The lost weight and the sickly appearance didn’t mean I had become ugly, exactly.
If anything…
This is full-on delicate-beauty-with-a-tragic-backstory.
I looked like a noble lady from a story — someone carrying a secret wound she never spoke of, ailing in both body and spirit.
Even as I thought it, I found the absurdity of my own mind too much to bear, and a faint laugh escaped me. But if I could still produce pointless thoughts like that, it meant I was at least somewhat better than before.
Before, I really did nothing but cry.
When I stepped out of my room, the servants and my father did their best not to make it obvious — but I could feel their quiet relief. I was grateful for all of them.
After a simple meal with Father, I got into a carriage and headed somewhere.
It was time to put the hikikomori chapter of my life behind me.
The place I was headed was the Mage Tower.
I had something to ask of Noxie.
Walking into the tower again after a while, I made my way to Noxie’s room out of habit. Predictably, he wasn’t in it.
I settled at his empty table and waited.
I looked around the room with curious eyes.
This place was as fascinating as ever, no matter how many times I visited. Teapots floating through the air on their own to pour out tea. Trays gliding across the room with no one to carry them. And when your cup ran low, the teapot came drifting over to refill it.
I was sipping tea and helping myself to snacks when Noxie appeared at last.
“Long time, stranger.”
This was our third meeting.
Before I could even get a greeting out, Noxie was right in my face, close enough to be uncomfortable. I backed up, and he studied me with the enthusiasm of a child examining something genuinely novel.
“Huh, what happened to your eyes? They look like a goldfish’s.”
The swelling had gone down considerably, but he spotted it immediately, as if he had some sixth sense. I was still sorting out how to respond when he tilted his head, completely guileless.
“Oh, did someone reject you?”
My expression crumpled before I could stop it.
Of all the— this person—
He had walked right through the door and was stabbing me in exactly the place that hurt.
He clocked my reaction and nodded sagely.
“Yeah. Got rejected.”
There wasn’t much to argue with, so I said nothing and just looked at him with a flat, tired expression. Noxie let out a delighted laugh.
“You’re very entertaining. So what, the Grand Duke doesn’t like you?”
Somehow, he’d already seated himself beside me and was idly twisting strands of my hair around his fingers. I turned a triangular gaze on him. That was all I was capable of.
For the record — he wasn’t wrong.
Why does he always play with my hair when he has his own perfectly good hair.
I reclaimed my hair firmly, and without responding, redirected.
“Anyway — could you repair a vision orb for me?”
“A vision orb?”
“Yes.”
“Let me see it.”
I reached into my bag and took out the vision orb — cracked nearly in two, held together by the thinnest margin. Noxie leaned in and examined it with fascination.
“Hmm…”
I watched him with barely concealed tension.
“So… can you fix it?”
“Yeah. I can.”
I cheered internally.
“Really? You can fix it for me?”
“Mm… I could.”
He let the sentence trail off and looked at me with a bright, expectant smile. Clearly he wanted something. Of course. He never let a single thing slide. He calculated the profit in everything — friend in name, business associate in practice.
“What do you want. Tell me.”
“Tell me the story about getting rejected. Then I’ll fix it.”
Even Satan would weep. I stared at him, mouth open.
He was unquestionably deficient in the area of human empathy.
I turned away with an expression of complete refusal.
“Forget it. I’ll find someone else.”
“No other mage is going to be able to do this. Think you can find one besides me?”
Noxie said it with the absolute certainty of someone who already knew the answer.
Annoying as it was to admit — Noxie was a genuinely exceptional mage. And whatever his actual position in the tower hierarchy was, the size of his private research room alone suggested it was high.
Which meant he was probably right. I had no good options.
With a long, defeated exhale, I told him everything that had happened. Noxie listened, then burst out laughing.
“Ha. There’s never a dull moment with you. You really do live a spectacular life.”
“…Thank you, I suppose.”
I was past the point of caring. Nothing he said could really land a blow anymore.
“Your most beloved was the Grand Duke, you said?”
I had explained the concept of a most beloved to Noxie during a previous visit. I nodded.
Noxie looked at me, the corners of his eyes curving into a smile. Then he pointed at himself with one hand.
“So then why not switch him out for me? I can be your most beloved instead.”
I looked at him for a moment, then slowly shook my head.
“…No. Not you.”
My flat certainty gave Noxie pause, and he asked with something oddly stiff in his expression:
“Why not? Why can’t it be me?”
His face was undeniably striking — that much was true. But a most beloved had nothing to do with looking impressive on paper.
A most beloved was someone who walked into your heart through a door you hadn’t even known you’d left open. Someone who arrived on their own, without being invited.
By that measure, Noxie did not qualify.
“A most beloved isn’t something you can volunteer for. You just — suddenly fall. It happens.”
“…Huh. That’s complicated.”
For once, we were in genuine agreement, and I nodded along.
While I was nodding, Noxie had apparently finished tinkering with the orb beside me. He handed it back with an air of easy completion.
“Done. Try playing it.”
“Already?”
I had assumed he was just fidgeting beside me and doing something else entirely. His speed was staggering. I pressed play — and clear, clean sound came out, exactly as it had originally. The crackling distortion was completely gone.
My expression opened into something bright. I clasped his hands in mine and looked at him.
“That’s incredible. You could fix it that fast?”
He looked quietly pleased with himself, and asked me one short question.
“So you’re not giving up on the Grand Duke?”
He had recognized who the star of the vision was.
Giving up.
Something had happened that left me shaken — a setback of real proportions. But I had not, even now, reached the point of giving up. I shook my head without hesitation.
What had started as a wager was no longer anything so simple. What I felt for Axel now had nothing to do with winning a bet.
“Not even slightly. First, I’m going to clear up the misunderstanding, whatever it takes.”
“You really are something.”
He said it without any trace of irony — it sounded like a genuine assessment. I chose to take it as a compliment.
After collecting the repaired vision orb and chatting with him about this and that, I checked the time and began to prepare to leave.
I thanked Noxie for fixing it, said I’d see him next time, and was about to go when he called me back just as I was stepping out.
I looked at him, asking with my expression what it was.
“Next time — meet me somewhere outside, not here.”
His face was unusually serious. I took it in, nodded vaguely, and left.
