Chapter 8
Luviana clutched his trousers even tighter, raising her voice almost to a shout.
“If Your Grace would share your mana with me… I will do anything you wish. Please… please share your mana with me! Yes? Your Grace the Grand Duke! Your Grace!”
At last, Elion stood up, as if his frozen limbs had finally thawed.
He grasped Luviana by the shoulders and pulled her up.
“My lady, what are you doing? Get up at once!”
His tone, more heated than before, pressed down on her.
“Never kneel so recklessly. A noble lady kneeling before a knight… this is unthinkable. What were you possibly thinking….”
Elion could not go on. He scrubbed his face with both palms.
It was the first time since they had met that his expression had changed so greatly.
He really is shocked. Then please, please… grant my wish. Yes?
With her heart pounding wildly, Luviana looked up at him and dabbed away the false tears hanging from her lashes.
Thanks to having an actress older sister in her past life, she had learned to perform a few things herself—one of them being crying on command.
Elion gently seated her back on the sofa.
Meeting her earnest gaze, he sighed long and heavy, as though burdened.
“…Fine. I will share my mana with you.”
“Ah…”
Luviana’s lips parted in awe.
It worked! She had done it!
She had succeeded in stirring the dark Grand Duke’s sympathy!
Now… she would live!
At last, she could truly become the heroine!
“Thank you, Your Grace! Thank you so much for saving my life… thank you!”
“….”
Elion collapsed heavily into his chair, sighing as though ten years had been taken from him.
His face was pale, his shoulders drooping, the shock not yet faded.
In a drained voice, he muttered:
“In truth, your proposal is one I myself need.”
“Ah…”
At his honest words, Luviana’s eyes widened.
She had never expected to hear such a confession from the dark Grand Duke.
“For the past year, my mana has been unstable. Not a single day passed without fever and headaches.”
“….”
“But just now, when the court physician examined me, he said my temperature and mana were normal. For the first time in a year. I suspected it was because of the refreshing sensation I felt while riding back to the mansion earlier…”
“….”
“But from what you’ve said, perhaps my mana is simply too abundant, spilling over uncontrollably. And so…”
Elion suddenly cut himself off.
He had realized too late that he had spoken far too freely.
Regaining composure, he smoothed his expression and spoke in a businesslike tone.
“But—there is a condition.”
Luviana swallowed dryly, waiting for his next words.
This was the final hurdle.
She prayed it would be a condition she could bear.
“You said you suffer from a disease that causes mana to leak away? I must meet the physician who diagnosed you.”
“……”
“That physician should be able to diagnose my condition as well.”
“I’ll… ask him.”
Luviana slowly nodded.
Omar would surely agree.
And if possible, she hoped Omar would immediately discern the Duke’s state.
That way, she would be spared the trouble of pretending not to know his secret.
“When?”
“….”
It had to be as soon as possible.
Restoring full health was paramount.
“Tomorrow. Would that time suit you?”
“Good. Tomorrow, then.”
The answer came swiftly.
Elion’s face seemed far more at ease.
Color had returned to his cheeks, and the crease in his brow had softened.
“Then we shall meet again tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
After Luviana departed, Elion was subjected to a barrage of scolding from Hailey.
“Your Grace, have you lost your mind?”
“Are you daring to ask if I’ve gone mad?”
At the physician’s audacious question, Elion’s face twisted grimly.
“If not mad, then why else would you have spoken so? The Grand Duke’s health is a top-secret matter. A matter of grave confidentiality.”
“….”
Elion pressed his lips shut, unable to find words.
He could hardly reply, ‘Because the lady suddenly knelt before me and begged, I panicked and babbled nonsense.’
A lady, kneeling before a knight!
Not only was it disgraceful for her dignity, but it also shamed him as a knight.
He could tell no one—least of all Hailey standing before him.
What on earth was that lady thinking, to do such a thing…!
The more he thought on it, the more absurd it seemed.
Unable to contain his frustration, Elion rubbed his jaw.
If word of this got out, both her honor and his would plummet.
Who else can I blame? It’s all my fault.
It was his own stubbornness—pushing her too far out of curiosity for what she might say—that had caused this mess.
“Ugh…” Elion groaned in pain.
Soon he smoothed his expression again, speaking with feigned dignity.
“She bared her weakness first in making her plea. I merely thought it fair to reveal mine in return. That is only proper, is it not?”
“….”
Hailey looked as though he had much more to say, but in the end, he bit his tongue.
He was forcing himself to endure.
“In any case, tomorrow I will meet the lady again and visit the physician who diagnosed her. Be prepared.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
At the mention of meeting a physician, Hailey’s chest pounded with both excitement and apprehension.
Luviana climbed into the carriage bearing the crest of House Klitzman: a soaring eagle.
As soon as it departed the mansion, the carriage rolled straight toward Melville Street, to the toy repair shop where the healer Omar resided.
“Wow! You really did receive mana! Compared to before, the mana in your body has increased and stabilized!”
Examining her with a crystal sphere, Omar exclaimed in excitement.
It really worked!
Luviana’s heart leapt with joy as well.
Thump-thump—her chest danced with delight.
Now it was certain.
That warm, blissful energy she felt whenever her body touched the dark Grand Duke’s truly had been mana.
“You’ve found someone overflowing with mana! That’s incredible!”
“….”
“And not only that! Even if you had, without the right compatibility between your manas, it could have had no effect—or even harmed you!”
“Our mana… had to be compatible?”
“Yes, exactly.”
At those words, Luviana’s heart dropped.
This reclusive healer, famed as the Empire’s best, sometimes revealed troubling oversights—and this one chilled her blood.
“Then why are you only telling me something so important now?”
“Ah… I hadn’t thought to mention it earlier. My apologies.”
Scratching at his shaggy pink hair, Omar apologized.
Luviana’s hair bristled at the thought of what might have happened.
But though unexpected, it wasn’t hard to grasp.
Like needing a matching blood type for a transfusion… perhaps mana transfer required at least some compatibility too.
In any case, the fact that she was compatible with Elion was a blessing amid misfortune.
“Then I can continue receiving mana from him?”
“Yes. But he wishes to meet me as well.”
“Me?”
“He seems to have suffered from unstable mana himself. Fevers, headaches, with no clear cause for the past year. He hopes to receive a diagnosis. Could you see him?”
“Of course.”
Omar nodded readily.
“Cases as unique as yours are rare. I would gladly help in every way I can.”
“…Thank you, Omar. I… have something I want to ask.”
“Yes, anything.”
Luviana hesitated, lips moving slightly before she gathered her courage to speak.
“I was born into a family of spirit summoners. Which means I must, as soon as possible, contract with a spirit and become a spiritist.”
“…I see.”
“With my body in this state… with a gap between my body and soul… is it impossible for me to become a true spiritist?”
“…Hmm.”
Omar could not answer right away.
The silence itself rang clear in Luviana’s ears.
