the magic simply vanished on impact.
“A magic-disabled constitution is one that can’t become a proper mage or swordsman.”
Austin said, raising his left hand to block the spell.
“But if a magic-disabled person trains properly… they can develop an extremely strong counter against mages. They become capable of using techniques that are, for mages, nothing short of a nightmare.”
“……”
What he had shown could be compared, if anything, to a parry.
Except what he was parrying wasn’t a weapon…it was magic.
If I had to give it a name, maybe something like “Magic Parry”.
Of course, since it only activates momentarily, the timing would depend entirely on the user’s skill…
He’s developed something pretty interesting.
Even I, who had played the original game for 20,000 hours, couldn’t help but be impressed.
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