The place where Riersha received her lessons was a facility that taught all the collateral branch children living within the main estate.
Unlike the Tower of Truth, which educated only the heirs separately, it functioned more like a comprehensive academy within the Arachrene family.
“That’s her. They say she’s from the main bloodline, but she’s fallen out of the Duke’s favor.”
“Then why is Lord Carden teaching her personally?”
“I don’t know. I heard from my mother that her abilities are so pitiful she hasn’t even been granted a family name.”
The moment the children noticed Riersha approaching, their gazes sharpened into glares.
They resented the fact that Riersha — a girl who hadn’t been recognized as a legitimate heir — was receiving personal instruction from Carden.
The children couldn’t openly harm her, but they gossiped without the slightest restraint.
What should I do.
Riersha hesitated at the edge of the path.
To return to the annex cottage, she had no choice but to pass through that very spot — but the memory of tripping and falling when one of them had stuck out a foot, pretending it was an accident, still clung to her.
…If Grandfather learns that I can’t adapt here, he’ll surely be disappointed.
The Arachrene family, with so few heirs to their name, actively recruited from the collateral branches. Which meant that the children standing in her path right now were the very people who would one day lead the Arachrene family into the future.
She couldn’t afford to create problems and put Grandfather in an awkward position.
Riersha drew in a long, slow breath and walked forward, one step at a time.
The ringleader, who had been leaning against the wall, spoke loudly — deliberately, so she would hear.
“Even for the Duke, openly playing favorites like this is far too unfair.”
“When she hasn’t even properly inherited the bloodline. Honestly, my hair color is closer to silver than hers.”
Mocking laughter rang out.
Then something caught her foot — she wasn’t sure whose power had done it.
She’d been careful, but it seemed someone had used their ability.
“Ow!”
“What is wrong with you — you can’t even dodge something that simple?”
“Compared to the direct line, the gap is just too much. And to think we’ll have to serve someone like her someday.”
“She’ll be cast out before long, obviously.”
Riersha bit her lip, pushed herself up, and brushed the dirt from her clothes.
“If she can’t even dodge something that simple, she probably can’t control her mana at all.”
“Seriously? What kind of person can’t even manage that?”
The moment the ringleader spoke, the others gathered around, sneering and chiming in.
When Riersha tried to ignore them all and walk past, the ringleader’s pride apparently took the hit — and she reached out and yanked Riersha’s hair.
“Ow — it hurts! Let go!”
“I bet her so-called awakening is a lie too. Otherwise why would she be stuck here?”
“I said, let go!”
“Hmph. Word is that even if something happens to you, you can’t say a thing — since the Duke has already turned his back on you.”
The girl began shaking Riersha’s hair from side to side, rough and careless.
“What kind of heir acts like this.”
That last dismissive remark made something surge inside Riersha.
“I am an heir!”
She shoved the girl away with a thud, then stared at her own ruined hair and felt tears prick her eyes.
“Tona fixed my hair so pretty for me this morning…!”
The girl who had tumbled to the ground from Riersha’s push stared up with a stunned expression.
“Y-you — you just pushed me?! Do you know who I am?!”
The girl began screaming until the veins in her neck stood out.
“If there’s trouble with my family, the Duke will be the one embarrassed!”
“S-so what! You started it first!”
“Why you little—!”
The girl scrambled to her feet and lunged forward with her hand outstretched.
But Riersha stepped aside a half-beat faster.
The child pitched forward and fell, and the skin of his palm split open, blood beginning to well up.
“W-wait — blood! He’s bleeding! Ivel, are you okay?!”
The color drained from the face of the child called Ivel, and then the tears came, rolling down his cheeks one after another.
“Hic — huu-uuuh! Daddy!!”
Riersha stared at Ivel with wide eyes.
She hadn’t thought that simply stepping out of the way would make Ivel stumble and hurt himself.
“Y-you fell all on your own!”
“Just you wait — I am never letting this go! I’m telling my father everything that happened today!!”
Riersha flinched.
Unlike Ivel, there was no one Riersha could truly call a guardian.
And if word of Riersha causing trouble reached the Duke’s ears…
Riersha pointed at her own disheveled hair, tears threatening to spill.
“My hair got like this too! And you tripped me on purpose so I fell first…”
“So what?! You hurt me — I’m the one who’s bleeding! You don’t even have a scratch!”
And it was true — blood had indeed pooled in Ivel’s palm, while Riersha showed no visible injury.
“I’m going to request that the academy’s Disciplinary Committee be convened!”
The Disciplinary Committee was the institution convened when disputes broke out between children within the academy.
And it was one of the things Riersha feared most.
“Someone like you will be thrown out immediately!”
Thrown out. The words bleached the color from Riersha’s face.
“You’re in real trouble now. Ivel’s father is Marquess Crender — one of the elders of the family, Marquess Crender!”
“Forget it, it’s not like she’d even understand. Let’s go. Before this gets any noisier.”
Before more eyes could turn their way, the children vanished in an instant.
Riersha stood there alone, fingers moving slowly through her tangled hair.
“…It hurt for me too.”
How many adults would believe what she said, when she didn’t have so much as a scratch to show for it?
“If I go back looking like this, Tona will worry.”
Riersha undid the other side of her hair to match and bowed her head low.
“I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Her eyes stung, but she wiped them quickly. Then she trudged her way back toward the annex cottage.
If she took too long, Sona might come looking for her.
And something that had been silently watching every moment of the scene slipped away without a sound.
⁂
Western border of the Declair Empire.
A man with silver hair and crimson eyes swept aside the tent flap and stepped inside, then tore open a letter with one sharp motion.
You should make haste in returning, Lord Pernoa.
It appears the young lady is about to find herself in a difficult situation.
Pernoa, who had spent four years at the western front lines fulfilling a promise made to Arcmund, narrowed his eyes.
Could it be that Arcmund had failed to hold up his end of the bargain?
No — that wasn’t it.
Arcmund was, at the very least, the sort of man who followed through on what he said.
If it wasn’t the Duke’s doing…
“Then something else has happened.”
If there was another concern for Pernoa, it was trouble tied directly to Riersha herself.
He didn’t know what schemes the collateral branch’s slippery opportunists were spinning around her.
The child was currently the source of quite a stir throughout the main estate.
Born into the Arachrene family, yet having failed to fully inherit the defining traits of silver hair and crimson eyes, Riersha’s awakening had come late — just as feared.
They had waited nearly four full years.
And even this awakening had been nothing short of miraculous.
When she was born, no trace of mana had been sensed in her at all, and he had been half resigned to the idea that it might never come.
Born with a fragile body, she had still managed to awaken — and then suffered the aftereffects for a full two days.
Among the Arachrene bloodline, the stronger the ability, the longer the awakening aftereffects lasted.
And so the Arachrene main estate had already been turned completely upside down by the news.
The family’s youngest, whom everyone had dismissed as unremarkable, had miraculously achieved awakening — and more than that, had hinted at the manifestation of a powerful ability.
Even Pernoa had been caught off guard when he heard.
And it was precisely because of that, he had deliberately not rushed his return.
His purpose: to keep the world’s gaze from falling upon Riersha for as long as possible.
But…
Pernoa read on through the letter, and a short, hollow laugh escaped him — the kind that came not from amusement but from sheer disbelief.
An unusual combination of words had snagged his attention.
“The Disciplinary Committee.”
A pairing of words he had never once encountered in all his years.
It seems the Young Duke may be called upon to attend as a guardian.
A guardian?
Him?
Whatever the official paperwork may reflect, from what I have personally confirmed, the one who was wronged is Lady Riersha.
The hand holding the letter tightened. With a sharp crumple, the paper crumpled beyond recognition and disintegrated into pieces.
While he had been away, everyone had apparently lost their fear entirely.
Because otherwise — how dare they.
Please, come quickly. If you arrive too late, Sona may actually beat me to death.
Pernoa read the last desperate line and let out a soft, dry smile.
“I suppose it’s time to go home.”
He couldn’t afford to lose a capable subordinate.
It seemed the moment had come to return to his rightful place.
