“I am prepared to tell you anything you wish to know, my lady…”
But Sona hesitated.
Her expression betrayed her worry — was it really appropriate for a personal knight, rather than a direct family member, to be explaining something like this?
“Then tell me how to use mana.”
“Hmm…. The thing is, even if you ask me that, mana is something you’re born being able to use.”
In that instant, Riersha tasted the bitterness of profound despair.
Sona’s words had sounded, to her ears, exactly like: “Well, the truth is, I’m simply a genius.”
Sona noticed Riersha’s face go rigid and laughed, visibly at a loss.
“Think of mana as a part of your body, and try to feel it slowly. The way it’s perfectly natural for the scent of flowers to drift in on the wind, or for your hair to stir in a breeze.”
“…Natural?”
She felt like she almost understood — and yet, she didn’t.
Riersha’s brow furrowed at the difficult explanation.
Sona added a simpler clarification.
“Mana is always with you. Even right now, it dwells within your body — when you are happy, it is happy with you, and when you are sad, it grieves alongside you. It resonates with you.”
“It’s always with me? When I’m sad, the mana is sad too?”
“Yes. Because it is a part of you. If anything, when you become too conscious of it, it refuses to do as you want and you end up flustered — that’s how deeply natural and unconscious it is.”
Riersha turned the words over carefully in her mind.
The more detailed explanation helped things click into place, at least somewhat.
Sona watched her and smiled warmly.
“The moment you truly understand what I’m saying, you’ll be able to use your mana freely.”
⁂
Riersha stepped out into the annex garden and drew a long, deep breath.
“There’s really no other way, is there? I just have to keep practicing.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, the line between her brows tightening with concentration.
“Nat-chu-rally…”
Naturally. Naturally.
“That’s not it!”
This was all wrong.
Riersha stumbled into the very first wall and dropped to the ground with a thud.
At this rate, earning her grandfather’s recognition was out of the question — she’d spend her entire life confined to this annex.
She was gloomily picking herself back up, swaying a little, when it happened.
“Pfft.”
A smothered laugh drifted down from somewhere above.
Riersha snapped her head upward.
But there was nothing there.
“Is someone there?”
“…”
“…Did I imagine it?”
Riersha tilted her head to the side, then decided to refocus on her training.
“Nngh.”
She was groaning under her breath, straining to move her mana, when something nudged against her feet.
A small stone had rolled right up to the tips of her shoes.
Her tightly shut eyes flew open.
There had definitely been no stone there a moment ago — and now it sat right in front of her.
“Who’s there!”
Someone was deliberately ruining her concentration.
Riersha’s eyebrows shot up dangerously. She planted her hands on her hips and began sweeping the area around the annex in search of the culprit.
“Hey.”
“Hm?”
“I heard you awakened but you can’t even use your ability properly.”
The familiar voice came from above. Riersha looked up toward the sound. There, leaning back against a tree branch, was Ricador.
“Ricador, Oppa?”
She hadn’t expected him to come all the way to the annex himself. Riersha blinked and murmured his name in surprise, and Ricador dropped down from the tree. He landed lightly and clicked his tongue.
“You really think mana’s going to move just because you’re grunting at it?”
“…I wasn’t grunting.”
Riersha stuck out her lower lip.
She had been, in fact — but being caught in the act by someone else made her cheeks burn.
Ricador’s eyes narrowed to slits.
“You were.”
“I wasn’t!”
“You were.”
“I wasn’t!”
“You were.”
Huff. Huff.
Riersha stood there squeezing her fists before finally whipping her head away.
But this was no time to be standing on her pride.
She gradually deflated and said, in a small voice:
“Help me.”
The day she had awakened — the only person standing right beside her had been none other than Ricador.
Which meant he’d witnessed the exact moment her ability manifested. He might actually know something.
Something like advice about what her ability had looked like when it appeared.
Ricador grinned.
“Oh? And what do I get?”
“…Oppa, you’re seriously the worst.”
“Sounds like you’re the one trying to get something for nothing.”
“…”
“So you’re saying you can do it on your own? Fine, then I’m leaving. Good luck. Farewell.”
When Riersha pressed her lips together and said nothing, Ricador showed not the slightest hesitation and moved to leave.
“W-Wait!”
Riersha wavered, then shouted after him.
The meaningful look on his face made it seem like he genuinely knew something.
“If you help me — I’ll give you the best thing I own.”
“The best thing you own?”
“Yep.”
“…What’s the best thing you have?”
“It’s really sparkly and pretty.”
The one in the cloth bundle.
It was a treasure she had picked up piece by piece, magpie-like, and hoarded away.
“You’re really saying you’ll give that to me?”
“Yep.”
“All right. I’ll help.”
Ricador dropped down to sit on the ground and waved her over, telling her to listen carefully. Riersha hurried forward, crouched down, and leaned her ear close. Ricador spoke in a low murmur.
“Think back to what was happening the moment your ability first appeared.”
“The situation?”
“Right! You showed your ability to your grandfather, didn’t you? That’s why he let you stay at the main estate.”
“That’s true.”
Come to think of it, the ability had appeared at moments of extreme fear.
The first time was when she encountered the monster. The second time was when she was reprimanded by Arcmund.
Ricador said that was exactly it, and went on to explain.
“If you recall the feeling you had in those moments, you should be able to sense your ability beginning to stir.”
“…B-But that was so frightening.”
Revisiting a situation where her life had been in danger was something anyone would dread.
Riersha’s instincts were resisting the idea of going back to that memory.
She tried several times, shaking her head when it didn’t work, and Ricador thought for a moment before giving a slow nod.
“Maybe if you were put in that kind of situation again, something might happen.”
“Again?”
“You’d have to go into the Monster Forest.”
At the mention of returning to the Monster Forest, Riersha’s face briefly went pale.
But there was no other choice.
The way things were going, Oberon would betray them just as fate decreed, and she would be utterly helpless to stop it.
No matter what I say, no one is going to believe me.
Who would believe the words of a four-year-old child?
And if she went around telling people the Arachrene family was going to fall, everyone would simply laugh her off.
Riersha sprang to her feet.
“Okay. I’ll go to the forest. You’ll come with me, won’t you?”
“What? Me?”
“You said you’d help.”
Ricador’s expression turned distinctly flustered. Riersha’s earnest eyes shone up at him, bright and pleading.
He opened his mouth to refuse several times, each attempt dying on his tongue — until at last he dragged a hand across his face.
“Then come to the edge of the forest at midnight. Don’t let anyone see you. Sneak out.”
“Okay!”
⁂
The Imperial Palace of the Declair Empire.
Summoned by the Empress, Risideon entered the Empress’s quarters and came to a stop at a respectful distance.
The Empress, wearing a red gown that left her shoulders bare, was breathtakingly beautiful.
Her dark hair was swept up and pinned in place with jeweled ornaments, and she sat at the head of the room. She opened her mouth without so much as glancing at Risideon.
“I hear the young duke called you to his side this time.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“How fortunate. To think the young duke has returned safely from the battlefield. How deeply I have been filled with worry all this time.”
Risideon had no answer to give the Empress’s words.
“If the young duke has returned, it must mean the young lady has awakened her ability?”
“…Most likely.”
When Risideon answered without resistance, the Empress let out a quiet, amused laugh.
The fingers curled around her teacup moved in slow, languorous strokes, as though tracing an invisible pattern.
As if deep in thought, her pale blue eyes had settled into a low, still calm.
Karla took a sip of her tea and raised an eyebrow.
“What do you think?”
“About what, Your Majesty?”
“Have you never wondered what manner of events the awakening of the youngest daughter might set in motion?”
Risideon, who had just turned fifteen, carried a gravity about him that was far beyond his years.
At the Empress’s question, he dipped his head.
“Nothing will happen.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. She has simply done what was expected of her, has she not?”
The Empress’s lips curved upward, pleased with the answer.
