No, why would they contact Dad too...?

“What in the world happened?”

“I’m fine—”

“I heard you got a full-on double nosebleed right in the middle of the Imperial Palace.”

Huh? Had the rumor gotten a little exaggerated?

“...? Who said that? It only came out of one side. A little.”

I pressed my index finger and thumb together to emphasize a little, but apparently Dad didn’t hear a word of it.

“Borbel.”

Something Dad had been carrying over his shoulder hit the floor with a thud. It was Borbel, holding a fork and spoon in both hands.

Looks like Borbel had been eating cream stew... That must have been good.

Borbel was smacking at the taste still lingering in the mouth, only just coming back to full awareness and pushing upright, when the sound of someone sobbing rushed closer.

“Rubyyyyy!”

That voice was...

“Waaah, Ruby, waaah. Everyone move. Let me see my little sister. Waaaah.”

“A grown man crying like that? What is this?”

“They said you suddenly coughed up blood at the Imperial Palace!”

“...”

What?

“How exactly are these rumors spreading?”

“Waaaaah. Borbel, save my little sister. Just drain all my blood and give it to Ruby!”

Was he seriously trying to kill me?

Just as Mom tried to stop Boyd and begged him to calm down—

BANG!

The door flew clean off its hinges.

My vision blurred.

This routine felt awfully familiar.

No way.

“Little runt! Where is my great big squishy little runt?!”

In your nose, obviously.

I stared at the huge figure stomping toward me, wide-eyed.

“Grandpa! Wait, weren’t you supposed to arrive in a few days?”

I turned to Dad with a questioning look, and that unfilial son abruptly avoided my gaze. Hah. He had every detail about Mom’s return memorized, and yet...

Still hale and hearty enough to flaunt it even in the North, the old Duke bent at the waist and roared with laughter.

“Pahahaha! So my little runt finally bloodied a prince’s nose?!”

“....”

What on earth had Grandpa been told?

After a full stretch of utter chaos passed,

Borbel examined me thoroughly, then gave the wholly unremarkable diagnosis of simple fatigue and the perfectly ordinary prescription of sufficient rest.

“Doctor Borbel, please enjoy your cream stew....”

“Yes, yes, my lady. Rest. And get some proper sleep.”

“Okay.”

The door shut, and Dad let out a long sigh.

“See? I told you it was nothing....”

“You...”

Something about the oddly rigid look in his eyes made my body flinch on its own. I moved like a wooden puppet, brisk and obedient, and buried ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) myself in bed.

Boyd and Liam got kicked out because they were interfering with my rest. Grandpa, after hearing that the one with the nosebleed had been me and not a prince, looked profoundly shocked and disappeared somewhere with Mom to prepare nourishing food.

And so, in the end, I was left alone with Dad, who seemed at least a little angry...

“What on earth are you doing at night instead of sleeping, that you’ve built up this much fatigue?”

“Well. I was refining magic circles...”

“And?”

“Drawing magic-tool blueprints, reading self-improvement books, rehearsing for the academic-festival play, worrying about Khalid, and interpreting ancient-language materials, so...”

“......”

“That’s how it happened....”

Dad let out another very long sigh.

His hard throat bobbed several times, like he was swallowing back all kinds of emotions.

Then, at last, a cool, firm hand settled on my forehead.

His low voice came out thick with complicated feeling.

“I told you to grow up. I didn’t tell you to drive yourself into the ground.”

“I know....”

“For the time being, no research, no studying, and no going out.”

“No way. I’m busy!”

“Exactly. That busy part is what’s forbidden.”

“Ugh.... That’s cheating.”

I was an adult now.

Not a child.

But I stopped myself before I said it back.

Because I’d noticed how utterly disheveled Dad’s hair and clothes were.

Even if he was usually somewhat relaxed, I’d never seen him look that uncomposed.

He must have been startled and rushed over.

Well, of course.

If someone told me Dad was bleeding, I’d panic and run too.

Thinking I couldn’t make my family worry any more than this, I squeezed my eyes shut.

“If you’re sleepy, sleep. I’ll bring you some medicine.”

I buried my nose in the blanket and nodded, and Dad kissed my forehead before moving away.

The bedroom door shut carefully, and once I was finally alone, I slowly opened my eyes and stared blankly up at the ceiling.

“I didn’t tell you to drive yourself into the ground.”

I know. I do.

Then why was I this anxious?

It felt like if I relaxed even a little...

something would come crashing down before I even realized it.

Even when I wanted to sleep, sleep wouldn’t come.

So I just kept doing what I’d already been doing during the day.

“Delmon is dead.”

“Huh? Sir Leon... what did you say?”

“Delmon died during this magical-beast suppression campaign.”

When I squeezed my eyes shut, that voice spun around and around in my head, only changing the name.

Liam is dead.

Boyd died during this magical-beast suppression campaign.

His Grace...

Lady Rosetta...

the old Duke...

I curled up as tightly as I could inside the blanket, winding it around myself like a cocoon.

Mmgh.

I inhaled pointlessly through the nose that had long since stopped bleeding.

My feelings slowly sank.

I was fine during the day, when I was around people, but nights—when I was left alone—were always worse.

“A burrow....”

Just let me dig myself a little burrow for a minute....

Come to think of it, there was always one friend beside me at times like this.

The one who would quietly listen, with that usual indifferent face, even to the things I couldn’t bring myself to tell my family.

Maybe what I need right now is him.

Come back soon, you bratty little puppy.

I think I might be a little depressed right now.

*****

The kingdom of mages, Arcadia.

A beautiful king with long silver hair spilling down his back reclined across his throne.

It was the Mage King, who had spent years in seclusion restoring the magic he had lost.

The royal palace, once thick with mystical fog, was now choked only with filthy black smoke.

Screams rang endlessly from somewhere beyond sight, and crackling collisions of magic kept flaring and fading.

“The final formula.”

The man spoke in a blood-heated voice.

Standing nearby, the Mage King’s first, wrapped in the robes of the royal palace, bent at the waist.

“Have you found a clue to the final formula yet?”

“It is still under study. Even so, we did bring over every formula that had been in the Delcan Ruins. So if you would just wait a little longer...”

“The seventh... What is my daughter doing now? Has she become an adult? Her father ought to give her a kiss of congratulations!”

The first smoothed down the corners of the mouth that had begun to twitch, then answered politely once more.

“Soon, that will be possible.”

“And the King of Casalia?”

The Mage King asked it almost convulsively.

“He is cooperating in moderation while watching Babilon’s mood. Please do not worry. They are the ones who need magic, after all, so they would never dare think of betraying us.”

The first smiled thinly.

“As long as the King of Casalia continues pretending not to notice, he will remain unaware that our mages are moving in and out of the continent as well.”

There were two ways for Arcadia’s mages to travel to the continent.

Either by boarding a sailing vessel fitted with magic tools, or by using a gate portal.

Most mages used the latter.

Of course, that gate portal would not activate unless the mechanism was operated from the opposite side.

In other words, it could not be opened unilaterally.

Every nation, Babilon included, had naturally shut those portals down.

And with Arcadia hidden behind hundreds of barriers as it was now, the sea route could not be used either.

Not that it mattered.

Babilon’s search ships made that impossible anyway.

After some thought, the first approached the King of Casalia before anyone else.

Casalia was a desert nation, and its harsh environment made it heavily dependent on stationed mages and magic tools.

The King of Casalia had permitted the Delcan Ruins search before, too.

When Babilon had presented the agenda of officially treating the Magic Kingdom as an enemy of the continental alliance,

Casalia, according to reports, had hesitated and cast its supporting vote last.

A decision made with lingering reluctance is always easier to overturn.

“Permit the use of Casalia’s gate portal, the one that leads to the continent. If not... our king says he will kill every stationed mage in Casalia. Naturally, the supply of magic tools would be cut off as well.”

He had threatened him by the simplest means possible.

That was how the Magic Kingdom secured a secret route onto the continent.

“I hear the King of Casalia is heading to Babilon this time.”

“Haah... Babilon.”

The Mage King drew a long breath and rubbed at his pale face.

“That is where my daughter is.”

He still had not given up on the seventh. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

“Yes. Will you go this time?”

At that, the first shook his head firmly.

“Would the same method work again? Dragging her back by force... that will no longer work.”

“Then what?”

“A weakness...”

The first murmured.

“Strike at the weakest part of that child, and make her walk to you of her own accord.”

For the first time, the Mage King’s eyes flashed.

“We should let Casalia observe her movements first, and if necessary, then send someone. However...”

The first paused to think, then added,

“This time, let it be someone whose face she does not know... neither a palace mage nor a stationed mage.”

The Mage King pulled him into an embrace and smiled with delight.

Then, from somewhere, the dance music used in coming-of-age ceremonies began to play, and the Mage King spun and spun to its tune.