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Chapter 13
The only thread connecting him to the outside world.
If only he could at least graduate safely from the academy, maybe Kallios would regain the will to step back into the world again.
But how?
How could Kallios read and write inside a pitch-black room?
“…Are you even listening to me?”
The voice coming from across the room snapped me back to reality.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you. What did you say?”
“Where’s your mind wandering off to?”
“I was just thinking about something for a moment. What did you ask?”
“So… what color is your hair?”
…Huh?
“My hair?”
Why ask that all of a sudden?
Lately, Kallios had been acting strangely.
He’d started throwing out random questions he never would have asked before. Just like now.
“Why are you asking about my hair color?”
“Just answer.”
Pressed by him, I hesitated before speaking.
“It’s blonde.”
“Blonde? What kind of blonde? Dark blonde, light blonde, patchy blonde—there are all kinds.”
“Hmm… it’s like a lemon-colored blonde.”
“A lemon-colored blonde…”
Kallios murmured my words back to himself. But only for a moment.
“Then what about your eye color?”
No matter how I thought about it, this was weird.
I stared in his direction as the questions continued.
When I didn’t answer immediately, Kallios showed a faint trace of irritation.
“We spend all day together. Isn’t it strange not to know what your face looks like?”
“…Just imagine a roughly ugly face.”
“An ugly face?”
“You said before that I’d probably be ugly, Young Master.”
“Ah, right. I did.”
‘Ah, right?’
That’s all he has to say?
“Still, tell me. I want to picture that ugly face in detail.”
I suppose expressing my feelings toward you through detailed insults isn’t allowed, right?
Completely unaware of how dumbfounded I was, Kallios kept firing questions.
“So, what color are your eyes? Black? Blue? Or…”
Thunk!
At that moment, a loud crash came from where Kallios was. He let out a low groan after falling.
I jumped up in alarm and rushed toward him.
“Young Master! Are you alright?”
“Mm…”
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine… But I think something fell from the display cabinet.”
At his words, I felt around the floor nearby. Soon, my hand touched something smooth and hard.
This texture… a stone?
“This feels like a rock. Why would there be a rock in the display cabinet?”
“Ah, that’s a mana stone.”
“A mana stone?”
I’d only heard the name before; this was my first time touching one. The Duke’s household really had strange things.
Come to think of it, scenes like this appeared often in the original novel.
Kallios, after becoming Duke, sitting alone in a dark office and absentmindedly fiddling with a mana stone.
Wait… what if this thing was secretly some kind of slime or liquid monster?
Then Kallios spoke.
“I found it when I was very young. For a few days, it glowed because of mana leakage.”
“Mana leakage?”
“Normally, mana stones are supposed to contain mana inside them, but some leak it outward. They’re basically defective products.”
Still, he added, they were rare enough to be an interesting sight.
The moment I heard that, a sudden idea struck me and my thoughts exploded into chaos.
In the original story, it was described as if Kallios played with mana stones for no reason…
But what if they actually had another use?
“Why did you suddenly go quiet?”
Kallios asked, noticing I’d fallen deep into thought.
“I was just thinking about something…”
“What about?”
He asked again, but instead of answering, I kept turning the mana stone over in my hand.
Then I decided it was time to tell him the news Brandon had given me.
“Young Master, actually…”
I explained about the report that could substitute for attendance.
But after hearing me out, Kallios remained silent, showing no surprise.
“…You already knew such an option existed, didn’t you?”
I guessed from his reaction.
“Yeah. I knew.”
Kallios answered calmly.
“It’s a system made for students who suddenly become too ill to continue attending classes.”
“You knew that and never told me?”
“What would be the point? It’s useless for someone like me anyway.”
Just as I thought.
He’d already given up without even trying to think of a solution.
“How am I supposed to read and write in here?”
“Then… if only that problem were solved, you’d be willing to try?”
“What are you talking about? Solved?”
Kallios asked in confusion.
Of course, I couldn’t say with certainty that my idea would work.
Maybe I was right. Maybe I was completely wrong.
But you never know the result without trying first.
“Young Master, I’m going out for a moment!”
“What? Where are you suddenly going?!”
Kallios shouted in disbelief as I abruptly sprang to my feet.
But without replying, I hurried out of the room.
“Here.”
Tilda handed me a sack.
I immediately reached inside to check the contents. The smooth, hard feeling of stones brushed against my fingers.
Got it. I managed to get them!
A few hours earlier—
After leaving Kallios’s room, I went straight to find Tilda. I wanted to ask her to obtain defective mana stones.
For a long time, the temple had restricted the distribution of mana stones, but recently they’d become easier to buy at markets. Thankfully.
Coincidentally, Tilda had been preparing to go out to the temple with other maids for morning worship in celebration of a holy day.
On her way back, she obtained the mana stones I requested much faster than expected.
I took one out to confirm the most important thing.
“This is glowing, right?”
“Yeah, it is. There are cracks here and there, and light is leaking out through them.”
Since I couldn’t see, Tilda described the condition of the stone for me.
“I asked the mana stone merchant, and apparently some leak mana like this. He said they have no market value, so they can’t even be sold. But what are you using these for?”
Tilda asked with genuine curiosity.
Even though she’d spent her precious outing time helping me, it still wasn’t the right moment to explain everything.
Instead of answering, I only smiled and pulled money from my pocket.
When I offered it to her, Tilda gently pushed my hand back.
“It’s fine, kid. I didn’t buy these.”
“You didn’t buy them?”
“I told you. They have no value as goods. The merchant looked at me strangely too—asked why I wanted these instead of normal products. Said they’d just become ordinary stones after a few days.”
At her words, I tucked the money away again.
“That’s even better then. Anyway, thank you, Tilda. The Young Master won’t forget this favor. If this works, I’ll make sure he knows it was thanks to you!”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“See you later!”
Leaving behind a bewildered Tilda, I turned and walked away.
My heart pounded with anticipation.
If this works…!
Maybe Kallios wouldn’t descend into darkness like in the original story and could safely become Duke.
If there was one strange thing about the novel, it was the mystery surrounding Madness Disease.
Madness Disease played a crucial role in the story, yet the original never provided much information about it.
So I didn’t know why it occurred or how such an illness came to exist.
Even after The Duke in Darkness ended, readers questioned whether the author had failed to resolve all the foreshadowing.
But that wasn’t important right now.
What I wanted to know was this:
What exactly caused pain to people suffering from Madness Disease?
Did it react to all kinds of light—
Or were there exceptions?
