THTSN 20

Chapter 20

Veilt and I trailed after the half-dead wizard as he staggered through the wall.
A low hum echoed, and then the opposite wall groaned open with a heavy thud.
Beyond it lay a large, chaotic laboratory.

“That wizard’s name is Rolly Royce. He’s one of the senior wizards of the Tower, the exclusive mage of the Duke of Destine, and also a member of Eclipse.”

That’s a lot of affiliations—but basically, it meant he worked under my boss.

“Why is the Duke’s personal mage here in the Tower?”
“The Tower survives on funding from our side.”

I couldn’t help but wonder again just how wealthy my boss really was.
Magic was rare, and wizards—those who could make miracles happen—were rarer still.
And my boss… owned them all.

Would the Emperor really just let that slide?
I had no clue about politics, but wouldn’t a ruler normally prevent any noble family from hoarding wealth, talent—especially magic—to the point of surpassing the crown?
That kind of imbalance could backfire and end with a blade at his own throat.

Still, since my boss had once saved the entire continent from ruin, maybe the Emperor turned a blind eye.

Ah—no. Wait.
The Exemption.
The three great heroes were granted a special privilege—the right to ignore imperial oversight.
Okay, that explained it.

“Anyway,” Veilt said, “you’re here to be examined in secret, Lady Titia. What he’ll do to you… I can’t promise anything.”

I tilted my head, pulled out of my thoughts.
“That wasn’t part of the contract.”
“I’m adding it now.”

What?!

“Let’s just get this over with so I can go to bed.”
“‘Get this over with’? What exactly are you planning to do?”

Could we please clarify that before we start?

The wizard ignored me completely. He grabbed my arm before I could run and dragged me across the room.
He looked frail—but wow, the strength.

He shoved me down into a chair in the middle of the lab. I barely had time to catch my balance before he started rummaging around, mixing strange liquids together until he produced a vial filled with a dark, blood-red fluid.

“Drink it.”
“No.”
“Should I pry your mouth open?”
“Explain what it is first!”
“If I tell you, you won’t drink it.”

“Veilt! Help!!”

The wizard merely flicked his finger, and suddenly I was bound to the chair, unable to move a single muscle.

“Now… drink, or do I force it down?”
“I’ll drink! I’ll drink it myself!”

Veilt, Titia will never forget this betrayal.

As soon as I agreed, the invisible restraints dissolved. I squeezed my eyes shut and downed the vial.
Bitterness flooded my mouth. My stomach churned so violently I slapped a hand over my lips.

Then the wizard placed a hand on my back and began to mutter in some language I couldn’t understand.

A cold sting spread through my spine, followed by the sharp pricking of dozens of invisible needles all over my body. It wasn’t pain enough to kill me—but it wasn’t something you could endure easily either.

And beneath it all was a vile, crawling sensation—something digging through my insides, prodding at my organs. I gagged.

“Urk—”
“Oh, right. I forgot the puke bucket.”

What a considerate man.

I fought the nausea down with sheer willpower.

After a few rounds of that horrible feeling sweeping through me, the wizard finally pulled his hand away and spoke.

“Ordinary. There’s barely a trace of mana in you.”

The pain vanished instantly, but my stomach was still a mess. I rubbed my chest, trying to calm the queasiness.

“Really?”
He nodded weakly.

“Your heartbeat’s… abnormally faint. For a second, I thought it stopped.”
“Please don’t say things like that! So, what about other types of energy?”
“Hmm… I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“I mean, it might be there—or not. It’s so faint I can’t tell. The more I scan your body, the weaker it feels. It could just be that your basic life energy is reacting to my mana. That happens sometimes, even without mana. Or… maybe there is something. But I can’t be sure. Ugh, I talked too much.”

The wizard slumped to the floor, panting heavily.

All that… from a few sentences? Seriously?

If anyone should be exhausted right now, it’s me!

He waved weakly toward a cart nearby. I dragged it over, and he crawled onto it like a dying bug before gesturing at the door we’d entered through.

Guess that meant we were done.

I wasn’t exactly in great shape either, but compared to him, I looked lively.
So I quietly pulled the cart—with Rolly sprawled on top—out of the lab.

Veilt, reading a book on the sofa, stood up the moment he saw us.
“How did it go?”

The wizard looked up at me, and I repeated his verdict to Veilt.

That I had no special ability.

“Well, that’s about what I expected,” Veilt said calmly.

I wasn’t!

I ended up staying in the Tower for about a week, just in case. Rolly stuck to me like glue, but in the end, he confirmed there really was nothing unusual about me.

So, useless me returned to the Duke’s mansion and reported everything—every miserable detail—to my boss and Joshua.

I even ranted about how horrible the whole ordeal had been, but neither of them seemed remotely interested.

“I figured as much,” the boss said.

Could you not sound so smug about it, Boss?

“Anyway, why didn’t anyone tell me the mana examination hurts? I never want to feel that again. My stomach still feels sick.”

Joshua scowled. “That makes no sense! How can there be nothing?”

Why was everyone ignoring me?

“Maybe it’s not related to me?” I suggested.
“No way. When you were gone, the space didn’t react at all.”

“Then maybe I should stand by the doorway again?”

I stood where I had before. Joshua’s eyes widened.
“The space got smaller!”

Wait—what? Really?

He slapped his chest in frustration.
“It’s clearly narrower than before! What did you do?!”
“I didn’t do anything! If anything was done, it was done to me!”

Unfair!

Joshua stomped toward me, grabbing my shoulders.
“There was something! Why did it shrink? Fix it! Expand it back!”
“I don’t know! Stop shaking me!”

Space shrinking wasn’t exactly normal, I had to admit.

“This isn’t over!” Joshua wailed, throwing himself on the floor. “Zer, what do we do now?”

The boss sighed. “Bring the wizard here.”

You mean… I have to go through that again?!

“No way! I’m not doing another test!”
“The wizard doesn’t need to test you. He’ll do it here—this space is special. We might find something new.”

Nooo.

No one listened to my desperate protests.

“Wait, are you even allowed to summon him like that?” I tried. “He might find out secrets even Veilt doesn’t know!”

Not that I understood why Veilt was being kept in the dark.

“Rolly used to visit the mansion often when working on my curse,” the boss said. “He already knows everything.”
“Veilt’s going to be so hurt when he finds out!”
“If he knew, he’d drop everything to summon a demon to lift my curse himself.”

So that’s why you didn’t tell him.

Veilt really did love the boss deeply.

“…And if you don’t want to, you don’t have to,” the boss added quietly. “I’m just letting you know.”

I’m the worst person ever.

Feeling guilty, I grabbed his shoulders.
“No, it’s fine. I was just whining. Sorry.”
“I didn’t even realize it was whining.”

He said it so flatly that I laughed and crouched beside him.

“I’ll go get Rolly right now!” Joshua shouted, running out.

I edged closer to the boss, but he subtly leaned away until his back hit the wall and the bed blocked the other side.

“Please, just stay—”
“Boss, let me complain a little, okay? At the Tower, they did something to me. It hurt like hell, and it still feels disgusting. I felt it every single day for a week. So now it’s your turn.”
“I’m not doing it.”
“It’s for your curse! You have to.”
“I’ve done enough already.”

Stop being childish.
I was too—but I still went through with it.

After a moment of silence, he sighed and muttered,
“Fine. Call Joshua back.”
“No.”
“…”
“Pain doubles when shared.”
“Usually people say joy doubles when shared—and pain halves.”
“How can pain ever halve?”

Because he still bore all his pain alone.

Even now, the boss was suffering by himself.