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Chapter 08
Smack!
A sharp sound rang out.
Even just watching was enough to make my blood run cold. Still, I tried to maintain an outward appearance of composure.
Moretti’s scream echoed through the study.
“AAARGH!!”
“You filthy rat! Who bought you off? Did Edmund promise you a future or something?”
“W-What are you—!”
The head butler lifted a booklet he had brought with him and threw it down.
The book landed in front of Moretti. Embossed on its red cover was the crest of House Cohen.
“This is the magic circle the Duke ordered Edmund to be taught. Not whatever’s on that torn scrap of paper.”
“……What?”
At those words, Moretti froze in shock and opened the book that had fallen to the floor.
The magic circle drawn inside was clearly different from the one Moretti had taught Edmund.
It was exactly the same as the one from the book I had secretly disposed of.
“So that means… that one really was black magic.”
The root cause that would torment and consume Edmund for his entire life.
Staring blankly at the black magic circle, Moretti muttered in disbelief.
“What? Why is this… different from what I taught him?”
Anyone with eyes could tell—the shapes and lines composing the two magic circles were completely different.
Pretending to explain things to the head butler, I also made sure to inform Moretti of the situation. With a touch of mockery.
“Taking classes together, I found it strange. I was under the impression that His Grace explicitly ordered Edmund to be taught black magic.”
“I did exactly what the Duke ordered!!!”
“But Moretti was teaching a white magic circle. I recognized it as the basics of white magic that I learned at the Academy.”
“No! That’s not true!!!”
Moretti thrashed about, denying it desperately. But it was completely futile.
The evidence was too clear.
“And Edmund had already testified earlier that he learned a white magic circle from his tutor.”
No matter what Moretti said now, it would all sound like excuses.
I finished speaking as though I were a loyal subordinate of the Duke.
“There was no other way to see it than that the tutor disobeyed the Duke’s command with impure intentions, so I reported it to the head butler.”
Our eyes met.
Only then did realization dawn on Moretti’s face.
“It was you… wasn’t it?”
“……”
“You swapped them out, didn’t you!!!”
I didn’t answer. I just smiled.
“So you finally figured it out. Too bad—it’s far too late.”
Her belated realization was correct.
For the past few weeks, I hadn’t just been sitting idly through lessons.
“I swapped the black magic book the Duke sent to Moretti with a white magic one.”
Moretti was so careless when teaching Edmund that it wasn’t difficult at all.
Finding a moment before or after class to swap out a book or two.
The contents of the white magic were pieced together from what remained in Cassia’s memories, combined with books I found in the library.
It didn’t need to be precise.
“As long as it didn’t look like the black magic the Duke ordered.”
That was enough to create the situation where Moretti appeared to have disobeyed the Duke and taught Edmund white magic instead.
If Moretti had known even a little about magic, this would have been harder.
But just as I expected, the magic-illiterate Moretti couldn’t tell black magic from white magic at all.
And a few days earlier, when I visited the ducal estate under a flimsy excuse, I casually let this information slip.
“It seems there’s a problem with the magic the tutor is teaching Edmund.”
Not to the Duke himself—but to one of the head butler’s subordinates.
Once the matter reached the Duke, the head butler would be reprimanded immediately. Supervising servants was his responsibility, after all.
Naturally, he had no choice but to be grateful to me.
Right away, a flood of goodwill was directed toward me.
“You’ve done us a great service, young madam.”
“I merely did what needed to be done.”
This would be quite helpful.
Managing the villa’s staff and supplies fell under the head butler’s authority, after all.
While the head butler and I exchanged words of gratitude and modesty—
Moretti’s final struggle was completely crushed.
“You—! You framed me—! Mmmph!!”
The servants roughly gagged Moretti and dragged her away.
I waved lightly in farewell.
“Goodbye. It was filthy knowing you, and let’s never meet again.”
Since I was waving quickly, no one noticed that my middle finger was raised high.
The head butler departed just as quickly as he had arrived.
After thanking me several times over.
“As expected of someone who has drawn Young Master Patrick’s attention.”
That comment left a bad taste in my mouth.
“Did that frivolous bastard Patrick even talk about me to the head butler?”
In truth, during my previous brief visit to the ducal estate, I had used Patrick as an excuse.
I said I came to express my gratitude for his help last time.
Both the villa’s servants and the ducal servants seemed to interpret my attitude as having ulterior motives.
“They must’ve assumed on their own that I was trying to curry favor with Patrick.”
Fortunately, Patrick was away visiting his maternal relatives with the Duchess, so I didn’t get directly entangled with him.
Still, I figured I should be a bit more careful.
“I can’t afford to get deeply involved with Patrick like in the original story.”
I had no intention of becoming Patrick’s lover, nor a villainess like the original Cassia.
“Besides, we won’t be crossing paths again anyway.”
Lost in thought as I walked down the corridor, my steps came to an abrupt halt.
I had run into a boy.
Unkempt silver hair fluttered softly in the spring breeze.
From beneath his long bangs, vivid red eyes stared straight through me.
“Edmund?”
“……”
After a brief silence, Edmund slowly opened his mouth.
“Was it you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“About Moretti.”
Ah—he was asking why Moretti had been driven out.
Considering how noisy both the head butler’s arrival and Moretti being dragged away had been, it was impossible not to notice.
Even locked in his bedroom, he couldn’t have missed it.
I shook my head. Playing dumb was best in moments like this.
Besides, there could be ears loyal to the Duke anywhere in this estate. Speaking honestly in such an open space was too dangerous.
“No? I don’t know anything. It all happened so suddenly—it surprised me too.”
“……Well, I suppose you wouldn’t be capable of something like that.”
Hey! I totally am!
But I forced myself to keep my itching mouth shut.
Edmund continued questioning me.
“……What charges was she taken away for?”
“…….”
This was difficult to answer honestly.
In truth, Moretti had been expelled for attempting to teach Edmund white magic—just as I had engineered.
But officially, she was expelled for showing disrespect toward Young Duke Edmund.
“I can’t let Edmund misunderstand and think she was expelled for trying to be kind to him.”
That would undermine the very reason I drove her out.
One slip, and I’d lose his trust.
I absolutely couldn’t afford to lower what little affection score I had!
I needed to dodge the question.
“The head butler said she was expelled for disobeying the Duke’s orders.”
I shrugged casually.
“…….”
Edmund stared at me with lowered crimson eyes, as though weighing whether my words were true.
The gaze was sharp—like it was trying to see straight through me. Suspicious, too.
After scrutinizing me for quite some time, Edmund turned and left first.
Only after his shadow faded away did I realize I’d forgotten to breathe from tension.
“Was it you?”
When Edmund asked Cassia about why Moretti was expelled, he already knew the answer.
“About Moretti.”
And not just the official excuse—but the real reason.
He hadn’t seen everything unfold, having been dragged back to his bedroom and kept under watch by servants.
But Edmund Cohen was the sole legitimate heir of House Cohen.
Leaning against the wall in the corner of his room, the boy had a clear grasp of what was happening in one wing of the villa.
A device that collected sounds from throughout the villa fed information directly into his ears.
“Taking classes together, I found it strange. I was under the impression that His Grace explicitly ordered Edmund to be taught black magic.”
“But Moretti was teaching a white magic circle. I recognized it as the basics of white magic that I learned at the Academy.”
It was a chilling revelation.
Black magic was a forbidden art that ran counter to the laws of nature. Its power was immense—but its side effects were even more severe.
A single misstep could prevent one from becoming a proper mage.
It could even cost one’s life.
“So my uncle was trying to make me learn black magic. That’s exactly the kind of cruelty he’s capable of. I’ll need to be more cautious.”
It had seemed odd that the magic circle in the textbook differed from the one Moretti taught.
“I secretly read the new textbook when it arrived, but I never tried to use it… thank goodness.”
If what Cassia said was true, then the magic circle in that earlier textbook was black magic.
“I’ve never used it—and never intended to—so I should be fine.”
But one question rose above all others.
“But… there’s no way Moretti would defy my uncle for my sake.”
That was Moretti, of all people.
Edmund had suffered abuse at her hands since the age of seven.
The horror of those days was indescribable.
She was second only to his uncle’s family on the list of those he hated most.
And yet that Moretti disobeyed his uncle and tried to teach him white magic instead of black?
And got expelled for it?
“Impossible.”
Rather—
“It makes more sense that someone set a trap to drive Moretti out.”
If so…
Who could have orchestrated this?
Then, Edmund recalled something.
During a lesson a few days ago, Cassia had done something suspicious while avoiding Moretti’s gaze.
She had swapped out one book among the stacked textbooks in the study.
And the color of that book’s cover—
It was exactly the same as the one he saw today.
“Could it be…?”
