chapter 07

“Hmm…”

The reason I stayed awake so late that night was because of the recommendation letter and Sophia Dorsha’s letter.

I read the two sheets of paper over and over, searching carefully for any clue I might have missed.

Would it be better to ask Sophia Dorsha directly instead of Grace? She did say I could contact her anytime…

Just as my eyelids began to grow heavy and sleep slowly claimed me—

Thunk! Thunk!

Something struck my window.

More than once.

“…What?”

A chill ran down my spine. It was the middle of the night.

Swallowing hard, I slowly approached the window.

After hesitating for a moment, I flung it open. Curiosity had won over fear.

But the moment I looked outside, curiosity turned into horror.

“This is…”

A gift box was hanging from the windowsill.

What the hell…?

The curse slipped out before I could stop it.

This was the third floor…

Almost mechanically, I picked up the box.

It was pink, covered from top to bottom in tiny heart patterns. There was something disturbingly grotesque about it that made it impossible to see as an ordinary present.

Opening it felt almost instinctive.

“……”

Inside was a mutilated teddy bear.

* * *

Carlson, the supervisor of the Magic Tower’s Department of Magical Creature Protection, was on the verge of losing his mind.

“SKREEEE! SKREEEE!”

A magical beast whose species had never even been classified shrieked from inside a containment barrier, its wings beating furiously without pause.

It was always ill-tempered… but never this bad.

Everything had started when one of the department’s junior mages accidentally let the creature escape.

Every magical beast imprinted exactly once in its lifetime upon the being destined to care for it.

Human or otherwise.

Until today, this beast had never chosen anyone.

Countless mages had taken turns watching over it, yet it stubbornly refused to imprint on any of them.

And then—

“A-Aaaah!”

—it had imprinted on a complete outsider walking through the hallway.

Until that person was found, the beast would continue rampaging.

“I’ll find its imprint target.”

The one who appeared late that night before the deeply troubled Carlson was Theo, fresh from meeting the Tower Master.

“Y-You? Why you?”

Carlson instinctively recoiled.

He could say with absolute certainty that this lunatic would only make matters worse. If anyone could surpass the idiot who had let the beast loose into the hallway, it was Theo.

Just earlier today he was asking the Tower Master to send him to reinforce the Imperial Palace barrier…

Carlson stared suspiciously at Theo as old memories resurfaced.

At first, Theo hadn’t seemed bad at all.

He was handsome enough that even another man had to admit it, and his personality had seemed pleasant enough.

On top of that, he was the second son of a ducal house.

Carlson—and practically every mage in the Magic Tower—had been eager to get close to someone with connections like that.

We should’ve questioned why a son of the Selgrize Ducal House became a mage in the first place.

Trying to befriend this bastard was the greatest mistake of my life.

Difficult clients were common.

Anyone wealthy enough to hire the Magic Tower was usually an arrogant noble.

Has it already been a year…?

Carlson still remembered the elderly noble who had caused a huge scene demanding they find his missing mistress.

Back then, Theo had been a rookie assigned to the Missing Persons Search Department, and the case had landed on his desk.

The missing woman was an ordinary civilian, but someone powerful seemed to be protecting her. No matter how hard they searched, they couldn’t find any trace of her.

After finally gathering a handful of clues, they reported their findings.

That was when everything fell apart.

More than a week had passed without results, and the old noble had reached the end of his patience.

“Do you think I paid that fortune just to hear this?!”

Blinded by rage, he began throwing everything he could get his hands on.

As the atmosphere grew increasingly dangerous, Carlson and the other mages quietly slipped out.

Although nearly everyone in the Search Department had worked on the case because of the enormous commission, moments like these always ended the same way.

The lead investigator took all the blame.

Soon, only Theo and the client remained inside.

“He’ll be fine. Everyone in the Search Department goes through this initiation at least once.”

Carlson had tried reassuring the others, silently wishing the rookie good luck with his first impossible client.

Not long afterward…

The closed door slowly creaked open.

“H-How did you…?”

Even now, Carlson couldn’t forget Theo stepping out with a cheerful smile—

Completely drenched in blood.

“W-What in the… Ugh…”

He also vividly remembered the faces of everyone who looked inside the room and found themselves too horrified to even scream.

That very night, a man named Harry Belzer visited every mage who had witnessed the incident.

He warned them that nothing from that afternoon was ever to leave the building.

Then he handed each of them something heavy.

Carlson had never seen a pouch filled with so many gold coins in his entire life.

“Just what kind of monster is he…?”

That was when Carlson began investigating Theodor Selgrize.

Even the way Theo had entered the Magic Tower was unusual.

Rumor had it that the Duke of Selgrize had spent an astronomical fortune to get his son accepted.

Carlson still couldn’t understand why.

Especially when Theo possessed such extraordinary talent for tracking magic that he could have entered the Tower on merit alone.

Within only a year of joining, he had already become the head of the Missing Persons Search Department.

In hindsight, the duke had completely wasted his money.

…No.

Maybe not.

He probably just wanted Theo admitted as quickly as possible.

One thing, however, was certain.

The duke hadn’t wanted a son who became a mage.

He had wanted a place where he could lock his son away without anyone questioning it.

Carlson snapped back to reality when Theo suddenly spoke.

“We’re… rather close.”

“T-There’s no way.”

Embarrassed by Theo’s almost bashful tone, Carlson shook his head.

As if Theo were the one talking nonsense.

The truth was…

Carlson knew better than anyone that the outsider and Theo were acquainted.

“Hello… um… I’m from the Imperial Palace. It’s my first time visiting the Magic Tower, so I was hoping someone could help me.”

After all…

Carlson himself had been the one who told that outsider where Theo could be found.

Damn it… I should’ve pretended not to know anything…

More than anything, he simply wanted to deny reality.

I could’ve handled this myself… Why did it have to be him…?

Carlson could have entrusted the magical beast to the outsider.

That is…

If Theo were willing to reveal who that outsider was.

Which clearly wasn’t going to happen.

Finally giving up, Carlson gestured toward the still-furious beast.

“You know that’s an undocumented rare species, right? If anything happens to it… I swear I’ll make you pay.”

Though it sounded like a threat, it was closer to a desperate plea.

Now that the creature had fallen into that madman’s hands, its chances of surviving were slim.

It may have a nasty personality… but I’ve grown attached to the little guy.

Inwardly, Carlson offered the beast a silent prayer in advance.

For some reason, its furious growls sounded strangely pitiful today.

* * *

The teddy bear incident had been terrifying.

But thanks to it, I had finally gained a clue about my stalker.

One thing was now clear.

There was a high chance the stalker worked at the Marquis’s estate.

Otherwise, infiltrating the heavily guarded mansion—especially in the middle of the night—would have been impossible.

“Haah…”

I had hidden the stalking because I didn’t want my parents to worry.

That ended yesterday.

The moment I saw the teddy bear, I immediately ran to them.

After hearing the whole story, the Marquis and Marchioness comforted me with extraordinary tenderness.

Far more gently than I ever comforted Rosé.

“Rena, you don’t need to be afraid.”

As soon as morning came, the couple declared they would report the incident immediately and began putting on their coats.

They even intended to punish the knights for failing to prevent something like this.

I managed to stop them.

After all, it had been entirely my own decision not to tell anyone about the stalker’s letters.

Even so, time marched on.

Despite the uneasy atmosphere hanging over the estate, I had no choice but to continue my normal routine.

Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—

The teddy bear incident left me no time to dwell on it.

“Did something happen?”

The moment I arrived at the Imperial Palace, I could tell it was unusually busy.

“Oh, well…”

After hearing the explanation, I learned that, because of issues with the barrier, a mage would be staying at the palace starting today.

The surprising part was…

“Sir Selgrize.”

“…Theo is staying at the Imperial Palace?”

Even after hearing Grace’s words, I blinked in disbelief.

The teddy bear incident had driven every thought of Theo completely out of my mind.

“Um… Lady Grace.”

Since the subject had come up, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask.

Grace had called Theo my “old friend.”

And considering I had been recommended and hired as the princess’s art tutor, Grace—the princess’s nanny—had undoubtedly played a role in it.

“Yes?”

“Well… yesterday you referred to Theo as an old friend of mine. Your reaction back then seemed a little… unusual. I was wondering if perhaps something about him makes you uncomfortable?”

I asked as casually as I could, carefully probing for information.

Grace’s eyes widened.

A moment later, she gave an awkward smile before answering.