Chapter 7
2. Extras Don’t Need Obsession Either (2)
The Brondearn estate was filled with dark, heavy wallpaper and furniture. It was as if the entire mansion were one gigantic coffin.
Once I entered the room I’d been guided to, I let out a deep sigh I’d been holding back. Others might call it luxurious, but having to spend half a year in this dreary atmosphere.
‘…This is the first time I’ve missed my dorm bed.’
In times like this, let’s think positive. For instance, if Hiakin and I successfully leave this country safely… I should buy a small, snow-white mansion with a pretty garden.
I’d decorate the interior with soft ivory wallpaper to match the white, and bring in furniture with bright, cheerful designs.
Suddenly, I glanced at my reflection in the nearby mirror.
Bright platinum hair close to cream, and rare jade-green eyes. I didn’t blend at all with this all-black place.
‘Anyway, since I have to go back after half a year, I’ll just get by moderately and leave.’
While making such future plans in my mind, I was introduced to the maid who would attend to me.
“This is Hanna. She’ll handle Miss Ortid’s errands and room cleaning, so if you need anything, please tell this girl.”
“Ah, thank you for the consideration.”
It didn’t feel particularly considerate, though.
“And the duke wishes to dine together. Please come down as quickly as possible.”
Blair, who had brought the maid—who didn’t seem friendly toward me at all—left right away, apparently thinking he’d done his job.
‘This is pretty disconcerting.’
But what can I do? I have to endure it. Anyway, since the duke, who will be our new patron, is calling, I should at least dress appropriately polite.
I set down my trunk with my belongings and called to the maid, who was staring at the door Blair had exited through.
“Um, could you help me change clothes?”
But her reaction was somehow cold.
“What?”
“Clothes. I don’t think I should meet the duke in this outfit.”
“Ah… But it’s not a complicated dress that needs help.”
…What?
I was momentarily speechless and just stared at the maid. Even though she shrank under my gaze, she remained stubbornly upright.
‘She must think I’m a commoner like her.’
Cadets are treated as soldiers upon enrollment and escape commoner status. They’re granted knighthood first, but this maid probably thinks I’ll only get the title after graduation.
‘Fine. I don’t want to argue either.’
I said okay, and if she wasn’t going to help, to please leave, and the maid really did breeze right out of the room.
“This is getting tiring.”
Just endure for half a year. Repeating that to myself, I changed clothes and came out, only to find Hiakin waiting for me, looking quite presentable in clothes borrowed from someone in the house, unlike me.
Hiakin tried to say something upon seeing my outfit, so I raised my index finger in a gesture to say nothing.
And so, we had our first meeting with the head of the household.
* * *
“His Highness suddenly sent a servant, so I wondered what it was, but your brother’s future potential is quite promising, I hear.”
“You’re too kind. Hiakin hasn’t even manifested yet.”
“His Highness’s analyses and instincts rarely miss. Sending you two to me probably means a high-rank esper’s touch is needed.”
I moistened my throat while continuing the somewhat uncomfortable conversation.
Glock Brondearn.
The head of the Brondearn family is a tremendously influential figure, even at Estra Military Academy.
He’s retired now, but still, in emergencies, he’s one of the top espers in the country, obligated to deploy at the royal family’s command.
One of the ten S-rank espers across the entire continent, proudly holding a spot.
The guardian of Rydel, the capital of Barmoss here.
‘And the protagonist of the affair rumors due to the imprint.’
I tried my best not to pay attention to the duchess sitting beside him, fiddling with my knife. The blade was so sharp that the steak sliced with a crisp sound, blood oozing out.
“But even if that’s the case for the boy, I don’t quite see the reason you need to stay here as well.”
The master of the house was being too straightforward about me. It was clear that having a mere B-rank around in Brondearn irritated him greatly.
Well, in a family where A-ranks run rampant and S-ranks reign, a mere B-rank guide wouldn’t satisfy.
‘Unless I came out with high compatibility with someone in the family.’
Compatibility is a quantification of how well an esper and guide match.
The higher a guide’s rank, the more they can care for an esper with light contact like holding hands.
But if compatibility is also high, this is maximized even further.
Even if a B-rank guide is guiding a B-rank esper, with high compatibility, it might end with a hug, but if their affinities don’t match, even more physical contact might be useless.
‘Physical contact, huh? That’s a setting perfectly optimized for romance.’
Naturally, then, espers and guides with high compatibility find it hard to meet other partners besides each other.
That’s why, much like nobles’ political marriages, most cases lead to mutual agreement and even marriage.
After all, guiding requires physical contact as essential.
Unless there’s some other obstacle, it’s common for them to “imprint” on each other, making it impossible to receive or provide guiding from or to anyone else….
‘It wouldn’t be much different from a marriage arranged for political reasons.’
But the problem arises when one side has someone else they love. In that case, a catastrophe unfolds that’s too horrific to witness.
Recalling someone, I quietly swallowed a bitter smile. Because.
The most infamous example of such a catastrophe is the current Duchess of Brondearn. The unfortunate guide whose ankle was caught by her high compatibility with the duke.
Yes, the Duke and Duchess of Brondearn are married, but they still haven’t imprinted.
Careful not to cause offense, I glanced past the duchess and secretly glared at the duke.
‘Acteon or Cassiel better not pull something like what the duke did.’
Originally, the duchess had a beloved fiancé with whom marriage talks were underway. But due to her high compatibility with the duke, the engagement fell through, and her former fiancé was driven to bankruptcy by the Brondearns.
In the end, she was forced into marriage to somehow revive the man she loved.
‘Yet the duke continued meeting his previous lover even after the marriage.’
All he wanted from the duchess was the efficient stabilization of his magic that came from her high compatibility and grade. Having secured a partner befitting his status, he treated love as separate and committed adultery with another.
‘What a complete mess.’
If they’re bound as husband and wife, it’s only right that they imprint on each other.
For transcendents, imprinting limits the stabilizing power of guiding to just one person.
It’s similar for guides.
To perform guiding, they must tune the stabilizing power to match the other’s unique magic, and once imprinted, it’s fixed to that specific person, making guiding others impossible.
But the duke didn’t do it.
In short, the duke ruined the duchess’s engagement and brought her in as his guide, yet he didn’t even imprint and received guiding from others as well.
‘Whether the Duke of Brondearn just hates creating weaknesses or doesn’t love the duchess, I don’t know….’
But one thing is clear.
‘He’s trash with no excuses.’
On top of that, not content with just the affair, the duke had a child with his mistress. The child born as a victim of this tangled relationship is none other than.
‘The illegitimate child of Brondearn, Acteon.’
That’s the nature of relationships between transcendents and guides. Though the duke’s mistress—Acteon’s mother—died not long after entering the ducal household.
‘That doesn’t erase everything that happened.’
Worse, Acteon learned about the affair at a young age and grew up tiptoeing around the duchess.
Yet the duke, who caused all this mess, obsessed only over Acteon’s manifestation and paid no attention to how he was growing up.
As if he saw him not as the child of his beloved mistress, but merely as a useful potential manifestor.
‘It wouldn’t be wrong to call him the second biggest piece of trash among the characters mentioned in this story.’
Who’s the first, you ask?
The crown prince, obviously. The fact that he joined hands with Hiakin, the original story’s hidden antagonist, says it all.
Anyway, knowing information from the original that I wish I didn’t made it hard for food to go down naturally. I decided to focus on the conversation rather than the meal.
“I’m worried that my grade might tarnish the reputation of Brondearn. Anyway, there must be plenty of higher-grade guides here than me, so I won’t be of much use.”
“Hm.”
Seeming pleased with my self-aware response, the duke made a sound of considerable satisfaction.
“My purpose from the start was to protect Hiakin. Brondearn will take good care of my brother, right?”
“Li… No, Sis.”
“I’ll return to the academy in half a year, and right after graduation, I’ll head to a garrison, so I won’t have deep ties here. Don’t worry.”
“For that half year.”
“I’ll stay quiet, as if I’m not even here. So no rumors spread about some B-grade lingering around.”
This level of perfect conduct should leave nothing for him to nitpick.
The duke, unable to find any fault, nodded.
‘This confirms that what Brondearn is after is solely Hiakin; they see me as nothing more than a leech attached to him.’
It’s obvious how much they’d despise me the moment I try to actively insert myself among them.
Even though I wasn’t showing it, Hiakin must have noticed I was hurt. He looked like he had a lot to say to me.
As I deliberately avoided Hiakin’s gaze, the duke—who hadn’t seen my expression—offered lip service as if bestowing a favor.
“It would’ve been fine if you’d been A-grade; what a shame.”
That remark meant that if my grade were just a bit higher, he’d consider linking me with one of his children.
…Sorry, but I’ll pass on my end.
With Brondearn having many high-grade transcendents, high-grade guides live here too, beyond just the transcendents.
Guides from other families betrothed early to the duke’s children or the Brondearn collaterals.
But whether I were S-grade or B-grade, I have absolutely no desire to get entangled here. If I did, no matter how I avoid death flags, I’d end up dying early from sheer frustration.
‘Honestly, what sane person would like this place?’
I chewed my meat thoroughly, vowing over and over.
Change only what I can and get out of here as soon as possible.
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