“This...”

After that, Arsian didn’t speak for a while. He turned the mana stone over in his hands, studying it.

The moment his mana entered the mineral, the color shifted again. To a vivid, deep blue.

‘As expected!’

A refined mana stone!

It was exactly the color of the mana stone I saw when the Duke of Jevillan raised the Duke of Sorpel’s medicine in the past.

“Interesting.”

That was his verdict after a long time of handling the mineral.

“The old men are going to lose their minds and rush it.”

It would feel rude to compare this to any so-called top-grade mana stone that exists on the continent now.

I have never once seen such powerful mana pour out of a mana stone smaller than an adult’s finger.

“That’s the smallest size.”

“What?”

Arsian’s mouth opened wide. If this is the smallest size...

“There are larger ones?”

“Yes.”

“Ha.”

Arsian looked anew at the mana stone in his hand.

“What do you want?”

“The mine that produces that mana stone is mine.”

Camilla set a hand on her hip and lifted her chin high.

“...”

“...Just saying.”

But she had to fix her posture at once. Arsian was staring blankly at her, and it made her feel awkward.

So what, and then what? His eyes said exactly that.

“I need the strength of the Black Mages. As you just saw, it responds only to a Black Mage’s mana. Of course, once it’s refined, White Mages can use it too.”

“You want me to connect you.”

“Yes!”

He understands faster than I thought.

“...I’ll pass it on to that man.”

“Huh?”

That man?

“My father.”

****

Thuk.

“What is it.”

“They told me to give it to you.”

“Who?”

“Some woman.”

The Duke of Sephra looked down at the black mineral tossed onto his desk.

It wasn’t the blue refined mana stone Arsian had processed, but the raw black ore as newly received from Camilla. He didn’t feel like adding useless explanations, so he threw the ore down to let the man judge for himself.

“Low-grade mana stone... hm?”

The man’s bored expression flipped. The Duke of Sephra pressed his lips thin and began to scrutinize the mineral.

“What do you want?”

After a long moment, the Duke’s cold gaze turned to Arsian. Arsian met it with a dry gaze of his own.

“A deal.”

“Bring her.”

“Tomorrow.”

That was the end of it. Arsian turned at once without another word. The Duke of Sephra likewise spared no further glance for such a son.

“How long am I supposed to wait.”

Arsian, hand on the doorknob, paused.

“Do I still have to wait longer?”

The Duke’s face and tone were as indifferent as ever.

“I’m sick of it. It would be nice if you ended it quickly.”

Arsian shut the door and left without any particular reply.

Thwack—

Only then did the Duke of Sephra raise his head and look toward where Arsian had been.

With a short sigh, he gazed in silence at the mana stone, which by now had turned a deep blue. Then, for a moment, his expression went vacant.

“...A woman, you say?”

Come to think of it, isn’t this the first time the brat has done something at someone else’s request? It was also the first time he came to me of his own accord without being called.

The Duke of Sephra looked, with a new kind of gaze, toward where Arsian had disappeared.

****

‘More ordinary than I expected?’

They say he deals out death, rules the darkness. They said it was more closed off than anywhere. Honestly, I was a little tense.

But House Sephra itself, once I set foot inside, was far more ordinary than I thought. I half-expected something dingy with ghosts swarming everywhere.

“Welcome.”

The people living in the manor were very ordinary too. Receiving the staff’s greetings, Camilla quietly followed behind Arsian.

Before long, the two made for the Duke of Sephra’s study.

Bang.

Arsian opened the door without knocking. His action startled her a little, but Camilla entered without a word for now.

‘Oh.’

A middle-aged man seated at the desk. Seeing him, Camilla let out a small breath of admiration. So Arsian will turn out like that later?

Black hair, black eyes, a gaze cold to the point of indifference. Anyone could see the two were father and son—they looked that much alike.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Camilla Sorpel.”

“Unexpected.”

“Pardon?”

Unexpected? What? At the Duke of Sephra’s mutter as he rose from his desk, Camilla tilted her head.

“Sit.”

“Yes.”

After offering a seat, the Duke went straight to the point.

“I hear you want to make a deal.”

Camilla likewise put forward the terms she had brought.

“I’d like to ask for refinement and sales. I’ll give you ten percent of the sales proceeds.”

At Camilla’s beaming words, the Duke of Sephra said nothing for a moment. Then he pinpointed her situation.

“Without Black Mages, the mineral is useless.”

Without my help, it’s just trash.

It was a rather cold remark, but Camilla didn’t flinch and continued.

“It’s also a mineral Black Mages will covet.”

So what then. Don’t need it? Should I just keep throwing it away as trash so you can’t use it either? One way or another, the owner of the mine is me.

“...”

“...”

At that, the Duke of Sephra and Camilla regarded each other in silence for a moment. Staring at the ever-sunny Camilla, he gave a short nod.

“If you promise to sell to us with top priority, we’ll accept the deal.”

“Deal!”

“Hmm?”

“I mean—gladly.”

Since I’m entrusting sales anyway, that much is fine.

If anything, it surprised her more that he accepted so easily. If he’d refused, she was ready to sweeten the cut.

Camilla dipped her head politely.

“I’ll draft the contract and return.”

“Do that.”

What she’d thought would be the hardest step wrapped up easier than expected. Camilla smiled bright, letting out a breath of relief inside.

“But...”

Just then, the Duke of Sephra’s voice came again.

“It seems our house’s black pup keeps pestering the young lady.”

‘Yikes.’

Camilla looked at him, a little flustered.

‘There are people who call a Guardian that, huh.’

Most people treat a Guardian as a precious being—some even divinize them and fear them—so it was curious.

Back to the point, he was right. A black wolf sat at her feet with regal composure, its chin planted on her knee.

The moment she saw it, she knew this wolf was House Sephra’s Guardian. Judging from Arsian’s signs, it didn’t seem summoned. In other words, it shouldn’t be visible to other eyes.

“Ahaha, well... yes.”

‘He’s absurdly quick on the uptake.’

I tried my best to act like I didn’t notice, but my eyes had slipped to the Guardian once or twice on their own. And the Duke of Sephra caught that at once.

“I never thought there’d be someone outside our blood who could see such things.”

It wasn’t summoned, but he could certainly tell where his Guardian was.

Watching his Guardian show interest in Camilla, the Duke of Sephra also watched her in silence. Lately, stories about the young lady of House Sorpel had been frequent.

‘They said she showed a gift of foresight.’

Because of that, countless people were talking about her.

‘And she found a Guardian’s egg as well?’

It wasn’t public information yet, but everyone who needed to know already knew. A Guardian had returned to House Sorpel, and it was the young lady Camilla who had found the egg.

So when she came to see him today, it was a little unexpected. He hadn’t thought the person Arsian said he would bring would be her.

On top of that, she seemed able to see beings like theirs. At first he’d wondered if it was coincidence, but seeing Camilla aim her gaze exactly where the Guardian was, he was convinced.

“I find it curious too.”

Camilla looked at the Duke of Sephra and let out a short sigh.

“I’m not originally the meddling sort. I meant to keep quiet today and just leave, but...”

I really don’t have a hobby of sticking my nose into other people’s family affairs.

“This time I can’t not ask.”

“What about?”

“Why, I wonder.”

Camilla’s gaze did not leave the Duke of Sephra.

More precisely, she couldn’t take her eyes off a being clinging to him.

“Why is that child holding Your Grace so dearly?”

That child. The one with eyes on the verge of tears, arms wrapped tight around the Duke’s neck.

Sier, why are you doing that?

****

“Sier.”

[Yes?]

The child, busy munching cookies, looked at me with curious eyes, as if to ask why I was calling him.

Arsian had stepped away for a moment. I told him to go buy drinks because we were thirsty. I lied, of course, that his younger brother Sier wanted to eat them, and chased him off.

Sier, absorbed in the cookies, didn’t follow his brother and stuck right next to me.

“Can I ask you something?”

Nod.

Camilla looked silently for a moment at the child who nodded as if to say ask anything, then carefully posed the question she had long wanted to ask.

“The wounds on your back.”

[...]

The child flinched, stopping mid-bite.

I rarely ever get curious about ghosts’ backstories.

‘I just can’t ignore it this time.’

A child’s clothes, old and torn, and a wound showing through. A red-tinged line across the back. At a glance, a welt from something like a whip.

“Did your brother do that to you?”

[No!]

Yeah, I know. It’s not him.

At the child’s quick shout, Camilla nodded.

He was the kind of man who jumped up the instant he heard the boy might want a treat. I couldn’t imagine that sort putting such wounds on his little brother.

‘He’s not a psychopath; there’s no way.’

I asked it only to get the hesitant child to open his mouth.

“Then who?”

[...M—]

“Hm?”

[...My father.]

“...”

It was an answer I had, to a point, anticipated. The main culprit in child abuse is always someone nearby.

[My brother...]

But what followed went far beyond even my expectations.