DHDF 48

chapter 48

Trying in any way to draw the magical energy within her body, she felt her soul shriveling dry.

Her limbs trembled uncontrollably. This was something she truly couldn’t do while fully conscious.

‘If I escape safely, I shouldn’t use magic for a while.’

She reached out toward the girl and began chanting the spell.

“Ide Kra.”

It was a spell that transported a designated target to the desired location.

Her plan was to send the boy who had been beside her back when the time was right, leaving a message not to pursue him until then, and then follow quietly.

‘But why am I rolling around on the floor…?’

Her grasp of the situation was slow.

The woman clumsily pushed herself up. Her limbs, scraped raw from being dragged on the floor, ached all over, but she didn’t have time to care.

“Oh, what the…?”

“Raot-nim helped out, just in case,” someone said.

If the woman had been in a normal state, she would have made a rational decision to flee quickly. Not blindly attempting to cast a half-functioning spell like this.

“Why…! Why isn’t it working, why!”

“Is it all over?”

Ritema asked, resting her head against Verjene and quietly watching the scene.

The woman collapsed, panting for breath, unable to speak a word.

She had exhausted the little reserve of strength she had. Her will to run had completely vanished.

‘Still, there’s a chance.’

While the children bring the adults, she could somehow hide her body.

It was a very shabby, full-of-holes plan, but there was no other option.

The problem was that Ritema was not going to be so easy to deal with.

“Kuugh—”

She strode up to the magician and struck a vital point with the edge of her hand.

The strike was so precise and powerful that the woman could cleanly be rendered unconscious.

Ritema even tapped her with her foot to make sure, then grabbed her collar.

“Dead?”

Verjene, making sure no one was around, asked. Of course, she wasn’t dead, but it was worth checking just in case.

Ritema, who had meant only to convey that the woman had merely lost consciousness, let her sudden curiosity slip.

“Could be.”

“What?”

“What will you do now? Hand me over to someone else?”

She asked, pouting and lowering her eyes.

Verjene was silent for a moment. Even though she knew the answer was no, she seriously considered the question.

Instead of rushing an answer, Ritema lifted the woman and carried her somehow.

Even though she had a slender frame and long legs that made it difficult, Ritema adjusted his posture and managed to move efficiently.

“If that’s what you want…”

Her mouth opened as they returned to the exit.

“But if you want to hide, I’ll be an accomplice. That’s what friends are for, right?”

She spoke calmly, but with a sense of gravity. Ritema laughed cheerfully.

No, Verjene.

Even a friend wouldn’t go that far.

“…What kind of trouble have you caused this time?”

Edan Evan, who had been waiting for his young masters while talking with the coachman, was shocked at Ritema’s state.

He had words rising in his throat about how she should have been more careful in the royal city, but he didn’t voice them.

“A kidnapper. Or rather, an attempted kidnapper, right?”

“Yeah. It failed.”

What on earth was this? Her chronic headache flared up.

The woman, looking like she could collapse at any moment, was the very same magician that the Edendale family had been searching for so tirelessly.

She had been exhausted from fleeing during a long chase.

There was a reason she had been captured so easily.

Upon hearing the news, the Duke himself was said to be heading to the royal city immediately, via train.

“Couldn’t he just come by magic?”

“Magical travel between regions is prohibited, miss. It’s illegal. If you get prior permission, it’s fine, but the royal city has never issued a permit.”

Raot naturally came to mind. He couldn’t possibly have been unaware of this.

He probably just didn’t care.

Because she could escape at any moment, the woman wasn’t sent to jail.

Instead, she was confined to a corner of the top floor of the townhouse.

‘And every time she stands up, the knights watching her knock her out again…’

She probably had a dark bruise around her neck.

I wondered if her muscles had been torn.

I rubbed the gemstone that had already served its purpose. It all felt so fleeting and unreal, but as time passed, the sense of reality sank in.

‘If it weren’t for the necklace, she would’ve been dragged away again.’

Having experienced it once, it no longer sent shivers down my spine.

It was just a little frustrating that, after learning magic, I had stood there dumbly without knowing how to respond.

‘Lack of experience…’

Of course, that didn’t mean I had any advanced magic I could use.

It was very basic—moving objects, lifting them, or changing their size.

I thought it would be good to learn magic that could repay force.

‘Or think of a way to make it offensive.’

Magic had been started not out of mere curiosity, but for survival.

Writing in my diary with those thoughts, the door slid open.

It was Ritema.

The townhouse windows were different, so here he could enter normally.

“Verjene is diligent, always writing in her diary.”

He came close, rested his head on my shoulder, and rubbed his cheek. I lightly patted his head.

“No, I only write when something worth noting happens.”

I had begun for handwriting practice, and once that goal was reached, it naturally tapered off.

I might write once a month, if that.

“That’s still something. I’d rather avoid writing altogether.”

Ritema paused thoughtfully, then added quickly:

“But if Verjene writes me letters, I can reply regularly.”

He must have realized that I exchanged letters with Meily.

Ritema was straightforward. He didn’t feel slighted for not being told, nor jealous for not being the exclusive correspondent.

‘If that’s just pretending, I can raise the stakes.’

That’s why I sometimes found Ritema difficult—his attitude was impossible to predict.

“Anyway, will you write for me? I think I heard that engaged couples exchange letters.”

Even in his choice of words, he switched between calling me a friend and calling me fiancée.

“Of course, maybe. But we…”

He didn’t finish his sentence.

I had originally wanted to say there was no need since we lived under the same roof.

But soon I realized the situation would change.

Next summer, Ritema, turning fourteen, would join the academy with his older brothers.

“I’ll think about it.”

“I want a definite answer. Tell me what to do, Verjene.”

He held the hand with the ring tightly, forehead to forehead, looking me in the eyes.

This was Ritema’s weakness.

He was used to twisting situations his way, slyly.

Since I couldn’t resist and often gave in, he continued like this.

“…I’ll see what you do.”

Honestly, who could refuse Ritema from the start?

“So if I behave, that’s fine? That’s my specialty.”

If Evan heard this, he would have laughed uproariously. I shrugged and said nothing.

“Want to see that magician?”

Ritema finally stated his purpose much later.

As far as I knew, the knights were taking turns guarding the entrance.

No matter how much Ritema fussed, they wouldn’t let him in.

“A magic-blocking seal was placed this afternoon. I don’t know much, but I guess magic can’t be used with it.”

“Really?”

“So no one will act so rigidly.”

I leaned back in my chair and fell into thought.

It wasn’t that I lacked curiosity.

Of course, Ritema treated it like a new amusement, but it wasn’t a childish impulse.

‘No one tells me the details of the incident.’

Everyone simply said it wasn’t my concern.

It might really be, but now that I was involved, I couldn’t just ignore it.

‘It won’t end with catching a few people.’

There would surely be more. Even while doubting, I couldn’t stay idle.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

This might be the perfect opportunity.

I got up from the chair, resolved.