TBRFC 04

“Unfortunately. You cannot take any child from my land.”

Sharon Abner spoke slowly.

Lambert Longton’s expression twisted.

He took a step forward and growled,

“Are you planning to interfere with something that doesn’t concern you?”

Then he extended a hand toward his butler.

The butler hurriedly placed a thick stack of documents into his hand.

“I have already consulted imperial court judges regarding whether or not I can take my daughter from here.”

His voice was thick with suppressed fury.

“We came here through lawful procedures and did not even bring soldiers with us. There is certainly no clause in imperial law requiring nobles to seek permission when entering another territory.”

Sharon Abner smiled like a sly serpent as she stared directly at Lambert Longton.

“Yes, adopting your daughter from my territory. Even if our relationship is utterly terrible, that is entirely possible. However.”

Lambert Longton raised one eyebrow.

“That only applies while the child you intend to take still belongs to Evehill Orphanage.”

A sinister premonition crossed Lambert Longton’s face as it stiffened in surprise.

“What do you mean by that?”

At that moment, Sharon Abner suddenly looked elsewhere.

“I received your letter well, little one.”

She was looking toward me, where I was half-hidden behind the barn.

“And your writing was better than most of my administrators.”

I froze for a moment beneath her perfectly accurate gaze.

“Wendel. Bring the child here.”

The moment she gave the order, my body lifted into the air.

The bundle I had been holding fell to the ground.

“Anelia, why are you over there—?!”

Leaving behind Teacher Anne’s scream, I turned my head.

A giant man who looked over two meters tall was carrying me in his arms.

Amid the chaos, Sharon Abner continued speaking.

“The things you told me in your letter. Every single one of them proved useful. Thanks to you, I managed to catch and kill every rat hiding inside my house.”

Rats.

She meant Longton’s spies hidden throughout the Evehill region.

‘How else would Lambert Longton have come to adopt me in the first place?’

He had planted informants all across Abner territory, so naturally he even knew trivial information like which orphanage housed which child.

I needed to prove in the letter that I was useful.

So, as a sample offering, I exposed several of Duke Longton’s lackeys in the letter.

Fortunately, Sharon Abner seemed pleased by that.

“You wrote in your letter that you were a genius. Abner has always lacked talented children like you.”

Snow-covered hills stretched here and there.

Looking at the frozen and speechless Duke Longton, Sharon Abner extended a hand toward me.

“So I’ve just finished placing my name on your guardianship papers. What do you think?”

“Would someone explain what the hell is going on?”

“Your Grace…”

Inside the icy-cold tent,

Duke Longton sat leaning against a temporary desk, his brow deeply furrowed.

“Why is that mad lioness here?”

Unlike his refined tone, his voice trembled with anger.

Anelia of Evehill Orphanage.

An orphan with no surname.

Yet she was a pearl discovered in mud.

“The anti-tracking magic. Was it properly activated?”

“Y-Yes, absolutely. Before departure, when opening the portal, and even after arriving in Abner territory, we tore three separate scrolls…”

A short sigh escaped Duke Longton’s lips.

Ordinarily, great nobles could freely travel between neighboring territories.

As long as they did not bring forces larger than an escort unit, movement itself posed no issue.

So there had been no real need to use expensive anti-tracking or concealment magic.

‘But we used them.’

They had torn through nearly ten enormously expensive scrolls.

And all of it had been for the sake of avoiding the eyes of a single person.

Sharon Abner.

A woman no good could ever come from becoming entangled with.

When they discovered Anelia and decided to adopt her, the only thing that had bothered him was that woman.

The orphanage Anelia belonged to just happened to be located within Abner territory.

‘But I couldn’t abandon a brilliant child I had finally found.’

With a grim expression, Lambert Longton looked outside the tent.

Far away, the child stood surrounded by soldiers.

“That child. How old did you say she was?”

“She is four years old. They said her birthday is only a few months away, so she will soon turn five.”

“And she was found abandoned in the mountains shortly after birth?”

“That is correct. Since then, she has lived here continuously. She only started visiting the town bookstore a few months ago.”

“And within those few months, she memorized countless books on magic theory and pharmacology.”

The butler fell silent.

“She is an extremely valuable asset. If obtaining her were easy, that would itself be suspicious. But the fact that even the slow-witted Abners noticed her bothers me.”

He raised his eyes and looked around the tent.

“And another thing. What was all that talk about a letter earlier? It sounded as though the child had personally sent a letter to Abner Castle.”

A young administrator hesitantly stepped forward.

“Sometimes the orphanage children do write letters of gratitude to the lord.”

“Are you saying Sharon Abner personally reads all of those?”

“Of course not. However, since the child was already rumored to be exceptionally clever in the region, perhaps Her Ladyship read it out of curiosity…”

Another administrator added,

“Apparently the contents weren’t anything special. According to the orphanage teacher, the child seemed to write something about catching rats…”

Lambert Longton slowly nodded.

“So that talk about killing rats meant that.”

“Yes. Looking at things like that, she almost seems like an ordinary child. Though it’s strange that Sharon Abner humors her…”

“No. She is far from ordinary.”

Lambert Longton cut the administrator off.

“She’s a child who devoured dozens of advanced magical theory books that even scholars struggle with at the age of four. Does that seem ordinary to you?”

His eyes burned with an eerie obsession.

“That child must become Longton property. Her brilliant mind and the fact that she is a girl—every condition is perfect.”

“Then what should we do…?”

Lambert Longton rose from his seat.

“Do not let that child fall into the lioness’s hands. Abner must continue rotting as a wasteland of magical scholarship, just as it always has.”

“But, Your Grace. You heard Sharon Abner earlier. She has already become the child’s legal guardian. It will be difficult for us to adopt the child according to the original plan…”

“Then kill her.”

The administrators exchanged stunned glances.

But Lambert Longton remained completely certain.

“One does not simply hand over an object like that. If we cannot possess her, then it is better to kill her and eliminate future trouble. Have you all forgotten the crises Longton suffered because of Isabel Abner?”

Isabel Abner.

Sharon Abner’s daughter, and a gifted talent who had shown extraordinary promise in magical studies.

Until her death at a young age, Lambert Longton had always feared her.

Because he understood Isabel Abner’s potential better than anyone.

“If that woman had not died young, Longton would never have obtained its current position.”

She had been far wiser and more intelligent than her older brother, Jayden Abner.

Sharon Abner herself had seemed more inclined to pass the family headship to Isabel rather than Jayden.

‘Thank heavens she died early.’

Had Isabel Abner survived, she would easily have secured a seat within the Imperial Alchemical Institute by now.

And if that had happened, House Abner would have flourished far beyond its current state.

Its standing within the capital would have been solidified, and perhaps it might even have pioneered an entirely new field of magical scholarship.

“That lioness will never waste a second opportunity.”

Anelia.

That child was a talent capable of presenting a new future for Abner, a house that had long been barren in magical academia.

Lambert Longton muttered coldly,

“Yes. Killing her really is the only option.”