A young girl who just turned 10 years old this year.
Although he had been in a close relations.h.i.+p with Marquis Lucillion for a long time now, he had never seen Ariel, the Marquis" Young Lady.
The Marquis had always been reticent about her.
Now that Ariel was injured, the Duke wondered if he should talk to Marquis Lucillion about this, but he suddenly thought of the Grand Duke"s words and shut up.
It was time to find out who caused the carriage accident.
That evening, the Grand Duke"s son, Lucian Desmond Lacartel, who had pa.s.sed six gates, returned to the Grand Duke"s residence.
“Prince!”
Lucian, who came across the continent like a storm without sending a message that he would return, visited Ariel as soon as he arrived.
“Where"s the kid?”
“The young madam is inside the… “
But before Allen, the butler could even finish his sentence, Lucian had already went pa.s.s him.
Allen quickly followed and looked at the small back of his master who he did not see for a few of months.
An average person can handle pa.s.sing through the maximum of three gates in a day.
This is because pa.s.sing a gate consumes a lot of physical strength.
The physical strength becomes the power of magic, that"s why a person pa.s.sing through a huge distance had to endure the fatigue he"ll feel after.
Traveling more than three gates could have caused exhaustion or loss of consciousness.
However, Lucian, who had pa.s.sed six gates in half a day, did not feel a single drop of fatigue.
It"s just a sharp stretch of momentum that"s close to life.
Throughout the winter, the boy grew taller and his features became sharper.
Sitting underneath his black hair, was his cold eyes as deep as the ocean.
The icy gaze that feels like a freezing winter storm made people s.h.i.+ver every time he pa.s.sed by.
The area where the boy lives in the Johannes Imperial Academy is the westernmost part of the empire, where the climate is winter for half of the year, so he didn"t even know he had a cold impression.
Lucian opened the handle with a touch that was not considerate of the door at all.
As he went inside, a pink girly room unfolded before his eyes.
A girl wrapped in a thick blanket on a nap bed with a lace canopy was lying down taking a short breaths.
“Prince Lucian.”
Bruno, who was guarding the Princess" side, stood up with a surprised face.
Lucian ignored him and approached the bed with impatient steps.
The girl"s cheeks were flushed with heat.
Her uneven breathing proved that the girl"s body was not normal.
“What happened?”
A frosty question fell to Bruno.
The former Head Wizard, who knew the Lacartel"s ident.i.ty, was cautious not to disturb his nerves.
“She released a huge amount of mana at once. You probably already know that the young madam is a wizard.”
“I"m not asking what she did. I"m asking what"s wrong with her body.”
“Because of the sudden mana burst, it devours most of her body"s energy. She had always been weak….”
Bruno"s voice who tried to explain the situation, has become smaller and smaller.
It was because of the heavy pressure Lucian was weighing on him.
Bruno at least, can handle this much because he"s a strong wizard but the others cant.
The maid who came in to change Ariel"s wet towel had already fainted at the door.
Ariel turned over and groaned, perhaps agitated by the heat.
“Mom…. Huk…. Mom… “
The sick child sobbed looking for a mother she had never ever seen before.
Lucian mumbled a curse and swept his head hard.
He had an urge to crush everything.
“Do something. You"re a G.o.dd.a.m.n wizard.
Bruno opened his mouth with an emaciated face.
“She"s in an extremely weak state, so she can"t take a magic potion that replenishes stamina. Once released, her mana never stops pouring and continues to eat up her physical energy.”
Lucian squeezed his fist hard enough to crush his bones.
“Then what should I do?”
“We need to calm down her overflowing manna.”
“It"s just stabilizing. You can do that much!”
Lucian exploded in a low voice.
Mana is an absolutely driven by the logic of power.
It obey the strong and eat the weak.
It was for that reason that a person who was born with no mana could become a sword master.
Mana obeys the master, who has become stronger as he ascends to the sword.
Therefore, a strong man like Bruno who was the Great former head wizard could stabilize the mana in such a little girl"s body.
But Bruno shook his head.
His voice was perplexed.
“I"ve already tried. But strangely enough, the mana in the young madam"s body…It doesn"t obey to my own.”
“d.a.m.n it.”
Lucian roughly untied his school uniform tie, which felt like strangling him. Bruno looked at his eyes and spoke.
“Do you happen to want to try it? I don"t know why it"s not working with me…but if it"s you…”
“Look here.”
A glacial chilling voice stopped Bruno from speaking.
“Don"t you know what kind of attribute my mana is?”
“I"m asking you to at least try. It"s different from the Grand Duke.”
“What if she gets hurt more?”
Bruno"s knee lost its strength because of Lucian"s aura. It was a terrible feeling of pressure.
“It"s still better…than not trying at…all…. Ugh. “
Lucian asked in a disillusioned tone.
“Mathius. Hasn"t he tried?”
“He said he would make a decision when he gets back.”
“……get lost. Get out.”
Lucian drove everyone out of the room.
The only ones left in the room is Lucian and his young wife. He looked down at the girl with an infinitely fragile body.
Even a little mistake can kill Ariel.
It"ll be instant, he won"t be able to reverse it.
Lucian slowly brought his hand under Ariel"s left clavicle, where her heart beats.
He felt a huge amount of mana running uncontrollably inside her that"s too much for such a small body to handle.
Lucian released his pent pressure that he had suppressed a little bit.
What Bruno felt was only a fraction of his power.
When he released the force he had held, the mana in Ariel"s body felt it and she flinched.
Lucian growled lowly in a threatening voice.
“Stay still.”
He sucked some of Ariel"s mana into his palm.
The mana, who obeyed the top predator"s touch, started to come along obediently.
Her mana will be replenished by itself if Ariel recovers properly anyway, so Lucian focused on absorbing her mana as much as possible.
It was flowing in Ariel"s body until just now, so unlike his wild and cold mana, it was fluffy and warm.
Lucian uttered a small curse.
“d.a.m.n it. You"re like this because you"ve been eaten by this s.h.i.+t.”
Ariel"s face, which had been suffering from pain since earlier is starting to become more comfortable when he sucked her mana.
Her pitifully curled body was relieved.
However, the mana that was circling in Ariel"s body, did not become calm.
Ariel was extremely vulnerable, unlike Lucian, and her mana knew it well.
The mana, that was still inside Ariel"s body, is still running wild and eating up the girl"s physical energy.
"How annoying. "
Lucian irritated reflected the mana.
He sat on the bed to widen the area that reached Ariel"s body.
He took off his hand under her collarbone and wrapped them around Ariel"s body with one arm.
What he"s about to do from now on was really dangerous.
His head stopped at his own brink of momentum.
“I might kill you with my own hands.”
Lucian reminded himself in advance.
But he didn"t want to imagine what"ll happen after that.
He run his hand over Ariel"s hair and pressed his finger on her cheek.
He felt it"s softness.
Lucian" mouth stretched up without realizing it.
It feels a little different from when he touched it previously.
He was now thinking of opening up a little more.
If the mana in Ariel"s body cannot overcome the fear and explodes, the girl"s breath will be cut off.
But if it gets scared and calm down…
He pulled Ariel"s slender body like a delicate doll and held her tightly and released his aura.
Ariel"s face turned pale even though she fainted.
“Just hang in there this time, kid.”
Lucian mumbled, his arms flexing.
He could feel Ariel"s mana hovering around in the energy of the predator.
Lucian spouted briefly.
“Be calm.”
"Now."
*s.h.i.+k.*
The mana that was refluxing for a moment, changed the flow at once.
What had soared backwards turned forward and began to flow slowly.
It was after that that the blood returned to Ariel"s face.
Lucian stared at Ariel"s mana, that was obedient to his power.
Bruno"s mana was never weak.
" It didn"t respond to Bruno"s mana, but it responded to my own?"
“Ha. Really. What happened to you…? “
He swept down his forehead.
Lucian pulled the string straight to call Bruno.
An arrogant voice commanded.
“Bring me some stamina magic pills.”
Ariel wiggled out of sleep under a cozy blanket.
Her body feels a little heavy, but even in a dreamy state, she didn"t feel bad.
“Hmm…”
As she stretched one arm over her head slightly, a low-ripe voice was heard.
“Are you awake?”
Ariel immediately opened her eyes.
"Lucian! "
She suddenly remembered the previous situation when she became fully awake.
She used magic to save a girl.
"I broke my contract with Lucian."
Ariel pretended to sleep again, pulling the blanket over her head.
She was feeling cozy and warm, as if she"s floating above the clouds just a little earlier, but now, she feels like she have fallen below the ground.
"What happens to me now?"
It was thanks to the contract with Lucian that she came into this house in the first place.
And it was an absolutely desperate contract for her.
"But I broke our promise…"
"Am I going to be kicked out? "
"Will I be sent back to the Marquis?"
"If that"s so then I never wanted to get out of this bed."
Ariel pretended to be asleep, almost as if she"s dead.
She could hear a chilly voice outside the blanket.
“Stop that and get up, Ariella Lacartel.”
"Ah, I got caught. He might get even angrier if I keep doing this."
Ariel pulled down the blanket without being more stubborn.
An angry-faced Lucian sat on the bedside table looking down at her.
He lowered his eyes enticingly to meet her eyes. The words finally flowed out of his red lips that seem to drawn her in.
“You broke your promise.”