“I entrust Riersha to you, Count Charlotte.”
“I am not qualified to teach the young lady. You know the limits of my ability.”
“Which is precisely why you are the right choice. I had intended to keep this confidential, but since you would be her teacher, you must know. Riersha’s ability is reflection.”
Ian’s eyes grew calm and still.
He understood now why the Duke had chosen him as Riersha’s teacher.
Teachers assigned to heirs were typically selected from among those who possessed abilities in a similar category.
The purpose was to deepen the heir’s understanding of their own power.
The degree to which one understood their own ability made all the difference in how effectively it could be wielded.
Ian reached out and touched one of the bubbles drifting through the air.
The moment he did, his finger snapped back.
He then demonstrated his own ability.
Within moments, bubbles identical to the ones Riersha had created began floating in every direction around them.
“Oh?”
Riersha blinked in surprise.
“Is your abiwity the same as mine, Teacher?”
“Not exactly, Lady Riersha.”
Ian shook his head.
He lightly flicked one of the bubbles he had created.
The bubbles seemed to repel each other for just a moment, and then—
BOOM!
The two bubbles hurtled in opposite directions and burst with a thunderous roar.
Riersha clapped her hands over her ears.
Her hair whipped wildly around her face.
“Wh— what was— what was that?”
When the chaos settled, Riersha muttered in bewilderment.
“My ability is a mirror. I can reproduce the abilities of others.”
“…”
“His Grace instructed me to focus on minimizing the damage caused by your ability. As you can see—”
Nothing more than a few small bubbles had been launched in opposite directions, and yet the entire clearing around them had been reduced to ruin.
Ian smiled brightly.
“You have absolutely no control over the degree of your reflection, my lady.”
“…Yes. I’ll work hard to learn.”
⁂
After several more deafening explosions, the lesson finally came to an end.
Riersha was coated head to toe in dirt, looking thoroughly bedraggled.
On the verge of tears, her legs trembling beneath her, she dragged herself to the shade of a nearby tree and slumped against it.
“Are you all right, Lady Riersha?”
Ian asked with what sounded like genuine concern. Riersha’s body gave a small shudder.
Two-faced!
This man was absolutely two-faced.
He had driven her mercilessly during the lesson like some kind of monster, and now he was asking if she was all right.
“…Hic.”
Riersha sniffled.
She missed Sona. If Sona had been her teacher, it wouldn’t have been this hard.
Then again, perhaps that was exactly why Akrod had deliberately left Sona off the list of candidates.
“Here is some water, my lady.”
“Thank you.”
Riersha gulped the water down without pause.
The cool liquid sliding down her throat made her feel just barely human again.
When Riersha set down the empty bottle, Ian’s expression shifted with a trace of guilt.
“I apologize. I got a little carried away…”
“Carried away?”
“Your talent is exceptional, my lady. Before I realized it, I had begun to put in genuine effort.”
Ian smiled, bright and unabashed.
Which meant, right now…
“A little?”
“Yes.”
“That means… the lessons could get harder than what just happened?”
Riersha went pale.
Surely not.
She prayed with everything she had that the words no, of course not would leave his mouth — and was thoroughly betrayed.
“Naturally, the first lesson is merely an introduction.”
“…”
“Now then. Since Lady Riersha worked so hard today, shall we talk about whatever is weighing on your mind?”
⁂
“…So to summarize — a rabbit and a tortoise were very close friends, but then suddenly they weren’t, and you have no idea why?”
“Yes.”
“And the reason is completely unknown.”
Scratched into the dirt where Riersha sat were two small figures — a rabbit and a tortoise, drawn side by side.
The ground around them was a bit of a mess from all her explaining with a stick, but Ian had understood perfectly.
The rabbit was Yerena Arachrene. The tortoise was Karla Declair.
If she spoke in too much detail, Ian might figure out exactly who she was referring to, so Riersha had chosen her words carefully.
“What do you think happened between the rabbit and the tortoise?”
Riersha asked in a dejected little voice, as if she truly could not make sense of it.
Ian studied the drawings on the ground in silence for a moment, then let out a quiet “Ah.”
“These two are animals that live in entirely different environments, are they not? The tortoise lives in the sea, the rabbit on land.”
“What does that have to do with it?”
“There would have been friction between them — large and small — on a regular basis.”
Growing up in different environments creates an enormous number of differences.
What they saw, what they heard, what they wore, what they ate — all of it would have been vastly unlike one another.
Come to think of it, Mother said she and the Empress became close because their families had ties to begin with.
Riersha thought it strange how neatly the animals she’d drawn seemed to mirror the real situation.
“Could it be that only one of them considered the other a friend?”
“…Just one of them?”
“Yes. The tortoise may never have felt as close to the rabbit as the rabbit believed.”
“…”
“The rabbit thought they were the dearest of friends — but the other did not.”
At Ian’s words, Riersha shot to her feet as though something had clicked into place.
He was right. The size of one person’s heart could never be perfectly matched by another’s.
Ian saw the understanding in her eyes and smiled softly.
“Especially if the friendship began in childhood — it’s worth questioning all the more. There are quite a few cases where children must appear friendly for the sake of family relations, even when they would rather not be.”
“I see.”
Yes. What if Karla Kineart had never thought of Yerena Arachrene as a true friend from the very beginning?
If that were the case, the tangled knot of thread began to loosen just a little.
If she had truly considered her a friend, the Empress never would have done what she did.
“Thank you, Teacher. I think I can figure out the rest on my own now.”
She had been so fixated on the idea that the two of them were friends — that was what had kept her stuck.
“Think nothing of it. I’m glad it was of some help.”
Ian smiled and rose to his feet.
He had been assigned as Riersha’s private teacher, but in truth, he was a very busy man.
He could not afford to be away for long.
“Then, Lady Riersha — I will see you at our next lesson. I do hope your troubles will be resolved by then.”
“Yes!”
Riersha gave a small, earnest bow, and Ian returned it with one of his own.
Then he left the clearing ahead of her.
Riersha scuffed her foot across the dirt, smearing away the drawings she had made.
Now it was time to go back, wash up, and finish the assignment Carden had given her.
And if she had any time left over, she needed to work on the flower bracelet she was making for Pernoa.
“Oh! I should look at the garden flowers on the way back!”
She left the clearing with a happy flutter of thoughts, pondering which colors would suit Pernoa best.
⁂
“Oberon. What are you doing here?”
Oberon had just stepped out of the clearing when he came to a stop at the sight of a man approaching from the opposite direction.
It was a man with long silver hair tied back in a single tail, wearing a monocle over one eye.
He emerged from behind a tree and stepped into Oberon’s path.
The two had never been on particularly good terms, and Oberon’s brow drew together with quiet displeasure.
“I was under the impression that you were away on assignment, Rosinante.”
The man blocking his way was none other than Rosinante.
He glanced briefly in the direction Oberon had come from and offered a pleasant smile.
“Yes, I’ve just finished the task the young lord assigned me and am returning to the ducal castle now.”
“Then you had best make your way to him promptly.”
Oberon moved to step past him as though there was nothing left worth discussing here.
Rosinante gave a slight shrug and shifted to the side to let him through.
But the eyes that followed Oberon were colder than they had ever been.
“Rosinante, keep the entire household under surveillance going forward. That includes anyone who has long been associated with the Arachrene family — no exceptions.”
It had been a sudden directive from Pernoa, issued upon his return from the Crown Prince’s birthday party.
No detailed explanation had been given, but Rosinante was perceptive enough to understand: the intent was to root out any disloyal elements within the ducal house.
And that the candidates for suspicion included even the elder-rank retainers who had served the Arachrene family for their entire lives.
Starting today, Lady Riersha will be holding her lessons here, if I’m not mistaken.
Rosinante’s eyes narrowed slowly.
